nightstalkerpoet

I always wanted a neon green yoda sign... :P

a reshoot of that single shot is going to be way easier than fixing lightsabers. 

The lightsabers are embeded in the very first layer of the prints that they are working with. Shadows and reflections have been added, and anywhere there is a larger-than average lightsaber shot, all of the picture data behind it has been lost, meaning that a LOT has to be restored, fixed, and reinserted. Plus, you have to do that with high speed sequences where each frame is different from the last.

This is a single shot of an arm... and considering that lightsabers, while being a bit off color and shape, continue to act in a manner expected of lightsabers... I personally feel that the continuity issue with a bleeding arm is the larger, and easier to fix, issue.

Sorry if that came out a bit strong... for some reason, my marathon of the blurays has stuttered ever since seeing that shot...

I have to say my biggest disappointment in this entire bluray set is the bloody arm in the cantina... I'm glad the claw thing is gone from the 2004 version... but why couldn't they fix this one little shot for continuity?

Spence, see if this works for you.

Load your .dts file into this to convert to ac3 or split to wav files.

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/TFM_Audio_Tool

Which sadly was not the point of this thread... 

This was actually a thread saying "We want George Lucas to Totally Redo all special effects and scenery in the OT with the most advanced CGI available"

Which from what I've experienced isn't a very common thread in these parts :P

Oddly enough, I was logging in to start a thread about this exact thing.

Watching A New Hope, I was incredibly disappointed with the jump around in quality. And I completely agree.

I do NOT want any of the live action stuff refilmed (with the limited possibility of the initial 3P0, R2 scenes on Tatooine. The horrible color inaccuracies don't appear to be fixable.

But seriously, why not give us a version of the OT that looks totally modern. Bits and pieces of it already do, but parts of the film could be completely redone. By attempting to preserve some of the original special effects, Lucas is continuing to cheat himself of what he really wants: An OT that matches the PT. 

Strangely enough, this alone is why the OUT is not being considered for release in any decent quality: Because George does not feel that enough has been changed to warrant viewing both versions of the film.

But imagine that that shot at the beginning of the Tantive 5 (That sticks out as a total eyesore versus the very much cleaned up Star Destroyer) was replaced with a RotS quality cgi version. That there are Tie Fighters added to the scene to make the battle bigger and more important. Imagine that some of the most dated ship interiors were replaced with a digital bluescreen, then replaced with the beautiful CG interiors we've gotten in the PT... I mean, look at that ugly brown door on the Tantive.

Now replace the droids in the JAWA transport with decent looking ones (get rid of the walking trash can, etc.) Repopulate the Cantina with new cgi creatures.

Anything that is not a physical main actor should be fair game to change up...

If Lucas sat down down, and put the OT in Post Production in the same way you would an unreleased film, and fixed it with modern effects the way you would a modern film, we would have something absolutely beautiful and amazing, complete with the performances that we all love.

And... with a totally altered film to show off, with a very very visible difference from the original... I think Lucas would release the OUT.

Rendering a copy of this to watch on my tv really quick. May be releasing pretty soon here. Made a couple of audio fixes and have taken a few video suggestions. Excited to see what more people think.

I was reading up on the THX Calibration thing. It is supposed to be an Auto Adjust setting for all of your future home electronics... an integrated chip that fixes everthing for you.

I do have to say that for strict Bluray Playback, I was happier with my old Walmart Magnavox one because it didn't have any built in video settings. I'm struggling trying to get the settings right on both my bluray player and my tv... makes it hell to calibrate... Maybe this new THX stuff will be worth it.

On that note... has anyone else noticed these blurays taking a really long time to load? On the bonus discs it seems like its taking forever, and it skips between "locations"

I know... That's why it was so incredibly believable, especially with talks a while ago about Lucas getting rights to Alec Guiness' likeness. :P

It was, no worries :)

Alright... I've watched through the first half hour of A New Hope (1-4)

TPM: Quality is all over the place. Some scenes look amazing, some look like upconverted dvds. Color was more accurate for the most part, but I literally had to thoroughly calibrate my tv when watching this, just to make sure it wasn't my TV making the quality change. The warm setting pushes Tatooine a little too warm for my liking. Nice to see CGI Yoda.

AotC: Quality is definitely better than TPM, but still varies from scene to scene. Really enjoyed the addition of Shmi's voice in Anakin's nightmare.

RotS: This was friggin stellar, in every aspect. Everything has been blended much better without softening the picture. I used to hate the R2/Buzz droid scene because it looked so out of place. It now looks great. I'm not sure if this was altered slightly, but either way, definitely a step in the right direction. Picture is pristine, Avatar Quality. I will admit... this makes all of Palpatine's weird faces stand out even more during lightsaber battles.

Prequel Trilogy Audio is near orgasmic to my ears. Everything has been mixed in so much better, and sounds amazing on a 6.1/7.1 setup (I've got an older DTS ES receiver, and it still wowed and amazed every second of the film. Lightsaber battles especially)

ANH: So far, this does look pretty amazing considering. You can easily see which scenes were remastered for the different special editions, as quality seems to migrate between three major pieces. Some Tatooine scenes with the droid have odd color, but I think that is simply because other parts of the film have been cleaned up with colors fixed so much that it throws it in contrast. I hate R2's new rocks, mainly because they are only visible from shots in front of him... shots behind him looking out don't appear to include the rocks... 

I personally, while not fond of either, prefer this Krayt Dragon Call. It still sounds horrid, but it actually sounds like a sound a human could make...

Other than that, the audio still sounds great, though dated. Everything here is mixed well too... I enjoy the louder surround channels and clear dialogue.

The prequel deleted scenes are very disappointing, often with questionable quality and quirks... The lost Twently is particularly odd... it made me wonder if it is a precaution against fanedits.

I'll post what I think of the rest as soon as I get a chance to watch.

Has anyone considered that BETTER sales may promt Lucas to release the OOT?

I mean, the guy obviously takes issue with releasing them for his own personal, stubborn reasons. Meaning no matter how hard we push, petition, etc. He's not going to move on it. He wants us to see Star Wars this way... so why not make the guy happy? Wouldn't a positive view of diehard fans be better than one of total disagreement, offending eachother?

Let's say every star wars fan out there boycotting this release picked a single day to purchase the set, possibly from a single retailer/website. Perhaps even from a very small online store, that is going to have to make a huge unprecedented order to meet demand. Perhaps we could organize the purchase ofThousands, maybe tens of thousands of copies, bought in good faith, on the same day that a letter is sent to George and anyone else slightly connected to him, stating "We bought the films, we'll view them the way you want us to. In return, will you please release them the way we want to view them as well"

I'm just not understanding how this boycott is supposed to affect a multimillionaire who feels very little financial impact either way. Perhaps attempting to work out some quid pro quo is the way to go...

I was just curious about this from a legal standpoint. As faneditors, we have an obligation to avoid breaking the law with our works. This is done by not selling edits for profit and by MAKING SURE ANYONE WHO VIEWS THEM OWNS AN ORIGINAL COPY.

Up until this point, there has been no “Official” retail copy of Star Wars available for purchase in a high definition format. Thus, when downloading edits or preservations in HD (from HDTV copies), owning the DVD copy has been the legal basis for being able to view these edits.

Now that the Bluray copies have been released, doesn’t that mean that anyone who downloads a high-definition source edit should be required to own a high definition retail copy to fulfill that same legal obligation?

Did anyone else catch the new mumbled line from Obi Wan about Midichlorians in "Jedi"? When he's talking to Luke on Dagobah? 

I'm only struggling with the portions with Padme. Most of those scenes are really short. Otherwise, the climax Idea does seem to work really well, especially with ObiWan being the only who gets stuck.

Alright, I cut a little more Jar Jar. The pit droid piece is gone. Did he crash-ed is out. Almost any other cuts to Jar Jar talking probably aren't going to happen, for a simple reason of flow and continuity. Most scenes where Jar Jar talks are slight filler, giving someone else in the scene time to move (R2 getting in the elevator, Qui Gon, R2 and Jar Jar walking away from the ship, etc)

I've seen a lot of edits that do cut these pieces, and I personally feel that it hurts the flow and pacing a lot, causing it to feel like an edit. The other option is to mute Jar Jar, but then I'm left with a bunch of scenes where his lips move randomly, also awkward.

I'm willing to deal with a little bit more of Jar Jar for a smooth edit, especially considering he isn't in the final battle at all, thus trimmed more than in most edits :P

I've heard a couple thoughts about reintegrating the Gungan Battle at the beginner, showing the Trade Federation has done stuff like this before, placing them on the "Gungan Home world" or something along those lines.

I was curious though, how people would feel about the battle simply being moved to right after QuiGon and Obiwan hook up with Jar Jar. I could cut Jar Jar from the battle and make it look like the Gungans lose.

Hey Alum Falcon, just got back from vacation, I'll respond to your post tonight or tomorrow. I'm intrigued by the reorganized climax a lot though :)

Thanks Haraldo for the VERY through review. I really appreciate it :)

- In the beginning of the film Nute Gunray (if that's him) assures everyone that "this blockade is perfectly legal". Now, I feel like this part of the sentence is completely unnecessary. It's like telling a police officer that it's safe to come in, that there's no weed in your basement... It just doesn't make any sense. :/

I've seen this on a couple of other edits and considered it. There are a few  reasons why I chose to keep it: 

1. The sentence/conversation doesn't flow as well without it.

2. I tried to remove as much as possible without affecting the pacing of the film. This casual conversation helps ease into the edit, without too much happening too fast.

3. The crawl states that the Jedi were secretly dispatched, meaning that the Trade Federation was not expecting them. Thus, it was a very similar situation to the "I don't have any drugs, officer" statement. When the cops come knocking, you panic.

- The line "They must be dead by now. Kill what's left of them". Again - it's unnecessary. Those droids are already taking action. It seems like you can easily remove that scene and cut to the chase.

Also, have you considered perhaps removing the whole droid and blast-door scenario completely? Like, right after the "gas scene" you could just cut to that dude saying "Sir, they went up the ventilation shaft" and then show Obi and Qui-Gon jump into the hangar.  I don't know how well it would work, but it might be worth a try...

Your going to find my answer very similar to a lot of these questions :P

The short dialogue breaks in the action keep pacing down slightly. Even though the dialogue is cheesy, I feel that it is important to keep it.

This hour long edit could potentially suffer from one really big drawback - feeling like an hour long edit. I want to maintain the feel of an entire film, which often includes stupid things like this...

- In the scene where they're trying to get past the blockade, R2 pushes Jar-Jar and he says "How rude!". It would be very cool if you could simply mute that motherfucker. He ruins the mood and pacing of the scene.

I hadn't considered that. I'll take a look and see if I can do that without it looking too awkward. Though it would be cool just to have R2 kinda saying "Get the hell out of my way"

- @17:47 in the desert, right after they leave the ship to look for parts, Jar-Jar says something like "The sun is doing a murder to missa skin"... I would like to see that line removed. I mean, I have nothing against Jar-Jar being a bit clumsy - it's understandable, since it's not his natural environment - but every time he opens his mouth it's beyond annoying...

- Jar-Jar showing his tongue to Qui-Gon. It's just stupid. Leave the clumsiness, but remove that tongue scene if you can.

I actually was going the opposite direction with this. I was going to remove the pit droid sequence and leave these lines. I want you to know Jar Jar is there, but not have him ever be too much of a main focus. Also, the pit droid sequence cuts into the Anakin/Padme conversation awkwardly. As it is the only moment for them I left in, I feel its important to make it come across as strongly as possible.

- After Qui-Gon makes the deal with Vatto, there's a scene where Obi and Jin talk on the phone and Obi says something like "What if this plan fails?". It would be interesting if you could put that scene before the one where Qui-Gon makes the deal. It would show us that Qui-Gon actually respects Obi-Wan's opinion, that he's not just doing it on his own.

I'll take a look at this, and it may work out really well. However, i think that while Qui Gon trusts Obi Wan, he has more of a mentor/student relationship with him than the friendship Anakin and Obi-Wan have later. Thus he listens to his ideas, but doesn't truly take them into account.

- All that Yoda's "fear leads to this and that" bullshit line should be removed. Anakin gets asked weather he's afraid or not, but instead of letting him go nuts you could just have him stare at Yoda and then insert the "I sense much fear in you" line.

I personally like that line. It's a driving point in the whole series, and is actually narratively helpful for my Hour edits trilogy.

- Every mention of Anakin being "too old" should definitely be removed. Dude's just a child - how younger should he be? Him being dangerous, or his future looking too cloudy should be the main reason why Jedi order is so hesitant.

The biggest point for him being too old is that he has been able to grow up and form attachments. I know its not stated, but with that in mind I don't mind it so much.

- NOW THIS! This I think is an important one:

After Qui-Gon asks if "he will be trained then" - Sam Jackson's just chillin' there and answers "No". Then, after a very awkward scene, they all decide to just leave this conversation for later. Now... what the hell, man? Why are they changing their minds like that? And why is everyone on the council such a douche-wad?

The best solution for this, I think, is to just cut to Yoda saying "Young Skywalker's fate will be decided later" right after Qui-Gon asks if "He will be trained then?" It leaves us guessing, it spares an awkward scene and makes the council look better.

I will consider this. To me, the council is saying no to Anakin being trained "traditionally", like the children you see in episode 2 being taught as a class. This isn't a strict, "he won't be a jedi." Otherwise, Qui-Gon could not have responded "I take him as my Padawan... ". 

And the council doesn't look so much bad as in opposition to Qui Gon, which is a driving point to Qui Gon's character. It is ultimately a driving point for Obi-Wan as well, who is pushed by his trust of his master to take on Anakin as an apprentice. Otherwise, there is no true logical reason why Anakin wouldn't have been trained by someone else more experienced.

- If you remove The Autopilot, it makes Anakin a much stronger character. Like he really knows stuff about space-ships and just wants to help and get in on action, without Autopilot guiding the way.

I like that Anakin can be shown in this light actually. You already saw him in the podrace completely sure of himself and in control. The Autopilot adds a little more humanity to him, and the way I edited it he still flies pretty well on his own once it is turned off.

- Ending.

Well, that was unexpected! XD But, if I may suggest, that scene is not powerful enough. You could try and remove that one and insert Qui-Gon's funeral instead. Cause it's basically the same thing - we find out that Anakin's gonna be a Jedi (Obi even promises him) and on top of that we hear some chatter about Sith starting shit up again. We hear some new information that keeps us intrigued.

The problem with the funeral is that it gives away too much when it come to Palpatine. Also, Boss Nass is there, so I'd have to cut any shots he's in. And it confuses me why Jedi would be discussing something this important and serious where others can overhear.

 

And that's it! That's all I got!

I'm sorry if there are some spelling mistakes or if I'm not being very clear - English isn't my 1st language. But I really hope this helps and I'm very much looking forward to your next project.

Good luck!

 

Your English is great, I wouldn't have even guessed!

I did have one question. How does the Podrace flow? it's completely redone and reorganized. I'm guessing it worked alright since you didn't mention it, but I was still curious.

And I'm pretty sure that I am going to do all three prequels: The Phantom Hour, Attack of the Hour, and Hour of the Sith. Should be a nice little actual Prequel to the OT if you were going for a Marathon (rather than a seperate story altogehter) :-)

PM sent. If this edit gets enough positive reception, I will be doing AotC and RotS in an hour format. I'm attempting to tell only the story necessary to feed into the OT, removing almost every other subplot. All 3 films in under 3 1/2 hours :)

Finally I've gotten around to finishing this edit. (Sorry I didn't keep up on OT as well as I should have, for those of you who wondered about the edit in my absence).

So, reviewers are needed for this edit so I can release it asap!

Anyone interested in watching a 1 hr 7 minute version of TPM, let me know. It's over before you know it, keeping it entertaining without removing any important details or plot points.

A lot of the silence involved with this project is that it was heading in the direction of a joint effort between L8wrtr and I. He, of course, has been busy creating his own amazing edits, and very gradually finally convinced me to give it a shot on my own.

http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/Panasonic_DMP-BD70V_VHS_Blu-ray_Player.shtml

I haven't looked into preservations nearly as much as I have fanedits, but was curious if anyone has used this Panasonic VHS Upconverter to feed and rip a 1080p signal copy of the original VHS releases (and possibly pre-ANH bootleggs) to their computer?

TV's Frink said:

*crickets*

Nobody decides to eat crickets Frink. You are either forced to with "You have to try this" or do so out of necessity.

Impossible for Adywan... Blasphemy! :P I'm willing to bet he could find someone to dub it almost perfectly, and manipulate the mouth to make it look like Luke says" Lars".

I also think it is on topic, because it is an idea for the upcoming ANH:R HD...

Agree to disagree. I do doubt Ady will go this direction, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

I agree that a lot of work needs to be done on the PT, but I think a lot of people are scared to touch the OT and make drastic changes. The only way to make the story work chronologically is to change both of them to fit a new, single continuity, because neither of them lends enough to the other's continuity through changes to a single trilogy.

Removing "Skywalker" from the PT becomes awkward because you have to cut nearly every formal reference to Anakin, and his reference to his mother.

Also, without the "Skywalker" in the prequels, there is less impact with the discussion of "Anakin Skywalker" in RotJ