Star Wars Revenge of the Sith
Revenge of the DVD
Disc 1: The Feature
"From the beginning of production, George Lucas wanted to be sure we chronicled everything that went into the making of Episode III specifically to create an incredible DVD experience," said Jim Ward, the DVD's executive producer and Senior Vice President of Lucasfilm Ltd. "This DVD has literally been three years in the making, and it's going to be a fantastic way to complete the Star Wars saga at home."
As with the previous film (Episode II), Revenge of the Sith was
captured with the latest generation of HD digital cameras and lenses. Since
the source material and the final DVD transfer stayed within the digital
medium from beginning to end, the finished result is pristine image and
sound clarity, overseen by the quality assurance experts at THX. Like previous
releases, the release includes a THX Optimizer for on-screen calibration
of picture and sound to perfect levels.
To keep the image and sound quality of the feature at its best, Lucasfilm has separated the movie and bonus materials onto two discs.
Van Ling, the DVD's Producer, is again taking on the role to bring the worlds
of Star Wars to DVD and customizing the imagery to create a dynamic
menu experience. "ILM really worked hard to give me usable elements as digital
files," says Ling. "I'm constantly trying to find ways to take their elements
and use them in ways they never intended or could even imagine."
The menus consist of familiar yet new presentations of Episode III
imagery with one of three randomly selected environmental themes each time
you watch. Either fiery Mustafar, with lava rivers and heat-blasted industrial
facility; Utapau, or Coruscant, showdown between Emperor Palpatine and Yoda
in the Senate.
Lucasfilm have also segmented the film into 50 chapters. With titles such as "Tragedy of Darth Plagueis," "Mace vs. Sidious," "Order 66" and "Immolation." The "Scene Selection" screen also features animated presentations on the menu screens, so viewers will have no problem finding the scene they're looking for.
The DVD will be available in both Widescreen and Full Screen. Disc One offers multiple audio options for viewers. You can select either Dolby Digital Surround 5.1 EX, or choose from English Dolby Surround 2.0, French Dolby Surround 2.0 and Spanish Dolby Surround 2.0. Optional English subtitles can also be toggled on and off.
Audio tracks include commentary provided by George Lucas, Producer Rick McCallum, Visual Effects Supervisors John Knoll and Roger Guyett and Animation Director Rob Coleman.
"This was my seventh commentary with George [Lucas], including all six Star Wars films and THX 1138," says Gary Leva, producer of the audio commentary. "We have fun together and, since I've also produced documentaries for all the previous DVD sets, I know the ground we're covering pretty well by now. So I can ask intelligent questions and sort of guide him into areas I think would be interesting for fans. George has gotten increasingly skilled at doing commentaries. It's been fun for me to work with him over the years and watch the progression."
Star Wars Revenge of the SithDisc 2: The Extras
Disc Two content is also introduced through a series of animated menus from
familiar Episode III settings. With tight production deadlines
for the Episode III DVD, Producer Van Ling and his team only developed
the concepts for the Disc Two menus.The execution of these designs was in
the hands of The Studio at New Wave Entertainment.
"They have a very different style and feel from my menus, which were very interesting to see," says Ling.
Producing for New Wave was Paul Miles Schneider, with art direction by Mike Romey. Environments include the bridge of General Grievous' cruiser, the Jedi Temple computer rooms, and Darth Vader's rehabilitation chamber.
The main feature of the bonus disc is the 78-minute documentary "Within
a Minute." The documentary is compelling to watch and has a specific
story to tell.
"It truly is mind-boggling how many people, how many thousands of hours
it takes to make just one sequence," says Rick McCallum. "An interesting
experiment is to actually take a sequence of shots, and analyze how many
people were involved in the making of that sequence. Within this brief moment
of the film you really have a window into the entire process it took to
make Episode III."
Keeping that in mind, Within a Minute takes a 49-second sequence from the
Mustafar lightsaber duel and looks at its development from start to finish.
"There are hundreds of names and jobs in the end credits, but hardly anyone
understands just what all of those people do and what an enormous contribution
they make to the movie," says Tippy Bushkin, director of Within a Minute.
"By focusing on less than 60 seconds of the movie, Rick McCallum and George
Lucas examine the entire process of making Episode III in a fun
and fascinating way."
Bushkin and her crew provide another two documentaries within the same section
of Disc Two. "The Chosen One" runs for 14 minutes and centres around Hayden
Christensen's role as Anakin Skywalker and the transformation into Darth
Vader. "It's All For Real" is an 11-minute documentary about Nick Gillard,
who is the Stunt Coordinator and Sword Master for Episode III.
Fans who have been following each step in the making of the latest trilogy will already be familiar with the web doc series. With each web doc first debuting on Hyperspace, the best 15 chapters of the 18-chapter "Making of Episode III" series are included on the disc. You can still watch the following in full screen resolution without having to log onto the website to see them:
"Two Worlds, One Movie"
"...One World, Two Movies"
"We Still Do A Little Bit"
"Creating General Grievous"
"This Weapon Is Your Life"
"Video Village"
"Epic Designs for an Expanding Universe"
"C-3PO: His Moment to Shine"
"Pick-ups & Reshoots"
"Becoming Obi-Wan"
"The Wookiees are Back!"
"B-107: The Life of an HD-Tape"
"The Creatures of Episode III"
"Endlessly Compelling: The Music of Episode III"
"Becoming Sidious"
Some of the deleted scenes found on the disc, as in previous DVD releases, have been completed, with finished visual effects, sound and score.
The first one, however, in a mix of complete and incomplete footage, serving
more as an animatic to a story-point cut from Star Wars Episode III.
"General Grievous Slaughters a Jedi; Escape From The General" has the evil
cyborg general kill Shaak Ti before a helpless Obi-Wan and Anakin. The two
Jedi escape Grievous' grasp by cutting their way through the cruiser's floor,
from the proverbial frying pan into the proverbial fire by landing into
a chamber filled with volatile starship fuel.
The next three deleted scenes follow the Rebel Alliance storyline cut from
Revenge of the Sith. Padmé Amidala would conspire with Senators
Bail Organa, Mon Mothma and others to create worst-case contingencies to
Palpatine's growing powers. In "A Stirring in the Senate," the Senators
gather in Bail Organa's office to start the discussion. In "Seeds of Rebellion,"
the conversation picks up in Padmé's apartment. In "Confronting the Chancellor,"
diplomacy is given once last chance as Padmé voices her concerns to Palpatine
with Anakin standing nearby.
The next deleted scene, "A Plot to Destroy the Jedi?" is a quiet scene with Yoda, Mace Windu and Obi-Wan in Yoda's apartment. They discuss the imbalance in the Force and the danger of Palpatine's rule. Finally, there's "Exiled to Dagobah," the highly-anticipated scene where Yoda arrives on the Dagobah, where he will live out the rest of his life. These deleted scenes also offer optional introductions by George Lucas and Rick McCallum.
Also included in the bonus material is the theatrical teaser and release
trailer, as well as the "A Hero Falls" music video, which features John
Williams' epic "Battle of the Heroes" score. There are 15 television spots,
ranging from commercials for younger audiences, longer spots for older audiences,
and even a review spot, that showcase the overwhelmingly positive critical
response to Episode III. Disc Two also features poster galleries
and dozens of photos, including some never before published.
By now, gaming fans should know that November 1st is also the day the sequel
to the most successful Star Wars videogame of all time comes out. Star
Wars Battlefront II is coming out for Xbox, PlayStation 2, PC and Sony
PSP. It now features playable Jedi characters, space combat, and new Episode
III content.
The DVD contains a fully playable Xbox demo of the game, the trailer for the game, as well as the trailer for Star Wars Empire at War is also on the DVD.
But wait! There's more! With the Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
DVD, an Internet connection, a web browser with Flash 7 or higher, and a
system running Microsoft Windows 2000 or higher*, dvd.starwars.com is your
ticket for exclusive text-based commentaries. Find out behind-the-scenes
trivia, hard-to-spot visual details, and expanded universe lore as in the
Depth Commentary. Find a Script-to-Screen commentary and compare the movie
from paper to screen, and get a strange interpretation of Episode III
with the "Busted Protocol Droid" Commentary. There are more online commentaries
and one-of-a-kind viewing experiences in the works for Episode III
and the entire Star Wars DVD library.
* Some features may work on Apple Macintosh running OS 10.2 or higher.
For the trailers, movie stills, clips, pics, review and synopsis, go to
the Star Wars Revenge
of the Sith Movie Page.
Stay tuned for updates.
|
Add to Heffee!
