Mr Ghostface said :
I was just pointing out that it's not all that special and some of the praise Adywan gets for it seems to be borne of an ignorance of how much simpler this is to do than a lot of people realise.
How? If you can't back up this claim with an explanation you might as well be saying you can transmute base metals into gold.
Bingowings, I have no intention of justifying further any "negative" criticisms I have made because I don't have to. I'm as entitled to criticise a fan editor's work as I am the work of professionals, as are we all.
Offering constructive criticism is perfectly valid and possibly helpful but claiming to be able to achieve similar results with less effort does require justification if you want your comments to be taken seriously in any way.
If you possess such skills passing them on will assist people in making more projects some of which will be more to your liking.
But when I've heard a decade and more of Lucas-bashing for his "meddling", I'd like to think we can avoid making similar (or the same) mistakes in our own work.
People are critical of George Lucas altering his films in ways that don't sit well with them not just because of the alterations themselves but because he has refused to make available the original films to a high quality and both DVD sets have been presented to us in an inferior way (that was why this site was originally set up).
We are all Star Wars fans, none of us would be here if we weren't appreciative of the good work he has done, most of us have paid money to see these films in various formats over the years.
When both DVD sets are of such low quality it understandable that people are going to be angry with that.
These weren't free fan edits, they were officially produced and distributed by the same company that made and distributed the films and were purchased by the people who provided those companies with the fortunes they currently play with.
Adywan on the other hand created not just this project but a Purist Edition (stripped of much of the changes you don't like) as well as restorations of the theatrical and DVD cuts of the prequels.
Like all of us he is lending his voice to getting a high quality version of the original films released so we can buy them.
That puts what he does, as an amateur (in the true sense of the word) in a totally different place to what Lucas and Lucasfilm has done as large Hollywood concern.
DarthBo said:
Bingowings, relax man, the guy is allowed to have an opinion. It's not like he's the only one who doesn't like some of Adywan's choices.
As the French say: les goûts et les couleurs, ça ne se discute pas.
Mr Ghostface, you should get the purist edition. It still has some of the unnecessary changes, but it's an improvement (imho) :-)
That isn't what I posted against, I myself don't like all of the changes that Adywan made, I also directed Mr Ghostface to the Purist Version.
What I took umbrage with his assertion that people were laying undue praise at Adywan's feet for work which is much simpler than a lot of people realise.
If you read my earlier replies to his comments they were in a much lighter vein.
The post that follows isn't just an opinion on an edit, it's a arrogant derogation of what almost everyone who posts here is trying to do. While it might be within the rules of the forum what purpose does it serve? What do we learn from it (other than not to take this man's comments seriously)?
Mr Ghostface said :Actually Mr Ghostface has a lot of other things to do besides come here all the time because, as you asked, yes, I work in the industry. Before this goes any further, please let me say that I don't feel a negative criticism demands deeper explanation than a positive. If you feel disrespected, I'm sorry. Insulting you wasn't the intention. But if I can't say I think the blue planet sucked without getting demands to justify myself, then sorry, delusions of grandeur have taken hold. So what if it was a hi-res NASA photograph? When you composited it and did whatever you did to it, it didn't look very good. And while I'm busy not defending my point of view, and my right to criticise, let's all just take a look at how freely we all lambast George Lucas for what he's "done" to our beloved trilogy. I'm sure I don't need to cut and paste negative opinions of the special editions, or indeed Adywan's own feelings which motivated him to make his edits. But that's okay? Despite the fact that he created these movies in the first place, it's then perfectly okay for people to throw harsh criticism at some of his decisions over the special editions. Yet when someone like me criticises further changes made by a fan editor, I'm out of order? That's more than a little hypocritical. Yes, Adywan has put a commendable amount of effort into his work. I think his dedication to it is truly impressive. But that means I can't say some of it doesn't work? Or that some of it is just plain unnecessary? Nonsense.
Star Wars was a moderately budgeted sci-fi flick which happened to do big business. If there are minute discrepancies between the position of R2-D2 in one shot and the next, because of the practicalities of the shoot, who cares? Not very many people. If some scenes don't have music, maybe Lucas and Williams know what they're doing? And so who cares if someone spends hours of their time "correcting" something that never needed correcting?
