Custom Star Wars DVD covers (original trilogy)... (1 Viewer)

[Phu Vo]

John_Berger,

Your probably right. No more talk of it here.

-Phu

 

[Robert Dunnill]

Well, no legitimate source since neither laserdiscs nor VHS use anamorphic encoding.

There *were* anamorphic laserdiscs (Jim Taylor mentions them on his famous DVD FAQ), but none of the Star Wars releases were amongst them.

RD

 

[Joe_Pinney]

Even "Star Wars" producer Gary Kurtz thinks George's special editions aren't really particularly good ideas. Check out this (extremely long) 5-part interview with Kurtz (highly recommended reading!)

IGNFF: You're the person to ask about this – when you're talking about these kinds of special editions and changes and are they due to an original vision or changing sensibilities – I have to ask you about your thoughts regarding the infamous redo of the scene with Greedo in the cantina.... the whole shooting first thing.

KURTZ: Yeah, I really was livid about that one. I think it was a total – it ruins the scene, basically. The scene was never intended that way. Han Solo realized that Greedo was out to get him and he had to blast him first or he would lose his life. It shows you how much of a mercenary he is. That's what the point of the scene was. And so the way they've changed it around, it loses the whole impact of that whole aspect of it.

IGNFF: Do you think that's due to George's changing sensibilities as opposed to his argument that, "No, that was my original intention"?

KURTZ: Well, he can say that was his original intention, but we could have shot it that way very easily. There was no reason that it couldn't have been shot that way. It was shot and edited the way it was because that's the way the script was. That's what he wanted at the time.

IGNFF: What is your opinion of why he would try and rationalize it, when he could very well just say, "You know, I just thought nowadays, it's better if he shoots first."

KURTZ: Maybe he just didn't want to say that. Maybe he felt it was a stronger argument to say, "That's what I really wanted to do and I just didn't have time or inclination at the time." You listen to all these directors, they all say that. That's the stock argument ... somehow if they say that, you can't argue with them.

IGNFF: I think Apocalypse Now is now, what, 16 hours or something?

KURTZ: 16 hours? No, no. No, they've added the 50 some odd minutes back ...

IGNFF: With the French Plantation scene.

KURTZ: Yeah, it's mostly the French Plantation scene. That's probably a mistake, too. It's a disease, basically. I suppose they can do whatever they like, but I just would like to see the original version of everything preserved. When Star Wars comes out on DVD, the only version that's going to be available is the Special Edition. They're not going to do the original – unless he changes his mind.

IGNFF: Which is unfortunate, because that's the perfect medium for it.

KURTZ: Yeah, the idea is that you could do both. I'm sure you'd have an audience out there that would buy both. Maybe it will be both, who knows. Be interesting to see how that would work, marketing wise. But I just don't like changing whatever a film is like when it's finished – good, bad, or indifferent, that's the way it was it released and the way the audience perceives it. To keep fiddling with it, long after the fact... Jean Renoir said in a documentary interview that we did with him when we were all film students, that something that he learned from his father was that, for an artist, the most important thing is to know when you're done, and leave it. Of course for a painter, it's absolutely crucial, because you put too much extra paint on and you've ruined the painting. With a filmmaker, you have a certain amount of recourse and you can change it again, but the principle is still the same – to know when you're done, and when it's over, and when it's finished – and you walk away. It's critical, because you can be like Kubrick, and you can work on it forever, and it's still not going to get any better.

IGNFF: At least one can say Kubrick didn't go back 25 years later and add a scene to Dr. Strangelove.

KURTZ: No, he didn't; or 2001, or any of those early films. He at least accepted that they were finished, and that was it.

Nice to know SOMEBODY who worked on the originals isn't kissing George's butt.

 

[John_Berger]

Then we should not allow 99% of the signatures on this board, and we should also not allow links to customized DVD cover art because they are all infringing on copyright/licensing laws.

I don't have any problems with that nor when it comes to backing up a laserdisc or DVD that you already own, but some others ... well ... don't get me started.

 

[DeanWalsh]

Phil, how are you transferring the 5.1?

AC3 can be transferred from LD by passing the signal from the LD player to the RF demodulator, then the optical out from the Demodulator to the Optical in of a soundcard that does bit-accurate transfers without resampling. The resulting file must then be run through an AC3 parser to get rid of the extra PCM data that shouldn't be there, bringing the file down to the proper size for it's bitrate.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Kinda off topic, but I found this quote in the Kurtz interview depressing:

IGNFF: From your personal experience, how would you compare the George you worked with on American Graffiti to the George you worked with towards the end of The Empire Strikes Back?

KURTZ: It was quite different, actually. He was very different. I think the most unfortunate thing that happened was the fact that Indiana Jones came along, and Raiders of the Lost Ark had come out in between. George and I had many, many discussions about that, but it boiled down to the fact that he became convinced that all the audience was interested in was the roller-coaster ride, and so the story and the script didn't matter anymore.

Now Raiders is not a bad film, but the script actually was much better than the finished film. There were a lot more nuances in the character, and there was less action. It would've been a better picture if that script had been made. But, as it is, it's an interesting and entertaining film – it's just that this idea that somehow the energy doesn't have to be put into getting really good story elements together. One of the arguments that I had with George about Empire was the fact that he felt in the end, he said, we could have made just as much money if the film hadn't been quite so good, and you hadn't spent so much time. And I said, "But it was worth it!"

 

[Ric Easton]

Wow, several eye-opening quotes from Kurtz. Unfortunately it doesn't give me much hope that Lucas will one day return to his senses.

Ric

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

Some of those covers have bootleg-worthy errors. One of them says George Lucas wrote and directed Empire, in fact he is credited with neither. (Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan wrote, Irvin Kirshner directed.) And one of the sets has "Every Saga Has A Beginning" stamped across the top of Episodes 4, 5, 6.

 

[Brandon_S]

I understand most of you guys print covers yourselves, but my printer isn't really up to the task. So tonight I took some Star Wars custom covers to a local printshop. The manager informed me there that they are not supposed to print such things because of the Lucasfilm and THX logos on the covers. Honestly, I don't see how them printing a cover is any different than someone walking in and printing something off a webpage that contained a company logo. The funny thing was, after she gave me a hard time about it, she printed them anyway. Go figure.