Harmy

Name: I used to be Lord__Vader (obvious reasons) but when I decided to start releasing my projects, I wanted something more personal, so I asked Jay if he could change it to Harmy (what my homies call me :-D )

Title: Until I recently changed it to "Han D. Solo" (quite crude, I know, but I just like it - and Falcon kinda looks like a hand too) it had been: "I used to be Lord_Vader but now I'm redeemed." For obvious reasons - to avoid confusion after the name change.

Avatar: Well, that's me :-) But it used to be this:

Again, it's quite obvious why :-)

Signature: Used to actually contain a list of my projects with links to their threads but because it somehow kept f*cking up the layout of the forum, I had to find another solution. Anyway, like Frink said: Self-Promotion, Baby :-)

And to Frink: I'd never heard of TV's Frank before I read your post but now that I know, here's a new avatar for you:

So, does anyone know whether the limited theatrical release of the EEs is digital only or if they made some new prints?

No problem.

I finally finished encoding the workprint and I think it looks very good over-all but I already found some mistakes that I'd like to correct before I release it even as a workprint but I should still have it up by Monday morning :-)

Well, yeah, I'm increasing the contrast a bit - it is an absolutely crucial step in integrating the GOUT footage into the 2004 master. It is a question of finding a balance between making the picture look less washed out and losing detail in the dark areas.

I was planning to do those DS approach shots the same way but the blinking of the stars was made all the more obvious by increasing the contrast because of the background being static (well, almost static, when you look closely, the starfield is actually moving slightly to the left in both of those shots and I had to track and simulate that movement when I was replacing it). 

I considered that from the beginning. Actually in the planning stages I went through the battle shot by shot and most of the shots unfortunately have very fast moving backgrounds, so it is impossible to do anything like that for them. There's one more shot where I already did that and that's the shot of the fighters pulling away from the DS in the end. And there are a few more shots I decided to despecialize in After FX, but in the workprint they're just upscaled GOUT, as I have yet to finish them.

Well, I'm rendering the WP now but it's gonna take quite long to render and I'm going away this weekend, so I won't be able to start uploading until Sunday evening.

Yeah, you should really take the pics from your Wookiegroomer source, because I took those pictures while I was experimenting with the colours, so they're pretty screwed up.

Yeah, that's pretty bizarre . Anyway, if you want to add it, it's the shot where he says he lost his starboard engine.

I'm back with more discoveries :-)

As per use, top original, bottom SE.

He didn't say revisited, he said reconstructed, as in Ady's 1980 Theatrical Reconstruction (read here).

No.

Well, that I can completely agree with. But in terms of the ability to make you believe that what you're seeing is real it is my opinion that STAR WARS succeeds better than any of those films.

Also, you're talking about how great these effects were in those films, yet you would prefer them recomposited digitally, so that in effect they wouldn't be the same original awesome effects created at the time?

Really? I always thought that some of the FX in Close Encounters looked a bit cheap with all the fake looking light beams and stuff. And some of the FX in Blade Runner were really good but some were rather mediocre. I'm not saying that all FX in SW were perfect either though but that's what makes the FX in all these films interesting.

Ah, I see :-)

Sorry, foaming?

Thanks guys.

As to the battle of Yavin, that's still not finished. I've already got all the separate shots ready but I'm putting it together chronologically, so I didn't get to that part yet.

I also just watched the LS duel and it's not perfect but it doesn't look bad.

PM sent :-)

Yeah, but I'm not crazy. I'm definitely not doing that, it would be an incredible amount of boring tedious work and I just don't have the patience for that.

OK, I'm at the lightsabre duel and it is a bigger mess than you could possibly imagine. I'm not sure I'll be able to do much about it, even Ady couldn't (I'm actually using his AVCHD version for the duel, because he at least fixed some of the lightsabre colours). But both Obi's and Vader's LS still keep changing shades and Obi's tunic keeps changing colour ranging from red over brown to outright black and when I try correcting it, it just fucks up everything else, so I'll just try to kind of smooth the changes over and leave it at that.

On a happier note, I should have the first complete workprint by the end of the week, so if anyone was interested in testing for me, I'd be glad.

Yeah but that's for when you need to bitch about something off topic :-)

Yeah, I would have thought so too. I would have thought they could even have subtitles that could be switched on and off and yet look like the original subs on BD.

Yeah, sure but it would cost more money and take more time and you can't expect LFL to do that...

I guess that is the whole point of the player generated subtitles - the foreign language versions. STAR WARS never got dubbing on DVD here in the Czech Republic but say in France or Germany, when people watch with dubbing, they have the crawl in their language and the forced subtitles in their language. And from what I hear, Lucas likes dubbing, which is why all the prequels were dubbed here in cinemas (as if they weren't bad enough on their own).

Well, I know that the final cut is generally considered superior but I actually prefer the original international cut -  I saw the DC first and I thought it was ok, but I only fell in love with the film when I saw the original (In a crappy LD transfer at the time). I like the narration and I prefer the original colour palette. Hell, I admit, I even like the original happy ending. And I like the original FX.

Optical FX, while admittedly usually less realistic, have a kind of interesting look, which I find very aesthetically pleasing. I actually like every single of those recomposited shots that I posted before better in the original version than the SE ones, the SE ones just lack the charm and character of the originals, they just look like every other effect today does.

I wouldn't have anything against such tastefully upgraded version, if the original existed as well.

The problem with such a thing is that it is impossible to say what is within the boundaries of tasteful as it depends on personal opinion. Some people would consider only recomposited FX to be a tasteful update, some would consider the windows in cloud city to be a perfectly tasteful update. Some would even like to see the CGI fighters in the battle of Yavin. And there are even those who think that Rontos and Dewbacks and CGI droids are perfectly adequate and tasteful additions.

Simply put, there could be a million different enhanced editions and for each of them you'd find someone who would think it's tasteful and respectful. But there is only one true original and that is the STAR WARS that people saw in 1977 on opening day, it's that simple.