Grab-Bag 1: "How Star Wars Was Saved in the Edit"

I make a habit of digging through various internet strangers' analyses of, or trivia compilations about, various art works/forms/genres/etc. First reason is that this is a great way to discover work you've never heard of, and second is that there's just a lot of damn smart/funny/enthusiastic people pointing out a lot of cool stuff, much of which can strike off new ideas in its right.

So my holiday-week gift to you: a sampling of recent favorite finds. Places/pieces that serve a function much like this blog, but with better editing and added sound effects and such.

Been to see the new Star Wars movie this week and have it on the brain, so without spoiling anything about that one here's a video essay talking about how editing became especially crucial to the first movie in the original trilogy: 

(P.S. — In most cases, I make a point to frequent sites/blogs/forums where the commenting community is an asset, with members quick to point out missing context, additional information, or flaws/disputed points in the original article. For myself, I love comments! But this isn't most cases and YouTube is a noxious trash pit, so I vouch for nothing.)