JF_Sanderson

Most impressive!

Hey all.

Is there any book, documentary or (unlikely) Dvd feature that shows how the lightsabers were animated and composited in the oot? I’m really curious what scale they were drawn, how it was photographed, colored, philosophy of motion blur, etc.

My son and I were having a conversation about Star Wars, and I said how the prequel Jedi should have had cool black suits like Luke in Rotj.

“Those prequels just made them all dress like Ben Kenobi, it’s silly.”

Then he pointed out how Anakin’s ghost was dressed like that since 1983…

EJones216 said:

EJones216 said:
“Empire” used YCMs as well, but accompanied by a substantially enhanced optical printer with, if I’m interpreting the article correctly, a new lens that finished the composite directly to 4-perf anamorphic rather than on VistaVision where it would then need to be reduction-printed.

Info comes from https://www.theasc.com/magazine/starwars

Looked at another article (Episode IV "Miniature and Mechanical Special Effects, Page 4) and realized I indeed misinterpreted this part of the “Empire” article-- the original’s opticals were also directly squeezed to 4-perf anamorphic during the composite, which is worded by its writer (John Dykstra) as making them “one dupe generation from the original photography”.

In summary the print chain could be described Negative-YCM-OCN.

Is this why Star Wars effects were deemed so crummy they were replaced by CGI? I.e. in ESB and Rotj were the effects composited in 65mm then copied to 35mm which is probably better?

Great pacing, wouldn’t know a thing is missing. Thanks for including subtitles too. This will definitely be the version for rewatching in the future.

Ok I just watched this and it had less fluff than I remember. Mostly just really tense drama. I liked it.

I watched with subtitles and I must report there was a decent amount of errors & omissions. “Move this glass” should be “smooth as glass,” “are there worlds” should be “other worlds,” etc. once or twice where words hang on the screen for a minute and we lose captions for other lines. Signium should probably be Cygnium.

This edit would be a good basis for somebody to do further revisions, such as:

• eliminating much of the meteor storm and making the damage to the Cygnus entirely caused by the destruction of the Palomino

• replacing the terrible “heroic” music during the hospital rescue since the rest of the score is wonderful

• toning down any gunplay to the minimum required for continuity

• add blood to Tony Perkins death if it won’t look fake

I do not understand the conflict between Maximilian and Dr Reinhart, or why they combined at the end, but it certainly is weird.

Well I am for one glad someone finally fix the Star War trikogy of 1996!

Anybody have this book? I pulled the trigger and it arrives next week. I don’t have any other Marvel omnibuses, and this one is 1300 pages, wondering how it may hold up? (Or weigh down??)

I never read the Thrawn novels but decided this would be a good way to get the gist of the story since I’m a comic guy. And I never had a problem with Dark Empire like some people. Pleased to hear it contains the 90s Boba Fett one shots as well. I would personally like a slim volume of just the Jabba comics too; no idea what book those are in.

Any thoughts on the Thrawn adaptation?

G&G-Fan said:

Perhaps Vader recognizes Han as the one who sent him flying in ANH?

This is made explicit in the radio adaptation, and makes you wonder why similar dialogue wasn’t implemented in the movie. You kind of forget that Vader would probably be holding an enormous grudge against Captain Solo.

Cool 1980 news video about a little kid visiting the set of Dagobah and meeting Luke Skywalker, unfortunately also meets Jimmy Saville.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLGeevUvqwU

How much cropping is there since it’s already a cropped print? (I’m one of those ‘4:3 or Bust’ Kubrick fans.)

TAF do you have other scan projects aside from 97 SE trilogy?

benduwan said:

Where are the unused scenes to find?
They are all on DVD and Bluray?
Or exists some only on TV production,Internet and Laserdisk?
Is there a list of unused scenes they released?
Thanks

I’ve read this whole thread and still would like a concise summary of what scenes are are in the extended cut, what are additional on home video ‘deleted scenes,’ and what are provided elsewhere like the scene Max Evry made available. (The lady actually talked about her tape in his book so I’m really happy it’s out there.)

JRSSCPRKFAN said:
I was under the impression that everything on archive was in the public domain.
They took it off archive for some reason.
copyright infringement
Maybe they took it off of archive because it was TN1’s scan.

Maybe it was taken down from archive by the actual copyright holder, Universal Pictures??

(pm sent)

The local hipster video store had this around 2005, even with a homemade ad for the store at the start of the tape. It was cool. All through the 90s I heard how bad the special was, but it’s kind of innocuous and “is what it is.” Bea Arthur’s cantina song is pretty good actually.

I haven’t seen this recent upscale but previous ones gave it a thick lined look like video game upscalers, which is fine for animation but unrealistic for photo sources. Is this one better? And the frame rate should probably be 30/1.01 if it’s changed to progressive scan; 60/1.01 might be fine but double frames unless the intermediary frames are faked by the AI. If it’s changed to pure 60 there could be stuttering. If someone took the care for SW Holiday Special like the Ds9 upscale guy, there might be some impressive results.

I watched this version this Christmas, it was excellent combination, practically seamless. Thanks tonik.

I don’t think anybody asked so what are the video versions you used to put this together?

I was very impressed by the 1997 theatrical audio mixes, Hal9000 edited to match the OT, he talks about in this thread:

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/1997-Special-Edition-Audio-Mixes-GOUT-Synced-Released/id/59140

Corellian Sailor said:
If you want to watch the video (including the Bernstein interview) in English without the German voice-over, use the VLC media player, click on Audio/640kbpsIsotaled, and you’ll get the English version without the German voice-over track.

Hello, I don’t mean to be a bug, but there is only the German audio. If you are able to post the English track separately for people to add that would be great. I’m curious did ZDF provide “stereo” audio with live track on one side, and the narrator on the other? (I have seen archival videos on youtube with audio like this.) Otherwise how is it possible to have the dual audio?

Also as far as the narrator’s knowledge of Star Wars, it is actually kind of quaint. In some circles/times there would be people jumping down his throat about snow lizards (which are actually a cool idea.)

Thank you Corellian Sailor!

This is a great documentary to have, and deserves to go in the pantheon of must-see vintage docs. While some portions overlap with the other makings-of, it does have its own spin that absolutely makes it worth watching. Nice to see the then-new Skywalker Ranch, with commentary on Lucas’ success and how it was filtered through making his dreams come alive as well as America’s appetite for Star Wars. Jerome Bernstein interview is very interesting from the meta perspective as a lot of that seemed like it wasn’t thoroughly dissected until the 90s.

Not sure how much BTS is previously unseen, but I think there is a tad more here from the Stuart Freeborn shop building Jabba than seen in ‘Creatures’ or ‘Star Wars to Jedi.’

Wonderful quality in audio and video. In the English subs I noticed a few typos that a spell-check would catch (lokk instead of look) and at least one near homonym (morale instead of moral.)

Strangely the narrator says Yoda was based on ET… (did he see ET?) also massive spoilers for the Battle of Endor. 😃

edit to add— is there really an audio track available that has the English interviews without German narrator? (That was not in the file.)

So without the Skywalkers being enslaved it is very creepy when the Jedi just decide to take Ani away, his mom volunteers him for the podrace because he’s “special” and they are “Jedi.” She is then paid off with a few weeks’ drinking money. You can see the great relief she feels as they depart, yes you literally see the (figurative) burden lift from the actress’s shoulders as they go. When Ani arrives at Coruscant and is getting on the shuttle he acts like he realizes he’s just been trafficked to Epstein Island. Dazman has perhaps unintentionally introduced an entire new subplot to this movie–no, of course it doesn’t go anywhere. Maybe that’s in Episode II.

Anyway, almost all scenes play out better with the changes. New crawl is good and explains everything it needs to. Jedi treaty conference and their escape works better. Boring Naboo council works better. Gungans stuff is a little too abbreviated but Boss Nass seems a lot more serious now, Jar Jar much toned down. Dealing with Watto enjoyably streamlined. Pod race is awesome with the additions and subtractions, but I do still kind of hate the announcer. Threepio won’t be missed. Coruscant to Naboo and End all worked well. Aside from some changes in visual fidelity I never would have realized the lightsaber battle was extended, as it plays out great.

Also never would have realized the audio was mixed and edited to accommodate the changes. It all flowed very well except for a couple times when lines were shortened, there were some brief mute points where the ambiance disappears. There is one new offscreen line from Qui-Gon talking to Shmi that is really lo-fi, I can’t imagine what source that was from.

Other things can’t be helped without much more audio work, and as in all things Star Wars, are a matter of taste. Such as all the atrocious dub actors and Queen Amidala’s “accent.” These days I guess you could just replace the Queen’s voice with an AI trained on Portman’s real voice, copying the line reading so it all stays in lip sync. (Maybe that will be my project here one day.) I’ve read about but not seen edits that replace the Neimoidian and Gungans voices with subtitled alienspeak, which might be a good fit for a project like this. Well, getting back to what is and not what isn’t…

This edit was cool and I would recommend. Thanks Dazman.

Sounds pretty cool. Will watch for updates.

I have never seen this movie but I remember that scene being in all the trailers.

Ok so after having seen this I do have criticisms and suggestions. I like the idea behind the edit and it’s mostly well done but it needs more work before I would call it 100%.

At the end of the the original movie portion, it seems like we’ve just seen the movie with Bob and Linda excised. Personally I don’t really miss them and their omission was seamless. But the end seems too conclusive before we go on. I would cut from when Loomis sees Michael is gone, straight to the PoV sequence from H2, and mute all the music from the end of H1/opening credits of H2. Maybe do a quick black fade out/in at that point.

After Michael steals the knife, the cut to the hospital has a bit of a jump as we are introduced razor apple boy. I would cut straight to the ambulance arriving even if it means there’s not a continuity in the music (which could be massaged over.) I think the key to the H2 scenes is to stay with Laurie and Dr Loomis as much as possible, while still explaining why everyone in the hospital has disappeared

After Laurie gets anesthesia there is a quick shot of a cop car that shouldn’t be there.

Since the news says three people are dead, mayyyyybe cut short the scene stealing the knife to imply Michael killed the old couple. (Only for continuity sake, since I like that sequence a lot, especially when lady finds the knife missing.) When Nurse Smokey tells Loomis he’s being recalled she also says three teenagers are murdered. I was scratching my head about that, maybe cut out the whole scene in th school? But then why would Loomis be in the car with her, why would he return to the hospital, etc. Maybe her dialogue could be edited to “people” instead of “teenagers” which would be tricky since it’s one long shot (with the sound of a floor waxer in the background!)

In the end when Laurie is trying to escape it seems like she’s gone crazy, yeah the phone doesn’t work but why is she trying to crawl away? Something is missing in the cause/effect chain but I don’t remember H2 enough to know what it is.

Also Jimmy is so annoying I wish he could be trimmed down more, but that’s a personal preference. Although when he slips in the blood is always my favorite part of that movie. The whole H2 portion seems a little deflating as a climax so maybe shortening bits and bobs could keep the tension rolling. For example the security guard in the hallway. He could give the nurse his walkie talkie, she has to go back to work, and he just never reappears until Laurie finds his body; we don’t need to see him encounter Michael.

Perhaps some enterprising soul could make you custom combined end credits instead of jumping around but that’s not a biggie.

About the sound mix. I’ve never seen these with the remixed soundtracks but the first movie sounds like it was improperly down mixed to stereo since the dialogue is very muffled and the music really stands out. H2 portion is better but music still stands out a lot. Mr Sandman won’t be missed but the end music edits could be much cleaner.

There seems to be a bit of a black crush/pixeling in the video encoding which I only found problematic during the initial 1963 pov shot while outside the Myers house in the dark. It gets much better after that.

This edit is definitely a good time if you want a shorter version of the combined events. It needs a bit more work to gel as a single movie though.

Hello, I am trying to combine the best audio/video sources for a movie as well as time correct it. Unfortunately this means stereo audio from a USA dvd with HD German source which was sped to 25 fps.

Converting 25fps video & subs to 23.976, then muxing with the stereo 23.976 audio is no problem. But If I want to use the 25fps DTS surround, it would need to be time stretched which I don’t think I can do in MKVtoolnix or anything else I use. If it wasn’t DTS I could just use Reaper. Any ideas? Thanks!

Swm iso KDS original English dubs synced! Halp! 🙂