Pagz

I’d also like to get a link to this if someone could pm me.

I’ve been out of the scene for a long while, I don’t know what’s current anymore. When last I was editing, Sony Vegas was the preferred suite. Is that still the case, or has something else come along?

The read me file with Harmy’s despecialized edition says to report sites attempting to sell Harmy’s editions to the webmaster of originaltrilogy.com, but I’m unable to find anywhere on the site to send that info. Who do I contact with this information?

I really hope so, I'd love to redo my edit.

Disney has announced that the Star Wars saga will shortly be available for HD digital download on various services (iTunes, Google, Amazon, etc). Included with the downloads will be special features, including the deleted scenes from the Prequel trilogy (which were noticeably absent from the bluray release).

I'm wondering if anyone knows whether or not those deleted scenes will be the ones from the original DVD releases and if theywill be HD as well. Part of the reason I never bothered to update my Episode I edit, or do my Episodes II and III edits was because the deleted scenes I required were not available in HD.

TheBoost said:

Pagz said:

I have had absolutely no luck finding the ABC extended version of Spark of Rebellion. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 Have you tried on ABC?

 Considering I live in Canada and don't have ABC (or cable service at all for that matter), I'm afraid I haven't, no. Thankfully, it seems the extended edition has found its way online as of yesterday, so it's all good.

I have had absolutely no luck finding the ABC extended version of Spark of Rebellion. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

I will definitely be there

I've recently picked up a video capture tool to transfer video from my vcr to my computer. I just wanted to preserve some of my old tapes. The software it comes with works fine, but I'm curious if there might be software out there that might provide me with better results, or just more options. Any thoughts?

Seeding.

Now, who can provide me with instructions on how to incorporate this into my copy of RotJ Despecialized?

I'll be introducing a friend of mine to the Trilogy this coming Tuesday. Obviously we'll be watching the despecialized editions. If I could get the corrected RotJ audio in time for that marathon it would be awesome. Anyone who can help me out, please message me :)

Anyone who knows where I could get the corrected audio file, and would be so kind as to give me instructions on how to incorporate it into my copy please pm me, I'd very much appreciate it.

Moving right along.

Does anyone else have a problem with audio sync on RotJ Despecialized? Every time I watch it I find that by the time the gang reaches Endor, the dialogue is all just slightly off sync. Watching it in the background right now, the scene where Luke reveals to Leia that she is his sister, and it's fairly noticeable. I'm currently watching the AVCHD version, but have had the same issue with the DVD9 version as well on multiple players. I'm not keen on digging through 25 pages to see if this is a known issue or if it's just my copies. 

Ah, I misunderstood, I thought the videos were ntsc and then converted to PAL later.

If you still have the lossless AVI files that you created before their conversion to PAL compliant mpeg files, would you consider perhaps creating an NTSC version of your dvds for those of us saddled with North American systems? Or perhaps providing those files to someone who would be willing to take on the work of authoring an NTSC version?

pittrek said:

Pagz said:

Any chance we'll ever see an NTSC conversion of this project? I can watch it fine on my computer, but I'd love to be able to take discs with me when I'm looking after my niece and nephew.

Well I'm not sure if it's a good idea. Don't forget that the source of most of these episodes is a pretty bad NTSC > PAL conversion resulting in blended fields. Converting it back to NTSC - would there be any benefit at all (except solving some compatibility issues)? Are you sure your TV and/or DVD player can't handle PAL single properly

Well, in order to watch PAL dvds here you have to have a dvd or bluray player that can do on the fly conversion. Since pal isn't terribly common here, such players aren't really the norm. My PS3 is my primary bluray player, and it can't play pal. I don't really know anyone who has a player that can play pal discs either. I can watch them just fine on my computer, because VLC can do the conversion. But in terms of actually playing the discs on a stand alone dvd player, we're mostly out of luck :\

Harmy said:

...this time around I will not stop until some of the shots I was unable to despecialize in v1.0 are despecialized. Like the Rancor compositing in ROTJ or the snow battle compositing in ESB.

I suppose I view things a little differently, philosophically, in terms of restoration. To me, the crime of the special editions wasn't cleaning up matte lines or technical gaffs or outright mistakes. To me the crime of the special editions was in outright changing elements or adding new scenes.

I consider the removal of the matte lines on the rancor a good thing. It makes that effect look as good as it possibly can, which to my mind should have been the goal of the special editions all along. Likewise, fixing the snow battle composting so that you can't see through the canopy struts, or see ships passing through walkers, is also a good thing.

I can understand and appreciate the view that all of those technical blemishes were a part of the original theatrical experience and should therefore be preserved. I don't share that view, but I get it. In a perfect world it would be nice to have both, a perfect time capsule of the original theatrical experience, and a perfect version of each film, where the picture fidelity and special effects have been restored and repaired to make them look as good as they possibly can. I might even watch that time capsule version out of historical interest, but my definitive version would be the restored and remastered version, the one that brings those effects as close to what they wanted them to be as possible.

It's an old dilemma. It's like the people who prefer LPs to CDs. For the LP lovers, the hisses, the scratches, the minor imperfections all add to the experience for them. While conversely, those things detract from the experience for the CD lovers. 

I've loved Star Wars all my life, but I'll never forget the first time I noticed the matte lines in ESB. I was about 12 years old, it was the asteroid chase, my favourite sequence. And suddenly there they were. Matte lines constantly in motion around the tie fighters. Empire Strikes back, and the whole trilogy, lost some of its magic for me that day. That was the day when I got a glimpse behind the curtain from in front of the stage. I'm a huge behind the scenes buff. I love knowing how things are made, and how movie magic is done. However, when I'm watching the movie I don't want my attention to be drawn to it.

To go in and restore matte lines and the like seems less like despecializing to me, and more to be a theatrical restoration. To my mind, despecializing would be the removal of the additional special edition material that was added to the films: extra scenes, new special effects, new dialogue, etc. I guess it's an arbitrary line to draw as to what one considers a special edition addition, and what one considers to be remastering and restoration.

Regardless, the impressive amount of work and dedication Harmy has committed to the project is nothing short of awe inspiring. I may not be on the same page in terms of what I would see removed and what I would see restored, but I am none the less blown away by the results. It's great stuff and I can't wait for more.

Any chance we'll ever see an NTSC conversion of this project? I can watch it fine on my computer, but I'd love to be able to take discs with me when I'm looking after my niece and nephew.

Anyone know what kind of filters were used to create this look?

http://youtu.be/y3Qygyy4204

I liked Pacific Rim, but I much prefer this look to the polished look of the actual film. I'd like to recreate this with my copy of the actual movie if I can.

I also heard the rumour about John Williams writing Lucas a letter essentially disowning the score for TPM as it appears in the film. I don't know if I believe it or not, but it certainly wouldn't surprise me considering how badly the score is butchered in that film. The scores of the OT always flowed, and they certainly never got cut off mid piece to insert a different theme for a different scene. That was part of the problem with the SE's, they messed up John Williams original score. In the prequels it's like George stopped caring at all, all three movies are an ugly hack and slash job with the music just cobbled together. After TPM I get the distinct impression that JW washed his hands of the process basically only wrote a few unique pieces per film and let George fill in the blanks with the incidental music from TPM.

I wish I could remember where I read about that letter, I think it was AICN.

For me it goes like this:

Original (unaltered) Trilogy trumps all

Original Radio Series comes next

Heir to the Empire trilogy is the only expanded universe I recognize.

All else isn't canon to me, including the prequels as they are trumped by the Original Trilogy on numerous points of continuity.

There are plenty of Star Wars stories that I enjoy, comics, games, edits and what have you, but nothing else I would consider canon. To me all else is "inspired by" Star Wars as opposed to being truly *part* of the Saga.

That clip was official, posted on the StarWars youtube channel.

I wonder what's going to happen to the 3D conversions what with the 3D fad already on its way out. They won't even have episode II done before it's a thing of the past... again.

I just saw some HD film clips from the bluray release posted on rebelscum.com and I'm concerned. Watching the opening of A New Hope I was very sad to see the blaster fire between the star destroyer and the blockade runner looks to be suffering from the same problems created by the Lowry Digital "remastering" from the previous DVD releases. Have they not done a new High Definition remastering of the films? Are we just getting HD transfers of the Lowry garbage we all complained about last release?

I resent a couple of things about the GOUT.

First and foremost, it is inexcusable that it wasn't anamorphic. People can talk all they want about how back at the beginning of the DVD format it would have been fine, but this wasn't released then so that argument is invalid.

Secondly, the forced double dip. Some choose to look at it as a simple cash grab or fuck you to the fans, but I don't think that's it. This was more than just pissing on the fans, it was a coldly calculated move to insure that the GOUT could never outsell George's preferred cuts of the films. It made it impossible for we the fans and consumers to vote with our dollars and definitely show George that our preference is the unaltered original trilogy, because every sale of the gout is also a sale of the SE, and having already released the SE's previously on their own, the GOUT could never overtake it. Now George can say "I made the unaltered trilogy available, but my SE's outsold them by a large margin."

It was a dick move. If George had any balls he would have given us a bare bones remastered release and let us decide which version of the trilogy would win.