nightstalkerpoet

Alright - sorry for the delay on RotJ.

I really enjoy the Return of the Gout project from JawsTDS, but have always been less fond of Return of the Jedi from that set. It’s a gallant effort, but for some reason falls short in comparison to the other two. I blame the source, which I’ve always found inferior to the other two.

Originally I was waiting for JawsTDS’ new project, which was going to be working with X0+Lumagen Processing. I’m hoping that the set is going to push the limits of laserdisc scaling, and I may release a version 2 of RotJ if I like the results.

In the meantime, I’ve attempted to degrade RotJ Despecialized 2.5 to the point of PAL GOUT quality, then upscaled using the JawsTDS RotJ script. I’ve also attempted to adjust the colors a little to fit the GOUT color pallet without going overboard.

Today is the test watch to make sure the upscale of the degraded DEed is similar to the first two, and that the audio meshes in the same way. Will be posted this evening if all goes smoothly.

I just wanted some opinions on my concept for helping fix Luke between the two films.

I don’t know how to implement all of it yet, but I think if you move the part where Chewie rips off the door and Luke asks him ‘what he’s doing there’ to replace the original handing over the lightsaber ending of TFA(removing that altogether), ending the film with Luke saying “Where’s Han?” will have a much stronger emotional impact- getting to see Luke interact with Chewie and mention Han. I hated the ending because I just didn’t care much about her meeting him. I wanted to see him, from the perspective of the old films, and for that moment the trio was reunited.
It also leaves someone new to the film wondering “Why didn’t Luke sense Han’s death?”
-I also think you’d need to have very little lead up to Chewie ripping off the door. Falcon lands, use the extended hut scene to get footage of Luke sitting quietly in his hut, when Chewie is so pissed about Han - especially knowing Luke’s absence made the difference - that neither him nor Rey knock before the door’s ripped off.

This provides the opportunity to start the next film knowing that Luke had interacted with Rey to some degree. Knowing this, you can choose to set up Luke’s character however you’d like in The Last Jedi without feeling a total disconnect. I’d even toss the whole lightsaber being given to Luke at the beginning of TLJ. His other scenes with the lightsaber are far more enjoyable and communicate he got it.

Use Chewie out front roasting Porg as your initial external shot, then Luke waking up R2. Using this as your intro to Luke in this film, again he’s introduced to us by characters we connect with. This sets up Luke to have any relationship dynamic with Rey that you’d like by adjusting the remaining footage to fit your ideal balance of Classic Luke and New Age quirky Luke. You can cut out most bad dialogue this way, especially story recaps.

poppasketti said:

Here’s a rough mockup of BB-8 running to the shuttle with Finn and Rose (updated in first post):
https://vimeo.com/282243295 (password: fanedit)

The rotoscoping is very rough, and I just threw on some sound effects that I could quickly find, but let me know whether you think the idea could work!

I think/hope that this change combined with the Finn/Rose deleted scene could be enough to cut Phasma fight and BB8 in walker without the scene feeling incomplete. The scene would now have urgency AND resolution.

Looks great 😃

Any progress on your X0 project?

Yes - while I prefer theatrical TPM, Yoda not being consistent in the prequels makes my viewing preference a toss up. I understand that this is a preservation, so you may not feel it’s within your desired goals to release such a version. My suggestion is intended more to provide you the opportunity to simultaneously create such a project while you’re already in the thick of things, as opposed to someone else using your project later on as a source to release such a hybrid version.

Just throwing this out there as a suggestion - a lot of us want to see theatrical Ep 1 in HD, but I think a lot of us also want to see Theatrical Ep 1 WITH CGI Yoda. TPM creates this conundrum of the theatrical version being less canonical with Eps 2 and 3 due to the use of Creepy Puppet Yoda. Maybe two versions would serve well to address this second, less vocally sought after version? I have a lot of faith in your process and the eventual quality of your release.

Thanks! Amazing ingredients perfect simple recipes. Working on getting seeding restored (my sister didn’t pay internet 🙄).

Jedi will be up soon as well.

Not sure if anyone here is grabbing these or not (been some interest on the spleen); Empire is now available 😃

Definitely looking forward to this. So many projects of this started here, and finally looks like we’ll see an actual release from someone! We all get caught up in perfectionism, but so many of us here aren’t capable of much of the work that goes into these projects - getting our hands on something tangible is a real pleasure. Please count me in on release candidate checks, and I’m so happy to finally see the Orf make it into a project (one of the few useable things I’ve been able to bring to the site).

Star Wars now available on the spleen. Released as an MP4, but is Blu-Ray compliant and fits snugly on a DVD-5.

Comments/suggestions appreciated, and if all is well with SW, I’ll follow up with releasing the other two.

Excited to see the results 😃

Any chance you’d be persuaded to add The Phantom Menace laserdisc to this set? 😉

Sorry, thought I’d responded days ago. Yup, no shrinking on JSC.

I’d definitely give this a shot. I’d Use the Special Letterbox Edition for Empire and Jedi, and JSC for Star Wars, though patching in the SLE on that occasionally for Death Star shots that tend a little too yellow (especially Tarkin shots).

Thanks 😃

I picked up Ep 1 and 2 on VHS today, I’ll keep an eye out for that set of the OT.

Does anyone here know - does the Japanese VHS of Revenge of the Sith have English audio? Seems to be a hard find, but seems the only way to finish off an NTSC set.

I’m pretty used to Faces, but definitely the odd point is “there’s sand people, I can see one now” with none in sight.

Well, my vcr decided that my RotJ Faces VHS was delicious, so I’m looking to replace it. With VHS tapes so cheap though, I thought it might be worth investing in a different set if it was generally accepted to be “better”.

Any suggestions or personal preferences? I just like the VHS feel to the films. Something about the lower resolution just blends the effects that much better in my opinion.

I’m fond of the houses, but think they’d be better suited to just peaking over from behind the furthest back dunes. We know that there are nearby homes, since Cliegg was able to rouse a group of 30 to search for Shmi.

Will be checking this out soon.

Surprised that someone with your immense skill didn’t fill in those missing corners 😉

Any chance you’d share your lossless file?

In theaters her skin had almost the Twilight sparkly vampire thing going on. In that moment, they looked like ice crystals, which made sense in the cold of space. The digital copy appears to have reduced that effect enough that I found her survival more believable than someone that instantly started freezing in space.

I’m pretty sure they changed the Superman scene slightly. Looked less like unfreezing, more like waking up and twitching a little.

I have a small suggestion -

What if you intercut Vader on the SD bridge with the footage of Padme on Alderaan. Slow it down a little, have it kinda be the final moment of transformation, mirroring earlier, which marked the beginning of Anakin’s true fall. Give Georgie all that poetry he was looking for.

I like ESB and ROTJ SE as well just because that way all three sound the same. It sounds both raw and clearer simultaneously.

nightstalkerpoet** said

I wonder if the Leia scene could be sped up considerably, and made to look like it happened near instantly. Could be even while Kylo looks on, or right after he flies away.

Even more radically, though I’m not sure there’s enough footage. You could slow it down, flashing back and forth between Kylo staring at the explosion, and Leia’s face with her eyes closed. End the back and forth with her eyes opening. Then imediately, jump to 1.5x speed of her superman flight, none of her hand twitching or “unfreezing”. Kylo flying away could be right before she opens her eyes, right before she flies back, or right after (my rationalization is that at this point save her or kill her, he’s going to be broken by it.)

Bumping, a rush of responses to the post after mine left it in the dust 😉

I wonder if the Leia scene could be sped up considerably, and made to look like it happened near instantly. Could be even while Kylo looks on, or right after he flies away.

Even more radically, though I’m not sure there’s enough footage. You could slow it down, flashing back and forth between Kylo staring at the explosion, and Leia’s face with her eyes closed. End the back and forth with her eyes opening. Then imediately, jump to 1.5x speed of her superman flight, none of her hand twitching or “unfreezing”. Kylo flying away could be right before she opens her eyes, right before she flies back, or right after (my rationalization is that at this point save her or kill her, he’s going to be broken by it.)

Just throwing this out there, as it may work alright - The TFM Audio Tool offers simple DTS encoding capabilities that may achieve what you’re looking for.

If you pm me the lossless files, I’ll encode them.

Otherwise, I suggest 2 variants of the DTS file.

File Based Playback (Computer): 16 bit, 44.1khz - Closest to original source.
DVD/BD Based Playback: 16bit, 48khz

Best place to look for JEJ quotes is him narrating The Bible. I’d imagine it’s the largest available source.