Classic Trilogy: Special Effect Flukes

i had to turn the brightness on my TV way up to see them dern slugs on the DVD version.

 

Well according to everyone else in this thread I think that's a good thing.[image=http://www.armchairempire.com/images/Reviews/Playstation2/lego-star-wars/lego-star-wars-2.jpg] (I like posting random star wars pictures for your enjoyment)

 

strangely though i never noticed the matte boxes around the tie fighters in ANH until i watched the DVD verson...

 

Wow, those special effects for the newest version of Episode II look sweet.

 

This page has a little bit about the slugs along with a photo.

 

SLUGGY!!! oh and thanks that makes some sense

[image=http://www.starstore.com/acatalog/Star%20Wars%20Rancor%20Maquette%20CU%20Web.jpg]

 

[image=http://baixaki.ig.com.br/imagens/wpapers/star-wars-episode-3-4800.jpg]

 

ahhhh.... this brings back some memories....my first successful topic...to bad old things die out

 

The sparks from the explosion are likely flying backwards because they are bouncing off of a clear screen in front of the cameras. They sometimes do that to prevent damage to the expensive gear. I know they did it for the bunker explosion scene in ROTJ.

 

Just because something isn't CG doesn't mean it's not an FX faux pas.
Visible string, visible wires, explosions that don't go off as hoped for, eyes in masks you can see through...

 

In ANH: During the escape in the Falcon from the death star we see a close up of a Tie han is targetting...it has extreme garbage matte. The area around looks green, I thought they would have fixed this instead of inserting jabba.

 

just slightly off topic but the slugs an be an indication of how your display is calibrated, try using avia or video essentials and you will see the scene more or less as it was intended to be seen originally..

 

So, not a fluke?

 

Use The Florce, Fluke!

 

Back when ESB was playing in theaters, I noticed the matte boxes in a few of the space scenes...

...but only after I had seen the film several times. Once I noticed them, I chose to ignore them.

In ROTJ, I noticed the 'slugs' from day one. I suspected they had been added to hide something and just figured that was the best the film-makers could do at the time. The slugs never bothered me.

I guess my point is that these flaws were always apparent, but I shrugged them off because the films themselves blew me away.

I think today's audience is much more critical.

 

I always thought that the black blobs were a side effect of the digital remastering. Good to know that they're normal.

I haven't seen the escape pod scene of ANH in a long time, so I can't speculate on what the blue is.

And as for the lightsabers changing colours, is it noticable in older releases? It could be just caused by colour imbalances in the prints used for remastering.

Just because there are problems with the old special effects doesn't mean that today's movies should be using all CGI. It should only be used as a clean up tool to fix problems like these when making traditional effects.

However, I don't condone cleaning up older movies with CGI. The mistakes should be left alone as a historical reference. Most of the problems only appear on screen for a second or 2 anyways.

 

In 1980, I saw ESB thirty-nine times (yeah, I know - crazy, right? But I was a kid who had just gained access to public transit and ESB was like nothing I had ever seen before.)

Anyway, my point is that through all those theatrical viewings, I didn't see the lightsabers changing color from shot to shot.

A few years later, they looked the same on VHS.

Likewise, they looked fine in the television broadcasts.

THEN, in 2004, the DVDs arrive and suddenly something is up with the lightsabers:

In the ESB duel, Vader's saber changes color with each change in camera angle. (This effect is also apparent in ROTJ.)


Perhaps it was an already existing flaw made more obvious by the DVDs, but either way, the point is...

...it's what they did to the films for the DVD that made it OBVIOUS.

 

Personally, I like the color-changing sabers. They make for funny scenes.

Vader: Uhh, why is my lightsaber PINK!?? It's supposed to be RED!"

 

Just for the record, I love Luke's lightsaber in ANH when he is talking to Ben in his home. It looks fantastic.


Take 'er easy
-matt

 

Yeah, here's someone else who wondered about that mysterious planet or whatever which appears in ESB, as the Falcon is flying down the the cave (gullet) on the asteroid. It looks like a screen-changing wipe begins, and there's this sphere in the lower right hand side. It appears to be the beginning of an establishing shot, but then before the wipe is finished, there's another, complete wipe, and we see Dagobah and Luke approaching.

I also like it how, at the end ESB, in the first shot of the medical frigate (as it passes us), we can't see the big window which looks into Luke's room. Where there's supposed to be a window, there's just a flat space on the model. A few seconds later, I think when we pan off of the Falcon, THEN we can see through the window into the room.