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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.
... Lucas to digitally remaster the Star Wars Kid in all his iterations, and sell them on DVD for $50.
But I won't by it until the "Special Edition" comes out in 6 months!
You can now watch your childhood dreams get stomped on ... in HIGH DEFINITION!
Of course. Release the DVDs now. Special edition DVDs next year. Limited Edition DVDs the year after that. Then redo the whole cycle again on high definition DVDs, making it so that people have to buy the trilogy six times, spending a couple hundred bucks.
Well, at least they're not releasing them both individually and as a set with different special features. That would double the number of times it will be released.
...I really hope George Lucas wasn't inspired by my above comment.
Anyone got a torrent?
Kill, Tux, kill!
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!
Go for it George Lucas. Ruin all of your movies.
bit trollent
Scratches and loss of color is not the only degredation to SW that seems to have developed over time. A copy I watched recently seemed to have developed small cute computer animated characters that detracted from the development of suspense in the film..
Why exactly did it need to be restored again anyways? I mean, wasn't it restored for the THX video re-releases a decade ago and further restored for the theatrical re-releases with new scenes?
If they could only digitally remaster Lucas to restore him to his original 1970's form. I'd pay 70 bucks for that.
The office has 80 employees, running 600 networked Power Mac G5. Assuming no bulk discounts, that's about $1.8 million total, or $22,500 per employee. I wish I worked for a company with those resources. Any chance they're running Seti@home when not working on any projects? ;-)
Yeah, but this one comes with a 20 min clip of Lucas pretending to ass rape you for more money. Even better you get he I've been fucked by the Jedi Council bumper sticker too!
So that's how Lucas intends to discourage piracy.
I have to hand it to him; Between not having enough space and bandwidth, and not wanting to see how he's butchered Star Wars this time, I don't think I would bother trying to share the 378TB of video.
I tip my pirate hat to you. Arr.
Can somebody just post a link to the torrent?
I have been refusing to give any more money to Lucas, be it the new DVDs or Episode III, but the commercials for the trilogy DVDs almost (ALMOST!) changed my mind) they change is very apparent, even if you've watched the LDs or especially on cable. All three films look much crisper and brighter - I almost thought for a second that Lucas had added some new stuff.
I still won't be buying the trilogy, but I'm amazed at how good the restoration looks.
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
I wonder if star wars will eventually be defined as a movie that changes through the years and keeps being packaged and resold? Add a top hat on jar jar one year, a pepsi coke in the hand of the enemy and a coke a cola in the hand of the hero another year, a new previously unreleased scene of chewbacca taking a shit in a bathroom, a year later a "forgotten" or "lost" scene of chewie in the bathroom wiping, etc.
Add a little more as time goes by and make more money.
Plenty of stupid people out there to buy anything.
^ all in my opinion
Note: The article summary is misleading. While the 'original' (Han shoots first) prints may have been restored by this company, this is not the print that will be on the DVD. Lucas is not releasing the original trilogy, only the special edition
Like honestly, I understand keeping with the original, but in retrospect if you really wanted the true triology, you would pull out your VHS tapes, and watch it into oblivion. When you put in a dvd that is low-quality, poor sound, yeah the novelty will be pretty cool, and the story carries it, but it would get old fast. In comparison to everything we have now, the late 1970's were not known for their technological feats. And while I would rather him not add the extra scenes to the movie, the fact that he remastered the audio, and is hidef'ing the video is a plus. Basically its either original and crappy, or hidef sweetness and alterations.
je suis parce que j'aime
So now that it's been restored 3 times, had scenes added once and re-edited twice, how many re-releases do you think it will take before it contains no shred of the original film and it becomes a romantic comedy set in a hospital?
So does being done on Apple G5's constitute a washing away of all of lucas' sins, or will they have to burn the hardware in order to keep the contamination from spreding???
You need a FREE iPod Nano
So the question I've been dying to find out from all the high def zealots out there is... does making a high definition recording of something originally recorded in some other definition (in this case celluloid) going to look "better"? It's been my experience dealing with image processing of "analog" imagery that the higher up in resolution you go, the more "anomolies" can be detected...i.e. there is only so much you can do with the original baseline, and going up in resolution requires huge amounts of post processing to clean up those anomolies. AAANNND the final product is still limited by the originals. So even if we get more lines of resolution from the celluloid, the celluloid is still the limit on how good you can go. So will high def DVD STAR WARS look better than standard DVD STAR WARS. Probably, but not any better than the original and not THAT much better than standard DVD. I think the movie industry (and music too) have lost the fact that we aren't clamoring for higer resolutions of our recorded media, we just want ones that don't wear out. That's why I think SACD and DVD-A haven't taken off.
Dear George,
Could you please stop using our computers? You are lame. We are leet.
Thanks.
Steve
I bet if the restoration was done on a beowulf cluster of old amigas running Linux, everyone would start saying Greedo shooting first was the best thing that ever happened to the trilogy...
(Holy Karma-Risk Batman!)
There are two kinds of fool. One says, This is old, and therefore good. And one says, This is new, and therefore better.
People keep complaining that Lucas keeps re-releasing the trilogy over and over to milk the populace of their money, and while I do agree that changing the movies is a cardinal sin, I think it's great that he keeps putting out improved versions of the movies.
Would you honestly prefer that he not release these movies on DVD or HDDVD and instead wait 15 more years for Super-Uber-HDDVD? I mean, that way he couldn't be accused of milking us right?
In fact what does piss me off is that he waited all this time to release these on DVD -- he should have done this sooner!
This is a somewhat biased point of view from someone who saw the first film on the Friday of the week it opened, and several times in the same theater after that, where it ran for a full year! And I compare it with seeing "episode 1", which made such an impression that I refuse to ever watch episodes 2 or 3.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
virtually guaranteeing that the Hans/Greedo controversy will continue. At this rate, soon Hans will not have even shot Greedo. It will turn out that due to a high fat diet and sedentary life-style befitting a rich assasin, Greedo's arteries were clogged full of cholesterol. Hans didn't shoot Greedo, he was dead before he hit the table!!
My other computer is a Jacquard loom.
1) Lucas is a money-grubbing third-rate director.
2) Can they wipe out Jar-Jar?
3) Jar-Jar is not in these episodes, you moron.
4) Who you calling a moron? Lucas is a money-grubbing moron.
5) Why are they doing it on Macs when it is cheaper to do it on Linux?
6) No, it's not. Look at Virginia Tech.
7) Teh MACS suck.
8) Nope, you idiot, M$ sucks.
9) You are all idiots, Lucas sucks.
Nothing else to see here. Move along now.
Back in 2003, Apple had an article about John Lowry. It's a little out of date since the Apple article says he has 100 G5s, 300 G4s, and 100 TB of disk space.
[Jedi mind-trick a-la Obi Wan]
These aren't the films we're looking for
[/jedi mind trick]
I am the maverick of Slashdot
....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'm still far, far happier with my little cardboard box containing a digitally remastered but unaltered Star Wars Trilogy on VHS tapes.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
And the newly enhanced, more humane Stormtroopers will all carry flashlights instead of blasters.
Dear George,
Piss the hell off.
Why for the love of whatever god you pray to, if any, do you feel the constant desire to further destroy this set of films?
Ok, so maybe it wasn't the best acting or the best special effects or whathaveyou, but for the love of god, man, it was an amazing thing at the time which had an amazing effect on a great number of people!
It put my cousin on the road do his job at NASA, it put me into an Aerospace Engineering program!
There's is nothing to be gained by all this revisionist history other than to make you look like a complete money-grubbing idiot!
Greedo shoots first? WTF?!?!?! Next step is walkie-talkies instead of balsters, that's just fantastic.
Please just stop trashing my and many other's childhoods, and please just go away. You've done enough damage. Nearly everyone who used to love you now curses your name, and the once great ILM is a sad shadow of its former glory.
Begone foul demon.
As much as it pains me, I have no choice but to conclude that you are nothing but a no talent, monyey-grubbing hack, with nothing more to give that destructive remakes of great films. So just bite me, you won't see another dollar of mine.
Bastard.
This isn't a troll, it's a heart-felt responce.
> 600 networked Power Mac G5 computers with the
> equivalent of 378 terabytes (378 million
> megabytes) of hard-disk storage.
Now, when they say 'equivalent of 378 TB' are they talking about a different system of measuring HD space (that only the media use), are they discussing the finer points of the TiB/ TB debate, or is it easier to write 'the equivalent of' rather than 'an approximate total of' ?
http://milkshake.dexy.org
Maybe a few of the hard drives will crash and Lucas is too ignorant to have a backup. This will save our money.
Looking for a job?
Want your resume written professionally?
DON'T USE TUNAREZ!!!
Back when the Star Wars Definitive Collection LD set came out I bought them as they were simply the best way to see the original films. They were far better quality than the previous widescreen LD releases and the extras were pretty cool too. Then the SE versions appeared and I went to the cinema to see them and while it was nice to see the film at 35mm resolution, the new digital effects really didn't work for me. I couldn't see what was wrong with the original effects. They were great for the time and even today I think they still look pretty impressive. However, I did end up buying a cheap copy of the boxed set of SE LDs as they were in CLV mode giving an hour per side compared with the 25 mins or so for the THX LDs. Still, I watch the original versions more often than the SEs. They just seem much purer.
So, these new DVDs, well the picture isn't that much better than the LD releases really. They're still standard definition and they're still not the originals. If they release these in HD I might plunk some cash down but that clearly isn't going to be an issue for another half decade I expect. But really George. Give people the choice to see the new cut and the original.
I think the original in the context of the time it was made is much more powerful as a piece of cinema, these bastardised versions look far less impressive because it is obvious that they are using 21st century effects but that makes them seem less special as many other films look as impressive. Compare the original cut to films of the same time or shortly afterwards and it really stands out.
"I have the attention span of a strobe lit goldfish, please get to the point quickly!"
...noting that the digitized films have also been converted to HD for later release as high-definition DVDs.
Just when you thought there couldn't be any possible way to get even MORE money out of fans by selling the SAME movies AGAIN - HD DVD's.
How many versions is that now?
How many versions in HD will we have? All of the previous ones? (HD 'Special Edition' anyone?)
Thank god other movie companies don't follow suit - I could do without 15 different versions of Gigli clogging up stores.
Bizarre... I'm starting to see a connection between Star Wars and Michael Jackson's nose.
If senility was a race, I would win.
YOU stomp on George Lucas' childhood dreams
What are you listening to? (http://megamanic.blogetery.com/)
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.
Not sure the point of your post, but all 5 Star Wars films that Lucas has released so far (plus the various Special Editions, etc) have clocked in at over 2 hours...
This sig intentionally left justified.
Perhaps I should have been more blatantly sarcastic. The point was that films have become far too reliant on special effects and that it is still possible for very good movies to be created in their absence. One of my favorite movies for example is The Shawshank Redemption... not one special effect.
I think eye-candy is becoming far too acceptable - generally at the expense of plot and convincing acting.
I have to ask, in all seriousness, is George Lucas running out of money or something? The release of the DVDs (reworked of course), along with the prequels, a new Star Wars TV series in the pipeline, and talk of doing a sequel trilogy - at a time when demand and interest in Star Wars is declining. I was under the impression that Lucas was quite happily independently wealthy so why the sudden push for more and more Star Wars? Rick Berman I can understand - He wants to bleed the series for every last drop of cash now while he still has influence because if he gives Star Trek a rest for 5 years people will likely come to their senses and fire his ass - But why is Lucas maing a cash grab?
Anyone know?
Jedidiah.
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
So......there's a Full Screen Edition and a Widescreen Edition? They couldn't just put them in one box? So if you currently have a 4:3 screen and want it to be full-screen, you buy the Full Screen, but then you miss out on some of the "theatre experience" and if you were to later get a widescreen TV (or watch it on your widescreen laptop), you're SOL. So then you pop $40 for the Widescreen Edition as well? That just seems a bit absurd to me.
I saw a fireman once.... That's the closest to my childhood dream.
"This is you left and that's your left. This is your right and that's your right. You're gonna die!
Then I wonder why they credit a special effects person?
Not to take away from the intent of your post. But I think there are levels of effects technology, and levels of the audience's saturation thereof. Groundbreaking effects years ago, the ones that really made us think "how'd they do that an make it look so real", really come apart at the seams 20 years later. Look at Star Wars, or Terminator 2, or the Matrix. In their day, they were at the tops of their games. But the cost of those effects has come down, and they've become commonplace.
While I agree effects should be secondary to the story, I think the real talent is in creating effects that are as realistic as possible, so that the audience doesn't question what they're seeing, and can get swept up in the story. That's probably why there was an effects guy on Shawshank, and why you didn't notice him... he did his job well.
This sig intentionally left justified.
>The point was that films have become far too reliant on special
>effects and that it is still possible for very good movies to
>be created in their absence.
What is this "film" you speak of? You mean it hasn't all burned or disintegrated? I thought actors were only there for voiceovers!
Oh, but maybe you meant "films" as in the kind that you pronounce with your jaw jutted out a little along with talk of "auteurs" and "vision".
See how silly categorical marginalization is? Here's a news flash, people have been making thin plots and lame actors since the beginning of drama. If you're going to complain about its acceptibility, you're going to need a Ouija Board and time machine because the industry doesn't care. There will always be good stuff to see that doesn't force you to choke down more CG, so you know...save your pennies and be an educated consumer.
In other words, "lighten up, Francis"...
When I was a kid, we only had one Darth.
Now the question is.. how many of you nay sayers who hate what is happening, will secretly go out and get your copy on the 21st?
---- You have been programmed by the Illuminati to not see the word ""!
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."
I first saw the unedited, original cut of Star Wars in late 1976, when it consisted of the original reels fresh out of the cameras from the various sets. That was the best version - the definitive version.. I mean, Han shot Gredo fifteen times in subsequent takes.
Damn you to hell, George, for cutting that original 52 hour uncut version! What were you thinking, you butcher!?? Do you think you had the right to cut and change things AFTER THEY WERE FILMED? It's almost as if you had something else in your head about what the films should be, and when the filmed material didn't suit, you cut it and changed it, you bastard, until they fit what you wanted.. how could you? Who do you think you are?
So, I'll be hanging on to my 27 reels of original film, and ignore some new version that's been changed by some idiot who really had nothing to do with the films at all..
While I agree effects should be secondary to the story, I think the real talent is in creating effects that are as realistic as possible, so that the audience doesn't question what they're seeing, and can get swept up in the story. That's probably why there was an effects guy on Shawshank, and why you didn't notice him... he did his job well.
Very true. You make a good point, and I suppose I should qualify my previous statements by saying that I believe special effects do have a valid place in movies as long as they help to develop the story. As much as I hate to admit it, Titanic did this very well. That movie was loaded with effects, but many of them were imperceptible, and were only there to make the movie more convincing.
BTW, if you happen to know what the special effects person actually did for Shawshank Redemption, I would love to know. If you haven't seen it, I would suggest that you do. It really is a classic.
...if an insider helped himself/herself to a private DVD copy of the 'original trilogy' AFTER restoration/cleanup but BEFORE the Special Edition 'enhancements' are added to the three films.
As an aside, I was under the impression that the negative to STAR WARS (1977) was destroyed during the Special Edition restoration process for its 20th anniversary re-release in 1997. Maybe I was wrong about that now....
Anyway, if the insider is smart, they will 'sit' on their copy of the 'original trilogy' and anonymously leak it out onto the internet and make it available as 'DVD warez' long after sales of the 'official trilogy' has died down to a large extent.
Of course, this act will likely ruin the restoration house as LucasFilm Ltd. sues them into oblivion but the masses finaly get what they want, right?...
The 1977, 1980, and 1983 versions of:
STAR WARS
The Empire Strikes Back
Return Of The Jedi
on DVD.
Just a thought...
PS: Maybe George Lucas will finally 'cave in' and put out an 'ultimate DVD box set' in 2007 (STAR WARS 30th anniversary) consisting of:
Episodes 1-3
Episodes 4-6 1997 Special Edition versions
Bonus: Episodes 4-6 Original 1977/80/83 versions
Steven Spielberg gave fans two versions of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) on DVD in the same package:
The politically correct, SFX enhanced, bonus-footage-added, 'walkie talkie', I'm-not-a-terrorist 2002 20th anniversary version.
And the original, treasured, beloved (unmodified?) 1982 version.
Of course let's assume there are multiple copies of the master for backup purposes and in seperate locations. This is likely because of the amount of changes that have occured to the original, presumably all the "in work" copies are also archived all over the place.
Secondly I'm pretty sure DVD media degrades from bacteria slower than film degrades from sitting around in cans.
Finally, the rate at which Lucas re-releases Star Wars is relatively high (in fact, Star Wars has to be the most re-released movie in time ever). So he's going to be going to the originals and remastering them at regular intervals.
I would say that Star Wars is well preserved. The real problem is finding a version that Lucas hasn't photoshopped Jar Jar Binks into.
I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
If whoever had RTFA correctly they would have noticed that it did *not say the new star wars was 378TBs but instead said that in total that is what all the Mac workstations can hold. Conclusion - New Star Wars 378TB
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.
They may have 600 G5s, and I just have a lowly ADS Instant DVD USB 2.0 hooked up between my Laserdisc player and my PC...but at least the DVD I'm making right now will actually be "Star Wars"!
Oh crap, I ruined it
Neil is that you? Yeah yeah, it's me... Neil...
Indeed, but special effects done with vision and detail last for a long time. I'm taking 2001: A Space Odyssey as possibly the only valid example of this. I can watch the film now, almost 40 years later and still believe that it's real. The stewardess rescuing Floyd's wayward pen in zero-g and returning it to his pocket still astounds me, the way that shot is done so very deliberately and in slow, careful detail so as to compel the audience to watch rather than get it out of the way quickly with a sleight of hand distraction trick.
--is not to be confused with user #672982 - Bame Flait
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?
In case anyone wonders: In Germany they'll relase the "Deutsche Spezial Version von Krieg der Sterne" in September. Han Solo will be called Hans Einsiedler. Just to clarify that.
..when the UHD (ultra-HD) DVD format first appears.
--- widget evolution: enhanced, plus, super, ultra, extreme, exxxtreme, ultra-extreme,
Oh my god, that must be real high definition!!
But why the heck do you need 600 G5s to view it?
This "locking viewers in with Apple hardware" bullshit must go!
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
I once was a damn big fan of you and your movies and also your game company Lucasfilm Games/LucasArts.
But somehow you seem to have been captured and replaced with some perverted Ferengi. Please notify me if you are free again and are willing to make some good decisions for your company's reputation, so I can reconsider buying something from you again.
regards
Okay, I ordinarily don't openly encourage piracy, but in this case Lucas is clearly profiteering on his own fans, which is Not Good. Besides, most of us already own VHS versions of the OT which are long since suffering from age. So still illegal, but a moral victory.
Anyway, alt.binaries.starwars, people. DVD rips of the non-special edition laserdiscs. There are, of course, other places to acquire these rips, some of which cost money.
If you do go for the bootleg LD rips, the two best versions are the TR47 version, and the Dr. Gonzo version. The TR47 version has slightly superior video quality, but has no menus or bonuses, while the Dr. G version has menus and commentary tracks (which are pieced together from various interviews), but loses a barely noticable amount of quality.
Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.
I just saw the restored (and enhanced) version of THX1138 at the theater and I was pretty impressed. It looked like the film was done yesterday.
The enhancements are questionable, but the restoration process worked wonderfuly. The newer process Lowry uses is able to keep some "grain" in the film depending on how much the director wants.
It did not have the "hard" look of a digital film.
P.S. No, I don't really believe this... just having fun
*Puts on foil hat*
"It seems that when people become desperate they consult the gods, and when the gods become desperate they tell lies." -
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
stating that every time someone comes out with a re-release of a classic work, they have to include in it the South Park episode where the boys try to stop George Lucas and Steven Speilberg from ruining classic films by trying to "enhance" them. Maybe they could learn a lesson from that :P
Monstar L
Digitally remastered. Great. 'Cause we all know that digital effects are so much better than, say, models.
I walked away from Lucas after Phantom. Never going back. No reason to. His movies are crap.
(tig)
Ignorance and prejudice and fear
Walk hand in hand
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).
and MISSES twice!!! *That's* the worse, missing a shoot less then 1 meter away right in front of you! Dumb ass bounty hunter!
I saw your sig and had to post. The power of my UID compels me.
...Dante shoots first
...No wonder Greedo shoots first, it was digitized on a G5!
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
... but also watch Episode 3. Most hard core whiners are just hypocrites looking for attention, but they'll buy buy buy and whine whine whine at the same time.
- sigs are for wimps.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Forget about DVD, forget about HD! One of my faves is a work that's still in progress over at ASCIIMATION. Barely better than a flip book, this is clearly a labor of love on the part of the creator. Check it out!
The CB App. What's your 20?
A movie I often check out a lot (because I have this theory that every person in it becomes a star) is "Dazed And Confused". One thing I found interesting in my last lookup was that there was a stuntman coordinator. Stunts? In that movie? Well, it turns out that this guy even got to play a role in the movie. He was the guy that said, "You busted my mail box, didnchoo? Tampering with a mail box is a felONy OFfense". Remember when they tore away, and he tumbled with the car? I'm sure that counted as a stunt.
So does safely hanging out a car window and picking up a trash can to throw at mailboxes. And climbing moon towers. And jumping off buildings as you run away from pouring paint on O'Banyon.
A lot of weird crap goes into movies.
Why are there only 19 people folding@home for slashdot?
Just wait for the sexology (that's like trilogy but with 6, right?) to come out on a single disc on blu-ray, and save your groats till then.
Nothing costs nothing
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
I don't think I'll notice the cleans ups or anything - I'm 25 years older also and can't remember what had I had for lunch yesterday.
Is there no shame left?
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
I for one will be waiting until the 6 movie box set is released. why buy the first three now (again) when I can just hold out a another year or two and get all of them in one set, like LOTR. I am still waiting for the Matrix Trilogy box set. I have not purchased Revolutions or Reloaded for that specific reason. Patience my friends...
[n8.r0n] http://petesweb.spymac.net/
"That was Lucas's perfectly consistent response to someone other than the filmmaker making changes to the films. "
Well, how do we determine who the "filmmaker" is, then? Lucas did not direct Empire or Return, so is he actually the "filmmaker" in those cases?
Is the producer the filmmaker? The executive producer?
Vincent J. Murphy
Spandex Justice
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"
Uh, no.
The original print is analog film, which can be a resolved to about 5000dpi -- many more pixels per frame than required for High Def.
The problem is that the scan is filled with huge artifacts (scratches dirt and dust), and this guy has cleaned up the digital scan to deal with that.
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/
No, you will die before the copyrights on works first published in 1977 expire.
In 2073, provided there's no Chastity Bono Act, nothing in copyright law will prevent your great-grandchildren from being able to make copies and derivatives of those parts of the Star Wars universe covered in the original version of episode IV. Trademark law, on the other hand...
Windows ME to name one... can't think of any others off-hand...Anyone want to pipe up with some? Who are we to complain that he goes back to work on it? People with brains and mouths. Who are we NOT to complain. But tne complaint as I see it is that he isn't releasing High Quality versions of the original unedited for content version.
I just watched it for the first time and I totally agree :-)
RogerWilco the Adventurous Janitor
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.
You have my vote for the "best rationalizaton ever" reward.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
From the Article... "Especially prevalent were scratches and dirt on the Tatooine sand dune scenes in Episode IV"
Are they sure it wasn't supposed to be there?
DarkMantle I been bored, so I started a blog.
They have basically stopped using Mac for digital creation at ILM from what I have heard. I have a good friend that works there. He worked on the last Star Wars on a Mac. Came back to ILM to work on the next one and its all PC's all the time over there now. Not a Mac to be found. :(
Simple...don't have kids...sure you get work and bills...but, you yourself never have to grow up...and being an 'older kid' with money to spend is big fun!! The dream never has to end...
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
From what I've been told by my Jewish friends, around passover (March?), in large Jewish areas, Coke sells it's original formula (cane sugar). It has something to do with the fact that corn syrup can't be made kosher, and cane sugar can. Since this time of the year requires many people to be kosher, they could only drink "kosher coke"... So CCE sells the cane sugar formula.
Of course, they could be lying to me...
I am dyslexia of borg - your ass will be laminated.
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?
Pretty good I would say.
Do you really think anyone would be able to view a 100 year old film stored in an attic? Very few people have the equipment to do that now, while there are millions of DVD players around. not to mention the fact that you're not going to want to run that fragile film through the usual mechanical playback/copying mechanisms.
One factor that everyone seems to ignore is the sheer simplicity of moving the digital data not only from one disk to another, but from one format to another. The difficulty with film is seen in the efforts it takes to try to restore the original to something resembling what it looked like when new -a lot of info has already been lost.
WRT your last point, that is a problem. The other side of the coin is that the longer you wait to do the restoration/digitization, the worse shape the film will be in.
i like how Star Wars has their own little icon :-)
- Hi I'm Linus Torvalds and I pronounce Linux, Lih-nix..
If you find a 100 years old film sitting in an attic you'll be able to watch it pretty easily
Actually, if you find a 100 year old motion picture, the film base was probably celluose nitrate. After 100 years, there is a very good chance you'll have nothing left but a dark brown, extremely flammable, acidic powder. Even if you have film, it is extremely hazardous and fragile. Hardly "easy."
Even for film that is only 60 years old, it is likely to be on acetate base, which degrades into acetic acid (vinegar), which doesn't provide much support for the emulsion.
Which doesn't even touch the topic of the degradation of color dyes in color film.
There are other amazing facts but it is hard to know which are competitive secrets that are better not divulged.
Dude, get a fucking grip - it was at a fucking phython user's group, not the stonecutter's leet brunch meeting.
Macs rock, star wars?? Well not so much :P
70 DOLLARS!? Crap, now it looks like I have to steal this.
I'm not Jewish, but my understanding is that there's regular old "kosher" and then there's "kosher for Passover," which has much stricter dietary restrictions. During Passover, the rules severely restrict eating grain-based products like corn and its derivatives, including corn syrup. Thus, we have the "kosher" Coca-Cola - with no corn syrup - sold during Passover.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
Another poster already pointed out that film is more than good enough to make HD versions, and he's right. Your analogy is a bit flawed: it's not like converting 8-track to CD, it's like converting an analog 2" reel-to-reel master to CD, which is what many studios have been doing for years. It may be analog, but it's of significantly higher quality than the digital media we're converting to.
Personally I'm all for cleaning up effects (like the transparencies and the wampa), and don't even mind adding in deleted scenes like the one with Han and Jabba in the first movie (although I thought it was better without, makes his appearance in ROTJ better).
Hell, Greedo can even shoot first for all I care. Compared to all those cops with walkie-talkies in ET, it's a minor alteration.
But I'll be damned if I'll ever accept that tacky musical number "Jedi Rocks" in Jabba's palace in ROTJ.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
Do you really think anyone would be able to view a 100 year old film stored in an attic? Very few people have the equipment to do that now,
I don't, but I figure I can build a projector in about an hour -- film is one of those media with what is known as a "self-documenting format", sort of like photographs or writing on paper.
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
The digital resoration found that Vader did not say "Luke, I am your father", he really said "I'm Bi with your father."
No wonder Luke screamed "No!"
They should have cleaned those prints a long time ago.
---
IMHO, of course.
May the SOURCE be with you.
George Lucas said this was the movie he wanted to make.
No, he made the movie he wanted to make, he's changing it to be the movie he would want to make now.
Look at the side by side comparison of the additional changes from 1997. Do you really believe they didn't have the technology to realise his vision to shave off people's eyebrows 20 years ago? Or is it that his vision has changed since then?
Why are you guys bitching that he's stomping on your childhood when you're stomping on his vision?
There wouldn't be a problem if he released both versions and let money do the talking. People aren't stomping on his vision, we bitch because he's not giving us what we want: his original vision. Not his revised vision after 20 years and tons of money and power. A youg man's vision is different from the vision of an old guy with his own firetruck.
So what if Greedo shoots first?
He's four feet away! How incompetant can you be? He misses a sitting target 4ft away from him. This is what Jaba hires as muscle? Ooooo, I'm so scared.
That Jabba must be one hell of a looser then. Hey, what's this, a scene with Jabba. He lets people litterally walk all over him! Oh, big scary mobster! I'm shaking in my boots.
In the original, Jabba is an unseen mobster who's henchmen are beast dealt with by shooting them in cold blood and getting the hell away from the planet. In the revised edition, he's some 2 bit slug with the worst henchmen half a sandwich can buy.
You can't take the sky from me...
Well I am and all I $#%^! hear is "Han shot first", or "you cheater shooting first", or worse, "Greedo, you are one suck *ss lousy shot"! I am sick of it! I wasn't the director, I had no say in how the scene was shot, I tried but George threatened me, said I'd never get another job in Hollywood again!! Boy he sure wasn't kidding...Hell I can't even speak any form of human language! Either $@%#! way I get my ass blasted into oblivion, I mean Han didn't even get wounded!So what is the problem here!??!
I feel damn lucky I got an action figure made of me!!
How many Library of Congress's is that?
-Dave
Heh. I was browsing around Target's electronics department and an ad for the new Star Wars DVD set came on. Mr. Movie Voice said "The ultimate series in the ultimate format." But I knew it was only the penultimate format at best. We'll see how long it takes the HD DVDs to come out now.
You're right but that's not really my point. Both digital and film are plagued by the preservation of the physical support: you outline pretty well the problem with film and /. readers have probably heard of glue problem in double layer DVDs, fading dyes on DVD-R, etc.
But if you are lucky enough to find a film in pretty good shape you could always learn something by simply looking at the backlit frames while you'll have to build a player to know the slightest thing about the digital media.
...but this is pretty good stuff.
http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=2374
enjoy.
s'wut i sed.