Hal 9000

How's it going? Looking at the last screenshot with the "obvious" error, I still do not know what I'm looking for. lol

I'll confess my ulterior motive... I'm gonna use this project as a primary source for a custom SE I'm cobbling together for myself. There's some good '04/'11 video to use (like the improved set extension in the cell bay), and your version is color corrected very closely to Harmy's. 

Looking forward to the full version, so I can fuel my Star Wars editing addiction.

Ideally, the '97 (and beyond) version of the shot without the shockwave. Or something like Adywan's version, sans shockwave. My goal (for this shot, and the project as a whole) is to mediate the OOT and SE versions, and not to do anything further to it like Adywan or Darth Editous have. 

That's why what you suggested wouldn't work for me. It'd be cool in a fan edit, but that's not really what I'm trying to do here.

That's pretty cool, but strays too far from the original for my taste.

kane1138 said:

What exactly are you working on, Hal?  I'm a fan of your PT edits, so I'd be interested to see your take on the OT.

 I'll make one thing clear: I do not have VFX skills. So, my OT project (which may or may not be worth releasing) is merely a cobble-job of other projects. My goal is to merely pick and choose from the official versions of the films to put together a more modest 'Special Edition' of only the changes that I assess as positive. These will be meant to be companion pieces to a properly preserved "original version," like Harmy's Despecialized Editions or Team Blu's GOUT preservation. This goal frames the project as an alternative version of the film rather than a preservation of the original, so I can feel free to use the SE changes I actually like.

This will not be a fan edit, insofar as all I'm doing is alternating between official versions of the film. However, I do plan on doing some creative editing in some places to arrive at a middle ground between OOT and SE. For example, I plan to only show some of the new Wampa scene, making the SE addition more subtle. I'll be doing similar things for Mos Eisley. I hope to be able to use Adywan's Emperor hologram scene from ESB, because he uses the new footage but wrangles it into a form more similar to the original in the sense of dialogue. So if there is any "fan editing" stuff going on, it will be limited to mediating OOT versus SE changes. 

Plus, at least for ANH and ESB, there are a lot of audio differences that will be fun to pick and choose from for a custom blend. I grew up with the '97 SE as my earliest exposure to Star Wars, so I've grown accustomed to some of its sound choices. It doesn't feel right to me when the Falcon blasts off from the Death Star without those additional noises from the mono mix that were reiterated in the SE going forward. 

So that's what I'm planning. It'll just be ANH for now, with ESB and ROTJ to follow once the sources become available. I was delighted to see Harmy had done a '97SE hybrid version, which will give me more options and make everything much easier for me. I intend on using this as my base, alongside the Despecialized Edition and kk650's color corrected 2011 footage. 

I posted this thread because ideally I would be able to remove the praxis shockwave effect added to the SE. It seems best to me to either remove all three of them or leave all three of them. (If they have to stay, I'll use the '97SE version of the first Death Star's explosion.)

Does anyone know of any fan-made alternatives to the shot of Alderaan being destroyed? Ideally, I’d be able to find one with no praxis shockwave effect.

Adywan’s explosion is pretty good, but still contains a shockwave effect. Perhaps someone has removed the shockwave effect from the SE version of the shot. I’m hoping to find one with no praxis effect for my custom SE I’m cobbling together.

Unexpected, but very cool. Thanks for taking the time to put this together!

I have no patience for anyone maintaining that the OUT should not be released.

I recognize the germ of some decent Star Warsy ideas in TPM, but it's a pretty miserable film to just sit down and watch as is. I used to feel a pang of boredom as a clock-wipe takes us into Boss Nass' council room.

I second Sadako. 

*runs away*

We'd all view this as a good thing, even if it's only good for a new source for "despecialization" efforts. 

Easterhay is for Easterhorses. And my ignore list.

I like the look of it, and am looking forward for the 16GB version. 

Yes, the new clip is a big improvement. Looking good so far. There are a few things, and I know it's just a rough mockup, that would be curious if this is the first ten minutes of a single film. Things like Qui-Gon seemingly ending a phone call as Shmi walks up, and Yoda's line, "More to say have you?"

And I'd suggest cutting anything you wouldn't want to include, since it's a single film. If you don't want the prophecy stuff, may as well lose it. It's not set up in ANH or ESB and has no payoff in ROTJ. You might give Threepio some thought too. Watching the films in machete order made me expect to see some sort of revelation in ROTJ for the characters about the droids having been present for the events of Anakin's rise and fall. 

This could be a good project.

Wow. So it sounds like the existing masters for the six films really wouldn't resolve much beyond a standard 1080p presentation. 

Huh. Does anyone happen to know the standard resolution of a typical digital cinema?

Well worth cashing in on the ancient Audible free trial offer. :)

Stupid question: When people speak about resolution as being 2K, or 4K or something like that, is it referring to horizontal or vertical resolution?

Just finished listening to chapter 1. It's very compelling, especially with the passable Lucas impression. I feel like Lucas himself is narrating somewhat. 

Very enjoyable so far, and many hours left.

Great news! I cringed for you when I heard about it. My cobble-job of prequel editing was frustrating enough; I cannot fathom the aggravation you must feel at times conducting this massive project. 

Have fun storming the castle!

I've heard dozens or possibly hundreds of offers to sign up for a trial of Audible and get a free book. But you, sir, have just made the suggestion to finally get me to do it. 

I mean, I'm not gonna buy anything, but I do want to check out the book!

^Just read your reply after posting mine. 

Actually, it might be a good idea to use ROTS as the frame narrative, with a few flashbacks to the events of AOTC. There'd be a few tricky pieces, such as establishing Dooku's identity.

When Palpatine reminds Anakin about what happened with his mother and the sand people, you could easily insert a flashback sequence to those events. 

You could insert some of Anakin and Padme's backstory right before Anakin's first nightmare about her death, though I can't rattle off any specific suggestions. 

Eh, it might help make it feel like a more cohesive single film... because it basically would be to start with. 

And I rather like what you've done for a prologue. It's rough, as you said, but I like the duel as a frame. 

It might be cool to (this phrase should prompt you to ignore what follows) have the Obi-Wan/Luke dialogue play over the opening logos as you did, then have it get quiet during the ALTAIAGFFA title card. Once the audience expects the opening logo and musical blast, kick in abruptly with the duel of the fates score. 

You might be able to do without the "fear leads to anger" scene. I think the key beats to keep in your TPM prologue are Anakin's difficulty leaving his mother, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan's (identities, and) relationship with each other, the idea that the Sith are out there, and some clue as to why they are fighting a lightsaber duel in the first place. You hit almost all of these on the head, so I look forward to what else you'd come up with. 

Going the route of a single film would allow for more creativity than a three-film structure. Among other things, you might be able to use ROTS for the majority of the film, and make it seem as though Anakin really was an all around good guy until the latter end of the Clone Wars. 

Nice idea, and good work so far! I'd love a good go-to single film as a stand-in for the prequels for a machete viewing. No offense intended to anyone, but I personally haven't cared for any of the prior attempts at crunching the prequels into a single film. But coming at it with the intent on viewing it between ESB and ROTJ make just make it work.

I'd say if you're abandoning the titular "Episode I, II, then III," just make it one prequel film for the machete viewing order. That'd be a logical parenthetical flashback between ESB and ROTJ, given that the episodic numbering is being interfered with either way. 

This'd be a good project, and I think emanswfan is still planning on giving it a try. 

For my own project, I merely upscaled using Apple's Compressor app. Though I also added a uniform layer of film grain to my project, which helps them blend together. I also cross-faded in a slight blur to the HD footage as a deleted scene approached and after it was over. The effect is that the HD footage starts to blur slightly for ten or so seconds as it is about to go into a deleted scene. (The deleted scene itself is not blurred.) Then after it's over, it starts slightly blurred and gradually comes off of it.

I don't know; it's better than nothing. And you're right, it's absolutely worth keeping some of those scenes for story purposes. 

Downloading now, along with Team Blu's May 4th releases. It's a Star Wars Christmas.

Does anyone know if the final version of the Emperor scene has ever been made available yet in HD? I'm planning cobbling together a crude custom SE for personal use and archiving, and view Adywan's version of that scene as the best option. If not, I'll have to wait for the final release. Thanks.