logo Sign In

tweaker

User Group
Members
Join date
22-Dec-2005
Last activity
29-Dec-2012
Posts
469

Post History

Post
#250862
Topic
.: The XØ Project - Laserdisc on Steroids :. (SEE FIRST POST FOR UPDATES) (* unfinished project *)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/250862/action/topic#250862
Time
Originally posted by: Mielr
Are there any X0 vs. OUT DVD comparison captures?


http://www.x0project.com/media.php

The four test shots are screenshot comparisons to the TR47 laserdiscs...if you got a hold of the new DVD, you might be able to make a rough comparison. Only problem is that the screen captures have been resized (I believe).
Post
#250657
Topic
.: The XØ Project - Laserdisc on Steroids :. (SEE FIRST POST FOR UPDATES) (* unfinished project *)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/250657/action/topic#250657
Time
Originally posted by: boris
but that it was never intended for home viewers to go through the film frame by frame.


The problem is that they're obvious. You don't have to go frame-by-frame to see them.

BTW, a good indicator that the matte problems weren't a necessary by-product of the SFX technology of the time: Look at similar shots of the various ships flying around. You don't see the bad matte issue on them. Just on a couple of particular shots. Somebody screwed the pooch.

Post
#250512
Topic
.: The XØ Project - Laserdisc on Steroids :. (SEE FIRST POST FOR UPDATES) (* unfinished project *)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/250512/action/topic#250512
Time
With my limited background in image and video editing, I can only begin to appreciate the difficulty of the project you're tackling. But I hope you all realize how valuable the techniques you've developed are, not just in the context of this project, but for video editing and restoration in general.

Obviously you guys aren't breaking any radical new ground in the field of video restoration, but what you've done is taken difficult, advanced techniques, and adapted them for use in very inexpensive programs, and produced what is probably some of the most advanced amateur work ever done. If you chose to make available the details of your techniques, in video documentary form or in some sort of tutorial format, it places those techniques that you've developed in the hands of an assload of people, which all sorts of interests.

ANH is interesting in that it is essentially a rogues gallery of every sort of visual defect you can have in a film: excessive grain and dirt, scratches, color blooming, off color, matteing issues, etc etc. And all these techniques that have been developed to deal with this wide array of problems could be adapted for use in restoring huge number of films that will never be professionally restored, simply because the profit isn't there to be made.

Your starfield recovery technique could possibly be adapted to restore detail to early black and white films and historical films (WW1 & 2, Zapruder, etc). Your work with grain and dirt removal could be used to restore noir-era films that have never been restored, and been transfered to DVD with grain and scratches intact, or to restore films from the 70's and 80s that have never had a decent DVD transfer, if that.

You guys have done a hell of a lot of work, and it just seems like a shame to allow that work to be limited to fixing only 3 films, when there are so many out there that could be restored.
Post
#250494
Topic
.: The XØ Project - Laserdisc on Steroids :. (SEE FIRST POST FOR UPDATES) (* unfinished project *)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/250494/action/topic#250494
Time
Heh, never intended my retort to Boris to turn into such a long debacle. Sorry about that.

The reason I assumed that you guys were strictly going with the restoration version (removing the scratches and the matte errors) was because of the featurettes posted to your site, where you showed your techniques for fixing the above-mentioned errors. I forgot that, being hardcore fans, you'd be archiving both versions: the straight transfer, and the corrected version.

I'm not a big SW fan, but I've been following this thread, as I've been really impressed with the technical work you guys have done, and have been fascinated with the techniques you've shown off on the site. Very nice work.

I would really hope that you would consider creating a full length documentary of the restoration process, so budding video editors could get an in-depth look at how such a massive project is prepared, organized, and undertaken. The featurettes are just too much of a tease...
Post
#250364
Topic
.: The XØ Project - Laserdisc on Steroids :. (SEE FIRST POST FOR UPDATES) (* unfinished project *)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/250364/action/topic#250364
Time
So what? of course they weren't intended to be obvious, but then again neither was leaving Jabba in ANH on the cutting room floor. Lucas had obviously intended to put it in if he'd shot the scene... going with what was in '77, though, the matte lines and boxes, the orange blob under Luke's speeder were all there.


Considering the availability of "deleted scenes" on DVDs these days, it should've been more obvious to you that it is extremely common to shoot more film than you need, so you have a lot to play around with in the editing room. Shooting a scene does not in and of itself does not mean that it should be part of the movie. So that's a bad argument to make there.

I think preserving the matte issue is kinda ridiculous. We're not talking about something that is a result of special effects limitations of the day. You don't see similar issues popping up throughout the film (not that I'm aware of). Somebody screwed up, and the crappy mattes made it into the finished film. As sort of a side thing, I can understand the preserving of the mattes in order to keep that "opening night" feel, but as far as the finished film, no.

If we were talking about fixing that scene where the guy in the storm trooper outfit whacks his head, that would be too much, as it would involve taking drastic measures to fix a real-life scene, something that happened on set and was recorded to film, and kept for the finished movie. The mattes, on the other hand, are the result of somebody in the SFX department being asleep at the wheel.
Post
#235678
Topic
War of the Worlds the extinctive cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/235678/action/topic#235678
Time
da_znake--

You'll hate me for this, but Signs is actually one of my favorite movies. I have to say, the weird ending is the whole point of the damn thing. Most of what happens in that movie points to that conclusion. It's not a movie about an alien invasion--it's a movie about that weird gray area between coincidence and fate, which is why there's the whole religious subtext to the film. It's a movie about faith, and I find it really touching, which is pretty crazy, seeing as how I'm an agnostic (or on really bad days, a full blown atheist).

(BTW, it's in bad taste to post spoilers about the ending of a movie without warning folks.)

The title of the film isn't a reference to the crop circles, it isn't meant to define them as being "warning signs". The title refers to all those little coincidences that add up to the conclusion, where you wonder if its all coincidence, or if its fated to occur that way, and thats where all the faith and religion crap comes in. Those little coincidences are SIGNS of there maybe being something more to the world...fate or god or whatever...

If you want an alien invasion movie, stick to ID4 or War of the Worlds or any of the other billion movies out there. If it floats your boat, cut the end off Boon's recut of WOTW and slap it onto Signs. It just seems kinda dumb to want to make all these movies end the same way:

Aliens invade, people die, nukes fly, earth reduced to a cinder, people/aliens win and are left to rebuild.

As an afterthought, regarding your suggestions for WOTW--

When Boon was working on the WOTW recut, I volunteered to help him a bit some of the stuff he was writing for the film (mainly the opening and ending sequences), but unfortunately, due to time conflicts and "creative differences" between he and I, my involvement was dropped.

I think he did a good job, but the main thing that bothered me was the use of the two subtitles at the end of the movie, denoting shifts in time (one of them I think was "20 Years Later"). It didn't fit with the film, as the film never uses that sort of subtitling, and then in the last two minutes of the film, he uses them twice, when in reality, they weren't at all necessary. Firstly, because the audience is smart enough to kinda figure things out for themselves, and secondly, the shot of that little blossom or whatever it was that was opening up doesn't need to be taking place now, or "20 years later", or even "100 years later". It's a simple of rebirth, hope, yadayada.

And that was a major lesson to me, when it comes to writing and film editing and all of that--really stupid little stuff can pull you out of the moment completely. The editing at the end was really nice, really put together good, but making the assumption that the audience wasn't smart enough to figure out the ending, and so using the subtitles, just made the whole damn thing scream "FAN EDIT!". Give the viewer the minimum amount of material necessary for them to figure out what's going on...which is why the re-editing of those shots to make the earth look ruined and whatnot aren't really necessary...Boon shows the earth getting nuked, and then we cut to that blossom opening up, and that's the damn point. We get our asses kicked, but we can get back up and rebuild. The point is made, and the viewer gets it.

But those little subtitles just get me...
Post
#232775
Topic
<em><strong>Official Release Thread - Alien Appendix</strong></em> - Updated with #2 info (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/232775/action/topic#232775
Time
I hate to ask this already, but...what're the plans for the next disc? I saw a couple references to a CBS cut of Aliens. Is this the next project, and what exactly makes this particular cut so interesting?

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how this series of yours progresses...should go very nice with the Quadrilogy set I picked up a few weeks ago on eBay.
Post
#232774
Topic
'13-30 Extraflirty' fan edit (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/232774/action/topic#232774
Time
The thought that entered my mind upon hearing this: WHAT?

Interesting choice of films to group together, but...wtf? Two and three I can see...Spock dies, then it turns out he might be alive, and so on. Just cut a lot of out of three (which sucked). But joining two and three to four...that's a little weird. Seems like the project would be just this huge mishmash of themes and whatnot, with a messy and very busy plot. But...what the hell, anything is worth trying at least once.
Post
#232369
Topic
<em><strong>Official Release Thread - Alien Appendix</strong></em> - Updated with #2 info (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/232369/action/topic#232369
Time
Got my discs today, which shocked the shit out of me, seeing as how they came across the lake...Britain to California, and postage was less than two pounds (about $3.50)? Damn. I'm really looking forward to taking a look at these. Fantastic stuff. If there's any way I can donate money to help pay for postage, please post the info in this thread. You do great work.
Post
#228822
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/228822/action/topic#228822
Time
Originally posted by: DaveHolmes
It would ensure that viewers of the Recobbled Cut only see things pertaining to the Williams-supervised cut of the film (Photo Gallery, Warner's trailer, commentary tracks, etc.).


This is a moot point, considering that the film itself contains non-Williams elements.

I do think that Garrett made the right choices in creating this edit, when it comes to 95% of the people out there. It's easy to say, "Well hell, the storyboards are better than the crappy finished animation that was made after Williams got the boot." But when you see that only available version of the storyboards looks like hell, and is hard to make out, and the argument falls apart. You have to be able to make sense of what's going on, and it should be accessible. Most people aren't scholars, and they want to be entertained. For the purists, well...they can take a copy of the workprint and slap it on a disc, and be happy with it. That'll work for the other 5%.

But yeah, as far as Williams himself goes, it's necessary to tread much more carefully.

Garrett, perhaps you could try getting the word out to Williams' son (and some of the animators out there that have seen/heard of the edit) that there is some interest in a purist edit that Williams himself would enjoy, but that the quality of the materials available isn't good enough for such an edit...maybe some kind soul would be willing to supply material of sufficient quality to make such an edit possible.

Until then, for the scholars, there is the workprint. For the rest of the people, the public, who are the ones that will actually keep the memory of this film alive, and make it matter, there is the recobbled version.