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Scruffy

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Join date
29-Nov-2005
Last activity
31-May-2016
Posts
625

Post History

Post
#212143
Topic
Make your voices heard! (again) - re the 2006 GOUT DVD being in letterbox format
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/212143/action/topic#212143
Time
When lots of bands release their old material to CD, they remaster them with all kinds of dynamic compression, even to the point of clipping, just so they can be louder and hotter. Not unlike oversaturating colors or too much edge enhancement on certain DVDs. Your analogy generally works -- CD is capable of a better approximation of the original sound than is vinyl, just as anamorphic DVD is a better approximation of a film than is VHS or LD -- but it fails when many (most?) modern CDs are taken into account.
Post
#211715
Topic
George Lucas on the O-OT
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/211715/action/topic#211715
Time

As per the promotional tagline for the set "one last time."

One should not interpret Lucas's words based on a promotional tagline dreamt up by his marketing droids. "One last time" is relative, as we have recently seen. "Your children's children" is absolute (albeit relative to the 1995 cohort). Final video release is also telling; it allowed for future releases on other, yet to be named, formats.

It doesn't seem to me that he's clearly referring to the OOT, it seems he's referring to the prequel trilogy that had been gestating in his beard-- err, brain for years.


Why ever would you assume that? Lucas had made no mention of the PT, or the SE-OT, or any other new or imagined trilogy up to that point in the statement. The whole first paragraph is clearly about the O-OT; it would be very odd for him to start talking about some other trilogy without any other kind of segue.

Again, the gestating prequels.


Note that he said "continually unfolding." Not "will unfold at some point four or five years from now," but "continually." He wasn't trying to sell the public on the PT -- which was barely on the public radar at the time -- but on the continually-published EU novels and comics.

The current version of George Lucas, the film purist, is a relatively recent emanation. During the intertrilogy period, he was George Lucas Who Doesn't Read Everything But Personally Approves Every Story Concept That Goes Through Lucas Licensing and Sometimes Directs Changes to Ensure They Fit In With His Own Ideas. I'm sure there's a quote by Lucy Autrey Wilson or someone like that somewhere in the public record. Anyway, the only aspect of the Star Wars juggernaut that was "continually expanding" in 1995 was the EU.
Post
#211691
Topic
George Lucas on the O-OT
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/211691/action/topic#211691
Time
This is a statement by George Lucas, printed on the 1995 "Faces" fullscreen collection box.

The appeal of STAR WARS has gone beyond anything I could have ever imagined. I am pleased that for the final video release of STAR WARS in its original version, we can present it with the best sound and picture quality yet available, thanks to THX Digital Mastering.

In the years to come I hope you, your children, and your children's children will enjoy not only this trilogy but also the adventures yet to come in the continually unfolding STAR WARS universe.

George Lucas (signed)


If we look closely, there's several interesting statements here that explode myths later promulgated by Lucas and his employees.

"I am pleased that for the final video release .... "

At the time this statement was published, "video" was widely considered synonymous with "VHS." It took a number of years for the popularity of DVD to divest the term "video" of its association with tape (a linguistic shift not yet fully completed).

In 1995 it was known that a new video disc format was coming, but not when it would arrive or what it would be called. I believe that, in 1995, Lucas was open to the possibility of releasing his original original trilogy on this new format. The 1995 release was the last video (read: VHS) release of the trilogy, but he had not yet decided it would be the last period.

"... we can present it with the best sound and picture quality yet available ... "

How odd to see that statement, in light of today's furor over the slipshod treatment of the original original trilogy.

"In the years to come I hope you, your children, and your children's children will enjoy not only this trilogy ... "

Note that Lucas wrote "this trilogy," instead of the more ambiguous "the trilogy," etc. He is clearly referring to the original original trilogy. Realize, also, that Lucas is knowledgeable about film and video preservation. His is one of the few voices that has spoken up about the impermanence of DVD media and the need to find long-term solutions for storing digital video. Such a man would certainly know that VHS is not a suitable medium to archive something for our "children's chidren."

To me, it seems clear that in 1995 Lucas had every intention of keeping the original edition and Special Edition alive side-by-side. This intention only changed when he found himself planning further alterations to make the Special Edition conform to the Prequel Trilogy. When his ideas for the Prequels were still in there very early stages, there was no reason to "suppress" one version of the Original Trilogy in favor of the other.

"but also the adventures yet to come in the continually unfolding STAR WARS universe."

In 1995, there were no prequels or TV shows. The "unfolding STAR WARS universe" was the so-called Expanded Universe. While Lucas has done much to distance himself from the EU recently, he was singing a different tune in 1995. This isn't terribly relevant to this site, but it's a neat look back at certain attitudes held by Lucasfilm and fandom in the nineties.
Post
#211680
Topic
Info Wanted: Legal implications of the OOT DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/211680/action/topic#211680
Time
I should clarify ... the projects are all okay, but the moment you start to distribute copyrighted material in amounts greater than permitted by fair use, you're opening yourself up to trouble. Even derivative works, like the splitscreen edition, go beyond fair use. The Backstroke subtitle set is an interesting case, though; it's a derivative work, but due to its abysmal quality it could almost be a parody ... and I doubt the actual copyright holder to that translation would come forward to claim damages!

Edit:

On the subject of workprints, Wikipedia says something created before 1978 but published before 2002 has Federal copyright protection until 2047. If George was serious about his movies being "workprints," then Star Wars (not ANH!) will enter public domain in 2047. I'm sure the ANH crawl can be claimed as fair use, or recreated as a deriviative of the 1977 crawl, and used to reconstruct the ANH crawl by interested parties.

There are at least two problems with the above idea are,

a) George can change his mind about the workprint thing any time he wants, and point out that the film was clearly in a final, published form by 1977, and

b) Probably none of us will care by then.
Post
#211678
Topic
Info Wanted: Legal implications of the OOT DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/211678/action/topic#211678
Time
Zombie ... you ask about losing our right to something. But has that right been established? Has it been signed into law or tested in court? Most of the projects here are in the gray areas of morality, and almost certainly illegal under US law. (Other countries may vary.) Of the major projects, only Star Wars Legacy seems to be taking the safe road when it comes to potential problems with the MPAA. Lucas added a new dimension when declared the O-OT were "workprints," and not intended for future commercial sales, but I wouldn't want to use that as my defense if taken to court. Nor would I want to use the "It belongs in a museum!" defense; however true that sentiment may be, I don't think the authors of copyright law took it into account.

Vbangle ... they won't be in public domain until long after GL is dead. Seventy or ninety years, depending on whether it has individual or corporate authorship. It might enter public domain sooner in other countries, similar to the way a publisher's error made Lord of the Rings public domain in the United States, but I think we'll do all we can to keep other countries in line with our own law -- especially when the copyright expiration date on those lucrative Disney Classics starts to come up around the world.
Post
#211673
Topic
Just Saw The Unaltered Trilogy For The First Time...
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/211673/action/topic#211673
Time
You've taken your first step into a larger world ...

If you wouldn't mind, I'd love to hear about the differences perceived by a SE fan when he sees the OOT for the first time. Did you read a comprehensive list of changes before you saw it? Or did you go in knowing only the big changes? Did you find yourself noticing the dated visual effects? Did you observe any differences in the narrative or the characters?

Cool signature, by the way.
Post
#211467
Topic
New DVDs NOT 16x9
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/211467/action/topic#211467
Time
Some Wikipedia research (cough) has led me to believe that the state of the art in 1993 was to place broadcast and consumer video masters on the D2 video format. Wiki says that D2 records a "fully encoded NTSC signal." Since NTSC is 480i60, does this mean that the new DVDs will be 480i60? Or do you think they'll at least have the courtesy to IVTC it before dumping it on the Extras Disc?
Post
#211457
Topic
Info Wanted: What is the best preservation version of the Original Trilogy?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/211457/action/topic#211457
Time
I'm not sure what the point is to anamorphically enhancing letterboxed video from a laserdisc, which is a 400 line format for 4:3 displays. Unless the DVD creator has a scaler that is far superior to the one built into my TV(1), it's just going to look like any other non-anamorphic laserdisc capture blown up to fit the screen. In fact, some of the DVD's bitrate is going to be eaten up encoding the larger picture area, which takes away potential space for alternate audio tracks, extras, etc.

(1) And I readily concede this may be the case....
Post
#211048
Topic
New DVDs NOT 16x9
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/211048/action/topic#211048
Time
Dude, that's not at all how it's gonna happen.

Star Wars Celebration 2006

George Lucas ascends to the rostrum, flanked by McCallum and Burtt.

LUCAS
The wait is over. The unaltered workprint trilogy will be released on DVD.

Wild APPLAUSE, but two of the fans sitting in the corner do not look pleased.

LUCAS
We stand on the threshold of a new era.

Even more APPLAUSE.

LUCAS
In order to assure the safety and security of the theatrical releases, I have transferred the 1993 laserdisc masters to DVD, and I assure you, they will last for ten thousand years!

Sustained APPLAUSE from all but the two fans at the back of the hall.

DISGRUNTLED FAN
So this is how the Trilogy dies. With thunderous applause.
Post
#211017
Topic
Should Lucus make 4,5 and 6 over?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/211017/action/topic#211017
Time
Originally posted by: Rebel Rouser

I'm not quite sure I understand what you're saying here. If Yoda didn't do anything physical at all to win the battle... how would he have won? Palps needed to be stopped. Without lightsabers or the occasional stray Senate hover-thingy, how would he have accomplished this? Harsh language?

Basically, yes. Even language would have been overkill to a being who has spent nearly a millennium learning to operate on a metaphysical level. He should've just sat down in a safe location and effected a series of telepathic attacks against Palpatine, or persuaded some of Palpatine's advisors to kill him. (That would've made good use of the silent weirdos always hanging around the chancellor.)

The idea or masters stepping out of direct combat isn't new to the EU -- Zahn introduced the idea that Palpatine's will affected the performance of those around him, and TotJ had battle meditation that included subtle pushes to willpower and hallucinations. In Dark Empire, Luke and Leia used the Light Side of the Force to overwhelm Palpatine's control and let his own powers destroy him, and Empatajayos Brand essentially kidnapped his soul. Apparent size changes and surreal re-ordering of reality are both hallmarks of master magic users in Lord of the Rings and Japanese media like anime and video games. They'd have been well accepted by the kiddies who like the PT.

Remember that the Force isn't just a power source to be used for telekinesis and martial arts. It is the very underpinning of the universe. Remember that Luke, Yoda, and Palpatine are able to see possible futures and events many light years away -- the Force transcends time and space. Remember that the Force can be used to override the will and alter the conscious thoughts of others -- it is innately tied to that deepest mystery, sentient consciousness. What is the point of being a master of the Force if all you can figure out how to do with it is sword-fight and throw things? I can sword fight and throw things; not at Yoda's level, of course, but it means that a Jedi is merely better than I am, not different.

Of course, there's that whole "shroud of the Dark Side" thing that Lucas wrote into one or two scenes in order to excuse any fault on the part of the Jedi. "Obi-wan is wearing sneakers and calls Anakin 'Hayden' in this scene? Uh, shroud of the Dark Side, their ability to use the Force is diminished."

Without some sort of physical confrontation going on there, we would have been left with the main boss-man fight from Dark City, without all the Strangers flying around in the background... that is to say, it would have been two people standing there staring at each other with some weird squiggly effects in the middle. Diplomacy was pretty much out of the question at this point.

Or better yet, the telepathic fight from Babylon 5. Two people standing in a room and no weird squiggly effects, except maybe in extremely brief, almost subliminal, cuts.

And I think you're confusing the Jedi for Buddist Monks. The Jedi were not pacifists, they just believed that martial prowess was to be called upon as a last resort, not neccassarily ruled out entirely.


The Jedi didn't use violence as a last resort. It was, in fact, their favored option. I think I've made a number of posts implicitly comparing the Jedi to Islamic extremists. If you'd like, I can start a thread on it.

As for the Sith getting right down to business in a lightsaber fight... ask Kit Fisto, Saesee Tiin, and Agen Kolar how they feel about Sidious dilly-dallying around.


I'm not sure who they are. Were they the master Jedi that Palpatine cut down in his office? Let's see ...

Palpatine must have known the Jedi are coming to assassinate him, yet he stayed in place.

In fact, I believe he was sitting at a desk, with very little room to maneuver.

He didn't instruct any of his guards to protect him.

He didn't prepare any booby traps.

He talked instead of fighting, letting his opponents maintain the initiative until his very foolish choice to engage in melee combat against superior foes -- even though he has a built-in ranged weapon.

These are not the actions of a man who is seriously out to preserve his life and defeat his enemies. These are the actions of a man who wants to fight. Perhaps he took all these foolish chances because he had foreseen that he would win the fight? That's what real masters of the Force do -- they use their noncombat powers to give themselves advantages and to win before the fight even starts.
Post
#210927
Topic
Should Lucus make 4,5 and 6 over?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/210927/action/topic#210927
Time
I don't care for Yoda with a lightsaber. Besides being the mentor, he was also the most mystical of the Jedi. He thought of his body (well, Luke's body) as "crude matter," did not believe that size made any difference to the Force, he used the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack. He should not have engaged in a lightsaber duel. He should not have engaged in a throwing things duel, either. That's simply a lightsaber duel with a different weapon. Yoda should've fought with his voice, with persuasion, with illusion, even through manipulation of space and time. In my interpretation, Yoda would not have concerned himself with the material plane at all.

Palpatine, on the other hand, had none of Yoda's transcendental conceits. He was all about power; acquiring it, brandishing it, and wielding it against his enemies. For that reason, I have no problem with him whipping out a lightsaber and going to town with it. What did disappoint me, however, is how easily he fell into the Jedi pattern of ritualistic dueling. I would've expected a Sith to get right to business without the repartee. Especially after Maul.
Post
#210848
Topic
Why all the negative coments about george lucas?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/210848/action/topic#210848
Time
I must have missed the personal insults. But please keep in mind, I spent an hour yesterday on the TF.N forums, which have a big picture of Lucas at the top with a "Thank the Maker" banner. Coming back to OT.com, where dissent is allowed, can sometimes lead me to ... over exuberance.

(If you really want to see how heavy-handed the mods on TF.N are, look up some of the threads about Karen Traviss on stardestroyer.net.)
Post
#210827
Topic
What are you going to do with your SE discs?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/210827/action/topic#210827
Time
I read somewhere -- possibly an interview with Burtt -- that they used the 70mm mix for the latest version of Empire. They considered the 35mm mix "canonical," but used the 70mm as it was a better source. Whatever. And then they just "didn't notice" the line change until some fan pointed it out to them.

Of course, that's there usual tack of evasion. Either it's a "deliberate creative decision" or "we didn't notice it -- therefore, it doesn't matter, and you're a real dweeb for thinking that it does."

(I know there's other differences between the 35mm and 70mm mixes, so this could all be wrong.)
Post
#210818
Topic
Should Lucus make 4,5 and 6 over?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/210818/action/topic#210818
Time
I'd love to see a lightsaber battle between Vader and the Empire. There's gotta be what, a million billion Imperial nationals? Each one with a lightsaber ... it can be rendered in MASSIVE, and the whole movie can be nothing but Vader leaping around shrieking and cutting down pre-rendered people. It would be like the burly brawl in Matrix Reloaded, except two hours longer, and with a hundred thousand billion times as many people.

STAR WARS
EPISODE IV
VADER VS. THE EMPIRE

It is a dark time for Darth Vader. The Empire, thinking he is a whiny child-man, has turned against him. They have gathered on the world of VJUN to strike down the Dark Lord.

Even now, the entire populace of the Empire is bearing down on Vader's fortress, armed with Jedi lightsabers. (See the tie-in novel "Empire's War" and the cartoon series "National Lampoon's Galactic Conflict" for how this came about! -- GL)

But Vader will not go down without a fight. For he is trained in Form VI lightsaber combat and has a midiclorian count even higher than Master Yoda's ....
Post
#210813
Topic
Describe your history with Star Wars
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/210813/action/topic#210813
Time
Good topic.

I was born in '82. I remember watching ESB and RotJ at home with my parents when I was probably about three years old. I somehow made a mess of ESB's plot -- Han was put in a refrigerator, there were multiple Darth Vaders and one was a robot that looked like Luke, and Yoda was Luke's old friend -- but I did better with RotJ. I knew all the Ewoks by name, and pointed them out during the battle. The Emperor, or Vader's father as I knew him, was really scary. The torture-by-lightning was painful to watch. But it's good for kids to see scary movies sometime, especially if the good guys win at the end. It's cathartic.

I pretty much ignored Star Wars until I played the X-wing PC game. Then I caught a trilogy marathon on USA and actually paid attention to it. I loved it. That's also where I developed some of my long-standing OT opinions, such as the importance of Han shooting first. It might not have been evident when there was a three year break between each movie, and it might not be fresh in the mind of George and the fanboys, but really watching the trilogy for the first time all in one night -- Han's arc was a real stand out, and ruthlessly frying Greedo is the only way to begin that arc.

Soon I delved into fandom, which was resurgent, but not yet popular. I slogged through Zahn's tortuous tomes and wasn't terribly impressed. A few other books from the local library didn't sell me on Star Wars literature, either. I found that I preferred (and still do) the shorter, punchier stories in the Tales From series, and the one-shot novels. I also picked up a few of the WEG sourcebooks, even though I never really got into gaming. I fell in love with Dark Empire's style, and TotJ's storyline (the original, and still the best, KotOR!).

My love of Star Wars gaming and Dark Side lore dovetailed into an online community called the Emperor's Hammer. I think they're still around. I made a TIE Fighter mission or two, wrote some Mary Sue fiction, and made some pretty good (but long gone, and much missed) online friends. I even rebelled with them when my Dark Jedi House decided to run off and establish our own Imperium. We had weekly IRC meetings with awards, trivia, and Star Wars chat. I bragged that one day I'd use two VCRs to edit Han shooting first back into the movie; no one believed that a person without professional editing experience could do that. (The laserdiscs were still quite expensive back then, and I never thought of using them.) I also collected the fantastic Star Wars CCG by Decipher; I only knew one person to play it with, but the cards were cool enough on their own. Good times.

The good times pretty much ended by 1999. The Imperium was winding down, WEG lost their license, Decipher would soon lose their license after numerous disappointing mini-sets and a failure to launch the Shadows of the Empire set, and the atroci^H^H^H^H^H^H Phantom Menace was something of a disappointment. In fact, after seeing TPM, I put my Star Wars tapes away and didn't watch them for three years. After AotC, I "kind of" forgave Lucas, and rewatched the Trilogy to see whether I was being fair to the prequels. After all, weren't the old movies just as full of bad dialogue, cheesy humor, awful acting, and inane plotting?

No, of course they weren't. I'd had three years to divest myself of nostalgia, sever the fanboy connection, and frankly, I was negatively disposed towards Star Wars at that time. But the OT endures. And that's why sites like this one will.
Post
#210799
Topic
New DVDs NOT 16x9
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/210799/action/topic#210799
Time
Here is what I hope.

A janitor or maid at Lucasfilm came upon some employees as they were working late into the night, trying to make the best home video release of Star Wars ever. She saw it on a TV -- either 4x3 or 16x9, it doesn't matter -- and noticed the black bars at the top and the bottom. (Remember, 16x9 is not the OAR of Star Wars, so even an anamorphic transfer on a widescreen TV will have a letterboxing effect.) Thrilled at her newfound "insider" status, she immediately leaked this information, but she knows nothing about video encoding or display, so she isn't entirely clear about what she is leaking. Then, like a game of Telephone, the news gets twisted and distorted until it hits Digital Bits, who erroneously report that the new DVDs will not be anamorphic.

In the event that my hopes are dashed, I will have a fun time arbitrating between the "Boycott inferior goods!" and "Support superior goods!" facets of my personality. But if I buy it, and it's not anamorphic, I will consider it faulty and freely download any future versions of the trilogy as upgrades to a recalled product. Sue me, George.
Post
#210500
Topic
Why all the negative coments about george lucas?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/210500/action/topic#210500
Time
The fact that someone was misguided does not absolve them of wrongdoing or provide a shield against criticism. That seems to have been the theme of the Prequel Trilogy -- everyone was misguided, they ended up killing billions of people, and it took Anakin twenty years to redeem himself of his mistakes. Mistakes born of trying to do what he thought was right.

Fortunately, if this DVD release is any good, George has patched things up in ten. So he's not quite as evil as Darth Vader.
Post
#209820
Topic
What are you going to do with your SE discs?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/209820/action/topic#209820
Time
No. But it is your fault that you have no sense of humor, joie de vivre, or appreciation of irony, and you get your kicks by registering on long-established forums and pooping all over other people's threads and telling them how to dispose of their private property. I've got a few ideas on where you can put your SE discs, but out of respect for the fairer sex whom I know to be present, I shall refrain from posting detailed instructions.
Post
#209618
Topic
What are you going to do with your SE discs?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/209618/action/topic#209618
Time
Once we get the official O-OT release, we're all going to have a set of the SE movies. For some of us, it'll be the first and only copy of the 2004 editions that we have. For others, it may be the second (or even third?!?) copy. Regardless of whether or not you already own the 2004 edition, what will you be doing with your SE discs? I had a few ideas.

1. Use them as Star Wars-themed coasters.

2. Turn them upside down and use them as shiny coasters.

3. Watch them once, because you've never seen the 2004 edition before, then put them on eBay. (My choice.)

4. Use for target practice, hoping to one day be as precise as Imperial stormtroopers.

5. Donate them to a worthy cause, such as a homeless shelter or a library. Assuming they'd take it.

6. Give to a friend/relative with a DVD player and little taste.

7. Hold onto them for the inevitable DVD edition preservation projects that will be underway in ten or twenty years.

8. Mail them back to George Lucas. Let him know which version the fans really do prefer.