Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition HD - V2.7 - MKV (Released) — Page 352

Or at least not too prominently...  Like have the movie title and menu options be the big, noticeable things, and have the version number, etc. be smaller and off to a side somewhere.  It'd be there, but not in your face.

chyron8472 said:

To be perfectly honest, I might prefer for the BD's main menu to not say "Despecialized" on it.

I would love to be able to give this to people (ie. everyone I know who remotely cares about Star Wars like I do) and for them to have no initial indication that it's not official.

Because I have said before that the best thing that can be said about a fanedit (though this is not an "edit") is that it doesn't look like it's fan made. And also, for me, Harmy is restoring Star Wars to what it should be, not making it his own, so I feel it fitting that this ought to be made to look as official as possible.

 

EDIT: Although, the idea of a Harmy title card before the Fox Fanfare starts at the beginning of the film, or else maybe at the opening of the main menu (a la Adywan) wouldn't bother me at all.)

 

Maybe I'm just not keen on the word "Despecialized" being written next to the movie title.

You would also have to label the disc to make it look professional. Do you know how to do that?

yoda-sama said:

chyron8472 said:

Okay then. On-topic it is.

So long as I don't get yelled at by Harmy again. That's no fun.

Certainly agree on this point, Harmy is basically one of my new idols and any time I say something that he takes badly, I feel really terrible about it.

But charging through with off-topic for a second anyway, valinkrai is certainly a bit deluded in his thinking, but that is not a slam on him personally, instead it is a long-held fear coming true.  Ever since the second VHS release of the SE came out (that being the first time the SE trilogy dropped the SE and was billed as THE Trilogy) and then those lovely prequels started debuting, the likelihood of the Star Wars we knew and loved being passed on and instilling the same values and nostalgia it did for the generations up until that point, seemed tangibly bleak. With the original versions being officially written off and only their replacements readily available for new generations to experience, the importance and significance of the original accomplishments would diminish, new "fans" would crop up that don't value the integrity of the films, since they're used to them changing regularly and containing silly scenes that undermine the seriousness and charm that frustrated purists were won over by so long ago.  I can only imagine, but someone growing up with the SE I believe might not have the same kind of love and devotion to the series, that when they grow up they'd have an easy time making a clear division that Star Wars was something they only liked as a child (what with the added silly scenes, unneeded tweaks, dated non-groundbreaking effects [CGI], messed up pacing, etc.), not something that affects them beyond that (okay, some people who live perpetually in their parents' basement might have benefited from this, but still) since many of the layers that I've appreciated when watching it at different points in my life have largely been stripped away with all the SE retooling.  It has been cheapened, and that was bound to have deep effects on the future of Star Wars fandom. 

Efforts like those of Harmy are our greatest hope now, with theatrical cuts becoming available at quality acceptable to the increasingly discerning tastes of children that are bombarded with high definition everything, we can try to undo some of the damage and certainly introduce our offspring to the saga the way we feel it should be seen and appreciated.

I will say that to be doing a presentation on ILM and not considering that ALL special effects changes (saying nothing of the other SE alterations) distorts the effort that went into the original, ground-breaking, award-winning effects doesn't speak well to his qualification on this topic.  For better looking for worse, the historical significance of these films is not to be understated, and should be the foremost basis of any comparison.  Rather than (just guessing at one way you may be doing it) having a presentation starting with how great ILM is now and peppering in how they started, it should be approached from all the hurdles they overcame in the beginning and how they evolved (and evolved with) the film industry.

How I prefer to watch Star Wars on my own time, and how I'm going to present it historically are two totally different things. The speech is mostly about breakthroughs in tech and the rise of CGI. The reason I wanted to use the original opening crawl was, if my readings about ILM are correct, created using the Dykstraflex camera system. It would be disingenuous to present the Blu-rays copies while speaking from a historical perspective.

I don't understand how I would in anyway be unqualified just because I don't care about ILM history when watching Star Wars for fun. When I'm giving a speech on ILM history, of course I'm going to go to the trouble of seeking out the original. It's the only sane thing to do. 

Seems to me as Harmy's done all the work, he deserves creative control over how he makes the menus, no?  LOL

Harmy said:

valinkrai said:

I don't understand how I would in anyway be unqualified just because I don't care about ILM history when watching Star Wars for fun...

...so I'm just using the crawl. The rest is completely non Star Wars, since save for the use of go-motion, I didn't really think they did anything worth talking about...

See, you've basically answered this question for yourself - it's not about your preferred version, it's the lack of knowledge about the VFX in the original breakthrough version - the crawl is probably the least impressive VFX achievement there is in SW, since that kind of thing was being done since like the 1920s and the technology used to do it was pretty much the same. The real breakthrough achievement in VFX technology was the use of motion control cameras with detailed models and improving the blue screen optical compositing and all that on a very tight schedule, under a very low budget and on an unprecedented number of shots, most of which are either completely replaced by CGI in the SE versions or at least digitally tweaked in some way. And go-motion wasn't used in the original Star Wars film at all btw.

But it seems like your presentation wasn't really about the history of ILM, as much as history of CGI, because the thing is that while ILM definitely is connected with the rise of CGI, it also has a long rich history of optical visual effects before that - and those are not just some obscure beginnings either - those are solid 15 years of amazing work.

Don't get me wrong though, I'm not taking a shot at you or anything, I'm really just expressing my sadness over the fact that Lucas' attempt at erasing history seems to be working. May I ask how old you are?

I am 20. Really though, I wish George never changed anything, because as neat as some changes are (I'm very fond of the new Jedi ending music), others are awful, and none are worth the issues among fans that arose from the changes. 

I hope this is not a consideration already brought up, but has anyone seen the main feature of the THX DTS disc? It includes clips from the Star Wars trilogy, Indiana Jones trilogy, and Willow, and I am fairly certain the clips from Star Wars are pre-1997 Special Edition (no nuclear ring from Death Star explosion). Also, since it is DVD, the clips are of very good quality, and I'd imagine this is how the Star Wars trilogy would have looked on DVD before the Special Edition releases. Maybe I am late to the game here, but would it be of any use for further preservation consideration?

I found the disc on the 'spleen recently.

I thought since it is a calibration disc from THX, the coloring of the clips would be closest to the original, but it could also mean what the THX crew at that time of publication thought looked better. The same reasoning follows with the included pod race sequence that looks better from memory than on the DVD of Episode I (didn't do a side-by-side comparison to know for sure). Figured it was worth a look.

I will also take the opportunity to comment on v2.1. Watched with my roommate, and we were both completely in awe with the attention to detail and overall quality. Exceptional job, Harmy. Looking forward to your future projects.

The best bits on that disc for colour reference is the split seconds of TESB, it looks great.

Harmy said:

See, I'm 24, which is just about older by enough to have been exposed to the original version first and that seems to have made quite a difference to my perception of things.

It's not an age thing.  There are people here younger than Mr. 20-Year-Old who get it.