I can't wait to see Martin's tribute video.
I'm reinstalling Limewire so I can download it from Mousebits right now.
Alex N.
Hi folks,
Exar Xan has lured me out of seclusion, so I thought I'd look in and try to jumpstart this project.
To explain my absence, I had lost a ton of my Disney theme park audio and spent a few months recovering it. I even lost my copy of the rear-projection reel of Star Tours when that happened, so that was a top priority for recovery since mousebits.com's webmaster was moving and the future of the site's content was up in the air.
I believe I've recovered everything relevant to Star Tours now, including the PeopleMover tracks with Anthony Daniels' voice, etc.
And I think I've got my disc copier fixed now, to boot.
Alex
Hey everyone...
Just wanting to check in. I've been having some computer problems, and unfortunately they're not fixed yet. Someone here tried to upload me all of their Star Tours audio, but I still can't get it to download on my end.
I sent emails to the guy at Mousebits who said he was color-correcting the Star Tours video that's posted there (the rear-projection viewscreen). He replied at first, but trailed off responding, so I don't know if he will ever get it uploaded.
Aside from that, no real Star Tours-related progress here.
How did work ever go on restoring Aaron's DVD?
Lex
Eh?
Ah, sorry. I meant the reference photo itself, which would have been taken with a flash, rather than under film lighting conditions.
The photos that I would be scanning were originally flash pix, you see.
Alex
Ok, if no one minds me starting the ball rolling on the organizational end of this, I'd say that the first order of business is the clean-up of the ride film itself, as posted on the torrents at Mousebits.com... as mentioned above, it has some bad color issues (yellow Star Destroyers), etc.
Who here is up to the task of color-correcting it? I have to sit this process out, as I myself am color-blind, so I've never really looked into software that could aid in such a project.
I've got some reference photos that might prove handy for this project. Not just of the repurposed Star Destroyer filming models, but some books (Chronicles et al.) have published photos of the StarSpeeder filming model built by Ira Keeler, as well as the launch tunnel set built by Steve Gawley, which was redressed to become the crash-landing set.
While a harsh flash photograph is not always the best indicator of 'show lighting' or moody film lighting, these pics should still help with some color decisions.
Alex
Hey, I just had a neat idea for the preservation DVD... is there anyone here who can synch the Japanese and French audio to the high-quality English background reel?
It would be really cool to toggle the audio while watching it and get all the different versions, even though we may not have source for French or Japanese.
Also, there are two versions of the English audio, could we have different audio selections? Those are both available in source quality. They have minor dialogue differences.
One version lacks the line "I have a very bad feeling about this" while another line may be "Comets? COMETS!" or "Oh no! Comets!"
Alex
FigmentJedi said:There's also some video of Tokyo's much more elaborate queue on YouTube and it'd be nice to get some translation of their exclusive stuff such as the droids before R2 and 3PO, the Mon Calamari on the screen and the whole postshow in general. They even got a few elements from Epcot's old Horizons ride for a spot in the exit advertising more Star Tours destinations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqgd5JkZnu8&feature=related
Hey those are great clips, I wish I'd seen them when I was trying to mentally reconstruct the Tokyo version last year.
So I'm not the only one obsessed with the expanded Tokyo queue?
I had the chance to interview the sculptor/puppeteer for the Mon Cal puppet for EndorExpress.net, but it's sort of in editorial limbo and hasn't been posted yet.
She said everyone referred to him as Admiral Ackbar, but that she has no idea what he was saying because she doesn't speak Japanese. Just that he was always ticked off.
This jibes with what I've pieced together from various sources, including careful analysis of photos and some older clips on YouTube, some of which no longer exist, sad to say.
The Ackbar puppet appears on a screen in Sector 2 Droidnostics, talking to R2-D7 (called R4-M9 at the Anaheim attraction) and his assistant IDA-4, a yellow loadlifter-type robot with a single large eye, his gripper arms loaded with parts boxes as he moves up and down on a track in the wall like a glorified platform elevator.
According to a Tokyo souvenir poster which I had a friend translate, R2-D7 is in charge of replacement parts, and IDA (which stands for Inventory Droid Assistant) is "a pain for the Mon Calamari and R2-D7 because if the work gets too hard, he plays hooky."
Near the exit is the 'Tourscan' video wall with that Horizons footage. Horizons, it should also be noted, contained a cameo by Star Tours' writer-producer Tom Fitzgerald as both an Audio-Animatronic character and a video image of the same.
Presented by Tourscan's PR-droid/video-host Dan Android (whose "relationship to actor Dan Aykroyd is unknown"), the Frontier Vacation Package, Family Adventure Package, and Deluxe Undersea Package are actually recycled footage from the three 'Choose Your Future' endings of the popular Epcot attraction which closed in 1999, making the Tokyo Star Tours the only place to see this wonderful miniature work.
Scrolling text on the Tourscan wall gives current temperature and weather conditions for planets like Tatooine and Kessel, while Horizons' sub-aquatic city of Sea Castle was recycld as the "Water Planet Praya" (possibly named after a river in Japan) which advertises "Deep Sea Food a Specialty" and the chance to "Hunt Treasure in Sunken Ships."
The desert landscape and citrus groves of Horizons' Mesa Verde became a Desert Planet touted for its "Zero-Gravity Golf Courses" and the space station Brava Centauri-- complete with a docking American space shuttle-- became a hotel on the Edge of the Galaxy billed as "the Closest Thing to Heaven". I'd love to see better footage of all that stuff. If I gleaned all of that info from the clips on YouTube, imagine what I could do with some really decent copies. Alex
No, I've never uploaded anything before. I did send a few copies out to folks, but if they uploaded it, I'm unaware of it.
Alex
My rather simplistic DVD contained the following clips in varying states of quality and completeness:
Clips from Disneyland Fun Sing-Along Songs tape (shows the original Anaheim queue and some footage lifted from the Electronic Presskit-- Rex seems to sing the lyric "Ev'rything is Satisfactch'll" from Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah)
Alex's Mega-Mix (earlier highlight reel made from a lot of the stuff elsewhere on the same disc)
Gil Gerard Special (not sure how complete it was)
Song & Dance Droid (I made a hybrid edit of C-3PO rapping on the Gil special and tap-dancing on the Muppet Show; both utilize the lyric "When you Wish Upon a Star")
a quick shot of a real lunar eclipse which made me comment "You passed the Endor moon!" as I was zooming in on it
Electronic Presskit (incomplete-- not all the interviews are here)
Bootleg copy of rear-projection reel (low quality)
Disney News aka Dateline: Disneyland (fluff promos mostly edited from the presskit and interviews with folks disembarking the ride)
Rex says Andy (a super-short clip originally made for my friend Andy who worked at Star Tours at the time... using a line from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure to have Rex call his name)
Lucas on Good Morning America (nice interview segment taped at the Anaheim ride)
Lucas on DTV (mostly culled from the EPK, some Captain EO contamination here)
Tom Fitzgerald on DTV (new interview taped outside the Anaheim ride)
Disney Channel Sneak-A-Peek preview (filmed in Anaheim queue)
someone's Home Movie shot in Anaheim, found on a bootleg compilation tape
Hamill and Fisher promoting the opening of the Orlando ride (source unknown)
Tokyo Home Movie (shot opening day of the Tokyo ride)
Pete's Home Movie (filmed by a friend of mine at the Orlando ride a few years ago)
Pete's Backlot Tour (separate clip of the Snowspeeder and Skiff film-used vehicles now on the backlot of Disney Hollywood Studios)
Alex's Diorama (short video with no sound)
Easter Egg (okay, I admit it... it's Captain EO, from its lone airing on Mtv, with a brief George Lucas interview clip setting it up)
***
Here's a few other Star Tours-related clips that I have seen since:
Donald Duck's 50th birthday (from 1984, but has C-3PO and R2-D2 making their first? Disney appearance) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=912bPA5iE8Q
Disneyland's 35th Anniversary Celebration hosted by Tony Danza (1990 TV show with segment filmed in Star Tours queue featuring new C-3PO dialogue dubbed by Anthony Daniels) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV9uppqIrAc
Star Tours commercial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DBdpDrEHP4)
Alex
Well, the gang's all here. Alex Newborn reporting for duty! Thanks to Erik for pointing me to this project. Hi to Skot as well. (Have you changed your email address?) Glad to hear Aaron's material will be included, he and I had discussed the self-destructive tendencies of his discs a while back; I got my copy from Garrett originally.
By the way, if you guys love Star Tours, be sure to check out EndorExpress.net
I'm an occasional contributor there. They just put up a really cool interview with Richard Bellis yesterday, the guy who did the music for Star Tours, including the 'Droid Rooms' song.
And of course, the current copy of Star Wars Insider has a 17-page article on the history of Star Tours, so be sure to check that out. You might even grin when you see who wrote it.
Lex
Hi, new here. This is my first post.
The rear-projection reel for Star Tours is available for download at Mousebits.com
Lex