FIXING
REVENGE OF THE SITH

  • This is a light re-edit of Revenge of the Sith, with a goal of preserving the original vision, but helping the delivery over the line. Most of the work went into improving the overall tonal flow, and selling Anakin’s pivot. I haven’t made the movie into everything I want it to be, and some more rewriting/pickups would do a lot. But I have, to the best of my ability, tightened up the bolts. And, I’d say the biggest fix I made to Revenge of the Sith, was Fixing Attack of the Clones.

  • Release:

    MEGA GDrive

01 Opening Logos / 02 Revenge of the Sith

  • No changes

03 Battle over Coruscant

  • Trimmed the in and out point of Obi-Wan’s line: “Let them pass between us.”
  • A few slight timing tweaks throughout the Buzz Droid missile chase.
  • Trimmed the missiles flying past Obi-Wan, to make it seem like he dodges them.

    I suspect it may have originally played this way, but was changed in post. The idea being, the more Obi-Wan fails, the more Anakin and Obi-Wan seem like equals. But, I think we still get enough of Obi-Wan failing without that beat, and it makes this whole sequence flow better. As one continuous escalation of tension.

    • Background replacement on Obi-Wan close up, with slight rotation. (see left) Background replacement on Obi-Wan close up, with slight rotation. (see above)
    • Completely replaced Obi-Wan’s fighter to have it do a bit of a dodge move. (see above)
  • Trimmed timing leading up to hangar entry for pace.

    • Slipped the timing of Anakin’s fighter and added sparks to suggest that the door was a lot closer than it originally appeared. (see right) Slipped the timing of Anakin’s fighter and added sparks to suggest that the door was a lot closer than it originally appeared. (see above)

      I’m sure the intent was to make this appear super close. Will they make it before the door closes? Or will they overshoot and fly out the other side? But, some awkward perspective makes it look like they're going to land easily. I considered replacing both ships in the preceding shot to solve this. But I found that tightening the timing got it 90% of the way there so it’d be a lot more work for not a lot of difference.

  • Not completed - Face replacement, to tighten up an obvious pickup shot of Anakin/Obi-Wan telling R2-D2 to wait in the hangar.

04 General Grievous

  • Tighten transition into the scene. Less time held on R2-D2, and less time held on the closed door before Grievous enters.
  • Tighten timing before Obi-Wan and Anakin attack the battle droids (pictured above). Makes it play less “comedically” but it's still light and fun, and it flows much better.

    As originally shot, this section of the movie was intended to be straight up comedic (see left). This awkward little beat is a remnant from that. As originally shot, this section of the movie was intended to be straight up comedic (see above). This awkward little beat is a remnant from that.

  • Cut out of this scene a few frames sooner.

05 Rescuing the Chancellor

  • Reworked the fight here rather extensively.
  • Tightened shots of Obi-Wan getting up, taking out the super battle droids, and rejoining the fight.
  • Remove Chancellor “Get!.”
    • Adjusted Obi-Wan's lightsaber movement across the 2 shots which now take place back to back.
    • Added new lightsaber audio to sell transition.
  • Trimmed down Dooku’s force push, the balcony falling on Obi-Wan, and Anakin’s reaction.
  • Slightly adjusted timing of Anakin killing Dooku for tension.
    • Removed lines “I shouldn’t” and “Do it.”
    • Extended and quietened timpani build.
  • Trimmed head shake from R2’s arrival.
    Removed the super battle droid kicking R2 over

06 Confronting Grievous

  • Removed battle droid dialogue “excuse me” and “you’re welcome.”
  • Removed Chancellor reaction shot.
  • Reordered banter from
    “You’re shorter than I expected” -> “Jedi scum” -> “Try not to upset him”
    to
    “You’re shorter than I expected” -> “Try not to upset him” -> “Jedi scum”
  • Tightened transition out.

07 Happy Reunions

  • Removed obvious and unnecessary pickup shot “besides someone needs to be the poster boy.”
  • Removed “wait not here” stuff from Anakin and Padme’s exchange.
  • Reduced a shot of Anakin looking pissed as hell for a second after finding out that Padme’s pregnant.
  • Changed transition out from 08 Grievous on Utapau to:

09 Bad Dreams

  • Tightened transition out (above)

    One of the difficulties with doing wipe transitions is that you need the scene to continue playing out after it’s “ended.” Which often introduces a bit of an awkward pause. On top of that, this scene was scripted to go on longer. Which meant that we saw Padme reacting to Anakin’s next line as the wipe was happening. Which was extra jarring. Usually it’s the sort of thing I’d leave, it is part of the style, but it’s much better here to not end on a bizarre awkward moment.
    Reducing the timing of a transition like this, I run the risk of making it feel jarringly fast. But since we’re cutting into Anakin’s nightmare, that’s not a bad effect actually.

10 Counsel with Yoda / 11 The Chancellor’s Request

  • No changes.

12 On the Jedi Council

  • Broadly adjusted timing.
  • Removed lines: “How can you do this” “This is outrageous” “It’s unfair.”
  • Kept entire line “How can you be on the council and not be a master” in the wide angle.
    • Slowed shot to give me a base to work on, then morphed background to retain the traffic movement speed.
    • Tracked the original (real-time) face back on top
    • Replaced Anakin’s face in the wide with the performance from the close up. Tracking it on and recolouring. (see above) Janky as hell but it only lasts a half second.
  • Slowed shot of Mace Windu to add a pause before “Take a seat young skywalker,” added ships/morphed the background to retain traffic movement.
  • Swapped a disapproving reaction shot of Obi-Wan for a disapproving reaction shot of Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Ki-Adi-Mundi.

13 Secret Assignment / 14 Not the Chosen One?

  • No changes.

08 Grevious on Utapau

  • Obviously I’ve reordered this to take place much later on, which requires making 3 new transitions. (above)

15 Seeds of Distrust

  • No changes.

16 Tragedy of Darth Plagueis

  • Tighten timing into Anakin’s line: “I have to admit, my trust in them has been shaken”

17 Kashyyyk / 18 Brothers’ Farewell / 19 A Hero Lost / 20 Arrival on Utapau

  • No changes.

21 Obi-Wan vs. Grievous

  • Remove cutaway to hand #1 falling away
  • Trim cutaway to hand #2 falling away

22 Jedi War Council

  • No changes.

23 Sidious Revealed

  • Tighten timing into Anakin’s line: “You know the dark side?”
  • In 2 shots, added light from Anakin’s saber onto Sidious’ face (above)

23 Utapau Chase / 24 Mace Learns the Truth

  • No changes.

26 Anakin’s Final Decision

  • Removed Anakin explicitly leaving (Hopping in a speeder, flying away)
  • New transition into:

27 Mace vs. Sidious

  • Tightened timing of Sidious killing the Jedi (yeah, tightened)
  • Reduce shot of Anakin walking

    This is one of the rare moments when an actor clearly runs out of green screen space, because this was shot during pickups and there was no longer any set to work with.

28 Rise Lord Vader

  • I tried 5-6 versions of this, with different combinations of removed, retimed, or rearranged lines. But ultimately, every edit I made hurt more than it helped. There just isn’t enough material to work with. So what I’ve settled on doing is making some minor stylistic tweaks, which aim to sell you on the “mystical corruption” aspect of the scene, without making drastic changes.
    Basically, I’m just copying some elements from Kylo Ren’s interrogation in The Force Awakens. Which, as a movie, is a masterclass in this sort of stylistic cheap trick.

  • Added low rumbling in the back of the audio mix, crescendoing around key lines. To give the whole scene more intensity, while implying something more is going on.

    George suggests that there’s some force manipulation going on in this scene, I’m not sure that comes across, but a bit of a rumble helps to sell it (à la Kylo Ren’s interrogation in The Force Awakens).

  • Tweaked the colour grade, adding vibrance, but with more contrast, and a green shift. For an overall darker (figuratively speaking), more intense look.
  • Slight trim after Anakin’s line: “Thank you, my master” to remove some awkward over-acting.

    It looks to me like this was originally “Yes, my master” but got overdubbed in post. That combined with some odd timing, and the tonal whiplash of Anakin going full evil mode in a heartbeat, means that, in my experience, this line often gets a laugh. I hope that tweaking the timing helps, but in addition I've:

  • Tweaked a shot of Anakin (above) to give it a bit of a zoom and camera shake, which adds intensity. And I've given it a slight defocus, barrel distortion, and chromatic abberation, for more of an “unreal” quality.

    Essentially I’m emulating the look of a vintage anamorphic lens (à la Kylo Ren’s interrogation in The Force Awakens). Dial this effect up and you’ve got a dream sequence, dial it back, vague eerieness.

29 March on the Jedi Temple / 30 Order Sixty-Six / 31 Time to Leave

  • No changes.

32 “Wait for Me”

  • Tweaked internal timing of C3PO’s line. “I feel so (long ass pause) helpless” -> “I feel so (half-beat) helpless”

    The trailer has a much better line read here, but the audio mix of it is unworkable so I’m sticking with punching this up.

33 The Heroes Regroup / 34 Birth of the Empire / 35 The Terrible Truth

  • No changes.

36 Obi-Wan confronts Padmé

  • Slight j-cut into scene for flow.

37 Padmé’s Departure / 38 “You’re Breaking My Heart”

  • No changes.

39 Yoda vs. Sidious

  • Removed Yoda’s slapstick beat.
    • Painted Royal Guards out of 16 shots.

40 Battle of the Heroes / 41 Yoda vs. Sidious / 42 Narrow Escapes / 43 Immolation / 44 The Emperor Arrives / 45 Secret Delivery / 46 Birth and Rebirth / 47 Darth Vader Awakes / 48 The Future of the Twins

  • No changes.

49 A New Hope

  • Colour fix on second to last shot. (above)

    They’re exaggerating the colour here, which is a good idea, but they’re fighting against the fact that this was shot on green screen with studio lighting, so it has the effect of making it look fake. Muting the sky slightly and separating the skin tones makes it less stylistic, but more realistic, and it matches the surrounding shots more.

50 End Credits

  • No changes.