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Star Wars Episode III: Labyrinth Of Evil (Released) — Page 7

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Thank you for the feedback. I am glad they are being enjoyed. LOE bends over backwards to do all possible to sell the contrivance that Padme doesn't die, and apparently the edit gets away with it. 

If there is one unfulfilled wish about the edit, it'd be the inability to involve Padme in the Taintive IV scene following the "Nooo," moment. My only idea has been to hear her wailing from down the hall, but that seems silly.

I wanted to maximize quality and have it be as future-proof as possible. Given the 2k mastering that went on for AOTC and ROTS, and the DVD-sourced deleted scenes that will likely never be released in higher quality, there isn't really any room to climb. If eventually we get our hands on a 4k version of the films, I couldn't use it because it's be a bridge too far from the SD deleted scenes.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Hal 9000 said:

I hope I don't sound facetious, but reinstating the original crawls would be a pretty easy task if you wanted to try it. I changed the names, as has become orthodox, to distinguish these edits from their source material. Anyone watching is properly informed that they are in for something different from Revenge of the Sith. Not that OCD, literal or figurative, can be overcome with logic, but it's an alternate version and carries a distinct title. I believe Jackpumpkinheadd has or was going to replace the opening crawls with the originals for his own preference.

 

You're right, I should probably just do it myself for personal use.. Could you possibly direct me to a recommending free editing software to get the job done? There seems to be a lot of options, so I would appreciate any advice!

Thanks!

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If you're on a Mac, like me, something like Quicktime might even be enough. As long as you can be frame-specific, just clip it from the first frame of the Star Wars logo to perhaps the last frame of the opening shot. For a simple, one-time use, anything that allows you to "trim," should work. 

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Where can I find the various Hal9000 commentary tracks? They were not attached to any of the torrents for the 3 edits.

I found youtube links to the commentaries on fanedit.org, but they were all expired or taken down.

Any help would be extremely appreciated. I would love to hear Hal9000's insight to the creation of these edits!

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"Given the 2k mastering that went on for AOTC and ROTS, and the DVD-sourced deleted scenes that will likely never be released in higher quality, there isn't really any room to climb. If eventually we get our hands on a 4k version of the films, I couldn't use it because it's be a bridge too far from the SD deleted scenes."

Another chance arises to get those HD deleted scenes... Nov 10th Blu Ray Steelbook set of the saga to be released with 40 hours of extras.

http://www.starwars.com/news/the-star-wars-saga-to-be-enshrined-in-limited-edition-blu-ray-steelbooks


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It describes them as "previously released" material, so I very much doubt it'll have anything at all new.

Oh, and the commentary tracks were only included with V2. V3 was changed enough that it would need to be hacked up to sync. Myspleen is going to be the only place they reside now, though I still seed the DVD versions of v2 for this reason. PM me if you need help getting them.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Also, I think the 40 hours of extras is regarding the 3x bonus DVDs included with the Complete Saga (new artwork). And they do state that they are, again, DVDs. The steelbooks will likely have no bonus material, the six BDs are sold $eparately. 

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I only saw a non-specific reference to "3 additional discs", although if they were blu-ray they might have trumpeted that. Have you seen them definitely described as DVD discs?

Seems like an utterly redundant re-release - literally just a packaging change with some fugly photoshop pictures on the covers. It would have been easy enough to include an exclusive teaser / tidbit for The Force Awakens to help entice... it's like they're not even trying!

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You're right, I may have made up the DVD part unintentionally. 

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Kind of hard to tell in V3, but were the baby's eyes green (and now brown)? Not sure I would have guessed were it not for the video title!

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V4 is forthcoming. I'll just post an update here, rather than bumping all three threads. 

"V4? Come on, give us a break! You can't just keep doing this forever, you know!" 

I felt one more go-round was merited for this massive (for me) project. V4 will represent my final word on the subject, and will come in two distinct phases. Soon, I'll begin putting out the "classic appearance" version. The final will be based on Emanswfan's work, when it becomes available. (If, God forbid, Emanswfan doesn't complete his version, the "classic appearance" version will be "it.")

The "classic appearance" version will try to accurately reflect the look and feel of the films as they were. Episode I will continue to be sourced from the BluRay, with 35mm film grain overlaid. However, Episodes II and III will be sourced from schorman13's HDTV preservation project. This will benefit Episode II in particular, featuring more pleasant colors and overall aesthetic. No additional noise or grain will be applied to II and III. This should provide a nice contrast to the Emanswfan-sourced version, but offer a good presentation regardless.

Standard definition material, namely the DVD-sourced deleted scenes, will be freshly upscaled to 1080p by our very own DrDre. He's done two scenes so far, which do cohere better to the surrounding HD footage, at least to my eyes. 

I've gone ahead and recorded fresh commentary tracks for all three, under better circumstances than the old ones. They ought to sound better, and cover the same basic material.  

Now, onto what's different content-wise. The "quips" are gone during the 20th Century Fox logos. The receding STAR WARS logo has been redone inside FCP7 to avoid being able to see through it to the starfield behind, and align the rate of speed more precisely to the original. Smudger9 provided me with his template for the opening crawl, since my new Mac allows me to use FCPX. So, I've tweaked the wording slightly on them, and made sure each one has a unique color and angle. Ep1 is a rough halfway point between the BR and HDTV transfer (somewhat orange, with a wider glow to look somewhat like ESB), Ep3 is a rough match to ROTJ, and Ep2 is somewhere in between (though with more of a glow). 

Because schorman13's AOTC preservation has burnt in subtitles, I got my subtitles to look as similar as possible. There was just one scene in Ep2 that required me to use the BluRay and add subtitles.

Episode I - Thanks to hunsdorfex, the flipped shot where a battle droid nods toward the protocol droid now has a yellow battle droid. It's the little things.

The "short negotiations" joke has been reinstated. Two reasons for this, one being that COD inadvertently removed Obi-Wan's sense of humor. This was one short moment to give him a human touch, which is missing from him most of the time. (I also reinstated his remark about picking up "another pathetic life form" for the same reason.) Also, the opening act is rather fast paced in my cut, so this offered a beat to pause on before jumping back into the plot.  

After having the chance to watch V3 with some friends, I kept silent note of little things that seemed slightly jarring to me as someone who has the film memorized. Tiny things like, "They're no match for droidekas!" have been put back in at certain points, if it felt wrong for them to be missing. 

Fixed the bad match cut that I used to trim Anakin's line as he walks Qui-Gon and company to his home.

Put back more of the dinner scene, where they mention podracing and Anakin's reflexes. 

Used schorman13's preservation for the scene where Darth Maul lands on Tatooine at night, to buffer the transition to the SD "morning before the race" deleted scene.

The battle planning scene on Naboo is edited pretty much exactly like The Phantom Edit. Much less verbose, and leaves some room to be mildly curious about how this battle is going to turn out. 

Episode II - Removed the first part of Obi-Wan's line in the library, "According to my information..."

Reinstated several very small bits and pieces that jarred me slightly when they were gone, including Anakin's little joke about having R2 with them.

Improved the abrupt cutaway when I cut of Anakin's line, "You're exactly the way I remember you--"

Because I trimmed the shot where Watto throws a wrench and it hits his foot, this scene was taken from the BR and given carefully matched subtitles. Everywhere else, the theatrical subtitles were used.

Thanks to jackpumpkinhead, Ki-Adi-Mundi's lightsaber is now consistently blue.

Episode III - Again, reinstated small bits of dialogue and stuff where it felt slightly jarring. Including some of Dooku and Anakin's dialogue. 

Reinstated some of the Obi-Wan vs. Grievous saber duel, only because it felt jarring where I had cut it to look like he takes off his arm right away. I like the idea, but I don't think I can quite get away with it. 

As much as I think hundsdorfex did an amazing job, and I appreciate it, I'm reinstating the Death Star at the end of the film. Dramatically, the scene seems to be set up for something more interesting that just Coruscant. Too bad. You all convinced me. (At some point, I'll probably put some of the bits and pieces I made use of into a package and put it on myspleen.)

Thanks to hundsdorfex, however, baby Leia now has the correct eye color. 

I just need one more thing for Ep1, and I'll be ready to begin encoding and distributing. Unless anyone has any better suggestions, I'll once again encode a 1080p BR-compliant mkv, 720p iTunes-friendly mp4, and DVD5.

This hasn't ever been a thing I'd been interested in doing, but if anyone cares to craft DVD or BluRay menus, hit me with a PM and we can arrange things.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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All of these changes sound great. Very nice that you'll be able to utilize the work of schorman and Dre. I think the overall look of the films will benefit greatly.

Glad to hear that the jump cut walking to Anakin's house is fixed. I no longer feel bad complaining about it. :)

I agree that the Death Star shot is frustrating. But I agree that keeping it is probably the way to go. Shame about losing such a seamless edit, though.

What are the quips in the Fox logo?

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No, man, thanks for pointing out the bad cut! And the "quips" I was talking about was the little subtitles during the logo that said things like, "Escape From the Planet of Boring" where it usually says "A News Broadcasting Corporation."

My stance on revising fan edits.

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I've been in a big SW mood lately to get ready for ep VII (buying an ultra saber, reading Dark Disciple....). Decided to re-watch the whole saga including maybe the Smudgers' Clone Wars.

Originally I only knew of the phantom edit and had no idea how many there actually were. I grabbed Harmy's for my OT and a bunch different ones (Q2, Jasonn, L8wrtr) for PT but I think I'll go with yours first.

You seem very cerebral aout your edits and I like that you reason everything. Even though honestly I like the PT lot more than most and I could survive with the only edits being Jar Jar's antics in ep1, the romance in ep2 and the whinny Anakin dialogues in ep3.

in any case I'll probably start watching PT stuff by next Saturday. Do you think you'll have done v4 by then or should I grab v3 and watch that for now?

“This cannot be! Is… Is it an omen?”

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Sounds great! The beauty of SW prequel fan edits is the buffet of options to suit your tastes. I know that, for example, mixing and matching my and L8wrtr's edits doesn't cause any continuity problems. I even made a spreadsheet of which edits make certain changes that would affect their continuity with other edits!

You'll definiey want to get V3 for now. DrDre is understandably taking a while mixing the PT deleted scenes into his workflow of OOT preservation. Even then, it'll take a while to encode and upload. It's 100% finished, save for the upscaled deleted scenes. 

It sounds like you've informed yourself about the content of the edits, but be advised that my Ep3 is the most controversial of the set, and there have been a few people who enjoyed 1 and 2 only to stumble over 3. Depends on what you're looking for. Though, to my mind, L8 is a great set of edits if mine leave you wanting, and either are great lead-ins to a viewing of the Despecialized OT in advance of TFA.

(Verbosity FTW, once again)

Edit: Oh, and schorman13 announced that he is doing a V2 of his preservation right after I announced V4 of my edits. I can proceed with Ep1 regardless once DrDre is finished with its deleted scenes. Schorman is doing Ep3 first, so I may upload mine out of sequence. It'll be worth the wait for the archival edition, as I'd hate to leave quality resources on the table.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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For sure, you wouldn't want your final version to leave anything to desire in technical / visual terms. Just in terms of edits and choices. I read all of your threads for the PT and your changes mostly seems fine to me (hard to say until I watch them of course).

For ep1 it seems you reverted some changes anyway (like the "negotiations were short!", always loved that line) and the rest to me is hit or miss I guess. I actually like the underwater scene, find it visually striking and a nice change of pace (like Kamino in ep2) but I don't like the Gungan antics and the submarine part would make no sense without what follows so I guess it's a casualty of war. Likewise I don't dislike the Numenorians so I don't care either way about those changes but I'm curious to see how it feels with your changes. Most of the rest I approve and excited to check out.

Ep2 is my least favorite of the saga, I dislike how Anakin is such a brat to Obi-Wan and you changed that (btw if you want the best representation of Anakin watch the Clone Wars). I'm not against the romance but the excution left much to be desired especially the frolic in the meadow, the sand and the AWFUL music cut when they stop kissing. ugh. Also not a huge fan of the sequence from the arena to the sandstorm fight, it's too messy, too... 'bullish'. I like the Dex part but that's minor so we'll see.

Ep3 to me doesn't need much changing apart from the way Anakin is acting too angry all the time, feels like a forced thing to justify him becoming Vader by the end of the movie. I'm curious to see the Padme lives ending since I never saw it and the "noooooo" never bothered me as much as others since the visuals of him force breaking everything adds a lot to the gravity of the scene. Likewise the Death Star cameos, while unnecessary are a cool little wink to the OT.

Anyway enough rambling :P

One more question though. I noticed you mentioned in a thread that you recommend the 720p version over the 1080p so that the deleted scenes don't jump out as much. I'm assuming that applies to ep1-3? What I'll probably do is grab the 720p for v3 and then since apparently v4 will have higher res deleted scenes maybe I'll splurge on 1080p bluray burn then.

“This cannot be! Is… Is it an omen?”

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Duh! I knew it wasn't right but didn't feel like looking it up and didn't even register it was LotR.... no comment.

And it's not so much hardware as HDD space... :/

“This cannot be! Is… Is it an omen?”

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Hal 9000 said:

I did try to use the "Nooo" from the 2011 edition of Return Of The Jedi, but I couldn't make it work. The music was too powerful in the clip, and there's reverb of the existing "nooo" in most channels. I never really minded that moment too much, though it is cliche and un-Vader-like. What are ya gonna do? 

 The Japanese dub has Vader straight up yell instead of saying 'No'. The voice modulation makes it similar enough to James Earl Jones' voice. You could try that if you plan on making a revision.

Seeking only the most natural looking colors for Star Wars '77

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Huh, didn't know that. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wxg122Ta5ok

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The japanese dub look like it was online as of last year but can't find a current link.

edit: Not that I'd have posted a link if I found one. But it sounds like this kind of discussion is not allowed anyway? Is it within the spirit of the rules to use a downloaded dub for a couple seconds of audio if you own the blu-ray in your own region? Is the spirit of the rules different if you download a japanese guy's rip from last year (and discussed it, without sharing a link) vs. being sent the file from a fellow forum member?