My gosh, I'm SO SORRY to hear that. I know right now you feel like giving up and throwing in the towel. I can't say I wouldn't in your place. However, I'd also walk away for 24 to 48 hours and simmer and try and put some distance between me and the frustration. Right now I know you're caught up in the stress of it all. A year or more of work that MIGHT be gone, but then again, it MIGHT NOT. I firmly believe right now, as careful as you were with backups and your equipment, the majority of this WILL BE RECOVERED. Just take some time to breathe and be calm, at peace...passive.
Let's say worst case scenario, it isn't recovered. Then what? I'm not you. I don't know how you react or how you process thought and emotion. I can only tell you what I see and what I think the larger community is seeing. Adywan, you have accomplished so much more than anyone thought possible outside of a miracle with this edit. You have brought Special Edition haters and Prequel fans together and you have given EVERYONE who loves Star Wars the first real glimmer of a finished work.
For more than a decade, I was searching for the ultimate Indiana Jones hat from Raiders of the Lost Ark. It took another fan such as youself, Steve Delk, to finally make what the original hat maker could not. He slaved and slaved and made the best Indiana Jones hat since Harrison Ford ran from that boulder and he had SO MANY setbacks, frustrations and moments of panic. Now, every Indiana Jones fan is in his debt.
I already feel I am in your debt. You got me interested in Star Wars again, something that was my only passion for 20 years before the prequels squelched it. I freely admit, I would hate to see this all lost, all of your amazing work gone forever. But really, it's only gone if you take your talents elsewhere. People beyond this forum are raving about this edit. I have people at work who have never been here who already told me they now feel shortchanged by the official DVD and ache to see your version. Then there are those across the Internet, all waiting with anticipation for November. You have done the impossible. Not only in bringing this almost-29-year-old fan back from mothballs, but galvanizing the Star Wars community in a way that hasn't been done since the 20th anniversary and the anticipation of the not-so-special editions.
Adywan, your work does not deserve to be a piecemeal series of fragments incorporated into another edit. Your work has always had a supreme vision. Fight for it. I'll do everything I can alongside you to resurrect this edit. Yes, it's that important to me and I believe many others here feel the same. With all of your experience and reflexive knowledge now, I believe anything you may end up losing you will be able to bring back faster and possibly better (to your eye, because to mine it was already perfect) than before.
Whatever I can do to make this edit a reality, no matter how many setbacks, no matter how long it takes, I said I was willing to do. I stand by that statement. I lived in the UK for almost five years - If it gets so extreme that you need simply an extra set of hands to burn DVDs or write labels on them with a marker - give me a month's notice and I'll grab a flight. If you're $50 short for a needed component, say the word. Your work has proven your worth.
I only hope the rest of this board realizes what I instantly saw a few weeks ago. Star Wars Revisited is not simply Adywan's to lose, everyone. It's everyone's to lose. We have one chance to make this happen. Let's not waste it.
Adywan. I stand behind any decision you make. Call your play and I'll back it.
With the utmost respect,
nohandluke