Darth Venal

Hi,

No, it wasn't Angel's. The costumes I had were still tagged and labelled, and clearly very old, and that was in the mid-'90s. The main warehouse was just amazing, I've never seen anything quite like it, just a cavernous space absolutely packed to the rafters with costumes. Some of them were languishing in a terrible state because there just wasn't the money to preserve them properly, which is very sad.

Double0five, what did your changes involve?

Sorry if you posted them in the thread somewhere, I don't fancy fishing through 300 pages of back catalogue.

deleted

Yes, of course he can speak for himself, but there's no reason I can't vouch for him, just as Adywan vouched for me, and others vouch for Adywan. There's no reason he should be singled out in any way.

I'll be posting mattes hopefully at the weekend, should I get enough time at home. I can't wait to get my current work done... the last thing you want to do sometimes when you've been tweaking graphics all day is go home and do the same.

What do you guys do for work?

Precisely.

I'm not sure bullying is any more acceptable than trolling, and Ghost did apologise. As for the "rest of his trolling", I'm sorry, but there are others as well as me who feel he's entitled to post criticisms. Criticism is not trolling. While Ghost's tone wasn't great, he did offer reasons for his feelings.

Tobar:

Wow that sucks, you'd think because it was Harry Potter the opposite would be true and they'd throw heaps of money at you.

Oh no. Anyone who thinks working on big productions will get you big money needs to think again. No-one does this work at any junior crew level for the money. I was also at Leavesden when they did Phantom Menace, and trust me, everybody got paid very badly then, too.

Anyway, at least today turned out better than I expected. I got to work early doors and have been farmed out to edit somewhere else (location classified) which suits me fine because it's much more laid back here. Don't get me wrong, I love film work, it's what I always wanted to do, but there are so many people in this industry who go about it all the wrong way both in attitude to their colleagues (it's maliciously competitive) and in passion for the work. I reckon about 10% of the people I've ever worked with actually have a passion for the artistry of film-making, whichever area they're in. The rest just want success. I find that very sad.

Referring back to the little tiff with Mr Ghostface, whom I know, I think if you met him you'd realise his frustrations come mainly from his inability to cope with people who have the wrong attitude to their work. I let it run off my back, it's the only way to survive. Ghost suffers from intense rationality and fairness, which sometimes leads him to be a little "too honest" if you know what I mean. Anyway, I've told him to get his bottom back on the forum and start afresh. He's a talent, and I hope he can share it on here.

Well, rescuing my post by getting back on topic in the denouement, sort of, I forgot to tell you all that I once worked at the UK's (now second) largest costume company and they had some original Star Wars costumes. If only I'd stayed in touch with them... I'd have borrowed it all and shot some new stuff. Damn.

Monroville,

Mr G apologised already and everyone else had moved on from that, so can't you? And if you're going to berate the guy, at least be reasonable. You accuse him of ranting about it for pages, when it's pretty darn clear that he was only defending his position to those that were challenging him. You might not like his position, you don't have to, but he's just as entitled to defend it as you are yours.

Now, can we call move forward? It doesn't look like he's coming back here anyway.

Dude, the amount of sleep I've had on this job, I'd say no if I could go back and choose again. Trust me, it's just a job, except it pays less than most other stuff I've done because they expect you to do it for next-to-nothing because it's Harry Potter. I'll finish the series then I'm out of Leavesden. I was warned, and next time I'll heed those warnings.

Right, I really need to sleep.

I don't like cats. More of a dog person, myself.

Got to get to bed now, Harry Potter movies don't make themselves, y'know.

G'night.

Well, I'm off to bed. Got to be at Leavesden in about five hours. Gah, three hours sleep for me again.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who has welcomed me. I feel like I jumped in at the deep end a bit, but now Adywan's put extra pressure on me by saying my matte work is good I'm feeling just swell. ;-)

*eek*

Thanks.

No offence Bingowings, but you have a very combative tone yourself, you know. I'm sure Mr Ghostface asked for some rebuttal, but I don't think he's the only person on these boards who needs to chill out a little bit.

Still, onwards and upwards. Let's all try to get a lung.

Would you mind if I send you a couple more mattes to look at? I'm still a bit shy about putting them on public display. If you've got a minute just to tell me if they're okay, and if not what I can do to fix them.

Thanks for your help, and other comments.

Adywan, if it helps, I had no idea he would post negative remarks here, and that first email to you was sent many months ago. I didn't really know about this site till he told me. I know Gabe can be a bit blunt sometimes, but he's honestly not a rude person. He just says it how it is. He's that kind of guy, and he wouldn't mean anything malicious, even if his tact is sometimes, er, lacking. I do hope you meant those sentiments you expressed before about giving him another chance.

And anyway, I'm the one who wanted your help, not him. I'm the matte guy :-) and I appreciate any help you give me very much.

I'm sure Mr Ghostface will appreciate your comments, Adywan. :-)

From what he said, I think he meant that we should be careful to remember the ethical side of things, as uploading fan edits is still illegal if anyone can download them, as opposed to accusing us all of being criminals, which of course is anyone's intention around here I think.

Thanks for that! I'll check it out.

Of course it was helpful, very much so! I had to pass the technical stuff along to my rather more technically-minded mate; I'm great with editing decisions, but the technical/hardware side of it has always lost me. I've done some more mattes since those I showed you, very pleased with them indeed.

My main problem is I don't have a good enough source of the original material, so any work I do on original shots is limited. I really need to get my hands on a HD source :-( then I can really get to work.

How are you getting on, anyway?

I'm almost afraid to say yes. I guessed you got too busy to reply anymore so I left it alone, don't want to bug anyone. I certainly wouldn't want to offend you.

By the way, I love the ion cannon matte. Absolutely love it, and now you've replaced the Falcon on that shot of Lando approaching on the landing pad, I can see why you wanted to. The model works a hell of a lot better.

Bingowings:

I like the refinery/collector thing too but Ady has made his reasons known and it's his project.

Absolutely. I was just saying I would personally keep it. The more McQuarrie the better for me!

Ripplin:

Heh, that whole health spa thing is new to me. :p "How interesting!" That's just a SE thing, right?

No, Ralph McQuarrie painted them 30 years ago, they just weren't used in the original movie, I don't think. The red tibana collector added was also from McQuarrie's original design, and I would keep it in.

By the way, to post pics do I need to upload them and link to them from here, or can I just upload them to here?

Thanks,

DV

Cool. I was more hoping that Adywan will feature one more prominently. I've added one to a new Bespin matte I did, but I need to really put one in motion rather than still. Don't know why but I always loved those spas!

ADYWAN,

Will you be including any of those lovely yellow floating spas? I always loved that design, and it really helped sell Cloud City as a resort as well as a working installation.

Would love to see those.

By the way, that shot of your new ion cannon scene is beautiful. If there was one scene from Empire I would never think of touching, it would be that scene, but I love the matte work to give greater depth to the cannon location.

Thanks C3PX!

We've done some tests for the more ambitious stuff and they're pretty good. I'm really, really pleased with the Alderaan destruction. The idea is to have it begin as normal with the Death Star approaching (and we've even managed to 'cheat' Leia beginning to sense something during this scene) and firing. Then we cut to a reverse angle of the planet, with the Death Star in the background. The beam hits the other side of the planet from our POV, and spreads around, consuming it. As I love the sequence in Generations, I've chosen to just borrow the basic shockwave, colour it to match the DS beam as it engulfs Alderaan, and then the massive planet debris destroy ships which are fleeing towards camera. I might even show the shockwave blasting the surface apart, using an adapted matte from Episode III. The borrowed, animated wave will be altered to match, and all other elements will be new. We might even add the Death Star retreating at speed; after all, at the distance it was sitting, I always wondered why it wasn't damaged. After all, massive as it is, it's nothing compared to a planet, so I want to show it moving off after firing. It's a lot of work for a short sequence, but it will be worth it. I'll try to put some shots together to give you the overall idea of the sequence.

I will do. Just need to figure out the best stuff to post up.

Thanks!

I hope so, too. Me no liken fighten.

One question I do want to ask though, I noticed there's a thread called "can anything else be done to ANH after Adywan" or something like that. Now, I know Mr G was balled out for his criticisms (the guy's overworked, he's really not rude) but is that a serious question? Because it sort of implies that some people think nothing else can be done, which seems a bit narrow. No? There are lots of things that could be done. Obviously not all of them would be successful or even desirable, but isn't the only real answer 'yes'?

I hope my Alderaan destruction comes off as well as it's shaping up, because it is definitely something worth doing. Seeing a planet blown up in seconds while never seeing the people who live there isn't very strong dramatically, and I never liked how Lucas pulled it off. The same mistake was made in Star Trek Generations with the Veridian planet, although by coincidence there are some great FX in that scene that will facilitate my Alderaan sequence. I'm also considering showing the Death Star travelling through hyperspace, and bending it because of its size.

I just wish this stuff didn't take so long to do!

Actually, I am Mr G's friend, but I don't expect him to come back, even if he said he wouldn't leave. We work together in London, although we are on opposite sides of a very big work campus (no further clues! haha), so I'm not sure about the IP address thing.

Looking at those posts, I can see there have been issues. but as I said, I don't want to get involved in any of that at all. Mr G tried to persuade me to come on here and I eventually gave in, but I want to stay out of any bickering. That's why I don't join these things usually.

As I said, I'm doing my own edit, and Mr G is helping me with some technical stuff. It's my project, but I need his technical expertise outside of the actual matte painting and edit choices. Anyway, he's his own person, and I'm mine, so I'd appreciate it if we can leave it like that.

By the way, where is everyone here from? I'm in London.