ChainsawAsh

I liked all three Bourne movies equally.  Perhaps I liked #3 slightly less than the first too, but it's a remarkably consistently-good trilogy.

Be prepared for a LOT of shaky-cam in #2 and #3, though...

I'm not not being ignored by him.

Which is to say, yes, I am being ignored by him.

I didn't think the probe was travelling millions of miles.  I thought the Star Destroyer parked in orbit around Hoth, dropped the probe droid(s) off, then left to drop more droids off somewhere else.

When I listened to Adywan's 5.1 (not in 5.1, sadly), I didn't notice any of the SE alterations, and that includes the music edits.  I believe he used portions of the '93 mix upmixed to 5.1 for those scenes (with some blending to make sure the difference wasn't too noticeable).  He also reinstated the snowspeeder crash sound.

I dunno, maybe I'm remembering wrong.  I'll check later on to be sure.

And I don't really mind either way about the Rancor.

And Harmy, a black mask over the letterboxing is absolutely essential, trust me.  Make sure it covers the black bars entirely (so we don't see a thin strip of gray over some scenes), but covers up as little of the picture as possible (preferably none at all).

I've been saying exactly that for years.

Fett has no place in ROTJ.

I was raised Episcopal.

No one would have batted an eye if a completely random stranger came into church, sat through mass, and took Communion.

Then again, Episcopalians don't really do the whole "confession" thing.

It's basically Catholic-lite.  Or Diet Catholic, if you prefer.

Yeah, it's basically blurring the image, and then sharpening the blurred version.

Show your friends images from the two "Predator" Blu-Rays.  That's one of the best, most noticeable examples I've come across.  And it helps that you have two HD sources to compare, not one SD and one HD.

Good call with the ProRes 422 HQ.  I've only started working with Final Cut this year in my experimental editing class, but for shits and giggles I ran a comparison test between ProRes 422 and ProRes 422 HQ, and I can tell you that the HQ looks quite a bit better.

Other than that, everything else is a bit over my head!  Though I did download your sample, and while you're right that there isn't that much noise, there is a difference between the 5-capture average and the single capture, subtle though it may be.

I can see it fine.  Clear your cache, maybe?

I've skimmed through the workprint a little bit, and so far my #1 suggestion is this:

Make sure you replace ALL the letterboxing!  In skimming through, I noticed that the letterbox bars alternate between being black (as it should be) and various shades of dark-to-less-dark gray depending on the shot.  This doesn't really matter for a workprint, but for the final product it needs to be consistently black, otherwise it's going to be incredibly distracting.

Other than that, I watched the Vader unmasking scene, and it's not that jarring.  You can tell the non-GKAR shots are clearer, but it could be much, much worse.

How about this one?

(sorry, this will be my last off-topic post in this thread)

So, it seems to me that the way to go is to use the Japanese master for all shots but the ones with subtitles or channel logos in the picture, which would be replaced with the BBC HD version.

TheDigitalBits article on the new Blu-Ray:

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/apocalypse/interview01.html

It has comparison caps between the 2001 IP and the 2010 Blu-Ray master.  Color timing has certainly changed - I for one think it looks better, but I'll reserve my judgment until I can watch the whole film on BR.

The DVDs are not based on the BBC HD master.  You can tell by the Raiders shot with the Jeep flying over the edge of the canyon - the DVD and the Japanese HD version use the original theatrical matte, while the BBC HD version uses the CGI-replacement matte first seen in the SciFi Channel broadcast.

You said the Japanese version has hard subs - could you post some screens of those?  I'd like to know how easy it would be to remove them.

The BBC HD logo would be super easy to remove, as it's entirely within the letterboxing, but as I said, it's not the original version (at least for Raiders).

The original short (THX 1138 4EB: Electronic Labyrinth, I think is the full title) is included on the 2-disc DC DVD.  I think it's on the Blu-Ray as well, but I don't know if it's in HD or not.

Ah, I see.  I thought that may have been the case, but I wasn't entirely sure.

I believe they used a separation master for The Wizard of Oz, too, and that looks pretty fantastic.

Well, three locations if you count the Death Star.  But that means that there's only one new location.

Star Wars - Tatooine, Death Star, Yavin IV - all never-before-seen (obviously)

Empire - Hoth, Dagobah, Bespin - all never-before-seen

Jedi - Tatooine, Death Star, Endor's moon - only one never-before-seen

Phantom - Naboo, Tatooine, Coruscant - two never-before-seen

Clones - Coruscant, Naboo, Tatooine, Kamino, Geonosis - two never-before-seen

Sith - Coruscant, Tatooine, Utapau, Mustafar, Kashyyyk - three never-before-seen (not counting the few we catch glimpses of in the Order 66 sequence)

Jedi feels very small, indeed.

I agree.  The Anakin comp looks good, but not quite perfect.  And since you already have a very good-quality source for the whole shot, why not use it?

It was probably the same source they used for Empire of Dreams, which contains clips of the 1977 crawl and several pre-SE scenes in quality much better than the GOUT.

One problem with community theatre is that you don't always have a lot of choices in the casting pool.

I was in a production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest a few years back.  I played an orderly (I was 18 at the time).  The guy that played McMurphy was the right age, but the guy that played Billy Bibbit (the stuttering kid, that's supposed to be about my age) was in his late 40s.  He wasn't a bad actor, but it still felt a bit odd.

Also, the guy that played the doctor was an alcoholic, and twice during performances I had to run offstage and wake him up to come on while everyone else ad-libbed to try to make his absence not noticeable.

I'm against seeing non-IMAX films in IMAX, because the two times I did so, the film was cropped to fit in the IMAX frame.  (One was Attack of the Clones, the other was Apollo 13.)  Since then, I haven't seen any non-IMAX film in an IMAX theater.

The cropping of the Star Wars movies to 70mm is the difference between 2.39:1 and 2.2:1, which isn't that noticeable.

I'd much prefer a preservation of Star Wars to be from the o-neg, or the first IP struck from said o-neg.  If neither of those can be used for whatever reason, then a 70mm print would be next in line.

TV's Frink said:

You forgot to capitalize the "*" again.

Also, if you hate everything about these movies, then don't post in this thread.

What's this?  Frink is telling someone else to stay on topic?

*head asplode*

Honestly, I didn't think the "Director's Cut" DVD/Blu-Ray of this is nearly as gratingly bad as the SEs of Star Wars, with the sole exception of the CGI monkeys at the end.  Some of the changes improve the film, and some are just kind of neutral.

But I still refuse to buy it until the pre-DC cut is released (I'd love a Close Encounters-style release, with the theatrical cut AND the cut available on laserdisc released alongside the DC).

If I read that right, you're simply replacing the 2004 Anakin shots with the ones from the GKAR set, correct?

If so, good.  :-)