Tack

ATMachine said:

Oh, Tack, IIRC Lucas didn’t type up his own scripts for SW 1977; his secretary, Debbie Fine, did.

I recall reading a quote from her complaining about Lucas spelling the same alien names “five or six different ways” one each page. A bit hyperbolic, but somewhat true – evidently GL was trying out different ways of spelling certain phonetic names as he wrote. Fine’s job included proofing the spellings for consistency, but she didn’t always catch everything (see “Youreallians” vs. “Ureallians” for Han Solo’s species in the 1974 rough draft).

Wow. What an unsung hero. I applaud you, Ms. Fine (wherever you are).

DuracellEnergizer said:

Tack said:

Somehow instead of Kissel I got Rinel! (which I thought was a perfectly good planet name, but whatever…)

I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve decided to steal borrow the name “Rinel” for my own use.

Only if you don’t mind me using the name myself. 😉

Yeah, I’m working on a Prequel rewrite. Partially some of the reason I’m so into this early stuff. I think a lot of the early concepts (rough and second draft, to be precise) have the makings of some awesome Star Wars predecessors. For instance, this concept that the Jedi were being slowly and systematically banned from the galaxy. No secret 66th order.

ATMachine said:

Only two pages of full narrative for the JOTW were ever written, but GL had evidently more in mind, judging by his outlines of people and places meant to appear in the film. I’ve tried to follow those as best I could, filling in the gaps by reference to the stuff he would’ve seen and associated with each particular locale/character/etc.

As for typing up the single known JOTW page, I’m way ahead of you.

Agreed that the GL of the 1970s was a terrible speller. (In fact, at least one SW book I’ve seen has digitally altered the first page of the ESB treatment to correct some of his misspelled words! Special Editionism goes deep…)

Whoa, I was WAY off. Somehow instead of Kissel I got Rinel! (which I thought was a perfectly good planet name, but whatever…)

That’s just hilarious, too. I can only hope he caught some of his typos when he typed it up. Otherwise Brackett was probably scratching her head trying to figure out what he meant.

ATMachine said:

Imaginative reconstruction, and a lot of reading and watching pre-1977 books, comics, and movies.

In which case, it’s very impressive indeed!

I was simply under the impression that the original “Journal of the Whills” was a first-person two-page setup story. I’m working on a transcript of the single released page, and it is pretty interesting. Though if I’ve learned anything by looking at both that and the Empire Strikes Back treatment; Lucas is a terrible speller.

I’m going to sound like a complete greenie here, but where did you get the information for this!? I mean, it’s utterly fascinating, but the most I’ve ever seen of this is a single page printed in this book I have. Is there more in a Rinzler book, or…?

My first impressions;

• Kylo Ren (or Ben… Solo? Organa? Eh, whatever…) somehow got me more compelled AFTER he took off his mask, although his performance during the big death scene (you know what I’m talking about) kind of leaves me wondering what the hell was even going on his head, though I suppose I prefer that to a lot of other villains I’ve seen before.

• Not a big fan of Snoke. I’m glad he’s not actually towering like they make us think at first, but he just doesn’t seem that interesting. I’m glad Ren had more screen time.

• All 4 of the new heroes are AMAZING. Yeah, no real other way to say it. Finn and Poe both were the first indications to me that this movie was actually going to be really good. Or at least, far more fun and enjoyable to watch than recent outings.

• Han’s Death. Thanks to some jerks in a comment section, I unwittingly spoiled this twist for myself the night before, so the phrase “Han is killed by his son, Kylo Ren” repeated in my mind through the whole movie. I experienced it vicariously through my Dad, who almost fell out of his chair and then shouted “Seriously!?”. I probably would have seen it coming anyway, but the amount of reverence actually seemed very respectful to me. It wasn’t as overblown as even some of the fake-out deaths in Lord of the Rings. I liked that.

• Jeez, Williams must have really been mad at Lucas! I mean, he was holding back themes and motifs like THIS from us? I mean, Phantom Menace’s soundtrack was almost as good, but even it sounded sedate in comparison. I actually bought the soundtrack physically the night before and forbade myself from looking at the liner notes so that I wouldn’t spoil anything for myself. As you can see from above, it was kind of pointless.

• It’s nice to have a Star Wars film that doesn’t look like one of those mid-90’s FMV games that couldn’t afford real sets. Not to mention that there are shots in this film where there ISN’T a visual effect, Mr. McCallum.

• Poe and Phasma felt underutilized. I can’t really complain; at least one of them is gonna come back.

• I would have preferred there to be no Starkiller base, but I admit, it could have been much, much worse (like the early ROTJ scripts). Still, nice that there’ll be no Coruscant anymore. I got so sick of looking at that place!

• Hey, the droids can be funny still! R2 felt a bit cheesy, but 3PO was actually involved in something funny for once! (and he didn’t have to fall back on lame puns)

That got out of hand. Whatever. I liked it. I look forward to seeing these protagonists in action again.

hydrospanner said:

Anyone else catch the Bespin corridor shot during Rey’s vision?

I noticed. Half expected her to go through all the original trilogy. Thank god she didn’t, or else it would be one of my few complaints. I think they choose that moment because it represented one of Luke’s darkest and/or scariest moments, which is what the rest of that scene seemed to me to be.

I guess that scene of Ren with the bodies was the rest of the pupils that he slaughtered. At least that’s how I took it.

I noticed it too. It’s kind of off-sounding, but it’s not awful. It’s more varied than the I,II,III arrangements. I think it’s the brass. It sounds too clean, too even.

My favorite version is still Take 18 from the Star Wars Anthology. That extra note at the beginning adds a lot. Wish more versions had it.

Alright, thanks! I think disco gave me some options. Must not have looked into it. 😕

So I found a DVD5 version online, but I’m not too sure where to go from there. I extracted one of the rar files, and burned the VIDEO_TS folder to a DVD-R thanks to Disco (I’m a Mac user 😕), but it doesn’t seem to do anything. It seemed to me that every one of the RAR files in the download I found yielded the same files in the same folders, so I only burned the contents of one. Was that my mistake? Or is a DVD5 download not compatible with DVD-Rs?

Supermartyoh said:

Last movie seen was Foodfight. Trust me, its far more painful to watch without NC's gags inbetween (which had way more thought and creativity than what Joel "Bat Tits" Schumacher put into that mess). Makes "The Room" look like an Emmy winning comedy. 

 ....

.............

.......................

Joel Schumacher wrote that!?!?!?!?!?!

No part of me is legitimately surprised.

Wasn't X7 considered worse? Personally, I got major problems with X4... for obvious reasons.

Frank your Majesty said:

Tack said:

It was a little less goofy onscreen.

 FTFY.

 I meant what I said, your Majesty.

RicOlie_2 said:

Hal 9000 said:

That's why I had a sinking feeling for a lot of part three: so much of the stuff I didn't like was integral to the story. Stuff like Bard's son acting as his bow, Thorin dying on ice away from the rest of the action after a drag out fight with Bolg Azog, etc. I was feeling pretty good after part one which had most of its junk fairly segregated from the good/important parts.

 How the heck did that work?

 He set the arrow on the kid's shoulders and then launched it at Smaug from there. It was a little less goofy on screen.

Oh, yeah. Insurrection never happened. In fact, I don't even know how it could have happened. In fact, what is Insurrection? I mean, I know what the word means, but why is it capitalized? Is it a movie title or something?

Sounds stupid to me.

I include most of the comics, novels, and other expanded media as part of the main media, and exclude most of Voyager and Enterprise.

And, personally, I prefer some things in other media to the apparent canonical versions. Like, for instance, I prefer the post-Star Trek III DC comics series to the eventual Star Trek IV.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

Nothing like going to a screening which supplies you with actual coconuts.

Ryan McAvoy said:

Tack said:

That's the last movement of the New World Symphony. It's also in the Thief and the Cobbler.

It's one of the perennial copyright-free pieces that John Williams rips off for inspiration.

 Have you cared to search how clearly James Horner is influenced by Profokiev? 

Composers interpolate. Sometimes it works. Other times not.

That's the last movement of the New World Symphony. It's also in the Thief and the Cobbler.

So... Ellen Page kissed Jessica Alba?

faceplam

Awfully courteous of them.

DuracellEnergizer said:

NEMEC: I'll treat you to a dog or a burger -- whatever levitates your skiff. 

 Things I'd never thought I'd hear in Star Wars...

Seriously, though. This is going great.

In time travel stories...

"Where are we?"

"I think the question is, when are we?"

Man, trolls these days...