Pagz

Well, that seems to have done the trick, I hope. I suppose we'll wait and see how the AVI file turns out. Fingers crossed!

He mentions doing each file separately for the womble timecode fix, but the way I read his instructions seemed to suggest ripping from the dvd was fine both together. Regardless I'll give it a shot one at a time.

Alright, so I've followed the advice everyone has been kind enough to give me (And I really do appreciate it guys!) but alas things still aren't coming up Millhouse. So, time to start from scratch and document everything step by step. This way you can see where I'm going wrong. When it comes to being thick, I'm a genius ;)

Step 1: Get elements.

Pffft, no problem! I'm all over this. DVD Decrypter is open, now I need the DVD. Time for a quick trip to my Star Wars shelf.

Ahh, there she is, nestled between Solo and Greedo.

Get in there you furry oaf. I don't care what you smell.

There it is. Time to switch the mode to IFO.

Aww yeah. Now to find the video I want. There it is, now to grab the elements I want under the PGC.

I imagine it's angle 1, since selecting the PGC itself makes it impossible to enable stream processing. Speaking of which...

There we go, stream processing enabled and the streams that I want are checked off. Video set to demux, and...

Audio set to demux as well.

And away we go!

Tadaa!

WINNER!

Wait a second...

wtf...

and another wtf...

and a third wtf... (followed by identical fourth, fifth and sixth wtf's)

*sigh*

Screw it, fingers crossed it's just the program being an ass and hasn't buggered up the output.

Hey womble, what's up?

What's that? You want to fix my timecode errors? How sweet of you.

Here you go, bon appetite.

Hmmm, this may take a little while.

Hans up Solo (You see what I did there?)

No disintegrations.

What's that little B? You want me to handle this one? Alright.

Time to put captain Solo in the cargo hold.

I always order my solo on the rocks. Oh look, Womble is done. Thanks womble.

Hey DGIndex, what's happenin'?

Feel like making a D2V project file from my M2V file?

Here you go, enjoy!

Oh man, this is going to take a while too, isn't it.

Bored.

Bored, bored, bored.

Interesting...

Yeah, just as I always suspected...

Kirk vs Picard! A battle for the ages!

PicAAAAAAAAAAAAARD!

Wait, you're filming this! NO!

None of my Star Wars brethren must know my terrible secret shame!

Huzzah, it's done! Let's head on over to Gordian Knot

Hey Gordian K, how about we open up this sweet new D2V project of mine?

Here she is, let's do this.

What?

WHAT?

No!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Chewtobacca:

When I try to load the .avs file I get the following warning:

Couldn't locate decompressor for format 'YV12' (unknown).

Virtualdub requires a Video for Windows (VFW) compatible codec to decompress video. DirectShow codecs. such as those used by Windows Media Player. are not suitable. Only "Direct stream copy" is available for this video.

Here's my .avs script:

# Created with Gordian Knot
#
# http://gknot.doom9.org

#  PLUGINS
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~2\GORDIA~1\DGMPGDec\DGDecode.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~2\GORDIA~1\AviSynthPlugins\decomb.dll")
#LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~2\GORDIA~1\AviSynthPlugins\KernelDeInt.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~2\GORDIA~1\AviSynthPlugins\UnDot.dll")
#LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~2\GORDIA~1\AviSynthPlugins\dgbob.dll")
#LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~2\GORDIA~1\AviSynthPlugins\Convolution3d.dll")
#LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~2\GORDIA~1\AviSynthPlugins\FluxSmooth.dll")
#LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~2\GORDIA~1\AviSynthPlugins\TomsMoComp.dll")
#LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~2\GORDIA~1\AviSynthPlugins\VSFilter.dll")
#LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~2\GORDIA~1\AviSynthPlugins\SimpleResize.dll")

#  SOURCE
mpeg2source("G:\PHANTOM_MENACE\VIDEO_TS\gathering storm.d2v")

#  TRIM
#trim(startframe,endframe)

#  IVTC
Telecide(order=1,guide=1).Decimate()
#  or use
#IVTC(44,11,95)
#GreedyHMA(1,0,4,0,0,0,0,0)

#  DEINTERLACING (1)
#FieldDeinterlace()
#FieldDeinterlace(blend=false)
#TomsMoComp(1,5,1)

#  DEINTERLACING (2)
#KernelDeInt(order=1,sharp=true)
#  or maybe
#DGBob(order=1,mode=0)

#  DEINTERLACING (3) - special requests
#GreedyHMA(1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0)
#Telecide()
#SeparateFields()

#  CROPPING
crop(0,60,720,360)

#  SUBTITLES
#VobSub("FileName")

#  RESIZING
LanczosResize(720,480)

#  DENOISING: choose one combination (or none)
Undot()

#  1) little noise
#Temporalsoften(2,3,3,mode=2,scenechange=6)
#mergechroma(blur(1.3))
#FluxSmoothST(5,7)

#  2) medium noise
#Temporalsoften(3,5,5,mode=2,scenechange=10)
#Convolution3d("moviehq")
#FluxSmoothST(7,7)

#  3) heavy noise
#Temporalsoften(4,8,8,mode=2,scenechange=10)
#Convolution3d("movielq")
#FluxSmoothST(10,15)

#  BORDERS
#AddBorders(left,top,right,bottom)

#  COMPRESSIBILITY CHECK
#  !!!!Snip Size now has to be 14 for use in GKnot!
#SelectRangeEvery(280,14)

#  FOOL CCEnc
#empty = BlankClip()
#AudioDub(last,empty)

Dark_Jedi:

I've used the latest version of virtualdub as well as the older one that comes with the GordianKnot suite. I'm also using Windows 7 pro 64. When I try to open the D2V file I get from the DGindex I downloaded from your link, GordianKnot gives me an error saying that it's not a valid D2V file.

*sigh* Well, I tried opening my .avs file (modified as per adigitalman's instructions) in virtualdub (and virtualdubmod and virtualdub64 and virtualdub mpeg2) and I get a big nothing.

Can anyone just give me some step by step instructions to follow to get a progressive anamorphic lossless AVI from my M2V file?

How does one use AVIsynth with DGindex? I've created my avisynth script as per the instructions in adigitalman's guide, but I don't truly understand what to do with that script. Which program do I use? The guide says to check the video in virtualdubmod, what video? The M2V I want to turn into an AVI? or the AVI that i'm supposed to make using that avisynth script?

If I load the video I want to encode into virtualdubmod I don't get an option to use the script to make an AVI, so what's the difference in watching the preview before or after I made the script this program doesn't use? TMPGenc will take the AVIsynth script, but it's going to give me a M2V file. Why would I need an M2V file when I'm trying to turn the M2V file I already have into an AVI? I'm thoroughly confused.

Step 3 (if needed): Converting 4x3 interlaced video to 16x9 anamorphic video.
Gordian Knot installs several utilities with AVISynth that help you perform some basic video conversion functions. Essentially we will take the M2V/MPV files you have fixed, create a script based on their basic info for AVISynth, modify that script, generate and uncompressed AVI of the manipulation, then re-encode back to M2V. It's a tedious process, but one well worth it.

* Under the Gordian Knot suite of additional apps, launch DGIndex.
* Open the M2V file. Open only one at a time if you're doing multiple videos.
* Save this D2V project with a unique name.
* Launch Gordian Knot and open the .D2V file you just created
* This will launch a second window, with the video actually in it.
* Click "Save & Encode." This will open another window.
* Just click "Save" in this window. No need to encode yet. This will create an AVS file (just a text script). Give it a unique name. I usually choose the same name as the D2V file and the M2V file to keep them grouped together.
* Open the AVS file in notepad or other text editor of choice.
* Note that the "#" character is used to comment (i.e. render inactive) a particular line.
* If the video is telecined (if it shows scan lines for 2 out of every 5 frames) we need to do an inverse telecine. Uncomment the line: LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\GORDIA~1\AviSynthPlugins\decomb.dll") and uncomment the line Telecide(order=1,guide=1).Decimate() by removing the # character at the start of each of those lines.
* Assuming you're editing NTSC and not PAL:
* Change the cropping command to read: crop(0,60,720,360). This will remove 60 pixels from the top and from the bottom. (PAL should be (0,38,720,404)
* Change the resizing command to read: LanczosResize(720,480). This will stretch the image to anamorphic proportions.
* Uncomment the line: Undot()
* Save the file

* Under the Gordian Knot suite of additional apps, launch VirtualDubMod and preview the video to make sure it looks right.
* Launch TMPGEnc
* Start a project with the setting DVD NTSC 16:9 (or PAL if appropriate).
* In the next window drag your AVS Script into the video source.
* Click next until you get to the Bitrate setting window.
* Make sure the bitrate setting has the average video bitrate setting at 8000. This is the maximum number allowed and will ensure the best possible video quality.
* Click Next and name the output file. The default name may conflict with the original source. Be certain that it doesn't so you don't have to rip from scratch if something goes wrong. I suggest renaming the source file, since most of your work is based off the "fix" file.
* You can check to run the job in batch if you have multiple files.
* Set the conversion to run, go run a marathon and read War and Peace. Take a vacation. Solve world hunger. After all of that, your new M2V files should be ready.

Here's my first mock up of the opening crawl. Timing is a bit off, but as a general idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAvM2GDPER8

Looking for a little guidance. I've used dvd decrypter to rip the video and audio from the NTSC dvd of TPM as per the adigitalman guide. However, when I use virtualdub to create an AVI file the finished product looks like it's interlaced, despite all the settings in virtual dub being set to progressive. Am I missing a step? is there a better program I should be using to convert to AVI? Ideally I want a lossless AVI from the DVD files. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Here's the next subtitle test. All feedback appreciated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Go94xJgzV4

I can understand that. I think it sounds really good with the Trade Federation so I'm going to leave it in. You can let me know how much it offends your ears by checking out this clip ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zntFGM85ic

I think it works nicely. Not to mention it's not the first time a real language has been used for an alien one, Nien Numb after all :)

Alas I can only work with what's there. It would be a painstaking process to try to stitch together a new order from Palpatine, and in all likelihood it would sound pretty terrible. Personally I'm fine with Palpatine giving the order to kill them, it feels like a Palpatine move to me.

As I've mentioned before, I'm replacing the Trade federation dialogue with Japanese. As such I'll be writing my own subtitles for the Neimoidians so that their dialogue carries more weight and conveys more story wise. Here's my first pass at the opening scenes aboard the federation command ship. Comments welcomed and appreciated. Hopefully a video mock up coming soon.

Trade Federation dialogue:

TC-14 delivers the news of the Jedi's arrival.

Viceroy: Report. Who has the Chancellor sent?

TC-14: The Chancellor has sent 2 Jedi Knights excellency.

Underling: Jedi! This gambit is getting out of hand!

Viceroy: Stay calm! I have everything under control. See to the Jedi while I contact the Dark Lord.

Underling: Are you kidding me? Those Jedi can see into your soul! Send the droid.

Viceroy contacts the Dark Lord.

Underling: My lord, Jedi have been sent to end the blockade! We must abandon this course before they learn of your involvement or we'll all be finished!

Dark Lord: Viceroy, I don't want this slime in my sight again. This turn of events is unfortunate, we must accelerate our plans. Begin landing your troops.

Viceroy: Invade? But the senate will never sanction the legality of...

Dark Lord: I will make it legal.

Viceroy: And what of the Jedi?

Dark Lord: Kill them immediately.

Viceroy: It shall be as you command my lord. (alternate possibility: It will be done my lord.)

Jedi/Droid battle.

Holographic Viceroy to battledroids: Terminate the Jedi. They must not be allowed to escape.

On the bridge -

Viceroy: Report! What happened?

Bridge officer: Security team Alpha has been wiped out.

Underling: Your security droids are no match for Jedi Knights!

Viceroy: I didn't hear you coming up with any bright ideas! Activate the Destroyers immediately.

Bridge officer: Yes sir.

Underling: That will only delay the inevitable.

Viceroy: Secure the bridge!

Underling: You've doomed us all!

As Qui-Gon begins cutting through the sealed door -

Viceroy: Close the blast doors.

Blast doors close -

Viceroy: All security teams to the bridge NOW!

Door begins to burn -

Underling: They're breaking through!

Viceroy: No, they're sealing their fate.

Chunk of door falls away -

Underling: Your overconfidence will be our undoing!

Destroyers arrive and Jedi flee -

Underling: My deepest apologies excellency. You were right.

Bridge officer: Sir, our internal sensors have lost them.

Communication from Alderaan -

Bridge officer: Incoming transmission from the Naboo Palace on Alderaan.

Viceroy: Queen Amidala, I am so pleased to see you.

Queen: You will not be so pleased when you hear what I have to say Viceroy, your trade boycott of our planet has ended.

Viceroy: Has it indeed?

Queen: I have word that the chancellor's ambassadors are with you know, and you have been commanded to reach settlement.

Viceroy: There are no Jedi here, I assure you. And this runs much deeper than a simple trade boycott majesty.

Queen: Beware Viceroy, the federation has gone too far this time.

Viceroy: Do not assume that we will ignore your role in crippling our commerce, or that the senate will ignore our ancient claim on this system. You will not prevail.

Queen: We'll see.

Underling: Excellency! You said Jedi, not...

Viceroy: I'm aware of what I said!

Underling: We must jam their communications at once!

Viceroy: Agreed. Launch the invasion force. Alderaan will be ours once again.

I`m currently running with the idea that the trade federation has a claim on the Alderaan system, kinda like the falkland islands (Kudos to Bingo for the suggestion). Further, Alderaan was a key player in the outlawing of Spice, the trade federations main commodity.

So I've found one instance of Padme saying "Alderaan" in the clone wars. Season 3, episode 7. Still looking for more examples, and for some from Palpatine.

It sounds like a really interesting edit and I look forward to seeing it. I will drop my 2 cents about 1 cut though: You mention cutting Luke's force choke on the Gamoreans because he'd earn darkside points. THat, to me, is one of the main themes of the film. Luke is riding the line the entire movie and there's a lot of symbolism to back it up. He's dressed all in black, he's flirting with the dark side, he's clearly angry during the skiff battle. All of this sets up the uncertainty of the throne room sequence. Will Luke turn to the dark side? If we know that he won't a lot of the tension is deflated and we're only concerned with whether he'll survive. The moral ambiguity and questionable choices Luke makes during the film are what create that uncertainty and thus make the throne room sequence much more dramatic, He's not just fighting for his life, he's fighting for his soul.

I've just finished watching the 2003 Clone Wars series and the Star Wars: A Musical Journey DVD in search of usable dialogue. There's a lot of great stuff on the musical journey DVD, but alas I did not find the most important puzzle piece I was looking for, Ian McDiarmid saying the name Alderaan. There were a few points where I thought he was going to, but the writer apparently has a personal vendetta against me ;)

If anyone knows any examples of any of the main characters using the name Alderaan please point me in the right direction. I know Panaka says Alderaan when discussing the nominations for the new supreme chancelor, but aside from that I'm drawing a blank. I'll even take examples from the new Clone Wars series. Do Palpatine or Padme ever say Alderaan? They're the 2 most important characters I want to get samples for.

I've just finished watching Volume 2. This one is a little more difficult in that it's already cut as one continuous story, unlike volume 1 which was individual episodes. Some judicious trimming throughout might be worthwhile. I think I would move the siege of Coruscant until later in the story. As it stands now the siege seems to start before Anakin has even left on his quest. I think I would cut the siege so that it starts immediately after Anakin's Vader vision. Cut from that directly to Yoda meditating. His abrupt "waking" from his meditation then has a dual impact as it can be perceived to be both because of Anakin and also the invasion. It also gives us a reasonable cause for Yoda not having felt the invasion until it was underway.

Just some thoughts.

I've now watched the first volume of Clone Wars. I figured I'd drop some ideas for you before I move on to Volume 2.

I think the first thing I would do is take the introduction of Asage Ventress and use it to open your film. It's required information for your climax, but it will slow the pacing of the film down if you try to intercut it with the battle for Munilist. I would open the film with Dooku attending the gladiatorial combat. If you did want to do some inter-cutting I would cut that segment at the point where Asage is being electrocuted. From there move to the battle. During the battle I'm sure you can find a good place to cut back to Asage waking up in Dooku's lair. That will aid in the feel that time has passed and also ad an air of mystery about her fate until we rejoin her, like a mini cliffhanger.

For the battle of munilist, I would do the following: First I would isolate the ground battle and the space battle. The ground battle can use some trimming as there's a lot of filler in there not necessary for a film. At that point I would begin putting the film together cutting between the ground and space battle. You want the audience to constantly remember that while things are happening on the ground they are also happening in space. With clever editing of the space battle it can easily be extended to match up better with the ground battle.

I'd drop Kit Fisto, Mace Windu and Yoda's rescue mission. They're all self contained stories which aren't necessary for the overall plot of the film.

Okay, those are just some initial thoughts. I'm going to go watch Volume 2 now and see what's happening there.

The Alderaan angle is going to be tricky considering how often the name Naboo shows up in dialogue. Some of that dialogue can be cut, some subtitled, but there are probably going to be instances where I can't get around the word Naboo. As far as naming the capital city Naboo, that would be fine but the problem is a race is rarely named after a capital city on their planet.

I'm hoping I can find some examples of the name Alderaan used in the films, the clone wars series and the Star Wars: A Musical Journey DVD.

After discussing the matter with a number of my friends I've decided on pursuing the spice angle for the Trade Federation. I really like the ties to the original trilogy, not only with Han Solo, but also Luke's belief that his father had been a navigator on a spice freighter.

I'm still open to suggestions for a title. Right now I like The Gathering Storm as I feel it's descriptive of the film and how this story marks the beginning of the end for the Republic. I also feel it evokes the right kind of Nostalgia for the classic Flash Gordon serial titles without being overly goofy or melodramatic.

I would really love to incorporate Darth Maul's "Litany of Fear" in the film, but I'm just not sure how to best do so. If anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear them.

Here's the current version of the crawl. Not too much has changed:

Star Wars

Episode I

THE GATHERING STORM

It is a period of civil unrest. The Galactic Republic, which has stood for over a thousand generations, is in decline. Corruption, greed and apathy have taken root. The seeds of evil are sown throughout the Galaxy.

The sinister Trade Federation has seized control of the planet Alderaan with a blockade of deadly battleships. As the senate looks on, the supreme chancellor calls upon the Jedi, guardians of peace and justice in the Galaxy, to resolve the conflict.

Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn, tasked with overseeing young Obi-Wan Kenobi's trials of knighthood, has been dispatched to liberate Alderaan from the tyranny of the Federation and to restore freedom to the once peaceful system....

To a dark place this line of thinking will take us. ;)

This sounds like a really fine idea for an edit to me. I totally agree with your choices to drop certain self contained episodes from the series in favour of a more filmic storyline. If you're going to present this on a dvd, you might consider including those stand alone segments as a bonus feature. it's been ages since I've watched the series, I'll give it a spin later today and then I'll chime in with some suggestions.

I think putting the god stuff into the film will probably be a bit too much, so I'm going to take a pass on that idea for my edit. As far as the Naboo being the humans on Alderaan that can work. I don't know that I want to waste space in the crawl explaining it as space is at a premium there, but I'm sure I can work it in somehow in the trade federation or gungan dialogue.

No harm in uploading them I say. If you want to keep them separate that's cool but I don't think it's strictly necessary. I doubt anyone is too concerned over where their sounds come from, just that they work in the projects they're doing.

Those are some really good and interesting ideas Bingo, I like them a lot. I'm not sure how I'd convey all of that information succinctly in the context of the film, especially the notion of the Neimoidians having been "gods" to the Gungans. I certainly like the idea though. I think though, seeing as I'm turning Naboo into Alderaan that this approach might not gel with the OT. I still might incorporate some of those ideas though, I like the Falklands comparison especially.

as far as the connection between the spice in Star Wars and the Spice in Dune, while I'm sure George stole the name and the idea of it being a narcotic, I expect that's where the similarity ends. I shouldn't imagine it has the same properties as melange. Not that its nature truly matters, it's barely mentioned in the OT either, it's just a little bit of background colour for people's imaginations to launch on to and wonder about.

here's a thought. I've been thinking about the trade federation and their motivations and background. I really loved the whole slavers idea magfan used in his edit Balance of the Force, and I've been operating on the assumption that I would follow suit. However, I'm wondering if maybe I shouldn't take a different angle since the slavery one has already been done.

So, I started thinking about Spice. Perhaps the trade federation's main good was spice, and now spice has been outlawed (hence spice smugglers like Han Solo come the OT). It would give the prequel another tie to the OT and narcotics distribution is certainly a very powerful and corrupt industry. This isn't to say that they couldn't also be slave traders or trade in other nefarious goods, like weapons or something.

Does anyone have any thoughts or bright ideas? What do you think of Spice? Yes? No? Looking forward to your comments :)

Bingowings said:

"Wipe them out, all of them" is one of the few good lines in TPM but it seems a bit too good to be used in the context of the Gungans Vs The Droids.

What about shifting it to killing the Jedi in ROTS instead?

That's bloody brilliant! Stolen! ;)