canofhumdingers

NeverarGreat said:

Heilemann said:

I think the 'Jedi are male' idea, even if it was never spoken, is probably true for the OT. After all, they were modeled on samurai, a strictly male profession.

This is what I was getting at. Obviously women could fight in feudal Japan, it's just that they would never get the designation of Samurai regardless of how skillful they were. In the book, Lucas says that anyone could be strong in the Force if they worked at it, it's just that the Jedi have some peculiar rules.

Zer0Squared said:

Harmy's DeSpecialized Newsletter Edition for August 2013 has been sent!

Please be sure to check your spam/junk/promotion folders and let your email client know that it's acceptable!  That way you won't miss next month's edition as well. 

For those that didn't feel the need or want to sign up yet, no problem.  Here is a link to view what was sent out to the masses (and we had quite a lot of subscribers!) Decide if you want to sign up for next month's and be sure not to miss out on any news that may have slipped by you.

http://eepurl.com/D1aq1

If there is something you'd like to see in next month's newsletter, let me know and I'll try to make it happen for you.

Thanks everyone!

Signup Link: http://eepurl.com/D0Gqb

Enjoy.

Zer0

SilverWook said:

canofhumdingers said:

Sooooo... it's yet another Millennium Falcon stand-in. :-/

Would you rather have another universe shrinker like the Falcon being owned by someone who fought in the early days of the Rebellion?

Easy to forget most people in the SW universe don't see the Falcon like we do. Modifications aside, it's not a unique design.

Sooooo... it's yet another Millennium Falcon stand-in. :-/

The Library of Congress apparently has a pretty good copy of the holiday special. Don't remember what format it's on though.

Weird. It looks like the poster from the second x files movie...

I'm in the camp that pretty much hated Rogue Squadron. And it was strictly about the controls. I thought all three games were awesome but the controls utterly sucked. It was like someone who had ZERO concept of how flying vehicles are controlled was put in charge of designing the control scheme. "Oh push the stick left or right and the ship should just turn left or right like a car (and we'll make the roll control require an additional button so you can't roll and turn at the same time). Push up or down and it should go higher or lower from the ground WITHOUT ANY REGARD for the actual attitude of the craft. And hey, let's translate that to the space levels too where there IS NO point of reference for a horizon! It'll be awesome!" Ugh. And those games would've been great if it weren't for the awful controls. I really enjoyed the ground levels driving AT-ST's and such though (the Endor ground battle level in the third one was great!).

I saw Oblivion over the weekend. I actually liked it quite a bit.

It is a bit derivative, using a number of common scifi tropes we've seen before. But in general it does them either in an interesting way or at least with great visuals that I didn't mind. It also has some rather clunky dialogue at times, but again, nothing so offensive as to ruin my enjoyment.

But the story is really cool and the overall execution is quite good, with several interesting plot twists. The visuals are spectacular and I feel very much worth seeing on the big screen.

Overall this movie has a feel that strongly harkens back to some of the great 60's/70's scifi like Planet of the Apes or Robinson Crusoe on Mars, and I really enjoyed it because of that. It also left me thinking about the story and plot for a couple of days as I realized more details about what actually happened the more I thought about it. I love movies that leave your imagination running after the movie is over and this one did that for me.

I'd give it a solid B, maybe a B+. The one thing I'm not sure about is how well it will hold up to repeat viewings, but my gut says it'll be fun to see again once it hits Netflix.

I'm pretty sure the Close Encounters bluray has dynamic branching. It's how they have all three cuts of the film on one disc.... It's not three separate complete films...

timdiggerm said:

But hummy, even if that were canon, he says "three weeks in hyperspace"

when we all know the Falcon wasn't.

So I just discovered the answer to the question, "how long did it take for the Falcon to go from Hoth to Bespin with no hyperdrive?" (which also then answers, "How long was Luke training with Yoda on Dagobah?")

The answer? Three weeks.

check out about the 2:40 mark...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5aS-HIgvANE

I met Peter Mayhew a few years ago at SDCC & got his autograph. Met Dave Prowse this past summer at a comic con in Dallas. Got his autograph & chatted for a bit. He was really nice and fun to talk to.

As for props, Disneys MGM (now "Hollywood") Studios park in Disneyworld Florida has had the Falcon chess table, a Darth Vader costume, a Tie Fighter, and bits of the Death Star surface on display in various places different times I've been there. There's also various vehicles from the Indiana Jones films rotting outside in the elements on the backlot tour.

But the best time I had seeing props was when the Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit came to Saint Paul, MN while I was living there. Went twice it was so good. They had a ton of screen used OT props costumes and models on display. Major highlights included the full scale landspeeder and the show-stopping five foot Millennium Falcon. That was one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

My shop had sold out before I had a chance to stop by. I'm on the order list for when they order the second printing though. I am looking forward to it though since it sounds pretty good. I hope it's able to maintain the classic Star Wars look and feel as it goes on. The idea of a new set of stories set in the OT era without reference to any PT or EU garbage is really appealing. Hope they're able to make it work.

I'm also hopeful that its popularity will aid in showing certain execs the demand for classic Star Wars, if you catch my drift...

Is there actual footage of Luke missing the first time with the grappling hook? In one of the vintage docs or something? While I don't recall ever seeing it in the film itself, I could SWEAR I've seen a clip of him missing and gathering the cord back up to try again... And I mean an actual film clip, not just a picture or anything.

I seem to remember at least one video game (X-wing? Rebel Assault?) where that was a sheild generator. You had the two balls for the bridge, and that for the underbelly.

Huh, I haven't logged into the site in a few days. Just saw the latest update & I definitely see what you mean. Still don't have the Indy blus yet, but I was always leaning towards the new color timing probably being more accurate (though I certainly did question it with such a big change from what has been the norm). Now I'm even more convinced that the Raiders bluray is probably closer to the original color timing than previous releases.

I'm curious to know what film project you speak of. The negative one? Or something else? Is there a Jones related project of which I'm unaware?

Harmy said:

So, guys, I was thinking, what would you think if I released v2.1 as AVCHD and MKV  now (or in the near future anyway) and then kept the full BD release until the rest of the trilogy is done and then made a cohesive trilogy BD release? I really want the BD to be worthwhile content wise, and I just don't have the time to do that to my complete satisfaction just now; plus the lossless audio isn't available

Born in '82 I didn't discover star wars until the early 90's renaissance (I had a very generic knowledge that it existed but didnt really know anything about it)

As for the 80's though, I have lots of memories. Cartoons in the eighties were AWESOME. Transformers, G.I. JOE, Thundercats, Voltron, M.A.S.K., Muppet Babies, He-man, Shera, Jem (yeah, even the girl cartoons were awesome!). It was a great time to be a kid. And I LIVED for Saturday mornings. It pains me that my (future) kids won't grow up looking forward to the incredible thing that was the Saturday morning cartoon lineup on network tv. Looney Tunes/Merry Melodies were always a highlight.

Also thinking about tv, I remember sneaking peeks at MTV at my grandparents (the only people I knew who had cable). It was a rare thing, but was consistently the most mind blowingly cool thing ever. It just oozed cool. And then I saw Michael Jackson's Thriller. Ho-ly crap. Utterly terrifying and incredibly awesome all at once. Mind blown.

I also have lots of fond memories of all the awesome toys from the eighties. Robots that did stuff (transform, combine to make bigger robots) were all the rage. Transformers and Voltron were big names. Pretty much all the cartoons were basically animated toy commercials so they all had their tie in toy lines. Oh, I had a Rambo Big Wheel.

As for tech, I vaguely remember atari, though we never owned one. Our friends down the street had a cd player, which my sister and I had no idea what the heck it was. We called the CDs "shiny records". We eventually got a Nintendo, but it was several years after its initial release (maybe even the early 90's). My dad was an engineer and he got a Hewlett Packard 286 at some point.

I also vaguely remember going to classic Disney re releases like Bambi and Pinocchio at the movie theater. I also remember seeing Song of the South air on tv before it got locked away. And 1989's Batman became an obsession of mine. I wasn't allowed to see it until it was aired in edited form on network tv but I had ALL the toys, bubble gum cards, etc. I was introduced to Batman via the Adam West reruns they aired on weekday afternoons in the 80's.

It's tough for me to separate the eighties from the early nineties b/c my childhood spanned them together.

So yeah, I was basically a child pop culture sponge, soaking up all the commercialism of my childhood. Ha!

What the what?!?

Wow. Does this mean it's time for a new petition? Would Disney actually listen? I mean, they have a pretty notorious history of their own when it comes to revision of their films...

Also, what does this mean for the preservation/fan edit community? Lucasfilm has always been quite kind by generally ignoring us & letting us carry on with our little projects... I've always heard Disney is pretty hardcore about copyright infringement. Of course, that doesn't stop them from stealing other people's work (see Kimba the Lion).

I don't know whether to be happy Lucas is finally giving up control or upset that Disney is taking over.

I'm curious if digging out the crushed blacks like you did with SW 2.0 will make any difference. But my only other idea would be to just replace the "ghost ship" altogether either from the GOUT or maybe the Puggo Strikes Back? I dunno.... You're supposed to be the expert! ;)

the shot I was talking about seems to be well documented in doubleohfive's google+ gallery of SE changes. Here's a pic:

Hot diggity! super excited to hear you're already preparing to get started on this! I figured you'd be taking a well deserved break after the first 2.0.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned it somewhere on this site before, but there's a shot of the star destroyer fleet where one of the star destroyers on the left had been repositioned (the nose was pointed more up than it was originally). But more importantly, the middle of this same ship was essentially invisible! Not sure if it was a result of the crushed blacks or the recompositing for the SE or something else. Anyway, I'll try to post screenshots later.

60 inch 1080p Panasonic viera plasma at a 6 or 7 foot viewing distance (we have a tiny apartment)

PS3 with stereo headphones when alone or the built in tv speakers when my wife is there too.

No surround (yet), but I live in a tiny apartment right now & it just seems impractical. I wouldn't be able to have permanent speaker installations which would drive me (& especially the wife) nuts.

My dream setup would be a high end projector on a 120 inch or bigger screen with a nice 7.1 sound system. In a custom home theater with a very vintage/art-deco movie theater inspired look.

Anchorhead said:

The originals are gone, but the truth about them will never be.