StarWarsLegacy.com - The Official Thread — Page 28

It's not immediately obvious that Mike's restoration does actually benefit people at the present, but it does. Maybe not as much as some would like, but real tangible benefits of this project do exist.

Now if only I could get Mike to use the right apostrophe character in his avatar. That really is something we should be up in arms about.  It should look like a "9", not a "6".

You are absolutely right about the apostrophe and it has always bothered me, though it works better, graphically.  Admittedly, not bothered enough to actually fix it, but since it's been called out...

Always glad to be of service when a pedant is needed.

I do speak for myself. Read my post again. -.-

As much as I appreciate what you're doing to other restoration projects, I hate the attitude of "I'm doing something awesome, and you're never going to see what, because reasons!". It's cool you don't want to share it. No, really. But starting up whole forum dedicated to the project? You want attention, but you're not going to do anything to deserve it.

What's the purpose of showing a couple of previews in 2014, if this thing will be released in 2076?

Feallan said:

I do speak for myself. Read my post again. -.-

As much as I appreciate what you're doing to other restoration projects, I hate the attitude of "I'm doing something awesome, and you're never going to see what, because reasons!". It's cool you don't want to share it. No, really. But starting up whole forum dedicated to the project? You want attention, but you're not going to do anything to deserve it.

What's the purpose of showing a couple of previews in 2014, if this thing will be released in 2076?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wtYGZt7aI4

I've said a billion times, we have no idea what the future holds.  Who could've predicted, even a few years ago, that Lucas would cash out, sell Star Wars to Disney, and JJ Abrams would be making Star Wars movies?  It's a crazy world.

But the elements to restore Star Wars are still degrading, day-by-day, and so we'd better get to preserving them, asap, to be ready for any future opportunities, should they arise.  If I was releasing Legacy, there would be no Legacy, period.  It has the resources it has PRECISELY BECAUSE I don't release it.  So what do you want?  Find out in the future that an opportunity exists to release it, but not have it?  Or do it, do what it takes to do it right, and learn patience?  You're welcome to the forum anytime to watch the process, enjoy the process, learn from the process, do your own restoration, whatever.  But the difference between you and I in this argument is I care about Star Wars, and you care about yourself; what you're getting from the deal.  If you personally don't get to see it, you could give an f.  You'd rather I not even talk about it.  Well, first of all, tough shit; I'm talking about it.  Second of all, think about the future; the long game.  Because if Legacy gets released one day, you'll be the first one in line, and nobody likes a fair-weather friend.

_Mike

Unlike most other projects here, this is only an historical archival project.  In 2076, when Mike's prints provide the basis for Criterion's 8K Mauve-ray release of Star Wars, his work will be appreciated, as will his eagerness to share the fruits of his work in every legal manner available to him.

Current generations may never see these prints. That's okay--the point is that future generations may.

In the meantime, those of us stuck in the present are enjoying what Mike has determined he can legally share, which is less than the entire film scanned in glorious 4K, but quite a bit more than nothing.

Seriously, the color reference alone did more than improve Harmy's colors.  It also sped up the whole process by leaps and bounds. You'll see once the ESB project gets going again, how the lack of an authoritative color reference can lead to a storm of second-guessing colors that never, ever ends.  With Star Wars, he could just say, "This is how the colors were." and he'd be right, and we'd move on.  All thanks to this project.  Who knows in what little ways it might still benefit the OT.com community in the future?

Oh, and thanks for the avatar change!

CatBus said:

8K Mauve-ray

Man, try to stay current with the times! 8K Mauve-ray is ancient trash. Optical media? Hooey!

I watch losslessly-compressed 64K movies with my new Cinco OpticNerveViewMaster™. Really... who needs eyes when you've got Cinco?

I guess it's not all that big a deal to me, if his information is the basis for other restos.

I'm not criticizing your preservation, your goals or whatever. I'm criticizing you and your attitude. When I found out about Stat War Legacy I was excited. Until I got to the point "Not gonna share it and don't ask again".

You started up a thread on ot.com. Everyone is sharing their projects around here. Except you. You post here for views, publicity. I don't know, maybe you like when people register on your forum to say "You're cool Mr. Verta!".

You call me selfish, yet it's you who's sitting on all the material. If I had something like this, I would release it, if possible. And if not? I'd tell a few people about it, yes. But I damn sure wouldn't seek attention here, right next to Team Negative1's stuff.

Keep in mind that Mike's very open about his identity, and even assuming he didn't get outright arrested for what you're asking him to do (because "reasons" include "it's illegal"), his career would be most definitely and negatively impacted.

Meanwhile -1 never revealed his real name, is pretending he's not part of his own project anymore (paranoia about the aforementioned "it's illegal"?), appears to be on the same 2076 timeline you're complaining about here anyway, and the quality won't be as good as what Mike's doing.

Some people are willing to break the law for you, a complete stranger. Some people aren't. I wish everyone shared, that'd be great, I understand. But when they have very good reasons not to (such as: it's illegal), I understand when they don't. And I'm happily surprised when they share anything at all, especially when it's the sort of extraordinarily helpful things Mike has given us that could not be gotten from any other source.

CatBus said:

Keep in mind that Mike's very open about his identity, and even assuming he didn't get outright arrested for what you're asking him to do (because "reasons" include "it's illegal"), his career would be most definitely and negatively impacted.

Expanding on this a bit: mverta is an "industry insider". He has worked for LFL in the past and, IIRC, remains in close contact with some people there.

Releasing Legacy would destroy his reputation and likely lead to legal action not only for himself, but for the numerous people (e.g., former print owners, foreign university* employees) directly and indirectly involved in the Legacy project. This legal action would definitely prevent him from working on movies in the future and would probably result in fines and jail-time.

I love Star Wars, but I don't love Star Wars enough to think it's acceptable for someone to suffer the aforementioned consequences just so I can see his preservation.

* Country and university name omitted.

CatBus said:

Keep in mind that Mike's very open about his identity,

Exactly. If what he does is illegal, and could get him in trouble, why isn't he keeping low profile? He probably assures a lot of people 3 times a day, that he's never going to release it, okay. But his behavior is mind-boggling to me. Team negative1's stuff will probably still need a couple of years, maybe it won't even be ready in 2076. But they post a lot of samples, you can see the progress. And you know, that this whole thing won't be kept in the vault for undefined amount of time. All the people saying "you're cool, Team Negative1" do it, because they can picture how finished project is going to look, and how much work is put to it. Meanwhile, we (majority of OT.com) know very little about what Mr. Verta is really doing. His sources are better than everyone else's. And that would be it. He didn't even do anything to prove it. Maybe he showed something to more important people from here, but not to me. And it's me, who's supposed to register on his forum and follow the project for the next 20 years.

Letting everyone know that Star Wars is in good hands is one thing. Coming by once in a couple of years to say "Hi, go check my forums!" is another.

Feallan said:

CatBus said:

Keep in mind that Mike's very open about his identity,

Exactly. If what he does is illegal, and could get him in trouble, why isn't he keeping low profile? He probably assures a lot of people 3 times a day, that he's never going to release it, okay. But his behavior is mind-boggling to me. Team negative1's stuff will probably still need a couple of years, maybe it won't even be ready in 2076. But they post a lot of samples, you can see the progress. And you know, that this whole thing won't be kept in the vault for undefined amount of time. All the people saying "you're cool, Team Negative1" do it, because they can picture how finished project is going to look, and how much work is put to it. Meanwhile, we (majority of OT.com) know very little about what Mr. Verta is really doing. His sources are better than everyone else's. And that would be it. He didn't even do anything to prove it. Maybe he showed something to more important people from here, but not to me. And it's me, who's supposed to register on his forum and follow the project for the next 20 years.

Letting everyone know that Star Wars is in good hands is one thing. Coming by once in a couple of years to say "Hi, go check my forums!" is another.

He's on track to getting this completed on schedule, and it won't be 2076. You're off by 50 years or so. 

In any case my 2c on the matter is that there's nothing for you to whine about. No one is forcing you to go to his website. No one is forcing you to come to this thread. He has been very forthcoming and honest from the beginning about his intentions and has been very open about his work despite the private nature of the final project.

This is probably THE definitive restoration done on this film which could be used for a future bluray/DCP. Keep that in mind. 

Feallan said:

CatBus said:

Keep in mind that Mike's very open about his identity,

... If what he does is illegal, and could get him in trouble, why isn't he keeping low profile? ... But his behavior is mind-boggling to me.

What he's doing is not illegal.  His behavior is that of a law-abiding citizen.  That's the whole point.  He hasn't stepped over the line into piracy or distribution or any such thing, and he doesn't intend to.  So why keep a low profile?  There's no reason for it.  This is a choice he made early in the project, and it allowed him access to resources that would not otherwise have been available.  It will result in a better preservation in the end, and that's the long game here.  Many Star Wars fans are interested in what he's doing.  Where can you find a lot of Star Wars fans?  OT.com.  It's a sharing community second, a Star Wars community first.

Now, I really do get what you're saying.  This is still a sharing community.  And there was a period there, back before Mike had shared anything substantial with anyone in the community, that I felt his project was a net drain on the community's limited resources--a black hole where people's attention went and nothing ever came out.

But that was before Mike shared some of his resources with people here.  Yes, they were shared privately--but the contribution was huge, and the results are freely available to the entire community.  So he gave back (and he found a creative way to do it that AFAICT kept within the law).  He contributed, and my attitude changed.  Because frankly, he's given more to this community at this point than I have, and what would it say about me if I were to say he wasn't doing enough?

EDIT: I guess I should add that I privately believe that Mike's dream of someday providing the scans to some studio that will end up as the definitive Star Wars preservation would only really work if the studio wants to do it on the cheap.  If they do a real quality restoration, they'll use OCNs and other high-level sources to get as much detail as possible, and then use Mike's scans only as a color reference (this is how Tech IB prints are used in high-quality commercial restorations today).  Which means, in my opinion, when Mike provided Harmy with the Star Wars color reference, he provided Harmy with what may ultimately be the entire long-term value of his project.  But that's my opinion.

TV's Frink said:

My question is this - why come back now with a random post about the crawl?

He's starting from the beginning with updates on each "portion" as the restoration progresses.

TV's Frink said:

So he's going to start providing regular updates here again?  Cool.

IDK, maybe. He will, at least, be regularly updating the Legacy forum (or so I'm told).

mverta said:

Crawl update, sportsfans.  Go check out the video in the Legacy forums!

Fascinating what can be done. What's up with the letter 'a' in "...that can save her people..." ? Looks like a digital artifact to me.

msycamore said:

What's up with the letter 'a' in "...that can save her people..." ? Looks like a digital artifact to me.

It looks like the `a' from the previous frame (slightly lower) got merged with the next one (slightly higher).