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Classic Edition: The Empire Strikes Back by Ocpmovie (Released) — Page 6

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Well, apart from being out of sync the test disc was pretty good.

After looking at it closely I've made some changes to where the transitions from my cut to Lucas' cut occur, to hide them better. It's a bit like a magic trick, you have to make a big change without the audience noticing much, and do it when they're not looking for it.

I have also decided to make another actual change to the edit of the movie. This is going to be controversial, as the whole point of the Classic Edition is not to have any Special Edition type revisionism.

But I've decided, just to make my own mark on the movie in this edit, to fix a very large continuity error involving Admiral Piett at the end of the movie. It's not that the scene is flopped and his credentials are reversed, there's a bigger editing-related problem in that scene that bugs the hell out of me.

So I've replaced the offending shot in question. Ken Colley's performance doesn't come off quite as interestingly without it, but the continuity is certainly better.


Controversy ho!


At this point the DVD is done apart from the sound sync, which is going to take a lot of time, yet again.

Wish I hadn't already done it twice before ....


My tactic this time around will be to play the DVD in my DVD player and capture it through to the computer in DV format, and then sync that version.

And then ....
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Looked at the test DVD closely, and apart from the sound it's as perfect as it's going to get. I am happy with the picture throughout the whole thing, having found clever places to hide the transitions from my material to George's. Much much better than the first version where the transitions stuck out like a sore thumb.

Now I have to capture it to my hard drive again and sync the sound to that.

Bo did send me Moth3r's ESB, so if that arrives in time I'll include some shots taken from that as well, but that'll be a last minute change.
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Watching this unfold is like being back in film school again...I feel your pain brotha.
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I love that wood cover as well, but the regular ANH and ESB are excellent.

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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Thanks for all of the support, guys! Now the questions'zz's is....

Do I drop the back "classic edition" logos down a bit to leave all of that beautiful black space, or leave it as is and put some specs on it?
Second... I'd like to print out some specs for the "wood" one, take a digital picture of it on a crinkly piece of paper and place it on the wood back. That would be pretty sweet looking, IMO... I did have an idea of just overlaying some classic trading cards in that blank wood space.... or should I leave it blank?

Galatians 2: 20: I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

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i think adding some specs on one version of the cover would be pretty cool to give people some sort of choice with it. your work on the wood cover is just amazing and i can't wait to see the final version!
And the red one, come on. Well, come on, Red, let's go!
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Coov,

I recommend going with a description on the back. I've always thought that these covers, even though they're unofficial, should still attempt to "sell" what's inside. I'd like to think that a novice Star Wars fan could pick up the case, and understand what this was by reading the back of the cover. So when someone comes to my house and notices all my Star Wars DVDs, they can read the cases to understand how each one is different.

That's just my take.

You know of the rebellion against the Empire?

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I'm in agreement with ErcikStormTrooper. I'd love to have the descriptive elements on the back,
as friends and family are always drwan to these things, and its so much easier for them to
read whats inside. Its just looks that much more professional. ;-) Of course you could leave
blank versions as well, for those who like the 'mysterious' look.

Win
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I think a description is fine, depending. Try to keep it very simple and unobtrusive (I'm a "less is more" kinda guy, myself, which is why I like your covers to begin with - they are eye-catching without clutter.)

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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Fair play Coov, you're fast become THE master at DVD covers. God bless ya

FINISHED:
The Sith Revealed - A Scrapbook
Episode III The Video Game - The Movie
24: The Missing Day
Star Wars - The Interactive Board Game DVD
Battlefront - Journal of the 501st
The Clones Revealed

email me for details daveytod AT btinternet DOT com

 

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Coov, I personally like it blank, but if I was to put any disc info in the back, I'd stick it all on a handbill or small poster and paste that onto the wood. Great work. Kinko's, here I come!
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Crinkly paper and old trading cards - sounds good to me!
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No stale bubblegum?

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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Okay, I have synced up the sound to the DVD version as captured in Premiere.

Hopefully it will sync up in DVD Studio Pro as well. If so, I'm done and ready for release. Should be so in a matter of hours.

Now replacing the laserdisc audio for the opening and closing music with the version from the isolated score, in search of better quality.


This version combines the 35mm and SE sound mixes. Mostly 35 but with some SE thrown in for good measure, when I thought it would be nice to have the clearer sound from the SE.
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This version combines the 35mm and SE sound mixes. Mostly 35 but with some SE thrown in for good measure, when I thought it would be nice to have the clearer sound from the SE.

Excellent!- does the 70mm stuff include the original musical transitions? I think that's what we (or me, anyhow) find most appealing about the 70 mix.

Thanks for the great work. One more question- you didn't happen to color-correct the Hoth footage (from blue to white)?

Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side

Emperor Jar-Jar
“Back when we made Star Wars, we just couldn’t make Palpatine as evil as we intended. Now, thanks to the miracles of technology, it is finally possible. Finally, I’ve created the movies that I originally imagined.” -George Lucas on the 2007 Extra Extra Special HD-DVD Edition

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DONE.




I am still making minor last-minute corrections to the master, but the version I just put to disc is definitely good and releasable.

Should start burning off the first copies tomorrow. Got to figure out my disc art actually. Hey Coov, post that Vader pic in high res in case I want to use that one just for the hell of it.


The copy of Moth3r's ESB that Bo sent me hasn't arrived yet. If it arrives tomorrow, I'll sneak a few shots from the Moth3r in there as a last-minute thing.

The isolated score has been synced, vaguely, to this new edit as well, so it'll work in context.


Trooperman: No one has given me a full list of the musical transitions they would like "fixed." I still have time to alter the soundtrack, so feel free to throw in suggestions. But yes, I've fixed music after Yoda's "That is why you fail," and during Leia et al. chasing Boba Fett and escaping from Cloud City. Also the carbon freezing door closing on R2.

The Hoth material was left untouched, as was much of the film. Because of the quality loss involved, I avoided altering any portion of the DVD unless necessary, to leave it all at the highest quality possible.

Not that the altered portions are of a low quality - on the contrary, the quality is excellent. But people tend to forget how sharp those 2004 SW DVDs really are. A standard that I can't really match on my system, though I can come damn close.

Trying to set a standard here where people forget that this is a fanmade DVD. Undoing the harm that Lucasfilm did.

Enjoy, folks. It's here.
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Trooperman: No one has given me a full list of the musical transitions they would like "fixed." I still have time to alter the soundtrack, so feel free to throw in suggestions.

Sure- off the top of my head, I can only think of two other places, but there could be more:

1. The tail end of the "Magic Tree" cue was butchered for the 35mm (the transition between Yoda with fishing pole and the Imperial fleet).

2. Right before we see the Falcon on the Star Destroyer, there's a bit of missing music (violin) from the beginning of the "City in the Clouds". It was in the original 70 but not in the 35.

I have to say it's great that you're doing this because it is conducive to creating a "Classic Edition"- this original music was present for the original release. Not only that, it's what John Williams wrote and it just plain sounds better. Thanks for doing this

Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side

Emperor Jar-Jar
“Back when we made Star Wars, we just couldn’t make Palpatine as evil as we intended. Now, thanks to the miracles of technology, it is finally possible. Finally, I’ve created the movies that I originally imagined.” -George Lucas on the 2007 Extra Extra Special HD-DVD Edition

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Okay, thanks to Bo, Moth3r's ESB arrived yesterday, and I went ahead and spent another day redoing all my compositing and effects work to utilize this clearer transfer.

I didn't use it for the "window" scenes on Cloud City, perhaps because I'm lazy and they looked fine already, but also because I wasn't happy with how the color looked on the Moth3r.

The Moth3r is much much clearer and certainly the clearest transfer of ESB out there, rivaled only by the Citizen and the XO works in progress, but clearly the print used for the original laserdisc transfer was an inferior one. The color is much blander and the contrast is too high, as if a black and white transfer had been pasted at 50% over the image.

This got me into big trouble with some shots of the Falcon on Cloud City - the Cowclops V2 revealead a beautiful matte-painted sky full of purples and yellows and reds. The Moth3r's version was a bland blue, and the original colors were impossible to replicate. I did my best with color correction.

For most shots, this didn't matter though. It certainly made for a nicer FOX logo, once I had color corrected it back to spec.

The other interesting thing about the Moth3r is that it is a different transfer, more zoomed in yet showing more image on the left side of the screen. Odd. So for most of the shots where I used the Moth3r, I actually combined the Cowclops and the Moth3r together, compositing the Moth3r over the Cowclops to reveal more screen image and hopefully a clearer overall shot.

In fact, for most of the shots you're actually seeing three versions composited together - a Making of the SE or 2004 DVD shot on top, then the Moth3r surrounding it, and the Cowclops V2 on the edges.

A complicated matte which will give you some idea of how seriously I take these projects.


It is essentially done and I'll render it out and finish the official DVD tonight.



I have learned a lot from doing this project. I don't know why approximately two frames were dropped from the end of most of the chapters when I ripped them, but the headache that this caused has taught me to rip the whole thing all the way through. I now know how to do this sort of DVD combining work really well - how to hide the joins between the versions and make it seamless. If I did this again, I could do it better. Isn't that always the way?

I may indeed do Jedi at some point in the future, and I will wait for Moth3r to transfer that film so I can get started.
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I will say also that there will be something special on the disc ... for, er, those of you who like the movies which came after this one. That's all I'll say. It will probably be a hidden feature.
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ocpmovie you are the greatest for making this movie. thanks for all of your hard work
And the red one, come on. Well, come on, Red, let's go!
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Originally posted by: ocpmovie
I will say also that there will be something special on the disc ... for, er, those of you who like the movies which came after this one. That's all I'll say. It will probably be a hidden feature.


Is it the The Hudsucker Proxy? That came out after... Oh, wait.. Don't tell me. I want to be surprised.
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Incidentally, it's been on my mind that I should probably choose an alternate poster for the disc art (and perhaps some versions of the cover) to distinguish this from other versions of the film, as I did with the first Star Wars and the style D.

Sadly, I just plain prefer the various versions of the "real" poster (of which there are many variations - the blue one, the blue one with Yoda and a "red" one with a tiny Fett and Lando visible).

Coov's red Vader was nice.

But after much soul searching, if I need an alternate I'd like to use this one:


http://www.artoosnews.com/images2003/esbaudvd.jpg


I don't have a high res of this one though, I have one that's bigger than this but it's pretty cruddy. Can anyone scan this at a really nice size from somewhere?

The color scheme is awful but the selection of characters and the art is pretty good. If someone was clever enough to Photoshop it to be less green and red, it might work all right.

I guess I'm going to go ahead and use a low quality version of this for the disc art for now.

I'd also be interested in a variation based on the old action figure packages but applying that to disc art doesn't seem possible. =)