canofhumdingers

Just watched this all the way through.  Simply fantastic.  You've done it yet again Harmy!

Marty.McFly said:

What is the name of Adywan's ANH ACHVDFRT...don;t know the acronym LOL...the one w/o his changes but in HD?

And, if he's done the other 2, what are the names of those?

If someone could help me there I'd really appreciate it as I want to find a torrent for those.

 

Thanks!

 The acronym is AVCHD.  And the restored OOT HD ones aren't made by Adywan, they're made by Harmy (though he used, with permission, many other peoples' work in the process & I believe some of Adywan's wok is included).

Anyay, they're called the despecialized editions & can be found in the following threads (& are totally amazing!).

Star Wars:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Harmys-STAR-WARS-Despecialized-Edition-HD-AVCHD-DVD9-and-NTSC-DVD5-AVAILABLE-see-1st-post/topic/12713/

The Empire Strikes Back:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Harmys-THE-EMPIRE-STRIKES-BACK-Despecialized-Edition-HD-DVD9-AVCHD-and-SD-NTSC-DVD5-AVAILABLE-NOW-Read-1st-post/topic/12511/page/1/

Return of the Jedi:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Harmys-RETURN-OF-THE-JEDI-Despecialized-Edition-HD-AVCHD-DVD9-available-SEE-FIRST-POST/topic/12905/page/1/

Sorry for the double post.  Someone mentioned wanting buttons/badges.

Here's a 1 inch button

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/customize/product2.aspx?number=569443729

And a 3.5 inch button

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/customize/product2.aspx?number=569444265

Alright, I made a new one at cafepress.com with the final files (it still asks for a higher resolution if you want to make it any bigger than what I did...)

Anyway, it's $5.75 shipped for one 3x5 sticker like the one below

Here's the link to buy it if anyone wants one.

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/customize/product2.aspx?number=569441325

I posted this (my first ever) review on Amazon:

(one star)

George Lucas continues to tinker with his films yet again. Adding even more out-of-place CGI to decades old films and making other unnessecary changes while failing to fix obvious technical flaws... And all of this while continuing to suppress (& allowing to rot away) the original versions of these historic films that started it all. If other classic and much older films like Metropolis and The Wizard of Oz can be restored; and films like Superman 2, Blade Runner, and Close Encounters can have multiple cuts released so veiwers can choose which version to watch, why can't Star Wars? It's time for Lucasfilm to restore & preserve the orginal films that changed history and became an instant legend. This has just gotten ridiculous.

If you'd like to know more about the various changes the films have been through, as well as the current state of things, check out savestarwars.com.

ah rats, I see my sticker & t shirt links don't work after I close the original page, so you guys probably can't see what I did....  I'll have to play with it some more later & see if I can get it to work.

EDIT: Ok, let's see if this works...  Oh, & cafe press does buttons/badges as well, so you could totally make some of those!

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/customize/product2.aspx?number=567782905

Good call fixing the first "S".  Here's a link to buy stickers from cafepress with the updated image.  It's a 3x5 inch sticker.  To make it any bigger, they say it needs to be a higher res image.  But it looks pretty good to me.  I know people who've used cafepress for things like this before & they are very high quality, equivalent to professional bumper stickers.  I would think these would last much longer than what you could print from home, depending on where you want to stick it.

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/customize/product2.aspx?number=567726754

Here's a quick t-shirt idea.  Again, if you want it any bigger it needs to be higher res.

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/customize/product2.aspx?number=567728526

nm.  I figure it out...

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/customize/product2.aspx?number=567673483

This is my favorite.  Thanks None & Anchorhead!  The black & yellow one is great too, but the one above just screams awesome.  Now how do we get stickers of this?  I've heard of a place called cafepress.com.  playing with their custom sticker maker right now but can't figure out how to copy & paste this image into it...

SilverWook said:

My idea for a bumper sticker is it simply says "Save Star Wars" using the '77 logo, with "Save" in matching font at the top.

Have the url to Zombie's site and/or OT.com below it.

 This is a GREAT idea for a sticker.  Someone make it, NOW!!

TheBoost said:

Baronlando said:

This guy's gag about the poster isn't bad.

<a href="http://www.chud.com/64493/new-postertrailer-for-red-tails-still-promises-lucasfilm-cheesefest/"></a><a href="http://www.chud.com/64493/new-postertrailer-for-red-tails-still-promises-lucasfilm-cheesefest/" target="_blank" title="www.chud.com/64493/new-postertrailer-for-red-tails-still-promises-lucasfilm-cheesefest/"></a><a href="http://www.chud.com/64493/new-postertrailer-for-red-tails-still-promises-lucasfilm-cheesefest/" target="_blank" title="http://www.chud.com/64493/new-postertrailer-for-red-tails-still-promises-lucasfilm-cheesefest/</a">www.chud.com/64493/new-postertrailer-for-red-tails-still-promises-lucasfilm-cheesefest/">http://www.chud.com/64493/new-postertrailer-for-red-tails-still-promises-lucasfilm-cheesefest/</a>

If it was a painting no one would have batted an eye, but it's CG and the guys says "look CG!" and acts like he's made some kind of wry observation.

EDIT: On second glace, seriously, IS that a painting?

I don't think that's the point he's making (about CGI).  It is a painting (i think), but it also DEFINATELY looks like the adds you used to see for combat flight sims back in their heyday, which then implies it's just a silver screen video game (which remains yet to be seen, but wouldn't surprise me...).

Just skimming through, all I can say is Thank you again, Harmy! You;ve done an incredible job. Can't wait to watch this all the way through!

YES! Part 28 is now downloading at over 800kbps....  In under 4 minutes, this will be MINE!!

referencing the custom covers, I found this recently & think it would make a pretty awesome cover for ESB...

Part 31 finally worked. Now I'm just waiting for part 28....

argh... parts 28 & 31 have become "temporarily unavailable"... I've got everything else. The wait begins....

As the years go by I find myself falling more and more into the hate category. It's been at least 3 years since I've actually watched a prequel, which is great b/c they're finally becoming such a distant memory that I'm able to once again watch the OT without ANYTHING from the prequels coming to mind & diminishing my enjoyment. Whenever I do see a clip or read postings on the web about the prequels I'm just reminded how bad they are and how much they detract from the awesomeness of the OT. It's almost like George sat down & decided "hey, let me take everything that was awesome & worked really well in Star Wars and find a way to forever taint it & make it less enjoyable.

I guess that's really the problem. As movies themsleves, the prequels range from mediocre to just awful, but it's the way they taint (for me at least) all the stuff I enjoy about the OT that really makes me grind my teeth in anger & frustration.

Found it. Awesome.

is tehparadox a torrent site? any chance this'll be available via one of the filehosting sites like rapidshare or ulozto.net before too long?

Holy crap I just peed my pants.

Harmy, you are freaking insane, & I LOVE IT!! Those lightsabers look perfect! Lucasfilm should just be flat out embarrassed at how far amatuer fans have surpassed their own "professional" products!!

Also, if it's not too late, I noticed another glitch similar to the one on Luke's hair in Leia's cell. It happens at 1:27:19. Watch Han's shoulders. Like the "humdinger", it's a one frame wonder, so you might have to step frame by frame to first spot it. It happens right as Han is closest to the camera.

Sorry to pick apart your work, but it's really a compliment b/c I've been watching them over & over. I just can't get over how awesome they are!

My guess is it'll be the '97 SE if it's really 35mm, which is still miles better than the most recent version... I'd certainly go.

theprequelsrule said:

your opponent should always be threatened by your weapon position

theprequelsrule said:

Something like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln94E9AGYTc would have been nice in the prequels.

no problem. Ultimately, it's really hard to say what could've been done or what was happening in their minds at the time. Remember this was in slow motion & these things are happening in fractions of seconds in real life. Each person was constantly making adjustments, changes, & adapting to the situation as it unfolded. These are also very high ranking individuals with decades of experience. I've been practicing kendo for a little over 5 years (with about 2.5 years of olympic style fencing before that) so I'm still considered very much a beginner. I can only analyze these guys so much b/c I have so little experience comparatively.

Also, blocking/deflecting is something that is very complicated, hard to do, and especially to describe. It is poor form to hold your sword up horizontally to block as it is a really weak posture (someone striking with good strength will knock the sword down with the power of their strike & still hit you in the head, your wrists just aren't stong enough to stop a powerful blow). Also, you NEVER block with the sharpend edge (it will ruin the edge & create a weak point where the swod can break more easily. plus if you strike two katanas edge on edge they literally stick together as the edges cut into each other & then must be forcibly pulled apart...). You also don't block directly with the side of the sword, as it can be broken or bent too easily. You either use the side of the sword at an angle to deflect the force of the blow, or use the hard back side of the blade to block/deflect. But the best thing to do is to cut down your opponent before you have to counter his strike...

Ultimately I guess I have to say "to each his own". It's difficult to discuss on a msg board specifics about why the prequel sword fights look so much faker than the OT sword fights, especially to someone who doesn't have experience with real sword weilding martial arts.

Ultimately, despite what most people might think, the OT fighting is actually much more aggresive and threating b/c of the techniquies and posture/stnaces used. A major concept in both Kendo and Fencing is "controlling the center" which, is reall too complicated to explain here. But the essence of it is to keep your sword in lined up with the center of your opponent's body, with the tip pointed directly at their throat. In this way, if they try to move in, they do the work for you by skewering themselves on your sword. Any time you deviate from controlling the center, you open yourself to attack. This is a significant part of the concept of being willing to sacrifice yourself to defeat your opponent in that you MUST give up at least some control of the center in order to strike.

While neither OT or PT fighting is truly realistic, the PT in particular really throws out the idea of maintaining an aggressive, threating posture until you see an opening in which to strike. They are constantly doing things like twirling, spinning, etc. that leaves themselves SUPER wide open for attack. The reason watching it in slow-mo still looks like it "works" is b/c it's all coreographed to MAKE it work....

But, like I said, to each his own. I can willingly suspend my disbelief while watching swordfights in movies & defer to what looks good onscreen, but only to a point. The prequels go far beyond that point for me too many times in their fights. And of course that point is going to different for each person.

And talking about controlling the center, here's a good video of two hachi dan (equivalent of 8th degree black belt, the highest rank in kendo that literally takes over 30 yrs of training to reach) fighting in slowmo. They are each trying to control the center & force the opponent to make an opening until one of them spots an opening and attacks it. If you watch, what creates the opening is the guy on the left dips the tip of his sword & brings it around to the other side of his opponent's sword in an attempt to find an opening (probably to strike the right wrist of the guy on the right). This opens the head of the left guy for attack.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYttYhzZZX8&feature=related

This is another really neat one that shows some of the deflecting techniques including two very effective uses of the hand guard (you never really "block" in kendo so much as just slightly deflect your opponent's blows off target)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMB_8KyW-5E&feature=relmfu