***//BUILDING EMPIRE\\: PAL & NTSC DVD - NEW EDITION NOW ONLINE! *** — Page 48

Where are the links, zeppelinrox? I don't see em

edit : ah, I figured it out.

Please excuse my noobness, but can someone explain to me in layman's terms what is the difference between the Miami versions and the original versions? I read zepplinrox's post, but didn't quite get it.

I downloaded the original versions of Building Empire and Returning to Jedi about 2 years ago. Should I get the Miami versions instead? Is there new content? What is the difference?

Thank you.

Michael

In regards to the actual documentaries, the Miami versions are merely updated and have a few corrections.

However, these 2 DVDs did not have any DVD extras (which are listed on the back covers of the originals) and no DVD_ROM folder extras either.

Since I wanted the newest version and with extras, I rebuilt the original DVDs - replacing the original documentaries with the updated Miami editions. Nothing was modified or re-encoded and are DL DVDs.

Then, since I wanted to make SL versions, which obviously entailed re-encoding, I decided to take advantage of the situation so I also deinterlaced, sharpened the image a bit, made them progressive and adjusted the chapters to match more closely to chapter points of the originals.

Gotcha. So I'll download these new versions then since the Miami versions are updated from the originals (which I have). Thank you very much for your explanation and the work you put into enhancing the quality.

So the ones on fe.info are the Miami versions?

kaine23 said:

So the ones on fe.info are the Miami versions?

yes sir! that is correct sir!

I dont think they're working anymore, files are missing, etc. :(

I'm having a problem downloading Returning to Jedi. 

I've tried :

jambedavdar_ep6miamic_sl_pal_multi.dlc

&

jambedavdar_ep6miamic_dl_pal_multi.dlc

But everytime I try to unzip the files I get an "Unexpected end of archive" error-message from winrar

Now I'm trying for the third time, only downloading the megaupoad-files.  Here's me hoping third time's a charm ;-)

If you are using the JDownloader, you shouldn't have a problem at all.

Koen wrote: But everytime I try to unzip the files I get an "Unexpected end of archive" error-message from winrar

Have you run out of disk space?

Used JDownloader and enough free disk space. 

But it worked with only using the megaupload-links.  Hooray !

Koen said:

I'm having a problem downloading Returning to Jedi. 

I figured the problem was you were in the wrong thread. ;-)

Jambe Davdar wrote: I think I've just found on on page 36 and 37 of Cinefex issue 3 that shows the motor used to move the Tauntaun puppet along to create the motion blur effect.

Initial thought that go-motion would have been used for the shot of Han entering the hangar or approaching Luke.  Wouldn't they have moved the camera, not the model?

*EDIT*

Fantastic Films issue 18 has an interview with Phil Tippett, and when talking about the Taun-Tauns they continually mention stop-motion.

pg. 25

FF: The stop-motion Taun creature sounds exciting.  What was the genesis of the figure, and who designed it?

Tippett: When I started on Empire, George Luca had been working on the Taun design with Ralph McQuarrie and Joe Johnston.  At that time, the way the animal was going to be designed was still up in the air.  THere was takl of full size mechanical things, men in suits, stop-motion puppets - they ran the whole gamut of approaches.

I drew up a number of designs based on some of the things Joe had done, as well as some alternatives.  Lucas wen for a design of an animal suited for stop-motion, and we spent the next month refining the thing with Irwin Kershner and Gary Kurtz.  In September of 1978 we sent a design mock-up to England.  They in turn sent back a mock-up with a numbe of practical and aesthetic changes.  FOr that point, I began sculpting the final puppet, while Jon Berg and Toom St. Amand found time amongstthe Walker parts to put together a testing armature.

FF: When did test shots begin?

Tippett:  That happened at the begninning of 1979.  Ken Ralston began integrating the motion control equipemtnn with stop-motion requirements.  Dennis Muren and Richard Edlund made a number of contributions.  With relatively little adaptation, we got some promiising shots.

We went to the beach and photographed reference material on horses much like we had done with an elephant a few weeks earlier for the Walkers.  We set up a situation similat to Muybridge's Animals in Motion, which helped us understand animal movement as it related to film.

I spent the next few months shooting tests, running fur tests, Walker tests.  Jon Berg and I developed a final armature that would work better with the motion control equipment.  Doug Beswick and Tom St. Amand refined and constructed it.  The final The final Taun was ready in August 1979.

But for one reason or another, we didn't start the bulk of the Tuan shooting until January of 1980.  We were involved with a number of other projects as well as the stop-motion, and we completed the Taun shots two and a half months later.  There's where the planning paid off!  There was no time for mistakes.  All activity on the stage had to be shut down by mid-March in order to give the optical department time to composite everything.

Here's some more:

Tippett: We got most of our shots on the first take.  But all of these problems are indicative of what we've been up against.  Occasionally we would have to re-orient our approach to a troublesome shot.  Especially with the Taun peppet, since we were dealing with blurs.  In attempting to solve that problem, we created five more that had to be fixed.

Hey ho, also a cut scene i'm not familiar with:

FF: Were there stop motion out-takes, shots we will never see in the film?
Tippett: We shot the Walkers and Tauns like everything else in Empire, to replace a rather small slug of film in a particular roll.  Everything was organized so that those shots were taken care of first.  We were able to add a few extra things.  Most of them are in the picture.  But the only shot that didn't make it was the two-legged Walker that Joe, Jon and Tom came up with.  The shot showed a Speeder strafing the scout Walker.  It didn't cut in.

*EDIT*3

ah this was mentioned in the Annotated Screenplays:

http://www.starwarz.com/tbone/index.php?categoryid=10&p2_articleid=392

Well, the big thing that didn't end up in The Empire Strikes Back was the two-legged walker, but it did end up in Jedi. You get a brief glance of it in Empire, but there was a shot, a POV from one of the snowspeeders; the speeder is attacking the walker and passes right over its head. Unfortunately at the very end, we were under a deadline and were literally up all night shooting this scene. Someone didn't tighten up the backing of the painted sky, and no one noticed it. The next day in the dailies, you could see the background slip, and it slipped about eight inches half-way through the shot...It just fell, which completely ruined the shot.

That's right.  I remember they had some footage of the chicken walkers that they had to scrap because of the falling background.  I forgot the shot was a pov from a speeder cockpit.  I wonder if they had any visual effects on the shot, or whether they were just planning to add the laser blasts optically.