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Lost Star Wars Footage Found On LaserDisc
drxenos writes "A LaserDisc purchased on eBay was found to contain raw footage from Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi. From the article: 'The origin of the LaserDisc isn't entirely clear, but it was purchased for $699 off eBay, apparently once used to demonstrate Lucasfilm's EditDroid station — one of the first digital film editing systems sold nearly 30 years ago. Ironically, George Lucas himself never used EditDroid to make a movie; the Star Wars clips were loaded simply to show off its capabilities to prospective buyers.'"
May the force be with us all...
Write boring code, not shiny code!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV_-oGZ0U1k
The BBC is still looking.
Unless JarJar makes a cameo, I no care
Nope, it was the original sequence in which Greedo and Han shoot simultaneously.
I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
It turns out these *are* the EditDroids we're looking for!
I am officially gone from
The Mon Calamari battleships shoot the Death Star first.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
So I guess there will now be a "special extended digitally remastered unseen original footage director's uncut edition" that everyone will have to buy.
Time to offend someone
It has been known about for a while so if they were going to act I'd imagine they already would have, which is surprising. They could sell this stuff as part of the extras on yet another re-release, and there could potentially be some things they wouldn't want released (a lot of shots of Carrie Fisher in that bikini had to be dropped because of wardrobe malfunctions).
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Wikipedia has a good explanation... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EditDroid
Since it was not a part of the released film, it could be argued that it was never copyrighted. Of course the argument would cost millions...
Er... what? The act of creating something - no matter what you do with it - assigns copyrights to the person who or group that creates it. If you run out with your smartphone, right now, and shoot some never-plan-to-"release it" footage, you own the copyright on what you create. Period.
You're probably confusing that basic fact with the question of whether or not the person who creates the work registers that work with the US Copyright Office. Registering the work allows you to go after an infringer in federal court, and to seek damages beyond the normal value of the work. If you don't register the work, you still own the copyright, and can use the courts to stop someone else from infringing on it, and you can sue them for what you'd normally have charged them for that use, if they'd asked you first. No punitive damages.
Federal venue for infringement or not, you make something, you own the copyrights. If you assign those rights to someone else, they own the copyrights. But someone who finds some media that contains the work? That doesn't convey copyrights.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
It's my understanding that copyright is bestowed at the moment a work is created, whether it is officially filed or not.
Since it was not a part of the released film, it could be argued that it was never copyrighted. Of course the argument would cost millions...
It could be argued but you'd be laughed out of court.
In the Re-remake Han and Greedo are in a Matrix-style bullet-time gunfight.
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
Actually, can answer the second question quite easily -- When they were filming the original film, they hadn't decided that Jabba would be a giant space slug yet, and used a human stand-in. The idea was that when they decided what he'd be, they could edit the alien in during post production.
They included a copy of the original footage on a LucasArts bundle CD of the early LA StarWars games that I picked up some time around 1997, or so... along with film interview with Lucas explaining it. I still have the CD somewhere, probably in storage at my parents' place.
If it's CAV format laserdisc then this is a real find!
I think we're all missing the real news here, folks:
Somebody paid almost $700 for a fucking LaserDisc!!!
mind == blown.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Well, they have sold the content to someone. That someone is free to watch that material. However, the footage is still under copyright, so whoever currently owns the copyright can prevent it from being distributed to anyone else (except by selling the original LaserDisk).
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
I'd pay to see him in court arguing that he owns the rights to Star Wars.
No sig today...
Prior to 1978, in the US, a copyright notice was required to claim copyright. Mere creation was not sufficient. That doesn't apply to a work created circa 1983.
Until 1989, either a copyright notice or registration within 5 years was required, something which may apply in this case. My understanding is that the 1989 change in law also brought pre-1978 works which lacked a notice under copyright.
As Wikipedia puts it "Until the Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988, the lack of a proper copyright notice would place an otherwise copyrightable work into the public domain, although for works published between January 1, 1978 and February 28, 1989, this could be prevented by registering the work with the Library of Congress within five years of publication."
No doubt, an IP lawyer will pop up and clarify things, but the GP may be correct in thinking this may not be copyrighted. I doubt a copy of this work was registered, and it may lack a notice.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
In the fall of 1982 I saw a pre-release version of Return of the Jedi. Our high school had some connections to Lucas. An announcement was made that the front office had tickets available to a LucasFilm prescreening of "Twice Upon a Time" (I still have the large blue tickets saved away somewhere). They had booked a large theater in San Francisco for the screening. At showtime a person walked out and regretfully informed the full house that Twice Upon a Time wasn't to be shown, so instead they brought Return of the Jedi (wild cheers erupted).
Some of the special effects weren't finished, and some scenes had only rough editing. I remember several of the scenes were trimmed down quite drastically in the release version. The dance scene in Jabba's palace was really, really (really!) long. At the end of the movie we were all given a questionnaire to fill out on how we felt about various scenes.
All in all, a very cool experience for someone who grew up during the original releases of episodes 4 through 6.
Video proof or it never happened.
Lucas is a huge liar. He continually says he "meant" for certain things to happen. The truth is the stand-in WAS Jabba, and everyone realized it looked stupid, and they removed the scene. It also kills the film's pacing, Jabba repeats everything Greedo just said. It also kills the big reveal in ROTJ.
They added it because Lucas had useable footage for the SE, and figured why the hell not. Anything to make more money.
It's a digital disk, read by a LASER.
No, LaserDisc was analog.
I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
Well, they can try, but...
FGD 135
(as the physicists silently wept in the background)
here's a scene in Return of the Jedi in which Luke goes mano a mano with a storm trooper riding one of those cycles used to zip around Endor.
Luke knocks the guy's helmet off, revealing a dark haired guy with a rather skinny face.
Yeah, and there's that scene in ANH where he throws the grappling hook twice... except it didn't happen.
I don't recall if I saw this scene
You can probably stop right there. Human memory is ridiculously unreliable.
I used to have a perfect example of this from my own life, but I've forgotten it.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.