Harmy's THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Despecialized Edition HD - V2.0 - MKV & AVCHD (Released) — Page 81

RE: the orange uniforms/Leia's hair, the typical rule of thumb in color correction is to aim for the best possible skin tones. After all, we can subconsciously be pretty forgiving of other variances as long as the humans look like human beings.

The problem with the DVD is that there is too much blue in the highlights, and Harmy's done a good job of removing this and making the whites look more neutral. I agree that the uniforms look a bit on the "yellow" side, but if you try to hit a deep, saturated orange, everyone is going to look sunburned.

Hey, Harmy! 

I really appreciate your work and I'm looking forward to the release of v2.0 or 2.1 or whatever you're calling it. 

I was watching the workprint alongside the Blu-ray and noticed a strange white spot on the starfield in the first Executor shot from 28811-28823 (00:20:00:10-00:20:00:22) just below the far right Star Destroyer. Someone may have already pointed it out or maybe you left it in intentionally, but I wanted to make sure. Thanks!

Gotcha! Thanks for the instant feedback. Looking at your versions next to the Blu-ray, the despecialized seem surprisingly detailed, but also more grainy. Could you briefly explain, to the layman, what causes the greater amount of noise (if that's the proper term)? I've been wondering since watching SW v2.5 the first dozen times.

Layers of film grain have been intentionally added to the special effects to simulate how they would have appeared originally.  This is due to the multiple levels of optical compositing and duplication required to print the effects onto film: the special effects shots always appeared softer and more grainy than the rest because of this.  Note that this is true of any movie made before the use of CGI came to dominate the visual effects industry, not just the SW films.

The Special Editions eliminated much of this by recombining the separate effects layers digitally, but the Despecialized Editions seek to recreate the appearace of the movies as they were first released, and this includes the emulation of certain film characteristics inherent to the physical processes used to make them.

It may take a bit of getting used to if you aren't accustomed to seeing it, but I find it refreshing to watch the movies this way since it 'feels' more authentic: it's a subtle way of undoing the damage the SE's have caused, and of further differentiating these versions from them.

Funnily enough, I actually feel like some parts (namely, the digital recomposites that have been left in) could stand to have some additional grain added to them.  ;)

Harmy, will there be a workprint release of the version with updated colors and non-rounded edges?  I think it would be good to have everyone giving you feedback on the most up to date version possible (if such a thing could exist before this weekend, that would work out great for something coming up on my end).

Oh, and I neglected to chime in earlier, but I think the first official release you do should probably be named 2.0, since 2.1 would probably confuse people without the existence of a 2.0 (you could explain this till you're blue in the face, but who wants to be blue in the face?).  Any tweaks made after that could go into a 2.1 if needed (and you have the option of releasing updates all the way through 2.4, God forbid), and then lock in all your changes and make a final 2.5 release (same pattern with Jedi would make for well rounded consistency across the whole project).  Even though your efforts are more in line with what 2.1 was, I think jumping over 2.0 will just cause you more headache than it is worth in the long run.

Awesome news!

Hey Harmy its been a while since you've mentioned it but how is the Despecialized Edition of The Phantom Menace coming along? Didn't you say it was going to be a quick side project to do before starting Empire? I still would love it and I'm sure others would too.

Any updates? Just really looking forward to V2.0. : )

I don't know exactly what else Harmy has left to do on the visual side, but I'm in the process of finalizing what I deem to be the best possible version of Empire's 35mm stereo mix.

I'd never spent much time listening to it until recently (the video tape I watched as a kid was the '93 version), but I've definitely developed an appreciation for it.  The difference in quality between it and the '93 mix is less pronounced by far than it is for the first movie, and it certainly makes for a worthy choice of soundtrack to watch the movie with.  I still have a few things to straighten out in terms of achieving GOUT-synch, since the early laserdiscs were missing so many frames at reel changes, and the audio is prone to changing speed in these areas, making for noticeable jump cuts and loss of synch.  But it's close to being done.

Also, the new 5.1 mix is virtually complete, requiring only final listening tests to ensure quality before I render it out.  Various timing issues with the LFE channel from the previous version have been corrected, meaning that the bass is now much more tightly locked to the soundtrack as a whole.  Everything is just more polished this time, and I'm really looking forward to seeing it paired with the improved visuals of this new edition.  ;)

I downloaded and watched the entire despecialized trilogy this week, and all I ca say is "Great job--no, no, Superb job, Harmy!!!"  I have already burned them to three discs and I plan to add disc art and a cover art to make this glorious restoration that the trilogy has long deserved.