MattMahdi

User Group: Members
Join date: 1-Aug-2007
Last activity: 28-Jun-2025
Posts: 357

Post History

Post: #302084
Topic: Preserving the...cringe...Star Wars Holiday Special (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/302084/action/topic#302084
Time: 27-Nov-2007 3:37 PM

Originally posted by: LinkTGF
I downloaded the MMM commentary for this and am listening to it [without watching the video ;-) ] and I'm wondering if anyone has included this on any of their Holiday Special dvds?

On an in-process project, yes. That's qualified because it was a summer project: learn what's involved in building a DVD, and make a nifty SWHS disc as part of the bargain. The motivating factors were getting a copy of the KCCI broadcast (just shy of beautiful!) and finding that commentary. It ended up okay....but only a shadow of what I wanted it to be. I continue to dream of completing the project, but please don't tell my lovely wife.

Summer ended and teaching resumed, the trial license for DVD Lab Pro ran out, and funds to purchase a license for same just don't seem to be in the picture.

So, while I did wrap it up neatly, it's pretty much a rough draft or pre-visualization. It _can_ be released into the wild but hasn't been for, well, the fact that I want to be genuinely proud of what it could someday become.

Some outside constructive feedback wouldn't be a bad thing, now that I think about it.

PM me if interested.

Post: #300290
Topic: WOOKIE GROOMER PRESENTS: ADDICTED TO STAR WARS (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/300290/action/topic#300290
Time: 31-Oct-2007 7:54 PM

Wookiee Groomer, I am impressed. I downloaded the three split screen films over the last week, and so for a few days my students have been coming in each morning and been utterly amazed at parallel ANH / TESB / RotJ. Fun to watch their reactions!

As I read about "Addicted to Star Wars," and my wife would certainly put me forward as qualified, I'm hoping that it gets some wider distribution. Everything I have so far is thanks to either email contacts or RapidShare --- aside from that poor copy of the Holiday Special, via eBay, with its neat tag line of "Every saga has a bastard son."

Since this discussion trailed off a few months ago, I'm hoping to hear a) if the project was distributed more widely and b) if there are worthwhile web-based newsgroup subscription services (_especially_ if this is still available on the newsgroups).

I'm starting to recognize many names after too much time browsing, and I'm impressed at the level of work I've seen. (And ThrowgnCpr --- I'm re-downloading your "A Flash of Spoofs" after foolishly lending my copy to a friend _before_ I made a copy of the disc image!)

Post: #300281
Topic: Preserving the...cringe...Star Wars Holiday Special (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/300281/action/topic#300281
Time: 31-Oct-2007 5:13 PM

Maybe I'm just ignorant, but what is this commentary?

[snip]

I think I've seen some TV commercials for the SWHS on some disc I have, but I could be mistaken. If memory serves, they were included on the KCCI disc, but I could be wrong. I'll try to look around tonight.

MMM Commentaries does quite a few fan commentaries, and they did a marathon session of the Star Wars sextet a while ago. Their SWHS commentary is interesting, and entertaining, reminding me kind of a Kevin Smith commentary (but with language far, far cleaner). It makes the watching more fun, and many months ago I had the crazy idea of grafting it onto the special itself as an alternate optical track.

(Then, of course, I realized that Nero would require me to duplicate the entire program. Not impressive.)

The MMM site is here:

http://www.mmmcommentaries.com/

And they've apparently just started taking a look at Buffy. Not sure how I discovered their site....probably a Google search on the SWHS.

(If you do find the commercials, I'd love to see them. Haven't since .... well, not sure .... certainly have only the dimmest memories of the original broadcast itself!)

Post: #300272
Topic: Preserving the...cringe...Star Wars Holiday Special (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/300272/action/topic#300272
Time: 31-Oct-2007 3:59 PM

I cannot believe I'm typing this, continuing this topic, but it's a project that I haven't been able to let go.

Over the summer I decided to learn what it took to author a DVD. I'd found the end of Nero's abilities when their tech support answered my question: the reason I couldn't find the widescreen menu option is that it wasn't there, and there were no plans to include such a thing in the future. Then I discovered, with much pain, that I was limited to only ONE audio track....

I'll state at the outset that I wasn't out to produce original content, but to gather together all I could on the "Star Wars Holiday Special" and create the best disc I possibly could.

So I started looking around, and settled on DVD Lab Pro. I gathered together all the pieces I could find: the KCCI broadcast, which _may_ be from Rikter's disc but I'm not sure; a Google video of the broadcast with commercials; the historical clips from SKot's excellent site; the MMM audio commentary (which was actually the genesis of the project); and a poor-quality download of Harrison Ford's Holiday Special surprise on Conan O'Brien. And I got working on authoring a disc containing all the pieces.

Sadly, the summer ended, my car's clutch failed

, and so at the end of the month-long trial period I had to let the project rest. Ultimately I gave it the designation "0.9," since it was only a good shadow of what I hoped to accomplish and, given time, would love to bring to completion. I did bring the disc to a close, along with an acknowledgment that it wasn't all I had hoped it could be --- especially in the commercials' quality (which included an audio glitch, since they were added in the final days) and the Conan clip.

Since then I bought a RapidShare account, and in the near future I'll be downloading Rikter's KCCI disc to see how it differs from the somewhat spare version I acquired a while ago. And I've wondered whether the materials I used over the summer are available elsewhere in better quality. I'm sure they _must_ be.

But even as I've grown more aware of what _is_ out there in terms of preservations and years-old content, and as I've marveled at what people have put together, there's seems to be a dearth (aside from the KCCI disc mentioned above) of SWHS.

Only sharing my mutterings. But I'd love to see this program collected in the best possible form. Italicized are portions where I really didn't get there or they just don't exist:

KCCI broadcast, with selectable audio commentary
A second, more technical and historical commentary [nonexistent, but would be welcome]
Text commentary [nonexistent, but possibly a simpler solution than an audio commentary]
The TVLand and Fox News clips
The Conan O'Brien clip [where the only download I've found was ghastly]
The commercials from the original broadcast, selectable and indexed
Scene selections of course are a must [and, in the end, I think I did a pretty good job]
Song selections are another section of which I'm proud
And a history of Kashyyyk: its appearances, references, and origins.

I've wondered for a long time when the Ralph McQuarrie's painting of the wookiee house was made: I'm _assuming_ that it was the inspiration for all things Kashyyyk-related, but I don't have any evidence aside from the fact that everything post-SWHS has echoed a similar style.

So these are my ramblings. Hope someday to complete the project ... or, with bitterness, see someone else's ultimate disc that puts mine to shame.

Post: #295203
Topic: Preserving the...cringe...Star Wars Holiday Special (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/295203/action/topic#295203
Time: 14-Aug-2007 12:48 AM

Originally posted by: SKot
Currently no one I know of is working on a text commentary, though talk of it continues. I'm certainly willing to put my knowledge into such a project. Probably the best thing to do is get the commentary text written first, and then worry about the technical details of making it work.

You know, there's a certain amount of sense in that suggestion....

Post: #294905
Topic: Preserving the...cringe...Star Wars Holiday Special (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/294905/action/topic#294905
Time: 9-Aug-2007 3:48 PM

Originally posted by: Sluggo

Originally posted by: SKot
I don't think such a thing was ever actually produced, unfortunately. We talked about a text commentary as something that would be very cool to do someday.

Yeah, it is a little weird. Not quite as weird as seeing the reconstructed cut scenes I and my friend Brad did years ago (which are hosted on T-bone's Star Wars site) for sale on a compilation DVD on ebay or at a con. Rather surreal.

And that explains why _SO_ many iterations of a Google search came up empty!

Which isn't to say that I'm not losing my mind --- only that I can no longer consider this to be symptomatic.

After reading ever more deeply into SKot's site, particularly the names and biographies for the characters, I'm realizing how little I know about the inner workings of the SWHS. I'm certainly not qualified to build such a thing.

Hypothetically, though...what's the simplest way that one _could_ go about building a text commentary?

Post: #294875
Topic: Preserving the...cringe...Star Wars Holiday Special (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/294875/action/topic#294875
Time: 9-Aug-2007 12:39 AM

I have two jpegs that I downloaded at some point _long_ ago that are designed as inserts for the Holiday Special.

And both of them claim that the disc has a "text commentary" among other bonuses:

* interactive menus
* behind the scenes photo gallery [only one claims this]
* production art gallery
* text commentary
* vintage Kenner toy commercial
* DVD-ROM content

So my assumption is that someone, somewhere, for some reason produced such a thing.

Which leaves me with only one question:

Does anyone know where to find this text commentary?

Thanks,

- amtt