13las

Caston said:

I finally got around to watching this and I really enjoyed it.

It certainly didn’t feel like I was watching a 40 minute video, it felt quite a bit shorter, in a good way. This was obviously well researched and put together, with some smooth edits and cuts.

I also liked the humour and insights you included, and you did a great job in presenting it throughout. Smooth work inserting quotes, clips and audio from those working on the TV projects at the time, too. You struck a really good balance with that.

Plus, you gave each piece of Star Wars TV some solid coverage, especially noting how certain ideas and concepts were later used or referenced in the main films. I loved your 2003 Clone Wars segment, it is often overlooked in favour of the later 2008 series in many other similar videos and articles.

Would happily recommend others to watch this, especially for anyone who doesn’t know much of Star Wars’ somewhat “up and down” history on TV.
 

The only thing I can think of on “a critical level” is that it appeared your microphone stand may have broke? (or you opted for a hand-held mic in shot from around around 20 minutes for around 10 minutes?) and it felt a little “off” for some bizarre reason. Although that is likely just me! And I’m struggling to think of anything critical write as I enjoyed the video so much.
 

Cool video, and I hope you do more. Maybe a “Part Two” in the future, for the Disney+ era?

Hey thank you so much! I really really appreciate those kind words.

Re: the mic. I was honestly making it up on the spot from a technical perspective. I had that same mic sitting on the desk in front of me and about halfway through, for whatever reason, I just decided to hold it instead.

I have a few video scripts (this video is the first) that I’m kind of using as practice/pilot episodes. Trying to learn what works and what doesn’t, as well as practicing my on-camera presence. I’m definitely not a natural performer but I’m enjoying this as a little hobby.

Glad you enjoyed the video!

In celebration of this “Golden Age” of Star Wars on TV, I made this exploration of some of the forgotten Star Wars shows (some that should probably stay forgotten) that lead the way!

https://youtu.be/x0VG6nNQp6E?si=hwF5Ml9bcn1nAOyN

Please check it out and let me know what you think!

(It was my first time speaking on camera and making a video like this, but I learned a lot for the future)

MTFBWY

Joel said:

Here’s a first look! Things are moving along now.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dl1etvrompca7ib/SWHS_Intro.mp4?dl=0

That looks great to me!

Awesome! Happy to help. Really looking forward to this project!

I’m not one hundred percent sure on this but re: the first image… that is actually one of the 3 FX shots that was tweaked between May 1977 and June 1977 while the film was still in theaters. Among other improvements, ILM re-timed the flash frames, so that frame could potentially come from the earlier version.

Most fan preservations are based on the June cut (as are all modern home video releases) but the original version of the shot did make it to a couple of early releases, including some laserdiscs. Sadly, I don’t think it exists in HD anywhere. But laserdisc could be marginally better than what you’ve got now?

Again, not sure that’s what’s going on here but it’s worth checking out.

Much appreciated! Just to reiterate, I’m currently waiting on 4K80 to be released before resuming work on this project.

^ These compliments never fail to make me smile! Glad you are looking forward to the final project.

I wish I had more progress to share, but real life has kept me extremely busy of late. The good news is that my delayed progress means I will hopefully be able to use 4K80 for comparisons of ESB! If you’ve been following work on that, you’ll know that it’s getting closer and closer to completion and I couldn’t be more excited. I had been debating about whether or not it would be worthwhile to wait for it (I’m currently using a combo of GOUT and D+80) but it looks like that decision will be made for me.

crissrudd4554 said:

Will you be adding these changes to Empire?? “It’ll keep you warm til I get the shelter built/It’ll keep you warm til I get the shelter up“, “You’re lucky you don’t taste very good/You were lucky to get out of there”

Those were mono changes right? I’m not worried about being comprehensive about that one because it was not used theatrically. But “you were lucky to get out of there” WAS used in 97 so I have it in that section already.

Havoc n said:

The video is turning out great so far! One thing I noticed that you missed is that Luke’s line “what good will it do him if he gets himself killed, come on” is a different take in the mono mix. The line is at about 01:25:00.

Thanks! Added.

oojason said:

Re Section 1; on the general presentational front… I think you got it spot on.

For a 40 minute video it didn’t feel that long - and you left me wanting to see more. The humour spaced throughout didn’t jar - and was a welcome addition without being too OTT or distracting (you know people are going to pause the video and rush off to post on reddit that Lucas played old-timey piano for some theatre showings - before they later delete their posts after watching the rest of the video!) 😃

You also did a great job with the comparisons between differing takes and audio used - keeping them clear & concise. The presentation and transitions between the many differing takes made them easy to distinguish, intriguing to watch, and easier to remember (which is important important for fans of a certain age).

I think you’re going to surprise a lot of people and have them reaching for their old videos, laserdiscs and such to play the differences themselves. As well as jogging a lot of good memories even for those who know their pre-97 stuff.

Quality work, 13las.

👍
 

I appreciate the kind words.

For everyone following the project, I hit a bit of a snag last week when I got sick. Feeling better now (I’m vaccinated and tested negative for COVID as well) but my voice still sounds congested so I’m holding off on recording more narration.

In the meantime I’ve been working on anything that I can on the visual side, while simultaneously trying to balance work and a social life. I’m really happy with how this project is turning out but damn has it been a lot of work!

That’s awesome. Thank you!

doubleofive said:

Oh, I love using the “One Last Time” as a transition, you should make a point in the 97SE video that they’re ONLY talking about ANH, which was the original plan. The 97SE of the sequels were done at almost the last minute by a self-admitted “C Team” with much less resources and budget than ANH.

This is interesting. Any chance you’d be able to point me to where they self-admitted that?

Bobson Dugnutt said:

Section 3 is looking good, and I can’t notice any flaws. From memory, I think there was another audio change in TPM, as the senate chanting was changed from “Vote now!” to incoherent yelling. I think this was a DVD change, but I’m not 100% sure as it could of been a BR change.

Otherwise, I haven’t noticed any technical or factual errors, it’s looking good!

Thanks for the feedback! But, yeah that is actually a Blu-ray change and not a DVD one.

Btw, I’m using your recreation of the Declan Mulholland Jabba scene from ANH to talk about the SE version of the scene. Just wanted to double check that you’re cool with that? I’ll credit you as ‘originaltrilogy.com forum member Bobson Dugnutt’.

Here’s another WIP. Section 3: The Prequels in Theaters and on DVD [ https://youtu.be/ZqORvDS_4IU] (Runtime: 19:27)

Again, audio mixing hasn’t been finalized (I think I left the film audio way too loud on this one, but that will be addressed before the final version). There may be one or two other things not quite in their finished form yet, but I think it’s close enough to share for feedback.

Also, I’m doing these slightly out of order because Section 2 (The Special Editions) is a huge one. It’s currently looking like it’s going to be over 90 minutes long and I still have a lot of work left to do.

As before, I’m looking for feedback on factual accuracy primarily but feel free to comment on presentational style and clarity.

Thanks!

crissrudd4554 said:

Watching the vid now. A quick correction. 3PO’s tractor beam line is NOT in the 1993 mix.

Good catch. Not sure how my wires got crossed on that one.

Hi!

A couple years ago I made some YouTube videos about the changes to the Star Wars films. Generally, people liked the videos… but I always knew I could do better and have become increasingly embarrassed by them. So I’m rebooting the project!

The plan is to put absolutely everything (all rounds of changes to every single Star Wars film) into one massive video so that it can hopefully be the definitive source on the subject. (Definitive VIDEO source anyway — not to take anything away from the stellar work on the Star Wars Visual Comparisons site and elsewhere… I hope my project can be a supplemental resource to stuff like that)

So, I’ve divided my video into seven sections (plus an introduction and conclusion) that are broken down like this:
(1) Pre-Special Edition Changes
(2) Special Edition Changes
(3) The Prequels in Theaters and on DVD
(4) Original Trilogy DVDs
(5) Blu-Rays
(6) The Sequel Trilogy
(7) Disney+/4K Ultra-HD

Each chapter consists of a bit of history/explanation for how and why that round of changes was made, followed by a direct comparison of the changes with the original.

Work is at various stages of completion on all seven chapters and the plan is to share WIP versions of each of them here as I go along for feedback.

So here is a rough draft of Section 1 (Pre-Special Edition Changes): https://youtu.be/E5T3e89VCY4 [Runtime: 38:33] (EDIT: Just realized the VO audio rendered a little wonky, which I’ve already fixed in Premiere for the eventual finalized version)

This WIP is about 90% where I want it to be right now — there are a couple of temporary graphics and bits of editing remaining, plus a few pieces of narration I plan to re-record (especially toward the end where you might notice I sorta started to phone it in). I’ll also do one more pass to level the audio throughout.

I’m interested mostly in factual feedback at this stage, since this era in Star Wars history is the least well-documented online. Did I get anything wrong or leave anything out? (I also would really appreciate someone pointing me to exactly where that 1993 audio change to ESB is… I know it’s a missing snowspeeder crash sound but I was having a hard time finding it myself)

I guess general presentational feedback is welcome too. Is the video too jokey? Is the information conveyed effectively? Are any explanations rushed or overly drawn out?

Looking forward to hearing what you all think, and hopefully collaborating even further on this project!

Oh man! I had no idea. That’s pretty cool.

Lot’s of stuff in that video I wish I had done better (presentation-wise and a few inaccuracies), but I’m glad people are digging it.

I’m working on some new videos which I’ll be happy to share with the forums in the [hopefully] not too distant future.

Having seen the workprint of your edit, I do tend to agree with the feedback that you’ve left in too much. Personally, I think if you’re going to cut the crap out of something, you should go all the way. You mention your desire to preserve the season warts and all, but don’t forget that the original episodes don’t disappear when someone fanedits them! If this truly is your ideal version of the season, then that’s great. If not, then what’s the harm in a more radical approach?

That said, I think you’re well on your way to accomplishing your stated goal. A piece of (hopefully) constructive feedback I can offer is to define whether you intend this to play like a film or like an extended episode. Because, as it stands it sort of feels caught in between the two. If you want it to feel like a film, I think the opening few minutes could really use some kind of hook — I found the first scene with Ms. Briggs in the sheriff’s station too static and dialogue-heavy to be the opening of a movie experience. Not sure how you could accomplish this, maybe a recap of the preceding events? Or something a little more atmospheric — even an abstract title sequence a la Fire Walk With Me would go a long way to helping this feel more like a stand-alone experience.

I hope you don’t take anything I’ve said as a knock against you and your work — this project just isn’t radical enough for me. Best of luck to you, though! And you’ve inspired me to try my hand at my own season 2 edit.

I’ve been thinking about that a lot, actually. It felt a bit of an imposition to get as much as I did from this guy, but he was pretty friendly and the video quality was really good. It would probably have to be the kind of thing where I buy him an external hard drive and have him mail it to me.

Definitely a possibility though. I’d love to get the Simpsons shorts in better quality/without watermarks as well. Watch this space!

(P.S., I’ve got family from Guam. It’s always cool to see someone else from there)

I really love the look of this thing so far, man. Definitely shoot me a link to the work print when you get draft 2 done.

This is an idea I’ve had for a while that probably won’t fit here, but figured I’d mention it anyway.

Basically, use establishing shots from TROS to suggest that Kylo hangs out on the DS2 wreck. In other words, replace the Star Destroyer passing Starkiller shot in your preview with a shot of the wreck from across the ocean. And then cut inside to Kylo’s pain which we can assume is his lair aboard.

It’s fanservice-y but…
(a) that matches Kylo’s headspace thematically — obsessed with the past…
(b) it’s the last place we saw Vader’s helmet in the OT (in the same system, at least) and finally…
© would allow you to include the TROS vision of Han.

I picture that scene either just before or just after Broom Boy. Kylo is down and out after the battle of Crait. He’s disillusioned and conflicted so he retreats to his previously established lair and sees the vision of his father. Of course you’d have to cut references to Leia being gone (I think that would be pretty easy). And end the scene as he throws his lightsaber into the ocean.

Otherwise the Han Solo thread is a little unresolved, no? I think it might feel strange for Han to appear only in brief glimpses and not have at least one scene.

Definitely radical and would potentially mess with the flow of the ending but just wanted to throw it out there. The pros are that it would give Harrison Ford a little more screen time and a give even more closure to the story (though I’ve always liked the optimistic open-endedness that TLJ has).

Looking forward to this!

Edit: just read an earlier post of yours mentioning that you wanted to end with Kylo as the Supreme Leader. So maybe this is an idea for a different edit!

I didn’t see the SE in theaters, nor have I ever seen it on home video, but this looks good to me!

Looking forward to the full release.

So, this is a weird one.

You might know that The Simpsons originated as animated interstitials on the Fox variety series ‘The Tracey Ullman Show’. But you might not know that there was another series of animated shorts that more or less alternated with The Simpsons in the first season of the show. They were created by National Lampoon cartoonist MK Brown and focused on the often surreal misadventures of a therapist named Dr. Janice N!Godatu.

They’re nothing spectacular (there’s a reason why they didn’t launch a 32-year-and-counting prime time series), but they’re a pretty interesting piece of forgotten history. And I’ll admit that I got a few chuckles from them.

As The Tracey Ullman Show is extremely hard to come by these days, the Dr. N!Godatu shorts have very rarely seen the light of day. All told, six episodes of the shorts aired (they’re broken into 3 or 4 scenes each, like the early Simpsons shorts). Three episodes can be found on YouTube with a little digging but the latter three eluded me for months…

Until I somehow made contact with the world’s biggest Tracey Ullman fan. So I now have the complete collection of Dr. N!Godatu animated shorts, and they’re in surprisingly good quality.

But, yeah. PM for a link to all six. I edited them all together into a single video (runs just over 8 minutes). You’ll also see a folder with a bunch of screenshots, including some from the two additional episodes that never aired.

NFBisms said:

Rian saved Luke Skywalker from being a boring generic superhero in my eyes. The whole zen monk vibe he had in RotJ felt somewhat disingenuous to the initial character anyway (Mando helped me realize this), and to see that contrast adapted into a philosophical struggle in TLJ was really interesting and more satisfying storytelling than Force God fan wank.

The kid didn’t want anything but a dad, his friends, and a sweet piloting gig, especially when thrust with the Jedi responsibilities he didn’t really understand. In the end, his human heart and love for his dad beat The Empire, not his powers or sick saber moves. He certainly didn’t have to follow in Obi-Wan and Yoda’s footsteps. Badass Jedi Knight? Nah, just a good son.

Luke dealing with the expectation that he was more than any of those things is perfect meta commentary on how so many people thought or wanted it to be otherwise. “Like my father before me” is more important than the “I am a Jedi” part and I’m glad Rian found that soul from a character so muddled by pop culture.

Very well said.

Excited to check this out!

Mocata said:

If they can’t get it right here, then making it work for a whole new show is in doubt. I would have loved for the ending here to make me feel positive. Really. I would love to feel like ‘wow Luke is here what an ending’. Instead I just though ‘oh god this again’.

That’s exactly how I felt. Wanted to love it but couldn’t see past the uncanniness of it. It’s very interesting that there’s such a divide in people’s reception to it. Most seem to be on board, but I’m seeing more reactions like yours and mine. Really shows how subjective this stuff is. I’d much rather see genuine acting, even if it’s not Hamill or if he looked a little older than he should have. Picture-perfect facial replication just doesn’t do anything for me.