I guess this is the wrong hangar matte?

(Click for big version)

I wonder, was this the painting that originally had two cockpits? Harrison Ellenshaw is quoted in Christopher Finch's book "Special Effects" about how when he originally did the Falcon hangar matte, a lot of stuff was kept secret by Lucas and co., and all he had to work from were images of the full-sized half ship. He mistakenly assumed that the design was symmetrical, and painted the Falcon with a cockpit on each side.

I'm not sure whether Ellenshaw revised said painting, or if it's a third one we haven't seen.

TV's Frink said:

Hellbot said:

Hi Harmy, I am sure you are already well aware of this but I felt that I should mention it to you just in case.  I recently watched Empire Strikes Back and I noticed that the lightsabers appear to have a ring effect surrounding them.  I specifically noticed this beginning at 1:44:53. 

I compared these scenes to other versions of ESB that I have and the ring is significantly more noticeable in your version.  Anyway, sorry if this is old news.  I just wanted to bring it to your attention in case. 

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Harmys-THE-EMPIRE-STRIKES-BACK-Despecialized-Edition-HD-DVD9-AVCHD-and-SD-NTSC-DVD5-AVAILABLE-NOW-Read-1st-post/topic/12511/

Ah, thanks.  Didn't realize each one had their own dedicated thread.

doubleofive said:

 

Where'd it come from?

 

It's in "The Making of Star Wars" by J.W. Rinzler.

The caption reads:

Millenium Falcon in hangar: "There is a quick shot when Leia says, 'You came in that thing?' [bottom left] And there is an establishing shot that is a little bit longer at the beginning [top left]. That quick cut was one painting, and the establishing shot was another [right, with details, middle]. There we once again reduced the plate, added onto the sides, put the top of the opening in for the shaft going down the center, all sorts of little goodies, lights and things like that. I used the original plate shot in England, the stormtroopers running up, and then I shot the miniature on regular 5247 film in a still camera, single-lens reflex. That I rear projected and put the miniature together, matched it up size-wise, added some painting so it would match and blend, and put those two things together so it's really the stormtroopers running up to the side of the set, which is connected to the miniature. That one worked well, too." - Harrison Ellenshaw

Note that this is just a crummy photo taken from the book, so it might be skewed or bent a bit. But yeah, the two on the left are the ones in the film, the big one doesn't seem to be used at all...

And Harmy, do you know about these?:

http://makingfx.net/archives/406
http://makingfx.net/archives/835
http://makingfx.net/archives/1200
http://makingfx.net/archives/1241

Z6PO said:

Harmy said:

I just wish I could find the Falcon in the DS hanger matte.

You can find it in "The Art of Star Wars" book, page 82. But it's a very small picture, you may not be able to use it. Besides I can understand why it's rarely seen: it's a pretty boring matte ! The Millennium Falcon has only its edges painted (they must have composited the falcon model for the final image)

 

That's exactly what happened, according to the Harrison Ellenshaw quote in Rinzler's book. (Maybe someone decided the shot would look better if the Falcon wasn't entirely a painting.)

Still wondering if the fully-painted alternate was the one that originally had two cockpits, or if that's an entirely different painting that's never been reproduced anywhere...

Would anyone be able to post the DVD5 (Standard Definition) version of this on myspleen? so far only ESB is available as SD there, and I dont have a bluray player :( if anyone who has it could post it there you get to be my new hero, thanks all!!

Agreed. Fantastic improvement. It looks more natural than the one in V1 and has a good amount of contrast.

Looks like there's less smearing, greater detail, and less black crush than before.  Great work!

Amazing work Harmy, looks excellent.

Great improvement!

Maybe it's time to say sorry for the long post I made some time ago. (post 1475)
Now that I've read through more of the older pages in this thread, I know those things had already been mentioned.

And also, I watched the SE blu-ray some days ago just to get a perspective, and compared to that your version is every Star Wars fan's dream come true. Can't wait to see v1.2!

Didn't expect to see such a noticeable improvement via Youtube. Very nice!