378 Terabytes Of Star Wars on 600 G5s 416
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.
Great! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Great! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Great! (Score:5, Funny)
He's gone over to the dark side.
KFG
Re:Great! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Great! (Score:3, Informative)
KFG
Re:Great! (Score:3, Interesting)
It's the search for more money. (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:It's the search for more money. (Score:5, Informative)
Can anyone else confirm or deny?
Re:It's the search for more money. (Score:4, Informative)
I don't see this listed as a change in the exhaustive list of Special Edition changes [earthlink.net].
Personally I'm most intrigued by the small decisions - the removal of a flame effect from the shooting of an Imperial Officer [club-internet.fr], or the translation of the tractor beam label from English to Lucasian [club-internet.fr]. (That was changed in the 2004 edition, not the SE.)
Re:It's the search for more money. (Score:4, Insightful)
George Lucas said this was the movie he wanted to make. Why are you guys bitching that he's stomping on your childhood when you're stomping on his vision?
How bad is it anyway? So what if Greedo shoots first?
Re:It's the search for more money. (Score:3, Funny)
1. Greedo is a lousy shot
2. Han should have had some coffee or a Red Bull before confronting the little green bastard
Re:Great! (Score:3, Interesting)
Ah (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Re:Ah (Score:5, Funny)
Star Wars HD: The Search For More Money.
Re:Ah (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Ah (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Ah (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyway, the version I looked at was pretty crappy; it was blurry like I would expect a VHS version to be.
I'd rather see a couple apocryphal scenes (obligatory reference to Han vs. Greedo) than look at grainy 200-lines-of-resolution rips.
Seriously, at this stage of my life, I understand the nostalgia, and I'll gladly trade 480p and surround sound for the price of Han vs. Greedo and the other additions of questionable worth. I *want* the cleaned up special effects transparencies, and I don't mind a little cleaning up here and there, although I would prefer the original soundtrack, not any substituted audio or music.
On another topic, at the risk of being shouted down by hordes of fanboys, the original Star Wars is overrated. It was a great trilogy (I was disappointed by Jedi, but it was Completion to the series, and I am a forgiving person), but there was something more behind it that caused all of us kids growing up seeing the movies to become fans like we did: marketing.
The marketing juggernaut behind Star Wars is what got the hundreds of action figures and model sets, fast food cups and posters and toys, t-shirts, towels, lunchboxes, watches, cookie jars, etc. etc. into our homes.
I would argue that the toys themselves are what kept Star Wars alive much longer had there been a mediocre marketing campaign behind it. When the movie was out of the theater (after an amazingly long run IIRC), we still had our action figures and toy sets to put them in. Personally, I had several friends with Star Wars figures, and we would pool our Star Wars toy resources and set up bases and enact elaborate battle scenes, scenes from the movies, and scenes we would create on our own. We still had the posters, the magazines, the watches, the lunchboxes (I had the original metal Star Wars lunch box, but the last time I saw it (about 15 years ago) it had already rusted up pretty badly.) the bedsheets, etc., etc., to remind us and keep Star Wars close in our thoughts.
This indoctrination of a whole generation in the Star Wars mythos created the best ongoing Star Wars marketing; fans who had SW so ingrained in their life that their favorite philosopher wasn't Socrates or Plato; philosophy and wisdom meant Yoda. Kids (mostly kids, some weird adults) who saw these movies as they were growing up, took Star Wars almost as a replacement for religion or oral tradition, or as a replacement for every Mother Goose story their parents never read them because they were too busy working overtime because they were single parents, or because dad was an emotional cripple as a result of his dad being an emotional cripple.
I'm sure if some interested college psych major wanted to, he could interview hundreds of 30-something children who gravitated to Star Wars and come up with a great dissertation subject about marketing and the psychological effects on young children who become overdoctrinated with commercialized fictional characters.
Forget the DVD's... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Forget the DVD's... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Forget the DVD's... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:/. supporting piracy? (Score:4, Insightful)
Piracy, of SW? This is SLASHDOT remember? (Score:3, Interesting)
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" [asciimation.co.nz]
Re:Forget the DVD's... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ah (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Ah (Score:5, Insightful)
Really?
As far as I know, nobody is being forced to buy it even once.
Re:Ah (Score:3, Insightful)
That's because you don't think like a fanboy.
Re:Ah (Score:3, Insightful)
I, for one, will purchase the DVDs for this simple fact. They are entertainment. A way to blow 6-7 hours of time away to be entertained. Not to relive childhood fantasies (I owned a vast majority of the SW universe in action figure form, the first time), not to find historical inaccuracies (enough of the "who shot first?" drama), but to be entertained by one of the best overall stories ever put to film by someone who, although he has suc
Re:Is Lucas running out of money? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm more concerned about his plans for a TV series and for more movies. Although, looking at it another way, TV is way too small for Lucas to directly intefere with as he doe
Links! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Links! (Score:5, Funny)
the porn sites are going to have a bad day today
-- james
Finally (Score:3, Interesting)
Though I guess if consumers keep buying them, then you can't really blame Lucas too much.
Re:Finally (Score:5, Interesting)
You know what? I'm sick of listening to people bitch about George Lucas bilking the fan-base with multiple releases. Its not like George is up at Skywalker Ranch snorting his wealth up his nose like most of Hollywood. The man spends his money on making the "film" process better. Look at what ILM has done for films since 1977. How about THX sound? Yeah, thank George Lucas for that. He'll also be one of the reasons why movies will eventually been shown at the theatres in digital form. At such time, it won't matter if you go to the theatre on opening night or two weeks later, the "film" will look the same. No "cigarette burns," vertical strip lines, or any other glaring issues with the projection will you ever deal with again.
Now compare that to say, MGM, with multiple releases of the James Bond series. Are they getting any better? Not really. Where's the MGM profits going to? Bankrolling sequels to "Legally Blonde"? Yeah, Lucas really bilks us cinema fans alright.
Go back to bitching about Greedo shooting first. At least that's a valid criticism.
Re:Finally (Score:5, Insightful)
If you want to see what real bilking is all about, take a look at the various versions/packaging of the Die Hard series. Or, how about the hosing taken by those who bought the South Park discs with four episodes a piece while the series is now being released season by season with more extras. In the "for kids" category it gets even worse with shows like Justice League and X-Men released in multiple un-numbered editions only to be collected in yet another edition - at particularly high risk for accidental re-buys since often the parents don't even pay much attention to the cartoons.
In short, George Lucas is NOT a multiple-release offender except in the imagination of those projecting his future actions. Of course, I don't think taking advantage of new technology (such as HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, etc.) even counts - it would be like complaining that since Star Wars is out on VHS, there's no reason to buy the DVDs (there are other content reasons not to buy the DVDs but that's a different discussion entirely).
Re:Finally (Score:3, Interesting)
But it does make it harder for independent little movie theaters to compete, since they find it hard to come up with the money for the system AND those stiff liscence fees.
I can make them more dependent on the large studios like MGM
Re:Finally (Score:3, Funny)
That's not greed. Not everyone had DVD players back then, so the VHS release was justified. What w
Re:Finally (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Finally (Score:3, Interesting)
The original print of Star Wars is preserved in the Library of Congress. It was donated by Lucas. That was many years ago and a fact that escapes most of these news clippings.
Re:Finally (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Finally (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Finally (Score:5, Insightful)
We certainly are not.
You people are getting something very close to it though. With a few inane and useless change here and there. The orihinal, these are not.
Re:Finally (Score:3, Interesting)
Though I guess if consumers keep buying them, then you can't really blame Lucas too much.
We have a saying over here that translated to english goes something like "the idiot is not the one who asks, but the one who pays".
E.g. if you think this is fantastic and all, go buy the set and enjoy it. If you think it's a ripoff and so on, well don't spend your money on it. It's not like you're losing out on anything by Lucas making yet another "rip em off" edition.
Special Edition Questions... (Score:5, Interesting)
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!
Re:Special Edition Questions... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Special Edition Questions... (Score:5, Informative)
That's a little misleading. The original cut may not exist in assembled form (although I suspect it actually does, despite Lucas' claims otherwise), but the original stock that comprises it almost certainly does. That, or the SE stock sans CG effects (that is, cleanup only) still exists. I seriously doubt that Lucas took original archival material which would provide for a better source in the event of additional changes and thrown it in a fire or something.
After all, he may eventually want to run with the idea of Jabba being a humanoid.
Anyway, if such material still exists, it will almost certainly be released immediately following GL's death. But please, don't kill him. I wouldn't want the legal backlash of giving you the idea.
Speaking of degredation (Score:5, Funny)
Re:378 Terabytes Of Star Wars on 600 G5s (Score:3, Insightful)
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
Re:378 Terabytes Of Star Wars on 600 G5s (Score:3, Insightful)
Coming to HD DVD... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Coming to HD DVD... (Score:3, Funny)
Uh-oh... Ultra-special High Definition, "Who really shot first" edition: The unarmed Han reflects Greedo's shots back at him with his walkie-talkie in bulletime.
Restore again? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Restore again? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Restore again? (Score:4, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Now.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Now.. (Score:4, Funny)
Expensive computer network (Score:4, Funny)
Oho (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Just saw some of it on TV (Score:5, Insightful)
I still won't be buying the trilogy, but I'm amazed at how good the restoration looks.
Re:Just saw some of it on TV (Score:3, Interesting)
I watched the stolen versions of the DVD and it convinced me to buy the trilogy.
When the SE came out, I was so agitated by Greedo shooting first and the distracting eye candy that I didn't even go to see Empire and Jedi on the big screen. The eye candy is still there but the Greedo scene passes muster with me.
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.
Empire seemed pretty
Misleading (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Misleading (Score:3, Funny)
WHAT!?!? No 5.1 version of the original ending sequence of Return of the Jedi?!?! I am sorely disappointed.
Come on (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Come on (Score:3, Interesting)
The effects from the original print of Star Wars were remarkable. Everything was done with models, hand-drawn animation cels, and inserted footage for things like explosions. It was painstaking work done by an army of special effect technicians, and stands as an important moment in Hollywood film history. In fact, many would say it rivals Citizen Kane in terms of landmark technical achievement in cinematography.
Same films? (Score:5, Funny)
G5s of Purity (Score:5, Funny)
Re:G5s of Purity (Score:3, Funny)
High Def of Low Def (Score:5, Informative)
Re:High Def of Low Def (Score:3, Informative)
If they were taking a VHS tape and trying to convert it to 'high def', your comment might make sense.
Re:High Def of Low Def (Score:3, Informative)
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.
The article is about the company that does the post-processing to clean up the anomolies.
AAANNND the final product is still limited by the originals.
To some extent but perhaps not as muc
Re:High Def of Low Def (Score:3, Informative)
Heh (Score:3, Funny)
Could you please stop using our computers? You are lame. We are leet.
Thanks.
Steve
I wonder... (Score:5, Funny)
(Holy Karma-Risk Batman!)
We don't need no digital makeover (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:We don't need no digital makeover (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:We don't need no digital makeover (Score:4, Insightful)
> complaining about.
One would think that reading this thread, hundreds of people absolutely hate what Lucas has done to his movies. However, looking more carefully, it seems we've got a relatively small crowd of really angry people posting millions of times to a story for a movie they hate with every fiber in their bones. It seems the time could be better spent if they would get together with a co-op of like-minded individuals, and make their own version of Star Wars, where Han Solo is a trigger-happy murderer and rubber suits are king.
It's Lucas's movie. He had a vision for the movie, and he was clearly disappointed that he couldn't make that movie because of the limitations of effects in those days. Now he has the chance to get closer to his vision. Yes, his vision does include flatulent animals, but, hey it's his right.
As a fan of Star Wars since 1978 (when I was old enough to see Star Wars in the theater), I like the changes Lucas made to his movies. I think that if every time Lucas released a version of his movies for a new format with no changes ("Well, I used that rubber suit in 1975, and it looks good in 2004!"), that would be a bit disappointing. I saw the documentary last night, and it was clear that Lucas was embarrassed by the cantina scene. I think Mark Hamill said it was like something out of the Nutcracker Suite. So, Lucas makes a few changes to make the movie he intended.
I like Episodes I and II, too. And no matter how many times rabid Slashdot posters like to say otherwise, Jar Jar is no more annoying than C3PO in the Episodes IV-VI or a screenful of Ewoks.
The HD Master Being Kept in Storage... (Score:5, Funny)
The saga on /. (Score:5, Funny)
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.
With all this talk of new versions.... (Score:3, Interesting)
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?
And you know what? (Score:3, Insightful)
And the new, more humane Stormtroopers... (Score:3, Funny)
Some more details (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
The original cut will always be the best... (Score:3, Funny)
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..
Incorrect Title (Score:3, Insightful)
378 Terabytes you say? (Score:5, Funny)
But why the heck do you need 600 G5s to view it?
This "locking viewers in with Apple hardware" bullshit must go!
Restored THX1138 (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Congress needs to enact a law (Score:3, Funny)
How long before someone re-edits the new DVDs? (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Vivid-Schmivid (Score:3, Interesting)
6ology (Score:3, Funny)
Butchered? (Score:5, Interesting)
Has to be said... (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Won't HD have articfacts? (Score:3, Interesting)
For example if I take pictures with a 2 Megapixel camera, then san the images at some insane resolution, they're still crappy photos.
Re:Won't HD have articfacts? (Score:3, Interesting)
Lucas did an insane scan of insanely detailed film -- and then this guy mentioned in the article cleaned it up.
Re: 378 Terabytes Of Star Wars on 600 G5s (Score:4, Interesting)
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!
Re:Raiders of the Lost Arch (Score:5, Insightful)
Empire Strikes back, despite being 'special', is still entertaining.
Though I agree with the sentiment, we've been around this block a million times. Don't buy it. Let the people who do enjoy it. In the mean time, let's talk about something a little more up-beat:
- Lots of people were employed to work on this.
- The technology and experience will help ILM make better effects for upcoming movies.
- SW in HD will hopefully make broad adoption of higher-resolution DVD players an easier transition.
- Just the number '378 Terabytes' is enough to cause underwear tents to rise all over the Slashdot population.
Re:Raiders of the Lost Arch (Score:3, Funny)
Howard The Duck, Special Edition! [imdb.com]
(although he only produced that, so Maybe...)
Ewoks! Special Edition: Caravan of High-Definition Courage [imdb.com]
Re:Thank you Mr Lucas for raping my childhood (Score:4, Insightful)
Just shut the fuck up. Please? They're movies, for fuck's sake. Some of us enjoy them and would like to continue doing so without you and your gloomy band of whiners coming along to piss in the pool. I love the original movies too. I've watched them more times than I can count and can recite my favorite lines, but it's not my religion. I cannot relate to you whiners who consider these films to be some cornerstone of your existence. I wish you would all just fuck off and stop spazzing out every time the words Star Wars flash in front of your face.
There... much better. Now on with the comment.
They were part of my childhood too, but I had lots and lots of other great things in my childhood that had nothing to do with Lucasfilm Ltd. so even if Lucas decided to replace the characters in films with Looney Tunes animations, it wouldn't really make that big a dent in my life. If Lucas wants to futz around with the originals to make them his ultimate vision, then more power to him. Yeah, it sucks a little because it drills a little hole in that precious bag of nostalgia that we carry around, but in the end, is it really that big a deal?
Seriously? Did you really feel the need to scream rape of your childhood like that?
Get over it. Quick. And please stop drawing attention to yourself every time you feel your precious youth has been violated by a fucking movie. It gets tiresome REAL quick.
Re:Thank you Mr Lucas for raping my childhood (Score:3, Insightful)
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?
Did your read the article? "Even though the original film elements of the three movies have spent most of their time resting in vaults, they had gathered wear and tear that would have been noticeable had they been transferred, as is, straight to DVD." ""They have been printed more often and been duplicated more often, and each of those passes adds scuffs, dirt, scratches and the lik
Re:Lucas needs to check himself (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:Can this be true High-Def though? (Score:3, Informative)
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.