If you could interview George Lucas, what would you say?

If I had an interview with George, I'd avoid Star Wars all together, and try to see what I could get out of him regarding his artsy films and why he has never gotten around to them.

I would thank George for giving me Star wars and entertaining me all my life.

AxiaEuxine said:

I would thank George for giving me Star wars and entertaining me all my life.

I would have to agree. However, I would mention the numerous edits to his films, and ask why the 04 DVDs are so changed, and if there will ever be a restoration of the OT and THX-1138 (original version) And if we could get another theatrical rerelease!

Janskeet said:

After getting all the common courtesy mumbo jumbo out of the way, I would ask him why did he allowed the '04 DVD set out without quality control. I would ask him if he even watched the master copy before they were printed. I will also ask him if he even rewatched the OT before making the prequels. I would ask him, why did he cast Hayden as Anakin and why did he just paste his head on top of Sebastian Shaw in ROTJ, and so on...

 bullseye. those are questions that SHOULD HAVE BEEN ASKED BACK IN 2004.

I would also ask him about his hypocritical "National Heratage" statement in regards to cvolorizing black and white films.

I would also ask him,

"are you aware that if you pulled stuff like this if you were someone else's employee, not only would you have been fired long ago, but you also would likely be barred from ever doing this kind of work again?"

and,

"how do you think Sebastian Shaw's family feels about one of his most famous rolls being replaced with bad , evil looking stock footage of someone who was only two years old when the movie came out?"

]

I'd be tempted to say something like:

'The restoration of "2001 a Space Odyssey" was awesome -- will we ever get to see the original Star Wars again?'

That is an interesting comment Puggo because the longer premiere cut of 2001 is lost.  And will never be seen again.  Luckily they found the premiere cut of Metropolis but it was a low quality print that was not 35mm.

The premiere 70mm showcase version of star wars 1977 with the 6 track dolby will never be seen or heard of again.  Which is an utter travesty and crime against the preservation of classic science fiction and fantasy films.

The best way i have currently to watch star wars is the DC laserdiscs.  They are nice and all but i would prefer a restored theatrical print and dvd/blu ray release.  The gout is an absolute joke.  i know it looks sharper than the laserdisc but it also looks worse because of the sharpening and sounds worse because of the low bitrate 2.0 dolby which could easily pass muster as a bad mp3 rip.

I put on the laserdisc just last night and was astounded by the sonic difference in the audio.  The Stereoization is more defined there is more depth to the sound and the lows are lows and the highs are highs.  The Soundtrack is loud in all the right places and quiet when it needs to let Williams music soar on through.

That is easy 1979 or 1980 based on conjecture.  Without solid evidence of course.  The First star wars treatment was no earlier than 1973 and the rough draft script in 1974.  I also don't believe He would have had that in mind in 1975-1976 and the idea could really not have struck him until the devlopment of the empire strikes back, Started in 1978. 

Leia being the sister could not have been in his head in 1977-1980,I don't think. To about sometime around 1982, possibly 1983.

The Journal of the Whills document is about Mace Windy, and talks about someone called CJ Thorpe.  The Sibling twins thing did not happen to the draft where Luke has a brother.  At one point Luke was a girl.  Perhaps the character was cut in 2 and divided into seperate characters, The girl Luke must be the first seed of the genesis of Princess Leia.

"If you could interview George Lucas, what would you say?"

ask about when he is going to make a second star wars holiday special or howard the duck.

Ask him to make a Jar Jar movie trilogy. When is Indiana Jones V: The  search for more money going to come out?

Ask him to make a series of 5 more movies with triple the explosions and cgi and starring Hayden Vader.

I'm being sarcastic of course.

skyjedi2005 said:

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The gout is an absolute joke.  i know it looks sharper than the laserdisc but it also looks worse because of the sharpening and sounds worse because of the low bitrate 2.0 dolby which could easily pass muster as a bad mp3 rip.

I put on the laserdisc just last night and was astounded by the sonic difference in the audio.  The Stereoization is more defined there is more depth to the sound and the lows are lows and the highs are highs.  The Soundtrack is loud in all the right places and quiet when it needs to let Williams music soar on through.

If you turn dynamic range compression off in your Dolby Digital decoder then you might notice an improvement in the AC3 on the GOUT.

I can do that in my dvd player from the main menu and like you said it makes a noticeable difference, but not on my computer.

I have nero showtime and i'm not sure if i can turn off drc on the features won't hurt to try though.  What DVD player suites/software do you recommend?

Did they do any kind of changes like sweetening of the audio for the dvd?

I remember there was a big question if they did some, and if they applied a sharpening algorithm to the image or if the grain was just reduced or softened do to the limits of laserdisc.

The problem with the Gout is not the grain but a lack of consistency of grain levels from shot to shot.  As in the composite opticals done in the optical printer added 2 or 3 more generation to the picture and compounded the grain problem so they applied DVNR to correct some of this on the masters because at the time they did not have access to the o-neg. 

They could have done that after the negative was restored and before the special editions changes but now its too late they permanently altered it by cutting it up and splicing in the new footage.

Supposedly even the interpositives/internegatives where in poor shape as were surviving film prints.

They never did disclose info on the YCM seperation masters though, and i don't doubt these were used by YCM laboratories in the restoration where necessary as well as parts of the o-neg and IP.