Darth Lucas

Darth Lucas said:

Slightly off topic (not really) but would I be correct to assume that a Respecialized Edition of Empire should be made available fairly quickly after v2.5 of Despecialized?  Since (off the top of my head) there aren't any changes you would need to wait for Project Blu's '97 version to be released (like Jabba in ANH), given that all changes for the '97 edition were carried over in '04 and blu ray releases.  Or are you not planning on doing respecialized editions of Empire and Jedi?

Harmy said:

Well, with Respecialized, I waited for Project Blu mainly for the audio, so if someone made a BD/2004 SE synced DTS-HD audio track from the theatrical DTS discs for me, it really should be a piece of cake to make a Respecialized version of ESB and Jedi.

@WedgeCyan

If somebody could up this to myspleen it would be much appreciated. :)

I have most of the between-movie transitions fleshed out.  Been working mostly on trimming the fat to cut down run-time as much as possible.  Still aiming for 2.5 to hours 3 at most.  Hoping to have a workprint out before too long.

Yes, to Harmy you listen! Lucasfilm! Remember their failure at Lucasfilm!

I think you should use the HDTV as the main source but swap out the Yoda scenes for the Bluray since there is far more interest in the CG yoda in TPM.

Regardless of the sound the clip LOOKS AMAZING!  This is everything I would hope for from an official bluray release from a professional restoration.

That's been happening?  I mean I've noticed the site goes down often-ish but it never occurred to me that it might be happening when somebody was writing a response.  =(  That sucks, Adywan.  Hope the issues get fixed soon.

Then why not take the audio and duplicate the frame before each missing frame of audio to fill in the gaps if you know exactly which frames are missing?  If you aren't sure exactly which ones just duplicate a random frame where no major sounds are and see if that works.  I doubt you'd be able to hear a noticeable difference. except that it would all be aligned.

Ah.  Well I wish I could help there, but audio is not my expertise.  Either way, thank you for the speedy response, Harmy.  =)

Slightly off topic (not really) but would I be correct to assume that a Respecialized Edition of Empire should be made available fairly quickly after v2.5 of Despecialized?  Since (off the top of my head) there aren't any changes you would need to wait for Project Blu's '97 version to be released (like Jabba in ANH), given that all changes for the '97 edition were carried over in '04 and blu ray releases.  Or are you not planning on doing respecialized editions of Empire and Jedi?

Ronster said:

I am not disputing any decisions about music. But deleted score is totally different to adding prequel music. I can't see any downfalls if the right choices are made and since i heard the deleted score when i get some spare time i am going to start a thread about it and do some demo's because kershner although mostly right went a bit too far with the audio cuts to score. But he did a great job on the most part but theres "moments" that should not have been lost.

And some of those "moments" you might struggle to tell the difference

 All those... "moments" will be lost in time. Like (choke) tears... in... rain.

Honestly my ONLY problem with the rounded corners is consistency throughout the trilogy.  I say if he adds them here, Harmy should also add them to SW.  Idk why but little image inconsistencies like that drive me crazy cuz I'll be having a marathon or something and one doesn't have them and then BOOM the next couple have them.  It just makes it feel a little disjointed is all =P  Honestly I like the rounded corners.  It does add to the experience of seeing a well-preserved, expertly cleaned up and restored print.  Good job Harmy!

Well actually alot of it is due to the lightsaber blades.  This is when they were still trying to do the effect in camera.  The rotating wooden blades kept breaking, so they were told to just try and stop before the blades hit each other, limiting the kinds of moves they were able to do and ultimately making it feel less intense than it could have been in comparison to the other films. It doesn't really have to do with it being slow, but a little more spread out and exciting.  Even the ROTJ duel, which was confined to one room, moved around alot and was a pretty intense battle.  The suggestion was simply to maybe allow for some more varied attacks (so it doesn't feel so much like they're just tapping their sabers together gently every so often) and move it out of that small area.

Guys, can we please stop going crazy over the rounded corners? Most of you didn't even notice until they were pointed out to you. It's nitpicking about something that seriously is not a big deal. If you really don't like them then you can crop the .002% of the image that has them and still enjoy an enormous amount of footage that Harmy has reintroduced into the film that otherwise you wouldn't have outside the GOUT.  Remember that Harmy is doing this for the love of Star Wars just like the rest of you. This isn't his job and he is not your employee. If he feels it better represents the original film, then he can add the small rounded corners and you really have no room to complain when he is already doing such a huge service to the fans.  Just accept that complaining about the rounded corners is not helpful and get back to talking about more constructive topics. 

So are you sticking with blu ray for TPM?

Harmy said:

Except for the music, I quite liked what Ady did with the duel in ANH:R but I think filming new stuff would be going a bit too far.

 I don't know. I really enjoy the Ben vader duel on it's own merits. Great scene. But as a part of the rest of the saga it just feels disjointed. Vader and Ben seem pretty evenly matched as slow, old men. Then in empire all of a sudden vader seems to have improved to the point of being a highly skilled, ferocious swordsman.  I'm not saying it would have to be prequel level crazy, but just expanding it a bit so it can stand alongside the duels in empire and Jedi I think could do the saga as a whole some good. It could also help battle of the heroes to fit better and not feel so out of place. It's really not too far a stretch from the kinds of things adywan has in mind for the prequels. I think it would be naive to think the ot is all perfect and that there aren't at least a couple scenes that could do with a bit of an overhal (particularily in rotj). Just a suggestion. :p take it or leave it. 

So I just had a thought.  It would be slightly challenging, but if Adywan so wished, he could potentially get some guy dressed up as Vader and another guy dressed up as Ben, shoot against greenscreen to comp them into different death star backdrops, using the actors masked out of the original scene for dialogue and close ups (get a couple screens of ben's face to cover the actor's in wider shots) and expand the Ben/Vader duel to sort of move throughout the death star to make it more exciting, epic, and able to stand alongside the other duels of the saga in terms of excitement and scope.  Ultimately they would move so that they end up with Ben's death in the same place as the original.  It wouldn't be too difficult, just time consuming.

Regarding the credits.  The font SirJonah used is fairly close, but I think in the end each letter will have to be adjusted individually to match an accurate source.  Is the font in the credits of the GOUT accurate to the theatrical release?  Or were they for some reason altered by the time they did the transfer?

Memorex said:

eldiablosuizo said:

doubleofive said:

CatBus said:

Laserschwert

That whole post was read in my head with my "general forum" voice, except for "Laserschwert", which was Harmy's actual voice from the Sources BTS video. ;-)

Me, too!

I know we don't know each other well, doubleofive, but I think that's a sign.

 Same thing happened for me! Weird :P

 Ever since seeing the sources video, I automatically read all Harmy's posts in his voice.  Haha particularly anytime "Laserschwert" is mentioned.  XD

Use handbrake to convert it.

If it was cheap and easy, everybody would be doing it.

Ryan McAvoy said:

You know until I read that post ^ I hadn't thought about the problems of the main crew being constantly refered to as Commander and General etc by the rest of the Rebels. Not such a problem with Lando since we see how his field-promotion comes about but without the Yavin Battle, medal ceremony or anything, taking Luke, Leia and Han as credible leaders is an issue.

btw not sure if this is a possibility, I'm just shooting from the hip here. Could the (Unused) battle of Yavin footage be used as an opener? Remove all shots of Luke and it could be a last ditch assault on the Death Star to buy Leia time to escape on the Tantive IV. Remember before Luke hits the sweetspot with the help of the Force there is a heck of a lot of missing and dying from the various Rebel pilots. It might just be possible to use the shot from ROTS where Vader and Palpatine are looking at a half finished DS to be a shot of them watching the battle from the bridge of the Stardestroyer that soon pusues Leia. This would nicely foreshadow the Emperor watching the Endor assault later on. Plus when cut with the Yavin footage it'd help sell the fact that the battle is taking place above the same half-finished DSII we are gonna see at the end.

If you completely swapped out the audio in this shot ^ you could have the Emperor saying anything (We don't see his lips I believe?) using borrowed dialogue from ROTS.

"We must move quickly. The Jedi are relentless. If they are not all destroyed, it will be civil war without end. First, I want you to go to the Jedi Temple. We will catch them off balance. Do what must be done, Lord Vader. Do not hesitate. Show no mercy. Only then will you be strong enough with the Dark Side to save Padmé"

^ There's probably lots of other dialogue options but that was the first that came to mind.

Also another thought. This ^ could be used to introduce the idea that Tarkin is the Captain of the Stardestroyer while Jerjerrod is the Moff. That's if there is footage of Peter Cushing you still wanted to use? Tarkin turns away at the end. Could it be because Vader just told him to "lay in a pursuit course"?

I just had a thought.  Perhaps this could be used, not as an opening, but to help further bridge the gap between ANH and TESB.  This could be the introduction to the mysterious emperor.  Have vader walk up.  Dub in "What is thy bidding, my master"  The emperor's vague command could easily be worked to imply he is giving the order for the battle of hoth.  At that point the line "We will catch them off balance" could even be kept.

As I'm just getting to this point in the edit I thought I would point out that I will be taking out Leia being Luke's sister. I feel it's unnecessary to the plot in this particular case and will overcomplicate a relatively simple narrative. It's really only there at this point to give Leia a reason not to choose Luke over Han but I feel it speaks for itself. To make it more obvious, I will also be taking out a lot of the "romantic" moments between Leia and Luke. No kisses on the mouth or cheek, no more Luke awkwardly trying to impress her in ANH "I care". They're friends and I don't think their relationship needs to be any more complicated than that.

For those of you who haven't noticed, I am now on fanedit.org as well and there is another thread over there to accompany this one:  http://www.fanedit.org/forums/showthread.php?12249-The-Star-Wars-Mono-logy

It will destroy only Alderaan.  The main conflict is not between the rebel alliance and the empire, it is between Luke and Vader and that's where I want to keep the focus.  The only way I could see it working in this narrative is through some sort of montage of it destroying different planets, but that doesn't really fit in with the style of the rest of the story, I'm not crazy about the idea of creating several custom shots of different planets blowing up, and it would feel disjointed and distract from the main narrative ultimately to not do very much, if anything, for the story.