Alderaan

Just another one on Empire while I’m thinking about it:

-after the Falcon jumps to light-speed at the end of the movie and Vader does a double take, he starts to walk off the bridge. At the last moment, he looks over at Admiral Piett and I’m going to cut this a few frames short, because I much prefer the idea of Vader just being in his own world and ignoring everyone else on the bridge.

I won’t be creating any new custom effects like Adywan has done, for example. I’m mostly editing in select special edition changes for a different cut of the films, but I have added in sound effects, colored in the lightsabers with After Effects, and tried to enhance some shots in Despecialized that didn’t look seamless (like during the Rancor scenes).

The goal is to alter the films as little as possible, while still acknowledging the need to alter them a little in order to make them more realistic. So yes, I am using the SE digital X-wing shots during the Battle of Yavin, since they look more maneuverable and realistic than the original static shots. However, I will not be using things like the Celebration finale at the end of Jedi, since that significantly alters the film. Nothing worse than cutting away from the setting and the characters you’ve been watching for 2 hours to see throwaway shots of random places that aren’t even in the rest of the movie.

Hope that helps!

TV’s Frink said:

suspiciouscoffee said:

“Bad” as a point of view dates farther back in SW than the PT. Or at least a lie as a point of view does.

Of course, we’re all familiar with Ben’s speech. I just mean using it to explain Anakin’s turn could have been a good starting point if it was followed through competently.

Even if Anakin’s turn were done skillfully, there would still be a major problem with the entire story: the PT+OT = Saga becomes Anakin’s story, only Anakin never does anything to redeem himself. It’s only an allusion that we are given through Luke’s eyes.

As long as the story is Luke’s story and Luke’s story only, it works. The moment you introduce younger Anakin, the entire story becomes a false narrative.

So yeah, Despecialized removed every SE change or just about every SE change, and that’s where I wanted to start. The goal was to go back to the originals and add in the special edition changes that I thought improved each film, while leaving out the rest of the nonsense junk.
I’ve seen some other people use “Semi-Specialized” and so on, but I decided on Respecialized because this is just an attempt to do what the Special Editions should have done all along. Limit the alterations to mostly effects upgrades that allow the audience to more fully immerse itself into the world of the story. Along the way, I came across some shots in Despecialized where the sources weren’t good enough and broke the fourth wall, or there were some things off in the soundtrack that I thought needed work on, etc. I just wanted to recreate the best Star Wars OT viewing experience possible. Maybe a different title would be better though…any suggestions?

Here’s a list of all the edits I’ve done on my rough cut of Empire:

1. removed one out-of-place frame when Han cuts open Luke’s tauntaun

2. edited in the bluray footage when Rogue 2 searches for Han and Luke (the compositing of the snow speeders looks more natural)

3. had to redo the dissolve between those two sequences

4. edited in the bluray footage when the first transport takes off from Hoth (again, the vfx compositing looks much better in these shots)

5. used bluray footage for several but not all exterior snow speeder shots during the Battle of Hoth (you have to pay attention to how each shot looks and make it look seamless, not like you’re always flipping back and forth between different sources)

6. edited in Adywan’s new Emperor hologram, but have been working to better sync the audio and lip/mouth movements

7. increased the volume when Yoda says “anger, fear, aggression…” during Luke’s training; it was nearly inaudible in the '80 theatrical mix

8. softened one of the frontal shots of the Cloud Cars and Millenium Falcon approaching Cloud City

9. edited in the brief SE shot of the Falcon landing on Cloud City (it’s not the entire thing, just the frames where it actually lands)

10. after Luke leaves Dagobah, replaced the Cloud City establishing shot and the exterior window shot of Leia with the new SE versions, but left out all the nonsense where the camera follows the escort ship around Cloud City

11. increased the volume on 3PO’s dialogue when he says “remember Chewbacca, don’t do anything foolish” during the Carbon Freezing scene; previously, it was drowned out by the special effects on the '80 theatrical mix

12. edited in the BR footage when Boba Fett loads Han onto Slave I

13. strengthened the music cue when Luke reaches out to Leia with the force from beneath Cloud City

14. edited in the shot of Vader’s shuttle flying to the Executor (but not him boarding the shuttle nor landing), and did some edits to mix the new SE music cue seamlessly into the original soundtrack and sync everything up

15. edited in the SE exterior shot of the medical frigate, looking on at Luke, Leia, etc. at the end of the movie

Harmy said:

Well, right now I’m talking a bit of a break, as I started a new job, which keeps me plenty busy but I am planning v3.0 in the future.

Thanks for all your work Harmy, what we have is already wonderful as it is and a true blessing! I’m sure we can all wait patiently until you’re ready to work on your next project.

Fang Zei said:

Now, I should say I have no problem waiting, so long as they make it worth the wait.

Don’t take life for granted. We may not be here tomorrow or the next day.

And even if we personally never see it restored, our descendants might not either. You never know what can happen in the world in a few years. Restoring films might no longer be a priority, and suddenly a couple hundred years from now when some historian starts looking around for the original cuts of Star Wars, they might not exist. It’s even possible that the special editions might be so lowly regarded by future generations, that the films don’t exist…at all.

Hardcore Legend said:
But that doesn’t fit Vader’s character because at no point in the OT is he really in charge of anything. He goes where he is told and the one time he ventures out on his own (chasing the Falcon), he scurries out of the asteroid field to answer the Emperor’s call.

He’s in charge of everything except that he answers to the Emperor, who he is actively plotting to overthrow. Sounds more like Macbeth to me.

Even Obi-Wan’s reminiscing of Anakin to Luke is made to be sympathetic.

Well sure, he was a good guy at one point who was seduced by power and became bad. The prequels didn’t tell that story though.

Hardcore Legend said:
Are you lumping ROTJ int the PT? Because otherwise, your view of the character does not fit.

ROTJ is different because it’s Luke’s story, not Anakin’s.

Even if Vader is a monster, we can feel happy for Luke. If he thinks there is a little good left in his father and he can bring it out, then OK Luke we’re rooting for you. But we’re not happy for Anakin at the end of the movie–we’re happy for Luke.

Anakin’s story shouldn’t have been a soap opera. It should have been more like Macbeth. He becomes corrupted by power. Instead you can tell Lucas has a perverse understanding of the world, or came to develop one, since he made Anakin’s perceived feebleness his weakness, whereas he should have been undone by his own strength.

The entire prequel trilogy is whiny and childish because it represents a whiny and childish view of the world: that even bad people are good, and there are plenty of excuses that justify or explain their actions. And then comes the Saga, where all you have to do is save your son’s life and you’re suddenly forgiven for all of your sins.

The prequels are an abomination because they are nothing more than a 3-movie long excuse for why a really evil person wasn’t so bad after all.

SparkySywer said:

This wipe here is temporary, right?

And not a huge fan of restoring Vader’s shuttle. It kinda messes with the pacing, and it’s unnecessary.

Yeah I think I said on the other forum where I posted this before, that one is just temporary. I haven’t gone back and done a final cut of Empire yet. Mostly I was just showing someone there how I used the new exterior shot, but cut out the CGI video game nonsense that precedes it, then had to adjust the soundtrack and framerate and make Leia pause before she turns around in order to sync everything up.

And I agree about the importance of the pacing in the second sequence. I left out the exterior shot of Vader boarding the shuttle, and him landing on the Executor. Those just kill the film’s momentum.

But I do like the SE music cue better, and the idea of intercutting between Luke and Vader as the climax progresses. I think that one shot actually enhances the pacing, but yeah maybe some people will feel differently.

If anyone wants to offer feedback or discuss, then this is the place to do it.

I already have rough cuts of all three films, but once I finish a final version of Star Wars, I’ll be going back and touching up Empire and Return of the Jedi soon.

I’ve been working on my own fan edits for Star Wars Respecialized, The Empire Strikes Back Respecialized, and Return of the Jedi Respecialized for a few months now. This was just a personal project but a few people have asked to see these versions. I figured I might as well start a thread here and try to share what I can.

Some examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VELVuIFR-7c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwBsu1M363M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5NMmjj_HCQ

The initial goal of this project was to start with Harmy’s Despecialized versions of the original trilogy, and then swap in the Special Edition changes that I considered beneficial to each film. After awhile though, I started making my own custom edits, and eventually by Return of the Jedi I was interested in doing a fan edit more in line with the original Phantom Menace fan edit, where I wanted to cut out some of the Ewok sequences, particularly during the Battle of Endor.

Anyway, I’m doing a final pass on Star Wars Respecialized right now.

List of changes:

1. Sharpened the image quality of the dewback shot in front of the cantina.

2. Color corrected the Special Edition shot of the Millenium Falcon blasting off from Mos Eisley and exchanged it for the original. Did not use the first half of the shot with the Stormtroopers exchanging fire. Just used the CGI rendered part that overlaps with the original cut, although I had to slow down the new edition.

3. Edited in the Special Edition version of the Alderaan explosion.

4. Added splash noise when Luke gets dunked in the trash compactor. In the original, there is a missing sound effect.

5. Trying to improve the image quality of the two shots overlooking the hangar and the Falcon towards the end of the Death Star sequence.

6. Fixing the lightsaber colors on the Death Star. Particularly, upgrading Vader’s white stick.

7. Using the Special Edition shot of the Falcon taking off from the Death Star.

8. Adding in missing TIE fighter blaster effect when Han and Luke shoot at the sentry ships.

9. Reconfigure the sequence of shots of the Falcon approaching Yavin 4.

10. Edited in all Special Edition X-wing shots during the Battle of Yavin.

11. Used the Special Edition Death Star explosion.

12. Used the Special Edition shot of real actors to replace the original cardboard people.

TV’s Frink said:

Best I can do on short notice is 80’s CGI shoehorned into a 2005 film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su47PCLuJ84

Not bad, got a laugh out of me.

For once I would like to see some 70s CGI shoehorned into a 90s film.

Frink (The Ridiculous Menace): make it so!

What I think most likely happened is that you grew up on the 97 SE, and you liked parts of the movies and disliked other parts, independent of any other version.

The parts you disliked like Jedi Rocks you quickly accepted as inferior and were eager to replace them in your “perfect version”, but the parts you never had a problem with or enjoyed, like Victory Celebration, remain your preference over the original theatrical releases.

This can be the only explanation for your defense of things like “Alert my Star Destroyer” and nonsense Coruscant edits into the original films.

Victory Celebration is clearly inferior; regardless of one’s subjective musical taste, including shots of different worlds that aren’t even in the movie makes it a terrible edit.

Editroid said:

Someone mentioned how obvious they felt the rotoscoping in Star Wars Despecialized 2.5 is, that the opening crawl wobbles and then speeds up weirdly at the end, and wishes the picture quality was more consistent.

Everything looks great to me except this shot:

That shot isn’t the same as Despecialized though, as I’ve touched it up some myself. But there are a lot of things working against that shot. For one, it’s such a static shot even in the original, which is why I suspect George went back and added things in. Second, the animation quality isn’t great, and there is a visible white outline on the right side of the dewback image that makes it look even more cut-and-paste.

However, I think all of the other animation and rotoscoping work Harmy and co. did in the Despecialized shots looks fantastic. I just hope they improve this one shot in 3.0.

JawsTDS said:
I hear this a lot.

If you got out, you wouldn’t have to hear it anymore.

Impscum, did you grow up on the 97 SE or something? That can be the only explanation for your hard on for those awful edits.

TheSkeletonMan939 said:

Doctor M said:

I maintain the first two movies are the best and most faithful to the books.

Ditto. But moreover I feel that they’re better films than the rest. Films 4, 5, 7, and 8 are extremely unfocused and are barely understandable without having read the books beforehand.

The first two films remain my favorite in terms of atmosphere, pacing, coloring, editing, and story.

Prisoner of Azkaban is the best Harry Potter film by far.
Philospher’s Stone is the 2nd best best in my opinion.

None of the other ones are very good. As this user mentioned, the later films are nothing more than a barely intelligible series of montages.

Well I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that any new release of the special edition is unwelcome at this point, so long as the OOT is not available commercially and in high quality.

Gotcha

I thought he said they were going to redo all the 90s CGI, which of course they are not going to do.

But maybe I read it wrong.

nickyd47 said:

If anything, we’re going to get a 4K version of Star Wars with re rendered CGI

No. You’re going to get a 4k version of the same Special Edition you’ve been watching since 2011.

Also, Robert Harris last posted about Star Wars on another forum in December. While he did not say anything specific, one could gather in an indirect way from his post that no OOT restoration is underway, or at least not one that he is aware of.

It’s possible that one could be completed and he simply does not know about it, but I really doubt that would be the case.

nickyd47 said:

I remember hearing "The reason why the OOT wasn’t released in 2015 or '16 was because Star Wars needed more work done"
Anyone else remember hearing this? And did anyone find evidence supporting this theory or is this just internet nonsense

That was just people making up bullshit. They were sure it would come out then, so when it didn’t, make up bullshit excuse A. Now it’s just around the corner again…and on and on.

Disney has no plans to release the OOT. None.