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My Re-Edit of "Battle For Naboo"


GoodMusician

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Well, as most of you know, I finished putting together quite possibly the most extensive fan made release of Star Wars music ever with my 4 dic, complete score of Episode I... I've actually found some new suff (only a minute or so)... so keep an eye out for that.

Well, I was talking to someone recently and they were very interested in getting the release and were familiar with my edits on YouTube. He asked me if I would consider doing on of "The Great Duel." I said sure, and started out by lookng for unused material, as I'd been told the reason they used different music was because it was re-edited.

Well, I testedthat theroy and found it to be false. That the track actually fits quite well, if not beig too short actually.

It then occured to me that I had found unused shots from earlier parts of the film, so I decided to go back and make a complete edit using my complete score.

The changes were extencive. I had to change orders of shots, remove things, restructure parts... and in the end, I gained a far better understanding of what exactly John Williams was saying with the cues: what specifially was the music meant to accompany.

And this is the result:

The entire sequence is broken down. A lot of things with the gungans were restructured as well as the hangar battle. Shots are moved around to where they are meant to be and music is synced up appropriatly with the action. Several unused shots are re-incorporated into the sequence as well.

Now, you're probably wondering "How can you POSSIBLY know how things were in the original cut?"

My answer, I worked with what I know:

I know John Williams has specific visual cues he tries to accompany.

I know the order of the cues.

I have the original cues.

and I have a good eye for this sort of thing.

So, all of this combined, I can say that the edit I've made is quite nearly what the original cut was. There are undoubtedly differences, but I can say that the general idea is the same and the evidence is in the videos.

So... take a look, let me know what you think...

NOTE: I had originally hoped to include the film SFX in the videos as well. I ripped all the audio channels and did my best to diminish the music and just leave the SFX.. unfortunately, there were too many scenes where the music was simply too prolific and without blasting your eardrums out, there wouldbe no way to distinguish between what as where.

Also, certain scenes like "Anakin Takes Off" and "Battle for Naboo III" are very nearly how it is in the film. Unfortunately, in the fim, they seem to have purposely moved the music off of the visual cues established by the score. I wanted to match the cues, so hearing both the film and mine being slightly off from eachother was another drawback which led me to the decision to simply use music and video.

Star Wars Symphonic Forces Reconstruct: "Battle For Naboo" Part I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPA-FGOxwEc

Cues Used

01) Gungan March (Original)

02) The Battle Begins

03) The Battle for Naboo I

04) The Battle for Naboo II

05) Hangar Battle

Star Wars Symphonic Forces Reconstruct: "Battle For Naboo" Part II

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mgdTh88QI4

Cues Used

01) The Duel Begins

02) Anakin Takes Off

03) Duel of the Fates (Original)

04) The Battle For Naboo III

05) Droid Battle

Star Wars Symphonic Forces Reconstruct: "Battle For Naboo" Part III

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBR5fAV6EJM

Cues Used

01) The Great Duel

02) The Invisible Wall

03) Gungan Retreat

04) Anakin's Crash Landing

05) Qui-Gon's Death (Original)

06) The Caged Animal

-B

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Fantastic work. :|

While I like the original music cut of EI (contrary to EII and EIII) I must say it is very interesting to watch the movie with original cues, not to mention I have never heard them before.

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The music preceding Anakin Takes Off is synchronised incorrectly and a piece is missing. The action music should underscore the droidekas entering the hangar, not the beginning of the duel (the use of the Duel of the Fates ostinato does not automatically make it a duel cue). This should be followed by OST track 12 1:49-1:57 (underscoring Maul and the Jedi removing their cloaks), then the cue known as Anakin Takes Off. In the original cut, the duel proper began after Anakin and everybody else had left the hangar.

The cue used at 2:21 in Part 2 (Up The Wire) was intended to underscore the 'ascension guns sequence', leading into The Great Duel. The sync of Droid Battle must be slightly off in places, but I'm not sure where. There are little clues in the orchestration as to what underscored what. I do know that the end of Droid Battle in the finished film is correctly placed.

All pedantry aside, great job!

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For the cue "The Duel Begins," the one before Anakin Takes off...I had originally put it EXACTLY where you said. But then, I was confsed as to what exactly was suppose to pay during the duel. So I moved it, just to see... I also realize that the DOTF motif is not always associated with he fighting. Look at the shot latter that was not in the film. The opening to "Battle for Naboo III" works there perfectly but is NOT DOTF.

I prsonally disagre that it was meant to accompany the droidekas. If you watch the clip. It makes sense where it is.

You have the drum roll for the opening of Mauls lightsaber, you have the two horn blasts that hit exactly when Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon open their lightsabers... and then you have the DOTF theme playing back and forth as the shots go from Obi-Wan to Darth Maul.

I personally believe that is where it was meant to be.

As for that missing section. If you watch the end of Part I , it accompanies them as they walk to the door.

As for the Duel beginning after, I had originally edited that way... the only problem is... what did they do for 2 minutes...stand there ad stare at eachother? On top of that, if you look into the background of them opening their lightsabers, you still see the droidekas.

So, I suppose it's possible... that for continuity, when they moved it, they added those droidekas in the background.. but I jsut put it where it seemed right to me.

As for the music at 2:21 in part II, that is Droid Battle... not up the wire... I think the confusion comesfrom the fact that I moved it to be before "Battle for Naboo III." I did this because I didn't think it made sense to have the droids beactivated, and then 10 minutes latter actually start marching. As for exactly how that edit was meant to be, I wasn't entirely sure. There wasn't much material, but with the removal of the Jar Jar stuff... I think that gives the gyst of it.

Thanks for the input though! :-D

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this is where it gets impossible to figure out exactly what went on without some more info from Lucasland. Liam and Ewan igniting their sabes to fight maul was shot entirely against blue screen. The fact that droidekas are behind them in the final film proves nothing when trying to figure out how the scenes was originally put together. The screenplay isn't much help because who know how much that reflects what the cut was that JW saw?

Clearly, the harmonic language of certain cues indicates they go together - SPACE BATTLE ends on the same chord that opens ASCENSION GUNS, which ends on a chord that leads directly into THE GREAT DUAL. How this cue is supposed to end is still a question - the DOTF doc indicates it ends with those big chords and tamtam, but then what?

Some interviews indicate that the end battles were scripted to be simlutaneous with intercutting, then were recut to be more self-contained and episodic (the complete space battle, the complete hangar battle, the complete castle gunfight, etc), and then recut a 3rd time to intercut again more like the first cut. It is unclear exactly how it was cut when JW spotted it, and how much rewriting he did during the recording sessions and then how much music editing was done during the final mix. There are just so many variables.

For what it's worth, I compiled my list based on the music available. I believe now that the music I had scoring the courtyard battle was wrong, but I stand by all my other decisions as being MUSICALLY sound. Maybe one day I'll try editing the movie to my list without changing my music edit one bit and see how it plays out.

HOWEVER, I think these are really fun to watch. OUTSTANDING JOB, GoodMusician, and keep it up, I love seeing your stuff! Especially the elevator sequence and sequence on Grievous bridge.

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I am in no means trying to say that these are exactly right. I just think that with what we have, it's correect.

I could, in theory, move the droid battle to be after up the wire if you all think it should be there... but I just felt it was too... delayed that way...and we have no offical cue list so I figured I could take some liberty there.

I also realize they were shot on blue screne, and as I said, it's possibel that for continuity,they simply added the droidekas in the background, but as far as I can tell, It should be where I put it.

I tried finding some scripts but they were all pretty confusing. One helped a bit on the placement of the entrance of the window by Amidala and group and then being cut off,. You can see they didn't add the statue in the background of the shot ..I suppose to insinuate it's a different place... but in the script it's not.

So yea, there is some creative liberty going on... but for the most part, I did what seemed right... fit the music to the film as correctly and true to form as possible following the cues.

But again, there's only so much I can do.

Afterall, the point wasn't to show you what the film looked like, so much as to give a deeper apreciation and understanding of the score. To help people understand what it was meant to accompany and how.

What's funny is the third part is almost exactly how it is in the film... the other ones are the ones that are different :-p

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