David Little

Adywan

I just discovered your Star Wars edits and this website, and I wanted to send my personal thank you for all of your hard work.

I just purchased a new projector for my home theater and the Project Specialist  from Runco came over and calibrated it. He’s a huge fan of yours, and as a “theater warming present”, gave me a copy of your Episode 4 Revisited. I had a little party with my two brothers and a couple of friends over and we watched it. Now, you have to picture this. First, not to sound like a braggart, but I have an awesome home theater – a dedicated room with a 7-½ foot screen, Runco VX-22 - 3-chip projector, B&W Signature Diamonds, and massive M&K subwoofers. So, the lights go down and up comes your movie. We are all in our late 30’s to mid 40’s, but that night we were a bunch of kids. We were all – exclaiming out loud – Wow! Cool! This is awesome! I felt like I was 13 again, watching Star Wars for the first time at the UA Cinemas in Spokane, Washington in 1977. What an experience!

I’ve spent the last week reading your forum. I apologize to your many members, but I have only read your entries, and only a few of the others, as the thread is so long. I’ve noticed that sometimes the entries can get very negative, and you have put up with quite a bit of complaining from some of your members. I hope you don’t get discouraged from that. If you could have only been at our “premiere” of your movie at my home, you would have had so much fun – the energy was palpable. I’m sure for my story, there are thousands of others who have had similar experiences watching your film, as well.

To all the harsh critics out there, remember it is always easier to rip something apart than to create it and stick your neck out by letting others see it. I’m sure Adywan would agree that helpful suggestions and gentle criticisms are always helpful when creating your artwork – it helps make it even better. But incessant whining and sarcasm are not helpful, especially in regard to a difference in taste. As there are billions of people on the planet, there will always be as many opinions about which direction to take a project. At the end of the day, however, this is Adywan’s project, and no one should criticize him about his artistic decisions. I for one am quite impressed with his taste so far.

I have a question also, as I have not yet seen it addressed on the thread so far (and I apologize if it was on the Episode 4 thread, but I have not yet read all of that one). I’m interested in some of the technical aspects of your set-up, and how you are accomplishing these projects. I’m sure many of your fans would enjoy a run down of the hardware and software you’re using. You’ve mentioned that you’re using Adobe After Effects for compositing, and Vegas for editing. What about sound editing – what software and hardware are you using? You mentioned you calibrated your monitor to do the color corrections (outstanding, by the way). How did you do this? How are you warping the image to add facial expressions to Greedo, and lip movements to Yoda?

Anyway, sorry about the long winded post, but a heart felt thank you for Episode 4, and I wait breathlessly for Episode 5 (you’re invited over for the premiere of course!!).