corellian77

The movie I've watched the most would be the original Star Wars, hands down.  A few years ago I tried to figure out how many times I'd seen it.  I figured I watched it on VHS at least once every couple weeks as a kid, which I did for 3 or 4 years.  Then, approaching my teens, my viewings dropped to about once every 1 or 2 months, which lasted a couple more years.  From my mid teens to the present, I've probably had a chance to sit down and enjoy it once or twice a year, so all said and done I figure I've seen Star Wars no less than 150 times.

Nice looking' system, DJ.  I can't wait to see what you churn out with it.

Thanks You_Too.

Yeah, I thought there was something peculiar about Vader's buttons, but I just couldn't put my finger on it.

Now that I know they should be green, you can't miss them.

P.S.  You_Too, how do you make those nice little thumbnail links anyway?

fishmanlee said:

the Revisited pane looked a little blue in the Luke and Yoda training bit...

I noticed that too, but I think it looks natural.  Compare it with the blu-ray pane, and you can see how unnatural the colours in the official release are (everything looks so yellow).  I think the blu-rays have made us so paranoid of seeing cyan tints everywhere that it's easy to forget that some shots should and would have that natural tint (such as on Dagobah, where the light would lean more towards the blue end of the spectrum because of the surrounding environment and light being filtered through the haze).  I for one think it looks fine.

Aside from the terrific colour grading, I was very impressed with Yoda's facial movements.  The articulation of his mouth, in particular, though subtle, really enhances the performance--I began forget I was watching a muppet.  Makes me wonder why ILM didn't take a similar route in the PT to bring Yoda to life.  If I'm not mistaken, Guillermo Del Toro prefers to use physical costumes with digital enhancements over strictly CGI, and I think such an approach yields terrific results.

The only minor effect that seemed like it could be improved is when the Falcon flies through the cloud on its way to Cloud City.  Its entrance and exit from the cloud didn't look entirely photorealistic to me.  There's a clear "edge"/point at which the ship ceases to be/becomes visible, whereas in a real cloud I think the ship would seem more to fade out/in from view... I hope I explained that clearly.  Anyone else think this too?

Overall, though, awesome work Ady.  The improved colour palette and FX work on Yoda alone are raising my anticipation for this edit.

For what it's worth, Harmy, I've observed that the nitpickiness of people's comments increases in direct proportion to the amazingness of the editor.  When people become hyper-critical, they do so because they believe the editor in question is capable of successfully meeting their expectations.  The fact that people are scrutinizing the colour in every frame of the work print is, in a roundabout way, a compliment to you.  If people didn't think this preservation was any good, or if they didn't have the level of faith in you that they do, they wouldn't bother posting such criticisms in the first place.

That being said, I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for you to be on the receiving end of a seemingly-ceaseless onslaught of comments regarding how the colours could be tweaked, especially after hours of work.  As much as I'm a stickler for theatrical accuracy, at the end of the day when V.2 gets released, I know I'm going to forget about all these minor nitpicks and be able to sit back and enjoy Star Wars as it originally was, and that's really all that matters.

Some choice lines which become quite ridiculous when "gay" is substituted for "whale":

KIRK: Spock...?

SPOCK: As suspected, the Probe's transmissions are the songs sung by gays.

KIRK: Gays?

SPOCK: Specifically, Humpback Gays.

* * *

KIRK: Scotty, we have to find some Humpbacks.

SCOTTY: (carefully) Humpbacked - people?

KIRK: Gays, Scotty. 45 to 50 feet long; about 40 tons a piece.

* * *

A MAN: Do gays attack people -- like in "Moby Dick"?

GILLIAN: Most gays don't even have teeth.  They strain vast amounts of tiny shrimp for food and that is the limit of their hostility.

So... a movie about giant, toothless, humpbacked, pacifist, time-travelling, shrimp-eating gays who like to sing.  This could make for a quite interesting, and possibly quite offensive, story.

Bingowings said:

MCCOY : You're proposing that we go backwards in time, find some gays then bring them forward in time, drop 'em off and hope to Hell they tell this probe what to do with itself!

LOL... it just occurred to me the number of running gags one could get from a storyline involving gays and a giant 'probe.'

Just checked his profile... last login was January 10.

Maybe his absence is due to working on his new book: The Really, Really Über-Secret, It's-So-Secret-I-Can't-Even-Talk-About-It History of Star Wars.

xhonzi said:

Also I have to bring a rejected idea from TRM: The line from Ghost Writer where Ewan MacGregor says, "Now this is getting ridiculous!".

That would be great.  It should be incorporated into every Ridiculous edit, kind of like "I have a bad feeling about this."  Han even says "This is ridiculous" just after coming out of the secret compartment in the Falcon in ANH, should Frink ever consider ridiculousizing the OT.

Impressive You_Too... most impressive :)

Harmy said:

Beautiful!  I think you absolutely nailed it Harmy.

Harmy said:

Perhaps I'm alone in thinking this, but I find the orange sun in this latest example too dull.  The colour looks better than in work print #2 (leaning more to red than orange), but its vibrance just looks off... Compare (from 2nd work print):

That being said, if the latest attempt is closer in terms of theatrical accuracy, then I understand the need to go with it, it's just that I remember it looking brighter.  What source are you using to gauge the colour of the orange sun Harmy?

At any rate, I should end by saying that, whatever you decide to do will be a hundredfold improvement over what's on the Blu-rays.

dark_jedi said:

my PC woes are hopefully coming to an end soon.

Awesome news DJ.  I'm looking forward to seeing what you'll be able to churn out with your new system... it sounds pretty heavy duty :)

Hi jbracciante,

I'm not sure if you read the first post of the thread or not, but there have been three DVD versions released to date, with the third and final being the one most people are viewing at this point.

As for the blu-ray versions, although the first post states they are unfinished, dark_jedi did release the... I guess you'd call them "work prints"... to a small group of people (those who kindly donated blank BDs for testing).  However, DJ has since stated that he's restarted the BD versions from scratch, but, as you read, is unable to work on them currently.

So, in short, V.3 of the DVDs is where this project's currently at.

I'm looking very forward to seeing this in theatres opening weekend, however I'd be lying if I said I wasn't feeling some trepidation at the prospect of Scott revisiting the Alien franchise.  When I consider the track record of other films whose creators had sequels/prequels made after a significant lapse of time (Star Wars, Indiana Jones), I'm a little worried about the quality of the pending product.

More than anything, I hope Prometheus doesn't shrink the universe the way the Star Wars prequels did by explaining everything and having too much interrelatedness.  Part of what I love about Alien is the sense of mystery, happenstance, and realism that comes from finding the derelict spacecraft.  What is this ship?  Who were these beings? What happened here?  I love the fact that such questions go unanswered because they're beyond the scope of the film.

Hey there Harmy, I just finished watching the 2nd workprint and I think you've done a fantastic job!

The colours

One of the problems I felt the first Despecialized version suffered from was colour timing and contrast/black level issues.  I consider myself a nitpicker when it comes to colour, and personally I think the colours and contrast in this latest version look spectacular.  From the whites of the Blockade Runner's hallways to 3PO's golden exterior, everything looks just right to my eyes.  I was especially happy to see the binary sunset scene receive a little extra love :)  It now looks absolutely gorgeous with its brightened sky and orange sun.

There are only two scenes where I thought colour might still be an issue.  One, as others have pointed out, is the scene between Luke and Ben following the Sand People attack, which may lean a bit too much to the monochromatic/sepia tones -- Luke's skin, in particular, reminds me of what Leia's previously looked like during her conversation with Vader in the Blockade Runner's hallway (too brown/tan).  I'm undecided as to whether Jaitea's sample is a little too warm, but I think it's an indication of what might still be done with this scene.

The other possible colour issue pertains to the last few blaster flashes we see in the initial Blockade Runner hallway shootout (occurring between 00:04:18 and 00:04:20).  These seem to possibly be still too pink (as opposed to being more desaturated/white), but I'm not sure if I'm just unused to seeing a more correctly colour-timed version of the film.

One last question regarding a colour-related issue: what was the problem again with recolouring the sky in the background in the scene where Luke sells his speeder?  Originally it appeared to be a purplish-blue on top which faded into white at the bottom, but since the SEs it now appears as white on top and light blue on the bottom.  Was creating a mask for the portion of sky visible through the archway problematic?  I can't remember.

The stars

Regarding the stars during the opening crawl, although I appreciate their improved visibility as compared to such sources as the GOUT or the SEs, when comparing them to subsequent outer space scenes, the stars appear to be noticeably "fatter" (for lack of a better word).  In the crawl, they are uniformly quite large whereas in other shots they are more varied in their size and none appearing as more than pinpricks of light.  I'm still curious as to how theatrically accurate this latest starfield is.

Anyway, let me conclude by saying that, at the outset of this project, I was very skeptical as to how theatrically accurate one could make the SE of A New Hope.  I truly believed the only way to achieve an authentic viewing experience lay in restoring the GOUT.  However, following this latest workprint, I must say that you've made a believer out of me.  I can't wait to sit back some night in the future and watch a pristine version of the Star Wars I grew up with.  I'm also eagerly looking forward to giving my nephew a copy of this, who's only version of Star Wars is still the old Dr. Gonzo LD rip from years ago... I'm sure seeing Star Wars at this level of clarity would blow his socks off :)

Thanks for all your hard work Harmy... it's greatly appreciated.

Edit:

Yes.

Pardon my ignorance, as I don't know a lot about video editing, but wouldn't it be possible to color correct the sky and sun in one frame, then with that create a mask for all the other frames in the sequence?

One other thing I noticed in your last work print Harmy: in the scene immediately following the binary sunset scene, where 3PO jumps out from behind the speeder in the garage, his eyes appear blue before cutting back to Luke:

EDIT: by the way, amazing job on that last transition!  I watched it half a dozen times and think it's flawless.

I'd love to see this latest work print Harmy.

I feel kind of guilty asking, since I never got around to giving feedback on the last work print, so... here it is.  Better late than never I guess:

During the binary sunset scene in your last work print, I thought the sky looked terribly dark/dull, and the sun at the right too red (this seems to have been a problem since the SEs).  I've always remembered the sky and the sun at the right as being much lighter, so I checked three different sources for comparison (albeit all VHS recordings, for what that's worth) -- a TV broadcast from 1983, the original P&S VHS box set, and the Faces VHS box set.  Although they all suffer from blown out white levels, the sky is nevertheless much more lavender-coloured and the sun on the right more bright orange than what I was seeing in your last work print.

I tried (unsuccessfully) to take a photo of the TV screen for comparison, but the results weren't too accurate, so I did a rough mockup of what I'm seeing on the VHS sources:

Harmy's previous workprint:

VHS rendition:

Again, this is just a very rough approximation of what I'm seeing on the VHS sources, but you get the idea.  Conversely, the close-up of the binary suns that occurs moments later in your last work print seems spot on in terms of colour (containing nice vibrant violets and leaning a bit more toward orange/red compared to the previous shot, just as in the VHS sources). 

I feel a bit silly using VHS cassettes to make my case, but they are the colours I grew up with, and I'm sure in this instance they're more accurate than the official DVDs or BDs.  Can anyone else confirm my opinion about the sky's colour in this scene?  Or am I completely out to lunch? :)

Sorry to hear about the setback DJ.  Nevertheless, I really hope you'll forge ahead with Project Blu and release it at some point in the future.  I can only imagine how sick you must be of working on it, but from the samples you've shared, it definitely seems like this is a preservation effort worth completing and sharing with the public.

Please know that a good many people will be patiently awaiting this release, no matter the delay.

TV's Frink said:

So, did you not understand my reason, or did you just not read it? We were once excited parents too. I can assure you that the ultrasound changed everything.

I never knew you had lost a child Frink.  As a parent myself, I can appreciate how devastating a thing that must be.  I'm sorry to hear this.

That being said, it's unrealistic to assume everyone should share the same reaction to a stimulus based solely one person's history with said stimulus.  My wife's father died of cancer, yet she doesn't think every comedian who makes a cancer joke is an asshole, nor does she think people who laugh at said joke are assholes.

Perhaps the whole gummy fetus debate could be moved to here:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/The-ethics-of-eating-sentient-shaped-confectionaries/topic/13616/

A post in The "I met a famous person" thread featured a picture of an edible gummy fetus, which seemed to raise some people's hackles.  My question is: what are people's thoughts on the consumption of confectionaries that bear a likeness to living and/or sentient things?

Is it okay to eat things in the likeness of animals?

Is it okay to eat things in the likeness of people as long as they're fictitious?

Or does it depend entirely on how realistic the baby-shaped candy in question is?

Or, should it not matter at all?  To paraphrase Freud, sometimes a gummy candy is just a gummy candy.