corellian77

I'd drop the first slo-mo "noooo" altogether and just go with that latest version Frink.  The cricket's were especially a nice touch :)

As for the Qui-Gon line, I tried my hand at tinkering with it.  I'm having trouble capturing audio at the moment, but you can at least get an idea of how well I was able to blend the "Don't be a--" portion:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=X38LROA0

On that note, have you thought about just using something off the soundboards, such as "Are you brainless?", or better yet have Qui-Gon respond with "You hear something?"  Then have an awkward silence, followed by Panaka repeating his line, only to have Qui-Gon cut him off, saying, "You hear something?" again.

Or, if you could find a line of Panaka saying something like "really?" or "yes?", you could have this exchange taken from soundboard clips:

Qui-Gon: I forsee that you will become a great Jedi knight.

Panaka: Really?

Qui-Gon: Not likely.

greenpenguino said:

I cracked up when Ric interrupted Captain Pancake

+ 1.  That made me laugh too :)

My non-film related Star Wars memories mostly revolve around the toys.

I remember going with my mother to this department store in my home town about once ever couple of weeks back when I was maybe around 6-8.  The main level was just clothes and stuff, but the basement level housed the toy section.  Every time I went there I remember running down the stairs to the Star Wars aisle and looking for C-3PO (for a long while, the only droids I owned were R2 and the Death Star droid... "RA-7"... and I was getting tired of pretending the Death Star droid was 3PO).

I also remember getting Walrusman and Hammerhead for Easter one year.  I was so young I couldn't even get their guns in their hands by myself, so my dad had to do it for me.  I LOVED those two figures... to this day it remains one of my fondest memories of getting a gift.  I just thought they looked so cool.

I also remember playing with my Jawa, R2, and "3PO" figures on my parents' brown couch.  I'd lean a pillow against the arm of the couch, stick the Jawa back in there, and reenact the scene where they ambush R2.

I also used to have one of those Star Wars "Give-a-show" projectors from Kenner.  I remember playing with it in our basement at home while my mom did the laundry.  I especially loved the slide with the Sand Person weilding his gaffi stick.

But, looking back, perhaps my favourite Star Wars memory is of my dad endlessly drawing and redrawing his best rendition of the Vader / Obi-Wan duel for me on my little chalk board.  He was no artist by any stretch of the imagination, and the drawings were just simple outlines of the characters' profiles holding their lightsabers, but for me it was magic :)

...

And people say Star Wars is "just a movie."  It's clearly so much more than that... it was my childhood.

By the way dark_jedi, I watched the clip again tonight in its entirety, and I'm thinking I should recant my last comment about the lack of grain.  I'll ultimately trust in yours (and everyone else's) input/opinion on this subject, but quite frankly the image quality is freaking amazing.

I'm wondering: are we simply used to the GOUT looking grainy?  Or is there, in fact, too much grain removal here?  I'm really undecided.

(I can't believe we're having a discussion about whether the GOUT is too clean :)

timdiggerm said:

20th Century Mark said:

Are these DVDs available yet?

I'd just like to second this question.

Versions 1 and 2 are available, but version 3 is (I believe) being put on hold while dark_jedi figures out if he can instead release this version on blu-ray.

Oh, I guess the debate is over then.

Frink, instead of having Ric say "forward stabilizer" (which doesn't blend well with the other lines), have you considered keeping his original line, but just having him repeat it constantly in the background during the whole escape scene?  It would be like he's freaking out while Qui-Gon and company are trying to deal with the situation.

Hey DJ, I just watched the first 10 minutes of the most recent upload, and I'm totally blown away.  I'd LOVE to have a copy of the original trilogy at this level of quality.  I actually had trouble believing that this was sourced from the GOUT.

The only two things I'd throw out there for consideration are:

1) tweaking the grain so the image looks a little less "plastic" as other have said (although, to be honest, I think the image is outstanding as is, and would be totally happy if it were reflective of the final result.  Plus, as you mentioned, this might be the tipping point, where adding more grain begins to subtract from the video quality.  As always, I'm sure whatever you decide will be for the best).

2) I know you said you messed with the colours, so no need to comment on them (they looked really good, actually), but I was just curious if the blues, in particular, were altered.  I ask only because in some scenes the blues were almost too vibrant (i.e., some scenes with R2, the legs on R5-D4 when Luke goes to buy him).

Looking forward to this more than ever DJ.

"Why worry?  Each of us is wearing an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on his back." -- Peter Venkman, Ghostbusters

"This is what happens when you FUCK... A STRANGER... IN THE ASS!" -- Walter Sobchak, The Big Lebowski

kenkraly2004 (over at forum.blu-ray.com) said:

I like Rick [McCallum] he's a very intelligent guy about film.

I've come to the conclusion that kenkraly either:

a) has the greatest sense of humour of any individual I've ever met,

b) is a complete clown, or

c) is really Rick McCallum.

dark_jedi said:

I already said a few posts back,

"OH, and sorry up front about the color, now I have been fucking around with it."

Ah, my apologies.  I thought you were referring to the upcoming sample clips.  Downloading them now... looking forward to watching these.

doubleofive said:

Ric needs to write the DVD blurb.

"This is the back of a DVD case! You're holding it in your hand! If you take put the disc and put it in your player, you can watch The Ridiculous Menace, a fan edit of Episode I starring me, Ric Olie!"

+1 :)

For the end credits, the two things that came to mind were either Blade Runner's End Titles track or Rafi's Banana Phone.

Amazing screens DJ!  I can't believe that's the GOUT we're seeing.  However, I'd have to agree with LeeThorogood and Adywan that some of the images look like they could be modified somewhat.  Shot #2, for example, looks "weird" to my eye, for lack of a better word--I don't know if it's the colours or the lack of grain, but the screen grab looks almost like it's from a camcorder, if that makes any sense:

Also, I'm divided on the brightness/saturation (whatever the correct term may be).  The blacks look very rich, but as you can seen in the screen grabs below, the most recent shot of 3PO outside the escape pod is much darker than the first 720p shot.  I know the GOUT can stand to have higher contrast and more saturation, but I'm not sure if this is too much considering the loss of detail (recent on top, 720p below):

All that being said, this is shaping up to be head and shoulders above anything I had expected from this project.  I'm really looking forward to seeing what else you try out, and will gladly download the sample clip once it's uploaded.

DJ, can you use something like Ifoedit to fix the problem you're having with the celltimes/chapters?  As for DVDLab, I don't have the program installed at the moment, but I seem to remember there being a check box or something when you're about to compile the DVD that's supposed to give you more accurate chapters.

Clips look good Frink.  I like Bingo's suggestion about Qui-Gon just walking into Maul's lightsaber, but not sure how you'd do that.

Just overlay a yellow rectangle around the border of the entire movie, with text underneath that reads "everything highlighted in yellow has been altered." :)

Thanks for the info Moth3r.

I just watched the 720p clip on my computer with VLC (I have a PS3, but wasn't sure how to burn it or if I could even just load it via USB).  At any rate, on my 22" monitor alone it looked fantastic.  Maybe it's just my imagination, but the image seems just a bit crisper compared to any earlier clips you've shared.

I'll have to download the 1080p clip tomorrow.  But from what I've seen, I'd definitely be all for a BD quality release of this.

^ You're faring out even worse than xhonzi.

BloodnoseThePirate said:

So, ... how long are we supposed to leave our avatars like this?

Until the Lucasfilm police can positively ID all of us, come to our homes, bust down our doors, and take us away for "rehabilitation."

Thanks Chewtobacca.  So instead of telling VDub to use Lagarith, it was left defaulted to "Uncompressed RGB/YCbCr."  Is this better/worse than having used the lagarith codec?  "Uncompressed" sounds like it would be ideal, no?  (btw, the file size looks like it'll be around the 160-170GB mark by the time it's done).

Anyone else find that The Aluminum Falcon looks an awful lot like Alfred Hitchcock?

Moth3r said:

After you've created and saved the script, open the AVS file with VirtualDub. Using a lossless codec for video compression - I recommend Lagarith - save the video as an AVI file. This will take hours but you only have to do it once.

Quick question: I downloaded both VirtualDub and Lagarith.  I installed the Lagarith codec (I believe, anyway... it created a .dll file in a Windows sub-directory).  I then installed and ran Vdub, and started the conversion into a lossless AVI as you suggested.  My question is, is Vdub using Lagarith automatically?  Or did I have to instruct it to use it somehow?

Couldn't resist:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ash-It_Eeyoo_Naim

Edit:  Crap!  They deleted it :(  That didn't last long.

On the topic of Anakin, I always thought the other little dude who tried out for the part (as seen in the "Beginning" documentary that came with TPM) would've made a much better Anakin.