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Please write an essay of approximately 500-700 words (typically about two double-spaced pages) on one of the following topics. Check the box of your selected topic.
The 18th-century French philosopher Denis Diderot said, “Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.” Describe one of your passions and discuss its contribution to your personal growth.
Okay…
<div class=“PostQuote”>There has never been a time when I didn’t know Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker’s father. There has never been a moment in my conscious memory that I can sincerely remember sitting down and seeing Star Wars for the first time. Since the pre-cognitive development of my very self awareness, I have been aware of every twist, every surprise, every plot turn and story pivot in the glory that is the original Star Wars trilogy, burned and singed into my mind and known since before I ever knew. With such a burning and obsessive passion as this one, it’s no wonder the CGI “enhancements” and shoddy digital restoration job on the 2004 DVD got on my nerves.
As many Star Wars nerds can attest to, the main issue with Star Wars right now is not the Prequel Trilogy (heretofore known as “non-existent”), but the omission in the consumer domain of a properly restored version of the original, unaltered Star Wars trilogy. In 2004, it was announced that these cinematic classics would finally be coming to DVD, this would have been great, but it was also announced that the versions of the films would be the 1997 “Special Editions,” featuring anachronistic CGI “improvements,” and that as long as Lucasfilm had their way, the originals would never see the light of day.
It was a daring proposition: can I reconstruct the original version of Star Wars by deleting CGI elements and mixing in lower resolution sources to create a version of the film worth watching?
The renovation of the unaltered version was simple enough. Whenever a shot or frame contained a moment of Lucasfilm CGI amendment, I simply use my video editor software to replace it with a lower quality, but original version of the shot. About 90% of the time, one would be able to watch the film in beautiful picture quality, only every now and then seeing it go slightly grainy, for need to expurgate beastly and misbegotten “enhancements.”
But a monkey was thrown into the mix. What is wrong with this DVD transfer?
As many nerds can tell you, the film restoration of Star Wars was done by an automated process called Lowry Digital. Instead of a careful, manual approach to ensure the best transfer of the now over 30 year old film elements, a hackneyed computer went about its bombastic way, resulting in an image that was too dark, over saturated, and off-set of its color values in almost every shot. I researched RGB filtering, color pass filtering, and HSV adjustment, an array of tools at the disposal of any digital restoration lab with the patience to do things right.
If I have spoken colloquially or delved too deeply, I apologize, for it is passion that drives me to impress upon the reader the sense of the journey it takes to endure a venture such as this. Imagine the reaction one gets when they tell their friends they have found a new Avisynth frame-serving function that will automatically match one source’s color, hue, and RGB values to another source’s histogram graph, making the color correction much easier during the Death Star sequences. I cannot blame them for the blank stares.
There is not a moment in time I can remember a first time with Star Wars, but there is indeed never a moment in time I know I will forget it. The experience a project like this affords me is indispensable. Wanting to be a filmmaker, my knowledge of non-linear video editing has not been as vast as it has after this project. A 20 minute student film is not so daunting a task as it is before you completely restore a two hour science fiction classic. My ability to color correct my films, edit sequences, and tell my story has never been so finely crafted. My endeavor to save the films I love has in turn saved my own. And though I may never make it big with a smash hit like Star Wars, I at least know the restoration work on my films will look incalculably better than anything you could pull off the shelves at your local video store with the Lucasfilm logo on it.</div>
It’s exactly 700 words, fudged some facts a little bit for humor and/or clarity. This is probably a real gamble, so it’s too bad I already sent it out. If it’s way too far over the reader’s head, they’re going cite it as “unclear” and say I can’t make my writing clear and are therefore not a very good writer. But if the reader “gets it” then this is fucking gold. It’s basically one big set-up of long, wordy, esoteric terms that lead back to the same two word punch-line, “Star Wars.”
I thought I’d share it, kinda relates to some Star Wars issues. Hope you had fun reading it. Oh yeah, and guess what I put in the “quick takes” section that asked what the best movie of all time was? That’s right. 2001: A Space Odyssey.
