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Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side (the TM edit) (Released) — Page 17

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Rebel11_38: WONDERFUL job on the opening crawl. Fantastic! Actually seeing it in motion is great- it looks just like the official ones. Great attention to detail (as far as the frame count, fade out, etc.)

I only noticed one thing that was not the same- with the opening “Star Wars” logo, you can see the stars through the logo. In the official crawls, the interior was solid black. That’s OK, though; either I can paint the stars out frame by frame, or perhaps you could redo that little section of the crawl at your convenience. Either way

Thank you so much for this! Could you PM me either your full name or your first name with mother’s maiden name, public name…just something that I can credit you with other than Rebel11_38.

To everyone else: the film is now officially and irreversibly titled SHROUD OF THE DARK SIDE.

EDIT: Another minor problem I noticed- a lot more stars are visible in your background than there are in the actual movie. This makes the stars dim when I fade, some stars disappear, etc. Again, I can fix that very easily, but just wanted to let you know. Except for that, everything looks perfect. I've looked at both MagnoliaFan's and ADigitalMan's crawls for Episode II, and this one surpasses them both in terms of font accuracy and formatting. You have made the best fan-made crawl that currently exists for Episode II. GREAT JOB!

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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I'm glad you liked it TM. I just recently noticed what you said about the inside of the Star Wars logo being black. I didn't even really notice until I brightened my screen. I chose to leave it the way it is as a matter of personal preference. If you it want the "official way" I can change it and the brightness of the stars and can make another version that you can download. About the stars being too bright...someone had mentioned that in the screen pics I posted they could barely make out the stars. So, just in case I made them a bit more defined and more visible. Comparing my video and the official I thought they looked pretty close, but I can change that too.

Let me know if you would like me to redo that for you.


Again, glad you liked it. All I ask is for a copy of your edit when you're done.
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Originally posted by: Rebel11_38
About the stars being too bright...someone had mentioned that in the screen pics I posted they could barely make out the stars.


Yeah, sorry, that was me. I was actually just refering to what I was used to, I'd recently upgraded my work computer and was working at a much higher res than what I usually watch DVDs on (1856x1392 compared to 1280x1024), plus I'm used to the ever so slight increase provided by a PAL source.

http://www.kineticpast.com/starwars/thecheatlaserdisc.gif
Ooh, a laserdisc. The Cheat's playin' something on a laserdisc.
Everything is better on a laserdisc. Whatever happened to the laserdisc? Laserdisc!

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No problem. I feel a little bad for Trooperman as I was hoping that I would have the final version of the file done for him by now, but he may want me to do another one since he wants the interior to black so we'll see. Hopefully it isn't a major obstacle to what he's doing.
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Rebel11_38- don't feel bad. If it wouldn't be too much trouble, I would like you to redo the opening logo with black interior, just because every other detail is perfect and I want this to match perfectly with the OT. But- don't do it yet. I'm on vacation and I'll be back early next week. When I get back, I'll email you an image of the starfield at the exact brightness and contrast as I will have it in the actual movie. That way, everything will be at complete perfection should you decide to have another go at it.

But don't feel bad at all- heck, the lack of a crawl wasn't an obstacle at all; it was just the worry of not being able to have one at all, which I don't have any more. Thank you again!

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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Originally posted by: Trooperman
To everyone else: the film is now officially and irreversibly titled SHROUD OF THE DARK SIDE.

Was that for me?
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http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/7360/starfield15zc.png

(I decided not to email because this was easier)

So, just to repeat- the mechanics and timing of everything you did was perfect- the only things I'd like you to change are 1. The starfield and 2. Fill in the Star Wars logo with solid black.

I realize that on many monitors, the difference when the starfields are exchanged is minimal, but it is a HUGE difference on my large monitor.

Thank you!

CC- the statement was not intended specifically for you, although I guess it applies to you the most because you're the one who supported the other titles

SLOW progress on this, but it's very high quality work when it's done. The goal is to make it appear that it has always been that way (when viewing the edit).

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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Stay Here

Here are two dubbed words that have been mixed into the final film. I don't intend to post any more dubbed material until the trailer, but this should hold you over- a teaser of what Anakin will sound like.

Apparently, Yousendit will only have it up for download for the next week.

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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impressive.

i'll be keeping an eye on this project. Hayden's voice has always annoyed me in these two movies. I'd love to hear, for once, the Anakin Luke dreamed about all his life, instead of this whiny bast.. guy.

Edit: Is that your voice? Wow....nice. I've got a ray romano thing going on myself... . Though I can do a near perfect bill cosby, eric cartman, zorak, fozzy, kermit and Yoda and a little sam l jackson, but only when he's yelling.
He big in nothing important in good elephant.

"Miss you, I will, Original Trilogy..."

"Your midichlorians are weak, Old man." -Darth Vader 2007 super deluxe extra special dipped in chocolate sauce edition.

http://prequelsstink.ytmnd.com/
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Yes, that's indeed my voice. Glad you liked it

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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Just a couple of updates: I've completed dubbing, mixing, and color for the scene directly before Anakin's search montage. I'm currently working on the moonlight balcony scene and the Obi-Wan/Jango scene.

This color correction is working out so incredibly well that I find myself using some form of it for every scene. Many times, it gives the scenes a whole different feel- just by changing the color.

I should also point out that because I'm doing a stereo mix, character's voices don't come from both speakers (or the "center") anymore; many times, they come from the left and right speakers depending on what is onscreen. This applies to my dubbing especially, so that it feels as though it's really part of the mix and the film. Also keep in mind that I am doing the mix using good stereo headphones; no flaws get past me when I preview. Therefore, the mix should sound even better through conventional speakers.

Also, I've decided that I am going to add "impact flashes" to the Geonosis battle scenes. Along with new music, new sound effects, decreased saturation, and a bit of grain, these sequences should be considerably better.

And finally, I have a musical surprise for the end of the film, before the credits start.

Unfortunately, I'm losing faith that I'll be able to complete this by Christmas. MagnoliaFan took 2 years to create Balance of the Force. I'm not only heavily editing it, I'm changing the color, sound effects, visual effects, sound mix, etc. using both full-screen and widescreen DVD's and countless CD's. Not only that, but this has a "fan film" aspect as well, due to all new recordings for Anakin that have to be filtered and mixed into the stereo in the right way, and Lama-Su still needs to be performed and mixed. And I'm trying to do this at the highest possible quality in about 7 months (and this isn't my job, BTW). As I said, I'll try my best to do it as quickly as I can, but I don't want to sacrifice quality for the sake of getting it out on a deadline.

Trooperman

P.S.: The sample dubbing clip will only be up for another couple of days.

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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Don't worry about the deadline TM. For now it's good to have a tentative release date, but if you don't meet it, so what? It would be what, 2-3 months more tops? Being Star Wars fans I'm sure we've all learned the value of patience. Take your time to give us your best.

The "impact flashes" sound like quite an undertaking, but I'm sure along with all your other alterations they'll give everything a more realistic look. And since you've decided to address such a minute detail, I was wondering if you'd considered putting in comm mics on/off sound effects for clone dialogue. This was brought up before and I think it's an excellent point. Stormtroopers need those microphones inside their helmets to be heard, but apparently clones can talk REALLY REALLY LOUD.

I know music alteration is a big thing in SotDS, which IMO is one of its best aspects. Anyway, I was listening to "Rite of Spring" yesterday and it struck me how Star Wars-like certain pieces of it was. I had no specific thoughts on any scenes to use it, or even what parts to use, but was curious if you had taken from Stravinsky's work.
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Sorry about the wait- I tried to post earlier but I got a "server full" message on "line 5". Anyhow, R1138 has completed the final crawl and I will get it this afternoon. Thanks so much!

Commander Courage-

I haven’t listened to “Rite of Spring” in a long while, so I’ll definitely give that a listen in the future and see about incorporating some of it into the soundtrack.

Excellent point about the clone’s mikes- I will sandwich all of their dialogue with sound effects and also lower the quality of their voices to be consistent. As I’ve said, this edit was not originally about making a “Special Edition” of Episode II for the purpose of nitpicking and fixing little errors here and there, but if I’m redoing it, I might as well fix everything, however small- it’ll just add to the movie.

And about the deadline- that’s a good point. I’m sure that if I miss the deadline people won’t become rude or impatient (not on this forum), but if they do at any point, I’ll simply stop visiting the forums until I’m done. Easy as that!

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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This is the first time I've read about your project. I must say, it's quite an undertaking. However, from what I've read, you are more than capable of doing this and I look forward to seeing the results. Now, I'm curious (and not sure if there's a faq) is this just for Episode II for the immediate future or do you find it ties is a bit to MagnoliaFan's Episode 1 edit? Regardless, all the best to you in this endeavour and try not to lose sleep working on it.
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I have the final crawl as of today. I wasn't able to get it on Tuesday (too busy). I will comment on it when I get home and I have the chance.

Casualimp- thanks for your comments. For the immediate future, I'm working only on Episode II. When I'm done with that, I'll tackle III after a short break. My Episode I will be based heavily off Balance of the Force (using modulated German instead of backwards Spanish for the alien languages). Even alone, my Episode II ties with Balance of the Force except that Jar-Jar and the Nemoidians will sound different. The most exciting aspect of Episode I (when I get to it) is that it will have a prologue before the logos and crawl. Also, I'm considering just calling it "Star Wars" and not giving it a subtitle (like the original '77 release of SW). Anyhow, Episode II is the only one being worked on now, and it is, like Balance of the Force, a pretty radical departure from the original, and I have Mark Haslett to thank for his comments regarding the strengthening of Anakin's character. Making him believable and a symphathetic character makes the whole saga work.

And as I've said before, I have no plans to edit the OT- just the prequels.

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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The crawl is great. Thanks so much! A small cropping/framing issue was easily resolved by cropping the panning shot to match (no big deal at all). The black fill is perfect as well.

The crawl is done.

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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Hey TM, what's the word?

It's been over a week since your last update, any new info for us?
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This last week has been a busy one, but here are a couple updates:

-The crawl now pans down smoothly to Coruscant. (the two clips are completely joined together). This means that the film is done all the way until the beginning of the Dooku discussion on Coruscant, aside from "20th century fox", "Lucasfilm Ltd." and "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...", which I will be restoring to the original cards.

-The color correction for the balcony scene is finally done. That was very painstaking work- I had to use all kinds of color correction, brightness/contrast, black and white mix, blue and green chroma key combos...you name it. I had to remove chroma key on close shots of Padme, because it made her look grainy and also somewhat ugly, wheras it looked perfect and sinister for Anakin. But absence of chroma key means large changes elsewhere to get the colors consistent.

I'd bore you by going into every little detail, but the short of it is that although it's done and it looks great, this was a major PAIN, getting it to look right. It took far longer than I expected.

Sound mix for this scene will be a piece of cake, however, once I get Anakin's dialogue...

-I'm still trying to record Anakin's dialogue for this scene. "Padme...I love you. I've loved you ever since I first saw you all those years ago. I was afraid to tell you before...but it's true." This just comes off in such a corny, flat way if it isn't done properly. All of my previous takes of that went into the recycle bin, and I'm still trying to get it right.

On a positive note, I can't remember whose suggestion this was, but the binary sunset shows up in this film- in a very nice way. More on that later.

Thanks!

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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Good stuff, TM. Just wanted to make sure you were still hard at work.

And including the binary sunset was my idea; I don't know why Lucas didn't in AotC, the parallel was ALMOST complete.
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Good news, Trooperman.

I'm still waiting for you to tap me for Lama Su -- but I have to admit, I'm grateful you haven't called on me yet because I have been way too busy lately.

Sorry to hear of anything that gives you trouble, but I'm glad you take the voice work seriously. Getting your performance right and mixing it correctly is going to blow people's minds.

I love the color corrections you've posted, so I know that balcony scene is going to look excellent. With "film look", flash-frames, the old title cards, the darker droid factory, the binary sunset, etc. I fully expect this to look like an OT film. (BTW -- how are you going to handle the sound effect for Jengo Fett's "bombs" -- their silent/delayed sound was definitely NOT OT to my ear. Does it work for you?)

Anyway, I say forget you ever mentioned finishing this year. Pick a new deadline like next Labor Day and give yourself lots of breathing room. There are so many changes in your cut that promise giant improvements -- I feel like time is on your side. Taking your time and letting the tweaks get massaged is the way to go -- don't rush anything, if you want my opinion. Which I know you do. Because my opinions Rock! Yay my opinions!

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Thank you for your support. Yeah, the binary sunset, the shot of Anakin, and the shot of Padme walking out are know perfectly synchronized to the music (they weren't before) and the shots have been color-corrected for consistency.

I'm still waiting for you to tap me for Lama Su -- but I have to admit, I'm grateful you haven't called on me yet because I have been way too busy lately.

Ha ha- so have I. But I warn you that I will be calling on you very soon for this (if you don't mind).

Getting your performance right and mixing it correctly is going to blow people's minds.

I really hope so. I'll try to release it without a lot of fanfare and just let people see it first- let it build up a reputation.

I love the color corrections you've posted, so I know that balcony scene is going to look excellent. With "film look", flash-frames, the old title cards, the darker droid factory, the binary sunset, etc. I fully expect this to look like an OT film. (BTW -- how are you going to handle the sound effect for Jengo Fett's "bombs" -- their silent/delayed sound was definitely NOT OT to my ear. Does it work for you?)

Good point about the bombs. I will probably be changing that so that there is no silence. I'll probably just replace the sound effect entirely. I'm also considering using chroma-key to change the color of the bombs from blue to red or orange. I'll post screenshots of this, the binary sunset, and also the balcony scene in the future.

The flash-frames are actually not as hard as you would think- I'm not getting fancy. It's done pretty much how it was done in the original SW (bright frames, red tinted frames, etc.)

Anyway, I say forget you ever mentioned finishing this year. Pick a new deadline like next Labor Day and give yourself lots of breathing room. There are so many changes in your cut that promise giant improvements -- I feel like time is on your side. Taking your time and letting the tweaks get massaged is the way to go -- don't rush anything, if you want my opinion.

Thanks for saying that. I'm sorry to everyone, but it's become clear to me that this isn't going to be done by the end of the year. On the same note, it will very likely be out in less than a year. I don't really know- I'll do whatever my schedule allows me to. But I'll try to do it as quickly as possible.

Screenshots later

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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Rite of Spring will be incorporated into the soundtrack.

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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Rite of Spring -- interesting tease to not tell us where you'll use it. I don't know how well you know Disney's "Fantasia," but an interesting "homage" moment might be possible if you see the animated "Rite of Spring" dinosaur cartoon and find a similar cue in SOTD -- perhaps in the arena.

One of Lucas' trademarks is to "wear his influences on his sleeve" -- homage to Kurosawa, Ford etc. Disney and his dinosaurs likely had their affect on his imagination as a young'n. I guess I'd look it up and make certain before I put that "homage" into the cut, but if it turns out to be appropriate...

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Here are a few shots from the nightmare sequence I don't believe I've released yet:

http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/9031/dream14ss.jpg
http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/1322/dream20sy.jpg
http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/5548/dream32on.jpg
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/1047/dream40uo.jpg
http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/6715/dream59uj.jpg

As you can see, I've made use of the full-screen DVD as well as the widescreen to achieve the effects I wanted. This happens in other places:

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/8344/newpic1a6zp.jpg
http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/8433/newpic11ws.jpg

http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/2515/newpic2a4ia.jpg
http://img322.imageshack.us/img322/1309/newpic22gv.jpg

And some other shots:

http://img331.imageshack.us/img331/3963/newpic3a3lb.jpg
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/3228/newpic36yg.jpg
http://img347.imageshack.us/img347/5479/newpic4a0rt.jpg
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/1517/newpic41lo.jpg

And a couple balcony stills:

http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/8320/newpic76mo.jpg
http://img307.imageshack.us/img307/3747/newpic109dz.jpg
http://img342.imageshack.us/img342/8007/newpic115tf.jpg
http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/6673/newpic125bh.jpg
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/1640/newpic141ol.jpg
http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/1864/newpic156yd.jpg

MTHaslett: That's a very interesting idea. And yes, your guess was correct- I was thinking of this for the arena.

To everyone- sorry I haven't been keeping you up-to-date with my progress. I'll try to be better about that.

Trooperman

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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Comments, perhaps?

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