ChainsawAsh

I've never made a Blu-Ray cover before, but I'd certainly consider it.

Alright, I've been getting many requests for a re-up of my 1990's VHS-style covers.  I've made some subtle changes since the last upload - here are the new ones (quality on the samples isn't as good as last time because I resized them after upload to Imgur instead of beforehand):

And, because I've also gotten complaints that the black text on the Star Wars cover is hard to read (though it's faithful to the original), I made a version that includes white text instead:

Personally, I think that's harder to read than the black one, but I figured I'd give people the option.  It's not like these are 100% faithful to the originals anyway (due to the difficulty in finding the actual images used on the backs of the originals).

All 4 are included in the download, which is here.

I've also been toying with the idea of doing similar covers for the prequels, but ... well ... I hate the prequels, so the task is proving challenging at best - I'm just not motivated to do it, really.  But if anyone can give me a good synopsis to use for the back of them (specifically TPM), that would help tremendously.  Note that my TPM cover would be intended for use with Adywan's theatrical DVD, and as such would use its runtime instead of the DVD's.  But other than that, there won't be any special features listing or anything, so if you don't mind a small runtime discrepancy (not even sure what the runtime difference would be between the theatrical and DVD cuts of TPM), it could easily be used for the official DVD as well.  Or both.

RoccondilRinon said:

Adywan is building an all-new Wampa puppet for those shots.

I thought Ghost Busters had a pretty damn good transfer.  I'm quite pleased that they didn't try to scrub all the grain out - it actually looks like film!

Usually the problem is that isolating the center channel with the dialogue only results in a lot of bleeding of music and sound effects into the same channel, making it nigh-impossible to have a truly "clean" dialogue-only track.  But there should be less - if any - bleed of the dialogue into the other 4 channels.  Am I right?

fishmanlee said:

(but thank you for being honest and for pointing it/that out)

So, you're thanking me for pointing out that you stole someone else's work and passed it off as your own?  Give credit where credit is due, man.

First, the Veers death sequence:

You used the exact same shot of the AT-AT's head exploding, and it's incredibly obvious.  Doesn't work so well - I frankly think the sequence works fine without Veers' death, anyway.

Now, the "lightsaber building" scene ...

Random shots of Luke talking to Yoda played under audio from the radio drama, which doesn't even sound that much like Mark Hamill?  Um ... no, doesn't work so well.  And I'm pretty sure I've seen that first/last image in someone else's mock-up YouTube video recently, zooming in/out in that exact same way - if that's true, you've given that person no credit, and that's not cool.

Just my two cents.

AvP said:

ChainsawAsh said:

No download links are allowed on the forum.

 

have i posted any links? no...i know the rules.

As Moth3r said, I wasn't referring to you.  Sorry for the confusion.  :-)

Just watched the sample - it looks pretty impressive.  Really takes me back to watching the pre-DC VHS tapes when I was a kid - despite the fact that there's obviously less detail than the GOUT/DC transfer, it's much brighter and (as budwhite said) more "alive."  And no horrendous DVNR smearing!

Great job, DJ!

No download links are allowed on the forum.

Alright, I'll try to respond point-by-point, but I apologize if I miss anything:

- I will most definitely try to make Veidt more of an ambiguous, less straightforwardly-evil character.  Several friends of mine who hadn't read Watchmen that I saw the movie with instantly asked me if he was the bad guy when Dan visits him in his office.  I'd like to change that fact.
- I haven't seen Under the Hood, and I'm not convinced that inserting portions of it into the film will help the film in any way.  Sure, it may bring it slightly closer to the graphic novel, but if that comes at the expense of the film's ability to stand on its own, then I won't do it.  I'll reserve judgment on this issue until I've seen Under the Hood (which likely won't be until the Ultimate Cut comes out).
- I've seen (most of) the motion comic, and I agree that the score is good.  If I can find a way to use portions of it, I certainly will, but I wouldn't hold my breath for that one unless a soundtrack album is released.

It's one or the other, I really don't remember.  Either way, it's not consistent.

But it's out of sync for the first few shots, then isn't anymore - definitely a mistake.

Hey, I work there.  Is it sad that I can tell that's a large box by the thickness of the fold at the front?

And it's not that the name is changing, at least not at the one I work at - the medium and large boxes all say that, though, for some reason ...

Is it sad that I've been working there for at most two months, and I've already been offered a manager position?

Fair enough.  I've got my own edit for all that stuff - I just thought I'd throw in my two cents.

O.o ANH:R V2?  Really?  Well, the only things that I would change from the current version would be the following:

- No torture-droid-zapper-thing
- Take out "We've stopped!" (Threepio) and "There's no one here!" (stormtrooper) lines added to the 2004 SE
- Take out the floating droid in the alley-search scene in Mos Eisley
- I'd say restore the desert-search-dewback scene to the one shot it originally was, but I know from experience how fucking hard this would be to do
- No Emperor's theme in the Death Star conference (not that big a deal to me, though)
- NO "RING" IN THE ALDERAAN EXPLOSION! (big one for me)
- Make Vader turn on his lightsaber before Ben does (Jedi = self defense), and use the ESB/ROTJ sound for Vader's saber ignition
- No music during Ben/Vader duel
- Original timing during Ben's death (the added slow-mo screws up the music a bit)
- Restore final shot of Tarkin before Death Star explodes

I'm 99% sure that's everything I would change.  I mean, obviously I'm changing more in my edit, but that's because it's more of an "ultra-purist" version than anything else.

The creator of this project and thread.

You're on my ignore list now.

Leper, I'll kindly ask you to stay out of my thread from now on.  You clearly have no interest in this project if I don't do it exactly the way you want it done (even though what you want done is pretty much impossible).  And how are we whiners?  I see no other whiner in this thread except you.

You're adding nothing constructive to the discussion here.  If you make one more post in this thread, you will be on my ignore list.  (Why I'm not putting you on it now is beyond me, but whatever.)  I'll also urge others who read and follow this thread to do the same.

Squid WILL NOT be in my edit.  It's impossible to do.

I don't have a problem with the new ending.

Rorschach's mask is fine, and will stay as is.

END OF DISCUSSION IN THIS THREAD ON THOSE POINTS.  Jesus.

If you want to start an argument about the merits of the novel-to-film changes, start a new fucking thread.  Nothing's going to be exactly the same when you adapt something from one medium to another, and you shouldn't expect it to.  I'm not doing this edit to make it exactly like the novel, just more in the spirit of the novel in the areas where I thought the film just didn't work.

--edit--

Sorry for the grumpiness, it's 2AM here and I'm tired.  I didn't expect to see one new post here, let alone 15 that amount to arguing over something I've already discussed earlier in the thread.

"Palpatine" is never mentioned in the OT, even in ROTJ.  It was common knowledge through EU and the Emperor action figure in the mid-nineties, but (like Sith) never stated in the films at all.  He was simply "The Emperor."

Darth Chronus said:

Well being part of the new generation (well middle actually, since I'm 19)

Hmm ... I've never thought of myself as being part of the "new" or "middle" generation of Star Wars fans (I'm 20, myself), but I guess that makes sense.  I saw the pre-SE OT first, though (either in 1993 or 1994 for the first time, so I was 4 or 5), so I've never really considered myself to be part of the same generation that saw the PT first.

People have been saying that it's so clear that Green = Master up until AOTC ... so why didn't Obi-Wan, who was clearly a Master in ANH, have a green lightsaber?  Because that wasn't the case until TPM.  Blue was good, red was evil, and green was symbolic of a new kind of Jedi in ROTJ ... until the prequels.

Not quite - Obi-Wan's death has slo-mo, but it's "fake" slo-mo, as in it was shot at 24fps and the framerate was changed in post.  IIRC, the "Magic Tree" slo-mo was actually shot at a different framerate than 24fps, making it "true" slo-mo.

Please, no.  If we must have any color besides blue and red, make it green - but even that I'm not a fan of.  I'd much prefer all blue until Luke in ROTJ, symbolizing that Luke has found the "middle way" (to bring a bit of a Buddhist mentality to this) between "pure" light side, which is too restrictive, and "pure" dark side, which is too corrupt, thus heralding a new age of Jedi not bound to highly restrictive dogma the way the Jedi of the Old Republic had been.

But then again, I wouldn't mind certain Jedi masters having green (Qui-Gon, Yoda [if he must be seen with a lightsaber, which I'm also very much against], Windu, etc.), just as long as there's no fucking purple, yellow, orange, pink, or any of that shit.  I could deal with white for trainees, though.

NTSC video was originally 30fps, but when color was introduced, this was changed to 29.97 to make room for the added information.  In order for film to be telecine'd to 29.97 fps from 24 fps, it first needs to be slowed down ever so slightly to 23.976, which is "progressive" NTSC.  For some reason, this standard (23.976 and 29.97) was kept the same for broadcast HD content (probably to keep compatibility with standard NTSC).

Blu-Ray has the capability of utilizing true 24fps content, but some players don't like it and won't display it properly.  Ady encoded ANH and ESB at true 24fps, but it seems that now he's releasing them at 23.976 in order to improve compatibility.  A smart move, in my opinion - the difference isn't particularly noticeable anyway.