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Swazzy

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29-Aug-2015
Last activity
26-Mar-2024
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556

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Post
#1102333
Topic
The Unofficial Complete REVISITED SAGA Ideas and Random Discussion Thread
Time

Here’s an idea I’ve been toying with for my short film edit which I feel may more appropriately belong here.

What if, instead of the dreadful frankenvader scene from III, we repurposed footage from Rogue One to signify the introduction of the suit? Krennic may be out of place, but the viewer would just quickly assume that he’s some imperial lackey overseeing the reconstruction of Anakin.

I was also thinking a sharp editor could replace the hooded figure from the beginning of the Vader scene with The Emperor. Technically speaking if you rotoscoped Palpatine’s face into the hood, and then drenched the scene in contrast and dark to cover up any remnants of altercation, you could probably get away with it.

My edit is dialogue free at this point, however, so a standard feature length edit may have some difficulty implementing this idea.

Post
#1102033
Topic
Neverar's A New Hope Technicolor Recreation <strong>(Final Version Released!)</strong>
Time

Finally had the pleasure of viewing this last night (yeesh, that 2011 mix is just frustrating. Sometimes the vocals are clear as a bell, and then mid scene they’ll drop back to cassette tape fuzziness).

That’s beside the point; absolutely stunning work Neverar. It sincerely looks like you hopped in a time machine to nab a '77 tech print straight from the projector and scanned it to digital. I can’t imagine the Blu Ray ever looking better than this. It gives me reassurance that Harmy’s 3.0 may very well be the best looking version of Star Wars we’ll ever get to see in this lifetime.

My one and only nitpick is that I feel the Blues are still just a teensy bit too strong. R2’s paint job still looks a little artificial and strange in some scenes. Otherwise, it’s a damn near perfect effort. Should we never get an official release again, I’ll be more than happy with this one.

Post
#1101568
Topic
The Prequels: Show, Don't Tell (A short film) (Workprint available)
Time

Jeebus said:

Sounds very interesting.

Swazzy said:

A few shifts in the story beats are reworked entirely, first off the Jedi actually do have the potential to stop another from dying, but they refuse to toy with the power as the code strictly forbids it.

How are you going to convey this?

The council scene takes place after the Opera scene. The transition is as follows:

Anakin: “Is it possible to learn this power?”

Palpatine looks over to Anakin

Mace (voiceover): “No. The code forbids it.”

Cut to a shot of Mace sitting in the council, cut to Anakin

Anakin: “What? How can you do this. This is outrageous. How can you be on the council and not–”

Mace: “Take a seat. Young Skywalker.”

It isn’t perfect, but it gets the idea across.

Post
#1101497
Topic
The Prequels: Show, Don't Tell (A short film) (Workprint available)
Time

I’ve finished a first draft of the edit, which, as I went along, turned out to be a more radical one as it neared competition. I’ve decided that ten minutes is a bit too short to construct a well paced narrative that delivers all the necessary information.

The film now runs just 26 minutes, though the final cut will probably be about five or six minutes longer. Almost all of it depicts the events of III, with brief cutaways to I and II near the end. We almost exculsively follow Anakin; his motives for turning are now brought out as clear as can be. The political motivations, as well as the imminent death of Padme are both intact, but as he gives in to his fear of losing control, he will then compromise anything at the sake of not losing his power (the Opera scene where Palpatine tells the Darth Plagueis story establishes this right at the top of the film).

A few shifts in the story beats are reworked entirely, first off the Jedi actually do have the potential to stop another from dying, but they refuse to toy with the power as the code strictly forbids it. Which is what now causes Anakin’s public outrage, and what compels Yoda to advise “train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose”. So when Anakin meets with Palpatine for the “revelation” scene, it isn’t speculation on Nik’s part; there literally are things about the force the Jedi aren’t telling him.

Anakin never truly ‘discovers’ that Palpatine is a Sith; in the way I’d wished it had happened in the real movie, he sort of knows all along. And when Obi Wan is pressing him to spy on the Chancellor, his “you’re asking me to do something against a mentor and a friend” is more of a means of saving face than it is the truth. When he goes to tell Palps that Obi Wan has engaged Grevious, he does so with the intent to kill. The only thing that holds him back is whether or not he actually can, and whether or not it’s the right thing to do for his own sake. So, at least at this point in time, Anakin’s own morality is already in the grey area. There are many forces at play, none of which he finds complete trust in.

“My mentor taught me everything about the force, even the nature of the dark side”

Boom. Lightsaber goes on. Both our characters already know what situation they’re in.

“Are you going to kill me?” “I would certainly like to”

“I know you would…I can feel your anger, it gives you focus, makes you stronger.”

And this, ladies and gents, is the last line in the film. The remaining events play out completely dialogue free. As that final line is meant to resonate in your head through all of Anakin’s terrible choices.

In the interest of keeping this edit still somewhat conservative, I originally intended to proceed with the John Williams score narrating the following events. But the moody, nightmarish nature I was trying to achieve didn’t quite resonate with me in that option, so in lieu I took a chance on the score from James Mangold’s LOGAN. Though it certainly does not fit the universe of Star Wars, nor is it paticularly catchy, it encapsulates exactly the breathless monstrosity of Anakin’s downfall I was looking for.

Killing Mace is now completely done on his own volition, after a spot of tense silence, Vader cuts off his hand quite instinctually. The music cue indicates that this is a sort of Pandora’s box of an event; creating a Rube Goldberg-esque chain of events that spirals out of control. Palpatine rises up, Anakin kneels, Obi Wan sees the terror through the holovid. Sidious orders the army to obliterate the Jedi temple, Anakin goes back to comfort Padme.

Scenes of Yoda and Obi Wan surveying the carnage are intercut with Anakin and Padme passionately embracing. Padme nervously oversees the Senate hearing given by Sidious as Vader tears up the separatist Outpost. And so on, and so on, and so forth.

You’ll see it flows very smoothly whenever I get around to uploading the workprint, probably to Vimeo. It’s also with mentioning that I used Hal9000’s edit as a base for my own, so though it doesn’t really resemble his work, I was compelled to steal a thing or two from it (thanks Hal 😉 ). But there are a few changes I want to make before I start any kind of upload, namely the bumpy opening of the film which I’ve not quite realized as of yet.

Post
#1101269
Topic
The Prequels: Show, Don't Tell (A short film) (Workprint available)
Time

Remember the first ten minutes of UP? How we barreled through an entire backdrop of a film without a word of dialogue in a concise, well paced manner? This edit seeks to be the hypothetical ‘first ten minutes’ of Return of the Jedi, in a world where Lucas ditched the second trilogy idea, and just showed audiences what he envisioned as an explanation for the revelations of Empire Strikes Back.

Short, sweet and to the point. It’s compact enough where you understand the plight of our heroes well enough, but more fluent and expansive than that of an ordinary YouTube fan tribute (it’s also something you could tack on to the beginning of ROTJ and it would flow narrative-ly). I hope to encapsulate what are considered indisputably the ‘best’ parts of the prequels. Which, of course, excises the script altogether.

Post
#1094690
Topic
Color matching and prediction: color correction tool v1.3 released!
Time

This question likely comes from a lack of understanding of the technology, but could this same mechanic be used as a means of super sampling/upscaling?

For example, say you used a GOUT frame as a source and a 70mm frame as a reference (both would be the same frame of course). Could you theoretically use an algorithm to create an upscaling script that would match the detail and idiosyncracies of the higher quality source as best as possible?

Post
#1090435
Topic
Should Vader and The Emperor even know who Yoda is?
Time

Even in George’s recuts, there is no addendum of dialogue between palps and Vader regarding Yoda. “He’s just a boy. Obi-Wan can no longer help him” is all we get in regards to Luke’s future training.

Frank Oz always held the belief that Yoda was an elegant being who never really belonged in the marsh, swampy world of Dagobah, but there’s not really an indication that he ever met Anakin, or held an organized council in the universe’s capital. Yes, he senses anger in Luke “like his father”, but he also speaks of how long he has been watching Luke, presumably then from a metaphysical context. I imagine he gauges whether or not one should be trained in the force from afar, and old Ben was the only one who had a spark of honor and purity within him. Perhaps after his initial training, Ben too wanted to bring Anakin over to Dagobah, but Yoda told him not to, or to even mention his existence. Which would then tie in to Ben taking it upon himself to do the job, then failing, proving Yoda right.

I feel Jedi and Force don’t quite go hand in hand. Perhaps the force has been around for milenia, and instead of it being a religion in itself, countless religions have spawned from it. There’s nothing really Jedi-like about Yoda. He’s simply well adversed in channeling the force’s energy. A more reasonable explanation would be that he’s simply a bastion of nature, someone who exists to guide the pendelum of balance back and forth, and calls upon the strength of others to do it. And as such, the Emperor is the negation of that purpose. ‘Jedi Master’ might have been more of an informal title, in that it’s just happenstance for Yoda to call upon the potential of Jedi Knights in order to hold balance in the universe. But he doesn’t consider himself a Jedi.

Neither The Emperor nor Yoda seek power in that regard. They need only be at the forefront of events in order to ensure that what they stand to protect is realized; The Emperor is a chaotic neutral and Yoda a Lawful Neutral. So there is much, much more at stake than percieved when Yoda finally bites it in VI. And Luke being “the last of the Jedi” is not a call to make his friends and children start swinging lightsabers as a collective, but rather a recognition he is now the only one who can combat the chaotic fist of the emperor.

So The Emperor’s claim that Luke could “destroy us” might allude to him believing that Luke is already the protector of balance, and that there is no Yoda to begin with. Otherwise there’d be more of an effort to go after and kill Yoda, which would then inevitably drop Luke right into Vader’s hands, no matter how long it took. Yoda’s deceptive appearance may also match his presence in the force; and in The Emperor’s overconfidence he never seeks Yoda out.

Maybe the ‘Jedi Order’ operated in the same divided and nomadic way prior to the turn of Civil War.

Post
#1088570
Topic
Star Wars Trilogy SE bluray color regrade (a WIP)
Time

I recently went on that History of Film ride in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and at the end they have a clip show of all these classic, cultural staples of film. All were beautifully restored, but every so often it would cut to that damn purple muddy transfer of Star Wars.

The best way to describe Dre’s version at the moment is that it looks like what I’d imagine would appear on that ride.