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DVD WRITING CAMPAIGN - WEEK TWO - "Sound & Vision" Magazine

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This is week 2 of our DVD writing campaign, and this week we're concentrating on Sound and Vision magazine. For more info about what the content of your letter should be, visit the week 1 thread here.

There are a couple of ways we could go about this- we could just send our emails to the magazine's editorial email address, or we can send them with "attention" to one of the S&V editors in particular. I recommend David Ranada, because I think he's their resident Star Wars nut, so if you choose to send your email to Mr. Ranada, make sure you include "attention: David Ranada" in the subject line (or on the envelope). If you don't want to direct the email to David, then just send it to "Editor".

Also - PLEASE REMEMBER TO INCLUDE YOUR NAME, ADDRESS AND TELEPHONE NUMBER in your letter or email. They need that info for verification, and if they print your letter, they will only include your name and town.

For reference, their website is:
http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/

Here's the contact info:

soundandvision@hfmus.com

Sound and Vision
1633 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
USA
Attention: (Editor, -or- David Ranada)

Again, thanks for your help everyone!

EDIT: For those of you who would like to reference a past S&V article in their letter, darkhelmet has gone to the trouble of compiling some links to past star wars-related articles:

Lucas interview by Carrie Fisher

John Lowry: Restorer of the Star Wars movies for the 2004 DVD release

SW: ESB Director Irvin Kershner Interview

Please keep in mind: This writing campaign is NOT about changing the September DVD releases but is about blasting Lucasfilm in the public arena for its shoddy, sub-standard presentation of the watershed original epic.

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Sent two emails, one to David Ranada's attention and one to Sound & Vision Magazine itself.

Everyone who is upset with the September DVD release: Please, help us expose it as the substandard release it is. Giving our money to Lucasfilm for an inferior product isn't the only way for us to show them that there is demand for the OUT on DVD!
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Remember, this is our penultimate writing campaign before the release of these DVDs, and the press coverage that will accompany the release.

So, if we're going to make a stink about these DVDs, PLEASE put some of your typing skills towards composing a brief email, folks (and please don't hesitate to paste it here when you've sent it).

Thanks again, everybody!

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We need to keep this up, even after the release of the DVDs, to get the important information about how the original versions of these importat films are being treated into the public eye.

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

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I just hope these DVDs sell well, so that GL gets the answer he's looking for (or NOT looking for, rather).

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Hello, all possible watching eyes. If you are active in this writing campaign but have simply not posted to the thread, please, sound off here with a small post to let us know that there is, at least, some support.

Just trying to show Lucas and the public that there is demand for the OUT on DVD even if the upcoming, sub-standard DVD release doesn't sell well. Thanks.
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Hello? <echo: hello, hello, hellooo> Anybody?
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Inspired by Darkhelmet, I sent the following to both Editor and Ranada.
Let's go for it!

__________________

Star Wars is a part of my childhood and, thus, my life. I am one of those who have been wishing for a long time that G. Lucas would re-issue the "original", non-remastered versions of the first trilogy, and was thrilled when I heard about the news he would finally do it.

Then came the news that these original versions, to be released this month:
1. would be available only as bonus material of yet another re-issue of the Special (remastered) Edition ("SE"), a fact which in itself wouldn't have been that big a problem, as long as the movies were finally available again;
2. the masters used for transfer would be the old laserdisc editions, Lucasfilm justifying this by not having copies of the originals at their disposal AND that they had no plans or budget for restauring them anyway (the non-existence of original copies is a plain lie, many great film institutes preserving prints of the original unaltered trilogy, i.e. The British Film Institute);
3. the movies, unbelievably, will be released in *non-anamorphic* format.

Although the mere existence of these sub-par issues of the original trilogy is proof enough that there are more people asking for it than Lucas could ignore, the three facts named above constitute objective reasons for frustration, even for someone who doesn't like the Star Wars movies.
Because these films are part of movie history. They changed the way movies were being made and produced.
They were a quantum leap forward as well in terms of technology as of marketing, among the most successful movies of all time.
It shouldn't even be a subject to discuss that they should be available to the public *as people saw them at the time they were released*.
G. Lucas and Lucasfilms invoque "artistic vision & freedom" to justify the alteration of the original movies (the S.E.) and the absence of any effort on their part to make the original movies available as well, which is quite a disappointing and ironic attitude:
Lucas has been continually setting new quality standards over the years (creating namely the THX quality standard) - for which everyone can only be immensly grateful and full of admiration. So, how can he expect to be taken seriously when releasing the original trilogy in a way that can be described as sloppy at best? Nobody's even been asking for a *restauration* of the original movies - just a decent transfer to DVD!
Lucasfilm don't even assume full responsability for this poor-quality release: the so-called "bonus-feature" status disappears as the issue is being marketed with the Original Trilogy Discs as the main feature of the package!

Whatever the commercial motivations may be to make available to the public only the new "S.E." and/or to discourage people from asking for the films as they were first seen, this is no way to handle such a tremedously significative legacy.

I sincerely hope you consider this is something worth to be adressed and discussed.

Thank you very much for your attention,

_________________________

Let's hope we find sensible ears...
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Yes, thanks a lot, fedtho!

It'll be interesting to see if S&V makes anything out of this.
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Thought you guys would like to see this:

Home Cinema Choice, Issue 134 (October 2006)

This issue's Star Letter:

Letter from: Graham Parker, Cirencester UK
Having read Anton van Beek's bi-monthly rant about Star Wars in HCC #132's DVD Collector, I find myself agreeing with him. I've also been suckered into buying a box set in the last two years that's about to be replaced. As a Star Wars fan, the prospect of owning transfers of the original, untouched trilogy is almost too good to resist but, as unbelievable as it may be to my wife and children, I'm not going to line George Lucas' pockets any further. Not only am I annoyed that the set's discs are being released individually with the original theatrical versions added, I'm also at a loss as to why the movies haven't been 'cleaned up' or rendered anamorphic.
I'm not even convinced that Lucas won't re-re-release the un-tampered original trilogy over the next few years. I already have them on VHS (first release and Special Edition) and DVD and that'll do for now. It's probably better to wait until they clean up the original trilogy for the Blu-ray or HD DVD releases anyway. In the meantime, I'm more than happy to make do with LEGO Star Wars II on the Xbox 360, at least that's been produced with some tender loving care.

Reply from: Anton van Beek, HCC
Well said, Mr Parker. This latest release now makes it three times in three years that Lucas has trotted out the Star Wars cash-cow on DVD, safe in the knowledge that there is a fan base out there happy to keep shelling out for essentially the same old films. Given how much has been written on the internet about how elements exist that would allow the original versions to be restored for DVD, the miserable treatment of the original theatrical prints in this new release smacks of putting the least amount of effort possible into getting people to buy the remastered editions once again.
It's hard to believe Lucas' claims that there are currently no plans for Star Wars on either HD DVD or Blu-ray and I wouldn't be surprised to hear something relating to this around the time of the first film's 30th anniversary next year.
Don't you call me a mindless philosopher...!
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Originally posted by: auraloffalwaffle
Thought you guys would like to see this:

Home Cinema Choice, Issue 134 (October 2006)

This issue's Star Letter:

Letter from: Graham Parker, Cirencester UK
Having read Anton van Beek's bi-monthly rant about Star Wars in HCC #132's DVD Collector, I find myself agreeing with him. I've also been suckered into buying a box set in the last two years that's about to be replaced. As a Star Wars fan, the prospect of owning transfers of the original, untouched trilogy is almost too good to resist but, as unbelievable as it may be to my wife and children, I'm not going to line George Lucas' pockets any further. Not only am I annoyed that the set's discs are being released individually with the original theatrical versions added, I'm also at a loss as to why the movies haven't been 'cleaned up' or rendered anamorphic.
I'm not even convinced that Lucas won't re-re-release the un-tampered original trilogy over the next few years. I already have them on VHS (first release and Special Edition) and DVD and that'll do for now. It's probably better to wait until they clean up the original trilogy for the Blu-ray or HD DVD releases anyway. In the meantime, I'm more than happy to make do with LEGO Star Wars II on the Xbox 360, at least that's been produced with some tender loving care.

Reply from: Anton van Beek, HCC
Well said, Mr Parker. This latest release now makes it three times in three years that Lucas has trotted out the Star Wars cash-cow on DVD, safe in the knowledge that there is a fan base out there happy to keep shelling out for essentially the same old films. Given how much has been written on the internet about how elements exist that would allow the original versions to be restored for DVD, the miserable treatment of the original theatrical prints in this new release smacks of putting the least amount of effort possible into getting people to buy the remastered editions once again.
It's hard to believe Lucas' claims that there are currently no plans for Star Wars on either HD DVD or Blu-ray and I wouldn't be surprised to hear something relating to this around the time of the first film's 30th anniversary next year.

Thank you!

If anyone gets a response to their letter, please post it here.

For those of you who haven't sent in a letter yet (you know who you are!) it's still not too late.

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Hey Mielr,

I saw in one of todays' new threads you bought and watched the dreaded object of our campaign here. And that you are pleasently surprised, which is kind of a relief to me.
Because I admit would have found it VERY hard NOT to buy that sloppy, non-anamorphic OOT - as I haven't had ANY occasion to re-discover the originals (not on pirated material, not on laserdisc, nothing) to this day, after seeing them at age 11(!) in 1977, etc.
AND I also haven't shelled out a dime to Lucasfilms to this day for the SE either.
So I'm not as frustrated (and I certainly understand them ) as some fans who've bought the boxed set before and are screaming now they're going to "wait for the HD DVD or Blu-Ray editions that will surely follow". (I wouldn't be quite as optimistic as they are - and if they're right we surely will have contributed to the situation !!!).

I have to check out the VHS recordings I made when swiss tv broadcasted the three first film out of the blue some years ago [ NO, believe it if you can, years ago and I have NOT checked them out... ], and I'm very much convinced that they didn't have the license to offer us the SE back then... so I might have a treasure waiting there for me...
I guess I'm going to buy that "new" edition of the "old" (meaning the REAL) movies anyway.

Keep us posted about * new targeted mailings * , and may the friggin' force be with all of us in this mad world we live in....... ........
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Thanks for your support, fedtho. We kind of decided to end the writing campaign, due to lack of interest. That doesn't mean that somebody else can't do it (please feel free!) I just kind of got discouraged by the less-than-stellar support, and decided to punk out.

I always planned to buy the DVDs, because I think it's sort of like casting a vote for the OOT. To my very pleasant surprise, the SW and ESB DVDs look quite good. I'll watch Jedi tonite.

Has it really been that long since you've seen the movies? I envy you! You should buy and enjoy the DVDs- it will be like rediscovering them.

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Awesome spotlight letter in Home Cinema Choice, AOW! Thanks for joining in.

Mielr, so are the DVDs really cool enough to consider buying? What would you say on a scale of 1 to 10?
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Originally posted by: darkhelmet

Mielr, so are the DVDs really cool enough to consider buying? What would you say on a scale of 1 to 10?


Yes, they are worth buying.

I can't really rate them on a scale of 1-10, because I have to take into consideration that I have a 20" 4:3 TV. All I can say it that they look a LOT better than the DC/Faces laserdiscs. On my little TV, they look nearly indistinguishable from the 2004 DVDs (in terms of clarity, etc.)

There are pros and cons to both- the OOT films have more grain due to all of the original FX optical printing & compositing, while the SE prints were all digitally re-composited in 1997. But, the colors of the OOT discs are more natural and truer to the original films, so no 'blue' tint.

There's more dirt on the OOT prints (especially SW), but I don't consider film grain and dirt to be flaws of the transfers, because even if GL did what we wanted and made new anamorphic transfers using the best OOT prints existing, the film grain (and probably some dirt) would still be there.

The only way to eliminate most of the grain and dirt from the OOT is for them to digitally re-composite all of the FX shots from the OOT, OR combine the un-altered SE shots with the OOT shots that were cut out/altered for the SEs, but we all know that is NEVER going to happen.

I was always relatively happy with the laserdiscs, although there was some color smearing and the skintones looked reddish, but those problems seem to be gone on the DVDs, and the DVDs are significantly sharper, clearer and more detailed.

That's the best I can do- I wouldn't tell you they looked good if I didn't think they did. If you have a larger TV, you may want to rent them first to see if they look better to you, but I honestly don't see how anyone wouldn't see at least a slight improvement over the LDs (or any of the fan edits made from the laserdiscs) and I think they're worth buying based on that alone. Also, considering the fragile nature of laserdiscs and laserdisc players (and even DVD-Rs), the fact that you don't have to change discs, and the fact that the DVDs should also look better on a progressive-scan TV, since LDs are interlaced.




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Cool, Mielr! Thanks for the in-depth explanation. It's off to the rental store for me!
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I've heard that a lot of the rental stores aren't renting them- they're just selling them.