Pretty sure that's in 2004... Can anyone compare for us?

Yes, the shadow was already there in 04.

Maybe you could include the differences in the 70mm cut of Empire for completeness sake, at least those we have visuals of.

The hologram of the Emperor is already present in the first shot, it does not tune in gradually.

70mm

35mm

When Luke falls from Cloud City into the Millennium Falcon, the Falcon's radar dish is not added to the shot. (Luke is also in a different position)

70mm

35mm

The Rebel fleet - the scene begins with the first establishing shot of the fleet, then cuts to inside the Falcon. Not in the 70mm version are two more establishing shots.

Added to 35mm version

Added to 35mm version

The effects shot over which Lando says, "When we find Jabba the Hutt and that bounty hunter we'll contact you" is not in the 70mm version.

Added to 35mm version

The following ones are difficult/impossible to include for obvious reasons.

* After the probot lands on Hoth and moves frame left, there is an optical wipe to the overhead shot of Luke on his tauntaun, instead of a straight cut.
* After Luke wanders through the snow and falls face down, there is an optical wipe to Han instead of a straight cut.
* The bacta tank scene starts on a close-up of Two-One-Bee and pans right to a closeup of Luke in the tank. It then cuts to FX-7 extending it's arm to the tank. There is no cut to Leia, Han and Threepio observing.

Added to 35mm version

* In the snow battle scene, when Luke drops into the snow after throwing a charge into the Imperial walker, the AT-ST in the background has no atmospheric depth. It looks to close and small. 
* The telepathy between Luke and Vader has straight cuts instead of quick dissolves.

The last one could perhaps be included in your notes.

msycamore said:

Maybe you could include the differences in the 70mm cut of Empire for completeness sake, at least those we have visuals of.

I don't know... I'd like to kind of keep it to Special Edition changes, they were certainly allowed to do tweaks in the first couple months of release. ;-)

doubleofive said:

I don't know... I'd like to kind of keep it to Special Edition changes

Yeah, I can see that, but as you included the '81 re-release change, I thought why not. But I understand your choice, it would really be more suitable for a separate list/article.

There we go, a separate list! I want to include them, just not there! I can move the 81 stuff over there also.

Might it actually be a thing to consider making a separate list for each release? Original Release and re-release alterations, 97SE, 2004SE, 2011SE.

Harmy said:

Might it actually be a thing to consider making a separate list for each release? Original Release and re-release alterations, 97SE, 2004SE, 2011SE.

I'm not sure about that, but if I did, I'd want all of the changes that started in 97 to be from the 97 SE, and the source I have isn't strong enough, nor would I want to redo all of those wipes...

So, I've already got "2011 Changes", because that's news. Then we have all of the other changes, soon I'll make a "Theatrical Changes 35/70mm" or something for changes that were in theaters at the same time.

FANTASTIC!

LOL. I'm not sure how to do this? Can you stack them from the start of the fade till it comes out, like I did with Greedo? Speaking of which, I think I'm missing a couple of frames from the 2011 Greedo.

DarthLucas said:

I was thinking why don't we give the films versions numbers. :)

The originals would obviously be 1.0

Any changes before 97 would be 1.x. All the audio mixes for ANH could be 1.1,1.2, etc.

97SE would be 2.0

2004SE is 3.0

2011SE is 4.0

And I would argue the 70mm ESB should be considered 0.9.

 

What do you think? :P

I like it, but not sure how to integrate it into the existing comparisons. So maybe for another project, like a simple list project (which I am not doing!)

timdiggerm said:

Yeah, but it's not the version we'd actually like to see released. The missing Falcon dish is evidence enough that it's not quite the finished product. In the world of software (which is where I work), it'd be 0.9 or something.

Well, the fact is that the 70mm and 35mm versions were both released to the public in 1980, so in that sense they were both finished products, it's two cuts of the same film which was enjoyed by millions of people. Both are important IMO. Just the audio mix on the 70mm cut on its own is a huge part of its importance. There's still a missing radar dish on the Falcon in Star Wars as late as 2011...

Many people fell in love with at the time so called "final mix" for Star Wars which was the mono mix in '77, but have never been able to enjoy that on a video release after all these years, but if they would only release Star Wars with at the time seen by its creator as the final mix I would be disappointed because I fell in love with the earlier Dolby Stereo. So, I would definitely like to see both cuts of Empire preserved just like I would like to see all three original mixes on Star Wars preserved.

DarthLucas said:

No one has seen the 70mm version outside of that initial release. I consider myself a pretty big fan and I wasn't even aware of its existence until a few years ago. The current version is what everyone knows as ESB.

You could say this about the '97 release as well which basically is just another step in the evolution of the films as Lucas see it, the difference is that homevideo was around when that happened, but many people took those "unfinished products" to their heart and would like to see them on a modern format.

DarthLucas said: 

BTW I think there is another audio change in ANH.

Luke now clearly says "BUT its not impossible" in the Rebel briefing. In the original it seems the "but" was partially cutoff in the audio.

 

I know this thread is for visual changes but I wanted to see if anyone can confirm.

Luke say "but it's not impossible..." in the original Dolby Stereo mixes at least, not sure about the Mono or how it is in subsequent versions. Edit: He starts the line with "but" in all three original mixes but like you said it's not something clearly audiable, misunderstood your question. Not heard the latest mix.