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The Empire Strikes Back: Then and Now

Posted: 2006-09-05 03:34pm
by SeeingRed
Starwars.com

A look at frames in the DVD that have been changed for the limited release. I looked around for this and didn't find it anywhere, hope it isn't a repost.[/url]

Posted: 2006-09-05 03:35pm
by Ace Pace
Did they just blue shift it?

Posted: 2006-09-05 03:39pm
by SeeingRed
Looks like they've done that in almost all the frames, but they've done other stuff too. There's a description of the changes at the bottom of each page.

Posted: 2006-09-07 05:33am
by Vympel
Notice how they didn't mention in that how they messed around with the lightsabre fight, making Vader's sabre look like shit in several shots? :roll:

Posted: 2006-09-07 03:58pm
by Noble Ire
Vympel wrote:Notice how they didn't mention in that how they messed around with the lightsabre fight, making Vader's sabre look like shit in several shots? :roll:
I can't wait for ROTJ: Then and Now; the crossed lightsabers in front of Palpatine's face was the only part of all of the SE edits that I would describe as truly dreadful. Of course, showing such a blatant flaw would be well beyond the main site's moral capacity, even if the omission does make sense from a marketing point of view.

Posted: 2006-09-07 04:01pm
by JME2
Vympel wrote:Notice how they didn't mention in that how they messed around with the lightsabre fight, making Vader's sabre look like shit in several shots? :roll:
That's one of the few things I hold against the SE and 2004 DVD's.

Posted: 2006-09-07 04:35pm
by Spanky The Dolphin
I'm finding this little series to be very interesting overall. It's interesting just how much recompositing was done for the first two films (wish that could have carried over more with RotJ), and am surprised just how terrible a lot of the original compositing looks in comparison.

Posted: 2006-09-07 10:48pm
by Jack Bauer
JME2 wrote:
Vympel wrote:Notice how they didn't mention in that how they messed around with the lightsabre fight, making Vader's sabre look like shit in several shots? :roll:
That's one of the few things I hold against the SE and 2004 DVD's.
Is that the reason why Vader's blade looks pink in several shots? Jesus fuckin Christ.

Posted: 2006-09-07 10:59pm
by JME2
Jack Bauer wrote:
JME2 wrote:
Vympel wrote:Notice how they didn't mention in that how they messed around with the lightsabre fight, making Vader's sabre look like shit in several shots? :roll:
That's one of the few things I hold against the SE and 2004 DVD's.
Is that the reason why Vader's blade looks pink in several shots? Jesus fuckin Christ.
Yep; digitial Remastering, in this case, is a bitch, my friend...

Posted: 2006-09-07 11:28pm
by DPDarkPrimus
Hah, I never noticed the flipped rank badges before...

Posted: 2006-09-07 11:41pm
by Stark
Noble Ire wrote: I can't wait for ROTJ: Then and Now; the crossed lightsabers in front of Palpatine's face was the only part of all of the SE edits that I would describe as truly dreadful. Of course, showing such a blatant flaw would be well beyond the main site's moral capacity, even if the omission does make sense from a marketing point of view.
Did they break that shot? It's one of the defining dramatic moments of the movie!

Posted: 2006-09-08 12:05am
by SeeingRed
Stark wrote:Did they break that shot? It's one of the defining dramatic moments of the movie!
They better not have ... that would be up there with replacing Sebastian Shaw with Hayden Christensen for the Anakin Skywalker force spirit in the final scene of Return of the Jedi for the DVD versions

Posted: 2006-09-08 12:09am
by Noble Ire
Stark wrote:
Noble Ire wrote: I can't wait for ROTJ: Then and Now; the crossed lightsabers in front of Palpatine's face was the only part of all of the SE edits that I would describe as truly dreadful. Of course, showing such a blatant flaw would be well beyond the main site's moral capacity, even if the omission does make sense from a marketing point of view.
Did they break that shot? It's one of the defining dramatic moments of the movie!
Not only is Vader's blade pink in the shot, but the two lightsabers actually go through one another visibly, as if they're 2D bits of glowy paper. I'll let you decide if that constitutes breaking the shot or not.

Posted: 2006-09-08 12:29am
by Kurgan
Not only that, but it now appears that Luke's saber is behind Vader's...


Historical revisionism? Conspiracy theory? You decide!

Posted: 2006-09-08 04:13am
by Vympel
Of course they broke the damn shot- damn idiots. How can someone not check that?

What I told you was true... from a certain point of view...

Posted: 2006-09-08 01:20pm
by Kurgan
Apparently they just fired up an automated process and just barely met the deadline, said "good enough" and sent it to pressing.

I wouldn't be surprised if nobody actually watched it all the way through and compared it to the originals to see if it looked right (unless the person was suffering from severe sleep deprivation). If they were just cleaning up individual scenes and spot checking it with no frame of reference (and under pressure and less than ideal working conditions) such a thing could be missed. The mind plays tricks on a person sometimes like that. No excuse for it in a project like this though, that's why you have people check your work, and if it's not right, you go back and fix it, deadlines be damned (what, is Lucas going to run out of money to throw at Star Wars?).

Anyway, these films no longer exist. This is a deliberate creative decision. There are no American troops in Baghdad, etc.

Re: What I told you was true... from a certain point of view

Posted: 2006-09-08 01:34pm
by Cao Cao
Kurgan wrote: No excuse for it in a project like this though, that's why you have people check your work, and if it's not right, you go back and fix it, deadlines be damned (what, is Lucas going to run out of money to throw at Star Wars?).
Call me a cynic, but I'd bet Lucas throwing his weight around might be a factor in this.
There's only so long his own company can go over his helmet.. er.. head.

Posted: 2006-09-09 01:33pm
by Kurgan
I agree actually.

I think Lowry Digital dropped the ball, but in that case Lucas/Fox should have either given them more time to fix it, or fired them and put somebody else in charge who could do it.

They may have been given an impossible task, so they just focused on what they could do.

I'm sure Lucas and his inner circle made the decision that would give them the most profit in the shortest amount of time. Hence we get stuck with material falling far short of its potential.

So yeah, sorry if I gave the impression that LD was soley responsible for the poor state of the DVD's.