balsho

Yeah I'd say its feels like the 2nd or 3rd draft after Lucas' original synopsis.  Like 85% definite SW feel with a few of the crap things that eventually tainted the special thrown in.  Its great to finally get a sense of the original intentions of the thing, but also a bit crappy because I really like the direction that that story took.

I'm putting work on my hybrid on hold until I can see if the dvd version of WMAR has better quality commercials than the ones off of groups that I've used.  I should know next week then I'll continue.

Well if anyone has the commercials in their raw VOB form then please maybe upload them somewhere if you can.  But it looks like I'll just continue and finish with my version as is.

Thank you Skot, i just got to read the treatment on your site.  I'm betting that its probably Lucas', or at least more in the direction of his, original plan for the thing.  Then the TV production team shoehorned in their variety television stuff.  In that filmfax article you can just see how once Lucas wasn't involved it just all fell apart.  Hmm lets put Carney, Korman, and Bea Arthur to get some "name recognition".  Lets put Diahann Carroll somewhere because, I'm quoting:"the network wants black people".  The original director wanted to keep it fresh and more obscure like it should have been, but they wouldn't let him so he quit.  The original story there sounded like it would've been pretty great if they could have stuck to it.

Yeah that's why I asked earlier if there's a full WMAR dvd still out there.  I'd like to compare the commercials to the ones off groups, because these while pretty damn good do seem to have been re-encoded after being taken off the dvd.

I haven't read the new McQuarrie stuff yet, but from the big article in Filmfax the main issue that seems to have been the kiss of death for the special was not too much a money thing but time.  GL's original story and most of the initial planning was for the thing to be 1 hour, but to get more time for more commercials the TV producers painfully padded it with crap to make it 2 hours.

SKot said:

What's the story on the high-quality commercials?

They are mkvs of the WMAR commercials.  Generally decent video and sound, not earth shattering though.  In the end I'd say a couple of notches below KCCI's quality.  I had to re-encode them into mpeg2s in order to be able to edit them into KCCI without re-encoding the special.  Overall with what I'm doing with the sound I think I've got them to match and flow pretty good.  The only thing I'm wondering now is what's the best way to get this out there when I'm done.  I kind of can only do rapidshare right now, but I know everyone has their preference whether it be groups, torrents, etc.

Looks like I'll have to go back to your site Skot to check out the new McQuarrie stuff.  It seems like the "might have been" was something a lot better.  From the info on your site I decided to track down a copy of Filmfax 69/70 with that great article in it.  Reading it there definitely was a lot more potential in the the earlier stages, before the TV people just took things over.  Looking at it in its 2 hour bloated state now you can almost squint your eyes and see the leaner/better 1 hour long story that it was supposed to be.  Well almost :)

Yeah I used those but with mine I added them to KCCI, they're nice but still not perfect.  My thing was I didn't want to re-encode the special itself and I was able to do all editing without changing quality.

I wish we knew each other was doing this, perhaps two heads would've been better.  Maybe after we see each others.  I'm trying to clean up the audio right now without making it too flat, damn vhs.  I'm kind of just ready to leave the audio original since I didn't touch the video.

Nice, but also DAMN!  I literally as I type this am putting the finishing touches on a hybrid of my own that I've been working on.  Oh well the more the merrier...

The scene where Qui-Gon checks Anakin's blood and some of the crowd/background stuff was shot with an early version of what they used on Clones.  I'm still not sure how they're going to handle the bluray of it, whether they're scanning some print again or going back to the digital files.  I hope its the latter.

Anyone know if there's a dvd version of the original WMAR version available for download somewhere?  Like from the tape not a redone one off youtube or something.  I'm working on something and I'd like to see it's quality.

klokwerk said:

I was kind of hoping that those involved in gathering material for the blu-ray set might stumble across a copy in the archives or something.

Sorry I hate to bump this thread again...  But the thing is that LFL doesn't seem to like putting out the old documentaries as they were.  I really hope they change their mind and get this one and a lot of the other classic ones out at some point.  I don't recall any, of what I can see on DN's site at least, footage from this one in "Empire of Dreams", so I too really hope they at least have a copy of it.  If the bluray edition has no sign of this doc I vote you check back with your source Darth Neo to maybe finally put it out there for the world.

Yeah the new one does sound like it should be great.  With the HD version that has been out a while I've always liked it a lot but really wished they used a tripod more often especially for the ride.  I hope this new one can do the trick, I can't wait...

I just checked mine that I got from there about a year ago and it seems perfectly fine to me.

That sounds interesting, and I'd like to see your results.  To me though KCCI already looks pretty damn good, but its usually without the commercials.  Then the ones with commercials seem to always be lower in quality, especially the commercials themselves.  Then I've seen the commercials by themselves floating around that seem to match KCCI quality.  So blending those could kind of be a nice mix of the best that's currently available.

I guess it would be posted here if there was, but is there any news on the possible new capture/version that might've been in the works?

Sorry to open up old wounds and all, but some of us found this thread late.  There's only one thing I love just as much if more than the movies themselves and that's behind the scenes stuff.  I'm sure this is even worse for those who like to put together all the great fan documentaries.  Much thanks to those who have spent time and money to try and obtain this for the fans.  Let the carrot dangling continue...

Its a totally different hour long doc that seems to have never been released, aside from the 15 min clip that someone dug up here earlier.  It better be Gary Kurtz or GL himself who told Darth Neo never to release it, because if its anyone else it doesn't make much sense to keep it under wraps.

The full rifftrax dvdr is still on rapidshare if piratebay is too slow.  Just do a rifftrax search at rapid.org.  KCCI does have the edge, but its so great with their comments and all the commercials.  With the better versions of the special and commercials out there it still leaves the desire for a new-super-everything edition.  I hope the rumblings of the new one in progress come to fruition in time for the next Life Day.

Its such a shame that after 3 years this still isn't available.  I for one don't see any difference between releasing clips and putting out the whole thing.  But I suppose my desire to see the thing is influencing my reasoning.  From reading through this whole thread there seems to be no resolution.

That's so great...  To the kind soul who may be doing it please try some color/brightness correction, and if possible include the commercials and optional rifftrax.  THANKS

Well I'm sure I'm not the only one, but I have the commercials in really high quality if the means to make a more HD-television-friendly version ever arises.  I always had the typical loath/love for it, but watching it with the rifftrax again this year I fell head over heels for it.  Its nice and trippy by itself, but with their riff its an absolute Christmastime must view for me now.

Does no one else care about this as much?  With more comparison, I was wrong, the KCCI does seem to have the edge on quality.  I remember it looking flawless on my 480 set, but dvd compression is more apparent on HDTVs.  It also suffers from being a bit too dark, and it can't be synced to the rifftrax cause no commercials.  Anyone know the originator of it?  It would be interesting to get the original files or make a new cap and do some picture adjustments maybe pushing it to a DVD9.  I tracked down all the commercials in pretty high quality, so another everything edition to better fit on HDTVs could be done.

Do most agree too that the one with the optional Rifftrax commentary seems to currently be the best so far?  My other one is the KCCI version that is pretty good but it has color and brightness issues that the rifftrax one doesn't seem to have.  The cartoon does look best on the KCCI, but overall though the Rifftrax does seem to be the better of the two.  Anyone know what source was used for the Rifftrax one?  I can't find any of the station IDs in it, and the commercials seem to have been edited in because they are lower quality.

I finally got all six of these, and WOW do they look great.  For those weary of taking the jump into BD50s, just do it...  All the "FILM" ones (1,4,5,6) are so sharp that you can see the individual film grains.  Any other versions this aspect gets lost and is just a layer of mushy noise.  Even TPM with the most grain and problems for the first time has a brand new level of detail.  Yeah its still REALLY grainy, but you're seeing all the grains themselves, so you're getting all the picture that is possible.  As for the digital ones, both are also better than ever.  I am officially satisfied until whenever Lucasfilm decides to do their thing.

Thank you WG.

I see that some major activity has commenced on newsgroups...  I CAN'T WAIT to get my hands on BD50 Menace and see how all the adjustments have turned out.  The unexpected additional videos look very intriguing.  Thank you WG for following through with all six of these, and giving me/many the piece of mind in having the best quality possible until the officials come out.  And also for your extra effort in putting together the isolated music tracks.  They, like all your extras, will surely remain one of a kind features to have even after the officials come around.

Can anyone confirm that there was just the one SW.COM Insider commentary for New Hope, or did any of other episodes get one too?