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darkhelmet

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Join date
23-Apr-2006
Last activity
21-Jul-2015
Posts
520

Post History

Post
#304082
Topic
The Dark Times (3-in-1) - PART 1 AVI RELEASED! (* unfinished project *)
Time
Very cool! Just watched Chapter 1, and aside from the audio editing, I'm really excited to see how this project turns out!

Just one critique: some of the resequencing is a bit jarring/confusing. Jarring - i.e., the different backgrounds when Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon meet Maul (though it gets tied together better when they move the fight into the power core [?] area). Confusing - i.e., Hologram Sidious is saying "It's too aggressive", but it's not clear what was too aggressive; the ship in the forest doesn't seem to be aggressive without some kind of explanation.

Very exciting overall to see Episode I boiled down to something very action packed with minimal silliness! Nice job, jedi_jra.
Post
#303528
Topic
Episode 3 - Editing Back in Progress (* unfinished project *)
Time
Update : Okay, well I'm seeing light at the end of the anamorphic rough-cut tunnel, I think. Total running time is, and I can imagine this might freak some people out, about 1 hour 34 minutes including credits! But there is still more editing to be done.

I will be adding in footage from other Star Wars movies to do things like filling out the elapsed time between certain events (like Goodmusician has done in 1 or 2 of his scene edits). I'd also like to do an internal cockpit shot of either Obi-Wan's fighter or Padme's ship entering Hyperspace! Add in a bit more of the OT feel.

I'm hopeful for the end of the movie, though I am still a bit apprehensive that it might come off like a slideshow instead of a proper end to a movie. Too early to tell.
Post
#303172
Topic
Prequel Trilogy - Sagafied (* unfinished project *)
Time
Good to see you back on your thread, Tome! It's an interesting and cool development that the prequel movies, inspired in Lucas in part by classic serial sci-fi (I'm assuming short films or early TV), are coming full circle back to the source of their inspiration with your edits.

It makes perfect sense for the reasons you mentioned for the movies to work in a serial TV show format. I wish I could help with the DVD release, but I'm swamped. I look forward to checking out the individual episodes!
Post
#302801
Topic
The Star Wars Holiday Special De-Campified (Released)
Time
There's some good discussion here in the more recent posts.

Adywan's done some amazing color correction work. Here's his post with some comapartive corrections:

Originally posted by: adywan
It looks to me what OCP has done is just raise the gamma settings without adjusting the input black & white levels. Using just the gamma setting will bring out all the noise in the darker & some other areas. I came across this problem when i was first attempting to colour correct ANH. But i found that you only need to raise the gamma very slightly and then use the input white level to brighten without bringing out too much noise. Here's an comparison example. Here you can see that i have managed to brighten up the image without bringing out too much noise in the darker areas and is almost as bright as OCP's. i boosted the saturation on my image just to match OCP's just for this example. The original of mine has had the saturation dropped by about 20%

http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/8455/comparisonvl4.jpg

I find it is always best to do some quick renders first onto a dvd-rw and check on a few tv's to see if any problems have occured with brightening & colour correction. The problem with the 2004 DVD's is that the detail has been lost in the black areas and no amount of brightening will fix this. Its all just finding a good balance between brightness & minimal image noise.


Your color-corrected frame grab of Han and Chewie has a little too much green in it to my eye. I do like the brighter treatment you did to the second frame grab, but the blacks are a little washed out. I realize that you're working with a degraded picture to start with, but maybe there are some tips to pick up.
Post
#302597
Topic
Episode 3 - Editing Back in Progress (* unfinished project *)
Time
Update Things have been busy, and I haven't had much motivation to get back to the actual movie editing, but I have finally done more tweaking to the title crawl.

Continued thanks to Erikstormtrooper for his help sorting this out; I think it's just about finalized. It seems the hardest thing about editing Grievous out of the movie might be writing him out of the crawl!
Post
#302496
Topic
wmv compression issue
Time
I've done a lot of compression to WMV but mostly for short clips, and I haven't noticed a synch issue using Adobe Media Encoder, Digital Rapids Stream or Sorenson Squeeze. However, I've never worked with Vegas, so I don't really have any advice except that maybe you could post the problem on a Vegas forum. Just didn't want your question to sit here unanswered. Cheers!
Post
#302494
Topic
Fall to the Dark Side?
Time
xhonzi: I think Lex is still an interesting bad guy; even though he's slipped so far and has embraced immoral means to his ends, there is that glimmer of desire to be good, to somehow do the right thing; even if he has "fallen", it's interesting to see the torment that sometimes grips him and how he seems to defend other characters from harm at points.

In the Star Wars novel DARTH BANE: PATH OF DESTRUCTION by Drew Karpyshyn you get an awesome view into a fall to the darkside that should have been what Anakin's fall was. It's also a great treat to see the Force more deeply explained (albeit the dark side mostly) and used! I can't recommend it highly enough.

The sequel's coming out at the end of this month: DARTH BANE: RULE OF TWO.
Post
#301955
Topic
Episode 3 - Editing Back in Progress (* unfinished project *)
Time
jedi_jra : Nice, subtle editing of the Anakin/Padme scene overall! I might do the same in my edit for the most part. The use of Vader's theme I thought worked nicely, though the audio edit was a bit rough on the transition to the next scene. A couple of things that don't work well editing-wise is the cut from Anakin seated and looking straight ahead of him to the close-up of him looking to the side and the shortened Palpatine voice-over which sounds too fragmentary to be a complete line.

I know you didn't like the quick series of Anakin shots originally used in the movie, but there may be nothing that can be done if each of the other shots is too short to be used alone. Also, maybe you could cut Palp's line completely.

With the Vader music, it does seem to be much more fateful of a scene; nice job there. I was hoping to do an edit along the lines of yours in regard to Anakin rushing in and lopping Mace's hand off to stop him from murdering Palp, but the footage just doesn't seem to allow for it as the time/space relationship of Anakin's speed entering the room and his lightsaber ignition from a standstill don't really give the impression of one fluid set of motions.

The story I've ended up with in using the footage as best I could is that Anakin decides to involve himself in Palp's arrest against Mace's orders only to find the Jedi Master and council leader about to murder Palp; this makes Anakin's allegiance to Palp more understandable as he has witnessed a Jedi Master bent on a dark side act. It also makes what was originally Anakin's later lie to Padme about Mace a fact he really believes is true.

Anakin has been duped but only insofar as his slippery-slope moral descent has led him to that point. Where he actually fell to the dark side is up for debate, but I feel that moment may very well have been when he slaughtered the Sand People in Episode II. I am comfortable with this idea, because it makes sense of Anakin's violent acts up to this point and seems realistic in that his fall was not a leap but smaller steps made in the heat of the moment of which other Jedi were not aware nor did Anakin confess to make them aware; essentially, he hid his crimes of passion.

Regarding other edits you made, I like how Mace no longer says "Not yet"; it makes the arrest seem more official and less personal and works well. Taking out Palp's line "It's treason, then" might be a problem for the overall story, but it was nicely done; one small suggestion: cut Palp's lightsaber shot shorter so that we either do not see him hit the recorder switch (which is what it was supposed to be in order for him to record the supposed Jedi rebellion) or that the flick of the switch seems to ignite the lightsaber itself.

Your edit has shown me some possibilities which hadn't occurred to me, so thanks for those and for your critique!
Post
#301491
Topic
Episode 3 - Editing Back in Progress (* unfinished project *)
Time
Good to hear from you guys! I'm glad the edit is receiving mostly positive feedback, and thanks for the constructive critiques. Realistically, it will be a while before it's finished as I will need to grapple with the details of audio editing to patch up the rough spots and of effects editing like rotoscoping.

cbaka : I do have a couple of ideas for how to do the Palp/Sidious metamorphosis, but the surprise (if either idea works) will need to wait. The scene flip was intentional, and I like the emotional quality it seems to impart, a visual change that underscores the character change in Anakin. However, I'm not sure I will keep it as the set doesn't allow for such an expansion of the room in reality; it may work, however, since the original scene never really gives a sense of the room's full scope. Also, so much of the film seems to be shot from the right of the characters, and I didn't notice how much this bothered me until I had the idea for the flip; it made the movie suddenly seem more cinematic.

jedi_jra : It's great to hear that you really enjoyed the scene edit; that's extra fuel for the tank on this long journey! Thanks for your edit suggestions for the Anakin/Padme scene. The funny thing is that the only thing I edited in that scene was cutting the final shot of Padme out since C3PO pointlessly entered the scene and bowed to her! This scene was really the only scene that I remember liking in the theater, because it was so character- and emotionally-centered. If I remove Palpatine's telepathic message to Anakin as has been suggested to me, I may need to cut the scene similarly to your suggestions, but hopefully the pace of it as is will be a nice part of the new movie flow. As for Anakin saying "You can't!", I sincerely hope that his need of Palpatine will be understood by this point in the movie and that I will not need to include the line as it makes me cringe. I'll need to wait and see if subtlety will work in this regard.

kerr : Sorry to hear that you are sans computer! I hope you can get a proper one soon. To your comments: 1) The silence will be fixed. 2) The line makes me cringe, so hopefully I won't need to use it; maybe the gradual build-up to this point with Anakin will make his need of Palpatine apparent. 3) Yeah, the intercutting was mostly a rough representation of the change, and I am planning to do more with it that will make it feel more "Starwarsy". 4) Hayden Christensen's acting makes me cringe at this line, too. I may need to put it back in, though, as the pacing of this part of the scene seems a bit off as is. 6) LOL! Ironically, I wanted a title that was more in line with "A New Hope", so the reason you dislike it is kind of a compliment that I hit the mark I was trying for! I do think that "The Phantom Menace" was a lame Star Wars title, though. And, finally, 7) the edit will be 5.1 (unless I can't figure out how to put it on DVD that way, but I don't think that will be much of an issue).

Onto more editing! I'll be continuing work on the rough cut of the entire film and then going back and finessing it. The rest of the movie has me a bit nervous becasue of all of the changes I hope to make. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that it doesn't all end up falling apart!
Post
#301446
Topic
Episode 3 - Editing Back in Progress (* unfinished project *)
Time
Update : I've edited through Anakin's turn to the Dark Side, and I like where the edit is heading. This is only the rough edit for story, flow, and dialogue purposes and does not reflect the final quality I am aiming for, much like the process of editing for a real motion picture.

For Anakin's turn, I may go back to re-edit the basics of the sequence, but the dialogue and character performances are much improved!

The scene can be downloaded here. Enjoy!
Post
#301315
Topic
Ian McDiarmid's performance in the PT (also the OT) is memorable and absolutely enthralling
Time
Originally posted by: vote_for_palpatine
I refuse to believe all the pulled faces and over-the-top antics were IMD's fault. McDiarmid will give a director exactly what he asks for - but George Lucas was his director. Therefore, Lord Silliness was the fault of Lucas, not IMD.


I tend to agree with you, though I've never seen McDiarmid in anything but a Star Wars movie. Awesome signature, BTW! HC,J: She - Great album.