Nicholas J. Michalak

That's why I said, his name is "next stated."  As in the second time it is said.

-NJM

DF Shadow said:

I'm just reading over some of the new esb stuff on SW.com. I never saw this pic before of the original Palpatine. I suppose that's the actress under there.

Is it just me, or does the guy in the lower left look like a clean shaven Speilberg?  Not implying anything with it, he just looks like him to me.

-NJM

Well, I have the thought in the back of my head to have an actress I've worked with re-dub the female captain's lines to state that they are Jedi Ambassadors.  And if I could remove TC-14 and make it just a conversation between the two Nemoidians, I would, but I don't have that breadth of skill.  Either that, or just have them facing each other the full time.  I'll screw around with it, again.

Also, Qui-Gon's name is not stated until he introduces himself to Shmi Skywalker nearly 40 minutes into the film. For Obi-Wan, I believe his name is next stated 50 minutes into the film when Qui-Gon asks for a midichlorian count on Anakin's blood.  Though, I will futz with audio bytes to see where I can drop in an extra line from the now cut conference room scene.  My big regret is in cutting that scene is the token, "I have a bad feeling about this," line.  Everything else stated in that scene is essentially easily communicated by the Federation's blatant and radical behavior.

-NJM

Thanks for the discretion.  Don't want anyone to violate forum rules on my behalf.

-NJM

Unfortunately, I haven't been around long enough to know what "t__ ______x" is meant to stand for.

-NJM

Ripplin said:

Hmm...maybe they showed the 2004 DVD on a projector. I'm sure even the '97 version is forbidden by George now.

Yeah, taking a 3-year-old to such a film is something people may want to have re-thought before they did it. I'd've thought the Emperor would've been nightmare material for you more than unmasked Vader. Heh.

As a kid, I was even hesitant in Spaceballs before Rick Moranis lifted his mask off.  My sister told me not to worry.  Of course, now, I'm a slasher movie fan - Jason being my favorite.  So, I've since seen worse than old Sebastian Shaw's mug.  An estranged friend of mine once tried to do a Star Wars / Friday The 13th crossover fan film (I played Darth Voorhees).  Never really finished it.

And thank you, elbarto1.  That is much appreciated!

-NJM

Don't know which version they showed.  That info wasn't advertised, but it was a charity event with Lucas himself there on Saturday, May 8th for a Q&A.  There was a similar event in Los Angeles with Harrison Ford that weekend.  My feeling is that it was the SE or 2004 edition.  Believing that made me feel a slight bit better about not being there, but only slightly.  The only time I saw ESB in the theatre was the '97 SE since I was born in 1980.  My parents did take me to see ROTJ in theatre when I was three, and I cried and had to be taken out of the movie because it was so loud.  The unmasked Darth Vader scared me for years.

-NJM

I'm still sore over not being able to see ESB a few weeks ago at Chicago's Field Museum.  Had to work that weekend.  This Saturday will be the first one I've had off since mid-January.  So, I'll definitely have time to enjoy THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.

-NJM

Here's my opening for TPM.  Should prove interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWio0Bbu5lE

-NJM

In regards to mrbenja0618's sentinment of TPM's opening being so slow, I have been editing the film myself lately.  The film opens with the ship docking, the Neimodians talking with Sidious discovering the ambassadors are Jedi, and then, the ship is blown up.  The first time you see Obi-Wan & Qui-Gon is when the droids open the door to (what is now conceded as) the hangar bay, and the Jedi jump out and attack.  I'll see about getting this online for better reference.  It so terribly works.  I had to construct a line of dialogue to make it work, too.

-NJM

I am quite pleased at this.  I've been watching my GOUT DVD lately, and while the quality certainly takes me back my old VHS viewing days (sad to compare a DVD release to VHS quality), this will enhance my enjoyment immensely.  Though, I've never accessed a newsgroup before, ever.  So, I'll wait to see if it does pop up elsewhere.  And for the record, I own five different copies of the trilogy through VHS & DVD. 

-NJM

I am working on two Michael Mann films.  One that was really great, and one not so much.  The great one here is MANHUNTER.  This film directly inspired one of my own short films.  I’ve previously worked on an extended edition of MANHUNTER, and have all the different DVD releases of it to do so.  Though, I need to re-rip and convert everything now that I know the right settings for it all after starting my Star Wars PT fan edits (which I am all doing simultaneously with these other two edits).  Nearly everything will be in here.  To me, this is “Definitive Cut” of the film because I no longer have to choose which version to watch (and always have to miss out on something, even if it’s just one shot I really like).

The other film is MIAMI VICE.  Man, was I disappointed in this film when it came out.  MAJOR fan of the TV series (which I entrely discovered on DVD), and I loved the trailers.  Didn’t get the film that I saw in those trailers.  Trying to fix that by trimming things down and combining elements from the theatrical and unrated editions while adding some familiar music in new ways.  I have Gekko’s fan edit, but I want to do some different things with it.  Also, Gekko altered the aspect ratio by cropping off the sides of the frame.  This will perserve the original 2.40:1 ratio.  Likely to be call the “Definitely Miami” cut after the iconic season two episode guest starring Ted Nugent.

On a side note, I was going to do a straight extended edition of “Constantine,” but the quality of the deleted scenes on the DVD are nearly workprint quality presented in non-anamorphic widescreen.  I didn’t like how it was all looking.  Maybe, if I had access to Blu Ray, and they were anamorphic on there, I could get that content in a more seamless quality.  Regardless, it didn’t mean all that much to me.

-NJM

Well, my advice would be this.  Like what most fan editors do, put the edit online in a neutral place like rapidshare, and let them download it at their leisure.  Directly offering it to them can get iffy depending on how you plan on doing that.

Also, there's low res and low quality.  Is it just compressed at a low bitrate, or is it really just a small pixel dimension?  I ask because The Phantom Editor presented his edits in relatively low quality, but it's still passable considering it is a fan edit.  If it's low res....then, there's not much to say there.

Handing it over to someone else will result, most likely, in a not entirely faithful duplication of your work.  Any editor is going to have slightly to greatly varying difference of opinion on how to cut the film.  I know it's distressing to think about re-editing a large project from scratch (all the ripping and converting alone is annoying), but if you want your ideas and approach perserved, that's the only way to guarantee it.  As a filmmaker and editor myself, even I go back and re-edit entire scenes or sequences from my own film after a few years because I now have a different perspective on it all.  So, maybe in the process of editing the project from scratch again, you might want to change something here or there.  Anything is possible.  Seriously, we're on OriginalTrilogy.com - we know how certain filmmakers can have a change of opinion on their own works over time.

-NJM

Damn!  I was gonna do the Venus Flytrap, but only with Tim Reid from WKRP!

-NJM

I had always thought Yoda said, "A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and events."  Never made much sense to me since, technically, everything is an event.

-NJM

mfastx is just saying that he wants all the rough edges smoothed out with the vfx.  Clean up the matte boxes, matte lines, optical compositing problems, and any inconsistencies or timing issues with them (an asteroid blowing up before a laser hits it).  That is all very easy for ILM to do.  In the least, that is what I'd like done, and to restore the original color timing.  The blue tint to the films hides some fine details.

-NJM

Maybe I'm not entirely opposed to seeing Hayden there, but one, it just doesn't make any sense at all to me.  Secondly, it looks like Lucas just took a random outtake of Hayden and spliced it into the shot.  It comes off as a half-assed attempt.  If it was done with some care and real thought behind it, the end result might be more acceptable.

-NJM

I'm interested in figuring out how to do this myself.  Tried 3-Way Color Corrector and other color adjustment filters to drain out blues, but none of them work out.  I know other fan editors here have done this with the 2004 DVDs and such.  I'm using FCP 5.1, for reference.

-NJM

Since we never saw them with their helmets off or anything, I thought that all Stormtroopers were robots.  I was like, "How'd Han & Luke get in those suits with all those robot parts in them?"

I don't believe I ever grasped the term "clone wars" as a child.  Probably because I wasn't familiar with the word "clone."  And for reference I was born in February, 1980.  I'm waiting to see if anyone thought Luke said , "the cologne wars."  War breaks out over mens' fragerences.

And yes, I called them "LifeSavers" as a kid, too.

-NJM

If, by chance, you are editing with Final Cut Pro, you can actually add chapter stops by using the "marker" feature.  Then, convert your video in Compressor, and make sure under the 'Extras' tab that you have either "Add DVD Studio Pro meta-data" or "Include Chapter Markers only" selected, and your designated chapter stops will be embedded into your final compressed video.  Obviously, you need DVD Studio Pro to really be certain this will work.

For anamorphic video, first you have to make sure that you're editing in the proper 16x9 aspect ratio (which is 853x480 in standard definition).  Most any NLE software should have such a preset.  Then, when you goto burn your disc, it's merely a matter of selecting "Anamorphic," "Letterboxed," or "16x9 Widescreen," depending on how your software phrases it.  When all else fails, consult the "Help" menu or user's manual.

-NJM

From my nearly 30 year old copy of the film videotaped off of HBO or ShowTime.  Obviously, the pan-and-scan format won't offer properly positioning, but it's another font reference.  I think Star Wars is the very first thing my family ever videotaped, and I did a good job of wearing it out for 10+ years.

-NJM

I did a search for "luke hiding," and didn't find anything pertaining to this.  It has always bothered me that when Luke is hiding from Vader in the throne room that, one, there's really no visible place that he could possibly be hiding anywhere in that room.  Second, we really can't tell at all where he is hiding, and lastly, when he pops out of hiding, he's directly underneath the stairs, right out in the open.  Perhaps, something can be done to have this sequence make more sense.  Maybe change the background behind Luke when he is hiding?  Just something.  It just drives me nuts, and maybe it did for Marquand, too.  He probably looked at the set, and realized there was no way he could make it work, logically.  So, maybe the set needs to be altered digitally, as has been extensively discussed, in order for this to be possible.  Ideas, anyone?

-NJM

Handzzz said:

Hi, ady, i'd like to ask a question. How you managed to eliminate the fake shake in the tie attack squence in ANH:R? I like to do a fanedit from the Bourne trilogy, but the most annoying things that the camera is always shaking, and you can't see nothing from the fight sequences. Thanks if you can help in this, hope you watched the movie and understand what I like to accomplish.

Well, while I don't know what Ady used, a friend of mine does have software that can stablize footage.  It does this by extrapolating image information from multiple frames to composite smoother footage.  I do not recall what it was called, but it was for the PC.  I can try getting the name of it from him, if you'd like.  Though, I'm sure it cost him a good amount of money.

And I do know what you're looking to do.  Those scenes are a headache to sit through, and a nightmare through the eyes of another filmmaker.  I cannot comprehend why anyone would shoot a professional movie like that.

-NJM

Upon doing my own EPISODE II fan edit, on frame-by-frame analysis, the editing of the Anakin-Dooku lightsaber fight in that movie is atrocious!  NOTHING matches from shot-to-shot.  I mean NOTHING!  The movements and positioning of both changes radically, against the laws of time and physics even, in each cut.  These are precisely choreographed fights with them doing the same moves over and over again in every take from every angle - how do you fuck this up?!  And the CGI pasted face of Christopher Lee over his fight/stunt double is really bad.  It's obviously fake.

I wish someone could grab hold of the raw footage, and re-edit it like a competent editor would.  No real way of fixing this, otherwise.  This is ridiculous, and Ben Burtt should be ashamed of himself!

-NJM

Well, the Tantive IV was caught in the SD's tractor beam in ANH.  That's how the Empire commandeered and boarded the ship.  And I would think that if you tried to engage your hyperdrive while in a tractor beam, your ship would likely get ripped to pieces.  Either that, or it would be like slamming on the accellerator while your wheels are locked - you're just gonna burn out the engine.

And no, I can't rationalize the Falcon flying right up next to the Executor.  They're being chased by all of three TIE Fighters.  Maybe if it were double or triple that, maybe they'd have a harder time maneuvering away, but they easily could've altered trajectory away from it as soon as they saw the SSD.  So, maybe adding more TIEs into the pursuit would ease anyone's problems with this, but frankly, it's never come to mind.  I'm just so caught up in the momentum and suspense, anyway.

-NJM