October 2023 Update

A long overdue update…

Things are progressing really well with ANH:RHD. There’s only about 40 shots left to do. It may sound like a lot of shots but it’s not. Most of the film is complete. The remaining shots are mainly the CG work for the Yavin battle with a few shots here and there in other places. It’s looking very likely that it’s going to be a 2024 release now, hopefully mid year. The one thing that could hold things up is shooting the replacement Sandtroopers. I was hoping to get the shots i need filmed this year but we have had such a shite summer it became impossible. So that’s going to have to wait until next year when hopefully we’ll have some sunny days.

There may be a slightly extended section when the TIE’s appear during the Death Star battle, but it will be quite brief so there won’t be the problem with a long period of no dialogue like in the original ANH:R. The music will also be completely different during that part if i do it. The Imperial march WILL be present during the battle but not in the way it was in the Standard Def version. I’ve been doing some messing about and mixed a couple of tracks together so the music fits in with the style of the music heard during the battle. It works pretty well and, with a bit of tweaking, i think i can get it to work. So the chance of having that small extended battle really hinges on whether this new piece of music works or not.

There’s no way i can do any serious work on the video side of things for ROTJ:R until ANH:RHD is complete and released because ANH has almost filled up all of the new internal drives and most of the external ones i purchased because they are the backups. One 8tb external developed a fault that couldn’t be fixed but luckily i was able to replace that and recover all but one of the files that were on it. So once ANH is done and dusted i can start to empty the internal drives to continue work on ROTJ:R. So, at the moment, i have just enough space to complete ANH:R and render out the master file. Then it’s on to the audio mix.

But i will be starting to build the models etc for ROTJ:R early next year so i’ll keep you updated about those.

And now a few comparions…

I’ve replaced the temples in this shot to eliminate the fact that they use the same ones in the following shot, just from a slightly different angle, but it’s obvious its the same place. I’ve also removed the path that is visible in the original. I’ve also replaced the sky to match the sky in the shot that follows.

I’ve replaced the “dummy” Kenobi and Vader in this shot so it no longer seems like they are just standing there in the same position for ages in this scene. (Plus Vader is actually in a paused posture of having just struck down kenobi as this was actually a failed attempt of having the dummy sliced in half, being suspended on wires floating above the ground . You can see the dummy swinging)

I’ve replaced the X-wings in this shot to give a more natural movement because the right hand side one seems like it is sliding towards the camera instead of flying past.