The ‘Custom Special Edition’ That Almost Wasn’t, But Then Was (Released) — Page 5

I can imagine a Sir Ridley voice saying in imitation of a stern line from Anakin: “Don’t ask me to do that!” Haha.

Given the option of the OOT and SE Sarlaccs, for this ‘so you chose to pull the Special Edition off the shelf this time instead of the original version that is also there’ version, I’ll take the beak and all for the reason that I understand the desire to do something about it for a SE.

But I do prefer the gaping maw approach overall to a beak. Seems more… psychologically interesting, similar to Luke milking the walrus things in TLJ.

Don’t get me wrong, if you want to volunteer for such a task, I’m sure there are many who would be elated at having such footage available. In that event, I think working from the un-recolored BluRay may be a good idea in order to just present it for modification from there on the part of any recipients.

I can furnish you with the footage, certainly.
I’d like to think ROTJ could be out in time for a pre-IX viewing, but it’ll depend on a color corrected source becoming available, Adywan most likely.

If you did want to tackle this, I can send you all the relevant shots from both versions, take the results, and sync Hairy Hen’s, the 1997 SE, and the BluRay audio to it in order to hand off a finished sequence ready for use by whomever.

No, I already have. I used the Despecialized edition, which I understand was NewGuy’s source also. It was very easy, because they’re only a total of three brief shots taken from the same angles as the offending shots, and they matched closely already.

Unfortunately, the alternate language crawls’ starfields are not 100% identical, either in color or placement. I’m currently rendering a test clip to see if the best of what I can do pulls it off well enough. I keyframed feathered cropping and crossfaded underlying starfield footage as gradually as things would allow. It gets a little complicated, but everything is as gradual as I can make it, both crossfading and wiping in order to allow the English crawl to come into frame.

I had to leave the house before I could look at the final clip. If it seems seamless, great. If not, I’m okay with the oddly-speedy opening logo for two reasons:

1. I tried first, and
2. It can be a slight holdover from the 1997 SE which was my first Star Wars experience. It’s a very slight change, anyway.

I spent about 2 hours keyframing to try to get the logo to transition into the English crawl as seamlessly as I can. I will upload a clip tomorrow so you can see what you think. I don’t think anyone would have ever noticed anything, but that doesn’t mean it’s good enough.😉

The alternate language starfields flicker, but the regular English one is static. They also aren’t a perfect match of color or brightness. So I overlaid a still frame from the alternate crawl at half opacity and key framed a crop that followed the logo as it recedes. The English crawl creeps up by means of a keyframed crop. All the while, the star field beneath (which fills in any blank frame area from the other cropped clips) is gradually fading from the alternate to the English.

Here’s a clip of the opening logo and crawl. I spent some more time tweaking it, maintaining a pretty tight crop around the receding logo and as subtle and gradual of a transition as I could after that point. I think it’s better this way, keeping the flickering of the alternate language crawl to a minimum from the start by keeping a tight crop on the logo. Anyway, I think it passes muster.

https://vimeo.com/311913155
password: fanedit

Looks good 👍

ZandFlare92 PM’d me a good idea: using a wipe for the transition around the Jabba deleted scene, rather than the OOT’s crossfade. He pointed out to me that Adywan and KK650 each took this approach, which I was unaware of.

I’d already locked sync down for the project, but was able to massage things a little to get it to work well enough using a few things working together. I don’t want to point out what I did, but here’s a clip.

https://vimeo.com/313712928
password: fanedit

That’s awesome, it was just really a thought I had to bring to the table of your edit. I can’t wait to see it. Appreciate the shoutout. 😄

While ANH is coming together, I have also put together as complete of a workprint as I can for ROTJ.

NeverArGreat will be doing his best to get some 4K83 material to blend as closely as possible with the surrounding BluRay footage, and Ridley stepped forward to remove the Sarlacc beak. And, of course, I’ll be waiting on the primary source: Adywan’s color corrected ROTJ BluRay. I know my life will be even busier and so I’ve been hustling to get as much of this done and ready as possible.

Well, if this is to be my version of a ‘special edition,’ it’s understood that it stands alongside the originals. That being my guideline, I’ll be using some form of the SE ending.

I love Yub Nub, and half the time I’ll watch the OOT and get to hear it.

That’d be going against the grain of the other two films and seems to put the cart before the horse. I’m not going for a restoration but a fixed up SE that is free to look somewhat digitized.

4K83 is awesome and I’m thrilled to have it when I want to watch the original version, which for ROTJ is very important, but it’s not gonna be my main source for this project.

JEDIT: Is 4K97 going to be a thing?

In my head cannon the ending the 97 version is my favorite of the ending. I seen one fan edit that had the the 04 version but somehow mute the “Wesa Free!”, and just used footage of Sebastian Shaw in place of Hayden. If it were me, that’s how I would honestly do it. I know most people say oh the Empire just didn’t suddenly fall with the Death of the Emperor and Death Star II. Which in a real reality that would be true. I only like that only because it adds world building to the Star Wars galaxy. The only downside to the 97 version is when Coruscant is shown, the Jedi Temple and Senate building aren’t present in the 97. More then likely just those building were ideas/concept at the time. Being the Phantom Menace was just in the pre production phase the time the Special Editions were done before filming that next year in 98. To me I find it pretty cool how George how the visual look of Coruscant just two years prior.

Yeah, that looks like what I’ll have to do for the ending: 2011 visuals (except the ghosts) and muting the gungan shout.
When I mocked up my original idea it went by too quickly since there wasn’t enough clean footage of Naboo available after the structure leaves the frame that is supposed to transition from Tatooine. I still don’t think Tatooine should be having an absolute riot like that, but it’s all right.

And a 4K97 would be awesome to have, but this project won’t need it. This isn’t a ‘desert island’ or ‘only copy you’ll ever need’ version.

Well maybe the celebration is all the scum and villainy Ben speaks of coming together. They’re all celebrating that fact they can commit crime and gang related stuff again without the Empire getting involved lol. Maybe everyone is also celebrating the Death of Jabba lol. It’s funny when you think outside the box on stuff sometimes lol.