NeverarGreat

I wandered for a long time through many outlines for my prequel rewrites, from Flash Gordon-y serial shlock to dark psychological thriller, and even explored the idea of creating an entirely new cast of characters for the prequels and having the OT characters sidelined or eliminated. I think I was searching for the 'best' prequel story possible, but it's impossible to know if you have the 'best' story out of endless possibilities. For some people, the best prequel story would focus on Anakin as the protagonist, for others, Obi-wan would be the natural choice, and for still others, neither should make substantial appearance.

I think that the ability for the OT to unleash such power of imagination is its greatest strength, and any definitive prequel story would only diminish this ability by replacing wonder with definition and dogma, much as the EU and the Lucas Prequels have done to the story. In this way the OT is a work of art in that it is highly interpretive, with a single statement or turn of phrase in the films creating enormous realms of possibility.

So in answer to your question, I don't think people will ever come together to decide upon a single best prequel story, at least not while the story is still centered around characters from the OT, for the simple reason that everyone has a different interpretation of those characters. Same with the Star Wars galaxy itself. Everyone has some idea of what happened in the Clone Wars, and it's all somewhat different to each person. Perhaps having the PT take place much further in the past, and creating a story that is essentially a new take on Star Wars, not relying on anything in the OT, would allow it to stand alone and generate its own universe of interpretations and possibilities. When someone does that, with a cast of characters that is as interesting and timeless as the ones in the OT, then I'll be on board.

towne32 said:

NeverarGreat said:

Eh, at that point in AOTC I simply didn't care what was onscreen as my eyes were already bleeding from seeing Yoda bounce around as a cartoon.

 KFTFY

 Haha thanks!

Yeah, I didn't get the chariot angle of the podracers until recently, and it lessens them. Why not just have the engines connected by something less dangerous than an energy beam that will immediately fail when the power is cut and cause them to rocket off in all directions?

Looking at the Naboo starfighter, it ALMOST makes sense to have the astromech installed sideways, so that the legs don't add bulk to the ship. But for that to work without the telescoping head weirdness it would need to sit somewhat lower in the socket.

Agreed that the Droidekas were an excellent design, as well as most of the Phantom Menace machines, simply because they didn't look horribly CGed.

One of the weirdest ships from a design standpoint was Dooku's solar sailer. How exactly is that supposed to work? It seems to use conventional methods to exit a planet's atmosphere, but then it deploys a solar sail and....what? Goes to Hyperspace? Accelerates by the use of solar energy to FASTER than the speed of light? To make the trip from the outer rim to the core of the galaxy, I'd expect that it would need to make use of hyperspace, so the sails are rather useless in that regard. Eh, at that point in AOTC I simply didn't care what was onscreen as my eyes were already bleeding from seeing Yoda bounce around like a cartoon.

DrDre said:

Hey funny, I was just looking at that screenshot for my project:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/128709

It looks like the laserdiscs have far less of a problem with haloing artifacts than the GOUT, albeit with a significant drop in detail. I really think there could be a best of both worlds project in here somewhere.

TV's Frink said:

Also, that was a 15 second video stretched out to almost two minutes because who knows why.

Because it's inexplicably hilarious.

Besides, I'm sure that you have NEVER in ANY of your projects padded a joke so far that it collapsed under its own bloated weight.

It looks like the opening of the film is particularly bad with aliasing problems, compared to the rest of it. Would it be beneficial to double down on just the tantive sequences and leave the rest as it is?

Very excellent results by the way.

SilverWook said:

Thanks to a time warp, I actually saw Episode 11 that day. ;)

I was lucky enough to see the original Star Wars on that day ;)

I tried to get the hallway as close to neutral as possible, but perhaps it needs to go a bit warmer in the shadows: http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/128125

In any case, -1 will have much more control with the full quality scans, I just wanted to get a rough idea of what was possible. It looks like the reds are boosted around the edges of the frame somewhat, but other than that, it's in pretty good shape, all things considered.

I love how you placed it in the 'animals' category on dailymotion ;)

Also, here's a quick curves adjustment to a screengrab of the video to see what colors can be pulled out: http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/127994

MrPib said:

poita said:

Woah, what happened here?

Apparently some vandals drew big red circles on the frames.

But seriously, that's strange. Is it the cleaning software that's at fault?

DrDre said:

Oke, super resolution v9 will have reduced aliasing. I have found an antialiasing filter that reduces the aliasing compared to the raw GOUT and leaves the detail intact. The differences will be subtle, but noticeable.

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/127758

Well done indeed! It seems to be just strong enough to deal with the problem areas without compromising detail. Now if only there was a way to get rid of those pesky ringing artifacts, this would be just about perfect!

TV's Frink said:

Does it definitely exist?  Is it definitely the OOT?

I thought these were the kinds of questions that the ridiculous 4k thread utterly failed to answer.

Yes to the first, ? to the second, although according to my screenshot comparisons (now buried in that thread) the released material appears to be an at least partially new cleanup of the original negatives, and not an IP or IN. And that's pretty much the end of any useful speculation on the matter, at least in my opinion.

Is it just me, or does the cleaned image look somewhat softer and less detailed than before?

What references are you using for the 97 color? I ask because Team Blu's 97 project, while excellent in terms of detail, is quite dark and green in places. If that's the look you're going for, great, but it may be useful to brighten up the picture a bit.

SilverWook said:

Something you might be able to use?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qETnh1KW6ns

That's just bad enough to work!

Voss Caltrez said:

NeverarGreat said:

Perhaps the story doesn't need to be done vastly differently than the prequels to have no spoilers. As I've posted incarnations of this story elsewhere, this will be draft three of an evolving set of ideas forced into formation. Make of it what you will:

...

 There's some great ideas and suggestions in this thread, but this has easily been one of the most entertaining fan written prequels I've ever read.

But I don't quite get the ending. So is the hooded figure that presumably kills Anakin a clone of Anakin? 

Oh wow, it was fun to re-read that outline! I was getting kind of nutty by the end there, and I don't really like the red-robed figures angle anymore. But in response to your question, I intended the mysterious warrior to be the sum of Anakin's fears about himself, much as Luke faces the sum of his fears as Vader while training with Yoda. However, the audience is encouraged to consider the possibility that it could be a clone of Anakin, or just a secret apprentice of Obi-wan, simply as misdirection. In my version of events, after the shadow figure deals his killing blow to Anakin at the end of Episode 3, Anakin would realize that he was still alive and that his opponent lacked physical substance and was a manifestation of his own dark nature. Realizing that it was his own nature that led the Jedi order to its doom and destroyed the Old Republic, Anakin is crushed beneath the weight of his failure and becomes a shadow of his former self, and takes his place at the Emperor's side.

Akton said:

timdiggerm said:

dan76 said:

IG-88 fighting Boba Fett inside Slave 1 from Empire. Apparently they spent two days filming this.

 Wait, what? WHAT?

 I second that - WHAT?!

I read the Rinzler books cover to cover and I'm pretty damn sure I'd remember something like that if it were mentioned...

 Thirded. Where did you hear this?

DuracellEnergizer said:

I named one of my cats Bruce because his facial patterning reminded me of Batman's mask.

That's what I named our pit bull/great dane mix, for precisely the same reason. But he's actually a big lazy wuss.

dclarkg said:

I don't think that it would be too hard to re design the PT while keeping all the necessary links for the story to hold up, you just need what GL lost a long time ago... imagination! (AND ALSO YOU NEED THE SW RIGHTS PLUS A HUGE QUANTITY OF MONEY)

It's not a question of could they, it's should they. And I don't think that is the right approach. I again defer to Atrus on this one:

I know now that we can't escape the past. Nor can we rewrite it, hoping to lessen our pain. The best we can hope for is to continue to learn, to take from the past only that which is good, and move on. Perhaps in the process, we will build a brighter future." - Atrus

Did you just apply a blanket color correction to the latest clip? Because the color is remarkably inconsistent from shot to shot. Are you planning to correct this on a shot by shot basis?

Akton said:

If more episodic, epic storytelling is desired (which the franchise does naturally lend itself to), then I'd hope they'd start an entirely new Saga from scratch. The Saga we now have could be re-branded "Star Wars: Saga I" and the new film could be marketed as "Star Wars: Saga II - Episode I" and could cover another multigenerational arc set at, say, the dawn of the Republic. The concept of "The Journal of the Whills" could be pulled out of the mothballs to make the whole thing seem a little less unwieldy.

Something in the depths of my soul leaps at the thought of this - a vast primordial epic set in the Star Wars universe without any references to other movies. I feel like Star Wars has the ability to tell much more mythological stories and embrace its darkness and wonder. Here's to hoping it happens!

Version 8 seems to be the first improvement without any noticeable downsides. Excellent work, I look forward to seeing the project completed!

INTJ

Introverted Intuition Thinking Judging

Joining the ranks of most pop culture villains :)

That frame is angled way too far down to compare to the one in the film, in my opinion. Just look at the lines of the cockpit walls, they're angled up instead of down like in the film.

Here's the frame I stopped on, and it looks closer to me to the shot in the film, even though it's angled slightly lower and further back from the front of the cockpit. I think the mandible is right on the level of that wall from this perspective.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsFAZG2CkQI

This is a good walkthrough of the Falcon in the hangar, though the render doesn't show the exact angle in question.

https://youtu.be/1ZbMjMb2qgY?t=1m19s

This seems to be the angle you're looking for, and I don't see any mandibles.