Timstuff

SilverKey said:

I posted this on the previous page, but I think the lightsaber colors are the least of the prequels' problems. It only makes sense to discuss them when an edit changes Dooku from a Sith to a rogue Jedi. And even then I wouldn't make it more complicated then it is. Just give him the established Jedi colors of blue, green and purple (weren't there purple sabers on Geonosis, or was that another case of bad AOTC colors?). I just can't picture Dooku sitting down and think about what color would reflect his unaffiliated position the best.

I agree. All this nonsense about re-coloring lightsabers other than Dooku's is getting silly, and it smells of reaching to me. I mean, where does it stop? Why don't we change Luke's ROTJ lightsaber back to blue while we're at it, since it's possible that Lucas didn't originally intend to have more colors than blue or red?

Really, just leave it be. There's never been anything in the movies or expanded universe to support any of these wild ideas about what color lightsabers each character should have. If you want to make it so that Dooku's force alignment is ambiguous then it makes sense to change his saber's color, but with anyone else the change is both frivolous and petty. I see no good reason to change anyone else's saber color, and to me a change like that would be about as useless as changing the names of planets.

Thanks guys! :D

The line about "only sith deal in absolutes" is probably one of the most retarded things in the entire prequel trilogy, so it's a shame that it's in the best movie of the three. I'd also delete Padme's line "you're breaking my heart" because that also felt forced and out of place.

OK, here's the video encoded with Xvid. Most people ought to be able to play this without any problems.

http://rapidshare.com/files/340660203/ion_cannon_720.avi

I tried exporting as an uncompressed AVI file, but it took up 1.2 GB which for few seconds long clip is obscene (especially considering that the source file is only a few MB). What codec and file extension would you guys reccomend?

True, but then why didn't Obi-Wan have a green saber? Would we then have to go back and recolor his from Episode 4? The line of logic in changing the colors of people's sabers other than Dooku's takes us to some pretty dark territory, and I'd rather not explore it. Changing Dooku's saber has a significant impact on the story, but to me trying to come up with some kind of system for who should have what color lightsaber just ends up as a tedious mess. I think this is an example of "just because Lucas signed off on it does not mean there's something wrong with it." :P

Anyway, I do agree though that blue would be fine for Dooku's saber. Let's let Mace be the one with the weird lightsaber, hehehe.

Some more manips

I'm not sure. A third party program ripped it from EA's proprietary file system. I could try converting it to something else, but I'm not sure how helpful that would be since I don't know what codecs people do or don't have. If all else fails, I sugges you just use MPEG Streamclip or some other such program to convert it to your preferred format.

I think I am leaning towards blue and gold as the two front runners for Jedi!Dooku's lightsaber. I nixed purple from my shortlist because that's Mace's signature saber color, and I don't think I'd use green because that would make Dooku's duel with Yoda less visually dynamic.

If he has a blue saber, then in Revenge of the Sith when he duels Anakin, the two blue lightsabers could be a bit of a foreshadowing to when Anakin duels Obi-Wan. However, gold would save the visual of two like-colored sabers clashing for the climax of ROTS, and in addition to making the duels more visually dynamic it would also give Dooku a unique signature. However, as has been said, giving him a unique lightsaber would potentially make the ambiguous nature of his character a little too obvious, but that's debatable.

Anyway, here are two manips I did in Photoshop.

So, blue is probably the way to go, but gold still has potential IMO.

Try Quicktime player. VLC was giving me that weird rainbow streaks jive, too.

The original explosion from ROTJ was one of the most underwhelming in the entire trilogy. It was just a big pop, like a firework. If any explosion needed a re-touching in the SE versions it was ROTJ's, and the only change I'd consider making is possibly throwing some debris in there. As for the emperor destroying Endor, I don't really see the point. The only thing down there is a rebel strike force, so the Death Star's superlaser would be better used on taking down another Rebel cruiser.

There we go: Anakin with PT-style robes. I gotta say, it really does enhance the shot even further.

As for composites... I did some experiments with them, but ultimately they just looked too friggin' creepy for me to finish them. On top of that, I never liked the idea of implementing Hayden into ROTJ in the first place. Post-Sith Anakin is always going to be part of Sebastian Shaw's legacy, and I never liked the idea of stepping all over it just to tie the two trilogies together tighter. For two generations (the theatrical Warsies and the VHS Warsies) Shaw was the face of Anakin Skywalker, so I don't think that should be taken away from him.

brash_stryker said:

Timstuff said:

Nothing in the OT suggested that green lightsabers were special

I agree, but this isn't my personal reason for wanting green sabers (at least largely) removed from the PT. When we originally saw Luke ignite his saber for the first time in ROTJ, our reaction to having only seen blue before wasn't "it must be a rare crystal" but rather "holy shit, a new colour!"

That moment is lost for new viewers if the PT is full of green sabers.

It's possible to preserve the impact of Luke igniting his saber though, but in a different way. Instead of "holy shit, I've never seen that colour before" it could be "wow, he's got the same colour as dooku, how symbolic".

Like I said, it's not worth the trouble. To me, that'd be like trying to remove Anakin turning into Darth Vader in the prequels to preserve the impact of the revelation in Episode V, but more frivelous. For me, the scene where Luke ignites his lightsaber was more "holy sh** he built himself a new lightsaber" than it was about the color. Just like there is no-one who doesn't know Darth Vader is Luke's father, there's no-one who doesn't know that there are green lightsabers, regardless of whether or not they've seen the movies.

No matter how much you change the movies, you're not going to re-create the exact same reaction you had to the movies when someone else watches them. Star Wars has changed pop culture in such a profound way that there are certain aspects of it that aren't coming back. When I watch star wars the color of Luke's ligthsaber doesn't mean anything, and to the general public it doesn't either. Rotoscoping out all of the green sabers from the prequels is not going to change that.

As for the argument against what a gold saber would convey to the audience about Dooku-- to me, it would convey that perhaps he's explored the galaxy enough in his time to discover a rarer type of crystal. Things turn yellow when they get old, so a gold saber would give a sense of antiquity that would go well with Dooku's older fighting style.

I'm definitely digging this more "realistic" looking version of Geonosis. The original was a touch too far removed from reality for my tastes even if it was visually arresting, and I think that the toned down version matches the original trilogy much nicer. If I ever get around to my AOTC cut, I may likely find myself using that look.

For the record thoguh, I am NOT going to consider changing all the prequel lightsabers to blue. I've read the arguments for it and it still seems like a very a frivolous change. Nothing in the OT suggested that green lightsabers were special, and in addition to the reasoning behind making all the sabers blue not stacking up, it would be way more trouble than it's worth. If anything, I'd go in the opposite direction and give Dooku a unique colored lightsaber that isn't in any of the other movies. He practices an ancient form of dueling, and given the unique shape of his saber I would not put it past him to have a rarer crystal in there. He's been from one edge of the galaxy to the other in his time, so if any colors besides blue, green, red, and purple are out there, there's a decent possibility that he'd find one. It'd also be a nice nod to the expanded universe and fan films where non-traditional saber colors can be found fairly often.

This project sounds really cool. I look forward to seeing the finished product!

A metal version of the logo sounds cool. Don't be a afraid to go wild with anything-- Spaceballs is a spoof of Star Wars, so think of this as a spoof of Star Wars Special Edition. Glossy fancy new stuff slapped on top of this movie will only make it funnier I think.

My personal opinion is that the parents don't need to be in the college scenes. You can take a lot of dead weight out of the narrative by dicing those scenes, and they are not missed by the plot at all. The movie's plot is structured in a ABC manner, but there's a lot of stuff between the letters that bogs the story down.

If I were in your shoes, my goal with the Real Effin' Deal cut would be to get it close to the first movie's tone and pacing. There's room in there for some cheese, but restraint must be exercised. If Real Effin' Deal is meant to appeal to a broader audience, then the bathroom humor and most of the footage with the Twins save for the bare minimum are going to have to go. You'll still have Kitten Calendar Cut as your own personal version, so try to remember that if you are feeling hesitation about cutting stuff from the movie that you already like.

To re-visit a concept I had a while back, I think it would be pretty do-able to digitally tweak Sebastian Shaw at the very end of ROTJ to better represent Anakin's "canon" age in the franchise.

Basically, the changes are as follows:

1) added shading on his neck to make it look less flabby

2) Re-colored hair to look like fading blonde rather than gray

3) added a layer of skintone in some spots to hide some of the wrinkles (mainly aroung the chin/mouth)

4) Used a mesh to push in the ears and sides of the cheeks to make them look younger (since a we age our ears get bigger, and sometimes our cheeks and necks puff out)

Here's a comparison:

As you can see, the original is pretty clearly an elderly man, whereas the retouched one looks more like a middle-aged man, which is more in line with what Anakin is supposed to be at this point.

And, for old time's sake, here's a comparison of the retouched version of Shaw with that very out of place, vacant-eyed Hayden Christensen footage from the 2006 DVD.

That's because it's got a space at the end. Just click, drag, copy and paste.

After a great deal of pain in the butt (and tinkering around with two different third party programs used together), I've been able to successfully rip a crystal-clear, 720p HD video of the ion cannon from Command & Conquer 3's game DVD. I've uploaded it to rapidshare on behalf of all my fellow movie tinkerers, so feel free to download it if you have any interest in fiddling around with it.

http://rapidshare.com/files/340246595/ion_cannon_hd.avi

This is the best quality you're going to find this video in, and seeing as it's only 35 MB I recommend grabbing it while you can.

fishmanlee said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CdicAx1P14&feature=related

this should be in ESB:R lol

LMAO. After the whole Greedo shoots first fiasco, I also picked up on a meme throughout the trilogy that Han is almost always the first one to shoot. There was a few incidents on the Death Star in ANH where Han shot first as well, but Lucas never bothered changing those either. Shooting first is an important part of Han's character that for some reason Lucas just seemed to forget about when he made the SE, and instead became fixated on messing up the intro to that aspect of his character.

JediMasterFisher said:

omg your wrong I can't even watch the old verson of A New Hope because it's visually terriable. Thank God for the SE and even more for Adywans edit.

I wouldn't go that far, but so far I've got to agree that Adywan's version at present is my definitive version of ANH. I am not against the idea of the Special Editions, and many of the enhancements and additions I appreciated, such as the new effects and the Biggs scene. However, Greedo shooting first, and the annoying radar blips during the Millennium Falcon battle irritate me to no end, which is why I'm glad that we have Adywan's version to change these flaws back and to make further enhancements that Lucas overlooked the possibility of (or lacked the time and/or resources to do).

I agree with Peter Jackson, however in the defense of (ugh) George Lucas, Peter Jackson's movies are less than 10 years old, whereas Star Wars was 20 years old when it was "Lucased," and the original production was pre-digital.

I don't hate the concept of the SE trilogy-- in fact, for me some of the enhancements make the movies more enjoyable for me. However, I think that it was better in concept than in execution, and many of Lucas's changes (not to be confused with "enhancements") are downright aggravating to watch (case in point: Greedo). Also, the fact that Lucas is not yet making the original versios available in acceptable picture quality, for me is what makes the SE's cross the line from perfectionism to revisionism.

Me and my class are praying for you and your family, Ady. I hope you can get some rest.

There was never anything in the OT to suggest that green was rare, though. We only saw three Jedi lightsabers in the OT-- two were blue, and one was green. Any speculation about which color was more common is just that-- speculation. The only thing we have to go by is the prequels, where green is commonplace. And going by the expanded universe (including games), yellow is a possible color as well.