The Editting discussion

Please take the Yoda discussion to the puppets vs pixels discussion

 

I think much of the editing in AOTC sucks hard. I really hate during the duel when anakin is protecting obiwan from being slayed by dooku. Anakin and dooku are obviously standing right above obiwan. But when obiwan tosses anakin his saber, anakin and dooku are suddenly dueling far away. As far as the music goes, any director who plays 'yoda's theme' during anakin's lousy droid factory playtime should be tarred and feathered.

 

The Obi-wan moving around the floor thing realy bugged me to. Could they not have composited him in near by to complete the illusion that he was still there?

The yod amusic int he factory bugged me a bit, but mostly just because I could tell it was alot of music chopped together rather then a seamless piece of music made by JW.

 

One of Luca$ strongpoints is his editing skills.Althought AOTC has one of the worse editing job in the entire saga it's still lightyears better(editing wise) than most films today.

 

Lucas is a great editor, but I think AOTC is substandard even by normal movie standards. There are several jarring cuts and mistakes that should never been allowed into any of the three versions of the film that were released (theatrical, dvd, IMAX)

 

i honestly think that the jango/ mace fight should have been longer, i would have liked to see why mace is so tuff, show why he's better than obi wan, he could have shown this with an extended battle if jango still had his rocket pack

 

Wellthis is sort of a seperate subject, but I think Obi-wan should of killed Jango, not Mace.

Mace could of proven his power by effortlessly taking out 6 or 7 droid dekas, which we saw in TPM as fairly invincible, with just two being able to neutralize Qui-gon and Obi-wan.

Seeing Mace just take out a half dozen of them without batting an eye would be a very cool show of force.

 

>>Wellthis is sort of a seperate subject, but I think Obi-wan should of killed Jango, not Mace.

WHOA! I missed something! Obi Wan killed MACE?!

 

LOL, I meant instead of Mace killing Jango

 

UP!

 

reading the "whats the worst part of AOTC" thread and all the BB editing bashing being done, I think its time this thread came back into play

 

Thres so many post here so this may have been mentioned. Why with so much money and talented cgi people and a group including LUCAS reviewing the film repeatedly, could leave a scene (dvd version unchanged also) where yodas cane is obviously supposed to be sapporting him but is not added at all.

 

thats what I don't get. there is so much time talent and money put into this film, and yet it feels so sloppy and lazy, I just don't understand what was going on behind the scenes on this one.

 

My views on the editing are mixed. Overall, I think that there was some "fat" in the final edit of the film that could have/should have been cut. For example, the scene where Dooku and Obi-Wan "chat" on Geonosis. There was no reason, imho, that we should have seen Dooku walking into the room where Obi-Wan was being held hostage. It was much better in the Imax version where it cuts right into the middle of the scene. This made the scene more mysterious, more exciting, and more dramatic. Showing Dooku walking into the room slowed down the story's pacing. Now, one scene doesn't make that much of a difference, but in AOTC there were lots of little things like that, which slowed the film down, and as a result hindered the drama that was already inherent in the story. It's too bad really.

 

yeah pretty much every scene has problems like this.

I would say the one part of the movie that flows really nicely and feels more the way SW should, and is up to snuff in terms of quality on all levels is fromt he point when Padme gets knocked off the gunship all the way to when Obi-wan starts dueling Dooku. The music, the SFX, the editing, and even the dialogue and the acting are all bang on in this sequence, it just flies. If the rest of the movie was this good it would be one of the best SW films.

 

the editing's fine. reading most of the complaints, some of you fanboys nitpick over the most brainless stuff.

the only jarring editing job is the segue into the fireplace scene because you can tell some dialogue was chopped off before they start talking.

 

A scene that also bothered me last time I watched AOTC was "R2 receiving Obi-Wan's message". This was so unneeded and made R2 one lazy droid since he only arrived at the funeral.

They'd better cut to the last part of the deleted scene where Owen says that 3PO should belong to Padme now, then Beru calls that Anakin has arrived. Even with the "Shmi finished 3PO" concept of the movie, the ending of the scene would still fit since we would assume that Owen & Padme were talking about 3PO and his "future".

They added a useless scene of R2 receiving the message, but they cut an explaining scene (that scene was the reason why 3PO left with Anakin & Padme).

The same goes for the whole droid factory sequence. Why adding this scene when the big action sequence of the movie starts only 3 minutes later??

That's also a major problem of AOTC: the ACTION scenes are spread badly.

- Kamino battle + Asteroid chase happens too quickly after each other
- Droid factory + Arena battle happens too quickly after each other

They should've spread those scenes.

To continue about the unneeded / needed scenes:
- 3PO+R2 scenes were totally unneeded
- the battle on the droid control ship was needed, IMO, since it contained a plot point from the previous movie
Again, they added the useless scene.

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AOTC's shooting script was PERFECT

Just read the beauty of the 2nd draft. Everything went so well in that draft.

AOTC's final script was far from PERFECT

I don't know what happened, but GL really ruined the beauty of his 2nd draft for some reason. Even plot points were changed during additional shooting.

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Everytime I read the great 2nd draft, I want to cry!

It could've been that beautiful.

 

if folks weren't aware of what Lucas cut out of the film, it wouldn't even be an issue of "George should've done it this way or that way or my way or no way"...on second thought, it still would, but to less of an extent. this is the internet after all, where whiners and negativity seem to congregate the most

hey, I'm not saying don't analyze or critique AOTC or any film for that matter, but it's kinda pointless to moan and groan about stuff that didn't make the film.

AOTC's length is heady enough the way it is already.

 

This is an excellent discussion.

Darth China, is there a place on the internet where I can find the shooting script for AOTC?

Is it the same as the one in the The Art of AOTC book?

 

"the editing's fine. reading most of the complaints, some of you fanboys nitpick over the most brainless stuff."

Well thats what editing is: nitpicking. Its examining the film down to the frame as to what is needed, and what is not.


"A scene that also bothered me last time I watched AOTC was "R2 receiving Obi-Wan's message". This was so unneeded and made R2 one lazy droid since he only arrived at the funeral.

They'd better cut to the last part of the deleted scene where Owen says that 3PO should belong to Padme now, then Beru calls that Anakin has arrived. Even with the "Shmi finished 3PO" concept of the movie, the ending of the scene would still fit since we would assume that Owen & Padme were talking about 3PO and his "future".

They added a useless scene of R2 receiving the message, but they cut an explaining scene (that scene was the reason why 3PO left with Anakin & Padme). "

"AOTC's shooting script was PERFECT

Just read the beauty of the 2nd draft. Everything went so well in that draft."

Well perfect might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it was definitely better.

 

"if folks weren't aware of what Lucas cut out of the film, it wouldn't even be an issue of "George should've done it this way or that way or my way or no way"...on second thought, it still would, but to less of an extent. "

Yes but it is still evident when something is needed and not present. FOr instances its obvious that we need:

-more character development for Dooku
-a resolution for the Jango vs Ob1 storyline
-a set up for the Yoda vs Dooku fight
-motivation behind the seperatist movement
-some reason to explain why on earth Padme falls for Anakin
-a better treatment of the Lars family since they are important later on

etc

And then there are the numerous bad edits in the movie within the scenes themselves, and how they dirupt the flow of the film and the dialogue.


"But it's kinda pointless to moan and groan about stuff that didn't make the film."

Nobody is moaning and/or groaning.

"AOTC's length is heafty enough the way it is already. "

I agree, a good 30 minutes should be cut out of this movie, its far to long for its own good.

 

-motivation behind the seperatist movement

That's given they did not feel the Republic was working. So they left.

-some reason to explain why on earth Padme falls for Anakin

Because she loves him.

 

was the editing in the film entirely smooth and transitionally straight? no. but the problems I had with the editing (the fireplace scene segue I mentioned earlier, the quick edits during the anakin/obi vs. dooku fight, for instance) did not detract from the pacing of the film. anything that slowed down the film had more to do with the story itself and expositional material that needed (or didn't need to be) to be covered.

for all the "little" problems I had with the editing, there were huge sequences that stunned me in how cleverly and sharply they were edited, including the Coruscant chase all the way up to the nightclub scenes, the Obi vs. Jango fight, Obi on Geonosis, the droid factory, the arena monster sequence, the beginning of the Clone Wars

 

You could take 30 minutes out of the film and restore 30 minutes. The wrong 30 minutes were taken out.