Muxed these together with the “D+” series releases from OhTeeDee and I think that will be my favorite way to watch these films going forward (or your custom special editions whenever I feel like a little cgi in my Star Wars). Great work!
The duel is edited in multiple pieces: why not keeping that structure to embedded it into the intro dction of the movie?
I think this would be at odds with the editing style of the rest of the movie.
It’s funny reading the old posts in this thread. You have people saying that no one cares about the prequels or the minor changes made to the DVDs and now you have people paying hundreds of dollars to acquire and scan 35mm prints. It’s wild how the perception of these movies in this community has changed.
Is there maybe a viable order where the elevator scene comes before the training, which comes before the meeting with Padmé? So in the elevator they’re talking about the forthcoming meeting, but they have training first?
That way it could almost play out that Obi-Wan has deliberately scheduled some training to get Anakin out of awkward teenager mode and clear his head.
This might not work, I’m just spitballing!
You’d have to create a new establishing shot wholecloth. There’s also the fact that the training scene starts with Anakin already there and Obi-Wan entering to meet him. I’m not sure you could cut it together in a way that feels coherent.
Thank you so much! Once you provide it, I will sync it to my PAL DVD upscale project as well, at least until this project makes it obsolete.
I’ve bought the 2004 DVDs, the 2006 GOUT discs, and the 2011 Blu-Rays
For the prequels, I bought the original DVDs and the 2011 Blu-Rays.
For the sequel trilogy, I bought the original Force Awakens Blu-Ray, the 3D re-release (for the director’s commentary), and the original 4K releases of Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker
I also bought the multi-disc 3D Blu-Ray for Rogue One, never got around to buying Solo.
I bought the original DVDs for the Clone Wars microseries Volume I and II
I’ve bought all seasons of Clone Wars on Blu-Ray, aside from season 7, which is exclusive to Disney+. Seasons 1-5 I believe are international (UK?) releases from Amazon but they are region free.
I also own all seasons of Rebels on Blu-Ray.
Lastly, I subscribe to Disney+, so I can access all the movies and series that way.
I will probably buy the 4Ks of all the movies at some point, but Disney+ and the various fan restoration projects for the OT and PT make it less of a priority.
The new restoration looks beautiful and got rid of the extreme green tint they added in 2008 to match the other two movies. I have no idea how accurate the colors are though.
LD audio is better than the DVD? Do you know something about their history? I could try my hand if the two need to be blended somehow, such as surround channels being more dynamic in the LD.
I believe the LD audio is actually stereo, so it doesn’t use the surround channels at all. However it’s supposedly the original theatrical audio mix, whereas the DVD mix was a new one done for the DVD release. The Laserdisc audio is also supposed to be nearly lossless whereas the DVD has a compressed AC3 mix. The best option would be to include both. I’d bite the bullet but:
1.) I already spent too much on this movie importing the PAL DVD
2.) I don’t have a laserdisc player, or any of the equipment I would need to properly capture the audio.
Oh definitely.
There’s also the issue of establishing shots. I don’t recall if the deleted Senate scene has its own establishing shot, but it would probably require one. The office scene would need one, then the Jedi Temple. Since that’s three in a row, it makes sense to cut directly from the training to the apartment interior at the earliest moment with Jar Jar.
I think there is an establishing shot for the deleted scene on the DVD, but it’s very clearly temp, just concept art that’s been animated a bit. I believe Hal uses a shot from ROTS in his edit, which doesn’t bother me.
Yeah, and since the elevator scene was originally filmed during reshoots, this would be replacing one reshoot with another.
I think if you cut the elevator scene, you have to keep JarJar walking up and greeting them at the elevator. Otherwise I think it might be too abrupt of a transition, but I might be wrong.
From what I understand, several recent blockbusters like Endgame are shot in 4K and even 8K, but the VFX is usually rendered at 2K due to the ridiculous render times 4K would take, so the movies mostly have a 2K master that they upscale to UHD (so the HDR is the actual deal maker, as some have mentioned earlier in this thread). I wonder if AotC and RotS wouldn’t be that different of an experience in this regard?
You don’t have to guess, both AotC and RotS have gotten official UHD releases with HDR. Personally for AotC I prefer the sharper image and more natural colors of the HDTV preservation, but I’ve heard RotS looks good.
Ideally, a lossless capture of the Laserdisc audio, but I haven’t been able to get my hands on it. I’m not sure if anyone has done a preservation. The 5.1 AC3 mix on the DVD is fine, and I’d recommend including it as well, but it barely takes advantage of the surround channels anyway.
I really like that Neverar. I will try it out.
My only concern is you lose “I haven’t seen her in ten years master” which establishes his longing for Padme but I guess he whines about that later anyway.
I remember hearing that that line was new for the DVD back in the day.
And the cinema DTS tracks I have agree.
Well I’m pretty sure that Schorman’s cinema DTS is from the 35mm version. There were definitely some audio changes in the digital theatrical version, such as Padme’s “Yes!” being changed to “Uh-huh…” when she’s rescued by the Clone Troppers.
Just in case anything thought I had abandoned this idea, I haven’t. I took a stab at implementing RogueLeader’s suggestion, along with some preliminary color grading, and pitching up Anakin’s voice. A ton of work still needs to be done on the foley and score for the duel scene, but here is a new test video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lQvxG9rR0zDwwI6yCnMCqBs8fUDLNOXh/view?usp=sharing
Do you plan to incorporate this scene to your AotC Sanded Down fanedit? It would be quite cool.
Honestly I’m not sure. It really depends on how convincingly it can be integrated into the movie. I’m not really happy with the color grade I did, and obviously the foley still needs to be rebuilt, which I haven’t tackled yet. I’d also like to add more JW score to the scene.
Even so, it may not be enough to make it feel seamless.
“Thanks as usual to ChainsawAsh for the DTS encode.”
Who was banned on 24-Dec-2020.
So? I honestly don’t remember why he was banned but regardless, there’s no reason Hal can’t credit him for his work.
Rey’s parents are nobodies and she isn’t Palpatine’s granddaughter. Sorry, three years later I still have a hard time swallowing that one.
My head says Shaw, my heart says Hayden. I was a prequel kid and grew up with the 2004 DVDs. I honestly teared up a little bit the first time I saw Hayden in ROTJ because it felt like a full circle moment.
But, ultimately, the films are more effective when watching in release order, and in that case, Shaw makes more sense.
polevoi said:
The first Kenobi vs. Vader showdown still bothers me but this is a problem inherent in the material and probably beyond the abilities of an edit to correct. Why doesn’t Vader use the force to pull Kenobi back through the flames or levitate him up and over the flames? Or the stormtroopers could just charge up the sides of the gravel hill and get to the droid (who wasn’t exactly moving fast), take it out, and recover Kenobi. I get that the intent is supposed to be that Vader is in some kind of PTSD moment with the wall of flames (at least I think that is supposed to be the intent–I’m not sure what else would make sense), but this is a digression that relates to the source material.
I interpreted this as Vader playing with his food. He doesn’t want to kill Kenobi just yet, he wants a challenge. I felt like he was making a choice in that moment to let Kenobi regroup with the confidence that he’ll have a more satisfying opportunity to face him later.
speakhard said:
You read my mind 😉 Might you have any interest in guesting on either the TPM or a “growing up with the prequels” episode?
I’d be honored! I’ll send you a private message as to avoid clogging up Hal’s thread any further.
Yeah I think that works better. And personally I thought the only Imperial March you needed was when we first see Vader in his castle. The other usages felt kind of extraneous to me personally, but I don’t dislike them either.
speakhard said:
To that end, I try to foster a vibe of thoughtfulness if not outright positivity when we make critiques. I’m still trying to find that balance, and I try to “cast” the episodes with voices I know will bring certain energy to the specific topic.
I noticed that while listening to a few of your episodes and I really appreciate it. A lot of fandom/pop culture podcasts either go for easy criticisms or relentless positivity, and don’t have a lot of room for nuance.
I noticed you haven’t tackled the prequels yet. I’d love to see you dive into them with someone who has the perspective of growing up with those films. My first Star Wars film in the movie theater was ROTS, and I saw the films for the first time in chronological order rather than release order. The behind the scenes features on the prequel DVDs were what made me want to be a filmmaker (and eventually got me to film school). I’ve gone on a rollercoaster from loving them as a kid, to hating on them once I was old enough to realize that was the cool thing to do, and back to having a warm fondness for them (while still recognizing their many flaws in execution). Over the years, I’ve used fanediting largely as a way to process my relationship with these films, so I could relate to a lot of what Hal brought up.
EDIT: Also Hal, where did you find that horrifying Brave Little Toaster avatar?
I just updated the link to the final duel music change. The mix is significantly better.
Yeah it fits right in now. Where did you find this rendition of the theme?
The hallway clip and the end of the duel are fantastic. Ironically, the only one that doesn’t quite work for me is the Battle of the Heroes one, but I think that might be mostly because of where it sits in the mix. While I like the slower rendition of the theme that you used, It’s mixed a bit too louldy and seems to compete with the existing audio.
Yeah, that one would take some tweaking to get absolutely right. I’m just trying to figure out if it’s worth the effort.
I think it’s worth trying to get it there.
The hallway clip and the end of the duel are fantastic. Ironically, the only one that doesn’t quite work for me is the Battle of the Heroes one, but I think that might be mostly because of where it sits in the mix. While I like the slower rendition of the theme that you used, It’s mixed a bit too louldy and seems to compete with the existing audio.