SilverWook

Sorry about that!

Thanks for the update. Everyone here appreciates your perseverance with that accursed disc from hell!

Everything after Threepio's dismay about impending memory wipe, (Part 25 on your youtube page) is just music and effects anyway. You don't really need anything after that audio wise.

Did you manage to get the infamous "Do not want!" scene? ;)

I've got the widescreen LD in my collection. I can transfer it to DVD like I did THX-1138, one LD side per disc at the highest bitrate, with PCM audio.

I also have a VHS capture of an old magazine show segment from 1989 about Ben Burtt, in which Raiders sound FX are briefly discussed.

They're saving those for a double feature release, with seamless branching to the tv movie cuts, and Ewokese dub track. ;)

zombie, do you have any idea when video editing/post production became the norm for tv documentaries, even if shot on film?

Classic Creatures seems the odd man out of all the OOT docs, as it seems to have been finished up on video. 16mm copies of the others have been spotted in the wild.

I keep waiting for some fanedit where Tie Fighters swoop down over the revelers on Coruscant, and restore order. ;)

Wow that smear makes Obi Wan look like the shroud of Turin!

doubleKO said:

Lots of hate for Jedi in this article.

50 REASONS WHY RETURN OF THE JEDI SUCKS

Stuff you guys have mentioned and lots more.

Couldn't read it all, started hasing a sad :(

And I thought the Norman Spinrad review Starlog ran back in '83 was harsh! ;)

Is it a coincidence the author's name is the same as a character in an episode of American Dad, who escapes capture by accusing someone at a SF con of being the person who prevented the proper release of the OOT?

I got an idea. Somebody contact the makers of the documentary, and ask them what they shot in?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416716/fullcredits#cast

Has anyone seen this documentary?

http://cgi.ebay.com/SCULPTING-GALAXY-Inside-Star-Wars-Model-Shop-/140548673283?pt=US_DVD_HD_DVD_Blu_ray&hash=item20b95a8f03

Very interesting! Was it common to shoot 16:9 at the time?

Television shows and concerts have been regularly shot in HD video since the late 90's. I even have one of the few feature films shot in analog HD in the 80's in my Laserdisc collection. And lets not forget MUSE HiDef Laserdiscs in Japan!

The industry knew HD and widescreen sets were coming.

EOD was shorter in the broadcast version, wasn't it?

Might also be worth tracking down a copy of the 1954 Charlton Heston film "Secret of the Incas", as it seems to be a big influence on Raiders.

Bingowings said:

I don't really get the obsession with a Wookiee army over a band of Ewoks.

The Ewoks could have worked fine if A) better quality costumes were made for the foreground characters (with heads that fitted and eyes that didn't look like glass beads) B) they were given more of a culture instead of being largely being the receiving end of jokes C) we saw evidence that they were already successfully taking on the Empire and this was being covered up (presumably to avoid getting a visit from Vader or some other similarly ruthless enforcer).

If we saw a village with totems made out of wrecked Imperial tech and Stormtrooper armour and maybe some half eaten stormies the cute little teddybears would suddenly look like the sort of creatures who could help the Rebels take on an entire legion of the Emperor's best.

While we are on the subject a legion is about 3-6 thousand troops (and that's on top of the troops that would be expected to be there guarding such an important base).

If Lucas can make us believe in a space battle with hundreds of different looking ships why does he find it so hard to make us believe in a ground battle with thousands of troops who all look exactly the same?

All you would need would be one amazing reveal sequence and then use the same troops in different areas of the forest (or inside the base itself) being picked off, over and over again.

Some of us just like Wookiees more than Ewoks. ;)

I like the idea of a coverup on the Endor situation. Kind of like how Rabban was covering up how badly things were going on Arrakis?

Ever since I noticed an Ewok waving a Stormtrooper blaster in one shot, I've wondered what got left on the cutting room floor. There are a few unused Endor battle shots in the second Ewok movie.

Where were all the Imperial Walkers during the final battle anyway? If there was only one on the whole moon, the crew who brought Luke to Vader must have gotten really lost!

IIRC, it wasn't until the Making of a Saga documentary that Lucas mentioned it was originally going to be Wookiees, which aired around 1985. I'm unsure if he ever mentioned it publicly prior to that.

There were over 70 little people playing Ewoks in the film. Finding an equal number of tall people to play Wookiees really should not have been as difficult. (Think basketball players!) And only the costumes that are going to be in closeups have to as detailed as Peter Mayhew's. Only a handful of Ewok masks even had any articulation.

As for creating the illusion of a large Wook army in 1983, there were ways to accomplish this with opticals, camera angles, and just clever editing. There weren't that many guys in rebel uniforms standing around at the end of Star Wars. And how many knights do you think you see charging at the end of Monty Python and the Holy Grail? ;)

It's really too early to cheer. No way to know if all the non-SW clips have been cleared, or if William Conrad's original narration is intact.

Classic Creatures may be stuck in SD resolution even if the other two are remastered. It was finished up on video for some reason.

The fourth documentary, Star Wars to Jedi:The Making of a Saga apparently isn't even included on the Blu Ray set.

S_Matt said:

It is a pity that this sort of thing simply wouln't work with Star Wars in this day and age - there's going to be no similar forcing Lucas's hand due to undergound screenings as these are extremely rare, mainly because copyright holders have vastly greater powers to confiscate personal property (i.e. privately owned 35mm prints) and to prosecute offenders.

There was that free screening of a Technicolor print that was publicized in advance, and was even covered by local media last year in Boston. The stormtroopers didn't show up to seize the print.

If Lucasfilm crashed such a party, it might generate some negative press and questions they really don't want asked outside fanboy circles.

It seems like the whole ILM Creature Shop faded away after Jedi. With all the technical help they got with Yoda from Jim Henson's people, it's odd they didn't farm out some of Jabba's minions to the Henson Creature Shop.

Jabba himself seems to have been Stuart Freeborn's baby all the way, and has held up pretty damn well!

Which ever option you think is best. :)

It's been a love hate thing with me over the decades. Ewoks could have been more vicious in battle, (they may have been tamed in the editing process) but I don't loathe them as much as Gungans.

The heart of the movie is still the Luke/Vader/Emperor conflict. Luke going temporarily darkside crazy and wailing on Vader is still more interesting than Super Mario Jedi in ROTS. ;)

There were never SW happy meals. The only major fast food tie ins were the Burger King glasses. Something the new Star Trek movie actually brought back!

Sure! You're going to send me a revised subtitle file?

It's a damn good thing Jaxxon doesn't read this board very much, or I'd have to restrain a blaster toting rabbit from going off right now! ;)

Do the Infinities comics count as multiverse? ;)

I have the original Xanadu DVD, and it sounds pretty good!

Now that Tron has been reissued,  the Ebay mania should die down enough for me to score the old non-anamorphic Tron with the 4.1 mix.

I have a couple movies with 3.0 mixes, (Zardoz and The Adventures of Mark Twain) that were only stereo on Laserdisc, so apparently the DVD's sport theatrical mixes?