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zombie84

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21-Nov-2005
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12-Jan-2024
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Post
#220421
Topic
Idea: Star Wars - What Might Have Been
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/220421/action/topic#220421
Time
It would very much be possible to re-edit the films as one film.
It would, however, require the elimination of the first Death Star battle from ANH, which is quite a loss. It would also require that that perhaps all footage of the DS from ANH be altered so that the DS is actually the under-construction one from ROTJ. Not a huge job but some minor skill is needed. Then, perhaps all the DS footage from ROTJ would have to be altered so that the DS is actually the complete one from ANH. Much trickier here since it is seen so much and because of all the activity and ships around it.
As an alternative to losing the Battle of Yavin in ANH you could either eliminate the space battle from ROTJ, or combine them--once the shield goes down some of the Yavin battle footage could be used. This however, is kinda pointless, since Luke is not part of the battle and the Lando footage already is long enough.

A more ambitous and interesting one is make all three films into one three hour film. Replace the DS with the ROTJ one, cut out a few minutes of the Death Star rescue footage from ANH, plus the TIE fighter fight that follows, plus the Yavin battle. So now ANH is roughly 90 minutes long. From here, perhaps go to the Echo base escape, maybe making it seem like the fighters are fleeing the Yavin base, and put the Obi Wan instructions about Dagobah as voice-over in Luke's head (a nice substitue for the voice-over in ANH, since the Yavin battle is now gone and this is what is replacing it). Now comes the tricky part. Eliminate everything after the asteroid chase, but keep anything involving the characters (ie the romance), and keep all of Luke's Jedi training. Now you have to jump mid-ESB to mid-ROTJ. The entire Bespin section is elminated as well as all of the Jabba the Hutt sequence. Han solo isnt frozen and rescued and Vader and Luke don't duel. Instead, Luke's jedi training continues as it does--however, the father-revelation is needed. So, expand Luke confrontation with Vader in the cave. This obviously changes the meaning of the sequence somewhat, and it sounds clumsely and nonsensical but I'm sure with some tinkering and clever writing it could be possible to have the phantom-Vader reveal to Luke the fatherhood secret. Luke emerges and talks to Yoda about it in the ROTJ scene. Maybe some kind of flash-forward would have to be used for this, as if Luke has now completed his training and is now a Jedi (hence the new black uniform). Then Yoda confirms what Luke learned before in the cave--perhaps this was Yodas way of telling Luke to prepare him for his duel with Vader. Obi Wan's subsequent conversation would have to be edited to remove "face vader AGAIN" to just "you must face Vader."

Then Luke finds the rebel fleet and meets up with them. They are just getting ready to finally destroy the death star. Alter it so that it is the completed one from ANH. The rest of the film proceeds mostly as in the final film, but with some minor editing maybe to take down the run time (I'm thinking Ewoks here).

The final product would be just over three hours. Unfortunately most of ESB is lost, but stuff like that is inevitable when making a 7-hour trilogy into a 3-hour movie. But i think my outline is very, very feasible and would be very interesting. I would do it myself but i have yet to solve the whole "using MPEG-2/DVD with Adobe Premiere" thing.
Post
#219979
Topic
1977 70mm soundtrack recording (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/219979/action/topic#219979
Time
Originally posted by: SKot
I've only listened to a bunch of the first part, and I didn't hear anything different that I noticed apart from one little thing that sounded strange to me. Right after the Grand Moff Tarkin line that gets cut off, it cuts to the dead Jawa scene... and there is what sounds like a trumpet solo in the soundtrack. It sounded really odd to me, different from what I've heard before, kind of like if someone was playing 'Taps' much too loudly during the scene. I went back and listened to one of the other soundtracks, and the trumpet there did sound different from the 70mm mix. But it could very well just be the placement of the recording equipment and the particular way that trumpet solo was mixed.

I dunno... somebody else take a listen, compare, and see what you think. I'm doubtful that it's anything of significance.

--SKot



I noticed that too, kind of an Ennio Morricone sounding part. I think its partially due to audio recording but probably it was mixed up a little bit as well.
Post
#219957
Topic
Info Wanted: Faces vs. 1993 Definitive Collection - why the '93 DC LDs?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/219957/action/topic#219957
Time
Originally posted by: MeBeJedi
No offense, but while that reasoning seams...uh, reasonable, that does not mean it will apply to the 77 version in any way, shape or form. I'm curious to know where your "as most bonus disks are" comment stems from.



I know, i guess I'm just optimistic. For instance the 2004 set bonus disk is dual layered.
Post
#219950
Topic
I need some tech help with my smartphone(was: Anyone here know anything about smart phones?(was: Anyone here know anything about cell phones?))
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/219950/action/topic#219950
Time
If you are hardly going to use it the "pay as you go" plans are by far the best. Buy a ten dollar card and it lasts you about two months. Can't beat that. The actual rates on the minutes is not the best but compared to paying $20 a month for an awesome plan that will never be used, five or ten dollars a month is hard to beat, and you are not under contract either so you can just junk the phone if you ever want a new one. I use the pay and talk method because i only occassionally use my phone and even in a busy month i never use any more than 15 or 20 dollars on it, usually ten, which i think is a good deal for myself and probably for you too Warbler. I would check into it.
Post
#219790
Topic
//RETURNING TO JEDI\\: NTSC & PAL DVD
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/219790/action/topic#219790
Time
Originally posted by: Marky2004
Zombie - the cave saber opens out in 3 sections to about 41cm to show some "internal workings", it then telescopes shut in one smooth action with a very satisfying "whoosh" from some cleverly built pistons to then be identical to the classic ROTJ saber, in that state it can even be belt hung (not that you ever would !!!!!).

It's a lovely piece of engineering.

From what I've been told , this scene was shot on location and also in the studio for later compositing, but I'm told the footage has been destryed - a terrible shame, but I'm not giving up hope!

Mark


Well this is a truely amazing bit of detail--thanks for illuminating a little bit more of this unknown bit of Star Wars trivia.

Would be cool to maybe make a neat video of the saber to show how it opens up and collapses to get a better sense of the visuals of the scene.

And that is a shame if the scene is lost forever. It was completed and edit because there was music scored for it, which is available on the uncut RTOJ SE 2-disk release. Very surprising that something this major could have been thrown away. There are, as far as i know of, no production still of any kind for this sequence, only a storyboard. So this lightsaber is the only physical proof of the scenes existance! jeez...
Post
#219762
Topic
//RETURNING TO JEDI\\: NTSC & PAL DVD
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/219762/action/topic#219762
Time
Originally posted by: Marky2004
Hi - new to this forum, but have seen Building Empire & I really admire your work. I have a couple of items that you may want to include somewhere in the edit of Jedi.

I have the original lightsaber fired from R2-D2 on the Sailbarge, it's the one used on April 23rd 1982 as they wrapped shooting on the location sailbarge set. It's used in both closeups, although the first closeup was shot later after the top of the saber received some damage from aborted shots. It's also the one shown flying through the air, though not of course the one Luke catches.

But more interesting from your point of view, I have the original gadget hero saber used (yes - used, & yes - original) on the lost shots of Luke in the cave building his saber and inserting it into R2's head in November that year.

I don't know if these items are of interest to you, or if you can include them in the project, but if you want to then you'd be welcome.

Mark, UK


wow.

EDIT

Is the lightsaber from the cave sequence dis-assembled, as if Luke is still building it? And does this finally confirm that the sequence was 100% shot? I mean i know there was music scored for it but this is cool as well.
Post
#219732
Topic
Sets
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/219732/action/topic#219732
Time
For the type of story and environments Lucas designed the film with, there really wasn't a whole lot more they could do in terms of building actual sets. Much of the film was constructed facade--the coruscant streets, the nightclub, padme's apartment, palpatine's office, the kamino landing platform, Jango Fett's apartment, Dex's diner, most of the jedi temple, some geonosis exteriors, the lars' garage, the geonosis arena, the geonosis hanger...thats really every single location in the film. And all the Naboo places were real locations. The only place where they could have (and should have) used actual location plates was the Geonosis clone war ground battle--even though its mostly constructed from photographs, they have been manipulated enough that it looks false; simply setting the battle on some kind of earth desert with a few hundred real extras would have been much more impressive. But thats my only complaint really.
Post
#219566
Topic
I actaully PREFER seeing the black bars, even on my widescreen TV.
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/219566/action/topic#219566
Time
On a 16x9 image on a 16x9 television the overscan may actually be cropping a bit of the picture. Anything wider than this though and you are fine, save for some info on the edges that may be lost.

But i do agree that the "letterbox" effect makes films look nice--it acts as a frame for the picture, and hence emphasizes the composition. But I would much rather prefer a full(er)-screen image on a widescreen television.
Post
#219540
Topic
Today, I thanked George Lucas...
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/219540/action/topic#219540
Time
But also, not to dampen the magical mood around here, kids like a lot of stuff that is otherwise dumb. I mean I used to see kids playing with Wild Wild West and Batman and Robin action figures--does that validate such hideous films as those? No. Kids like poorly constructed entertainment like that. This is just an emotional reaction to a small kid entranced by flashy graphics and simplistic characterisation. I didn't want to post this earlier because this is a sweet, touching story, but some kid somewhere was also touched and had his life improved through the watching of Battlefield Earth as well. Star Wars was great because it touched old viewers as much as it did kids, so while the PT obviously has enough in it to semi-entertain some older folks and entertain most of the younger folks, the PT are still pale shadows (but shadows nonetheless i suppose).

Anyway, just wanted to throw that out there and bring everyone back down.

Bless you for giving him the toys though nohandluke, that is extremely sweet of you.
Post
#219443
Topic
Lucasfilm to sell Physical Effects Unit
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/219443/action/topic#219443
Time
Originally posted by: Gaffer Tape
Well, in II and III, models were used less for ships and the like and more for blue-screen replacement. Miniature sets were built (like the hallways in Kamino and the Geonosian arena), photographed, and comped in around the actors. Hmm, but were there really any models used for Sith? Nothing comes to mind right off. Any help here?

And ThatArtGuy, thanks for correcting me. Yeah, Home on the Range was the last. I didn't see that one either...


For Sith, Utapau was mostly models, and there was quite a few made for Mustafar as well. Padme's apartment model may have been used again as well. True, though, there was much less used in Episode III. Maybe thats why they realised they could just outsource the model work from now on.

For Episode I and II there was probably as much model work as there was CG work if you can believe. The entire Geonosis arena, the Podrace stadium, the interiors of Kamino, much of Coruscant (ie Padme's apartment), pretty much all of Naboo is miniature, the Trade Federation ships, much of the ship explosions were done using models and model/CG combinations. Quite a bit of work.