NeverarGreat

SilverWook said:

The Rogue One thread is that a way. 😉

All these threads blend together after a while.

Not sure why the Death Star should have remained off screen. It’s pretty relevant to the story, and it’s a part of ANH from the opening crawl. If anything, the Death Star in RO was a necessity so that it could have a grand introduction.

Tarkin, however, should have been relegated to cameo status, with Vader as a feared agent of the Empire who will just as soon kill rebel spies as interrogate them. What a cool movie it would have been if the Rebellion’s informants keep disappearing to this shadowy agent of evil, constantly threatening the mission as they barely keep a step ahead.

Ever since I was a wee lad I wanted to see every Robin Hood movie ever made. It’s not a burning desire so much as a sustained curiosity. According to Wikipedia, there are a whole lot of them to see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_and_television_series_featuring_Robin_Hood

However, I’ve limited myself to only Robin Hood movies released in theaters. From that list I own the following, annotated with their best quality:
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) - The best Robin Hood, period.
The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952) - The best Maid Marion.
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) - The best outlaw hideout.
Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) - The best Errol Flynn since the original.
Robin Hood (2010) - The best rendition of a realistic England.

Furthermore, I have seen and wish to own:
Walt Disney’s Robin Hood (1973) - The best Prince John, Friar Tuck.
Robin and Marian (1976) - The best old man Robin (sorry, Russel Crowe).

This leaves me with quite a few movies yet to see, mostly from the 20’s-60’s era. Does anyone have a recommendation of a version of the tale (TV or film) that I simply must see?

nightstalkerpoet said:

Lady (I’m sure there’s got to be one) and Gentlemen, we’re officially getting Christmas in July!

Has anyone told you that you could have a successful career in PR?

NeverarBot confirmed.

TV’s Frink said:

Sounds like the guy who tried to shoot up the GOP baseball team was a liberal nutjob.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/us/politics/virginia-shooting-suspect-james-hodgkinson.html?_r=0

This sucks. I hope everyone makes a full recovery.

Also, Mr Hodgkinson, thanks for giving the Republicans years of ammunition with which to pillory Democrats.

The biggest challenge is just keeping the tones consistent across the entire film, while at the same time avoiding the ‘samey’ look of an overagressive blanket color grade. It’s a fine line, and from the example frames above it looks like this monotone look could be a problem when using this software. With the 3 frames that Dre chose, you can see the variation in the skin tones from location to location. Yet with the two examples, the color of Obi-wan’s face looks the same in the desert as it does in the Death Star.

I think the Black Leader line makes sense in the context of the scene. After all, Ackbar didn’t mention how the Oscillator was damaged.

As for the new implementation, it still feels like Ackbar isn’t talking with the X-wings. In my version I had reversed the shot so that Ackbar looked from Taslin Brance to the viewer as if addressing someone else, and I think that works better. It also needs something by way of introduction. I used a line from ROTJ, but surely there’s something that will work better.

Sir Ridley said:

Glad to see everyone’s busy with interesting ideas! I’m currently trying to finish the Maz’s Castle sequence with a surround mix.

How’s the timecode removal going? I only ask because the deleted scene is the last major thing I need to do right now.

Either scene alone would be sufficient for proving the Oscillator operational, but each has additional benefits. The Snoke scene allows for the Ileenium system as the new target, so it would allow for Hux’s ‘prepare to fire’ line to be included. The Snoke scene also solves the ‘new star’ problem by implying that the planet has enough juice for another shot, something that the Ackbar line doesn’t imply.

On the other hand, the Ackbar scene nixes the argument that the X-wing attack is now just an act of vengeance, especially if it is coupled with the Snoke scene.

Looking forward to it!

Alternate take on Snoke and friends:
https://vimeo.com/221526067
Password: hux

‘My work here is done’ now has a new meaning 😉

An excellent start in any case. It will be interesting to see how it behaves with more material, especially since it will have to interpret skin tones seen under a variety of locations and lighting conditions. Heck, even I have trouble with that.

Most of the sounds in my renders are just the isolated center channel of the 5.1 mix, and shouldn’t be used for the final mix. I’m still trying to get a handle on 5.1 editing, but it doesn’t play well with my projects since they were initiated in stereo. Unfortunately, for right now these renders are ‘some assembly required’.

However, I’ve re-encoded ‘Leia and the Starkiller’ as well as ‘Starless Starkiller’ since I updated the effects somewhat. Leia and the Starkiller will have all 4 stereo tracks encoded separately so that the music and some of the sound can be used. For most of the sound however, it’s best to go back to the source.

Here they are:
Starless Starkiller 3:
https://mega.nz/#!mIsxlToJ!x-vHaj99-HgCSdBbdEWxVz_PCla1_wSfU4mJz64e5MM
Leia and the Starkiller 14:
https://mega.nz/#!zIsjVSAR!gbqadYAasxlud1sYA3UjUAw2mCtVKe2_YQjLNh5f2XU
Track 1:
https://mega.nz/#!CMlWTBCK!DeTL3B8UPOoZbs_Qptf9k_FLe7pRYG13AxXDzRm4F0w
Track 2:
https://mega.nz/#!CE0kxTKa!PTWbdzmVLnnrQxxIDd_NjA7rt5Ho3l_1b4pMJerrln4
Track 3:
https://mega.nz/#!rYcDABRK!VPRzvqpOtcXDS_2BiDH4NAe3UAT2-F_zLPgHTtUoCic
Track 4 (just the ‘fire’ dialogue):
https://mega.nz/#!7VsDRLbB!p43yx2rMx_VwsZ4gp0o4vUuSpHrVgzA3B7Xq_IYTMz4

canofhumdingers said:

Possessed said:

I don’t think that they are even very bad. They just aren’t… Good. Sure some of the dialogue is awful, but there’s worse. It’s bad enough to keep them from being good, but not so bad that it makes them terrible. They are terrible if compared to esb, but that’s not saying much not many movies can survive that comparison.

I’ll bite…

I’d argue there are MANY films as good or better than ESB. And I say that as someone who for a very long time held ESB as far and away my favorite film ever (some other films have caught up with it in my favoritism but it’s still easily in my top 5 or better). But there’s a reason it’s rarely included on lists like the AFI’s top 100.

Second, the prequels are BAD movies. On so many levels that I can’t begin to understand people who try to argue they’re not. It doesn’t mean you’re a terrible person or stupid or any awful thing like that for liking them. I love lots of bad movies. I have a real soft spot for 50’s B movies and I unabashedly love Godzilla and other giant monster movies. But I can acknoweledge that many, even most, of those movies are bad movies by any reasonable criteria. I can understand why people criticize them or don’t find them enjoyable. Doesn’t stop me from loving them inspite (or often because) or their badness. But I’d never try to argue Plan 9 From Outer Space is some brilliant piece of high art with numerous layers or depth and meaning. THAT would be preposterously silly. Just like that ring theory nonsense…

I am one of those people who will defend the ring theory as possibly not nonsense, for the simple reason that forcing a trilogy to conform to an antiquated storytelling form is precisely the sort of thing that George would do. The ring theory doesn’t make the prequels any better as movies per say, it merely provides a method of interpreting the creative decisions that went into those trainwrecks. Anyone who puts a Yin Yang into a cloudbank is clearly trying to say something deeper than 'there were these Clone Wars, see…'

All that said, the fascinating thing about the ring theory subtext is how this deeper understanding is entirely undercut by the lack of competence on display in the text of the film, so it’s almost impossible to genuinely appreciate this subtext. And it is fascinating, because I don’t know of another series of films that achieves this balance of textual incompetence and subtextual thoughtfulness. Most other films that try this just come across as pretentious.

Nope. It could well be Hux, though Hux doesn’t usually wear a hat.

It’s only slightly weird that in this version we don’t see him order the execution of his life’s work.

Alternatively, instead of an entire Snoke scene late in the film, the V1 dogfight could remain in place but with the Ackbar dialogue as if on the radio:
https://vimeo.com/221369138
Password: craft

Very rough, but you get the idea.

Then I’m happy to leave the firing as is. 😃

The contrast looks great on my calibrated monitor. I wouldn’t say the highlights are blinding. If you want to see that, just check out the Matrix 35mm scan. 😉

I agree. It’s a very human perspective on the whole thing.

Now to change it:
https://vimeo.com/221360199
Password: leia

This reverses the control room shot and adds the ‘fire’ line. I don’t know if the reversal helps the scene, but again, I do like the ‘fire’.

Also included is a mockup of what DominicCobb’s ‘second firing’ idea could look like in action, which feels somewhat necessary to establish the operational status of the Oscillator. I think Snoke should have a congratulatory line for Hux, but the most I could find was ‘It is time’. It’s not ideal, since it’s repeated soon after. The music needs some work as well. Perhaps something more percussive like the first few seconds of the scene but throughout.

This scene would allow the X-wing attack to happen as it does in the original, sans the two reaction shots used in the Starkiller Firing.

So what do you guys think? Does this have potential?

Exceptional.

That can’t be real.

Wonderful!

The problem with using the Hux shot during the firing sequence is that there’s clearly a star in the sky, so it would be really hard to fake it being underground like the the other shots.

Here’s the video:
https://mega.nz/#!jJtEVZzK!pNYvB7_9_XhAK9YxfGFlzKAr-NyxJj2vz155azm9Wn4

I had also grayed out Hux’s hair somewhat in the beginning of the shot to make it less obvious that it was him. However, it would probably be easier to remove that part of the shot anyway, starting it from when the camera starts to pan right.

ImperialFighter said:

NeverarGreat, Just throwing this out there - would REVERSING the 2 shots in this later sequence take the edge off the duplication? - so that your music would be the SAME in the background, except we’d see the female operater shot FIRST this time (‘reversed’ to turn towards her monitor in this instance), BEFORE we then see the male operator, just before the weapon fires.

I tried this reversal on the female operator shot, pulling audio of Hux saying ‘Fire’ to match the guy’s mouth movement. It works fairly well, but if you’re really paying attention the backwards footage is noticeable. I do like the ‘Fire’ dialogue change in any case.

Hal 9000 said:

Yeah… I don’t think those earlier FO control room shots from the ‘weapon charging’ scene can be removed, unless someone wants to rotoscope out Gleeson from this shot:

https://ibb.co/i2czHa
https://ibb.co/mTPPiF

As long as you crop out his face, the shot could work:
https://vimeo.com/221226748
Password: hux
It would probably work better if you just used the last five seconds.

Don’t forget the ugly sideways ship that Leia arrives in!

Very well. The delay would be retroactively justified with the Starkiller targeting the Resistance, implying that it’s fine to fire again. I guess the only problem remaining is the two control room shots.

Would the star draining sequence work with just a hard cut from the First Order salute to the sun being drained?

Indeed they did, but it doesn’t completely blow until Poe’s attack. Han and Chewie believe that the charges may cripple the weapon, otherwise they wouldn’t bother, so there’s an expectation that the charges could be the difference between the weapon firing and the weapon being unable to fire. The way it has been in the original movie and the edits is that Chewie fails to act immediately when Han dies. In the original this wasn’t a big deal since the weapon was 2 minutes from firing anyway, but here it matters. Unfortunately, placing Chewie’s attack before or simultaneous with the Starkiller firing ruins the feeling of despair at the plight of our heroes.

One way to mitigate this problem is to use the DominicCobb idea of having the weapon target the Resistance base directly after the Hosnian destruction. Then we understand that the only useful purpose of the charges was to allow the X-wings access to the Oscillator.