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The ‘Custom Special Edition’ That Almost Wasn’t, But Then Was (Released) — Page 31

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Hal 9000 said:

Master Lawdog said:

Are you planning on keeping the despecialized version of this shot, Hal?

Can’t see the image. What shot are you talking about?

The one of the Cantina where they added the Jawas falling off the Ronto in the Special Edition, except use the version from the OOT.

The name’s Lawson. Noah Lawson.

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Hal 9000 said:

that shockwave (first Death Star) actually feels like it adds something to me.

Well the 97 Version added something but the later versions look like a washed out piece of crap. all of the color vanishes and it just is all white surrounded by blue screen spill.

What do you reckon for this concept?

https://www.mediafire.com/view/ny3ar1296v1rly7/Massasi_Temple%25282%2529.png/file

I think it’s a tough call to really know if the Special edition is truly any good really.

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The Lowry master’s version of the Death Star explosion is bad. But the 19SE isn’t, and it has the fiery colors back.

And I’m open to whatever material for Mos Eisley may exist. I PM’d Dat_SW_Guy to see what he had made. I think he was even going to try to use that shot but with the SE background of the buildings. That’d be cool.

It’s not possible to cobble together something totally seamless between the original and SE versions of these movies, but I’m shooting for as close as I can get. When I was first introduced to Star Wars through renting them from Blockbuster in the late nineties, the original and SE versions were both available and I experienced both. The personal motivation for this project is to get at the ideal compromise that I have a pseudo-memory of from back then. What feels right while maintaining continuity. Can’t be totally realized without a team of VFX wizards, but can get close enough in a way that’s at least preferable to the SE as it is.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Hal 9000 said:

The Lowry master’s version of the Death Star explosion is bad. But the 19SE isn’t, and it has the fiery colors back.

And I’m open to whatever material for Mos Eisley may exist. I PM’d Dat_SW_Guy to see what he had made. I think he was even going to try to use that shot but with the SE background of the buildings. That’d be cool.

It’s not possible to cobble together something totally seamless between the original and SE versions of these movies, but I’m shooting for as close as I can get. When I was first introduced to Star Wars through renting them from Blockbuster in the late nineties, the original and SE versions were both available and I experienced both. The personal motivation for this project is to get at the ideal compromise that I have a pseudo-memory of from back then. What feels right while maintaining continuity. Can’t be totally realized without a team of VFX wizards, but can get close enough in a way that’s at least preferable to the SE as it is.

I don’t know about that statement to be honest HAL9000 about not being able to cobble together a perfect blend both SE and Original versions but yeah I get the whole thing about “a team of visual effects Artists” which is also the failure point too I think. Although I am no VFX artist or even a good artist I am having reasonable success in making some good visual changes but for the right reasons I think. But I think the key to my strategy is trying to have a reasonably light touch and using matte replacements rather than too much funky CGI. I don’t mind some shots in the Special Edition at all but then others just get totally extraneous. I have singled out some CGI extra shots but they are few little snap shots tbh.

I think you can look at the Yavin takeoff and say well Make it a big Matte shot like it was supposed to be and replace the tracking dot’s if you can or just make them pinkish like engine glow, or accept the totally different interpretation of the scene which is nothing like a film in 1977. It’s a tough call… It is indeed difficult but also simple in a way too.

Having just looked more closely at the Special edition version the light is coming from both sides from the right on the guy in the basket like the original and the highlights on the ships from the left so it’s kind if messed up anyway. Special edition ships being flipped and roto in would fix that problem. But it’s way past my abilities to do that.

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Probably not, because in order to use it the sequence cannot be any longer than the OOT version. I recall trying to make it work but it’s too short. Some rendition of ‘Dianoga’ is needed if you’re using any of it. Which I will, at the very least for the initial shot of the landspeeder.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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V5 of ESB is now available in the usual places. I am very pleased with how it turned out, very much thanks to DrDre’s color matching tool. If I do say so myself, it’s the best I’ve seen this movie look. It now feels truly complete, this project as far as ESB is concerned.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Hal 9000 said:

V5 of ESB is now available in the usual places. I am very pleased with how it turned out, very much thanks to DrDre’s color matching tool. If I do say so myself, it’s the best I’ve seen this movie look. It now feels truly complete, this project as far as ESB is concerned.

Seen this this morning and checked it out straight away and will second Hal’s comment it really is the best it’s looked and it’s nice to have a ESB that does for me personally feel complete.

Thank you once again Hal, looking forward to ANH and ROTJ😁

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No mention was made of audio changes, but were there any audio changes in V5 of your ESB edit?

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Other then some scenes on Hoth being slightly green, the color grading is excellent. I’m especially glad the overwhelming aqua hue is gone. Dagobah and Cloud City look stellar.

My Star Wars Fan-Edits

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Yeah, if the aqua tint wasn’t there so strong I probably wouldn’t have felt the need to do this. It’s beyond me to remove it completely, but it’s at a pretty good happy medium between OhTeeDee and Adywan(‘s 1997 Reconstruction).

My stance on revising fan edits.

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ROTJ has been updated and is available now in the usual places. DrDre’s color matching tool has allowed me to make the Lapti Nek, Death Star II explosion, and ‘Yub Nub’ scenes closer to blending in seamlessly. I remain open to revising it down the road if superior source material becomes available. If Adywan presents a color-corrected ROTJ I’d be glad to update this with it.

ANH will come in time. I await TMWNN’s forthcoming project to fix up the 19SE and color correct it to be close to Adywan’s work on the 2011 BluRay. I plan to publish an update before then, with only minimal color tweaks from the OTD-19SE primary source, and redo it whenever that is ready. I’ll post updates here as I go, as there may be a few things yet that I could use some help with.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Hal 9000 said:

ROTJ has been updated and is available now in the usual places. DrDre’s color matching tool has allowed me to make the Lapti Nek, Death Star II explosion, and ‘Yub Nub’ scenes closer to blending in seamlessly. I remain open to revising it down the road if superior source material becomes available. If Adywan presents a color-corrected ROTJ I’d be glad to update this with it.

ANH will come in time. I await TMWNN’s forthcoming project to fix up the 19SE and color correct it to be close to Adywan’s work on the 2011 BluRay. I plan to publish an update before then, with only minimal color tweaks from the OTD-19SE primary source, and redo it whenever that is ready. I’ll post updates here as I go, as there may be a few things yet that I could use some help with.

what else do you needs help with?

-TGWNN

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Well, here’s my wish list. This includes things that probably are outside the realm of feasibility. It also includes a few things that are available via TMWNN’s v1 of his Devastator edition.

  • Mos Eisley entrance - as much as possible to work with. The SE shot with the mirrored troopers sans extra pair of troopers, rat, or robot. The shot with the Jawa swinging from the Ronto, with those removed to be the original shot with the SE background. (I like how my cut has this sequence but it could be better.)
  • The SE scene where Luke reunites with Biggs has R2 jump upward where they removed some lines. Since it’s a SE inclusion it’s a prime target for improvement. Adywan has done this already, so when it’s released in HD I may cull this from that.
  • Make R2’s blinking red/blue light work, as the original prop was broken. Adywan has done this but his will be the 2011 source. TMWNN has done a lot of this, but not the trickier shots where there’s a lot of motion.
  • Removing Yavin IV from the first shot of the Battle of Yavin. Adywan has done this also, so perhaps when Revisited appears in HD.
  • That one weird shot where Vader has been brightened in the Death Star hallway. I believe Dat_SW_Guy has done this.
  • The Falcon needs its radar dish in its first appearance.
  • The crap Alderaan image out the Death Star window, as fixed way back by Darth Editous.
  • TMWNN’s version of the droids outside the cantina spotting troopers, removing the foreground CG dewback but leaving the background one.
  • Remove extra vaporators in a SE wide shot of the sandcrawler parked outside the homestead that disappear later (or add them to that shot).
  • Use TMWNN’s or Dat_SW_Guy’s Alderaan explosion to avoid the added shockwave I don’t like.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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I don’t know if this is something on my end, but my video players are behaving strange when playing Return of the Jedi.

The name’s Lawson. Noah Lawson.

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Hal 9000 said:

How so?

I can’t seem to skip around in the video timeline as fluidly as I usually can. This is something that happens when I use my standard player and VLC.

The name’s Lawson. Noah Lawson.

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That being said, I have to say that the color correction for these new versions look splendid!

The name’s Lawson. Noah Lawson.

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 (Edited)

Hal 9000 said:

  • Make R2’s blinking red/blue light work, as the original prop was broken. Adywan has done this but his will be the 2011 source. TMWNN has done a lot of this, but not the trickier shots where there’s a lot of motion.

For v2 and your edit all of the blinking lights will be completed.

-TGWNN

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Do you think you might make a ‘smaller 1080p’ version of ANH Custom SE?

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Here’s something quick I threw together. Here is how the original Mos Eisley music can be edited for the trimmed Special Edition intro.

https://streamable.com/r5f4cd

The name’s Lawson. Noah Lawson.