Has anybody else noticed that all the PSAs on sw.com have screwed-up audio?

Specifically, sound only comes out of the right channel. When I noticed it with the immunization PSA, I thought it might be a fluke. Now I see both the drunk driving and the anti-smoking PSAs are screwed-up the same way. Apparently nobody official noticed it the first time.

Regarding the project, I'm still collecting material, but at this point it seems unlikely that it could be turned into an actual DVD because of the wildly varying quality of the media and the different formats. It might wind up as a collection of files instead. We'll see...

--SKot

SKot, man it is like 2 in the morning!

My god, you're right! And I swore never to post before 4 am...

Anyway, I was considering trying to draw someone's attention at sw.com to the fact that the audio on their commercial clips is getting screwed up. But I'm not certain who to contact, and they're not exactly forthcoming with those kind of details!

--SKot

I can't believe it's been a year since I touched this topic.

Anyway, I'm working on some updates for the commercials listing. And it seems in the meantime pretty much all of the Kenner commercials (and then some) have been preserved on a DVD by someone who was able to get access to a lot of original 8mm and 16mm film elements. More details on that later.

Don't think there were too many SW commercials last year. If anybody knows of any I missed, let me know.

--SKot

Do I have that one listed? I seem to recall it, but don't know if it's in my list. I didn't see anything that seemed to match that.

I'm thinking about the possibility of separating video game commercials into their own list as well, especially since there's so many of them now and they're so hard to keep track of. But now that there's hardly any SW commercials period, it may be the only thing we get for a while.

--SKot

George Lucas was himself in a couple of Japanese commercials for Panasonic/Technics with the slogan "Something New". They were from 1987.

- Chewie surprising a little girl. Girl pets chewie.
- Ewoks turn on a stereo and get startled, again and again. Thet get used to it and start dancing.
- R2D2 and C-3PO with a portable word processor/computer.
- GL is filming scale models that come to life. C3PO is peeking from around the corner.
but most of all:
- Jabba turns on the stereo, listens to music, and starts to cry. Hilarious!

This is a very worthwhile project. It will be great to eventually check out all these clips in one compilation. Good luck!

I would love to see these. I've kept less emphasis on foreign (non-US) commercials because the scope of what we have is already overwhelming, but I'm still interested in them. Especially the ones featuring characters from the saga.

--SKot

I just found this thread and it's quite an interesting project! Is work still being done on it?

I have an old tape where I recorded anything and everything from around the time of TPM, including all the commercials I could. I'd be willing to share it. The best piece on it is from some Entertainment Tonight-type show (I forget which) and they talk to a guy who's selling bootlegs of TPM. Apparently you're allowed to actually sell a small amount of them. (I think it was any amount not exceeding $500?) He had them right in the open spread out on the sidewalk. Nuts! They went into some pawn shop and there was a guy making copies with a bunch of VCRs, too. Probably the supplier. Heh. I'll have to watch it again. It was quite interesting. Would've fit in perfectly with the Hype disc that was made.

*bump*

Well, it's been another year.  I made a tiny update to the commercials list to include the 1987 Star Tours commercial, which you can view yourself on YouTube right here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb_O7pUeNt0

If anyone has this in better quality than the YouTube version, please contact me.

I believe this was the last commercial from the "classic era" (1977-1989), prior to what I've termed the "revival era" (1990-1998) and the "prequel era" (1999-present).

Outside of that, this project definitely has so much variance in quality and format that it could only be realized as a set of files which would require you to have at least 4-5 different video players to be able to watch.  Still, it's a worthwhile thing just for the sake of having it all exist in one place.  I may find a way to get this out there yet, hopefully in a way that will allow me to upgrade the individual files as better copies surface.

--SKot

Wow, this a blast from the past! I bet there are still things on that tape I mentioned (see my previous post, above yours) that would fit with this project. I should have a look at it again.

Not strictly a Star Wars commercial (it had lightsabres, a dark figure in a mask and people obviously meant to be Ben and Luke), there was the advert for Refreshers in the UK which had the tagline "May The Fizz Be With You".

I haven't been able to find it though.

It was around in the late seventies.

Ripplin said:

Wow, this a blast from the past! I bet there are still things on that tape I mentioned (see my previous post, above yours) that would fit with this project. I should have a look at it again.

 

Hmmm... take a look at that tape sometime and see if anything's on it that's not in our list here.  Better yet, write down (in a text file) everything that's on it.  Even if it doesn't apply here, it may apply to another project!

Also, I haven't managed to pick up any commercials from 2007 onwards, but I'm sure there's been some, especially relating to The Clone Wars I would think.

--SKot

ok,

back in 1977, they showed the making of star wars on canadian

tv, as mentioned in this calgary herald TV guide which i kept..

no VCR's around to tape it.. but who knows?

 

anyways, a nice cover, and 2 page article about star

wars during its prime.. nice to see they told us that

'darth vador' is the bad guy! Ha.. must be the

canadian spelling for vader with an 'o'...

 

 

from august 26th 1977 - the show aired on september 16th 1977.

 

 

 

 

 

later

-1

 

 

 

Wow, it would be great if there was a similar article published for the Canadian airing of the Star Wars Holiday Special...

--SKot

Wow, it would be great if there was a similar article published for the Canadian airing of Michel Parbot's special...
:)