Star Wars - The Digital Movie Collection

This actually is the part of the fan edits that I detest most, all it does is confuse the issue. It's "enhancements" like these that made people want the original trilogy to begin with.

I'm fine with e.g. Harmy's efforts because it was an honest effort to restore the OT using existing elements that were carefully composited, without having this compelling need to add newly created content.

 

I spent a lot of time trying to put more color back in the lightsabers and making them consistent, and the powers-that-be had us crush the outer space scenes quite a bit. And they also had VFX artists chasing the matte lines the best they could. So effort was made. I think to do it right, they would've had to have spent about $5M with a staff of 100 and taken about a year to clean all this stuff up, and we did it all in about 4 months with maybe a dozen people.

 

I won't lie, I'm not nearly as interested in Revisited as I am in Despecialized, but it's kinda cool, AND they're nicely described to indicate what they are. Not to mention, the things that Adywan IS adding to the films (which are fun additions, not just hacking and slashing at the original) really highlights the sheer stupidity of some of the things that were added by George himself. If you're going to update, UPDATE, or just fix matte lines, compositing, etc, and do it right.

I still remember going through a set of screenshots from the DVD special editions (silver 4-disc box set) and how hilariously bad some of the lightsaber compositing is. We're talking ILM, one of the greatest visual effects companies in the world (until Weta showed up and joined them in the limelight) and you still have pink red lightsabers and terrible lightsaber crossing? I get it, it's a team of humans, but you'd think having that many eyes on something would mean they'd be able to make it damn near perfect. Then again, some of the (admittedly small) goofs in even the stellar Star Trek: The Next Generation remaster project make me wonder the same thing...

EDIT: Based on Vidiot's post, I can only shake my head and blame the bean counters. Again.

At any point, were you or anybody else on the team looking at the results and going "this isn't good enough", or was the general consensus basically positive? It's certainly not things that can be picked out in motion most of the time but I remember seeing some pretty damning screenshots.

 

You did this for the 2011 Blu-ray set? Personally I think the Blu-rays look great. Then again, I've always had the special editions, starting with the VHS versions I had back in the late 1990s (I think 1997 was when my dad bought them). I have not seen the digital HD ones yet. It would be nice to have the original unaltered versions as an alternative though.

 

It was suggested, but there wasn't enough time and money to restore the original theatrical versions. All the pieces exist so it theoretically could be done with enough effort and cash. Star Wars and Empire would be the toughest by far. I know if it had been up to Lucas, he would've loved to just redo all the effects from scratch, but there's a point where you're basically remaking the movie.

 

It was the original reason why Adywan wanted to embark on this project in the first place, to colour correct the films after the horrendous blue tint currently occupying the DVD and Bluray releases. Once he started on that he realised that other things could be done like restoring Han shooting first and erasing the Jabba scene from the first movie. ANH:R was brilliant.

 

For me the only way I would buy this digital download is if they included the Lost Cut of Star Wars. I can't image any of these "new" extras really make it worth it.

 

Both. I don't think they will sell that well. People who like Star Wars likely already have these. They really need to start selling downloads without DRM too because all it does is annoy the end consumer.

 

I agree. Adding even more crap on top of (or instead of) Lucas's additions is ridiculous, like some sort of pissing contest to see who can "improve" the movies more. Good for you if that's your hobby, but I'm not interested.

 

It's funny in the world of fan edits how many versions there are of the 6 Star wars films made by those that feel the need to "improve them" by drastically re-editing or reworking them. I came across one for Mad Max one time that said they wanted to remove all the sappy stuff where Max had a wife and child and their deaths from the motorcycle gang. So basically remove what made him mad. I'm sure that made it a better film (insert sarchasm).

 

Yeah, fan edits can be a tricky thing. The ones that have goals are much more interesting than the kitchen sink ones:
- Edit Peter Jackson's Middle Earth movies to more closely match the books
- Edit Star Trek The Motion Picture with deleted scenes to recreate the VHS-only Special Longer Version
- as already mentioned, the Despecialized versions of the original trilogy
- does this count as a fan edit? (NSFW)

 

As long as any alternate version of a film doesn't replace the original version as Lucas has done with with the Special Editions, I'm fine with them. A fan edit is nothing more than an interesting new way of watching a film you've seen countless times. I would watch Adywan's Star Wars: Revisited if I could stream it and not have to jump through hoops with downloading this, that and the other thing and run the risk of weird search engines, toolbars and trojans popping up on my computer requiring me to uninstall the programs as has happened to me in the past. It's a big hassle, and I'm not willing to go down that road again. That's why I haven't seen Harmy's Despecialized Editions. I'm not going to put myself through that stuff. It may be easy for some, but it's a pain in the ass for me. I have the Special Editions and the Theatrical Editions on DVD, and I'm content with them until the original unaltered trilogy in inevitably released on Blu-ray.

 

I just got the HARMY versions but haven't watched them yet except to scan them a bit. Some of the stuff looks over-sharpened, I don't know if it's because of the source of part of the remastering.

I do see there are projects where people are doing homemade telecine of prints of the films, the ESB one is called "The Grindhouse version."

That's what I want Disney/Lucas to do - find the best possible existing original prints, digits them , LIGHTY clean them up and release them.

If VIDIOT says it'll cost $5 million it's a drop in the bucket compared to the $4.05 BILLION. It's something like 1/8 of 1% of the cost they paid for the company.

I can't image these versions not generating revenue to cover the cost.

If they released them right before Episode VII it'd be a hype machine!

 

They show up at the local thrift store from time to time and they sit of the shelf. The thrift store sells all VHS tapes for the same price 7 tapes for $2.

 

You've got nothing to worry about in downloading Revisited. He's not making any money from this but the disclaimer is that in order to download a copy, you must own a copy of the movie on DVD/Bluray whatever. It's completely free mate.

 

Or stop making physical media ? Wonder which will come first ?

 

I got the impression the previous poster was more concerned/annoyed with the hoops one has to jump through to get this stuff, and the peril one's computer might be in as a result. Going on weird torrent sites, weird pop-ups, etc. I haven’t seen the “de-specialized” version for the same reasons. The “it’s already out there if you want it” comments I see all the time are a bit of a misnomer. I have a great interest in seeing the work that was done; it appears impressive.

I just recently checked out what is apparently the message board that houses discussion of the “de-specialized” version, and however many years later there are still people trying to figure out how to download it, as well as a the requisite group of people chastising people looking for it as if they’re all luddites who don’t know a thing about computers.

 

It took me many months to jump through the technical hurdles, but it was well worth it to see the results.

 

If that's the case, I'll look into it before actually pulling the trigger, but I've been screwed in past when it comes to downloading stuff from these types of sites, ending up with weird search engines, trojans, ad pop-ups, etc. I really do want to see them, but I have a feeling we will see an official release of the unaltered trilogy soon.

 

The digital release of the original trilogy by Disney with the fanfare removed from all except A New Hope seems to put to rest the notion that Disney and 20th Century Fox aren't capable of coming to a mutually beneficial agreement when it comes to re-releasing the original trilogy with A New Hope which 20th Century Fox still owns the distribution rights to.

 

Adywan also made a Purist Version of ANH. Actually haven't gotten around to seeing that yet. I'd imagine it'll be similar to Harmy's Despecialised Edition too.

 

The only two versions I think that matter are 1) the original theatrical release as shown in theaters the first week, and 2) the final "altered" version done by Lucas himself. Put both out in a boxed set and let the viewer decide which version they want to see. This still preserves the filmmaker's intent, but it also preserves the film from a historical sense. Everybody's happy. Ignore the version you don't want to see.

I would also bet they could easily do 8+ hours of additional material for every movie, including behind-the-scenes documentaries, new interviews, old interviews, outtakes, screen tests, VFX material, set photos, concept art, unused music, the whole deal. It'd be wonderful if everybody could agree to do it.

 

I use Firefox with the Adblock and NoScript extensions when browsing the dark side of the web.

 

IIRC, there was some rejiggering of shots and additional music edits at the end of Attack of the Clones that bugged the crap out of me. This is the Dooku chase and hanger battle. Any idea why that was done?