The Sukaiwaka Fortress—The Hidden Fortress with a Star Wars score

[ssj]

PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINK TO JUMP AHEAD TO THE DISCUSSION OF THE COMPLETED EDIT.
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If George Lucas had never seen Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, we probably wouldn't have the Star Wars we know today. Now it's time to put some Star Wars back into The Hidden Fortress.

Editing goals:
• to rescore The Hidden Fortress with John Williams's music from Star Wars
• to rename the major characters and clans with Starwarsian names: Reia, General Kenobi, Atu, Situri, and a few others best left as surprises
• and to make the edit family-friendly by removing a questionable scene, curse words, and lightly rewriting some of the dialogue.

There will be other trims as well.

Rescoring won't be perfect, since the original audio is essentially mono. The 3.0 Perspecta sound is really a mono track manipulated to provide directionality, so there's no music-free center channel. Still, it's possible to rescore this baby, and if my early drafts are any indication, the movie picks up a different vibe with a JW score.

[align=center]password for both = fanedit.org​

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[ThrowgnCpr]

great idea!  

Be cautious with the levels on the music though - the dialog is mixed too low in these previews.

This should be fun

 

[ssj]

good advice, throw—thanks. aside from x-fades, i've very little experience in audio editing, so the feedback's very welcome.

one of the things i noticed about transformers: attack of the score is that the dialogue is quite audible amidst the JW score. (been studying that edit and talking to the blueness hisself to learn the ways of the forsh.)
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in the opening credits, i romanized JW's name Wiryomuzu Janu. going to rejigger that to Janu Wiramuzu.

 

[Hubunkey]

I have been hoping someone would do this for ages. I assume you will edit the attempted molestation of the sleeping woman and re-sub over the using of the word sh#t. Anyway I am eagerly looking forward to this

 

[ssj]

I have been hoping someone would do this for ages. I assume you will edit the attempted molestation of the sleeping woman and re-sub over the using of the word sh#t. Anyway I am eagerly looking forward to this

affirmative, dude -- that particular scene will be removed. unfortunately, this also necessitates the removal of the peasant girl later standing guard over the princess, which is a shame, since that was the peasant girl's one heroic moment in the movie, a poignant demonstration of her loyalty to the princess.

all curse words will be removed, too. my hobbits, unlike myself, have zero fondness for foul language, and i'm making this edit with them in mind. there's still some gun and spear violence in the movie, but what's there is no more or less violent than typical star wars fare.

 

[Kal-El]

Amazing idea! Look forward to how you pull this off

Music was indeed drowning out the dialogue, and personally I feel the Rey theme was a bit too upbeat in the first preview scene. It seemed as if they were stalking the Princess more than anything else, so a cue that is somewhat a bit more subdued or even darkly foreboding wouldn't be a bad fit Perhaps something from AOTC? There's a lot of sombre, brooding music in that one (it's got emo-Ani).

I saw the title and thought to myself "F#CK YES!" so I'm really, REALLY excited for this one

 

[ThrowgnCpr]

^ I agree about Rey's theme.

 

[ssj]

like a newbie, i got excited (it's star wars!) and posted some unpolished stuff. proof of concept, juknow?

appreciate the feedback, dudes; will look into other tunes and adjust volume levels. planning on ordering the ultimate star wars soundtrack soon.

my thoughts re: the scene with rey's theme: that's the creepiest i'm going to allow these characters to get; they're goofballs throughout the rest of the edit, so i don't want the music to be too sinister. the posted scene is our first real introduction to the princess (other than a brief moment with her standing atop a hill earlier), and i like that she shows her toughness and unflappability during that scene.

as for the music, i liked how rey's theme starts out innocent and swells as the princess defends herself. but i'll look into alternatives, try on a few for size.

 

[ThrowgnCpr]

like a newbie, i got excited (it's star wars!) and posted some unpolished stuff. proof of concept, juknow?

appreciate the feedback, dudes; will look into other tunes and adjust volume levels. planning on ordering the ultimate star wars soundtrack soon.

my thoughts re: the scene with rey's theme: that's the creepiest i'm going to allow these characters to get; they're goofballs throughout the rest of the edit, so i don't want the music to be too sinister. the posted scene is our first real introduction to the princess (other than a brief moment with her standing atop a hill earlier), and i like that she shows her toughness and unflappability during that scene.

as for the music, i liked how rey's theme starts out innocent and swells as the princess defends herself. but i'll look into alternatives, try on a few for size.

it was a good proof of concept!  Rey's theme could work, but you might need to pull from some other sections of the piece and remix to fit what is shown on screen.

 

[ssj]

one of the minor sukaiwaka advisors: thinking about naming her mononoke mothra (mosura mononoke).

p.s. i didn't particularly care for princess mononoke. but the name's a phonetic fit.

 

[Dwight Fry]

Nice project! And... ssj making something more family friendly? Have I stepped into a parallel dimension?

BTW, to my shame it took me a while to get what Sukaiwaka means.  :blush:

 

[ssj]

Thank you, DF!

Yup, keeping a promise to my keedz. Not to worry, though. After I complete this project, it's back to my R-rated ways, to fare involving vampires & quarter-halflings & even more kurosawa. In a word. . . Yojumbo.

 

[Dwight Fry]

In any case, kudos to you for getting your kids into Kurosawa and classic film, edited or not! Yojumbo sounds... intriguing (once I can get out of my mind the image of Mifune with elephant ears, that is).

 

[ssj]

think Yojimbo done tiger lily style. 

 

[ssj]

thanks mucho to @"darthrush" from OT.com (i'm assuming you go by the same handle here) for providing me the imperial audiophile edition of the empire strikes back soundtrack. greatly appreciate your generosity and time!

until a couple days ago, i had no idea such a creation existed. it's basically an audio preservation project encoded in FLAC format; the audio editor goes by the name of A B C.

i haven't listened to the whole collection yet (it's massive and contains alternate versions), but so far, what i've heard sounds fantastic, warmer than the special edition ESB CD tracks, which are a bit too bright with respect to the wind instruments. on the downside, the tracks are a bit softer sounding, but that particular trait might work well with my edit, which features actual footage from the 16th century.

 

[TM2YC]

actual footage from the 16th century.

A long time ago in a han far, far away....

 

[ssj]

Tell that to Ganja Club.

 

[ThrowgnCpr]

Tell that to Ganja Club.

 

[ssj]

kanjiklub will definitely be in this edit. and that makes me happy.

 

[ssj]

a peek at the featurette.