Ronster

Well I seem to remember there being a higher quality version of the blooper reel off of itunes… I can’t remember if I still have those files I will need to check.

Remember all of that footage will basically be swapped out for 1997 bootleg or gout / silverscreen.

I am just prepping audio and any shots i want to do and once I have the segment done i then save it off as a video so all I need to do is replace the video.

Anyway today I figured out the bodged up music cue for when Y-wings make their attack run… Music is finishing too early in the theatrical and Special edition. So it’s small but a nice touch I just got a shot of the original model greenscreened it and will be redoing the Y-wing dive shot these 2 things combined together will make a good improvement I think.

The whole falcon shot also I did can have the original falcon not cgi I can do that but the thing I am now thinking is that Vader should say “I have you now” then lock on the target display… Then when the tie fighter in the trench get’s blown up it looks rubbish. So I am thinking that although people think it’s better the falcon magically appear from nowhere… I,m fed up with Vaders constant clicking his joystick and ships magically exploding. Catch my drift.

Ok so remove extra shot of falcon seems like a unanimous call… There is a restoration case of simply on the I have you now shot to have missing trench walls rather than black windows so it can be an improvement there too.

That will change the sound effects editing but I need to add the “standby” which is missing and as previously stated going to try to add echo version of obiwan lines.

Was working on the section with really odd editing just before “Red 5 goes in” and I think I got that smoothed out now. Quite a bit to look forward to.

I suppose I have to be careful and if I do change something then I have to be sure it’s not interfering with the original style of the film too much… You can make the argument that the Special edition ruins the film or enhances it in some ways but remember this is meant to be a more normal approach to that process without ruining the films style. I wish I was a vfx genius but nowhere near it. That does however go in my favour because I don’t want to do fancy pants stuff so I’ll think carefully about this… Trust me.

Death Star Destruction (restored footage scene re-arrangement with music and sound effects Edit.)

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/658091343?embedded=false&source=video_title&owner=30472256

Please let me know what you think this is not everything I want to do with this part… But I wanted some feedback on the Edit.

Extras I would like to do on this are as follows.

Use the Echo Version Audio samples for Ben Kenobi voice when Luke switches off the Targeting Computer
Update Tie Fighter Targeting Display
Add Glow to all Displays however I did do the intended cropping on the x-wing targeting computer which is worth taking note of.

If there is any audio synch issues at the start just ignore as it will be replaced anyway.

Hope you enjoy it and feedback would be appreciated.

I think the scene with Vader speaking with commander Bast is meant to precede the conference room scene. So that will fix that gripe of yours…

Yes I’m planning to put the short shot of Han kissing his Gal in the Cantina but interestingly I was just watching the Drunk Driving PSA advert and I was interested to see an updated creature of the very first Alien you see in the cantina. The one in the film looks like a velvet cloth puppet with eyes however the Drunk Driving Advert one looks like a finished creature version of that Alien. and I’d like to use that shot as an alternative.

I think my favourite deleted scenes are Han and Chewie in the Yavin Hanger and the Death Star destruction Conversation Han and Chewie celebrate and Han biting on the medal at the awards.

I am back now and I think I will start working on the Death Star Destruction Edit. The first step is to create an unscored Version of the Scene and Add the Extra dialogue and shots that are missing and then rescore it. So I will make available a sound effects only Version and then a rescored Version to help others with edits also.

Yeah I like the extended conference room scene but the audio is just too boomy as it’s a live presentation of the scene. I did try and make it sound like normal a while back but it unfortunately not really useable in my opinion. I can try again but I think it may not blend well due to it not being a master.

I think the whole “lost cut” thing get’s people’s expectations up that I would be defining what I am doing as some sort of recreation of that but I like to keep these rules simple on this point.

1. I will edit video to match the theatrical audio if there is a discrepency between the two.

2. I will attempt to put the film in a semblance of chronological order.

3. I will be observing 4:3 cropping in some instances

4. There will be fun and it’s a “what if” special edition.

Thanks for the feedback I appreciate it. 😃

ifjg said:

The editing in the original film for the Vader/Kenobi duel does seem pretty weird. Seems like they just randomly cobbled together some shots of them, leading to people thinking the scene is slow and jerky. It was real eye opening seeing that if you just recut the footage in proper chronological order you end up with something that stands up fine with the other duels of the series.

I’m also a big fan of your recut for the Alderaan explosion. Would much rather watch that than the cheesy CGI explosion used in most other edits.

Thanks I need to do a bit more work on the Death Star view screen on the Alderaan destruction scene. But I have an idea for a fix.

The Kenobi and Vader Duel I will be honest on the second clash we just have some re-used shots from the first part so unfortunately I’ll probably have to cut duped shots out as It has ran out of road. In it’s absense I will attempt to add a response from Vader. The dialogue within the duel is a great part about what makes them special so perhaps I can give it more in another way and perhaps a better way to go with it.

There is going to be some good stuff coming regarding computer displays and things. Just a heads up as it’s a part that I’m looking forward to.

ifjg said:

Some really nice stuff here. Looking forward to how this progresses. Are you gonna be using your re-edit of the Vader/Kenobi duel?

Yes, but I never totally figured out how it goes before obiwan backs off and his lightsaber does not show up properly. I could not make sense of the last bit so I need to do it again or go over it again and hopefully figure it out. When it comes to the shoot out in the hanger there a multiple dupe frames and soundmix of the door closing when these are trimmed away it allows for the extended Han pulling Leia back from a laser bolt before they run up the ramp. So although these things I talk about the Hanger shoot out can not be 100% fixed. Remember I said abot 4:3 aspect though the TV version had far less inconsistancy and much less problems like seeing same storm trooper fall over and get hit 3 times. This was never an issue in the 4:3 version so that cropping will be replicated as best I can.

Just Fyi that clip I posted I think I may have a fix to smooth out the slapstick at the end between R2 and 3P0 namely giving R2 a longer reply after the hologram disapear and then cut back to the floor grate now 3P0 “what message” then resume 3P0 hitting R2 on the head. So I think I can get that all smoothed out atleast I’m hoping.

Thanks for the feedback 😃

So I thought it would be good Idea to Post an example of the scene in Tech Dome and Repair Shop.

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/654620410?embedded=false&source=video_title&owner=30472256

This has sound effects some music editing and scene re-arrangements… Notice how in the Original film the first “Help me Obi-wan Kenobi” does not match up with the hologram … This is because there is a splice missing the music was edited to accommodate the missing splice (fix) whilst there is also a swapped scene later to make sure the hologram flows once again and 3PO gestures match what is said. All in All this is the Frame work and finished scene without any visual enhancements for instance adding the “Revisted” effects for the Projector Light beam through color Selection or swapping the shot out… And of course going back to the gout for the main source. Subsequently the scene ended up Slightly longer in this recut to fix things… The edit will be extended overall but there might be a few snips but I am hoping after the cut to the start that should be the last removal.

I will not be working on this until a bit later on as I have other stuff on but I hope this clip gives you an idea of what the actual goal is and you hope you can dig the Audio and video edit / scene correction work. You can also see some rough cuts on my channel on Vimeo.

On a note upon watching deleted magic I took note of the moved scene claim of “there’s a lot of fire coming from the right side of that deflection tower”

Luke “I’m on it”

Biggs “I’m going in… Cover me Porkins”

I don’t think this is a moved scene it feels like a bit of rivalry so the scene order there will remain and with the Biggs scene in the film that rivalry will make sense.

There is also the case of 4:3 cropping being much better that the 16:9 aspect ration image in quite a few instances so I will be trying to crop and reproduce that experience which also will eliminate some errors and certain inconsistent things so they better match how we used to watch the film at Christmas on TV.

Thanks for reading and watching 😃

Did an Audio edit mix for the Techdome / Repair Shop in the Lars Homestead today… Something I have wanted to do for a Long Time interestingly I used Audio from the Treadwell Droid sequence to restore Luke Blowing on R2 and Scratching at his panels amongst adding new sound for the Oil Bath and the liquid dripping off. So the Treadwell scene came in handy after all.

I thought about trying to add some back story in this part and the whole background story thing about the plans being received and stuff but I think what I will do as I was trying to restore a cut I made in a clever way… I think come the End Credits I think I may try to do Visuals of the Actors but with Cast info to restore a certain shot so It’s not lost and gone… Or thats the last idea on that. NO trying to force Backstory that idea is gone.

Blue Milk Deleted Scene will not be Included either.

I decided for the opening shot I will use ANH Revisited as I realised this actually changes the tragectory of the Tantive IV but put the original Planet matte if I then noise this up subtly I hope I can make it look similar to other footage. But whilst looking at this there is also a green laser missing for the first flash on the Tantive so I will be adding that and with sound if I have to. I will then revert to the Gout or Silver Screen edition for the next shot then because of the spilices I have made I will add the Red Laser the Tantive Fires (watch green laser become Red) but this will be sourced from ANH revisited version on the destruction shot. But there is definitely more image information in the Gout Explosion on the tantive Explosion but Revisited is not far off here.

Aside from that I will use the Missing Lasers from ANH Revisited Corridor Shoot out but make transparent, the Blue Hatch interior of the escape pod also and the window in the escape pod but masked off so the Window will have scan lines and be clear that it is a screen. I have the missing planet matte element for the “Hold your fire” shot too so that will be added. All in all with scene re-arrangements edits and an explosion added to the escape pod launch with a background matte for the tube. I think hopefully 100% fixed for that part or at least I think It will be a good version, or hope so anyway.

Oh my bad I don’t have the skill to fix the Tantive in the Hold on the escape pod launch so that one you will have to wait for some other day.

I played about with some ideas on the opening.

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away…

It feels like we are meant to see a sequence before the Star Wars Logo.

Rebel Spies have won there first victory against the empire. I toyed with making the actual opening the sequence before the logo but it did not really work.

I’m not using treadwell droid and luke binoculars because it just does not work well enough. In it’s stead I started trying to think of a way to show perhaps the tantive receiving the transwission and the chase starting… But I don’t want to waste time trying to force things in. Let me know if you have any ideas but I want to stay away from using Rogue One footage generally unless it is very subtle this sequence could be very short like 10 seconds but it would have to get across enough info in that very short time span.
So any way listening to opening cue starfield drop down to planet (big bass note) then menacing strings build up.

This got me thinking these menacing strings should flip us back away from the planet to depths of space only to then return on the big brass hits and the tantive / star destroyer going over camera. Please let me know if you can feel that or envisage that.

I have the whole opening part in a changed order that makes absolute good sense and works better although I have shortened it a bit. The best new discovery (i had preexisting edit) was making C3P0 say “Whats that” after they are clamped in. This has made a huge but great difference amongst shortening this part.

There is definitely something wrong with the opening (bar misaligned frames) even just looking at the opening shot although it’s great it feels like the Tantive is too high in the frame and that means you can no longer see the lasers hitting the tantive or the lasers being fired by the Star Destroyer… I am thinking about lowering the position of the ship and perhaps hightening the Star Destroyer as a fix on this but have not tried anything yet. Any Thoughts?

So I think I have decided that I will be using the Gout as the main source for Video and using the 97 “Five Star” Bootleg as the main source of Special Edition shots re-inserted simply because the luminosity is a good match. like recreating the Special edition with the Gout 2006 dvd as the default main film so I will be matching that up to the GOut but it’s not so different…

What I may also do is Use the Despecialized Edition for Hairy Hen’s Mix (Gout video mounted on top) as the main Audio source and add Special Edition Audio as and when It is suitable because there is a case for not having the Special Edition Audio within the Detention Center shoot out and the Chasm battle at least.

2004 Audio for the Sandcrawler missing Dialogue

I am planning to give Chewies big Rifle in the cell block a better sound effect to distinguish that a bit more.

I’m also planning to add red lights to the Back of the Tie Fighters on Special Edition Shots.

No but…You could be close

JFK Revisited - Through the Looking Glass

Please see the Oliver Stone Interview here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyV6d97Mrp0

Please also check out the Great Oliver Stone films “Salvador” “Platoon” “JFK” and “Born on the 4th of July” which are really all part of the same story and era remember Oliver Stone served in Viet-Nam in the US military… Later he would make “Natural Born Killers” and “The Doors” which the latter is the same time frame but “Natural born Killers” is a window to the future it would seem.

Apparently the main crux of this venture back into JFK for Oliver Stone is to dispute and refute that there was always more than one shooter whilst JFK was assassinated and the official story is Rubbish Lee Harvey Oswald was probably correctly identified but was killed off by the mob to prevent what would have come out in a court of law under confession.

Oliver Stone also wrote the first Draft for “Conan the Barbarian” for which another great script writer John Milius would pick up and revise and eventually Direct.

Correction the 4 hour “deep dive” is called JFK Destiny betrayed whilst the 2 hour version is JFK Revisited.

Main Sources :

“Five Star” Bootleg 97 Version Bootleg
Gout 2006 DVD
Star Wars Silver Screen Edition
Star Wars Revisited for some fixes but probably noised up to match for the Odd shot
2004 DVD for some extra fixes but not many Tractor Beam text and Detention block hallway fixes.
Deleted scenes
Blooper Reel
Star Wars Trailer
Documentaries footage
Star Wars Radio Drama

What’s the Goal?

To make a Nostalgic old pair of slippers version of Star Wars but with a new twist and finally have a version with deleted scenes but it will feel like you saw the special edition for the first time and it was actually good if not much better. Audio will be stereo only.

Planned edit List

Rearrange The film so it makes Sense Chronologically throughout and put all scenes in the correct order as opposed to the incorrect order as it currently stands.
Deleted scenes added and alternate takes barring Luke and the Treadwell Droid
Restore all music cues and some music edits
Restore some sounds and sound effect edits

The Fun Parts are secret don’t ask.

Lucas the Barbarian said:

Original#Fan1 said:

YES! they did have a high quality version that was out on dvd and vhs i had the dvd versions with both original and the new digitally made versions on each disc in the early 2000s and subsiquently then I lost them in storage place oh boy was I angry and now i cant get them back. Does anyone have any copies of those original digital home releases out here?

Are you sure it wasn’t a bootleg? Unless you’re talking about the 2004 Special Editions which have even more changes than the 1997 versions. Because there WERE bootleg DVDs of the 1997 SE’s that existed before Lucasfilm released them officially. The actual 1997 versions were never officially released on DVD.

Yeah the DVD version of the 97 cut I think is known as “Five Star” version bootleg is basically a Laserdisc rip but it’s not a bad transfer.

http://www.prillaman.net/starwarsdvdreview-bootleg2.html

LexX said:

That’s not unreleased version and you know it. It’s from the Force Commander game.

Yes Force Commander it was in development when the Special edition was being made / developed hence the art direction on that and other stuff in the game.

I’m fond of matte paintings in film and personally I think it’s a bit better with the path up to the hut.

Also bear in mind most people could only run a game in 800 × 600 resolution back in those days as today we can see that image in HD and it might just scale to DVD quality or perhaps AI upscale?

Special Edition Release

 

^ https://i.imgur.com/V4TvPbq.jpg

 

^ https://i.imgur.com/0tPqRDa.jpg

 

I can provide the video clip this was taken from… Does anyone feel they have the skill to restore the path up to Ben’s hut?

Do you think the Unreleased version of the lower part of the matte is better or worse?

I like this because I like the way the Gout looks and it sounds like your also not going for a solid recreation as in warts and all including sound fixes and so on although I’m not hearing you talk about synch fixes which there are numerous times it goes wrong and out of synch. That would be a perhaps good idea as it’s akin to removing garbage mattes.

So although the GOUT is good there is a decision you must make on the Yavin take oFF shot will you go with the Orange recomposite planet with better color or the red planet messed up original?

But hey looking forward to seeing how this come along. 😃

Yes you are correct it is removed from there because I decided to check after posting.

I will post the clip with the extra sound effect on the xwing on this thread but as the cut shot of R2D2 in the canyon is simply a straight up removal and elimination of a scene there is not anything to show and you can recreate this yourself. I have given enough information about this as a guide.

Funnily enough whilst checking to see if that file was still thete on internet archive I downloaded Star Wars the Mystery & the magic US version… The promotional documentary for the special edition. I downloaded this for the binary sunset color grade (red version) which seems like it was meant to be a Special edition shot but never was included it looks totally different and worse in the 97 version but the red version does suffer from contrast issues but it is yet another change that slipped by. On the documentary it does make a point of stating “original version” and “special edition version” on this binary sunset shot however nothing is stated but it does seem to relate to the techni disc laserdisc release color. Anyway I am gearing up to sort this out over December / January.

I will post the snippet near the end of this week of xwing sound. Busy at the moment.

I do understand the desire to have the whole file… It sounds great looks bad though. If anything I can export the audio and share also.

There is also evidence of an earlier version of ben’s hutt special edition matte with a path to get to it found in star wars force commander pc game. I just aquired a good quality shot of the path that got filled in with rock / cliff face. It’s also good because the landspeeder obviously went up that way, up the path and is facing left. Where as in the 97 matte it looks as if there is no way up to Ben’s hut and it’s not clear how it could be reached. So it was Revised for the worse it seems.

On the 97 TV broadcast version when Luke “get’s a little cooked” after he shoots the artillery gunners. There is a thruster sound for the xwing when Luke pulls away over camera which is not heard in any other version.

There is also an omitted shot of R2D2 in the canyon cut from the film. (This shot is prior to R2D2 going down the slope) When I saw this not only did I think the sequence worked better without that shot but then I became quite suspicious about wether it was actually meant for that part.

In the end I concluded that particular canyon shot seeing as it looks nothing like the canyon R2D2 is in at this time and at dusk and this shot was also a different time of day it might be a shot in the search for R2D2 sequence.

It turns out it was a correct guess and it sandwhiches between the landspeeder “look theres a droid dead ahead on the scanner” and the tuskan raiders on the cliff. Due to the amount of music missing (few seconds) and to hit the cue, this particular clip does not run it’s full lenngth (shorter) when inserted to the sequence. Further more the cue is missed when the raider jumps on the bantha. The music edit on the track is also botched as the last drum hit should synchronise simultaneously with the deep cello string upon luke and 3P0 finding R2.

So the 97 broadcast might have been a a sign that they were still fiddling with the film but this particular edit never got sorted out or fixed or ever made a different version. And the thrusters on the xwing have never made it to another version either.

This was a digitized VHS capture of the Broadcast with adverts I found on the Internet Archive.

Nah totally different vibe and personally I think that film is really bad. It’s got a lot wrong with it. It’s perhaps worthy of an edit to try and improve it but it does not come close to the original. It’s one of those films where you wish you never bothered.

charlesdavid08 said:

Planet of the Apes 1968 Modern Edition - removing george taylor smoking in the spaceship, replacing the whole ship with modern style scifi ships ,
Added a cgi emotions in the Apes(Like Adywan did in the cantina scene from ANH),Added a Cgi Backgrounds like replacing the crappy outerspace from the beginning change the set of time in the cockpit of 1972 to 2011 to convince as a continuation of the reboot trilogy.

It’s not a bad idea… It would certainly be interesting to see an actual space shuttle perhaps lift some shots from buck rogers or moontrap. Certainly could be intetesting.

Telion said:

Ronster said:

The first shot inside the deathstar control room with tarkin facing the screen would be better to remove Alderaan entirely and outer space have a graphic or readouts… The reason being if Alderaan is on the screen why is Leia so surprised when he says “home planet of Alderaan” as if it was not there already. This was meant to be a “reveal” Leia looks stupid. It’s not your fault but it could be better to hear the sound of screen changing then cut to viewscreen with Alderaan in orbit.

I don’t this that would fix the issue as Admiral Motti litterally says they have entered the Alderaan system quite clearly as Leia walks up to Tarkin. I also don’t feel like she is surprised by them being at her “home planet of Alderaan” I think its more the “I have chosen to test this station’s destructive power on your home planet of Alderaan” bit, that she was upset about.
Personally I don’t this is an issue the way it already is.

Point taken but you know the control room shot during battle of yavin has Motti in the background which preceeds him walking up while Tarkin is looking at the screen. And his footsteps sound effects are on the tail end of that establishing shot used for the white uniform imperial officer instead walking out the shot. It’s a chopped up sequence audio and video and literally that establishing shot of the viewscreen could literally have meant to have been for the final battle or go somewhere else. But it does do a good job of showing us the control room. If you listen to the radio drama it plays out as I said like a “reveal”. Try to picture Motti saying “we’ve reached the Alderaan system” with his footstep sounds restored too and then cut away to the viewscreen with a graphic then Leia appearing instead after that insert so it would not feel so all at the same moment and she was not present and privy to that comment by Motti.

There is of course also if Alderaan is on the screen why does Tarkin need Motti to tell him also.

One more point regarding the chess game inserts of R2D2 in death star armory room above docking bay…

These 2 shots I think were meant to be the deleted chess pieces animation shown in the special effects documentary. Especially telling because it would seem R2D2 takes another of chewbaccas pieces triggering han to say “pulling peoples arms out of their sockets when they lose” I appreciate that could be tricky to pull of given the quality of the footage but they could easily be luma keyed as elements in of themdelves and there is also the blank chess board shot is also presented in the documentary. So it’s doable but probably not very good quality. Or alternatively it went with “now be careful R2” after the warning they were given by ~Han,

The first chess shot is the character bashing another over the head. Problem in that though I’m not sure if the reciving character animation is shown. My memory is not good on this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX1_0qa41HI

Now even though this is a TV 4:3 presentation observe how it’s cropped to oust the backdrop also on the R2S2 shots.

Anyway Would be good to use Lukes muffled audio from radio drama for “with the blast shield down how am i supposed to fight”

adywan said:

New clip:

https://vimeo.com/606805186

I’ll give some feedback on this one…

The first shot inside the deathstar control room with tarkin facing the screen would be better to remove Alderaan entirely and outer space have a graphic or readouts… The reason being if Alderaan is on the screen why is Leia so surprised when he says “home planet of Alderaan” as if it was not there already. This was meant to be a “reveal” Leia looks stupid. It’s not your fault but it could be better to hear the sound of screen changing then cut to viewscreen with Alderaan in orbit.

Once we see Alderaan out the viewscreen the star field should be going left to right and alderaan planet right to left. This would then look correct and feel like 3D orbit. Try it and you will like that simple fix.

Last point the shot before Tarkin says “I grow tired of asking” you can see camera over shoulder he is mouthing lines. It is held on that shot too long and it is equal to what the music cue is out by. It is the cause of the duff music cue and needs eliminating for time and correction for the correct music cue to be restored. The shot still stays but it’s over running by around 1.5 seconds basically it should cut at the point Peter Cushin starts mouthing lines.

Talking of music cue in the R2-D2 canyon the shot of R2 coming towards camera before he drives down the slope is also to be eliminated entirely from that sequence… Note this shot feels totally disconected from the previous and following shots. This shot should be placed before the shot of the tuskan raiders looking down on the cliff and after Luke and C3PO in the land speeder. You don’t get the entire running time of that shot but it is where it is meant to go and it restores the build up part of the music cue. This shot is actually eliminated in some TV cuts of Star Wars and frankly it’s better without and better with it in the right place.

If you cared to go for restoring the full original cue for the Jawas going to the sandcrawler once R2D2 collapse a few shots need moving about of the Jawas to fit the music properly but once we see the matte shot of the Sandcrawler there needs to be a cut away to say a shot of the moon or sky to fill the music gap and fix the jump cut (passing of time), then it can resume as it is in the final film.

Hope this helps

It seems that they buried the fans wishes even though we know about most of them and Peter Jackson spoke about most of them in commentaries and we have seen small snippets and so on.

Yeah bit of a let down to be honest.