walking_carpet

hey boost et al, hope you've been well.

nice to see Harmy get recognition - thats a pretty cool video too.  In the last couple years, demand for OOT has increased substantially. 

The comments are interesting - looks like its from people froma  variety of backgrounds and perspectives.  One common denominator is that regardless of what one thinks of the changes, or if changes should be allowed - people for the most part feel that the OOT should always be available.

hope all is well with everyone.

Its been a crazy summer - starting with poor Harrison's injury, all the Episode VII rumors and excitement - albeit very cautious-over the possibility of an OOT blu ray release.

kind of exasperating that the rumors of an OOT blu ray release are just that.  I do have to say that the ownership/distribution rights and issues again have me confused.

anyway, as far as what I want - Im probably repeating myself, but its broken down 2 ways:

1) Preservation and archiving for historical purposes:  

At the minimum: the fully restored 1977, 1980, 1983 prints from each respective movie.  Thats what actually was seen when first theatrically released.  Both the physical film format and a digital format that matches as close to fidelity of said film format.  As technology advances, a new digital copy is created.  This is what should be in all national film archives like BFI and Library of Congress.  As I get older, this becomes more important.  A 1981 version should be its own archive seperate from 1977.

2) Blu Ray:

Content-wise, I' be ok with a remastered 1981 that includes the Episode IV opening crawl.  The source has to be scanned at highest resolution available.  I guess a scan of an IP can work - need to go back and see what the pro's and con's are.  It has to be proper - i never really understood and noticed what DNR was until I saw a TPM blu ray.  it would be horrible if this happened to OOT.  :O

For the audio, a new 7.1 HD Dolby/DTS mix would be ok AS LONG AS the original 70mm and stereo mix (remastered and lossless) are included.  I have a few blu rays that have new modern mixes and its dissapointing.  The Terminator, for example, its almost as if they just took the sound design and cut it in half so half the sound is in back speakers and the other half is front speakers.  It sounds terrible. 

As for 1997 - not interested.  only reason I could see to include is that it was theatrically released.

As for extras - I like Harmy's idea of a restoration feature.  I am curious how they do this stuff.  I guess it comes from living in a hundred year old condomunium thats in need of serious restoration and maintenance :D

I wouldnt be interested in more 'making of' documentaries that are sanctioned by LFL.  Part of it being this is the most storied catalog in movie history and we know everything.  But the most important reason being that theres a huge amount of dishonesty.  you cannot take GL's commentary seriously because he is making crap up.  The 1995 interviews with Leonard Maltin are now a joke. 

ok enough of that....dont want my first post in almost 2 years to be a rant :P 

I could be interested in another documentary if it was like the great The Shark is Still Working.  This was one of the best doc's I had seen and was very engrossing.  Or that You Will Believe Superman documentary that was fun and candid.  and Harmy, Adywan, Zombie need to make themselves available for interviews ;)

you know what would be helpful - if Disney/LFL cannot comment on an OOT release, at least answer some questions that would provide a roadmap of contingencies that need to be cleared in order for a home video release to be completed.  Or any official Home video distribution subject matter expert.

[sigh] this movie is almost 40 years old...

Cobra Kai said:

And as for Ridley Scott, his best movie was in 1979 and he's been pretty hit or miss since then.  Blade Runner was really good, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down were pretty good, Prometheus was worth watching I guess, and then he's got a bunch of mediocre to absolute crap movies. (Robin Hood, for example was atrocious). I'm not saying he wouldn't make a good SW movie, but just looking at his filmography he would be way down on my list.

 

 

 had it not been for Michael Fassbender, I would have marked prometheus as an F. 

that said, I dont know what your feelings are for Kingdom of heaven Director's Cut.  I think its one of the great movies of the last 10 years.  just spectacular.  I cannot believe it wasnt released like that in the theatres and Scott could have had a really good shot at winning a best director oscar.

absolute shame....20 years from now, he will look back at that movie as the one that got away.

Tobar said:

walking_carpet said:

whenever I think of SW outside of the OT and its potential, i'll always think back to when I saw that trailer for SW Galaxies and how moved I was (i wish I could find it again).

This one or this one?

 wasn't those.  but those are cool.

the one i saw (i think i mentioned this in another thread) plays the same music when luke tells ben that r2d2 is looking for 'obi-wan' kenobi.

it was the moment the music that plays when ben says "i havent gone by the name of obi-wan",  there was a brief 2 second shot of some girl running towards something, im not sure if she was in a field or on a road but it just caught my attention.  there was just something about it...especially with the music playing in the background.

the commercial says "now you play the greatest star wars adevnture of all....your own"

maybe its just me and maybe it was the time back then, but its just an example i always use when asked if there coudl still be great star wars outside of the skywalker family.

another is that KOTOR game.  friend of mine had xbox and he was playing it and I watched and it was great.  i understand it got great reviews.

someday i'll find that trailer.

seeing all these big names rattled off as potential future directors/writers reminds me of Redskins owner Daniel Snyder always throwing money around to buy the best free agents and coaches and it still hasnt worked for him!!  bwaaaaaahahahahahahahaaa

arent most directors like Bird and Nolan pretty much unavailable due to othe projects?  or do they have a "star wars clause" in their contracts like college coaches used to have a "notre dame" clause where they can leave just like that!??!

here is my dark-horse:

i remember watching the documentaries of the PT, I was always intrigued by Rob Coleman. 

He seemed to actually care about things like behavior, performance and quality.  does anyone know if he has considered film directing as a next step in his career path?

msycamore said:

zee944 said:

Everybody is so pessimistic here!

My reason for beeing pessimistic is simply... what came first, the idea for a new line of Star Wars toys, or making Star Wars Episode VII the film?

 I wonder if the opening box office results for John Carter played any role in fast-tracking the negotiations for Disney ;P

i keeed, i keeed...bwaahahahahahahahaa

Its kinda unfortunate JC bombed so bad; i have seen much worse movies make more money. I missed it in the theatres, but when I caught it on blu ray I thought it was awesome!  True, there wasnt a great villain, the earth scenes seem uneccsary and the scene with JC and Dejha Thoris in that cave explaining how he can teleport to/from didnt make much sense.  But man, my first thought after seeing it was "damn... how cool it would be if Mars was actually like that!".  And i would have been thrilled if the PT was remotely close to anything like JC.  Some of the best parts of AOTC came from JC.

anyway,

Disney bought all of LFL solely for Star Wars, they pretty much said so.  And most of the discussion has centered around the franchise, not the story.  But this has been the case since 1982, its just no longer the movie industry's worst kept secret that it was under LFL.  I also dont think anyone should doubt that a new trilogy was used to sweeten the pot and raise the value.  The question becomes will they still put forth an effort to make the best movie they can possibly make? If they just want to grab a piece of the 4-8 year old market as a simple cash cow, then they are all set.

Like evrything sw, I go through a range of feelings. I dunno, I keep ending up eventually feeling indifferent for an ST.   I greatly anticipated the PT because it was going to explain how the most famous villian of all time came to be, show what were the jedi knights and just the idea of returning to a story that captured the imagination of an entire generation, after so many years. 

I dont see anything that compels me to this sequel trilogy like a new batman and x-men movies or something from pixar or studio ghibli, let alone the OT and PT.  First and foremost,  I want the OOT available - on blu ray and every other future home video format. UNtil then, nothing has changed.  I have not seen anything encouraging that this will happen.  In fact, Im a little worried for guys like Harmy :(  I sure hope Disney keeps a hands-off attitude, or at least understands why the De-Specialized editions are so popular and acknowledges that studio behavior has inflamed this situation.  

But even with that issue set aside and judging the ST on its own merits, what story is there to tell?  Dale Pollock said that he thought episodes 7-9 were the most exciting, but I thought all those stories were crammed into ROTJ?  Lucas was adamant for years that there is no 7-9 (after being adamant for years that they did exist).  I see reports that treaments are made. But like the PT, I dont buy for one second there was a story planned all along for this. 

what about the characters?  Bringing back luke, leia and the whole gang?  Mark and Carrie's kids are older than they were during the OT! Ford is a very old man and i dont think has any desire to return to SW.  this cant be like some made-for-tv reunion.  IJATKOTCS tried bringing back Karen allen and i thought it was a disaster :(  plus, these characters have to do something to make them compelling again.

The crew of the OT was hall-of-fame.  Maybe the talent of the cast did not match, but i dont think you can underestimate just how extraordinarly charismatic the characters were across the board (as long as they stayed away from...ahem..the white stuff).  Everyone talked about how matrix or LOTR was the new star wars, but i always felt it was the austin powers series that was the closest to having an ensemble of memorable characters.  Like LucasDroid said, the glory years cant be recreated for almost the same reason that there will never be another Beatles.  But if Disney genuinely wants SW to be a marquee franchise with teeth and staying power, it'll need a engrossing and moving story and an ensemble of great characters to drive it, not just a couple. 

I disagree with this idea of having sw movies every 3 years for the forseeable future and making it like James Bond.  IMO, from 1960-1969 I can count 4 Great James Bond movies.  from 1970 -2011, I can count a total of...2 (although it appears the Livign Daylights has a loyal following).  and I can count plenty of sucky ones :(

its funny though..one thing SW does have going for it is the world its set in.  No matter whats happened, that galaxy far far away is one hell of a cool place.  god im missing Ralph Mcquarrie now and JW is 80!! :'(

whenever I think of SW outside of the OT and its potential, i'll always think back to when I saw that trailer for SW Galaxies and how moved I was (i wish I could find it again).

anyway.

During the PT, LFL said all the right things (even if they were lying).  Disney so far has not.  Maybe an argument can be made that all the info has come from a shareholders meeting and it needs to be put in that context.  But if they release the OOT with gold-standard remastering, I can see it as a good faith gesture and a step in the right direction.

hmmm...would have to dig for links;P

• one was i think a chat transcript that the author had with readers of the washington post around the eve of episode III's premiere. 

• another was some 'interview' lucas had and the reporter asked him about something referenced in Skywalking and Lucas said the book had as much truth as the national enquirer.  I think he said that Pollock wasnt there and his info was hearsay and then offered the so-called truth of what happened.  Whatever the topic was, it actually wasnt about bad directing or writing.  the reporter then asked about something else and lucas said "yeah, again - they got that info from Skywalking..."  and i think this was a year before TPM...i think.  and it was a print 'interview', not video or online. 

I havent seen/read an 'interview' firsthand since 2006, so maybe he doesnt talk about it anymore unless someone brings it up.  So I may re-edit and say "he insisted at the time".  Maybe its no longer necessary to bring it up - you dont need Skywalking anymore to realize what lucas is ;P 

I myself read the book in 1995 and laughed at the thought of how horrified everyone was at lucas' lack of direction and incompetant screenwriting thinking to myself "man, he must have really been bad - how did AG and the OT turn out good?". 

It should have been a harbinger of things to come but I shrugged it off- after all, in the 'interviews' Lucas said all the right things.  No, the only thing that caught my eye was around the time of the SE and Cinescape (I think) did an interview with Gary Kurtz and Kurtz said something like "I dont know....Lucas just doesnt want to push himself".  That raised an eyebrow.  I mean, to accuse an artist (if you even want to call lucas that) of not putting a 100% is fighting words.  but its true. 

as i mentioned in another thread, when i opened the site it looked like Java kicked in and was trying to run something so I did a hard shut off.

looked like the page loaded ok just now but then i saw java was activated and trying to run something so i killed it - will need to do a scan. 

Wolfman said:

I never had the Geoff Love album, I had this one before the OST..

 

 

 

 first CD we ever got in 1985 (i think that was the year) was John Williams Boston Pops "Out of this World"

I had the 20 bit SW trilogy CD of JW conducting the Skywalker Orchestra at Skywalker Sound but I lost it 4 years ago and still have not been able to find it :'(

and thats why lucas screamed when the book was released and continues to insist it was full of lies.  the personality cult was still in its infancy back in those days and lucas could not afford to be exposed.

if everyone knew that lucas could not care less about filmmaking quality, story, characters and the prequels were created strictly to consolidate and secure, TPM would have been as anticipated as a final destination sequel.

no different than lance armstrong making sure for 15 years his doping was kept absolute secret.  it doesnt matter now - he got his millions and a legion of sycophants carefully cultivated.

DuracellEnergizer said:

sean wookie said:

I haven't posted in this forum in years, but I assume everyone has seen the RedLetterMedia reviews right?

I tried, but the guy's voice was too annoying to stand, so I gave up.

There wouldn't happen to be any transcripts out there somewhere, though, to read by any chance?

 I was nervous and taken aback at the voice at first too, but its actually not that monotone.  and now, I cant imagine the reviews with any other voice (crap ..i think i said this before)

he is at his best in the part III of the episode III reviews.  this is where he completely discredits 2 apologist talking points regarding lucas:

-he's a good storyteller

-he's a 'visual' type of filmmaker

knowledgable movie fans have known this all along, but the examples he provides are incredible.

someone once made the joke they would only buy the pt blu ray if it came with the rlm reviews...I actaully may agree.

according to bart simpson, the world is not mad at GL in 1974

DominicCobb said:

I am so glad I was able to see this (on a real IMAX screen and for only $11.50), and will (probably) remember this experience forever. I also managed to snag one of those posters, and will be framing it and placing it in my room shortly. 

lucky basterd j/k ;) 

but wait - does the poster say Raider of the Lost Ark or that stupid prequelized "Indiana jones and the raiders of the lost ark"  ?

auximenies said:

During the South America scenes, the picture seemed to be unstable (for lack of a better term) at moments. I wasn't sure if it was simply out of focus (and wondered about focus with digital projection*) or a result of digital squirelliness/artifacts.  But then it was clearly affecting only parts of the image, and was obviously artifactual. That really bummed me out, although it either improved over time or I became absorbed in the film and didn't notice. 

 I has this problem too.  and some other shots - like the DC shot towards the end of the movie were pretty blurry.  based on what i've ben reading from other poeple that have watched them, this is an issue with the movie.  I missed the cobra reflection but i heard its gone.  but bellocq still eats the fly!!!  everyone laughed at this!!  BWAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

unfortunately it was also in one of those mini-IMAXX theatres.  I guess the 15/70 imax is gonna be obsolete.  My theatre was not even half-full.  so not sure if it was worth $15.

 but its still a great flick after all these years (31 YEARS !?!?!?). Its still the best action-adventure film made, IMO. The story is a lot thinner than I remember and maybe the sequence with the Bomber plane can be viewed as filler, but at least it doesnt have stupid stuff like KOTCS and there is actual danger and grit to the action.  and karen allen is just soooo cute in this movie ;)

not gonna get the blu ray until its individually released.  Loved Indy the action hero, but the series overall is average.  TOD has aged poorly and dont care for KOTCS.

Harmy said:

It was an oral exam. We knew the results in under an hour :-) I did really well :-)

 great to hear.  your hard work pays off in everything you do.  congrats

all this stuff about color timing, flicker, fps, crush black, white balances, temperatures is overwhelming.  was given an old photography book when I first got my digital camera almost 8 years ago and haven't gone through it as well as I should have.  barely know what an f stop is ;P

this thread has got me really curious regarding technicolor prints.  also kinda fascianting that there's only like 5 copies technicolor SW left and they are all in pristine condition because this type of film does not fade. 

funny thing i've been thinking about this whole time is I thought I heard that The GodFather Part II was the last movie to use technicolor?  is that incorrect?  or was that something else?

Lucas always claimed that SW was half finished and thats why he went back.  How long did color timing take back in those days?  Could he have gotten ESB that blueish color on hoth in 1980 if he wanted to or did that require the computer grading we have now? 

Darth Bizarro said:

 Just like Alien, Jaws, Indiana Jones, Star Trek, Superman, Batman, X-Men, Spider-Man, the Matrix, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Planet of the Apes, there will always be a few entries some of the fan base don't care for and shouldn't let their mear existence get them down. 

 

maybe, but SW was not just another movie series. ;)

anyway, its easy to say that now and that is the way i view things nowadays.  Im not as dissapointed in the PT anymore because I now know lucas never had any 'saga' in mind and every bit of it was made up and as contrived as the Final Destination sequels.  Also having the despecialized OOT helps (thanks harmy!).  I'll just pop in AOTC on a rainy day like I do with Alien Ressurection or Friday The 13th part 3.

but at the time, it was infuriating because we were led to believe that there was a story planned and that lucas actually cared about story and characters more than special effects and merchandise.  this was not the case.  further more, for a great many fans, the films were not just bad, but filmmaking 101 bad.  For me personally, its this dishonesty and laziness and the supression of the OOT that sticks in the craw.

then i click on the link in my signature and i feel better.

Darth Bizarro said:

  I like the original trilogy plus everything else.  

 i dunno...even this???

or this !?!?!?

i keeed i keeed.

anyway, I saw a couple clone war episodes on youtube.  one seemed pretty good - it was obi-wan going undercover and inflitrating a prison.  another one was not so good - it involved yet another boba fett/mandalorian storyline.  i don't like the animation of the characters.  It seemed dull and dark, but it coulda been the youtube.  and i really think it would help the series if they used the original theme - kinda perplexed on why they dont.  i still think the tarkosvsky cartoons in season 2 were more compelling.

the show seems to have a steady, if not spectacular following.  and its probably one of the only examples of something from the PT world that does not need to rely on the OT to gain acceptance.

but if its fun and not undignified and not copycat, cool.

DuracellEnergizer said:Until he turned into Henrietta from Evil Dead II and started waving day-glo dildoes around, that is ...

 Is it true that Ian Mcdiarmid had no sword fighting experience and was asked to perform this against Samuel Jackson at the last second?  If so, it actuallly turned out better than one would think.

But this is irritating because its yet another example of lucas putting an actor in a position to fail.

hmmm....correct me if im wrong, but it sounds like the blu ray version of 2.0 will be the MKV file with additional audio tracks and a menu?  if thats the case, i may be in trouble cuz I have a panasonic dmp bd60 and it doesnt play MKV.  I've been able to enjoy 1.0 because it was AVCHD but this time I wanted to take advantage of the full bit-rates.

maybe an excuse to get a new player ;P

in any event, I still feel great for fans that can enjoy this. 

Harmy, it sounds like you really hit this one out of the park.   

Fans everywhere are gonna raise a glass of blue milk to you.

I'll probably check in again in a couple months once the blu ray is released to get a better idea of where things are at.  In the meantime, congratulations on a job well done.  Congrats too on your thesis.  Best of luck again on your exams - im sure you'll do just fine.  You have an attitude and dedication to success thats rare.

Harmy said:

 I need to study for exams at the beginning of September

 good luck

I thought of maybe one more thing that would be a nice to have:

in the ROTJ ending celebration - Luke and Wedge acknowledge each other and embrace.  that was kinda nice to see.  One is a jedi and the other was a lead pilot; in ROTJ they went seperate paths.  but both are heroes of the rebellion, first and foremost.

skyjedi2005 said:

One of the things people find objectionable about the prequels is the lack of any central protagonist and its moral relativism.

Anakin is supposed to be the hero but he is not even remotely likable nor are the other cardboard cutout or cgi characters in those movies.

 yep.

its one thing to say characters cannot be one way or another - but the characters in the PT have no depth and are not remotely compelling (except maybe palpatine).

Forget being a hero - Anakin is supposedly this great once in a lifeltime talent - but only because other characters keep saying so, not because of anything we see (in TPM, we see that he's handy but nothing that shows he has special powers except for that silly scene with Mace Windu testing him).

Watch a couple of the x-men movies or Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind and then compare it to the PT.

thenihilest said:

I've always had a problem with Leia's line about getting that "walking carpet" out of her way.

......

That line will be removed in my fan edit, when I get around to it...late planning stages right now.

 :'(