Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda

georgec said:

For every fan that boycotts there are probably two or three younger fans who are just coming around to SW. If we look at the bigger picture the UOT purists like ourselves are probably a dying breed.

I disagree.  The staying factor of this effort is not about Star Wars, it's about preserving classic films.  This could have happened to any movie, it just happened to be Star Wars.  And I believe that great cinema will be around for a long time, and that there will always be a cadre of people for generations to come that will be upset when great art is not cared for.

Hey mathuser.... I respect your opinion on the artistic validity of the change. I'm curious what you think of changes like this to a film in the context of the original not also being made available?

PreserveOurHeritage said:

Thanks for clarifying the workflow.  If I'm understanding correctly, the software is essentially gathering raw sensor data and assembling a progressive movie file?

That's correct.

Ripplin said:

Wrong thread, but while I'm here checking the latest reply, may as well mention that I have downloaded Stjärnornas Krig and shall watch it soonishly.

Lower your expectations!  It's pretty rough.

Regarding the TRV-900:

• The workprinter I have is SD only.  Using an HD camera wouldn't work because the system wouldn't be able to keep up, and the software wouldn't be able to build the movie file.  There are new models of workprinters that have come out recently (only within the past year) that handle HD, but I can't afford them.  The website is www.moviestuff.tv.  The cost of such a workprinter would be several thousand dollars, after you factor in the camera, the accelerator, and other PC upgrades.  Considering the condition of the films, I can't justify the expense.
• The TRV900 doesn't suffer from most of the things you describe when used in this manner, because it never actually records video.  Only the camera element is used, and the workprinter assembles the individual frames captured by the software into to a movie.  In fact, this particular video camera is very popular for this application, because of its 3 large CCDs, large lens, focus ring, and low-light capability that exceeds most modern camcorders (unless you want to spend several thousand dollars).  For this application, newer doesn't always mean better because I'm actually not even using the camera's video capability.

The Aluminum Falcon said:

Argh! I've always thought that I saw the extended Biggs scene and this is exactly as I remember it. Somehow, I think I've seen this seen before, complete with the additional dialogue. I'd hate to think that I'm suffering from a grappling hook-esque syndrome... :-(

Ah well. Is this how you remember the scene Puggo?

YES!

Overall, I think the whole Amazon review situation has gone spectacularly better than any of us could have imagined.  I thought there'd be a healthy batch of low reviews, but that it would be far outweighed by the gushers.  Now, I know it will still sell well, but all told this has been great publicity for the OOT side, way better than I would have ever imagned.

I would add that, the character that stood out to me as the most interesting, even one could say best-acted, by FAR, was Wotto.  Everyone else was either deathly bland and utterly forgettable (Qui-Gon, Padme), horribly acted (Anakin), or just wrong (e.g., creepy puppet yoda, Jar Jar).

I liked Wotto, though.  Even got the impression he wouldn't be bad to work for. Which is why I thought how Anakin brushed him off in a later episode (was it 2 or 3?) was inappropriately rude.

Quite by coincidence, I put on TPM last night - mainly so I could see the horrible puppet yoda again.  Wow, it's so bad it's good, very creepy.

But seeing some of the movie for the first time in a while, two things about the dialogue really stood out to me:

(1) exqueeze me, and

(2) all the times Qui-Gon said "I don't know".  Typically, this would happen right after announcing something important.  Like: "even master yoda doesn't have that high a midichlorian count!"..."what does that mean?!"... "I don't know."  It must happen a half a dozen times, either as "I don't know" or "I'm not sure."

I remember when Terminator came out, and blu-ray.com was so critical about it, particularly the picture quality.  I think they gave it 3 stars.  Why didn't they use the "it has problems but hey, it's Terminator on blu ray!" argument for that?

I actually think it's the bad scenes that "save" the prequels.  The "sand" dialog and the love dance in the flower field, those sorts of things at least make the movies funny in a "Plan 9 from Outer Space" sort of way.  The periodic cool visuals and unintended comic relief combine keep them from just being boring.

So the fatal flaw?  Boring.  Why?  Uncompelling story and wooden acting.  Why the wooden acting?  Probably because of bad script and poor direction with too much use of bluescreen.

I think anyone who has an interest in the OT belongs here, whether or not they like or even prefer the PT.

I'd like to see the word "died" removed from the title of the thread.

I follow about 5 forums regularly, and every one of them has nutjobs.  OT.com became a lot more popular recently, for obvious reasons, so it is natural that we'd pick up a few more.  The unfortunate thing is that detractors simply say "look at what they're saying at thisforum.com" and then use the nutjob as the example, lumping everyone into that one basket.  There's no solution to that.

While I consider the 97 editions to be of little significance in comparison to the original theatrical editions, I think that a truly complete BD box set should include restored versions of them as well as the theatrical and 04 editions.

My theory is that after so much money and adulation, George has lost the capacity for introspection.  So the moment he imagines something, he assumes it's good, and is not capable of taking a step back and evaluating his ideas objectively.  Nor is he capable of accepting constructive criticism, because that would also require introspection.  Whatever he blurts, happens.

ROFLRICK said:

I'm not kidding. Let's move away from Star Wars momentarily. Let's say I like a specific author. He has a new book coming out and I know that content-wise it isn't what I expect, nor is it what I want. It's not even what the author should have produced. I know it, you know it.

Your analogy is poor because this isn't a new movie we're talking about.  Great classics should be preserved because they are a part of our cultural history, not because "I want it."  Not only is he not preserving them, he is not allowing existing prints to be shown.

ROFLRICK said:

I'll wager that wrongfully and intentionally attempting to sway the general public's idea of something is not a good principle. And furthermore, the thing that most of us want is accessible right here on this website. I've been enjoying the OUT for some time now, in versions that indicate they were created with a lot of love and care. The obsession with getting a single man to do what more creative men are doing already (and better) is silly.

You're kidding, right?  "Wrongfully" suggesting that the owner of a classic film properly preserve it?

And regardless of our efforts, a proper preservation/restoration from original elements would do considerably better justice to the film than anything we can do or have done.  Harmy's wonderful efforts notwithstanding, I'm sure he'd agree.

ROFLRICK said:

 It's not going to matter. Lucas publicly rebukes those that want the OT. He doesn't give a hoot about all the one-star reviews in the world. The group of people that would take the time to "vote with their wallet" is so small compared to the general buying public who thinks having Star Wars in HD is "pretty cool". That's all that matters.

While you may be right about our ultimate impact, I disagree that it's a waste of time.  If we save a few people from spending their hard-earned money on something they would oppose if they knew the facts, then we will have made a few people's lives better.  Also, the more people know about the preservation efforts out there, the more likely that THOSE efforts (such as Harmy's) will survive even if LFL never releases the OUT.

What gets me are the people that will fork out $75 for deleted scenes.  Is there any other movie in the history of moviedom for which people will spend that kind of money on low res versions of bits that were thrown out?  I know we're star wars nerds and all, but geez in a normal world that stuff is worthy of being a free download.

Stinky-Dinkins said:

Does anyone ever take this covers to print out at Kinkos?

I did.  But I try to be nice about it... their printers can be really slow with such high resolution stuff.  I wait until there's nobody else using the workstations, then I print one at a time, stepping out of the way when someone else comes in wanting to print something.

I've completed the sound sync of reel 1.  There are two glitches that I'll need to fix: (1) it's missing the roll-off right at the start, and (2) a couple of words where Han's voice inexplicably drops about 2 octaves.  I expect to be able to fix those with the backup print after I finish prepping the other two reels.

Next up, reel 2.

Is it safe to say that the GOUT will look better, but the LD would sound better?

A great choice!

20th Century Mark said:

Lucas' Evil Empire...

http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/movies/george_lucas_mNJtxNAZiUrXP5YsmTX3NO?utm_campaign=Post10&utm_source=Post10Alpha

Hmm, totally misses the point about preserving important films.  Makes it seems like it's all about our childhoods, which makes us seem a bit - er - childish.