Darth Venal

I really do want to read that book! I didn't realise I'd gotten so far out of the loop.

I know all about working at night and then spoiling the day, it's a habit I've thankfully just about gotten out of. Can I ask what it is you're working on?

Don't worry about typos; the only one I really noticed was, ironically, "typo's". :-)

Hope you get something out of your nap. Being tired sucks.

Blimey, that's me updated. I wasn't aware how convoluted it had all become! Ah, I long for the pre-internet days where we just had fanzines and the pace of information was, shall we say, more tempered. Or do I. Hm.

Sorry to hear you're having a rough time, is it in relation to anything specific? Hope it's something you can overcome easily. Take it easy. I'm laden with work to catch up on all weekend, most of which is other people's that they didn't finish (gah!), so I'll be online for the duration.

Thanks for all the extra info.

DVD-BOY:

The specs do include the option of 1440x1080 which could be flagged as anamorphic, but I have yet to see any disc use this.

And why would they? Anamorphic on DVD serves to increase the resolution of a widescreen image in what is an inherent 4:3 frame, so that a widescreen image only has to be expanded once (horizontally) instead of twice. But using 1440 x 1080 frame on Blu-ray would be a reduction in image definition, so why would anyone use that?

But the WGA actually evaluates these things. It's not a matter of Lucas crediting Brackett as a tribute. The WGA looks at the scripts and decides accordingly what the creditation is, in cases of special circumstance like this.

Oh, anyway, it's so long ago, who can say? And do any of us really care? The Empire Strikes Back, for very many of us, is the finest of the six Star Wars films, and I'm glad whoever wrote it wrote it the way they did.

Sevb32:

In the annotated screenplays it's said none of Brackett's draft was left. Not a bit of it.  Lucas put her name there as a tribute

Yeah I remember that, but I seem to remember producer Julia Phillips talking about this (and we're talking many years ago) and she was praising Brackett for what she did on that script given that she was also sick. Hm, now I'm confused.

But anyway, I don't really care who wrote it, I just know it's the best written of all six Star Wars movies, and the best directed.

Darth Plagueis:

No other installment of the series would be able to top the genious of the tandem that was George Lucas - Lawrence Kasdan - Irvin Kershner.

Actually, Leigh Brackett was responsible for most of the writing on Empire. She wrote virtually all the first draft of the screenplay before she died and Kasdan came in to work on it later because Brackett didn't have time to rewrite or polish. But if you read all the drafts, the great writing on Empire is largely down to her, not Kasdan. And remember what he and Lucas managed to do with Jedi's script...

You also forget Gary Kurtz, who produced both Star Wars and Empire, but not Jedi. He might have had differences with Lucas, but he did a hell of a job on both Star Wars movies - the best two - that he produced.

I just rewatched TESB today and those inconsistent landing platform mattes really irk me now. Damn it I never should have gotten into this fan edit lark!

Adywan:

Well that shot has been changed. There is no sun behind the clouds in my version because the sun in all the other shots is in the opposite direction. Only the shots you see of the city has the sun facing the approaching falcon.

Although, there is only one other shot with the sun in it and it's behind and to the left, as it is in the matte I put up. The other shots are only cloud shots, and the lighting seems to be inconsistent from shot to shot.

Ady, are you planning on any sexy Bespin sunset mattes? I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd like to see something like this... Not to put pressure on you, but you know we're relying on you :-)

Hey there was no need for the PM, you didn't annoy me! Does my post read as annoyed? Well, it wasn't meant to and I'm not, so peace and love, peace and love.

Well, I wasn't joking about Jedi, I think that movie is deeply flawed, and no amount of fan editing is going to fix it.

You got any other suggestions that I could have a try at doing? I can't wait to get some decent time off work to really put in some hours. I should be getting my hands on a copy of the broadcast tapes directly from Sky soon, which is just going to make me desperate to get going.

Sure, that wouldn't be hard to do. Funny that it sort of annoys me when the prequels make something from the OT look better. It makes me want to make the OT look slicker than they do, when for 20 years I never cared about these little things.

And as much as I like to see more believable console displays etc, they just don't feel like they're in the right movie.

You know, watching Star Wars again today I decided there is one change that I just have to make. This is purely personal taste, and there is no need for it to be done, but I have always hated the red walls in the Death Star control room where they go after sneaking off the Falcon. I will try to turn them grey or black. I hate that red. :-)

Really, you think he didn't know what he had planned for that story thread? I think it's pretty darn obvious that he did. I don't think for one second, once he knew that he was going to get to do the trilogy, that it was all done on the fly. I think the end of TESB is crystal clear, in hindsight, with regards to both Leia being the other and Vader being dad.

I agree that this edit won't touch it; indeed, why would any edit want to? There's absolutely nothing wrong with the structure or plot in Empire. It's testament to how strong a film it is that there is so little to change. Updating special effects is no indication of the film being flawed, rather it's just an indication of the technical capabilities of the time. Effects aside, I don't think Empire needs touching.

Just don't get me started on Jedi!

I took it more as a dysphemism/malphemism. Funny how plain text can be read different ways.

By the way, regarding Empire, I'm sure those of you as old as me may remember all the gossip in the genre magazines after Empire and before Jedi about who the "other" hope that Yoda spoke of was. Well, I still have some of those magazines and it seems quite incredible, in hindsight, that none of them suggested Leia. I mean, when you look at the movie now, it seems plain as day that Vader is Luke's father once they have communicated through the Force, but even more obvious is that Leia is the "other". Luke calls out to her in the Force and she hears it. That shot of Leia hearing him is quite amazing, I think, but I really do wonder why nobody seemed to think she was the one!

Any of you remember this speculation? I think if we'd had the internet back then, we'd have had it all thrashed out well before Jedi was released.

It would certainly be a nice nod to saga continuity to have it in ANH proper.

I agree. That's why I'll be putting them into my edit. It's simple to do, and at least in Episode II they put the stones far enough away that they don't necessarily have to be seen in any shots from Star Wars/ANH. But I'll add them into a couple of shots purely out of whimsy, and because I think they seal the deal of this being an inherited home and they look interesting.

Cheers. They're not quite finished but that's the general idea. I might add bigger, nearer clouds to the Tosche Station matte. One thing that always struck me about the shots of Tatooine in the original movie: this planet is supposed to be barren and has no seas, yet most shots are actually pretty cloudy. Instead of moisture vapirators, they might has well put out a bucket, it should capture more with all the rain they should get. That lovely new shot in the SE of the Sandcrawler at least has a cloudless sky. So maybe I won't add more clouds, maybe a few wisps.

Chewtobacca:

Really don't see why people are so attached to the old emperor.  Looks like what it is.  A girl in half a chimp mask.

Or rather, an old woman with chimp eyes composited over hers.

Well, it's meant to be somewhat shiny as it's in bright sunshine, but in the HD image it's clearly stone and not metal. Not really sure what you meant with some of your post. As for being too clean, well, this is reduce way down from HD, which has a lot of detail, but it's bound to look clean as it's a brand new digital image.

These are a couple of plates I've been working on. Well, I guess the Tosche Station one is a matte painting as most of it has been recomposed, whereas the Lars homestead one is more just a modified plate of the location with a couple of digital touch-ups. I really want to put those gravestones into my edit, and added one for Cliegg - I'm assuming he's dead! (I don't think he'd get very far on that chair.)

These are vastly reduced in detail by the resizing, but you get the picture...

In the Tosche Station shot, I'm using it to lead into the deleted scenes. We will wipe to this shot after Luke sees the battle, his speeder will fly into shot from overhead and fly into the centre of the painting, and pull up sideways to match the live shot of Luke jumping out. My partner is playing Luke in the wide shot jumping up, to cut with the original material - we've already got an identical hat and my nana is making the costume! hehe.

good spot, can't say I ever noticed that. shouldn't be hard to fix.

Damn it, that means we're going to have to do some work of our own! You realise most of us have been living vicariously the life of a fan edit master, and now this?!

;-)

A new wampa puppet. Damn, that's some serious work.

Well, we mentioned Boba Fett, he's in Empire. And Ghost did put it back on topic after our endless off-topic posts. Which reminds me, I'd also love to see the Wampa made more consistent. That first shot we see just doesn't look like a big creature, it looks like a little puppet. As much as I don't really like the inserted shots (as they don't match up very well) the creature itself does look good.

I don't know how that first shot can really be replaced though, it's hard to manipulate any other footage to replace it I think. I might have a look...

Yeah, I remember that beauty. But how could you forget the Boba Fett costume and the stormtroopers? I wouldn't have minded putting those into the boot of my car!

Good to see you back on here, by the way. I'm heading off site soon, catch you in the week?

Jonno: 

oh_riginal said: 

Since the PT came out, the Obi Wan duel has bothered me even more, not because of the choreography, but because we are to believe that Obi Wan as a character is in his late 50's when he is killed on the Death Star, yet Qui Gon Jinn is supposed to be around 60 years old in TPM, making them close to being the same age when they died, yet Qui Gon's dueling looks much more convincing. To make it even worse (for me anyway), Count Dooku is supposed to be in his 80's during AOTC and ROTS! I won't bother with Yoda, since he's an alien and his species is mysterious.

 

 They're ALL aliens, as far as we're concerned. Granted, human-looking characters in the Star Wars universe are subject to most of the same physical limitations as the rest of us (making all the arguments about unnatural movement perfectly valid), but who's to say the same rules of longevity apply?

Anyway, their 'years' most definitely wouldn't be the same as our 'years'   ;-)

But regardless, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gonn are the same species, so Oh_riginal's point is valid. And we are supposed to accept that the "humans" in the movie are for all intents and purposes just that, human.  And years are irrelevant, if they're the same species (and they are) it doesn't matter how you measure age, because biologically they are the same.

I think we just have to accept the disparity between the two trilogies, and reflect that film-making an action choreography has changed fundamentally in the time between the two.

Yum!