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Knightmessenger

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Members
Join date
1-Nov-2005
Last activity
23-Oct-2017
Posts
819
Web Site
http://www.youtube.com/user/Knightmessenger

Post History

Post
#1121440
Topic
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? - uncensored HDTV airing(s) (Released)
Time

https://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/00834/940-AS/Who-Framed-Roger-Rabbit

https://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/55733/940-CS/Who-Framed-Roger-Rabbit

https://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/00835/940-CS/Who-Framed-Roger-Rabbit

Can anyone contribute more information about which of these laserdiscs were uncensored (well as uncensored as it got for home video).
The interesting thing is there are two CAV editions, both letterboxed yet one does not have a release date listed. But it follows the same corner label pattern as the 4:3 CLV edition which is listed as 1990.
There was also a later special edition in 1997 featuring an audio commentary but I assume by then, more stuff had been changed.

Post
#997988
Topic
A new Mr. Plinkett review - The Force Awakens!
Time

I’m looking forward to seeing it. I actually think TFA is not as good as I first thought, because while the acting and directing is spot on, the plot doesn’t make sense. Han, Leia and Luke go back to doing what they were doing before Star Wars, which basically means everything they had achieved at the end of Return of the Jedi was undone.
This is another review that while not epic like Mr. Plinkett, I thought made a lot of good points.
https://youtu.be/FNAy7yCMyBw

The overall thing with George Lucas is that he needs to be used in moderation. Too much Lucas and you end up with the prequels. But too little Lucas and you end up with garbage like the Holiday Special or a missed opportunity like the Force Awakens.
Empire of course was just the right amount of Lucas influence with enough collaboration from others as well.

Post
#997985
Topic
10th Anniversary of the "GOUT" dvd release
Time

Fang Zei said:

Thinking back on it now, would it really have cost all that much money in 2006 (compared to your average dvd of just about any other film) to simply do a new telecine of the same '85 IP elements that were used for the '93 laserdiscs?

I know Lucasfilm’s form response letter said “existing prints are in poor condition,” but come on.

Are you gonna tell me they were in worse shape than whatever film element was used for the examples I listed in my long-ass post like Dune or The Thing or Blade Runner?

George’s whole thing was “don’t spend a single cent of my money remastering it,” but was it really worth the backlash?

I know, I know, “he was surrounded by yes men.” It’s still hard to comprehend.

I think the claim was the prints that had not been restored and re-edited for the special edition were in poor condition and either had faded worse than their 1993 scan or would have required all new color correction and mastering if they didn’t use the existing THX mastered final output.
It’s still lazy. I’m still surprised they never made a film to video transfer of the restored print in 1995 before the alterations were made, as some kind of backup. The oot footage included on the 1997 making of special looks better than the actual gout. (but it’s pan & scan)

Post
#992104
Topic
10th Anniversary of the "GOUT" dvd release
Time

At least in North America, the much maligned unaltered dvd versions were released on September 12, 2006 meaning it was 10 years to the day you could buy Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi on dvd without the digital alterations made in 1997 and 2004.
While out of print since 2011, it’s still the best and most convenient home video way to watch the original versions since 1.) vhs sucks 2.) widescreen vhs was not that common 3.) laserdisc players were/are never common and still go for a decent price 4.) you don’t have to flip/swap discs in the middle of the movie.

But I haven’t seen a complete listing of all the store exclusives you could get. Best Buy had a tin, Wal-Mart had the comic book. Circuit city had something I think.

So what other store exclusives were there and were there any other promotional posters or materials to promote this release?

Post
#989166
Topic
THX on 35mm Tech IB preservation - HELP NEEDED (work in progress)
Time

Are you still interested in donations? I might be able to contribute a small amount.

Also, do you think there will ever be a video showing how this was done? (Like with Harmy’s despecialized edition upload on youtube) I personally find stuff like that so much more interesting than reading text back and forth in an internet forum, I’d especially be interested in some of the color correction tools you use.

But of course by all means, keep priority on getting this done before making behind the scenes stuff.

One last thing, are there any differences between the 2 dvd (one was in a cardboard box and mostly white, the other was in a regular case, both said director’s cut) and blu-ray versions?

Post
#989162
Topic
Free Offer: Any interest in Star Wars on betamax?
Time

So I don’t have a beta player and not sure if I ever will go for one. But I know some people here like to have all the versions on home video captured for comparison purposes. Some people have used the early vhs versions as a clue to what the film looked like before it faded.
But since Betamax was better, wouldn’t that be a better tape to capture off of?

I’m not really interested in payment for this and I don’t expect it to go for much on ebay anyways. I got it free at a garage sale anyways.

But if someone has a high end Betamax deck and wants to make a capture and would be willing to post screenshots (especially to compare with the same vhs of the time), I’d be willing to send it to them.

Post
#989154
Topic
What is wrong with... <strong>Attack of the Clones</strong>? - a general discussion thread
Time

Density said:

Joel said:

TV’s Frink said:

My wife and I have long suspected George has Asperger’s. This is not an insult (those who know me understand why) but an observation on both his strengths and weaknesses.

This is a really profound idea that makes so much sense as to seem obvious in retrospect. Obsessed with details but not a great understanding of the workings of relationships… wow.

Yeah, I’ve considered this before and I think I agree with it. I don’t know him or anything so I can’t say for sure, but from what I have seen of him and do know about him I think it’s a possibility. He’s not good at communicating-actors say he was always very distant and aloof and difficult to talk to. He’s far more concerned with (and more skilled with) technical details than he is with dialogue, character motivations, relationships, etc. He tends to speak in a rather monotone, rambling and detached fashion in interviews. He doesn’t seem to be all that empathetic or concerned with the desires of his fans or anyone else, focused with a tunnel-vision on “his vision.” And a lot of times he doesn’t really seem to be socially aware at all.

Yeah, I can definitely see it.

As someone who actually has Aspergers, I’ve definitely noticed it. But I didn’t have that explained to me until 2006. So in 2004 when I watched the original trilogy on the dvd, I found them kind of boring. But when I rented episode 1 in January 2005, I really liked it. Finally colorful sets and interesting locations that didn’t look based on John Portman brutalist architecture. (think Atlanta buildings used for Hunger Games)
The dialog and other politics never seemed to bother me that much, it was there and that was all that was necessary.
Oddly enough, I did not enjoy Anakin in Episode 2 that much, even I thought the acting to be off.

Now, as someone who has a more jaded and skeptical view of the world, I relate a lot more to Han Solo. Plus driving for Uber is somewhat analogous to being a space pilot I guess. So yeah, Han is definitely my favorite character and while I have mixed feelings about Force Awakens, I thought Harrison Ford was perfect in that role again.

So more about the OP topic. I do feel that Clones is the worst of the prequels, well any Star Wars movies. My biggest thing with it was that it felt like a mystery novel with all these interesting questions that quite simply never felt fully answered. You have to pay very careful attention to learn Tyrannus ordered the clone army and then later Count Dooku is called Darth Tyrannus by Palpatine. We still never find out why someone wanted to kill Padme. The jedi are all like “we will solve this mystery and figure it out” at the beginning and then later on just seem to forgot about that in their rush to go from one action scene to the next.

There was no unmasking scene like at the end of a Scooby Doo episode where they caught the bad guy and he confessed that he was behind it all because so and so told him to. In fact Dooku actually tells Obi Wan the truth, there is a Sith Lord manipulating people in the Senate, and Obi Wan doesn’t believe him. The better thing to say to that would simply be “Go on, tell me more about this Sith Lord, do you know him by chance?”

Also, why couldn’t Anakin have visited his mother in the 10 years between Phantom Menace and Clones? Why did he love Padme so much like a creepy crush when if anything, from episode one he should have thought of her as like some awesome babysitter he once had as a kid and then AFTER he meets her again, he realizes he might have feelings for her. Why did Padme resist Anakin because she was a senator? If the Jedi have a code that’s one thing but there’s no rule against people in the senate dating. And then why did she fall in love with him after all the crap he did? It felt like it was out of pity, not love.

So basically Episode II was by far one of the most unfulfilling movies I can recall seeing.
Episode 1 was a slow paced introduction to Anakin, and a young Queen who had to deal with her world under attack. One took steps to become a Jedi, the other fought back to free her people. Like it or not, I thought the movie was pretty clear in what it was trying to do. (regardless of whether it succeeded)

Episode III was the fall of the republic and the end of the Jedi, rise of the Empire and beginning of Darth Vader. Again, the movie had a clear purpose.

Clones was just all over the place like a jumbled mess. It doesn’t really connect 1 with 3 at all, it just happens to be a series of events that takes place between the other two prequels.

Post
#989116
Topic
Free Offer (pay for shipping only): Star Wars Trilogy Definitive Laserdisc collection
Time

Do you still have these? I’d love to get a laserdisc player. Those still go for a lot on ebay so you’d be crazy to donate one to goodwill where most people would be like “what the hell is this record player doing without a needle?” Next time, craigslist it.

I’ve seen the Definitive Collection go for around 40-80. I can’t believe people would have paid 250.00 USD back in 1993 just to see something better than vhs.

Post
#989106
Topic
Phantom Menace changes
Time

I’m curious then, which home video release of Phantom Menace is thought to have the best color timing? I never thought the dvd looked off to me.

FYI, Cinema Sins series on youtube used the blu-ray version with CGI Yoda and as much as that film has been panned, man does it look amazingly better than the clips from Attack of the Clones on their video for that movie.

Post
#989105
Topic
If you could only remove one Special Edition change...?
Time

darthrush said:

As a child I was so confused why Vaders saber kept turning pink and why Lukes saber was green on the falcon. Those damn 97 VHS’s were really confusing.

I don’t know if you’re being sarcastic here or not but those only were an issue with the 2004 dvd master. (that the blu-ray fixed somewhat)

The other thing about Jedi Rocks is that we see all these new characters and creatures and then don’t see them anytime else in Jabba’s Palace. If they wanted to enhance that scene without turning it into a trainwreck, they should have just kept a few of the new shots for cutaways and then extended the existing song. Like keep the first part but after Jabba says “Do that again” cut right to Lapti Nek as it already was.

That would have probably been received much better that way.

Also, the outtakes from Jedi added to Empire were obviously the worst addition to that film. It completely ruins the pacing and confuses people as to whether Vader visits the second Death Star on the way to his actual ship for no reason? If Lucas wanted that shot so badly, why didn’t he digitally alter the background of the hanger so that it looked like the Star Destroyer, not DS 2.
It might even be worse than Hayden in RotJ, I can’t decide.

Post
#989104
Topic
Sources on the Special Edition
Time

Wazzles said:

Knightmessenger said:

none said:

skyjedi2005 wrote:

I think there was a work in progress cgi x-wing on the John Knoll books cdrom meant for when they started discussion early in the nineties the special edition.

I think it was called 365 days or something, just a lol quality animated computer model i think.  Not sure if its the same as the one none suggested but probably it is.

Not what I was suggesting good remembering.  Have the book, will dig it out.

3 pages here’s the text:

pg.115

The Empire Strikes Back Special Edition

I had just finished the final “final” on The Empire Strikes Back Special Edition.  It was a Friday (in January 1997) and I was at ILM’s wrap party for A New Hope Special Edition.  There were tents in the courtyard, everyone was having a good time, and I ran into George, who said - and this was exactly six days before we were supposed to ship the last CG film out for Empire - “I have one more shot I want to do for Empire.  But we can talk abut it Monday.”

And I said, “No, no - we have to talk about this now!  What is it?”

“After Han’s Falcon is parked on the Star Destroyer,” he said, “it’s not clear that Boba Fett is in the junk, and that’s he’s following Han.  I think we need one more shot in there to explain what’s going on.”

So that night I went home and got out my Art of The Empire Strikes Back book and used it as reference for a really quick CG model of Boba Fett’s ship, Slave 1.  I paired that with an already constructed CG Millennium Falcon model.

Over the weekend I cobbled together an animatic (a three-dimensional digital storyboard) of Slave 1 clandestinely following the Falcon, and showed it to George on Monday (top right, a wire-frame of BG1 - the “Boba Fett one” shot).  He had a couple of comments on the timing, so we started a revision.  Meanwhile, Rod Woodall had been working, as a prersonal projct, on building a detailed CG model of Slave 1, so I got him to ive me a copy with the textures.  The rest of that Monday we worked on the shot revision, also completing the CG version of Slave 1.  On Tuesday morning, I showed George the revision of the animatic, and he approved it.  The afternoon was spent lighting the shot, and by the end of the evening I was pretty much satisfied.  I spent Wednesday continuing to light and render elements.  Thursday, I put the comp together, and filmed it Thursday night.  We screened the completed version Friday morning , and George gave it the final thumbs-up (bottom right, final frame).  If anything had gone wrong during that weekmk we wouldn’t missed the deadline.  (Other sequences were also enhanced in The Empire Strikes Back Special  Edition.  Opposite, Howie Weed in the wampa suit.)

doubleofive wrote: I have scans of all of those magazines

If someone’s got the Cinefex 69, would love to read them.

Interesting that that added shot of Boba Fett following the falcon was the last addition made to the 97 version. Typical of Lucas to think we need to be shown everything as if we can’t figure it out Boba followed the falcon in the original version. But it’s not a terrible alteration, it just makes the surprise by Lando slightly less shocking.
But the stock footage of Jedi added is worse.

I’m not sure if this is the right place to ask but why was there all this talk of Lowry restoring the films in 2004? It’s like people forgot there was a restoration done in 1997, why did the films need to be restored again 7 years later?

It was a different type of restoration. The 97 was a standard photo-chemical restoration, which can only do so much. Lowry’s was digital, and they were able to extensively clean the films and remove any hint of damage- damage that couldn’t be removed for the 97.

It still looked pretty darn good already (see Empire of Dreams) and didn’t need to have the colors f’d up. I don’t remember seeing any damage or flaws with the 97 film print. But maybe that’s just because I don’t have a better version of the 97 than widescreen vhs.

Post
#988933
Topic
&quot;Best&quot; home releases of the pre-SE original trilogy?
Time

I’ve seen pictures of the various home video releases and in the UK, the 1994 vhs release stated on the covers “digitally remastered.” Now this is the originals so can anyone explain how the UK got a “digitally remastered” release while in the US, it was just THX digitally mastered for the best in picture quality.
Because I’m pretty sure the only time the films were truly remastered and restored was for 1997 but those of course are not the originals.

To the OP, the 2006 unaltered dvd is taken from the same NTSC master used for the 1993 NTSC laserdisc, 1995 NTSC laserdisc and 1995 widescreen NTSC vhs. Although similar, the master used for the equivalent PAL versions in those years was not the exact same and was not used for the 2006 PAL dvds.
DVD from a digital master looks better than laserdisc from the same source and surely better than vhs.
Some people prefer the Japanese Special Collection for not having the THX color correction or motion smearing. But the only way to get those transfers is on the laserdiscs themselves or find a dvd copied from them.

Post
#988928
Topic
Sources on the Special Edition
Time

none said:

skyjedi2005 wrote:

I think there was a work in progress cgi x-wing on the John Knoll books cdrom meant for when they started discussion early in the nineties the special edition.

I think it was called 365 days or something, just a lol quality animated computer model i think.  Not sure if its the same as the one none suggested but probably it is.

Not what I was suggesting good remembering.  Have the book, will dig it out.

3 pages here’s the text:

pg.115

The Empire Strikes Back Special Edition

I had just finished the final “final” on The Empire Strikes Back Special Edition.  It was a Friday (in January 1997) and I was at ILM’s wrap party for A New Hope Special Edition.  There were tents in the courtyard, everyone was having a good time, and I ran into George, who said - and this was exactly six days before we were supposed to ship the last CG film out for Empire - “I have one more shot I want to do for Empire.  But we can talk abut it Monday.”

And I said, “No, no - we have to talk about this now!  What is it?”

“After Han’s Falcon is parked on the Star Destroyer,” he said, “it’s not clear that Boba Fett is in the junk, and that’s he’s following Han.  I think we need one more shot in there to explain what’s going on.”

So that night I went home and got out my Art of The Empire Strikes Back book and used it as reference for a really quick CG model of Boba Fett’s ship, Slave 1.  I paired that with an already constructed CG Millennium Falcon model.

Over the weekend I cobbled together an animatic (a three-dimensional digital storyboard) of Slave 1 clandestinely following the Falcon, and showed it to George on Monday (top right, a wire-frame of BG1 - the “Boba Fett one” shot).  He had a couple of comments on the timing, so we started a revision.  Meanwhile, Rod Woodall had been working, as a prersonal projct, on building a detailed CG model of Slave 1, so I got him to ive me a copy with the textures.  The rest of that Monday we worked on the shot revision, also completing the CG version of Slave 1.  On Tuesday morning, I showed George the revision of the animatic, and he approved it.  The afternoon was spent lighting the shot, and by the end of the evening I was pretty much satisfied.  I spent Wednesday continuing to light and render elements.  Thursday, I put the comp together, and filmed it Thursday night.  We screened the completed version Friday morning , and George gave it the final thumbs-up (bottom right, final frame).  If anything had gone wrong during that weekmk we wouldn’t missed the deadline.  (Other sequences were also enhanced in The Empire Strikes Back Special  Edition.  Opposite, Howie Weed in the wampa suit.)

doubleofive wrote: I have scans of all of those magazines

If someone’s got the Cinefex 69, would love to read them.

Interesting that that added shot of Boba Fett following the falcon was the last addition made to the 97 version. Typical of Lucas to think we need to be shown everything as if we can’t figure it out Boba followed the falcon in the original version. But it’s not a terrible alteration, it just makes the surprise by Lando slightly less shocking.
But the stock footage of Jedi added is worse.

I’m not sure if this is the right place to ask but why was there all this talk of Lowry restoring the films in 2004? It’s like people forgot there was a restoration done in 1997, why did the films need to be restored again 7 years later?

Post
#988923
Topic
How accurate are the Harmy versions?
Time

CatBus said:

towne32 said:

It’s crazy when you consider how we would’ve seen this progress ten years ago.

Before the GOUT, I’d have told you Cowclops was the best it was ever going to get. Which I believe was the point of the GOUT–shut down the market for those Laserdisc rips. Nowadays I wouldn’t touch Cowclops, but it’s not because of the GOUT…

I actually gave a friend a copy of my cowclops Return of the Jedi disc because he had previously shown my sister the first two movies on pan & scan vhs. I figured a widescreen laserdisc version would be an improvement. Even though the Gout is so much clearer without noticable mpeg2 compression artifacts. But I didn’t have the ready means to copy a protected disc that was dual layer.

Post
#987944
Topic
Pity me. I still have a HLD-X9 laserdisc player.
Time

Well, I recently looked into getting a player and find that most of the time, they still go for a lot on ebay, especially the high end ones.
If you search youtube, you can find a lot of people who talk about their laserdisc collection. I suspect lots of people buy the discs because they are pretty affordable now and a cool experience. I mean wasn’t the Definitive Collection $250 USD back then?

If you’re interested in doing captures, it might be useful to get really high quality rips of the 1993/1995 Star Wars extras. Or THX 1138 if someone hasn’t done that already on an X9. Or anything else that was exclusive to laserdisc.

Post
#987941
Topic
'97 vs. '04 (and '11) - Your preference?
Time

Did the blu-ray actually try to fix the colors from 2004? Besides the minor lightsaber fixes, did they try to make Hoth less blue or colors not quite as oversaturated?

Overall, I have to go with 1997. For one, it actually looks great with proper color timing and a well done sound mix. Plus, at least this was advertised and promoted as a new version. I also find it silly that after being promoted as the definitive version/vision of Lucas, he’s gone back and digitally altered it two times in the next 14ish years.
I mean how are we supposed to take Lucas seriously instead of seeing him as some OCD guy who can’t just move on from something.

Post
#987937
Topic
PS78: Pre-ANH Star Wars Bootleg VHS from 1978 ***&quot;RAW&quot; DVD RELEASED***
Time

AntcuFaalb said:

The transfer from film to VHS way back in 77-78 was accomplished by a method that looks very much like time-compression. A good analogy would be transferring 24p film to 59.94i video by projecting the film on a wall at 24 frames per second and recording it with an NTSC video camera at 59.94 fields per second.

This process results in each and every frame being an average of several of its temporal neighbors.

In consequence, bright->dark shot-changes are blown-out and dark->bright shot-changes are crushed for the first few frames until the “average” events out to the overall brightness of the shot. Rinse, repeat.

Does this make any sense?

EDIT: Also, some shot-changes just go crazy. I imagine that this is due to the automatic gain circuitry in the VCR used to make the copy (remember: this tape is 2nd gen) from the master.

Do you know how this tape was made? Apologies if I missed the specific explanation somewhere. Anyways, if someone simply pointed their vhs video camera at the projected screen, you might have had things like auto exposure, auto white balance come into play.

Also, could you repost what was your equipment used again? Or a link to a picture, pictures referenced no longer show up. Like on page 6 you mentioned having a tv tuner. Was this a digital capture to a computer or a straight copy to a dvd recorder? (or both?) You mentioned using virtual dub (computer program) and also a Panasonic ES-10 (dvd recorder).
Interestingly I almost purchased a ES-10 last winter but went with a EA-18 because the 10 didn’t have a firewire input and advice in the videohelp forum mentioned it didn’t quite have full resolution (704/480 vs 720x480). I was also told the ES-10 had automatic DNR that could not be turned off during recording.

Post
#892539
Topic
Info Wanted: Open Matte versions of the Prequels?
Time

Even some of the Phantom Menace visual effects shots on the blu ray extra features show a 16x9 ratio like the other two prequels. However, there is nothing I’ve seen that indicates the any shot was finished at that ratio. I’m pretty sure all the full screen dvd’s of the prequels are pan and scan from 2.35-1 and any tv broadcast at 1.78-1 is cropped from the theatrical ratio as well.