I spent probably a full day trying to correct this shot for my project, but the blu-ray’s gradients are too degraded for anything more than an approximation regarding color. In particular, the yellow droid’s gradients are crushed in the source to those of C-3PO and the surrounding buildings.
Interesting. I wouldn’t have put it past Lucasfilm to do that though, after seeing that same thing in the ANH Blu-ray.
Ahh, that picture of Leia at the Ewok celebration is tripping me out! Did they cut out her face for the Blu-ray?
And there was much rejoicing.
I’ve tweaked the color of Reel 4 to make it more consistent. Here’s the updated grade:
Key:
!1VgoPacslPxs1l15dA__OZL9dN_krKCTZ8xD361ifXI
Well for one thing, there’s too much red in the images. The shot of the Falcon docking with the Death Star looks passable, but that’s about that only one in the ballpark.
I would be very surprised if these looked like the '77 film.
Wexter said:
Actually, if you go only by the original Star Wars, Luke’s father was never established as Obi-Wan’s student. Only Vader was. Anakin was merely ‘a good friend’. Only after the two characters merged in ESB, Anakin is soft-retconned into being Obi-Wan’s apprentice.
Good point. But the fact remains that by the end of the OT, Anakin is definitely Obi-wan’s apprentice:
“When I first knew him, your father was already a great pilot, but I was amazed at how strongly the Force was with him. I took it upon myself to train him as a Jedi. I thought that I could instruct him just as well as Yoda. I was wrong.”
‘Train’ and ‘Instruct’ are rather strong words to use about someone you just hang around with.
To understand Anakin, it would be helpful to understand the way in which a Jedi is trained. From what I gather in the OT, Luke’s training begins with Obi-wan telling him to trust his feelings. This preliminary part of training gradually opens the initiate’s mind to the Force, allowing them to go as far as even levitating small objects. Next, the student augments their skills with rigorous acrobatics training and exercise. At some point, the teacher will use some method (like the Dark Side cave) to determine the student’s greatest fear. With practice, the student is able to face this fear in their mind. Finally, the student’s training is complete with the construction of a lightsaber. However, this doesn’t make them a Jedi. The final test of a Jedi is to confront their greatest fear in person, if possible. This test is ultimate, and is pass/fail. There is no running away. Either the student conquers their fear through the use of the Force, or they die. If they use the Dark Side to achieve victory, they must be killed. Yoda’s warning about fear is well placed.
The problem of Anakin can perhaps be solved by recognizing the effect this training could have on students and masters. What if the student’s fear is great, but reasonable? What if the student fails in their final test, but understandably so?
What if Anakin were to realize that his greatest fear was his own death?
When the test of a Jedi is against an enemy, the test is simple. When it is against death itself, how can any test be devised? Ironically, the Lucas Prequels have almost this same test in the character of Palpatine. If Anakin destroys Palapatine, he is severing the temptation to use the Dark Side to become immortal. Since he cannot destroy the promise of immortality, Anakin falls and becomes Darth Vader. This aspect of the prequels, if seen through the lens of the ‘Final Test’, succeeds. Anakin doesn’t even need to commit evil acts. His fall was the ultimate irony - saving a life. However, through the lens of this test, it is essential that Obi-wan kill Anakin, but since Anakin’s fall is entirely human and reasonable, Obi-wan is massively conflicted. The Mustafar duel could play out essentially as it does in the prequels, and over the next twenty years Obi-wan would try to convince himself that Anakin was indeed ‘seduced’ to the dark side by Palpatine. Anakin and Obi-wan are both tragic characters in the end, and when Anakin destroys the Emperor, he finally makes good on his test to become a Jedi.
I find it hard to believe that Obi-wan would willingly train someone who was called ‘Darth Vader’ to be a Jedi. It’s one of the most villainous sounding names ever devised.
The problem with Obi-wan’s speech is that it’s simple enough without ESB and ROTJ:
Obi-wan had at least two students, one of which was later known as Darth Vader, betraying and murdering Anakin. Simple, effective, and good motivation for Luke to become a Jedi.
But with the rest of the story it becomes:
Obi-wan had a student, Anakin, who was seduced by the Dark Side into becoming Darth Vader, after which he hunted down and killed the Jedi. However, Anakin was not only seduced but betrayed and murdered by this aspect of himself called Darth Vader, implying an almost schizophrenic relationship with himself.
The problem with this more complicated version of events is that we’re made to think that Luke is very much like his father. This works with the first version of the story, where Anakin can be made to be a good man through and through, but not with this second story, where Anakin is betrayed by an aspect of himself which has been ‘seduced’ to the Dark Side. Among the dozens of fan theories I have read on this transformation, none of them rings particularly true to me, and I think that’s because Anakin can’t be both the good if impatient man that Luke is in ESB, and still be seduced by the Dark Side.
Anakin is the Schrodinger’s Cat of characters, at once good and noble, and also power hungry and evil.
I think those ideas are excellent. I once developed an outline for an Episode 3 where Anakin and Obi-wan were sent to the beautiful and beguiling planet of Alderaan to help the royal family. My idea at the time was that people on Alderaan, and the royalty in particular, had developed a resistance to the natural force abilities of many of the planet’s native species, which used the Force to trick and trap their prey. Alderaan was thus a dangerous planet and a marvel of the galaxy, which is one reason why Obi-wan says ‘You must learn the ways of the Force…if you’re to come with me to Alderaan.’
This is really stupendous! I don’t understand how a professional team managed to color grade the films as they did on the Blurays. They must have had some serious calibration issues on their monitors.
I look forward to seeing the finished product but more importantly when can you color grade the Silver Screen Edition? 😉
Thanks!
Yeah, from what I’ve heard they had very little time to do their work and were basically working out of a closet at the Ranch. I remember one person who was doing it thought that their work was pretty good, considering the time constraint, but that it looked much more uneven when seeing it a few years later. I have to think that their equipment was faulty.
Aspects of Silver Screen are already being incorporated into this project, in order to ensure the highest quality color possible. Here’s a LUT for the greenish highlights in Sliver Screen, but apart from that I’ll be happy to wait for bigger and better things on the film front:
https://mega.nz/#!mQdmjArY
Key:
!chA0GaBea_Q_qwsPJ3yMe-kDpg9sMV6v3WjgMpINfD4
There’s still a lot of color hiding in there:
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/160710
And it also looks like it could compete with the Blu-ray in terms of detail and level of grain.
Bah. I shall not be relegated to this desolate backwater of a forum! It’s too quiet here.
Speaking of, how do you feel about your idea to Remake the Prequels, now that Star Trek fans have run into trouble for their own fan film?
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Star-Trek-Movie-Hollywood-Really-Doesn-t-Want-You-See-79287.html
The “green tint” is due to misalignment of the color channels. It happens when the red and blue channels are perfectly matched up, but the green channel is slightly misaligned so it doesn’t blend properly with the other colors causing green fringe along the edge of things and in the shadows.
That accounts for fringing, but not for a green color cast across the entire shot.
Wexter said:
I am very sceptical this could be pulled out convincingly. The audience would be left with the notion, that Anakin probably perished, but they wouldn’t know for certain and the uncertainty would probably tip them off, that something is not as the filmmaker wants them to believe. I propose ending the story long before Anakin’s transformation. Anakin could be noble and powerful, but also a bit reckless and hot headed. His character could be a mix of sorts between Luke and Han. He could be shown to be a mild supporter of Palpatine, while Obi-Wan would be more suspicious of the chancellor. If this was written well, once Vader reveals himself to be Anakin, the audience would be in shock to realize the tragic fall of the prequel hero, while at the same time kind of seeing this turn of events as plausible.
I agree that it would be tricky to pull off. Perhaps ending the fight with Anakin being backed into a corner, clearly bested, and the apparition slashing towards the camera as it is from Anakin’s point of view. Hell, we could even see the apparition stab Anakin through the chest, since it’s incorporeal. Then we can see Obi-wan react in pain in a different location like Leia in TFA. I feel like the fall should be stated as clearly as possible from this ‘certain point of view’, because in this way Obi-wan is taking the side of the audience when he lies to Luke, for indeed, it should FEEL like the death of a hero.
Of course, I would have gladly taken an ‘adventures of Anakin Skywalker’ prequel trilogy as you say over what we got.
The prequels sucked, yes. But not because they ruined ESB’s reveal.
I think we can all agree on that.
Raises hand
Um, I disagree on that. The fact that some are even saying that an alternate prequel trilogy should keep that reveal is proof of its power. The worst thing about the prequels as they stand now is that they actively undermine the OT, for a myriad of reasons, one of which is the ruining of the reveal. However, the biggest fault in them is Anakin himself.
“There is still good in him” is the fact on which Luke’s spiritual quest ultimately hangs, and it is the proof of this goodness which vindicates Luke’s entire journey through the trilogy. To reveal in the prequels that Anakin was apparently never a good and noble Jedi Knight stabs the OT in the heart.
Getting back to the ESB reveal, what makes it so traumatizing to Luke (and, by extension, to the audience) is the impossible idea that the great Anakin Skywalker could fall to the Dark Side. The current prequels dispel this impossible notion, saying in the strongest possible terms that Anakin was a bad apple from even before he became a Jedi, totally different in character than Luke. This is emotional death for Luke’s character arc, since ESB takes pains to explain that Luke is similar to Anakin at this stage of his training, eg, a good intentioned, yet impatient and reckless young man. However, in AOTC, Anakin is the galaxy’s biggest creep, not only impatient and reckless but downright ungrateful and even hateful. After he murders a tribe of Sand People, there is no mystery about who Anakin will become. Luke, on the other hand, is driven by the bonds of friendship and compassion above all else.
Going into the final confrontation with the Emperor, many people on these forums have stated that there was no doubt in their minds that Luke would not turn to the dark side because of his inherent goodness. However, this could be seen as a weakness of ROTJ because the stakes then don’t include a Dark Side Luke. He will either turn his father to the good side or die trying. So what change to the prequels could have made the stakes as high as this? What change could not only retain the ESB reveal, but make it more powerful?
Anakin.
Change the story so that we see his character make the same decisions as Luke. Make him motivated by friendship and compassion, as Luke is, not the lust for power. Make him a good person, and then DON’T show his fall to the Dark Side. As I have written elsewhere, simply show him fighting a final battle with a hooded figure whom he is told is Obi-wan’s other apprentice, a battle that for once, Anakin cannot win. The final scene set some time later reveals a hooded figure, implying that Anakin lost his life in a noble battle against a real flesh and blood adversary and secret student of Obi-wan, when really he lost to an apparition of his own fears, like Luke did in the cave. The inescapable conclusion is that ANYONE could become twisted and evil, since everyone has that darkness within themselves. Then the prequels would add to the mythology of the OT, rather than detract from it.
Here’s a preview of Reel 4, as compared to the Blu-ray:
Key:
!CmlbIHSbq53_eUly6DNJBKA7gEBxYjIZFwZErmt_KEQ
Some comparison images from Reel 4:
Interesting to see that nobody in this thread has cited TPM as the decisive moment. I was 13 when I saw TPM, and it was still Star Wars in my mind. Like many here have said, it was AOTC which broke the Star Wars universe. Suddenly it wasn’t real anymore, it aligned with nothing that I thought the Star Wars prequels should have been. After that there was George’s Star Wars and my Star Wars.
I learned to avoid most on-line religious debates a long time ago. Sometimes you get respectful dialogues between the different parties, but most of the time it’s just a bunch of uncouth jackasses tossing insults and strawman arguments back-and-forth.
I learned this a long, long, long time ago. I stuck to it for many years (though it was largely pre YouTube, which has made even more chaos). For some fucking reason, I broke my own rule and now I’m in this mess. I wish I knew why this shit was lingering and bothering me so much. I hear these kinds of things (frequently more well-written) on House, True Detective, and Bones, among countless others, literally hundreds of times. I wish I could figure it why this was happening to my brain. The SSRIs worked for 15+ years. I keep thinking that I’ve chosen an impossible question related to the meaning of life and impossible questions precisely because my demented OCD brain knows that’s a perfect way to trap itself.
If I may be so bold, what is the impossible question you have chosen?
I ask because I grappled with depression and the impossible question: ‘why is there something rather than nothing’ for years before understanding that the question was wrong. The question should be ‘IS there something rather than nothing’, and this can be meaningfully answered. The ramifications of this answer now form the basis of my life philosophy.
I’m sorry that you’re dealing with this right now. PM if you’d like to talk about it.
Props to Anchorhead for finding this clip of Mark Hamill:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiOg0-PCZfA&feature=youtu.be
When Leia says ‘Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper’, just insert Hamill’s line of ‘You’re a beautiful person…even if you do have an ugly mouth’
Another good line:
'Boy I’m really blowing it…I need braces on my head"
Episode 7 is out, and that means we see how accurate these posters were at depicting events in the film. I’d say all 3 of these are pretty spot on as to what happens in the intervening time. My poster was really just a Sunshine ('07) and Star Wars mashup idea, but it turns out there’s an actual closeup of the surface of a sun! In recognition of this I give you an updated image:
I’d say that would be giving the creators too much credit, but it would certainly be a nice departure from the OT. The PT already did the whole ‘good Republic goes bad’ thing, so that probably won’t happen again.
I just realized that Rey has a very different relationship to the Resistance than Luke or Anakin in their respective times. Anakin is loyal to the Republic, Luke joins the Rebels out of idealism, but Rey doesn’t have an ideological dog in this fight. She’s a fighter, but doesn’t strike me as soldier material. I’m guessing that she’s going to act more like the driven, compassionate ROTJ Luke in Episode 8 than anyone else.
I actually think the opposite. Seems like it would be Disney World’s attempt at making an imposing theme for out baddies.
My point is that the Resistance isn’t supposed to be ‘baddies’
Does anyone else think that the March of the Resistance sounds somewhat sinister? I could easily see it accompanying some dictator’s propaganda.
Honestly I’m not happy with either. I can enjoy Yub Nub through nostalgia goggles and can recognize Victory Celebration as a passable piece of music, but neither really seems to fit.
Totally agree. However it may be that neither seems to fit because the ending itself doesn’t fit. Images of random rebel pilots and Ewoks dancing in the trees feels as strange to me as the worst of the Ewok scenes. It’s rather…undignified. Yub Nub fits the visuals, but reminds the audience of how silly they are. Victory Celebration strives for something more, but disconnects with the campy scene.