CatBus

Great project, I wish you luck.  Regarding audio, the French audio from the NTSC discs is the correct speed for syncing with Harmy's video and the correct pitch for matching the French theatrical prints.  PM me if you're interested.

You may want to work directly with the German group, as they may have some scripts and suggestions for how to do things like the crawl text.  Also you may be able to ask Harmy for a sub-free version (please give him time first to finish v2 though!) so you can add burnt-in French subs.  Are the French credits different?

And I also want to put in a plug for my own subtitle project (Project Threepio, in this forum), which you may find useful.

timdiggerm said:

Recreated logos? Sounds like we're getting into Star Wars Preservationist Preservation!

 Can anyone tell what font that is? ;)

djchaseb said:

TV's Frink said:

Family Guy...

*sigh*

I take it you're not a fan, it's one of the few shows I watch lol.  That and Ancient Aliens lol

You know, it's not like our lawn isn't clearly marked, guys...

bttfbrasilfan said:

Harmy, what do you think about this?

That on a T-shirt.

SilverWook said:

No problem. Since I don't know what form the Japanese preservation is going to take, I wanted to have some other video sources as they were cheap to get.

I like the print Criterion used, as it's a bit Grindhouse. Cue marks at reel changes, and a little scratchy in places. It may be the only video release that doesn't just fade to black over the ending organ music.

If you're after the Superman DVD set, I've seen it for dirt cheap in the clearance bins at clothing stores like Ross.

I'd love to try to use the preserved Japanese track if I can get it to sync well with my trimmed Blu (can't necessarily say it won't drift by a few frames here and there, but I'll certainly try...).

The beginning/end frames are all I really need for cutting, and I certainly hope I've already got that covered.  Framing differences don't interest me very much--as far as I can tell, all the technical aspects of the Sony transfer were done to very high standards and I'm not inclined to second-guess any of them.  It's really just the content changes that concern me.

All I really need at this point is some sound samples that bridge the cut, so I can either re-create it using the Blu Ray audio, or splice it into the Blu Ray audio to cover the transition, whichever ends up working best.  Besides, the dubs & subs angle is where things can get really fun, assuming it works at all.

Re: Superman, you may be right.  I seem to have missed this.  Yet another boxed set I need to buy just for one disc... which I suppose was the whole point... grr...

Not to worry, the OAR argument (for this project anyway...) is already over and 1.66:1 has won the day.  As for rendering the video, a few days ago I mentioned it may be done by "next week"... well, it's still grinding away, but so slowly that I think that was terribly optimistic, and I don't think I'll be making any more predictions.  I'll just notify everyone when the video is done and then I'll start working on the audio.

EDIT: I had mentioned thinking of doing Superman next, but it appears there would be a lot more involved than just deleting the extra scenes, and I don't think I'm really up for that.

EyeShotFirst said:

ChainsawASH did the 90 box set, so I've decided to tackle the 92 box set.

I will upload these after I am confident in their quality, and I am done with the Blu Ray sized covers I am doing for Harmy's edits.

The images I used are the highest quality I could manage. Painstaking hours in front of a computer searching for the highest of quality images. The fonts I used aren't exact, but they are very close.

 

Do you have a standalone image of the poster you used for your Empire cover?  i.e. I can't seem to find a good-quality copy with Yoda and visible Tauntaun feet.

Interesting about the Japanese track...ugh.  As for versions, I'll take what I can get: Laser and DVD being preferred in case I have to use the segment for something other than reference (I'm still holding out hope I'll just be able to stitch it all together from the Blu Ray audio so I don't have to do any level matching or anything, but you never know).

Anyway, ten seconds of lossless or lossy from any digital source would be grand, as long as it spans the cut as I described above.  I would like a better audio reference than YouTube ;)

You'll need to go to tehparadox and search for the term "Project Threepio".  Like Harmy, I don't post direct links on this forum.

As to help, all I really need is Portuguese subtitle rips from the Brazilian GOUT for ESB and ROTJ, even better if someone can convert them to text files and proof them for errors.

So you're an Ewok, then?

axelhawk said:

There are subtitles for this release? I'm brazilian...

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Announcing-Project-Threepio-Star-Wars-OOT-subtitles/topic/13794/

If you have the Brazilian GOUT discs, PM me.  I'm still dubious of the quality of my Portuguese subs for ESB and ROTJ, but the ones for SW are good.

In the meantime, it may be worth trying to compile audio tracks from the earlier DVD releases (English, French, Japanese and Portuguese, maybe even commentaries, if anyone has them), in case I need to use them to cover the transition.  And really I don't need the whole thing, just maybe ten seconds per language, beginning just before the cut and ending ten seconds later.  Otherwise I'll do the best I can with the English audio and will probably simply not do the rest.

None at all, I'm afraid, except as a cautionary tale whenever I feel the need to fix something that's not broken.

Project files have been updated to version 1.2, incorporating many suggestions from IronMagus (original post has been updated as well).  Please check tehparadox for the updated links, they are NOT the same as the original link.

Rough summary of changes:

Minor improvements to subtitles in all languages for all movies, fixed one major mistake in ROTJ where a burnt-in subtitle was unnecessarily subtitled.  SRT files contain many fixes (codepage fixes, closed all italic tags) which should improve compatibility with other software and platforms (I cannot guarantee they will work with everything, however).  Project files are broken into three separate downloads so that people just looking for one type of file don't have to download as much other stuff.

I'll figure more out as I work with the audio.  Right now I'm cutting the video because that's the really hard and time-consuming bit, and I'll leave audio alone until the video is done (the computer is totally bogged down with that job).  To me, it sounds like the sound editor simply took the first few seconds of audio from the deleted scene, and put that onto the first few seconds of the following scene so that they just blended together.  However I'm a little concerned that they may have also added an echo effect and a fade in to better match the existing dialogue.

According to the progress bar on my computer, I should be done cutting the video sometime next week ;)

Wow, thanks for both.  I was definitely cutting in the wrong place!  Oh well, time to start over! ;)

EDIT: Looks like the audio cutover and video cutover are not in the same place!  Tricky, but I think I can swing it.

That's the current plan.  The hangup is getting the software to cooperate (I'm attempting to cut based on the CED screenshots right now, and it's taking F-O-R-E-V-E-R, let's see if my feeble hardware can handle it), and then if I want to port over the dubs & subs too (and you know that's a hard trap for me to avoid).  And chapter stops.

EDIT: Laser/DVD screenshots still very much welcome.  The CED-based cuts don't seem ideal to me (which doesn't mean they're not correct, but still)

We're talking theatrical... to the best of my abilities ;)

I'm not sure one way or the other about the Studio 5 logo.  Certainly the Blu Ray has no logo (old or new), but that doesn't mean anything, except that's what the final product will look like unless someone convinces me otherwise.

...and I'm only half-joking about my ability to pull this off at all.  The whole POINT of me choosing this movie was because it was so darn easy to fix and presented a good learning proof-of-concept.  If it gets much harder, it's a less attractive choice for a beginner like me.

TServo2049 said:

Also, that Cinema 5 logo only showed up on the U.S. theatrical run. It wasn't on the 1999 DVD, and it wasn't on the theatrical screening I attended - both of those just started with "PYTHON (MONTY) PICTURES LTD in association with MICHAEL WHITE presents". This project shouldn't have any logo at the beginning, or anything preceding that credit.

Not to worry.  This project is in the hands of someone who is not only inexperienced, but also fairly lazy.  I wouldn't worry so much about me overreaching so much as finishing the project at all ;)

I could use before/after frames from laser or DVD, just any source where I'm sure I'm getting the exact frames.  They may be the same as the CED frames in the previous link (well, technically the CED frames are the beginning and end of the new bit, so they're one frame off, but it's still the same point), but again I just want to be extra sure before I do any cutting.

I don't believe Dentist on the Job was originally theatrical, although it may have been added to the 2001 theatrical run with the revised print/surround audio, so it's theatrical in that sense.  Either way it's beyond my capabilities to mix different sources at different resolutions and have it come out looking halfway decent, so no I'm not doing it.  I'm not Harmy ;)

Consider yourself lucky.  I think the extra bits really drag the whole pace of the scene down (which is, I'm sure, why it was cut in the first place, and why I'm bothering re-cutting it).

The original 2000 DVD release may very well not have the extra Anthrax scene, yes.  But I'm doing all of this based on the Blu Ray release, editing to match those frames (more or less).

So, having looked at the sequence now, I could probably still use some reference frames (I can probably work with the CED frames but I'm not sure how accurate they are).  It looks like the cuts are not made during a camera change, so with the scene removed it may "jump" a bit at the cut point.  A frame on each side of the jump is what I'd like ideally.

Well, if you don't hear from me on this for a while, I'll be giving the following a whirl:

Remove the Dingo scene, have the only English soundtrack be the mono one.  I am sticking with 1.66:1.  I'll see what I can do about dubs & subs, but that's secondary.

This could take a long time.  I'm in no hurry and am learning as I go.  If all goes well, maybe I'll try to re-yellowify Do the Right Thing, who knows...  Basically I'm looking at movies where the video quality is already damn near perfect on the Blu-Ray except for one little easily fixed issue.  Suggestions welcome!

SilverWook said:

I'm holding onto the three disc DVD set, as a couple extras got dropped for the Blu Ray, or were put into that iPhone app I'll never be able to use.

The LDDB listings mention three different ratios:

http://www.lddb.com/search.php?search=holy+grail&sort=title

I'm not that fond of the 2001 re-release soundtrack remix, as they added music and effects that weren't there originally. Unfortunately, if you catch a theatrical screening today, that's the soundtrack you get.

Actually LDDB reports 4 ratios!  Love that 1.75:1 ratio, way to anticipate HDTVs!

I'm already decided on mono sound (MAYBE with 5.1 as an option).  Well I'll let this thread simmer and gather posts and see how it stacks up.  Certainly 1.66 is both easier AND people seem to like it, so really it's just my residual nervousness keeping me away from it.

The aspect ratio is more a matter of wanting to get things RIGHT than something I care strongly about.  Actually the only thing I care strongly about is getting that extra Dingo scene out of there!  Mono or 5.1 doesn't even matter a great deal to me, but it's very clear which one is theatrical, so that's an easy decision.

So, with respect to other Python films, And Now For Something Completely Different was 1.85:1, Life of Brian was 1.85:1, and Holy Grail was in between those, but at a different AR?  Why did the 1.66:1 aspect ratio apply only to the middle film?  Even Jabberwocky was 1.85:1.  I'm trying to look for some sort of evidence of something other than 1.85:1 in a European theatre setting, but I'm just not seeing it.  I'm not saying it wasn't 1.66:1, but the available evidence, if it can be said to point any direction at all, seems to point the other way.

Aesthetically, I don't mind 1.66:1 one bit.  In fact, like you, I like it and may even prefer it.  But if I'm going in there and editing out a scene anyway, I may as well get the aspect ratio while I'm at it.  And for me it's not a matter of which I prefer, it's which is correct, and that's why I'm asking.

Please don't take this as pushing back out of sheer stubbornness.  I just want to make double- and triple-sure of everything before I dive into this.  Certainly leaving the AR along would make the task a lot easier!