mrbenja0618

Erikstormtrooper said:

Hey Trooperman!

It's always nice when you make a Special Guest Appearance :D

If there's any part of you that's willing, I still think you should make an effort to finish this up. After all these years, it still manages to impress many people (including me).

If you need a refresher, here's a post you wrote in November 0f 2009, on getting "the movie in at least a watchable condition":

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Episode-II-Shroud-of-the-Dark-Side-rough-cut-now-on-youtube/post/386218/#TopicPost386218

 

This! And let me also say I can still be involved if need be... And it doesn't have to be isolated to color correction.

Right.  My earlier post was meant to be positive. No updates mean Ady is hard at work.

muddyknees2000 said:

Nope

Poop. ;)

It's so quiet... I keep waiting for a "Surprise, it's done!" Maybe?

greenpenguino said:

Mrebo said:

greenpenguino said:

Argh! Lucas you stupid head, you ruined it.

 

What would've been cool if the jedi all wore armour similar to Darth Vader's armour.

 

Seeing something like this makes it feel like GL pulled his punches. This would have been very cool and effective visual. Luke's RToJ attire would have harkened back to the classic Jedi look.

I've been having a feeling that the PT should have had somewhat radical color grading. Not the very old technicolor look, but it suggests what I have in mind. Someone made a podrace mockup as if created in the 70s, it was just so much better! It couldn't be so extreme to be distracting and gimmicky, but I think it could be effective to embrace the essence of a prequel, as historical, to give it that feel.

Exactly.

I wrote somewhere on here a while ago about having the aesthetics of each of the prequels have a certain nostalgic-y retro-ness.

For instance, Episode 1 would look like it was made in the 1940s. Everything would be stylised to look like the film was made and 'set' in the 40s. Hair, clothes, technology i.e. buttons and switches. Chunky Computers using valves, lighting.) but the special effects would be done with models, a la the original films.

The technology in the prequels be clunky-er and cruder than the original films, Robots like R2 wouldn't appear until perhaps the third film or something.

Episode 2 and 3 would look like they were made in the 50s and 60s.

Interesting. So, kinda like the grading in the film War Horse. I would love to know how to duplicate that look.

Hopefully he uploads the rest. Tman, may I suggest not making the title obvious to youtube? It may kill your vids faster. Kinda surprised it's lasted this long, but I think that's due to your changes to the material.

Bingowings said:

The sense of urgency in the reworked Jedi/Palpatine/Padme meeting was sublime.

 

Faster! WITH MORE INTENSITY!

Trooperman said:

Well, I split up the 5.1 track off of the AOTC DVD and tried to isolate dialogue and the various other elements.  I had also downloaded a lot of old Star Wars effect sound files from the internet and used a lot of those instead of the prequel sounds.

While I'm on here I just want to thank everyone who helped me with this and you specifically for offering to help with color and etc.  I do appreciate it and this was a lot of fun to work on. 

-TM

You're welcome. Is this your goodbye to fanediting?

doubleofive said:

I think it comes down to that in ANH and ESB we're following basically the "white human" cell of the Rebellion. In RotJ all of the cells combine to make a united front to attack the DS2. That's the impression I get.

That's also the impression I got. Because you see nothing but humans until ROTJ. Then you have the fish, and then that weird co-pilot with Lando... Honestly, now that you mention it, there weren't enough aliens represented!

Ok, I'm watching this, and I'm still blown away. You obviously swapped music in areas. HOW?

Trooperman said:

I wanted to try to put SOTDS (rough cut of course) on youtube for a couple months so that people who didn't get the DVD could see it. I got 2 copyright warnings from Fox and SME already, so I will probably have to take it down. Unbelievable that this gets flagged considering how much actual piracy goes on unchallenged on youtube. Anyway, here's part 1. The quality is pretty terrible but at least it gives you a taste of what the rough cut is like.

-TM (Dan Brown is not my real name btw)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aCZCchhgcQ

Yup... Going to watch the DVD tonight. All your fault, T-man.

I read this thread all the time, but rarely comment. But, I want to say I'm more excited about this than I am the upcoming Summer flicks. This is my favorite Star Wars film, and I've honestly stayed away from watching it for the past year and a half so that when I watch revisited it will be a far more fresh experience. Thanks for all your hard work, Ady!

Moth3r said:

mrbenja0618 said:

For those of you are interested.... This was sent to me. tehe. =)

While this message is mildly amusing ("you will have trouble", etc.), my advice would be to drop it and leave them alone.

If you mean going back to their website? Had no plans to. Don't care to. This was disclosed to me from someone over there. I did not go myself, and I will not ever go back. Just simply found this amusing.

For those of you are interested.... This was sent to me. tehe. =)

So glad to see things are getting close, Ady!

This was just one of those kind of projects that just made everyone giddy.  Like Star Wars Reborn. Wish one of them could see the light of day. At least I have my workprint copy of SOTDS.

Tman, if you never pick this up again, I will totally understand. I was excited to work with you (Was doing color correction for you).... But I do understand the level of work involved, and then there was the tragic fate of my edit. So many things can go right and so many things can go wrong. But I really think what you have in rough form is very special.

It's funny we're all having this conversation, because I popped your workprint in my DVD player just the other day, and wow... Even in rough form it far exceeds what was given in the first place. I agree with your desired changes, but all that aside, it's a wonderful piece of work.

If you decide to pick this back up, I'll give you a hand again. Just let me know!

Killing Maul was almost the biggest mistake of The Phantom Menace. Maybe this will redeem him a bit. According to that article I get the feeling he survives to see possible future stories. But NOT episode 3! No, we get a crappy asthmatic warrior that comes out of nowhere. =/

I've also done Star Wars lightsaber rotoscoping and let me tell you, it is an evil and painfully slow process.  If you are dealing in NTSC at 29.97 frames per second, that means you manually have to move/tween/tweak a lightsaber blade 30 times for every one second of video.  That isn't even mentioning when the lines of the prop aren't clearly defined when in motion so it is harder to determine where the blade starts/stops.  Then you also have masking for elements in front of the blade itself, which, if it is a person's hand or something small and moving, is also done frame by frame.

This is why all my work is done in 5 fps. ;)

TV's Frink said:

It's not my fault this time...I swear I haven't asked him for a single FX shot!

;-)

LIES!

brash_stryker said:

Is Bob still working on this? Has he taken a break? Bit hypocritical of me to ask when my edit's been on hold since forever, but I want to see this, dammit! :-)

Ditto.

His ideas were pretty strong... It shows that what Lucas gave us on screen should have only served as a FIRST DRAFT that may have later become a far stronger film. I wish all those ideas were possible in a fan edit, but I can't see how they could be.

SilverKey said:

Nice work on the space battle, Bo. Is it still meant to be intercut with the other battles?

Something I was thinking about regarding Anakin's turn: could it be possible that Anakin never (or too late) knew Sidious orchestrated the war? This could introduce a bit of ambiguity: when Anakin finds out Palpatine is Sidious, Sidious can lay all the blame on Dooku, and Sidious can present himself as only trying to make the Republic strong to fight it. That he is a Sith Lord and thus evil 'is a point of view'. I think Anakin could identify with this, since he is for 'less deliberating and more fighting'. When Obi-Wan tells Anakin that he too has been deceived by Sidious he would see this as a conformation of what Palpatine has been telling him all along.

I know this would require a lot of tinkering, mostly regarding the clone army's origins and Dooku's involvement, but it might work.

Call me crazy, but did Anakin ever know that Palpy orchestrated the war in the current state of the movie? Well, maybe he did. Maybe I need to go watch it (shudder) to be sure.

Dethryl said:

XyZ said:

Sorry, but I do not agree... Lucas already replaced the Ents with the Ewoks, Gandalf with Obi-wan, Aragorn with Han Solo, Frodo with Luke... Have you ever read the Lord Of The Rings, guys ?

... All the plan from the LOTR books is to be retrieved reworked and simplified in Star Wars. Joseph Campbell has certainly his part in that tho.

So, replacing the Ewoks with Ents would be some of the best ideas you could have, no ?

Taking your question literally, no, I haven't read LOTR. I hate Tolkien's style and after struggling through Fellowship, ground to a halt in Two Towers. Never read Return. When the movies came out, I gave it another shot and couldn't get anywhere in Fellowship. Thanks to Peter Jackson, I can finally experience this story.

Star Wars needs Gollum and a Precious.

Um...

greenpenguino said:

obikal said:

Dethryl said:

...but I would definitely have Dooku as a rogue Jedi...

Thoughts?

(Sorry for the double post, but this is a separate issue so I wanted to separate them)

I saw the idea elsewhere on this site, so it's not my own, but I loved it.  (not sure what of the following, if any, is my idea, but want to give credit elsewhere just in case - the general idea is definitely not mine)

Dooku is a rogue Jedi, and actually not corrupt at all, (however, presented to the audience as bad in the beginning, an unknown entity) who senses the Sith in the Senate.  Dooku tries to warn the Jedi Council of this corruption but they don't sense it.  So, Dooku leaves the Order and then decides to (either of his own volition or by the influence of Palpatine - it doesn't even have to be defined though) start a Separatist faction that could battle the Senate and rid the Sith corruption from the Senate.  

Basically Dooku's speech to Ob-wan on Geonosis is true, and Dooku is on the right side.

Now, how much of his character has changed being a Rogue Jedi and no longer under the Order, is up for debate.  I think he would be a man who has had to make his own rules and rethink his beliefs after years of being "brainwashed" - from his point of view.  He would be a little impulsive, untrusting of any Jedi, yet reserved and contemplative at the same time.  Is the entire Jedi Order under the influence of the Sith?  How long has this been going on?  Is the Jedi Order in and of itself, evil and manipulative?  How much of his own training can he trust in?  These are the debates that would be constantly waging war in his own mind.

I would also have Dooku's lightsaber not be red...  this sort of man wouldn't adopt that color.  He might change his original to show his distancing from the Order, but not to red.  If it would be remotely applicable and accepted anywhere, purple COULD be used in this instance, however I'm still on the fence about that particular color.  And hey, this is the radical ideas thread  :)

Someone posted a video a while back of dooku with a white lightsaber. It was pretty cool and gave his character a little more ambiguity in terms of where his loyalties laid.

It was mine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_On2GFOuIc

Personally, I finally decided the rogue Jedi plot never pays off. If you're going to go in that direction, it needs to be established at some point before the movies end that Dooku was truly trying to thwart a dark jedi in the Senate. You never get that, or is ever implied. Trust me, unless you shoot some new scenes with Ol' Chris, it will fall flat. Again, just my opinion.