What all did you change in your OT edits, MagnoliaFan?

Was it kinda like a half-SE featuring only good changes? Or did you mess with the plot like in Balance of the Force?

Honestly, I haven't done the OT edits yet.
I've just toyed with a few shots in the computer here.
I can say that the changes will be subtle for the most part, a hybrid of OT and 2004 versions, with a few other mistakes fixed that weren't corrected in either verson.
There may be a few minor plot adjustments, to preserve some of the surprises of the OT and the flow of all 6 as a series, but nothing drastic along the lines of Balance.

Good, good. I'd download torrents of those as well.

Just a whinsy request, keep the original titles. Don't change the titles if the changes are just subtle like that.

Check out my torrents thread

Um, I could be totally blind, but I didn't see links for the MagnolaFan DVDs on there. Maybe its me. I just really wanna see what everyones talking about, and I'd love to show my SW loving friends too.

Dur, I missed your post. However, you said that any further torrents will not be DVD, but rather XVID. I' really like DVD so I can watch them on my 36" HDTV, and sos I can make copies to share with friends. Does anyone have those?

I have the DVD's but most likely I'll be posting them as XVID with AC3 - You can email me if you need the DVD's not the Xvids

EDITED

I asked this quesiton on another thread but I think it got missed. I am an editor myself and I am currently teaching myself Final Cut Pro on my mac. MagnoliaFan probably used that or Avid I would think.

J

Oh, and here's my quick review of 'Balance of the Force'

Balance of the Force

Firstly I am an editor by profession. Secondly I am a huge Star Wars fan. Like many of our generation I was inspired by the Original Trilogy to enter into Film and Television production. You can therefore imagine my excitement to hear that a new cut of The Phantom Menace was doing the rounds. So, I contacted Rikter and promptly received the discs.

Having already seen the Phantom Edit some time ago I was not expecting a particularly slick effort. Whilst the Phantom Edit excised many of the frustrating elements of TPM it was still tantamount to polishing a turd. So I was surprised to see and read that the MagnoliaFan (MF) edit was not only Anamorphic and of fairly decent quality but that some story elements had been cleverly changed.

Happy From The Opening Crawl

I was pleased to see the changes on the opening crawl. If anything they served to remove the complicated (and boring!) back story of TPM and create a more intriguing one with certainly more weight and a darker feel from the off.

The re-dubbing work on the Neimoidians was a great idea and whilst it's clear that some reverse effects had been made on a European language track (German, Austrian?) it was a welcome change from the pseudo Japanese which for me really began to spoil TPM from a very early point when I first watched it back in '99.

I particularly liked the removal of "Master! Destroyers!" early on, immediately giving the impression that Qui Gon had sensed the arrival of the droids and adding a truer dimension to Neeson's Jedi character.

Jar Jar

Jar Jar's introduction is one of the most painful parts of TPM for me so I was eager to see what MF had done. Like Gunray and co, Jar Jar has been given the dubbing treatment (using some backwards Spanish this time?). Not only does this remove the childish tone it enables a whole new and yet still clumsy character to come through. I liked the majority of the new lines (subtitles) for Jar Jar and the Trade Federation, however, I felt that some of them went a little too far. My impression was that this edit was to make TPM more in-line with the OT. Where in the original trilogy do we see alien's swearing at anyone, let alone kids!? MF's new Watto was far more balanced for me and worked far better. That said MF's Jar Jar is still a HUGE improvement over the original.

Trims

I am 2/3 of the way through editing the TPM myself (learning Final Cut Pro) so I was pleased to see that MF had trimmed some of the same dialog as me. Jake's performance does genuinely seem improved by simple trimming as does the scene between Qui Gon and Shmi by leaving out the virgin birth embarrassment. Also the reintroduction of the waterfall scene was welcome as was the removal of the extensive underwater bongo sequence that precedes it.

Tech

Technically MF has done as good a job as could be done. Some of the additional music and timing of the wipes didn't work for me but one can certainly see that a lot of effort has gone into 'Balance'. Being an editor I am all too aware of the frustrations of having to work with the available footage. A while MagnoliaFan has not created the slickest of films it is by far the slickest fan edit to date. It is clear that he has done as much as anybody could do with what Burtt and Lucas have left us with. Indeed imagine what MF could do with all of the source material that Lucasfilm had available to them.
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I have since watched 'The Clone War' too. Despite AOTC being far far better than TPM in my opinion, MagnoliaFan has made a better film by far. By removing silly points and reintroducing some deleted character development scenes the film now feels right. Wonderful stuff!

Maybe I'm a moron, but I don't see the MagnoliaFan edits in the torrent thread.

There isn't a torrent of the MagnoliaFan Edits yet. PM Rikter, he's your best chance.

OPPS wrong thread ;p

I guess I'll answer a few things here at once...
We don't hear aliens cursing in the OT, just Han, Uncle Owen and Obi-Wan Kenobi...
Whie it had marginally more mild profanity than the OT, I don't really see anything wrong with it.
By 80's standards, Balance would still have easily gotten a PG rating when compared to films like Back to the Future which had loads of cursing and still slid in with one.
Really, you just have to consider the source...
Had Qui-gon or Obi-wan been cursing at Anakin, yeah, I agree that would have been totally inappropriate, but this was coming from a character who claimed he saved Qui-Gon's life, took credit for saving the queen, fell asleep on the job and let his people's most sacred relic be stolen, mouthed off at Anakin for saving him from Sebulba, and when offerred shelter by Anakin from a vicious sandstorm can only complain that Anakin's home is a dump. I think it had been established by that point in the film that something like cursing a mild profanity was in no way beneath him. Its not like he went around dropping f bombs.
Contrary to the belief of some, I actually went back and changed Jar Jar's personality late into the edit to make it feel more like the original trilogy. When I made Jar Jar into a serious character, it made the film really bland and dull, really quickly.
The film needed a Han Solo type character to foil all the serious characters. It's like the 3rd draft of SW where Han was a liar pretending to be pilot when he was in fact a cabin boy. He did not own the falcon, but got Jabba and co drunk and stole it from them. Basically, Jar Jar is that same harsh, cocky type of character. He just doesn't back up his words with actions, unlike Han.

Next, the ever constant question of what the film was edited on...
I know I already answered this question on here once somewhere, but I can't recall where, so I'll cover it again.
The m2v files were ripped from the dvd and edited directly on Final Cut Pro 2 Blue (which gives you an idea how long ago this was made). I also used Adobe after effects 5.5 for the crawl and Photoshop for some of the frame by frame stuff.
I think a lot of people have this impression that I had all this pro equipment and a massive supercomputer or something.
Really, it wasn't a case of having limitless technology at my disposal... The whole thing was done on a Mac G4 800.
I didn't even know how to use any of the programs when I stared. I just took down notes on what I wanted to do, asked my friend who did know a thing or two about the programs if it coudl be done, he always replied "No way in hell..." or something to the effect, and then I had to figure out a way to do it on my own.
It was basically a grand experiment in just how much I could get away with editing wise, which turned out to be a lot more than I really expected. I just figured, the more I figured out how to do editorially under such limited conditions (ie: one take for every scene, no access to the source material) would help me gauge how much more I could pull off eventually with my own material.

If I had to pick, whic hwould be better to own, PHnatom Re-Edit 1.2 or Balanced of the Force?

Both - They are totally different movies - Please read the reviews on the first page

Sounds good to me! The more, the merrier!

Rikter,

I read your reviews and I was blown away @ all the information available in a post......Great Job!! I did want to note that the set I currently have seems like it is pieces of two sets after reading your review. The movies are just that, the movies (which I believe are the Anamorphic set) with no commentary. The just start without chapter stops to choose from and they end. I did notice a few small glitches in ESB so far. The last disc is the Supplementary stuff from the definitive collection which is great to have. Now, I'm not the technical wizard when it comes to the language but can you tell me which one I may own? It seems like the movies are from the "Faces" era of LD. Any suggestions or analysies would be greatly appreciated.

As a side note, I just rechecked the description for this set that I bought and it reads:

This is a 3 dvd set of the ORIGINAL STAR WARS trilogy (STAR WARS, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, RETURN OF THE JEDI), identical to the Definitive Edition laser disc releases - NOT THE 1997 SPECIAL EDITION! This 3 disc set features Widescreen (2.35:1 aspect Ratio) versions of all three films. This is a widescreen transfer from the remastered THX laserdiscs.

A 4th DVD containing ALL the special features from the Definitive Collection, including the interviews w/Muren, Lucas & Burtt, the Lucasfilm Archives, Featurettes, Picture Galleries and more!

I was still wondering though if I got something worth while. I paid only $22.99 USD, and they look really great - and for the price I can't complain. I received disc art which I didn't really want on there but no cover art for the cases.

I have watched them at least 3x already.......and I can't wait for the S.E. set I purchased to arrive.

Thanks again for any input you might have.

I got them on eBay recently. This is actually my first experience with "import" Star Wars Trilogy DVD's. I was around at the begining and have been a loyal fan ever since. Seeing that the new set is soon to be released I thought it wise to purchase some of these sets to preserve the OT as I remember it and the addition of the S.E.. I own the VHS Silver WS box of the S.E. and the THX Faces set as well. No laserdisc machine or discs but I am starting to reconsider that idea just in case.

Hope this helps.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=617&item=6308336099

Here it is. I took a chance when purchasing as I didn't know then what I know now. lmao But it was a good price.

This is just an adjustment to my first post on this, I also own the 2000 S.E. on VHS and the S.E. VCD(from Malaysia) set w/ TPM thrown in when I purchased it.