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378 Terabytes Of Star Wars on 600 G5s
Mrbill points to this USA Today story on the
digital makeover given to the original Star Wars trilogy, noting that the digitized films have also been converted to HD for later release as high-definition DVDs.
Its nice to see that we're finally getting the original 3 films on DVD... it does piss me off a bit that Lucas seems to do everything he can to ear a few more bucks... first we'll redo them and release them in to different VHS boxed sets. Wait a few years, now we'll do them on DVD. Wait a few years, now we'll release the HD versions.
Though I guess if consumers keep buying them, then you can't really blame Lucas too much.
Can someone in the know please answer these questions?
1. When the much hated special editions were released, were the originals digitized and altered then reprinted?
2. Is the stock that this company used the original, originals? Meaning that when lucas got the cleaned-up digitized versions he had to go back and redo all the SE stuff?
finally
3. Does this give hope to the idea there might someday be a Highdefinition original cut version of the films?
Thanks in advance!
You do know that you don't actually need all of them right?
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
....how would Star Wars fans (I'm not one) feel about an entire new reshoot of the film (assuming original script)?
Maybe Luke would turn out less of an annoying brat this time, or is that one of the central plot themes?
CGI Yoda?
Bullet-time fight sequences?
I watched the stolen versions of the DVD and it convinced me to buy the trilogy.
When the SE came out, I was so agitated by Greedo shooting first and the distracting eye candy that I didn't even go to see Empire and Jedi on the big screen. The eye candy is still there but the Greedo scene passes muster with me.
In this version, they shoot almost simultaneously (boys, boys), so close that Greedo's first shot could be a mere relativistic side-effect of photons crossing at a certain angle.
Empire seemed pretty straightforward. I had heard there weren't many changes in the SE, and didn't see many other than too much wampa.
Jedi made me wish I still did acid, but I don't think that was due to the alterations. That Chewbacca-Tarzan thing is just too weird. Jubjub indeed.
And you are right about the film quality -- it kicks my videotape's ass. And the colors are greatly enhanced, but don't pop like technicolor, they're still balanced and realistic. More like moving from 16 to 24 bit color.
I recommend any fan give it a look before absolutely deciding against buying.
Kill, Tux, kill!
every time they make editorial/artistic changes they get to reset the copyright clock. Mere cleaning up wouldn't have let them do this.
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
Ian Caven is a regular member of the Vancouver Python User's Group and he spoke about this amazing system at our conference a month ago.
One intersting bit is that the vast majority of this system is written in Python using numpy. Ian says "he doesn't know how they would have done it" otherwise. C is used for the inner loops but Python does the majority of the algorithmic stuff that makes one image processing job (e.g. removing dust) different from another (e.g. correcting for film degradation). Python also manages all of the distributed processing.
Another interesting bit is that they are using Python, Zope and HTTP to make a virtual file system for managing the frames and movies. This will help with the storage management problems that arise from working with such massive files.
There are other amazing facts but it is hard to know which are competitive secrets that are better not divulged. One hint I'll give is that the productivity of the programmers at this company would shock you. They've obviously benefitted from building on a very high-level language and they also have some very sharp tools they've built themselves to make these amazing jobs possible.
Just wait, once the 3rd trilogy tanks at the box office, Lucas will deny that Star Wars ever even existed. Greedo shot first? Huh? Who's Greedo?
I love how we all just overreact and start making Lucas out to be the evil villain here by assuming everything he says or does must be wrong.
--Rick "If it isn't broken, take it apart and find out why."
Plenty of movies from the 70s and early 80s have been released on perfectly acceptable DVDs.
The effects from the original print of Star Wars were remarkable. Everything was done with models, hand-drawn animation cels, and inserted footage for things like explosions. It was painstaking work done by an army of special effect technicians, and stands as an important moment in Hollywood film history. In fact, many would say it rivals Citizen Kane in terms of landmark technical achievement in cinematography.
Now we have the Very Special Edition version of Star Wars, in which many of these effects were masked over by what is, frankly, quite unremarkable CGI.
The original explosion of the Death Star may have been crude by today's standards, but in the context of what could be done with film at the time, it was thrilling to see, and it's still impressive to look back at it and know what it took to make that shot. The new CGI version of the same shot looks almost okay (ILM's digital effects pale in comparison to what WETA has been up to), but really nothing special, and it will probably look extremely dated in five years or so, assuming Lucas doesn't "re-do" it yet again with the technology of tomorrow.
What I really want is a good-quality DVD with restored video, remastered audio, and not a single addition to (or subtraction from) the original content. Lucas can make all the Special Editions and Director's Cuts he wants, as far as I'm concerned, but the only version I will ever buy is the original. Until he releases that, he doesn't get another dime from me. (Not that he needs it or anything, I'm just sayin'.)
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
I don't think he's running out... but I think he does like the cash. Also there has to be some kind of perverted satisfaction with altering his successful work from 1977 and replacing it with a sweaty, crude, and mismatched looking set of special effects and previously deleted scenes that should have stayed on the cutting room floor.
I'm more concerned about his plans for a TV series and for more movies. Although, looking at it another way, TV is way too small for Lucas to directly intefere with as he does with the movies. For that reason, it's quite likely the TV series could be pure gold - with quality actors being allowed to act properly, something noticeably missing from the prequels.
I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
Why oh why doesn't The Ferengi use the option of alternate angles to give the option of either the digitally mutilated or the untampered holy version of the original trilogy? Why is alternate angle almost exclusively used for pr0n? This would so be a chance to make use of that feature on a major film, but nooo, he needs to be stubborn.
For every shit there is a law, but none against this bullcrap.
Secondly I'm pretty sure DVD media degrades from bacteria slower than film degrades from sitting around in cans.
Well I guess you are talking about real DVD not DVD-R which seems to degrage themselves faster than bacterias can do. However in the digital archival process saving the media is only one part of the problem and you also have to deal with: being able to do something with the media. If you find a 100 years old film sitting in an attic you'll be able to watch it pretty easily while I doubt you'll be able to do anything beside a decorative object of a 8" floppy disk, a 2" video tape or a vintage computer tape reel. So how will it be for a DVD 50 years from now?
Another interesting point of the interview is the constreversy about the fidelity of the digitized version. Even Lowry admit that he could do a better restoration of Citizen Kane now that he has done a few years ago. Now if the digitized master has to become the "original" how could new improvments in film restoration technology applied again?
I mean, doesn't anyone else here see what Lucas is doing? He's not stomping on your childhood dreams...it's pure marketing genius. Remeber back when Coke said it was changing the recipe for Coca-Cola? Their sales went through the roof for the ORIGINAL coke!
He's releasing the "Special Editions" now. He'll make the money off of them...let them stay out there for like a year or two. THEN it will be get the entire box set of Episodes 1-6 that will set you back like $150...let that stay out there a few years until they don't sell anymore.
Then around 6 years from now or so, the Original 3 movies with no changes at all...the ones that were released starting back in 1977 will be a box set. There's certainly a market for this now and everyone that's bitching and moaning will snatch it up!
Lucas won't be laughing all the way to the bank btw...he'll just install a bank at Skywalker Ranch and be done with it.
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
There is one silver lining to the new super- duper- special- editions coming out on DVD:
It is only a matter of time before an enterprising team of audiovisual specialists takes the DVD content and edits it to re-insert the original footage (as was done with Episode I to get rid of Jar Jar). There are thousands of people with the skills and technology to do this, and given the historical importance of the originals (they won Oscars!) deserve nothing less.
Alternatively, I wonder how much of a donations fund could be set up somewhere, with the full proceeds going to the first Lucasfilm employee (who would then be an ex-Lucasfilm employee) who uploads the cleaned up, ORIGINAL DVD masters to the internet for people to convert to DVD. It might be interesting to see how much money could be raised to do such a thing.
So, if any Lucasfilm employee wants to become an instant millionaire, here's your chance to nominate a price at which you will upload the cleaned up, original trilogy (which are dead according to Lucas) for the world to turn into proper, ORIGINAL TRILOGY DVDs.
Visceral Psyche Films
Just get the Asian version of the DVDs of the original series (not SE) and be done with it. Sure, the picture quality isn't as good, but Greedo doesn't shoot first (or "almost simaltaneously" or whatever he does in this new DVD version).
"with the equivalent of 378 terabytes" - is that like the MPAA's equivalent?
You know, as a Star Wars fan I tend to dislike some of the changes made in the SE of the original series. So people even go as far as to say that Lucas butchered the series. I don't really see how this could be considered butchering the series. If you enjoyed the movies in their original form, you should still be able to enjoy them now. The core of the movies remains untouched, and only a few scenes had small alterations. Star Wars is still great in my mind, it still has a great story, battles that were way before its time, and an engulfing universe that continues to be expanded today. If a few changes ruined the movies for you, then you must not have enjoyed them that much in the first place.
SIGFAULT
Really.
Both editions should be available, though, for those whose fanaticism is more religious than mine. That is, if LucasFilm even bothered saving a digital version of the original print during the Special Edition restoration.
For example if I take pictures with a 2 Megapixel camera, then san the images at some insane resolution, they're still crappy photos.
I boycott signatures
Is there no shame left?
No, but only in the sense that every single slashdotter who reads your post has bought essentially the same movie 5 times over. I'd say that after paying for the same flick 4 or 5 times a little fair use is in order?
Just to piss you off more, here's some more delicious fair use "piracy"
Nice article. But nothing new.
If you are interested in reading more on how the experts restore old stock then you can't do better than visit the 'Doctor Who Restoration' web site.
These bunch of guys have to restore awful video and film masters from the sixties.
http://www.restoration-team.co.uk/
Look up in the DVD releases section:
'Lost in Time' or the detailed 'The Seeds of Death' article.
They have before and after examples that will blow your mind!
Stuart http://stuarthalliday.com/