SKot

User Group: Members
Join date: 3-Apr-2005
Last activity: 12-May-2025
Posts: 935
Web Site: http://www.starwarsholidayspecial.com

Post History

Post: #247250
Topic: The Merits of the Prequel Trilogy and the "Saga"
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/247250/action/topic#247250
Time: 22-Sep-2006 2:48 PM

Originally posted by: Jumpman
Obi,

If it's true that audiences loathed the Trilogy's trio, then how can the three films make 431 million, 310 million, and 380 million respectfully?

It can't just be the Star Wars name alone. Star Wars name or not, you don't get those kind of numbers unless people like what they saw? People don't go back if they didn't like what they saw....

I went back, as did many of my friends. I saw each of the prequels more than once in the theater, and I bought each DVD when it came out. But I still didn't like what I saw, especially after the initial excitement wore off. It was still a disappointment. However, I had to see all the films anyway, because they were all there was going to be. I enjoyed the parts that were good (and there were a few), and cringed or got bored through the rest. The prequel DVDs are on my shelf, mainly for reference, but I will still occasionally watch them again just to see the good parts. The original trilogy, on the other hand, I will watch over and over again for pure enjoyment.

Another thing to consider is the collector mentality of so many Star Wars fans out there. They have to have it, they have to see it, they have to experience it if it's Star Wars... even if it's bad. And there's also the stubborn tendency many of us have to not want to accept that anything with the Star Wars name on it could be bad, so we continue to buy into it. These are a couple of reasons why so many tickets were sold, and why so many people went back to the theater again and again.

--SKot

Post: #247093
Topic: The Official babyhum Release Thread
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/247093/action/topic#247093
Time: 21-Sep-2006 10:15 PM

babyhum, where are you? We haven't seen you since mid-June or so.

And don't give us any flimsy excuses like "real life", etc.

--SKot

Post: #246999
Topic: Preserving the...<em>cringe</em>...Star Wars Holiday Special (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/246999/action/topic#246999
Time: 21-Sep-2006 7:49 PM

Unless someone gets their hands on a master tape, and that master tape is still in good shape (I've seen footage from one that wasn't), it's unlikely we'll ever see a better transfer than the KCCI version. That one is in remarkably good shape for a VHS (not even Beta!) tape. It's possible someone could come up with a Beta tape that's slightly better, but the odds against it having with no major glitches or bad edits are rather high. We lucked out in that the KCCI version has the complete intro and the complete credits and everything inbetween. Most of the other bootlegs out there are missing pieces, or are glitchy at the beginning or end.

It's a shame that the KCCI transfer out there now doesn't have the commercials intact, and that the commercial breaks have been slightly edited to eliminate duplication of frames. But that may be rectified in the near future.

--SKot

Post: #246033
Topic: "BUT ANAMORPHIC ENHANCEMENT ALTERS THE MOVIES!!!"
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/246033/action/topic#246033
Time: 19-Sep-2006 5:58 PM

Cable: Chill, dude. I'm getting embarrassed for ya.

Raul: What you're suggesting, proof or no proof, is a possibility that many of us suspect could be true anyway. So we'll continue to accept that as a possibility, unless further proof one way or the other presents itself. And you've said plenty of times already, you don't have any further proof for us. That's fine; please forgive us if we'd like to think it's true but can't take your word for it 100%. I trust that as soon as you do have any more substantial info, you'll bring it our way ASAP.

On top of this, even if Raul is right, Lucasfilm may change their mind and go in a completely different direction. It happens.

Also, Lucasfilm doesn't have to make any justifications for going back on their word. They didn't when they said the Star Wars films would not be available on home video. They didn't when the said none of the films would come out on DVD until after the last prequel came out. And they didn't when they said the OUT would never be made available. But they did change their minds and went back on what they said in all these cases... but who complained?

Don't let the bastards get you down.

--SKot

Post: #245921
Topic: 'THE INVADERS' - A Quinn Martin production (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/245921/action/topic#245921
Time: 19-Sep-2006 2:18 PM

Very nice covers there! Quite faithful to the look and feel of the series. I doubt an official release (if it ever happens) could do better.

--SKot

Post: #244388
Topic: Forgotten Films
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/244388/action/topic#244388
Time: 14-Sep-2006 6:47 PM

There was one forgotten sci-fi/scary film I saw as a kid that I'd like to see again, but unfortunately I've forgotten it as well.

And no, it's not Star Wars!

All I can remember is bodies lying on operating tables wrapped in aluminum foil. Disney's The Black Hole had a scene similar to this, but what I saw came before The Black Hole.

--SKot

Post: #244357
Topic: my memory isn't that bad, is it? (in SW '77 - Luke misses with the grappling hook?)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/244357/action/topic#244357
Time: 14-Sep-2006 6:01 PM

Originally posted by: Master Skywalker
Hmm. I also remember seeing Luke missing the first time, but not in the movie, but in a documentary, it never made it into any cut of the movie. If i'm right its possible you saw that doc to.

MS

My 50 dollar prize still stands if you can produce the goods. Not gonna happen, though. I've seen nearly every documentary there is on Star Wars.

--SKot

Post: #244317
Topic: Vader on 1977 Saturday Morning preview
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/244317/action/topic#244317
Time: 14-Sep-2006 5:03 PM

Hey, that's awesome! I'd never heard of it before. This truly needs to be found and preserved.

That promo photo and press release is exactly like the ones CBS did for the Holiday Special about a year later.

Anybody seen the Darth Vader Midnight Special appearance with Wolfman Jack? That's another forgotten rarity.

--SKot

Post: #244296
Topic: The Empire Strikes Back documentaries on North American television in 1980 or 1981?
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/244296/action/topic#244296
Time: 14-Sep-2006 4:39 PM

What about that Clapperboard documentary revolving around ESB that babyhum put out as one of his releases?

--SKot

Post: #244289
Topic: This guy will not be buying the DVDs
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/244289/action/topic#244289
Time: 14-Sep-2006 4:31 PM

Hey! I just thought of something.

I like Star Wars.

--SKot

Post: #243702
Topic: So then, PAL or NTSC GOUT for best quality?
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/243702/action/topic#243702
Time: 13-Sep-2006 2:02 PM

Boris is the guy we love to hate. Yet he's one of us, even if we don't always like to admit it.

He's not a troll; he's the dissenting voice among us. We do need that sometimes. And he does bring up good points occasionally (unlike JediRandy, who really is a sad and pointless troll with nothing to contribute).

But frankly, most of the time Boris is like that über-nerd tech support person who arrogantly insists he knows exactly what the problem is when he really doesn't, and goes through a big jargon-filled pseudo-technical explanation about what's causing it, and then a long and unnecessarily complicated process of fixing it that involves typing a lot of commands, doing multiple reboots, and wiping nearly everything on the hard drive out... when in reality, all you needed to do was uncheck a box in Windows to fix the problem. And of course he never admits he was wrong in the first place.

That's Boris.

Sometimes, when he isn't acting the arrogant über-nerd, I'm on his side.

--SKot

Post: #243690
Topic: The 1977 Crawl.
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/243690/action/topic#243690
Time: 13-Sep-2006 1:30 PM

After having watched the crawl on the OUT yesterday, I was very convinced it was the original crawl.

Differences between it and the EOD crawl can be explained by what I said in another thread: the EOD documentary makers did their own transfers of original film elements, independent even from what Lowry was doing at the same time for the 2004 discs. There's no guarantee Lucasfilm used the EOD transfers, or even had access to them. It's very likely they took the original elements themselves and used them to do the original crawl (hence the "digging into the archives" statement on the press releases). So in the end they look a little different from the EOD crawl.

--SKot

Post: #243418
Topic: Lowest Priced OOT DVD Search.
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/243418/action/topic#243418
Time: 12-Sep-2006 8:49 PM

So why did Circuit City charge me $14.99 today?

That's still the cheapest around I know of, though.

--SKot

Post: #243415
Topic: 2006 OT DVD: the deal with the Best Buy tin ...
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/243415/action/topic#243415
Time: 12-Sep-2006 8:47 PM

I went with the Circuit City purchase, since not only were they the cheapest at $14.99 per disc, but I already have the comic books (a really nice "faces" cover graphic novel boxed set), and I don't want the tin (I like seeing the individual discs on my shelf better than seeing a large $9.00 tin). And the lithographs are bigger than I thought they'd be, and rather nice. You can keep them in their folders or you can pull them out and frame them.

--SKot

Post: #243222
Topic: .: The XØ Project - Laserdisc on Steroids :. (SEE FIRST POST FOR UPDATES) (* unfinished project *)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/243222/action/topic#243222
Time: 12-Sep-2006 2:10 PM

Originally posted by: Fuser
Hey guys - even if /when a cracking fan LD transfer (like the XO project) comes out and craps all over the official release, it won't embarass or shame LFL one bit. Because people, in general, wont either know or care. Bearing in mind no-one will be able to get hold of it, the impact it would have would be extrmemely limited - even if it was featured in the press: "A group of fans have released a fantastic laserdisc to DVD conversion that puts the official releases to shame! Except you cant see it. Er, move along......"

And there is no way that LFL will release the OT in the2007 box set - it says quite specifically that this is the only time they will be available ON DVD........so they will hold back for HD. That is why no work has gone into it. To get you to buy it yet again.
2004 SE DVDs - only SW DVDs available - so we buy it
2006 GOUT - only theatrical release on DVD ever - so we buy it
2007 - Saga box set - with all the extras and BTS stuff we should have had first time - so we buy it
2009/2010 - HD individual releases of all 6 films - with theatrical release having been cleaned up 'especially for this Hi-Def presentation' - so we buy it.

Its just LFL very very cynically making money. If they release a cleaned up 5.1 surround set of the OUT this time, we would be far less likely to buy it again in 2 years. Regardless of how you feel about the 'lack of care' they have given to the release, they really do know how to squeeze money out of the fans.

Dont get me wrong - I love the fan-preservations (I even tried one myself hahaha) but now that we have 'succeeded' to the point of getting LFL to release the theatrical cut, the issue for most average fans has been settled.

Fuser, I think you've hit the nail on the head as to what is likely to happen, and what Lucasfilm has in mind. I agree with you 100% here.

The only thing that might possibly alter this, I think, is if LFL is shocked enough by the backlash from the third-rate OUT transfers they did that they actually consider trying to make up for it and do a better transfer next year. I don't think it will happen. But I'm prepared to use lots of ketchup while dining on my own hat as well if I'm wrong.

--SKot

Post: #243207
Topic: my memory isn't that bad, is it? (in SW '77 - Luke misses with the grappling hook?)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/243207/action/topic#243207
Time: 12-Sep-2006 1:53 PM

No real evidence of Luke missing with the grappling hook has ever surfaced in all the years people have claimed to have seen it. Same with the ships hitting the Death Star shield (which even I thought I might have seen at one point).

I'll pay 50 bucks to anyone who can actually provide hard evidence that either of these two Star Wars urban legends made it to film.

--SKot

P.S. - People claiming to have seen the Biggs on Tatooine scenes in the film aren't even going to be considered.

Post: #243197
Topic: 2006 OT DVD: The Crawl on Star Wars
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/243197/action/topic#243197
Time: 12-Sep-2006 1:34 PM

Here's my two cents:

The EOD crawl clip transfer was done by the documentarians specifically for that documentary. It's not certain that Lucasfilm would use the same transfer that they used, or even have access to it necessarily. LFL may have done their own transfer of the original elements specific to their own usage, assuming that the crawl is the real deal. This would explain why it might look slightly different.

--SKot

Post: #242374
Topic: ***//BUILDING EMPIRE\\: PAL & NTSC DVD - NEW EDITION NOW ONLINE! ***
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/242374/action/topic#242374
Time: 8-Sep-2006 8:28 PM

Originally posted by: Darth Solo
IT IS NOT ME before anyone one thinks it! It's *me*!!

(just kidding!)

Originally posted by: Jambe Davdar
Just for the record, I am happy for someone to distrubute my DVD as long as it is non profit making. My suggestion is that you put these discs on ebay for cost only. So, about 2.50GBP should do it.

Agreed. Although distributing these things through eBay is questionable anyway (it's usually only used when profit is involved), if it was really sold at cost then I'd probably be okay with it. The real question I think is what "cost" really is. I don't think somebody should get to add extra cost on for time and effort, electricity, etc. Fan projects are a LABOR OF LOVE. That means you are going to expect to put more into this than you get out of it. And if you can't handle that, then you have no business being involved in it. End of story.

Originally posted by: Darth Solo
Regarding the E-Bay thing: This sort of thing is starting to becoming all to common now. E-bay take them down, then another 2 go up in its place!

Do people not realise (or simply not care) that selling this stuff is very damaging to future preservations here at the OT forums?
I'd think twice about undertaking a project over the space of weeks/months or even a year, because it would always niggle away at the back of my mind that i may help to line the pockets of unscroupulous traders that burn some DVDs, print some covers, and actually think/convince themselves that they are actually helping spread the great work most people do here.

I wouldn't let the thought of what people might do as far as selling your work even enter your mind when doing a project. People are going to do what they're going to do, and all you can do is report them through proper channels when they do wrong. The creative impulse should come before anything else... do the project for the people who love it, and don't worry about the parasites. We'll fight them where we can.

--SKot

Post: #242322
Topic: Preserving the...<em>cringe</em>...Star Wars Holiday Special (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/242322/action/topic#242322
Time: 8-Sep-2006 6:03 PM

Originally posted by: auximenies
So is this project moving forward then?

Folks,

There *is* a project like this moving forward, the completion of which is drawing nearer. I can't say much more about it now, but when it's ready it should be very impressive, and it will be coming from a source that is familiar to you (and that's not me). No, it's not official, but it promises to be the best substitute that you could have for the real thing.

That said, I wanted to encourage Mathiias to do his project as well. It's always better to have more to choose from. Matthias, you can unofficially use anything I have out there on the website. Officially, starwarsholidayspecial.com does not condemn or condone your work. Unofficially, more power to you!

If there's anything I can help you out with, don't hesitate to ask. I'll do everything I can.

--SKot

Post: #242059
Topic: Info Wanted: Mono mix - German Versions?
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/242059/action/topic#242059
Time: 7-Sep-2006 6:27 PM

Originally posted by: THX
Ell, it's on the SE CD (note to eros: "SE" stands for "Special Edition," "CD" stands for "Compact Disc").

Yes, but what does "ERO" stand for?

--SKot

Post: #242018
Topic: 'THE INVADERS' - A Quinn Martin production (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/242018/action/topic#242018
Time: 7-Sep-2006 3:17 PM

Originally posted by: tonecapone
The set i have consists of 4 episodes per disc,as i said quality is very good.
Im not sure how to capture a few screen shots,so if anyone can help,much appreciate it.

How you do it depends on your platform (PC or Mac) and the software you use to play your DVDs on your computer. WinDVD has a built-in feature to do screen caps, and I believe some of the other players do as well.

Calisto, I'm also very interested in finding out more about yours. Given that it came from digital TV, the quality is likely to be very good. However, that can also depend on the condition of the master copies they used... and some of them are in pretty bad shape at this point (color turning red, etc.).

--SKot

Post: #242013
Topic: Info Wanted: Anyone Planning on making Anamorphic versions using 2006 OUT DVDs?
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/242013/action/topic#242013
Time: 7-Sep-2006 3:03 PM

Originally posted by: Moth3r
(And, for the record, I was thinking of getting the PAL DVDs to make an anamorphic NTSC version - with the original mono mix as an alternative audio option.)

I like that idea quite a bit.

--SKot

Post: #242010
Topic: Episode IV: What Has Changed?
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/242010/action/topic#242010
Time: 7-Sep-2006 2:41 PM

Originally posted by: Darth Mallwalker
Sounds like the "original" soundtrack you're remembering is the mono version, which did have a different voice for the PA announcer.
But the 35mm stereo and 70mm surround mixes are no less "original." All three were heard in 1977, albeit in different theaters.
Of the three, the mono mix was completed last. So chances are the music you remember during the duel wasn't "edited out" but edited in after the 35mm & 70mm mixes were already finished.
Check out this page to hear clips from the mono mix, and see if that's the announcer's voice you remember.

That's funny... after listening to both these voices, and being used to hearing The Story Of Star Wars over and over again, neither voice sounds just like the voice on the record! I would say it's more like something inbetween the two... closer to the mono mix in the speed and pitch of the voice, but with a little more of the effects style of the stereo mix.

I'm now perplexed by this. We did determine that the Story Of Star Wars record was sourced from the mono mix, right?

--SKot

Post: #242005
Topic: Star Wars film versions and best DVD sources
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/242005/action/topic#242005
Time: 7-Sep-2006 2:20 PM

Originally posted by: wertyqa
wonder where on this list will the official releases rank?

If you mean this list here, once I've seen the official OUT releases I'll probably add them to the list as the current best source for the original theatrical versions... assuming they're worthy of it.

However, when the X0 project comes out, it may supercede that.

Edit: Updated the list to add the TV movies as well, just for kicks.

--SKot

Post: #242000
Topic: DVD exclusives from various retailers.....
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/242000/action/topic#242000
Time: 7-Sep-2006 2:05 PM

Of all of these, I probably prefer the tin. But I don't feel like paying an extra 10-20 bucks for it.

--SKot