Hayden Ghost -- this can't be ILM work!

Hi all. I'm sure by now everyone's seen the leaked footage from the alleged new DVD rip where Hayden's head is pasted over Sebastien Shaw's in the final Endor celebration.

My question is: could this possibly be real? I understand that evidence is coming from all different directions and that the image quality is clear and all ... but the work is just so dreadful. The way they have attached his head is simply so unnatural looking that I cannot believe that Lucasfilm would place that version in the DVD. First, from an acting standpoint ... the speed of his movements is off making the scene feel forced. Then, the fade in seems late.

But really, the problem is the fx. Why in the world would someone think it was easier to try to track his head on top of Shaw's? It looks terrible. Hayden has a beefy neck that just dissapears into a void where his shoulders should be. This is most apparent in the third shot. Also, his head is just floating and his neck does not appear connected to the body. The head moves at different speeds and in different directions than the body ... this is unnatural. Also, anyone who watched the Ep 1 DVD knows that they attempted this approach with Jar Jar (putting a cg head on Ahmed's body) and it was overly time consuming. If they wanted to do this ... why not put Hayden into jedi robes and film him in front of blue/green screen? They then could then use the original clean plates and comp all three jedi on there and it would all match.

Basically, I'm theorizing that by how bad this comp looks, it has to be an elaborate hoax or perhaps a work-in-progress edition. I know people might say that Lucafilm put in that horrible Jabba in the SEs and let it slide so why not this one ... but it just doesn't make any sense. It would take less effort to film Hayden and place his entire body into the scene than it would to carefully erase Shaw's head. It seems like whoever placed Hayden's head on the body simply did not have access to the source material and went to great lengths to try to mislead us and get the boards clamoring.

MODS: please don't burry this in the DVD thread, I only want discussion as to whether or not the work looks legit

 

http://boards.theforce.net/The_Star_Wars_Saga/b10456

 

I've wondered this myself. If you look at the tree behind Hayden it's all smudged and doesn't look professional at all. Second, the other Jedi don't fade in, but Anakin does, which makes him stick out like a sore thumb. I won't believe this until I have a copy of the DVD in my hands in 2 months.

 

Well, Anakin was always meant to fade in. Sebastien Shaw fades in in the SE and Original versions. I think it helps the audience understand that Anakin is now able to join Yoda and Ben in 'jedi heaven' or whatever you want to call it.

But I agree that the speed of the fade in is way too fast, and Hayden never actually gets to make eye contact with Obi-Wan on screen because the fade-in is late!

Good catch on the tree though! I need to check that out.

 

You can beg all you want, this is going to be "buried" in the DVD thread. That is, if you're only concerned about the change, not about the meaning and mythology behind it. For that, sith is right with redirecting you to the Saga forum. They got a topic on it.


To answer your question, I will tell you exactly the answer which you would have gotten in the DVD thread, had you asked there: the Rips found online are most likely Work in Progress versions and may still be slightly different (inferior) to the actual DVDs to be released on September 21st (20th for some).