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ocpmovie

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Join date
22-Sep-2004
Last activity
10-Mar-2008
Posts
1,616

Post History

Post
#178899
Topic
***The Official RowMan*** Release Thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/178899/action/topic#178899
Time
>> the main thing is the addition of the original Jabba scene.
Thanks to those who worked so hard to make that footage as good as it could possibly be.

And by that you mean me?

Is it the version of the Jabba scene from Return of the Ewok? That's the best one out there.


The Chief Bast scene ought to be on there also, combined with the Jabba scene the way it would have been in the script, a la Deleted Magic. The two scenes go together, they do.


The "search for R2" scene from Deleted Magic is also worth including really.


The deleted Bespin scene is in Empire of Dreams, but it ought to be on your special features disc anyway. The addition of music - "Leia's theme" from the ANH SE soundtrack - helps a lot. Again, see Deleted Magic, the opening trailer, for that.

The rest of the Deleted Magic Empire and Jedi trailers on Deleted Magic include a lot of the other random footage that's out there.
Post
#178831
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/178831/action/topic#178831
Time
So a certain fine fellow has given me the following information.

>>I was also thinking about the Cobbler and Zig-Zag fight and it was definately pencilled by Dick Williams but I cant remember if it was pen and inked.

I thought so! The animation just seemed too good to have been a Calvert idea.

>> The other interesting fact is that the mine car sequence in the War Machine was animated long before the mine car sequence in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and coincidentally long before a certain Steven Spielberg saw the sequence while filming Roger Rabbit.

Hmmmm ... Spielberg has said that the mine car scene was something they cut from Raiders.

>>Did you also know that George Martin, Randy Newman and Roger Waters were all met in regards to the soundtrack of the film?

No! That would have been good stuff ....
Post
#178744
Topic
Classic Edition: Return of the Jedi by Ocpmovie (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/178744/action/topic#178744
Time
I'm not sure if the DL versions of either Jedi or Empire will ever hit Myspleen. At the moment Metallaxis doesn't have either one. The DL Jedi did hit the newsgroup thanks to Bo.

To me the single layer versions are the real versions. I never intended to release the "barely DL" Empire. As I write this, I still haven't! (Sorry to all the people who asked for it - I'll do it this week, honestly ...)
Post
#178709
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/178709/action/topic#178709
Time
So I bought and received a copy of Ziggy's Gift. I wasn't impressed by it, but I'll include it on this disc. The animation of Ziggy is nice, fits the character and shows signs of Richard Williams' style as well as Eric Goldberg's. But the show is very plotless and meandering, it's poorly told/written/storyboarded/directed .... camera angles, er ...

Still, it's of interest so will be included.
Post
#178706
Topic
Classic Edition: The Empire Strikes Back by Ocpmovie (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/178706/action/topic#178706
Time
>>>1) Any time a scene has been re-encoded to cut out any SE stuff, the framerate really suffers, and it becomes jerky and quite annoying (also true of SW:CE, but not very noticeable there).


Kind of annoying, yeah. I didn't really think about this much until it was too late. The scenes were edited in 24p, but Final Cut Pro doesn't export M2V files as 24p, only as 30p. So they just add extra frames, and the motion isn't quite right.

If I did it knowing what I know now, I would export the files from Final Cut Pro as Quicktime PhotoJPEG, 24p, and then encode the M2V files in some other program, perhaps FFmpegX.

ALL of SWCE has an odd frame rate, but since the whole thing's like that you don't notice.


For my edit of Thief and the Cobbler, I intend to fix this problem. =)


I didn't think about the Star Wars either. Not one of those things I'd really noticed. Well, consider it one of those little changes that sets this edit apart.


I did the sabers the way I like 'em. Your mileage may vary.
Post
#178672
Topic
Classic Edition: Return of the Jedi by Ocpmovie (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/178672/action/topic#178672
Time
What he said.





I designed the disc as single layer so it looks nice that way, but I did keep and release the uncompressed dual layer original, for those who want to try and spot any difference in quality. =) Personally, I can't spot any at all. The DVD-ROM extras are fun. They were only supposed to be on the dual layer to fill up space, but Metallaxis included them in the Myspleen version. Go Metallaxis.
Post
#178422
Topic
Info Wanted: How do you report projects illegally sold on eBay?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/178422/action/topic#178422
Time
Leave it be. It's overpricing and ripping-offing, but a lot of people aren't internet savvy .... Ebay gets these discs to the "soccer moms" and teens who haven't quite discovered other methods yet. Ditto comic con bootlegs. I think a lot of us started out actually paying those prices for something we wanted to see!

These people are certainly scum, but they're there because they fill a need that exists.
Post
#177861
Topic
Info Wanted: What preservation versions have Duel Layer and PCM? Will be making my own after seeing what works/doesn't work
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/177861/action/topic#177861
Time
Sigh. I hate having to go into extreme detail like this when people are only interested in saying "it has to be dual layer and PCM" or whatever, cos of course it doesn't.

Aaaanyway, nothing from 2004 was used for Star Wars. It's the stereo and mono mixes combined, the old ones. The 2004 mix wasn't fuckd for Empire or Jedi, so I started using it more. There's a lot of it in Empire and a whole lot for Jedi. So, old stereo, 2004, and "other secret surprises."

All the video for Star Wars was reencoded, and the size came out as single layer, easily. For Empire and Jedi I actually used the 2004 DVDs directly, to maintain the EXACT quality you see there. To get them down to single layer size, there was a slight bit of shrinking, the results of which are not visible in the least.
Post
#177488
Topic
Info Wanted: What preservation versions have Duel Layer and PCM? Will be making my own after seeing what works/doesn't work
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/177488/action/topic#177488
Time
Dual layer and PCM sound were not necessary or wanted for the Classic Editions, since the actual 2004 DVDs are actually of single layer size once you remove all the alternate audio and other crap, and they're encoded with -- wait for it -- AC3 sound.

They're based on the 2004 DVDs, so yeah, single layer and AC3 and Empire and Jedi in particular are flawless. Without flaw.

A Dual layer version of Jedi exists, because it's a longer film and I wanted to preserve the original 2004 version of it. But the single layer isn't yer ugly "looks shrunken" DVD. I defy you to tell the difference, even on a huge screen.
Post
#177083
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/177083/action/topic#177083
Time
Editing to make the film match the workprint poses some unusual challenges. This is definitely the most complicated edit I've ever attempted.

The opening is very different from the workprint to the released film, and there's only part of it that matches between them, but I tried to use the best bits of both without being too repetitious. I used a lot of video effects to meld the two.

Sometimes footage (not by Williams) "sort of matches" and I try to use it. Sometimes I have to decide whether or not to use footage that only appears in the released version (trying to figure out whether it would fit Williams' vision). Having already done an edit of this movie 6 years ago, I already have a good idea of what to use and what not to use.

Here's the thing that's bugging me now, though.

Okay, the workprint is of terrible quality, and a lot of the scenes only appear in pencil test form, or as storyboards, some of which are pretty roughly drawn.

In theory I would want to use EVERYTHING in the workprint and make it match exactly, but the workprint IS a workprint - it's unfinished and slowly-paced, and despite the mediocre quality of what Fred Calvert did to the film for the released versions, he did cut out a lot of stuff that you don't miss. He quickened the pace of the film a lot. He cut out a lot of the best parts, but also a lot of the padding.

And this wouldn't matter if the quality of the workprint didn't suck so much - but the way it is, when you're watching the gorgeous DVD quality footage, you get into a groove, and then you see some awful murky pencil test shot where you really can't tell what's going on, or you see a storyboard that's badly drawn ...

And it does take you out of the film a bit. One of my goals with this edit, since I'm working so long and hard on it, is to make my edit a good and enjoyable film to watch, better than the workprint, and feeling more "finished." Because the film WAS finished ... almost.

The workprint lacks a lot of music, even some sound effects, and is missing some scenes for some reason which are clearly Williams scenes and appear in the released version.

So yeah, I'm actually ADDING music to parts of the workprint. I'm using some of the Princess and the Cobbler score, and some of its sound mix. This makes the film feel more finished and more fun to watch. It's slightly sacrilegious, but not all of the score/sound mix that Calvert's team did is bad - I have a soft spot for the Thief theme, for example ... and I feel it can make this film work even better.

So here's my point .... something that's been on my mind.

It's nice to be reconstructing the complete workprint and all, but sometimes I get the feeling that it would be really nice to do a "short edit" of this film as well, that cuts out a lot of the stuff that only appears in the workprint - the goal being to make the film match what Williams wanted, but feel "finished" - so that you almost never see something of terrible picture quality, but are always watching the gorgeous DVD footage from the released version.

The "finished" version, so to speak - like an official DVD. No storyboards, no nonsense.

And then you'd have the longer version for the complete story.

Hm.

This film is often referred to as unfinished, and it is unfinished really, but I feel that it would be possible to release a "finished version" - of course, if we actually had access to all the scenes that were cut out of the released version, many of which may have actually been finished but never seen, a really great "finished" edit could be done ...

Anyway.

This is a good idea I think but I doubt I'll actually be editing and releasing two versions of this film.


I'll just make the best workprint movie I can ..... occasionally cutting out a shot or two, but basically matching the original.