A Crazy Couple of Months

Well it really has been a crazy few months. Star Wars Begins' popularity peaked in mid March with 2.5 million views. At one point my videos were getting 180,000 views per day. Things have leveled off now but I am still pushing to get more fans to watch it. Just spreading the Star Wars love. The reviews in the New York Times and FHM helped, as did the radio interview with BBC Radio 4's The Film Programme. I have now created a Facebook page for short updates on the latest Star Wars Begins News. For instance, Star Wars Begins has been entered into the Florida SuperCon Geek Film Fest and the Berlin Internet Film Festival, Webcuts.

Some big reviews have started coming in:

East Valley Tribune - Nerdvana

Topless Robot

Mister Honk.de

Collider.com - On the front page!

Some other comments from Youtube.com:

Thank you, jambedavdar. This was almost like seeing the movie again for the first time.

I love the concept of a real-time documentary for the ultimate fanatics. I just spent a couple of hours watching through this one. Excellent job and thank you very much!

Best documentary i`ve EVER seen! And it`s not even an official one but a Fan made. MY god it was great. Scenes in it i`ve never seen before, dialogs i`ve never heard before. THANK YOU!

Really great and entertaining. Even long time Star Wars lovers like myself will find something new here. I can't even imagine how much time and energy went into making these. I haven't watched the Ep. V and VI versions yet, so I guess I know what I'm doing now...

And from Twitter:

The best Youtube documentary about the making of Star Wars you'll ever see.

Star Wars, But From a Different Angle

'Star Wars Begins'. An epic 2 hour, fan-made documentary. Amazing work.

Star Wars Fan-Made Documentary Awesomeness “Star Wars Begins / Return To Jedi / Building Empire

Star Wars, como nunca la viste – Star Wars Begins

INCREDIBLE fan-made making-of doc for STAR WARS: 2+ hours, unseen footage, bloopers, interviews...

Amazing Fan Made STAR WARS Documentary: That's because he's crafted a truly amazing doc on the making of SW

Can't imagine how many hrs work you put into all 3 films. This is the sort of entertainment I was hoping would be on the blu-ray!

Star Wars Begins is essentially the entirety of #StarWars, but with all shit you've never heard or seen before.

The saga is complete. #starwars begins, a must view for every star wars fan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iBJYWZkhTg . Excellent job JD:) - Adywan

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Thanks so much for all the kind comments. It really makes it all worth it.

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-STAR WARS BEGINS- IS COMPLETE!!!!
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Film Details
Video: PAL 16:9 MPEG2 SL DVD (I may do a DL DVD later)
(Also released as a DiVX Download)
Audio: AC3 Audio
Duration: 2hrs 18mins (Main Feature)

Background

Inspired by a love of the film 'Star Wars' and the idea that audio commentaries could be expanded, Jambe Davdar set out to make what he calls "the ultimate audio/visual commentary". He started the project in February 2007 and finished, four years later, in late January 2011. It was initially released to in late Jan 2011 those who contributed to the project and finally to everyone else in Feb 2011.

Software Used
Final Cut Pro 4.5
DVD Studio Pro 3
A.Pack
Photoshop CS
Cinematize
MPEG Streamclip

Project Details
Star Wars Begins is an unofficial commentary to Star Wars, offering an insight into the development and creation of film. The documentary combines video from the movie itself with seen and unseen behind the scenes footage, rare audio from the cast and crew, alternate angles, bloopers, reconstructed scenes, text facts and more to give an in-depth look at the process which brought the film to the big screen.

DVD Special Features
Restored Music Sequences
Concept Crawl
Trailer

SOME GOOD NEWS

My videos have now reached 900,000 views on youtube. I would love to reach one million! I would be grateful if you could post the following on facebook, twitter (copy me in - @jamieswb) and any forums you are members of to help me reach my target:

Great TESB and ROTJ fan-made documentaries by @jamieswb. If you're a Star Wars fan these are essential viewing #starwarshttp://www.youtube.com/user/jambedavdar?feature=mhum

Also....

I would be grateful if somebody could send me the NTSC Miami versions of my films please. The first person that does will receive an early copy of Star Wars Begins before it's released in a few weeks. - EDIT - Many thanks, a kind soul have come forward and offered to send me the discs.

Thanks

JD

Interesting Interest

Last week I noticed that Nathan Hamill, son of Mark, tweeted that he was going to take a look at my projects. So I contacted him and this morning have spend a couple of hours burning both the original and Miami versions to send out to him. I will keep you posted on his feedback. Wouldn't it be cool if the discs got as far as his father.

DRIVE RECOVERED

Great news! The drive is recovered and the project is back on track. It cost me £700 to for the recovery, so I hope it's worth it. Things have been going well so far implementing some of my ideas into the timeline. There are a few dead spots but that happened with both 'Building Empire' and 'Returning to Jedi'. I am sure I will come up with something.

Please do still donate if you are able!

Recent Interest

I've had recent interest from Kyle Newman, the Director of Fanboys. He tweeted that he loved my docos so of course, I got in touch. After a short exchange, I've sent him DVD copies of both the original and Miami Underground Film Festival versions. Driven by this interested, theforce.net also posted an entire news page for Building Empire. Given that it's Empire's 30th anniversary, it's getting quite a bit of interest.

Drive Sent Away for Recovery

I've sent the knackered disk drive away to see if the data can be recovered. I am awaiting news. Lets collectively cross our fingers. In the meantime I have been watching the low res render of the project (which I made only days before the crash) and making notes. The interest from Kyle Newman and TheForce.net has given me new motivation to get this done. Lets just hope the drive is salvageable. Otherwise it may take me another few years to get it made!

Hard Drive Failure Scuppers Progress

One of my hard discs containing the majority of SWB and the original files for BE and RTJ has crashed. I am gutted!

PvGL Update

The lovely people at 'The People Vs George Lucas' have granted me some more time to get my interview in. They were also kind enough to give my films a mention on their blog.

http://www.peoplevsgeorge.com/blog/?p=97

An Update

It's been a long while folks. Unfortunately I separated from my wife last year and things have been a bit tough. But, I've got a new place for me and my kids (I have them three to four days a week) and soon I hope to have my G5 Mac set up and ready to start editing Star Wars Begins again. I will report back with some more news soon. Oh by the way, I might be getting a preview copy of R.W Rinzler's Making of Empire Strikes Back to review. Anybody want me to review it for their site?

And by the way, the interview didn't work out for The People Vs George Lucas. I just couldn't get it done in time. Shame.

Rather interestingly I have been asked to be interviewed for a new documentary called 'The People Vs George Lucas'. They are interested in having a section on fan films and their creators. Fans taking things into their own hands, keeping the franchise alive. I have agreed to get involved as have a number of fan editor from originaltrilogy.com. Watch this space for more updates.

PARTS 3 & 4 NOW UP ON YOUTUBE

You can now enjoy (hopefully) preliminary versions of parts 3 and 4 on youtube. Rest assured that the final parts will be packed with more facts and behind the scenes action.

Too Busy for Hobbies

What with a new child, moving house and some relationship problems, my hobby has taken a bit of a battering lately.  'Star Wars Begins' is still work in progress, but progress has been slow of late.  There are now two preliminary parts on youtube for your viewing pleasure.  Things will and have already be changed for the final release but each of the episodes will give you some idea of what to expect.

Furthermore, some great leads on rare material have all but dried up and I haven't had the time or motivation to chase them up.  Talk of original recordings of X-wing pilot radio talkback and an early audio mix of Star Wars have proved to be as elusive as they sound.  Though you never know!  I never expected to see the whole original Jabba scene.

'STAR WARS BEGINS' Trailer Released!

"Star Wars Begins" continues...

In my continuing attempts to bring something "new" to my Star Wars project, I've recently been sent the entire original Jabba the Hutt scene from ANH. It was broadcast in 1997 on the Paramount Comedy on a well known show called "ET". Unfortunately they ran it under some credits but with some fiddling in FCP I've recomposed the entire seen for you to watch in it's entirety. HUGE thanks go to Scott Weller for uncovering this gem. Further attempts are being made to improve it, but here it is:

SW Project Under way

Following the success of 'Building Empire' and 'Returning to Jedi', I have started work on an as yet unnamed Star Wars Project. I have already transcoded and imported the entire original unaltered film into FCP. I've also been through 'Empire of Dreams', 'WSWRTW' and 'The Making of Star Wars' and imported all of the behind the scenes clips. After editing them all into place this thing is beginning to take shape. I can genuinely say at this point that the work that Garrett did on 'Deleted Magic' should not be underestimated. His Jabba scene reconstruction is first class. I think I will have to reconstruct it in NTSC and convert to PAL, as most of the available footage is in the American format.

Several OT.com members have been very kind in sending me storyboards, photos and videos showing Lucas' influences for which I am very grateful. Another member was kind enough to distribute some copies of 'BE' and 'RTJ' at Celebration IV - though I am still to hear how that went.

There is so much to do on this SW project, I think it's going to take a long time. Furthermore my real life work is very busy at the moment, so I may have to wait for the autumn/winter to get the bulk of the work done.

Please contact me if you find any rare footage or have any information that could be included in the text straps.

Many thanks
JD

Actual ROTJ Star reviews 'Returning to Jedi'

Toby said... "I watched it last night and enjoyed it trememdously! A nice mix of watching the film, and having points of interest highlighted or revealed...the section on Jabba compiles most things I know into an entertaining and informative sequence - what more can you ask?"

Toby Philpott - Jabba's Left Arm

Back on Youtube!

Building Empire Part 1


Returning to Jedi Part 1


Please remember to rate and comment. Thanks. JD

I am currently re-uploading BE and RTJ to youtube.