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Macs Do Star Wars Dirty Work
bfl writes "The BBC is running a story about Lowry Digital Images and how they used 600 dual G5s and 400 TB of storage space to clean the dirt off of the old Star Wars reels, and upgrade the resolution to get them ready for their DVD release."
just imagine: ;)
they have 180 000 frames
1 frame = 70 MB
use your calc folks
Most people don't realize, much of the primary CG work done on the Star Wars films are done on Macs. But ILM signed contracts with SGI which prohibits them from acknowledging the contribution of any system other than SGI. Inside ILM, this contractual obligation is known as "the Jedi Clause." So the contribution of Macs and Mac users to these films go largely unrecognized.
I love Apple and I love the spirit of competittion, I have been a Mac user much of my life. But why are Macs always treated like the retarded child of the computer industry? Look at the guy pictured in the article; he's smiling, he's so proud 'THEY DID IT!'
It seems like any time the Mac platform does something that is remotely interesting people rejoice and it is plastered everywhere. Would this story be on the front page if PCs were used? I doubt it, even if they were running Linux.
It's just like this weird thing where anything, even commonplace events get blown out of porportion just because Macs were used, as if the entire platform blows and it's amazing anything gets done, which is not the case. Maybe it is just the Mac user hubris as pictured above, but it comes across as this weird feeling I mentioned earlier. Touting that the macs 'can do!' things PCs do all the time makes them seem inferior and retarded, like they need the positive reinforcement.
Can someone elaborate on how shot noise applies to optical systems, specifically, cinematography? Since the original source material is conventional 'analog' film, at what point is the noise introduced? How is it introduced? (Yes I realize that film is not a pure analog format; the resolution being limited by the grain size of the emulsion - but at the same time, it's not what we consider digital.)
There's a Starman, waiting in the sky / He'd like to come and meet us, but he hasn't got the time.
Amazon has a list made up by Chuck Kahn of movies that have been cleaned up by Lowry.
l is t-browse/-/1X2DZ42QS8OVB/103-1368633-4717431
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/listmania/
I've picked up THX1138, Once upon a time in the west, North by Northwest, The Ghoul and of course Star Wars.
The results are INCREDIBLE. Except for some obvious dubbing with sound, Once upon a time in the west looks like it was filmed yesterday. So does THX1138!
I've tried finding the Lowry Digital Web site. But INCREDIBLY it seems like they don't have one! Seems strange. You would think they would have a web site telling people the films they have done so people might go out and buy them.
If somebody knows it....PLEASE post it!
I'm sure they had to handle the originals for duplication and remastering along the way, I'm pretty sure they would have thought to take precautions handling the film. They're not stupid.
Firstly, the sound effects made Star Wars an innovative film,(ironic that sound doesn't really travel through space) Many theaters upgraded their sound systems specifically for Star Wars. Secondly, many features of Star Wars quickly became standard in filmaking. The films the newer generation sees are all derivative. Its like listening to Robert Johnson after growing up with Led Zepplin. I respect the blues, but its not so much fun to listen to, sorta like going in a nearly empty basement of an old house.
Most films shot now are digitized, or shot digitally in the first place.
Most films are not shot digitally, very very few films are shot digitally. Most films are still shot on film.
I wouldn't say older films are forgotten, not at all. Almost all of the studios (the big ones at least) started sending the old, original reels to the massive underground storage facility that I believe is run by Iron Mountain. Here they are kept in controlled temps and dust free.
R(k)
In other words, since those 600 Macs will have been paid for, further use of them will be free. Even though there were obviously 600 paid employees sitting in front of them.
Hmmm.
"What's the frequency Kenneth?"
I don't know which version of the DVDs you have, but on mine the lightsabers have been completely re-rotoscoped to look pretty much the same as the ones in the prequels.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
What Lucas did was to abandon the laws of physics in favor of entertaining the audience. True that sound won't travel through empty or very sparse space, but you could STILL have interesting sound effects. Every time something blows up, as the shock-wave passes the viewer you would expect to hear *something* in real life.
Now, yes it's much more interesting to hear the explosion as it happens, even though in real life you'd certainly have to deal with the shock-wave carried sound or (assuming space in this far-off galaxy is full of air) a huge delay between the time you see the explosion and the time it takes for the sound of that explosion to reach you.
The physics of movies has, i fear, spoiled the expectations of all future space travelers. Sound in outer space? Blasters? Deflector shields? And my biggest peeve: 2-D shock waves (a la praxis)? That's some FUNKY distribution of mass there.
Although the sharpness and lack of scratches/dirt is great, the color quality is pretty awful in the restored DVDs. The saturation is way too high; for example, sometimes it looks like ObiWan is wearing lipstick, the desert sand often looks bright orange, and C3P0 looks like he was painted with a flourescent marker or something. In the Millennium Falcon scene when Luke is training lightsaber, his lightsaber is bright green for some reason - even though it was originally pale blue.
If not for the wonky color, I might be able to stomach the Lucas changes; as it is, I much prefer watching my bootleg DVDs based on the pre-special edition Laser Disks, which are basically perfect except for slightly lower sharpness than it could be.
But at +5 Insightful, it seems you're not alone. The people here scare me sometimes.
And thank-you for being the smart-alec who sits in the back row and prevents good patterns from evolving through the constant application of smarmy remarks. --Hiding your painful level of low self-esteem by trying to transfer your feelings of self-consciousness to others.
Go get not-laid somewhere else.
-FL