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SKot

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Members
Join date
3-Apr-2005
Last activity
22-Dec-2025
Posts
936
Web Site
http://www.starwarsholidayspecial.com

Post History

Post
#322479
Topic
Info: another 16mm print of SW on eBay
Time
negative1 said:

SKot said:

Ever notice that the people who seem to have the largest amount of throwaway money for things like this (and who always win these auctions) are never the ones who are willing to share their treasures with the rest of us?
Curse the spoiled rich hoarders.
--SKot


just a question, if i had won, i would have shared it..what does
that say? (and yes, i won other expensive auctions before)..

again, if another copy comes up, maybe i'll try even harder...
but why should you expect to get it for free? because you 'deserve' it?

what happens when you spend your own large amount of $$$$ on
something? will you share it with us???? or will you just disappear
and keep it to yourself.....

yeah, i don't have too much to back up here, but i've gotten a ton
of free 'rare' copies (8mm, mono soundtrack, vinyl versions) from
people on this board...and they spend their time (2 years in adywans
case), money, and effort to share what they got...

maybe you should be cursing the greedy 'freeloaders' that don't put
up any money, and expect someone else to carry the load...

later
-1

 

Okay, I've been unable to post lately or I would have replied to this much sooner...

negative1, you have jumped to a conclusion here that's WAY off the mark.  What I'm saying here is that it seems like almost every time we find an item like this, someone who isn't one of *US* (and who usually isn't even sympathetic to our cause) always wins the auction for a ridiculous amount of money.  And then whenever they are contacted by one of *US* from this forum about collaborating, invariably they either ignore it or reply that they are not interested in sharing their loot.

You, negative1, are one of *US* (or so I can assume even though you're relatively new, considering that you post here and seem to be sympathetic to our cause).  If you're got a lot of money to spend and you manage to win one of these high-ticket items on eBay that we keep hoping someone here will get their hands on, MORE POWER TO YOU!!  Because we assume that you will put every effort into sharing or collaborating for preservation's sake.  That's what we're all about here.

It's the people who throw away large amounts of money (more than I or many of us on this forum can afford) on rare items like these film prints and then sit on them with absolutely no interest in trying to share or preserve them that I curse.  They have the money and the means, but they'd rather hoard it all to themselves.  For some reason these kinds of people never seem to join forums like this, maybe because it's not in their nature.

For my own part, I spend a HUGE amount of my own personal time and money trying to make rare things or information available for other people.  It's what I am driven to do.  Have you ever seen the complete Return Of The Ewok on YouTube or elsewhere online?  That was my project.  Before the work that OCP and I put into that, nobody was able to see the entire film unless they got lucky enough to have Warwick Davis personally show it to them.  I do a number of different websites devoted to sharing rare information and material, a couple of which are Star Wars-related (starwarsholidayspecial.com and my Star Wars cut scenes site).  I've been on these forums for a good while now, and have contributed to a number of projects either directly or indirectly.  I would appreciate it if you did not question my integrity and dedication to the cause here without researching it first.

You have a lot of enthusiasm and willingness to put your money where your mouth is.  That is definitely something we need.  And if you want help from the community here to help offset the cost of a film reel or other item relevant to our cause, count me in!  Great things have been achieved this way, and this is the kind of thing I live for.  Let's work together and put all our efforts into doing what the official sources can't do or won't do.

--SKot

Post
#321022
Topic
Info & Help Wanted: Return of the Ewok preservation?
Time
Mielr said:

I have that version too, done by OCP, I believe.

Yep... the project was my brainchild/source material and OCP's editing work combined. I was very pleased with how it turned out, although I wish I'd been able to turn up a better cam source. The only one I've ever been able to find had been projected full-screen on a wide movie screen, resulting in the top and bottom of the image being cut off in a pseudo-letterbox fashion. But OCP did a great job of melding the sources together and making it look as seamless as he could.

He did a pretty good job combining the longer/poorer quality cam version with the shorter/higher quality web version. My only beef is that for some reason, some of the inferior sound from the cam version (with crowd noise that drowns out the dialog) carries over onto the superior web video portions.

Yes, and we had good reasons for that. Since the condensed clip posted on sw.com had an altered soundtrack, we preferred having the original, though inferior sound quality soundtrack over the superior quality altered version. Call us purists if you will. ;-)

Some other notable things we did with the film:

- To try and balance out the poor soundtrack quality, OCP worked hard to incorporate Supertramp's "Long Way Home" song from a quality audio source into the soundtrack exactly where it was included originally.

- There are sections of the film where flashback sequences from ESB are shown. In the original film, they are temporarily edited in as widescreen footage "squashed" to fit a 4:3 picture. We made the decision to edit in that same footage in letterboxed form from a superior video source.

- There were at least a couple of higher-quality clips from the film available (Wicket on the Death Star, Warwick Davis saying goodbye to Luke, Leia, etc.), but as skyjedi mentioned already they were discovered to be outtakes or alternate shots and so were not incorporated into the film. Instead, they were used for the menu screen montage, which seemed to be a perfect place for them!

- OCP included opening and end credits in the film, where there were none originally. For the opening credits and title, it worked out since we were missing part of the image anyway there due to the source material. And the end credits were just an addition that didn't require altering the film.

For myself, I'm just extremely happy to be able to sit down and watch the entire film from beginning to end. I saw Return Of The Ewok for the first time at Celebration I in 1999, and have obsessed over it ever since.

--SKot
Post
#321019
Topic
Info: another 16mm print of SW on eBay
Time
SilverWook said:

$1625?! Holy Bantha poodoo!

I have never seen a 16mm Star Wars print go for this much, and I've been watching these auctions for over three years now. Not even Empire and Jedi have fetched this much. I guess advertising it had the original crawl helped.

Ever notice that the people who seem to have the largest amount of throwaway money for things like this (and who always win these auctions) are never the ones who are willing to share their treasures with the rest of us?

Curse the spoiled rich hoarders.

--SKot
Post
#321018
Topic
So what would you think if they made these changes to the Blu-Ray release...
Time
Ditto what doubleofive said: I'd be totally fine with it as long as they released the original unmodified trilogy along with it on Blu-ray. In fact, I think I'd really enjoy seeing the new changes, content with the thought that I have the original version safe and sound, preserved in a hi-def format I can return to anytime I want.

What was changed in the last panel, though? Some sort of ship in the background, or was that already in the SE?

--SKot
Post
#321017
Topic
stupid question about the OOT DVD's
Time
skyjedi2005 said:

there was a scope ken films version of part 2 of their star wars digest, not mentioned in their catalogue. Though how many people had a way to project 8mm film in their homes. The films themselves were cheap and cheaply produced but the equipment to project them at the proper film speed with sound was not. It would have been an expensive hobby even in 1970's terms.

We actually had an 8mm projector in our house in the 70s, along with a camera that shot home movies on 8mm film. Not sure if the projector could handle sound, though... I know the 8mm family movies were silent. My parents were not well off, either, so they either got the projector for cheap or it was given to them as a gift.

Sadly, though, they got bored with it before Star Wars came out, so it wound up in the closet with only a handful of films (Bugs Bunny, a Bela Lugosi flick, and maybe another cartoon feature). Really wish we'd picked up Star Wars on 8mm back then.

--SKot
Post
#319466
Topic
Goodbye, Gormaanda... Harvey Korman has died!
Time
Well, Star Wars Holiday Special fans (stop snickering back there!)... Harvey Korman, the Great Gormaanda (and also the character featured my avatar) has died at age 81. You might also know him as Krelman in Ackmena's cantina, or Dromboid, the Mini-Transmitter instructor.

I've posted a news article on starwarsholidayspecial.com here.

So long, Harvey... life is a funny thing.

--SKot
Post
#318612
Topic
Crystall Skull has GL's fingerprints all over it
Time
Just saw the midnight showing of Crystal Skull last night.

My biggest impression: It was a lot of fun. I grinned and giggled a lot.

Aside from that, there was a lot of very unneccessary and fake-looking CGI throughout the film that really took me out of the movie at times.

I would consider it an "epilogue" chapter in the Indy series. Sort of an optional bookend to the real meat of the trilogy stories, i.e. "what did Indy do when he got old?"

If Lucas wants to make more after this, that's fine with me. They aren't necessary, but I'll still enjoy watching them. I just won't put them in the same category as the originals.

--SKot
Post
#317988
Topic
Help: looking for... Star Wars - Electric Moog Orchestra
Time
An interesting little tidbit about this one...

After asking for the soundtrack to Star Wars for my birthday or Christmas back in the day, I got the Electric Moog Orchestra version instead. My aunt had seen it in the store and assumed it was the original soundtrack. The reason? The cover looked like this:

http://www.fulori.com/~skot/music/Electric%20Moog%20Orchestra%20-%20Music%20From%20Star%20Wars/SW-black_cover.jpg

Real soundtrack cover for comparison

Kinda misleading, isn't it? Well, apparently she wasn't the only one fooled, and someone (probably at LFL) wasn't amused. So the cover was quickly changed, and the second version looked like this:

http://www.fulori.com/~skot/music/Electric%20Moog%20Orchestra%20-%20Music%20From%20Star%20Wars/SW-blue_cover.jpg

Note the "not the original soundtrack" disclaimer, as well as the "Performed By The Electric Moog Orchestra" addition. Also they changed the color of the cover to a dark blue rather than the black they used before.

Anyway, as a result I never did get the real soundtrack 2xLP, and wound up very attached to the EMO version.

--SKot
Post
#317894
Topic
Help: looking for... Star Wars - Electric Moog Orchestra
Time
Ziz said:

Ahem

Ziz said:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Star-Wars-Prequels-Original-Trilogy-The-Complete-Scores/topic/7587/page/1/

GoodMusician has it on Disc 3 of his ANH score.

Noted, and downloaded. But I still will have to do at least the Close Encounters and Battlestar Galactica records myself.

I'm curious what methods he used to rip the Electric Moog Orchestra recording. Digging through the thread to see if I can find out...

--SKot
Post
#317821
Topic
Help: looking for... Star Wars - Electric Moog Orchestra
Time
RTDeko said:

Hey there! Does anyone have any idea where I might acquire this recording?

I doubt it was ever on CD. But, even a good rip from vinyl would do.

Thanks,

Artie

There were also Electric Moog Orchestra recordings of the soundtrack music to Close Encounters (more difficult to find) and Battlestar Galactica (very hard to find). It was all released on vinyl, 8-track, and cassette only. One of my goals is to transfer all three of these to CD. They're all fairly short, and may even all fit on one disc together. However, first I need to find good quality copies of them all, preferably on clean vinyl, and that's going to be a challenge.

--SKot
Post
#316388
Topic
Preserving the...<em>cringe</em>...Star Wars Holiday Special (Released)
Time
Ziz said:

Ok, my DVD is KCCI. Tape is in storage, so I'll have to dig it out to see which one it is.

So, I have the best version available?

Without a doubt. Hang on to that one; it's a keeper.

Also, be sure to post here what you find out about the version you have on tape. I'm always curious to know. My page documents all the most common versions out there, but there may be a few more we don't know about.

--SKot
Post
#314772
Topic
[&lt;( The Star Wars TV Commercials Project )&gt;] (* unfinished project * - a host of info)
Time
Darth Lars said:

George Lucas was himself in a couple of Japanese commercials for Panasonic/Technics with the slogan "Something New". They were from 1987.

- Chewie surprising a little girl. Girl pets chewie.
- Ewoks turn on a stereo and get startled, again and again. Thet get used to it and start dancing.
- R2D2 and C-3PO with a portable word processor/computer.
- GL is filming scale models that come to life. C3PO is peeking from around the corner.
but most of all:
- Jabba turns on the stereo, listens to music, and starts to cry. Hilarious!

I would love to see these. I've kept less emphasis on foreign (non-US) commercials because the scope of what we have is already overwhelming, but I'm still interested in them. Especially the ones featuring characters from the saga.

--SKot
Post
#314771
Topic
JEDI CON 2008-BEHIND THE SCENES CAST AND CREW INFO ON STAR WARS FILMING, DVDS AND OTHER BITS...
Time
starwarsmania said:

Despite it’s thirtieth anniversary, the STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL DVD will never, ever be released on DVD or any format, according to Sansweet. It’s just too awful-Sansweet hasn’t seen it for a while. Lucas apparently tried to watch it recently but gave up-he said it was just too awful to watch as well.

I had to giggle at the thought of George Lucas sitting down and wincing his way through part of the Holiday Special.

It's kind of the same wincing I do when I sit down and try to watch Episode I, George.

OH SNAP!

--SKot
Post
#313094
Topic
Info: Cool or Unusual Star Wars Collectibles
Time
Originally posted by: C3PX
When you talk about the Palitoy Death Star, you are talking about the one made of cardboard right? It looks cool, but I mean, it is made out of cardboard. I think it was available in Canada too.
Yeah, cardboard (or pressboard, whatever) it may have been, but man the amount of play features in all of that!

Actually, some of my favorite toys from back in the day were nothing much more than cardboard, and maybe a little bit of plastic. The Cantina Adventure Playset (which was more like the Mos Eisley Streets Playset) was nothing but a cardboard backdrop with plastic footpegs, as was the later Cloud City Playset. However, I got so much play out of those things just by using my imagination based off what was printed on the backdrops. But I admit, not a lot of built-in play value there. The Palitoy Death Star, on the other hand, had multiple levels and rooms, with corridors, a trash compactor, a turret gun, and much more. Really amazing for something made from cardboard.

The Land of the Jawas Playset and Hoth Ice Planet playset were mainly cardboard too, with a plastic base (the same one). Yet those really fired my imagination as well. A full AT-AT or RC Sandcrawler were too expensive, so I made do with the cardboard versions... and probably had just as much fun.

Incidentally, I really liked the retro-ish cardboard fold-together Jabba's Palace and Cantina playsets that Kenner/Hasbro did in the mid-to-later 90s. They were like the old cardboard playsets only much more accurate and with tons more detail. Unfortunately, most of their later plastic playsets left a lot to be desired.

--SKot
Post
#312839
Topic
[&lt;( The Star Wars TV Commercials Project )&gt;] (* unfinished project * - a host of info)
Time
Originally posted by: Kurgan
I wanna see the "Episode I the Phantom Menace" (game) commercial where the school kid mind tricks the bully. That was awesome...
Do I have that one listed? I seem to recall it, but don't know if it's in my list. I didn't see anything that seemed to match that.

I'm thinking about the possibility of separating video game commercials into their own list as well, especially since there's so many of them now and they're so hard to keep track of. But now that there's hardly any SW commercials period, it may be the only thing we get for a while.

--SKot
Post
#312832
Topic
Info: Cool or Unusual Star Wars Collectibles
Time
I always loved the Death Star Playset, and still do. That's one of the best play-value playsets ever made. It's got nearly everything. However, the Palitoy Death Star actually beats it in some ways. It's round (well, half-round) and has so much of the Death Star environment packed into it that it's amazing. But it doesn't have the elevator/tractor beam or the rope swing. Ideally, if you had both sets together you would be in heaven. But since they were released in separate countries, I'm sure there were VERY few kids that had both. Maybe if you lived near the Canadian border and your parents were rich you could get both.

My parents weren't rich and generally only bought things for me on birthdays or Christmas, hence no Death Star back then. But I have one now, proudly displayed on a shelf in my den area. I didn't have the Milennium Falcon either (and still don't) - biggest toy I could manage was the TIE Fighter for a while.

Originally posted by: corellian77
The one playset I had always wanted but never got was the Star Destroyer playset. I always liked Vader's chamber, and the upside-down-character-hanging feature (although I have no idea where that came from).
I actually DID have the Star Destroyer playset! Later on after ESB came out, my grandparents bought me that for Christmas. It was the biggest thing I ever got! Of course I had lots of fun with it, but I have to admit it's kind of low on the play value scale other than for pretending to fly it around and chase other ships.

--SKot
Post
#312824
Topic
New Indiana Jones DVD's - No Blu-Ray
Time
Is anybody else not surprised by this? (the double-dip and lack of deleted scenes or any real extras)

At first I felt insulted, and then I realized I should expect it by now.

My advice if you have the earlier boxed set already: don't buy anything until the Blu-ray comes out. As Obi-Wan would say, "This is not the Indy set you're looking for." I know there's also a boxed set of these new releases coming out, but Amazon lists it as a 3-disc set... hence, no extra disc with supplementaries even there. Just hold off for the inevitable Blu-ray release, and watch your 4-disc Indy set in the meantime.

And move along, move along.

--SKot