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Mojo_LA

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5-Jan-2007
Last activity
7-Jun-2014
Posts
132

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Post
#288386
Topic
STAR WARS: EP IV 2004 <strong>REVISITED</strong> ADYWAN *<em>1080p HD VERSION NOW IN PRODUCTION</em>
Time
Everything is looking good as usual, Ady...

Just one thing to be careful of, and that's making the stars TOO bright. I see you pumped them up quite a bit on these latest shots, and while I agree it's nice to see the stars, in a few shots they look too bright...

As I'm sure you know, in reality we would never see stars in ANY of these shots, since the camera's apeture would be stopped down to expose for everything else in frame. Of course, this isn't reality and we want to see stars, but personally I've always opted for just enough brightness so you can see them but no more.
Post
#286936
Topic
MECO's rare ESB 10&quot; record (Released)
Time
Even I agree that 128 is too low - you can definately hear the compression. 192 starts to get transparent, and really, anything 224 and up is fine. People who claim that "MP3s suck" are just being audio snobs. Sorry, but it's true. You'll never be able to pick out a 320 MP3 from the original CD, I don't care WHAT gear you have.

I do understand the storage VS sound quality argument, but here's what I reason - first of all, storage has gotten ridiculously cheap. I just bought a 750 gig drive for $225. So even at a bitrate of 320, you could store endless amounts of music for very little money.

But the main thing is, it's very very possible you may one day say "you know what, I've been listening to 128k MP3s for a few years now and I have finally decided that they DO suck and I can't stand it anymore!" Now you'll have to go back and re-compress your entire music collection at a higher bitrate. Also, I like to make DJ mixes, which means re-encoding a final mix; if I start with low bitrate files, the results will sound awful - if my originals are high bitrate, I can re-compress them and they'll still sound good.

Basically, using a higher bitrate to start with covers you for all forseeable circumstances; going with a lower bitrate to save a few megs of space will inevitably byte you in the end (ha ha, aren't I clever).
Post
#286788
Topic
Idea &amp; Info: for a Spider-Man 3 edit...
Time
Peter just walks away after the bomb goes off next to Harry (which is a problem in itself, since those things are so powerful, if one went off a foot away from Harry it would certainly kill him).

I agree, very few of his powers were used in this movie. All my friends and I were wondering what happened to his Spidey-Sense - it clearly would have "gone off" many times in this film but it was just ignored.

The asteroid "quietly" hitting the gound near Peter and MJ was dumb and too cooincidental - how the hell can a chunk of asteroid hit the earth 50 feet away from someone and NOT send you flying?? It would have made perfect sense for it to hit the ground further away, and out of natural curiosity they would have run over to check it out. THEN the black gunk could have secretly made it's way to them.

This movie was full of impossible cooincidences, which really was just sloppy writing.
Post
#286786
Topic
MECO's rare ESB 10&quot; record (Released)
Time
Everyone is welcome.

If anyone who listens to these really thinks the sound needs improving (and not just because they are compressed, because you really think you can hear artifacts), I will see if I can dig up the original WAVs I stored away and provide a new version.

And to those who CAN hear the difference, many audio magazines have done the double blind listening test with compressed and uncompressed sources over and over again and the results are always the same - no one can definitively hear the difference.

If someone can point me to a test which has shown otherwise, I'd really love to see it.

Here are my specs for anyone interested:

- Technics SL1200 MK2 turntable
- Ortofon "Concorde" cartridge & nightclub stylus (20-22k)
- NAD preamp
- LAME encoder (VBR avg 256)

Post
#286659
Topic
MECO's rare ESB 10&quot; record (Released)
Time
Well, for now these high bitrate MP3s are going to have to make you happy:

http://rapidshare.com/files/31176214/MECO_ESB_EP.zip

I'm very much a fan of high quality audio, but I will defy anyone to tell the difference between uncompressed and a 256 bitrate MP3... test after test has shown you just can't tell.

If any of you have reference, $10,000 home audio systems and swear you can hear the difference, I'll come to your house and if you can hear the difference between the original LP and these MP3s in a blind, A/B test, I'll GIVE you the record!
Post
#286480
Topic
MECO's rare ESB 10&quot; record (Released)
Time

I saw the thread about preserving the double LP ESB soundtrack album, and it reminded me of my rare 10" Meco ESB 4-track record.

I know a few of these have been released on Meco CDs, but I’m not sure if they are the full length versions and if all the tracks have made it to CD. Here is the tracklisting and running times:

1. Darth Vader & Yoda’s Theme (4:56)
2. Battle in the Snow (8:39)
3. Force Theme (9:46)
4. Asteroid Field & Finale (15:47)

If anyone is interested in these, I have already transfered the vinyl using pro equipment and have high quality MP3s. I can post them on Rapidshare.

The best thing about these is the opening of “Battle in the Snow;” it begins with a CLEAN sound effect of an ATAT walking!

NOTE: Can anyone confirm that all of this material has NOT been released on CD? I’d feel better about posting them if they are truly not available…

UPDTAE: Ok, I did some hunting around online and as far as I can tell, these tracks ARE on Meco’s Star Wars collection, but they are NOT the full length versions… the ESB EP is nearly 40 mins total, so obviously these 4 tracks alone would have eaten up most of the CD. The tracks from the vinyl are MUCH longer…

I’ll be happy to post.

Post
#286472
Topic
Idea &amp; Info: for a Spider-Man 3 edit...
Time
I'm sure new Sandman scenes could help his story, but the problem is the Spiderman/Sandman story is like a completely different movie from the black suit/love triangle story. They don't really connect emotionally so I'm still not sure how more scenes are going to make it a better movie - it was already too long!

Plus, some of the worst scenes in the film are the Sandman scenes... his origin story is laughable (just happening to run into a scientific test pit) and the whole "needing money to pay for his daughter's operation" is just lazy and cliche-ridden storytelling. Plus no one liked the idea of shoehorning him into Ben's death.

This is a shame, because the black suit/love triangle story IS very mature and emotionally intertesting. It will be a challenge to make all this work together.
Post
#286321
Topic
.: The XØ Project - Laserdisc on Steroids :. (SEE FIRST POST FOR UPDATES) (* unfinished project *)
Time
I agree with you 100%... but everything you said points to the possibility that we may never see a finished product from these guys. They have done outstanding work and are clearly good enough at what they are doing to be pros... but just having your heart in the right place isn't always enough.

As they have said, coordinating team members around the world, all of whom have had "life" get in the way of their work, isn't easy. In addition, it sounds like one or more of the team members have occassionally dropped off the face of the earth.

Anyway, I brought all this up because I was considering donating, but the banter of the last week or so has led me to believe the money may not be well spent.

Hopefully they will get back on track soon and we'll see some momentum... when that happens, I'll be the first to help fund them!
Post
#286319
Topic
Idea &amp; Info: for a Spider-Man 3 edit...
Time
Had the screening... and, ultimately, I'd say it was an "educational" experience.

The "Sandsored Edit" didn't really work as a movie, but it was interesting to see why.

Mainly, without the Sandman (or some other) subplot in the film, there is nothing to cut away to for transitional periods while you're reflecting on the Peter/Harry/MJ story. In this cut, it's just one scene of this story to the next. Also we realized, as lame as the subplot was, the Sandman story is where most of the action came from, so it helped break up the pacing and provided contrast to the love story/relationship thread. In this cut, going from one "relationship arc" scene to the next ended up feeling slow and boring.

Ultimately, even though this cut is only 95 minutes long, it STILL felt like a slow, long movie.

I saw a few scenes that I could move around and re-order to help with the pacing, but without another story and/or action to stir things up, I'm not sure this concept works.

So, even though I still feel these are the best scenes in the film, it is an excellent example of how you need more than just a bunch of good scenes to make a good movie.

It will be interesting to see what extra scenes are on the DVD, as S3 is still going to make for excellent fan edit fodder. I know a lot of people are looking forward to more Sandman scenes to give dimension to his story, but I feel strongly that just ADDING more to this film is not the answer.
Post
#286271
Topic
Idea &amp; Info: for a Spider-Man 3 edit...
Time
Well, I did it.

I did a rough edit of S3 and removed everything to do with Sandman, just to see how it would go.

Running time: 96 minutes.

I'm doing a final encode now and am going to get together with some friends tonight to watch it and see if it works.

This isn't planned for a release - first of all, the footage is from a cam, so the quality is mediocre at best. Also, I did the edit in half a day (mostly as an experiment to see if it was possible to remove Sandman and still have a movie) so the right amount of care hasn't been put into it.

Here's what I did and learned:

- First half of the film was easy; it's like Sandman wasn't supposed to exist in the first place - his footage is easily excised with no impact on the story.

- Trimming down the first battle with Green Goblin was also easy - I felt the fight went on way too long, so I left in only the bare essentials - Goblin gets the drop on Peter and kicks his ass, Peter looses ring, Peter gets ring back, Goblin chases Peter down alley and Peter snags Goblin in a web-wire. Gone is dragging Peter across the side of a building (Peter may be strong but he's NOT Superman, something these movies often forget) and I ditched the silly flying Goblin bombs (as Peter said, "I really hate those things.") The fight is over fast and we get Harry to the hospital, where the character story continues.

- Losing Sandman in the second half proved a real challenge, because Peter's lust for revenge over finding out he killed his uncle is what triggers the black suit to take him over and drives the middle of the film. At first I thought I couldn't do it because it was too important to the film, but I rolled up my sleeves and was merciless - gone is the police station scene where they tell Peter and May that Ben's killer is still on the loose and gone is the scene where MJ tries to comfort Peter while he listens to police scanners. Now we cut from MJ leaving Peter in the french restaurant to a montage of Peter listening to police scanners. What this does is make it seem like MJ's rejection of Peter makes Peter decide to abandon his personal life and focus on just being Spiderman - and full of anger over having his hopes crushed. I think it works. Then the black suit takes over and I carefully removed all flashbacks to Uncle Ben, because that sublot is now gone.

- Now Peter dons the black suit, has some fun in it and I removied his "muder" of Sandman. Peter enjoys the feeling he gets in the suit and ventures out as the "new" Peter Parker, bascially out for revenge on MJ. The movie continues as normal until the end.

- Cut the awful scene where the Butler tells Harry his father died at his own hand. Of course this affect nothing - it just leaves Harry conflicted so when he comes back it is more of a surprise.

- Removing Sandman from the final battle I thought would be impossible, but it was REALLY easy. The news reports MJ has been kidnapped by an evil, black-suited creature, and Spidey swings in to help her. He fights with Venom and falls to the ground, then Harry comes back, MJ falls, Harry picks up Spidey and they both rescue MJ. Spidey and MJ land inside the high-rise construction site, they talk for a moment and then we hear Venom scream - Peter turns around and faces off with Venom. It's like the fight with Sandman never existed. The ONLY continuity error is after Peter talks to MJ and hears Venom scream, we cut to another angle and MJ is missing from the shot, when she should be right in front of Peter. If I do this edit as a final, I'd have to comp her into the shot). Then Peter and Harry kill Venom. MJ runs to the dying Harry.

- Of course I cut the final scene where Sandman and Peter "make nice." Now MJ runs to tend to Harry, and a moment later Peter joins her. It's as if the Sandman scene was never there.

So, we end up with 96 minutes of really focused story. Does it work? I'll find out tonight.

The most interesting thing was how easy it was to cut Sandman from most of the film. If his character was beter integrated into the story, it should have been much harder.
Post
#286125
Topic
.: The XØ Project - Laserdisc on Steroids :. (SEE FIRST POST FOR UPDATES) (* unfinished project *)
Time
Ok I admit, "fishing for cash" was a poor phrase on my part and I never intended to imply that X0 was walking around with their hands out.

That said, they do "accept" donations and the donations link on their site is unique in the fan edit community. They could use our money to help with their project and that is understandable.

But please, Zion, no one is "asking for everything and we want it now." It's a simple matter that myself and others may be interested in donating, but naturally we're curious how far along the project is. That's all I ever asked.

Honestly, if you guys said "we're 20% of the way there," then, personally, I'd guess Lucas would release the OT himself in HD before X0 was finished and it would be a waste of money. But if you were far enough along that you felt, within a year, you'd be done, then I'd be all to happy to send money.

Also, asking for you guys to post a full res clip so we can compare it to the GOUT would be nice. This lets us compare it to what has been released and, if we feel that it's a big enough improvement, again, it makes us more comfortable to click the "donate" button because we'll know what we're getting.

But when no clips have been posted and everyone on the team mysteriously has no interest in even telling us how much is finished, it leaves us a little confused.

I mean, why not give us a status update or a clip? How does that hurt the project? Just saying "we're doing it our way" is not helpful.
Post
#286105
Topic
.: The XØ Project - Laserdisc on Steroids :. (SEE FIRST POST FOR UPDATES) (* unfinished project *)
Time
Sorry if you took my "status" question the wrong way... it just seems to me that if you are asking for donations and selling merchandise to help fund the project, people have a right to know what is up with it. Simply asking how much is done seemed like a fair compromise.

How about releasing ONE finished scene so people can see what they'll be getting?

Honestly, if you really want donations, keeping folks in the loop and showing them bits of the finished product is a good way to entice them. I asked my question originally because I was tempted to donate and wanted to know more before I did. Several other posters also liked the idea of a progress report, maybe they were thinking of donating too.

Giving us a heavy, condescending attitude is probably not the best way to fish for cash.
Post
#286104
Topic
Idea &amp; Info: for a Spider-Man 3 edit...
Time
I agree that Peter wanting revenge on the Sandman is a good part of the story, but it's just not enough to justify that entire other subplot... Sandman's origin, his crime spree and daughter subplot are ridiculous and do not fit in the film at all - it just adds length and takes you away from the main story. Even with more Sandman footage on a DVD release, it's still going to drag the movie down as being too long and too scattered. As much as the 5 minutes of the revenge story does work, it's not enough to justify his entire subplot and, of course, the idiodic notion that someone ELSE killed Peter's uncle.

Even without the revenge sublot, you still have a very good, focused movie about a strained relationship and the temptation of "the dark side."

Cutting out Venom would leave you with no resolution to the black suit story.

I suppose there are three basic approaches to fan editing S3:

1. put back in all the deleted scenes (can someone say A Digitial Man?) which won't really help the film much but may make the Sandman story work a little better
2. Cut out Sandman entirely and see if the film can work focused on the black suit and venom (may be really tricky because sandman is a big part of the final battle... although the scene with Spidey facing off Venom in that building is pretty much self-contained, so it may work)
3. If there is enough extra Sandman material on the DVD, try to make that story work and cut out Venom (may have same problems - or worse - cutting him out of that final battle)

Personally, I think cutting Sandman is the only way to go, because it's the only way to cut a decent amount of running time from the film (which it needs) and if you cut Venom, you basically have to cut the entire climax of the film (the final confrontation is caging and killing Venom).

In any cut, I think a bunch of trimming needs to be done on the Harry/Goblin Jr story. Much of it works and of course the love triangle element is important, but some of the fight stuff (especially the first one) is just ridiculous.

And, please, I think it must be said that it is the responsibility of ALL FAN EDITS OF SPIDERMAN 3 to cut the scene where the butler tells Harry that Peter didn't kill his dad. That was so AWFUL! It stank of a last minute addition to make things way too blindingly obvious.
Post
#286102
Topic
TWICE UPON A TIME (Released)
Time
The laser disc is the editied version... while I suppose it would be possible to use the laser disc for most of the film and edit in the audio and/or video from the VHS tape to "reconstruct" the original, I think the jump in quality will be so noticable it might be too jarring.

I am thinking of just doing the best transfer and cleanup possible on Njdedhed's VHS tape.

If someone else wants to attempt a Laserdisc/VHS hybrid edit, by all means speak up.

Remember, this isn't a commercial VHS tape, it's a tape that was recorded off HBO 25 years ago....
Post
#286031
Topic
.: The XØ Project - Laserdisc on Steroids :. (SEE FIRST POST FOR UPDATES) (* unfinished project *)
Time
Did anyone from the X0 team ever reply to my post about letting us know what percentage of the movie is finished?

As I said a few weeks ago, I don't think anyone is expecting to hold them to a release date, but it would be nice to know how much final material they've managed to squeeze out of the last two years or so...
Post
#286025
Topic
Idea &amp; Info: for a Spider-Man 3 edit...
Time
Again, I don't think ANY amount of extra Sandman scenes are going to help the movie. If anything, I hope there is more black suit/Venom material, perhaps some extra scenes that flesh out the conflict with Eddie Brock and anything else relating to the Peter/MJ/Gwen triangle.

The scene in the bar may be corny, but it's one of the most real moments in the film when it ends with Gwen saying "You mean all this was for HER?" and telling MJ "I'm so sorry."

As far as the American Flag scenes, I have to wonder if any of the foreign releases (i.e. outside America) have that shot. My gut tells me no, because given the current political climate, I don't think anyone outside the USA would react favorbaly to that image.

Has anyone outside the states who has seen the film remember if that shot is in the movie?
Post
#286018
Topic
Idea &amp; Info: for a Spider-Man 3 edit...
Time
The American flag shot - any of them - is just stupid. It's a cheap attempt at getting a cheer from the crowd. Besides, SUPERMAN is the all-American hero, Spiderman has never been associated that way. He just isn't like that.

Spidey 3 in interesting because it has great potential for fan editing. I may be in the minority here, but I think the first 2 films are ok at best and this one has some of the best story material so far (it was NOT a good movie, but it had potential to be the best). The black suit story was great, and the relationship issues Peter and MJ had were very mature and realistically handled (the idea of their competing egos - the superhero VS the starlett - was a great concept and was magnified by the black suit. Yes, the bar scene was over the top, but it was SUPPOSED to be - it was clearly done with a wink).

I can't agree that cutting out Venom makes sense because Venom is an extension of the black suit storyline. On the other hand, it was painfully clear that Sandman had absolutely no business in that film - his character has no affect on the main storyline and the stupid sub plot of him trying to get money for his daughter's hospital bills was laughable and pointless; again, it had no affect on Peter & MJ's story, which is the core of the film. In addition, the idea that HE is really the guy who killed Peter's father is just plain stupid and even THAT thread could be cut and all it will do is bring back more focus to the love triangle which is where the film needs to be.

If you cut Sandman and trim down the Harry's Goblin Jr scenes, I really think S3 would begin to shine. The best bits in the film are about Peter, MJ and the black suit so the more you stay true to that story the better the film will be. All the extra crap with Sandman and over-blown battles with Goblin Jr are pointless action that take you away from the good story trying to get out.

Of course, it would be easy to cut out Sandman from most of the film, but he's so woven into the battle at the end I'm not sure how it would work.

But it's DEFINATELY something I thought about while watching...

S3 bascially needs an "Attack of the Phanton" treatment. Bring it down to 1:45 mins and you might have a good movie in there...
Post
#285940
Topic
TWICE UPON A TIME (Released)
Time
Hey NJ

Thanks for joining! I'm glad you got my message... I'm the one who started this thread.

Your DVD is very nice, and it looks like it's a popular torrent. I've done a lot of seeding for it myself.

It's great that you have an original tape!! It's like the holy grail. I have some good capture equipment and a lot of experience with filtering and MPEG encoding, so I think there's a chance I can make a DVD that looks even cleaner.

Send me a PM and we can work out an arrangement. I totally understand the value of that tape and hopefully you seeing that I started this thread in the first place will be proof that I will take good care of it!
Post
#284704
Topic
STAR WARS: EP IV 2004 <strong>REVISITED</strong> ADYWAN *<em>1080p HD VERSION NOW IN PRODUCTION</em>
Time
Just in case this hasn't already been said, those of you already asking for different versions of this project when it's finished (i.e. NTSC, iPod, portable, etc) really should be ashamed of yourselves.

Adywan is putting SO MUCH hard work and effort into not just the creative changes he's making, but he has had to learn a LOT of new software to pull off all his video, audio and special effects wizardry.

The LEAST any of you who want different formats can do it is figure out how to convert it yourself. This is very easy to do, and spending 5 minutes with a search engine will tell you how to do it and point you to the FREE software that will do it for you.

Asking Adywan to do even more work because you can't be bothered to learn something, in my opinion, is lazy at least and disrespectful at worst.
Post
#284304
Topic
Taxi Driver commentary? (from the Criterion LD) (Released)
Time
Watched this last night, EXCELLENT work, thank you so much for getting this out there.

And it's a brilliant commentary, one of the best.

Is there a thread yet speciffically geared towards preserving Criterion material? We should be making many more discs like this one. But first we need a LIST of what's out there and not on DVD.

I have access to a LD player and loads of friends with probably all the editions...