Hal 9000

I checked out the workprint last night. I did not sit down and watch the entire thing, but just skimmed through to get an idea of what you were doing. 

During the TPM prologue, the flashbacks work well but have a few oddities. For one, it really seems to me that Qui-Gon and Shmi are married and that Anakin is their child. This isn't called into question until she asks, "Can you help him?" and he takes Anakin with him. I'm not sure if anything concise can be put in to help this. 
The flashbacks don't come off as totally seamless, but I think any viewer would understand what you're doing. I think it works, even if it isn't convincing as having originally been that way. I wish there was a good way to introduce some dialogue into the opening duel. Even just something short with Obi-Wan's name mentioned.

So Obi-Wan doesn't visit Kamino at all. Are the clones ever revealed to be clones of Jango? Is there a line of dialogue that explains this? Again, I didn't actually watch the whole thing. That's my only (small) concern about losing the Kamino stuff. 

The romance plot seems to work pretty dang well, and having the primary goal of compressing the story makes this relatively easy. 

The aim of this project is to have a three-in-one prequel film suitable for watching in flashback/machete order with the OT, right? Those two viewing orders, in my mind, really highlight the disparity between Padme's death and Leia's vivid memories of her. You know what I did for my edit to address this, but I just want to point it out a something that I notice about the WP. 

How's the running time for you? Do you have a timecode in mind that you wanted to shoot for? Of course, the WP is longer than a normal Star Wars film, which might be okay for you. 

hundsdorfex said:

I'm still trying to fix it, but not to worry, it will look good.

 It is not nearly as noticeable as with the Death Star/Tarkin clip, so it's no big deal. 

I was able to get the audio sounding pretty good, removing that engine sound. I could go so far as to remove the "Nooooo" line entirely, though it might seem weird for Vader to be standing there silent. Then again, it's difficult to imagine what impressions one would have had if they'd never seen the original. Hard to say, so I'm just going to leave it.

It's the same issue as before. For example, if you go to where two shots meet, there is a frame that contains a blend of both shots. For this particular (somewhat static) shot of the ship, it isn't a big deal. But each frame is a blend of two others. 

I am noticing, however, that it has the same frame-blending oddity as the other one did. Whatever you did to fix that one should work for this one too. 

The Death Star change is debatable, but this FX shot of the Taintive IV was necessary, and will really help sell the idea that Padme's on board alive.

That looks amazing! It's perfect. I'm doing a test encode now, and I will wrangle the audio side of things later. 

I can figure out something to do with the audio, if the video will work. Go for it, man!

I see what you mean. My only idea is to wonder whether there's a way to apply a feathered darkening around the edge. I don't know if that makes sense, but I'm talking about fading the edges of the outline to black gradually. 

That, or you could start with the other shot of the Taintive IV from that position, where they are approaching Coruscant rather than flying through the atmosphere. It still might have the same problem toward the end of the shot, though. 

If it doesn't work, no one can say you didn't try. 

Not that any of them are necessarily meant to, but which version do you think is most similar to Harmy's De/Re-specialized versions?

Sounds like a plan to me.

Well, that's no good. Do you think any of the other shots are workable candidates, or should we call it quits for this one?

Octorox said:

OTification

 Looks pretty good! What settings did you use to achieve this look, other than grain?

Here is the clip, in context with all the grain and that sort of thing. 

https://vimeo.com/100109861

Looks pretty good! Once I increase the contrast a little, it matches well. The only thing is that there is still some (what looks like) motion blur. Most noticeable when Tarkin moves, it looks somewhat like an interlaced video. It must be an issue with exporting, because each frame is a blend of two other frames and you wouldn't have manually painted into a half-frame. Weird. If it can encode and upload fast enough before I have to go to work, I'll upload how the clip looks in context and let you all see for yourself how it looks.

'Seamless' just means that it is coherent and convincingly done. There are no telltale "seams" evident in the finished product. And I agree; I think it looks stellar.

Tarkin appears interlaced, but I'm importing the image sequence into Final Cut and I'll see how it looks there. 

Downloading now. I need to leave, but will be back soon and will check it out. Aside from quality, the other video looks fantastic. I'm seriously happy that my edit can include this change, and thank you again for your gracious offer and follow-through. 

What export options are there?

Even an image sequence should be okay, if you can export that.

Fantastic! Excited to see it!

What export options are there? A .mov would be perfect, or at least something relatively 'open' that would work with Quicktime and Final Cut stuff.

Hope you're feeling all right! 

From the look of those screencaps, it looks perfect to me. I would not question that anything was modified about it.

Hmm. That's not bad. I think what I'm talking about is most noticeable during the low shot of the underlings working away in the pit. But I think that latest picture looks pretty good.

No worries; thanks for the test clip. 

I think the planet is darker than the rest of the image, and too crystal clear. I'd suggest blurring the planet overall, and making it a bit brighter. I know this goes against what I'd said earlier, but the wmv files on my computer end up looking very bright, and the bright image makes these things more noticeable. 

The streaks are gone though! It looks good, but it still sticks out as a composite, due to brightness and clarity differences. 

Awesome. From what I can tell from the screenshots, that'll look fantastic. I only pick number two because it is an apparent middle ground between equally good choices. If one of the three seems better to you, I would defer to your judgement. 

Could you render another test clip with the current progress? Something akin to a .mov would be ideal. 

Still can't tell a huge difference, just the brightness. It appears one is bright, two is a bit darker, and three is darker still. 

The wmv file you sent me appeared bright overall when I played it, but all three versions you posted today appear to be properly bright, so any discrepancies aren't as noticeable. That being the case, I think any of them look good. I'd vote for number two, just because it's a middle ground between three equally good options.

Since I am delaying v2 a bit, I'm taking the opportunity to go back and give Episode II more film grain. 

The pictures are so small; I can't tell the difference between the three. I think the edges could still be blurred a bit. 

About the streaks. Could they be painted out? They're very small, and surrounded by black.