see you auntie

No I am.

A still beating and flaming heart is removed from the chest of a human sacrifice by the central villain.

Kali Ma!

msycamore said:

Continuity: Near the end when Ripley is on the dropship, she is seen arming herself. We see her grab a flamethrower from the weapons rack. She then lays a pulse rifle on the deck. Next she pulls a pulse rifle from the rack, and lays down a flamethrower. (The 2010 Blu-ray is slightly re-edited to remove this error.)

That's the first I've heard of that, thanks for providing the info.

You would think with seamless branching you could have the shot of Bishop in the hole in the theatrical cut and the fix in the director's cut and everyone wins.

Same could be said for the gold room (which is not so gold now) in Alien.

But eh, I don't even own Aliens only Alien. Not because I hate the sequel or what Cameron did to it but I wouldn't watch it that much to justify the purchase. Fun movie though. Four out of five balls.

Full interview up: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/49921

I'm not post the whole thing but i will quote the last part:

Quint: Before I let you go, I do want to say that you need to quit beating up so much on Temple of Doom. I love that movie.

Steven Spielberg: You know, sometimes I can’t help myself. But the greatest thing about Temple of Doom was I met Kate Capshaw and I have seven children. We’ve been married for almost 20 years and that was my win on that movie.

Quint: I met Kate very briefly at the War of the Worlds premiere in New York and I made sure to tell her “I know you probably don’t get it enough, but you’re great in Temple of Doom.”

Steven Spielberg: You’re sweet. By the way, she is great in Temple of Doom and I’m very, very lucky to have found my life partner.

Quint: I love that movie because it’s so dramatically different from Raiders. The tone is different, you go from a suave villain in Belloq to a flashy villain in Mola Ram…

Steven Spielberg: Right. Here’s the thing… for all the fans of Temple of Doom who think I beat up too much on it, those fans who beat up on George Lucas 24/7 at the drop of any fedora, I would just say please give George credit. He’s the one that made it dark, he’s the one that decided on the story and on the concept. For all those who love Temple of Doom, you’ve gotta give George credit.

Quint: I’ll absolutely give George credit for that.

Ok I'll give credit to George, I have a great love for Temple of Doom.

But it's also pretty funny because I know there's a lot of people that hate TOD, so does that mean Spielberg has given them permission to lay the blame on Lucas. It's also funny that Spielberg is fully aware of the hate Lucas gets from fans.

I'm not sure where the anti CG sentiment came up, but I think we can agree we generally don't like CG in films that were made prior to the advent CG. But even Blade Runner: The Final Cut contains CG but we don't begrudge its existence because non CG versions exist.

The same could be said for Star Wars or E.T. But now even Spielberg now suggests it's kind of pointless to go back and mess with old films.

Anyone who dismisses the use of CG in modern films needs to see the featurettes on Black Swan or Zodiac.

Quint from http://www.aintitcool.com/node/49897 had a 50 minute interview with Steven Spielberg about Jaws etc. the whole interview isn't up yet but excerpts are below:

Quint: Is there a Jaws Blu-Ray in the works?

Steven Spielberg: Yes, there is. Yes, there is. I’ve already seen some of it. I don’t have a date yet, but there’s a Blu-Ray absolutely in the works.

Quint: I can’t wait, man. I love that the last DVD release actually had the original mono soundtrack on it as well. I wasn’t a fan of the remixed 5.1 sound… the splashing sounded canned…

Steven Spielberg: Oh, I know. I totally understand that. (In the future) there’s going to be no more digital enhancements or digital additions to anything based on any film I direct. I’m not going to do any corrections digitally to even wires that show.

If 1941 comes on Blu-Ray I’m not going to go back and take the wires out because the Blu-Ray will bring the wires out that are guiding the airplane down Hollywood Blvd. At this point right now I think letting movies exist in the era, with all the flaws and all of the flourishes, is a wonderful way to mark time and mark history.

Quint: I’m in total agreement with you. I wish you could talk George (Lucas) into doing the same thing!

Steven Spielberg: Well, I can’t!

Quint: (laughs) Yeah, I don’t think anybody can!

Steven Spielberg: George goes his own way and I respect him for it, but my new philosophy on this is to let sleeping dogs lie.

Quint: That’s great news for film lovers.

Steven Spielberg: When people ask me which E.T. they should look at, I always tell them to look at the original 1982 E.T. If you notice, when we did put out E.T. we put out two E.T.s. We put out the digitally enhanced version with the additional scenes and for no extra money, in the same package, we put out the original ‘82 version. I always tell people to go back to the ’82 version.

Quint: Having the option is the big deal for me. Using the Star Wars example, I don’t think there’d be an outcry if we could watch a nice transfer of the original versions. We’d be like, “George can do what he wants and I’ll watch it… but you know maybe the fans would like the option of watching the movie they fell in love with, too.”

Steven Spielberg: Yeah. And I think the other good thing is that they understand when they see a movie and they suddenly see something that obviously could have been done much better today and could have been corrected in the DVD/Blu-Ray transfer, they really appreciate seeing the strings attached.

If somebody put out George Pal’s War of the Worlds and took the strings off the machines I’d be very upset. When that machine crashes in downtown Hollywood, and you see the strings going from taut to slack, that’s the thing that allows me to both understand this movie is scaring the hell out of me and at the same time this movie is a creation of the human race.

That little taut-to-slack moment of those wires on that wingtip makes the original George Pal War of the Worlds work for me. It embraces my fears and it also alleviates them in the same breath.

It doesn't appear Raiders is going to revert back to the way it was (reflection etc) but that digital cliff will be gone. Current HD broadcasts don't have it so I'm happy enough with that.

I would never buy the eventual blu-rays if that cg cliff shot was included. It seems over the top but I draw the line at adding cg to a film as opposed to using cg to remove those guide rails that I never were there (but which totally should still be there).

As it is I'll be passing on the Indy blu-ray box set and wait to buy the films separately as to avoid Crystal Skulls. 

It also seems Spielberg has soured on the 20th Anniversary release of E.T proberly due to how poorly it was received. But it looks as if it will receive the Close Encounters treatment.

I've definitely soured on Spielberg and his output since Catch Me If You Can (loved that movie but have not liked anything of his since) so this candidness and back flipping is refreshing to me.

Can't wait for the full interview and Spielberg's response to "You need to quit beating up on Temple of Doom so much.” I love TOD. 

I'll say this about ROTJ the speeder bike chase sequence is still cooler than any one thing in the prequels.

Topless robot article: 8 Features Missing From the Star Wars Blu-Ray Box Set

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2011/05/8_features_missing_from_the_star_wars_blu-ray_box.php

originaltrilogy.com is even mentioned in the comments. Someone here post that?

TV's Frink said:

doubleKO said:

^ Ratings out of four balls, please.

I like this new guy.  He's already using OT.com off-topic memes.

So do I. His avatar is baller.

Peters ftw.

I've yet to check out the HD project, can I get the appropriate link/s please Harmy?

The facebook page is ewwwwwwww.

I don't think the internet would be as successful as it is if in its beginnings everyone posting on message boards used their real names with a poorly lit photograph* of their face next to it.

So Lucasfilm is trolling facebook now because they're too cheap to host their own forums?

*Not a comment on ot.com you guys are all extremely good looking.

I'm quite disappointed with the response to the box set here.

Not enough fun has been made of the inclusion of the 90 minute cosplayer documentary ;)

1anakin said:

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/a8tj49

Katie Lucas

On Thursday 5th May 2011, @KRLgrrl said:

Note: I am not going to argue with ANYONE about the prequels today, on MAY THE 4TH I MIGHT ADD, or on any other day for that matter. The prequels have been made. They exist. There is literally nothing you can do or say to make them go away. They may not be your cup of tea, but let's remember: YOU can choose not to watch them! You can pretend like they don't even exist! But being angry about it forever is going to accomplish nothing. Neither is being disrespectful. My father has done absolutely nothing to earn disrespectful tirades and personal attacks. He is a good man. He is not an evil genius plotting to ruin your life. You are entitled to your own opinions--whatever they may be, but be respectful about it. He may have made three movies you personally didn't care about, but he was also responsible for three movies that inspired you and millions of others. So, do him and I the courtesy of having a little goddamn respect.

 

Pffftt. Of course his daughter would say something like that ;)

But seriously what does she expect from something like goddamn Twitter. Don't advertise the fact you're Katie LUCAS. Kids these day have no concept of keeping their private lives to themselves. My lawn. Get off it.

Nero said:

Kinda telling though that there's no documentaries specific on the PT (which is a good thing). Wish I could enter a store and say "Give me Disc 8 and 9 from this set, thank you very much!".

George Lucas said: You want the prequel documentaries, go buy the fucking dvds!

adywan said:

It wouldn't surprise me if the OT docs are just pulled from the laserdisc masters. Strange how they haven't put "from star wars to jedi: making of a saga" on there though

Laserdisc ports on Blu-Ray? Who'd of thought that? ;)

So does that mean the old documentaries will now be pulled from youtube?

SilverWook said:

Choose your country? What if I choose the wrong one?

He chose poorly

I really don't think there's going to be anything of interest in this set for me but I might as well find out what's what before I go to bed.

Nice to see everyone's "light bulb" lit up next to their names :)

Davnes007 said:

none said:

Does anyone have a HD version of this?

Triple post. Also win.

Darth Hade said:

Back in the very early days of prequel hype, I subscribed to the Homing Beacon that was/is sent out by the official site: starwars.com

Subscribing to the Homing Beacon seemed to always get one e-mail updates to all things Star Wars. I didn't have a Homing Beacon in my inbox today, but I did have this...

Thanks for that.

In my world it's been the 4th of May* for 14 hours now and while I knew the announcement would be centred around California time it's nice to know when to expect it.

*Star Wars puns don't work when you put the day before the month.

TV's Frink said:

none said:

^ House M.D. S03E07 "Son of a Coma Guy" ~09:40

Harmy wrote: but the prequels not being very good is a common pop-cultural theme. They are often used as an example of a bad movie

'How I Met Your Mother' recently did a highly ironic reverse negative TPM joke. 

That's funny, How I Met Your Moth3r recently did a highly ironic reverse negative TPM thread.

Fucking win.

CP3S said:

Bitch.

Wait, is she the one who could kick my ass?

Edit:

zombie84 said:

Careful though, or she might get her older sister to come by and beat the shit out of you. She's MMA.

I guess not.

Mielr said:

"You know you just look like a stupid bitch for disabling comments on your Han Shot First video. How about you grow up you little faggot and learn how to handle words like a man. You had no legit reason to ban people from commenting on your video, you were just being an annoying bitch. Grow up kid."

Mielr - just to clarify, you're female right?

http://www.badassdigest.com/2011/03/30/cinemacon-2011-james-cameron-george-lucas-and-jeffrey-katzenberg-discuss-the-future-of-movies

CinemaCon 2011: James Cameron, George Lucas, and Jeffrey Katzenberg Discuss the Future of Movies

Wow, my fingers have never typed as fast as they did to capture the notes for this panel. But how could they stop when it was James Cameron, George Lucas, and Jeffrey Katzenberg discussing the past, present and future of the movies? Each one a heavyweight in the movie industry’s technological evolution: Cameron, who pioneered modern 3D filmmaking with Avatar; Lucas, who pushed exhibitors to raise their audio/visual standards with THX; and Katzenberg, the man who ushered in the 3D era of the animation.

The three were on stage at CinemaCon today as part of the Digital Filmmakers Forum and spoke in detail about what to expect in the next five years. Also, Lucas dropped a small hint about Episode VII with a little cajoling by Katzenberg. I’ll get out of the way of these guys and let you geek out for yourself:

The Importance of Digital Technology

George Lucas: All of art is technology, whether it’s learning to draw on a wall with charcoal or using the printing press.

Take for instance in graphic arts, the move from fresco painting, where you’re inside a building with a giant crew and need to work quickly before the paint dries. Each person has their specialty, one guy is responsible for only making blue paint who learned it from his father and his father before that. You have to organize them, which makes it complicated when you’re dealing with creativity.

Then oil paints came along, freeing the artist. He could go outside by himself and decide to paint the sun. And if he didn’t like it, he could change it. This freed artists creatively and this is what digital does.

James Cameron: Digital technology gives you the ability to create worlds. We’re at a point where if we can imagine it then we can create it using the photo-realistic CG tools that are available now.

Then there’s the digital exhibition side which maintains that quality. Titanic played so long that our film prints fell apart, we only left theatres because of that. We only did a new round of 100 prints as the older film prints began to literally fall out of the projector. There’s a limit to how long a film print can be played and I know what it is, it’s 16 weeks. A good problem to have.

A major catalyst in making digital exhibition more ubiquitous was 3D. It’s what drove and is currently driving the digital rollout. But for the next two Avatar movies I want to display a higher framerate, 48 or 60 frames per second. Don’t think “oh, no” we have to spend more in upgrades since it’s a small cost once you’re in the digital realm. The expensive part is already done. Plu the faster framerate shows you a different movie, it takes the glass out of the window and puts you in reality.

We have to constantly fight against other distribution methods like premium VOD and streaming and to do this we have to be great showmen. We need to have great sound and a great image.

Jeffrey Katzenberg: Digital evolution in animation has actually been a revolution. From when John Lasseter delivered that first full-length CG animated movie in 1994 (Toy Story) to where we are 16 years later, digital tools have more then transformed the experience, it transformed the art of how it’s made.

We’re constantly trying to push the technology. Currently, we have 250 engineers working purely in R&D to make sure our animators have the best tools, so that each time you watch our movie it’s a new “wowie!” But we’re just building knowledge, we’re still so early in the process.

Lucas: Where we are in the stage of digital is like being in 1900 during the chemical research phase of film. We’re just touching the surface. And once you go digital, spending the money to get in the game, everything after that is infinitely cheaper.

You can go millions of miles with very little bit of gas, you can modify and move inexpensively.

Katzenberg: When I saw Polar Express in 2004, that was the first time I ever had an experience like that in a theatre. It exhilarated me like no movie has done before. It pulled me in emotionally and physically. I came out of the theatre thinking we need to do this right now.

The Next Five Years

Lucas: The big transformation has happened which was sound. That type of change won’t come for another 30, 40, 50 years. In digital, the things we are doing are just little incremental tweaks that make it better. The “real event” has already happened.

Like many theatregoers, I love the movie theatre. I make my movies for the movie theatre, I don’t mind other platforms, but you have to see it in the movie theatre to experience it how I want you to experience it. Theatres represent a social art that you can’t get that on an iPhone or on a computer. People go to a huge venue to share that experience together. They get to dress up, show off to other people, laugh, cry together. Movie theatres will never ever go away.

Katzenberg: In animation the next level is the next level of computing: scalable multi-core processing. What it means is that the power or the microchip is about to take a quantum leap and Moore’s Law goes out the window. Our artists can create and see their work in real-time. Right now, they get a couple seconds of animation rendered at low resolution and it gives them an idea of what it’s going to look like. Then 8 or 12 hours later after going through a render farm they get to see it finalized. They make little tweaks and go through the whole process again.

In this next generation they will see their work as they’re making it. Before it’s as if they were painting blind, but are now able to see what they’re painting. The process will change the quality of what we’re able to do.

Avatar set the high bar for a whole new level of imagination, thats about to happen to us in animation.

3D Filmmaking

Cameron: I can spend two hours busting myths. Like the myth that you have to shoot differently. The answer is yes and no.

I didn’t shoot differently when I made Avatar. I knew it would be seen in 3D and 2D, plus 3D at home was still a ways away. If you wanted to, you can shoot differently to absolutely optimize the experience and once we have 3D ubiquity then I think we can go that direction, but the point is you don’t have to. An over-the-shoulder shot is still an over-the-should shot. A close-up is still a close-up.

Then the myth of not being able to cut as quickly in a 3D movie. Last time I checked Avatar was an action movie and there’s a lot of quick cutting. Is there a tiny bit of knowledge required? Yes, but that’s what the Cinematographer and Editors are for.

Make sure you hire a team that understands stereo, but that should all be transparent. Still make the movie as you would make it with the 3D team as yes people. I didn’t change the way I shot. I had to comfort myself that I wouldn’t change and the movie wouldn’t suffer, it would be value added. Once 3D takes away from your normal process then you should rethink shooting in 3D.

Lucas: Last time I was here I was pushing digital, I wasn’t thinking about 3D. But Zemeckis and Cameron were big 3D guys and we talked about ShoWest. I thought it would be a great way to push digital and 3D since 3D needs that.

So I converted part of Star Wars into digital 3D. What I found is that it really does create a 3D space. We could never get Yoda to look right in that digital space in 2D. Once you saw him 3D it became real. The blue cats [in Avatar] are real.

In an over-the-shoulder shot you believe theres another side to it. When we converted Star Wars, it wasn’t a 3D movie, it was a movie in 3D. It puts you behind the proscenium.

Digital is like the invention of sound, 3D is like the invention of color. Sound changed everything in movies while color made it better. Just like
when you see a 2D movie you’ll feel like you’re watching a black-and-white film. Ultimately everything will completely be in 3D.

3D Conversion Process for Titanic and Star Wars

Lucas: I’ve already gotten a lot of flack for changing the movie, but I’m interested in the concept of 3D that goes behind the proscenium. I’d love to see Jurassic Park in 3D. Who wouldn’t?

With the conversion tests we’ve done it hasn’t changed anything. But 3D is not a technical problem it’s a creative problem. We need to have people that are making informed decisions. It’s an artform and the shots are only as good as the people doing the shot. We’ve done the best conversion we could do since we began eight years ago. The crew knows every single shot so we have a certain advantage.

Cameron: I’m going to slam 3D conversion right now. You can’t convert in six weeks, that’s not 3D, it’s 2.2D. It’s false stereo. Because when it was being converted it was people looking at a screen, there’s no data stream captured when the shot was done to tell you the true spatial relationship. A guy at workstation can say this guy is big and this guy is little so I’ll put him in the background.

There’s no killer app that can convert something to 3D. It’s still about workstations and working for long periouds of time, hopefully with the filmmaker right there.

I can remember the Titanic set so I have insight about the space. We have scanned images of the performers from back then when it was used for face replacement FX. And since we have those scans of them, we can create continuous depth. But it can’t be done quickly.

It’s the bad 3D conversion which is eroding the artform. You can add all the bells and whistles you want, but you can’t add conversion to the post-production process. Unless if you have eight months which isn’t as cheap as just shooting natively in 3D.

Katzenberg: I don’t think its a question of tools, it’s the talent in control of the tools. 3D done to date that’s lowered the high bar has not had artists on the tools. It’s disappointing and devalues an amazing opportunity for all of us, which is why I’ve been too crticial perhaps. This is just the beginning and anybody that tries to cash in with the quick score will ruin it for the rest of us. It’s a travesty for us to take this amazing opportunity and offer something so important by taking the low road.

Lucas: The audience is listenting, to quote the famous line. Films that have been converted badly don’t go unnoticed.

Katzenberg: Will Episode VII be shot in 3D?

Lucas: Yes. By then it will be done as a hologram.

Final Thoughts on the Future of Cinema

Katzenberg: Above and beyond what you heard here, it’s the quality of the experience. The single greatest opportunity for exhibition is to acually bring together the ability to see a movie and eat a meal. It’s the next blockbuster thing that cannot be replicated in the home.

As George said, people want to go out and have a social experience. Here’s a way to keep theatres around forever.

Cameron: George and Jeff have been very eloquent about the social experience. There’s a sacredness to the theatre, that as a fillmmaker drove me to 3D. Once I saw digital 3D about 10-years ago, I thought: “that’s reality.” I’ve never shot on film again.

It was a 10-year journey of working on it, and the driver of that was the theatrical experience. We’ve taken hits from VHS and TV and we’ve rebounded, but we’ve rebounded with more confidence that we can put on a better show. Avatar is the highest-grossing movie of all-time, but it’s also one of the most pirated films in history. Then, why did it still make so much money?

Because of a cult-like need to watch it in theatre. If you didn’t, then you weren’t part of the conversation. It was the peer-to-peer social acceptance and ostracization that made it a huge success. Ticket sales for the 3D version of Avatar was about 50% of all ticket sales and by the end at was 80%. There was a need to have the 3D experience.

Lucas: Look, I’m bringing out Star Wars for the third time. Newsweek asked: “does he have no shame?”

Well we’re into the third generation that are under 12 who haven’t seen Star Wars. And I’m betting that people who have seen it many times will still join this new generation to see it again if it’s in a social experience.

Katzenberg: In 2005, when, along with Robert Zemeckis, we presented 3D to you guys, there weren’t even a 100 movie theatres in the world with 3D. In 2007 there were 707. By the end of this year there will be 35,000 theatres with 3D capabilities and we owe you a lot of thanks in your support and belief. We made it with a hope you would get there.

So for us and for filmmakers and for Hollywood, all we can say is “thank you.” Thank you in believing in us and belieivng in 3D.

Wait the DVD9 is now available - how did I miss that?

Harmy, a PM would be appreciated (or you know the drill) ;)

Is Marcia Lucas' name still Marcia Lucas?