The ANH:SE Redux Ideas thread (Radical Ideas Welcome). — Page 16

They did exactly that when they reused the same console sections on The Executor in ESB.

You got any other suggestions that I could have a try at doing? I can't wait to get some decent time off work to really put in some hours. I should be getting my hands on a copy of the broadcast tapes directly from Sky soon, which is just going to make me desperate to get going.

One thing that could do with a visual clarification is what stuctures are the big sit-down guns firing from.

Nothing that we see (or at least that I can remember) fit those really nice live action shots in terms of the outer architecture (those guns seem more in keeping with a large capital ship like the ones in ROTS.

We see the automated gun turrets and we see a lot of laser fire but not where it's coming from.

We also know that the stuctures holding those guns are vulnerable to fighter fire as they get hit, so it would be nice to get a general idea of where they are.

Ganamae said:

Hullo,

 

I was wondering about something that perhaps could be changed, when Luke, Obi and the droids drive/float (whatever :p ) into Mos Eisley there are 4 stomtroopers just as they enter the city, 2 on each side of the street.

 

The things is that the ones you see on the right side of the street are just a copy of those on the left side, you see this as one of the troopers turns his head to look at an alien or something, on the right side the trooper dxoes the same at the exact same time, but looking at nooting.

 

They were added to the special edition, perhaps one of then can be moved, deleted or made not to turn his head?

 

I find that annoying too perhaps someone should attempt something along those lines.

Darth Venal said:

Sure, that wouldn't be hard to do. Funny that it sort of annoys me when the prequels make something from the OT look better. It makes me want to make the OT look slicker than they do, when for 20 years I never cared about these little things.

And as much as I like to see more believable console displays etc, they just don't feel like they're in the right movie.

You know, watching Star Wars again today I decided there is one change that I just have to make. This is purely personal taste, and there is no need for it to be done, but I have always hated the red walls in the Death Star control room where they go after sneaking off the Falcon. I will try to turn them grey or black. I hate that red. :-)

 

As always please forgive the crudity of this mock-up :

^ Very nice! I think I prefer that to the red now as well! Looks more 'Star Wars-ish', somehow - maybe because it looks more in-keeping with TESB?

And I also agree with the point on the cloned Storm Troopers at Mos Eisley.

ABSOLUTELY!

Those cloned troopers are just lazy, lazy work from ILM. I know the Special Editions were at times rushed, especially Empire and Jedi, but come on, they didn't even put a time delay on the repeated action.

Well, they don't call them clone troopers for nothing :-)

And, Bingowings, that is exactly what I was thinking of. It's so much better without that red!

:-)

Well, it's not a mountain line, rather just a ridge on top of which Tosche Station sits.

The problem with it being crisp is that we're all so used to incredibly inferior image quality. I have considered "dirtying up" the CG work I do, which actually was an industry norm for some years in order to blend it in with non-CG shots so that the different film stocks don't clash as much, but as I'll hopefully one day have lovely full HD versions of these movies to work with, I'll leave them clean. I might actually add a distant mountain line to distinguish and give it more depth levels.

You will drive me crazy? :)

I will not go vacations again haha,

Not entirely sure what you mean by this...

Well, thank you, that's very generous of you to say. I will put up more matte paintings as I get them in some sort of near-finished state.

We just mentioned that up the page, and yes, it's terribly lazy work on the part of the FX guys. If the shot were a static camera position it would be very easy to fix indeed, might take a little longer seeing as there is a slow zoom. But yes, I'd try to fix that shot as a priority.

One thing I'd like to see looked at is the amount of wobble in Vader's moves (especially when strangling the Rebel guy).

I'm not saying that being Vader is a wobble free life style but it does distract from the general might of the guy to have him seem to strain like that.

I imagine the armour in ESB was a bit lighter because Dave seemed to have a real problem getting around first time around.

Back to the red, the Empire really did go to town on that room :

Loving that black! Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the red part of the light spectrum per se, I just think that room looks awful. Even when I was a kid I never liked it.

"wobble free life style"

I don't know about Vader, but I think my own days of wobbling free are long gone. :-)

I can live with the odd hard-to-remove reflection, as the benefits are bigger.

That is the big problem (especially if someone was going to try this in HD) most of the characters and most of the surfaces are very reflective and there is a big splash of red which bounces everywhere.

It's not something that can be altered by a batch process and each frame would need a lot of work done to it and it would take an age to do (though some frames are easier to do than others).

But I think it would be worth it if someone had the patience.

Well, that wouldn't be a problem for me, I have to work frame by frame for my job, so it's fine.

Having re-watched ANH:R lately, I found myself compiling my own definitive list of further revisions. What with Ady's version already being so encompassing with regards to its fixing of technical errors and its modernising of special effects, some of my suggestions may seem VERY nitpicky/obsessive, but I'll vent them regardless!


~ ~ ~


Firstly, I agree with the general suggestions previously voiced by other members in respect to the actual editing of ANH:R:

- During Obi Wan and Vader's duel aboard the death star, make Obi Wan activate his lightsabre second. Have Vader's sabre already lit, as in the original version, and have Obi Wan light his only after the first shot of Vader standing with his ignited sabre.

- Restore the shot of Tarkin just before the Death Star explodes. This could potentially be inserted just after the shot of the laser shooting down the internal channel with the two Imperial officers to screen left, and just before the outside shot of the laser charging in the outer dish/indent. This way, the Death-Star-Exploding-While-Charging sequence could be retained.

- Restore 3PO's reaction shot to R2 being blasted during the trench run.

- Restore the spinning star field when the Falcon makes the jump to light-speed after the Imperial pursuit at Tatooine.

- Restore the Special Edition canyon matte, which opens the 'R2-and-the-Jawas' sequence.


~ ~ ~


The following suggestions are perhaps more superficial, relating to the visual effects of the movie:

- In the film's opening, improve the blast flashes as the Star Destroyer shoots at the Tantive IV. By this, I mean the avoidance of the blinding white flashes that fill the whole screen (as this effect does not happen anywhere else in the saga, when we have an external view of ships firing on each other), and also 'round-out'/tart up the yellowish/golden flashes that appear on the ships' bodies when a laser bolt makes contact.

- Similarily, apply the previous suggestion to the Falcon chase at Tatooine, when the Star Destroyer fires on the vessel before it makes the jump to lightspeed.

- What with the computer displays being improved on the Falcon, the Death Star, and the Rebel Briefing Room, it always felt inconsistent and out-of-place that the computer displays were not also updated in the X-Wing cockpits and also in the Rebel War Room. I would suggest overhauling the X-Wing targeting computer, perhaps to bear some resemblance to the Revisited Death Star Schematics we saw in the briefing room, as well as adding text and holographic images to the large glass screens scattered throughout the Rebel War Room which the Rebel technicians even seem to be 'writing' or 'tracing' on with laser pens, yet which leave no marks. Additionally, colouring the 'black-and-white' screens in the Rebel Command Centre as well as aboard the X-Wings, and generally tarting all these areas up a bit, would make the HUDs sit better with the rest of the updated displays featured. To a lesser extent, I'd also update the consoles in the Imperial Control Room on the Death Star where 3PO and R2 hide out - the multi-coloured round lights at the top of the panel always felt a bit cheesy; perhaps even deleting them and just colouring in the white lights on the rest of the panel (such as the ones between Han and Obi Wan, in the image posted by Bingowings in Post 380 of this thread; some posts above this one, the first of his 'recolouring the red stripe' mock ups) would be nicer on the eyes? And again, wouldn't mind seeing some updated computer displays.

I understand that the rationale behind not updating the Rebel displays was to enforce the technological inferiority of the Rebel Alliance compared to the Empire. However, in a Galaxy where holographic displays are run-of-the-mill (even the Falcon has at least one - the chess table - and small droids such as R2 carry an array of high technological devices), it always pulled me out of the edit to see 70s computer displays and designs remain in things as important as Rebel war crafts and war rooms, with lesser locations and objects sporting better technology. Furthermore, the Rebel Alliance is a significant group, with high connections (the government of Alderaan, for one) and a growing support base - they are 'more well equipped than you realise'; there is no suggestion in the films that the Rebels' equipment is ALL that inferior to the Empire's.

- When R2 and 3PO split up, after landing on Tatooine, during 3PO's solo escapade (where he runs into the Jawa Sandcrawler) there is an odd, green discolouration which flashes on the screen, towards bottom-screen-left; can this be fixed or improved on at all?

- ANH is the only segment of the 6 part saga which features a 'fade-to-black' and a 'dissolve', instead of continuous 'wipes'. These happen when 3PO and R2 are first acquired by the Skywalkers (just before 3PO's oil bath) and just before the Millenium Falcon reveal. Is it at all possible to replace these fades/dissolves with wipes? I was thinking that, as 3PO and R2 walk on for a good few seconds before the fade-to-black happens, a screen wipe to the next scene could somehow be edited in. But is this technically possible? And if it were so, I'd suggest a downward fade from the top of the screen to the bottom, as a centred close-up of 3PO descending on a platform opens the next scene. Also, with the Falcon reveal, I'd suggest a side-ways fade from the left of the screen to the right, as the initial focus in the next scene is the gang walking down the stairs behind Chewie, with the camera panning rightwards to finally reveal the Facon. So a sideways-to-the-right wipe might flow well in that transition.

- Agree fully with Darth Venal's brilliant efforts on restoring Ben's original hut scene and using that in place of the Special Edition painting of Kenobi's home. On that front, I was wondering if a chimney (as seen on the Special Edition hut) might bring some more interest to that shot? I was really liked that feature :). If it were to be incorporated, maybe have the smoke blowing to the right of the screen, for balance?

- I'm sure this has been voiced before - while I enjoy the improved Dewbacks, the extended 'Imperials-Find-the-Escape-Pod' scene really stands out like a sore-thumb, due to the obviousness of the CGI used there. Would it be feasible to go back to the original edit of that shot, but keep the improved CG Dewbacks which are off in the distance? Due to the far off-ness of the Dewbacks, and hence the lack of detail on them, they are much more believable than either the CG Dewbacks which feature in the extended shot, or the non-CG Dewbacks which were present in the OOT.

- Ady did a great job of fixing the jump cut at Ben's hut, when Luke ignites his sabre. I've always wondered though, if it could be made even less noticeable by adding the golden-light-blast at the hilt of the sabre which accompanies its activation, as seen sometimes in the prequels (the sabre has been out of use for a while, after all, which could justify this light-flash as it's turned on)? This could distract the eye, and may even completely cover the jerkiness here (particularly on Ben's part).

- In the second new shot of the Mos Eisley reveal (with the worker droid lifting objects; before Revisited, the Special Edition had a flying droid mocking this worker droid), something always bothered me about the gang whizzing in on the speeder - like the extended Dewback scene, it just seemed too overtly fake looking somehow. But the scenery was fine - the main problem I had, was with 3PO. His colouring seems off - he seems to be a thick yellow, and not a shiny metallic gold. Could he be recoloured here to be more in keeping with his 'goldiness' which is clearly featured in the Mos Eisley shots immediately before and after this scene?

- My favourite part of the edit was the Cantina, and how the locals really seemed to come alive. I would suggest going even further here though - particularly with regards to the 'band' aliens, which I felt could also use some eye-blinks and other slight facial movements to really 'sell' them as living creatures, and get away from the plastic look I feel they currently have.

- Aboard the Falcon, during Luke's sabre training, again a great job was done on Luke's sabre rotoscoping. But can it be improved upon, particularly in the shot after Han says 'Well, you can forget your trouble...' and also in the shot where Luke successfully deflects the laser bolts with the blast shield down? The sabre appears extremely 'jaggy' in these shots.

- Update some of the outdated set designs, ala Vaderios' mockups (for example, matching Luke's garage to the Episode II version, the 'Leia-Sections' in the Tantive IV, the Imperial control room on the Death Star where 3PO and R2 hide out - making the red stripe on the consoles black - the Rebel Hangar, the interior of the Sand Crawler (maybe?), the Death Star (which has a tendency to become a bit too monochrome in places; Vaderios did a mock up of Tarkin's control room (see page 1 of this thread), where he destroys Alderaan, which was along the same lines as the recently posted Tantive IV mockup - I also thought that some of the 'chasms' (e.g. where Luke, Han and Chewie get in the lift/elevator to take them to the prison cells, where Obi Wan deactivates the Tractor Beam, and where Luke and Leia outrun the Imperials) could have their vertical white lights recoloured to add some more flavour (yellow for one and red for another, perhaps?); Obi Wan's Tractor Beam chasm has green coloured lights on its walls, but all the others have white. And yet as the three chasms are in different sections of the Death Star (presumably), as well as being aesthetically pleasing, the recoloured lights could also serve the purpose of being 'area codes' of sorts).

- The Yavin approach felt a bit protracted. Could this not be edited in such a way that it flows better, and passes faster? A thought I had was, after the shot of the Falcon emerging from hyperspace, cut straight to the shot of the Falcon passing UNDER the red planet, and lose the shot of the ship flying TOWARDS the red planet.

- Second favourite part of the edit was the revamped Battle of Yavin. Only minor niggles remain (due to my lack of screenshots, I've resorted to using the time in the movie which correlates with the suggestion I'm making):

1.) I preferred the non-CG shot of the Tie Approach (found it more visually consistent with the rest of ANH, and the original trilogy in general).

2.) Consider the shot at 1:42:57  Should a red engine core, or the haze/glow of the engine core, not be present in these shots?

3.) At 1:41:31 into the film, can the wobbly motion of the X-Wing fighters (particularly the one to screen right) be smoothed out here? There is an earlier shot (at 1:40:50) which is very similar and a lot smoother; could the elements of this smoother shot not be recycled somehow?

4.) At 1:48:47, the X-Wing fighter which speeds straight towards the screen's motion is also erratic/wobbly; can this be ironed out?

5.) At 1:52:54, can the engine glow of the X-Wing fighter be improved here? It looks inconsistent to the rear close-up shots of X-Wings which we saw prior to this one.

6.) At 1:53:57, the motion of Vader's Fighter as it approached the screen is again shaky.

7.) A continuity error was mentioned, which was along the lines of every new CG X-Wing having the Red 5 markings (?) - would be good to see another continuity error safely seen off.

- I also (controversially, I think!) really liked the Special Edition explosion of the Death Star - felt much bigger than previously. And I just didn't think the Revisited explosion felt 'big' enough, so I wouldn't mind a reversion to the Special Edition here (or if an even more updated explosion were used). And (controversially again!) I even didn't have a problem with the Special Edition Alderaan explosion - felt in keeping with the other effects of the saga, which I don't feel the Revisited Alderaan explosion does. So again, I wouldn't mind using the Special Edition effect here.


~ ~ ~


*WHEW* - apologies; that was a bit of a thesis! But that'd be my p-e-r-f-e-c-t version of ANH :D I know, I know - I 'want the impossible'. But had to get it out there!

Is there a suggestions-list being kept on a potential revamp of ANH:R? Like the one on Ady's first page of his ESB:R thread? Might be an idea to help out future editors.

- topdawg193

Is it just me but are Threepio's eyes less bright in ANH?

I know they aren't going to show up as much in a bright room or landscape but they seem to be less bright generally than in any of the other films.

Topdawg192, that's a pretty comprehensive list of further changes to make. Have you thought of doing some of it yourself? Some of those things you've suggested would take a long time to do, and Ady is clearly focusing on his Empire edit. I doubt very much he wants to devote the amount of time required to make more changes like that. Maybe he will, but I doubt it.

And seriously, some of your ideas are ridiculous: revamp Luke's garage to make it like Attack of the Clones? Why would you want to do that? This place is supposed to be run down, grimey. It's a garage. And it was all a real set. Half of the AOTC garage is CGI - all the backgrounds beyond the main room where Anakin and Padme talk are fake, including the room Anakin throws something into. And replacing a static background to improve the set is one thing, but changing a set when the camera is moving is entirely different and virtually impossible to pull off with footage that wasn't shot for such purposes.