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Opinions of fan preservation projects from an individual who saw the original film elements
In looking all over the internet for fan projects that attempt to restore the STAR WARS movies back to what they originally looked like in theaters (special thanks to Harmy for making that documentary citing all his sources), I decided to speak to a source who saw and handled the original film negative elements while he was working at CBS/FOX Video: my dad.
Not only did he handle the original film elements of all three movies, he supervised the transfer to home video formats. In fact, they had a representative from Lucasfilm at CBS/FOX and, as they created dupes of each film reel, they were promptly shipped to George who okay-ed them.
Now, I don’t want this to sound like bragging. But, because he had such an intimate connection to all three movies, I consider his opinion on any fan conversion extremely valuable. As such, as much as I might get beamed for being rather brazen about what I’m about to say, I feel that the information I have gleaned from him to be of value to any fan project attempting to recreate a cut of the original STAR WARS movie as it was seen in theaters before 1997.
The Blu-Ray release
When I first heard that this was going to be released, I think I pre-ordered it on Amazon.com to make sure I was going to get it. When I got it, I asked my dad to give a quick opinion of it. We freeze framed on a shot of C-3PO’s forehead on-board the Tantive IV and he said that he hadn’t seen the detail of the dirt and grime on C-3PO’s forehead since he handled the film elements back in the 80s. As Episode 7 was being made, he decided he wanted to re-watch the movies, especially in light of the changes that George did. Now, putting aside the changes, he’s examined the blu-ray enough to give his opinion of how he thinks the transfer looks. The entire movie looks noisy. This is especially noticeable aboard the Tantive IV against the whites. Another place where it’s noticeable is just after the droids land on Tatooine. He knows how well a 35mm film can look on blu-ray and whoever did this did a very poor job.
Some other problems he’s seen are that the whites look pink (noticeable on the Tantive IV) and the blacks look blue (close-ups of Vader). However, the background blacks (like on the sandcrawler) look normal (I’ll reference this again later).
Now this is mainly for the first movie seeing as how that one usually tends to be done first both from a project perspective and for fans trying to download a copy. However, when I was downloading Adywan’s cut some years ago, I opted to get his opinion of that to pass along to Adywan. Empire appears to be bluer throughout the movie.
Adywan
Episode 4 appears to have been done right. I haven’t showed it to him. But, comparing the notes I made on the other fan releases my dad commented on to this one, the color corrections appear to have been done right. Unfortunately, he’s only released an SD version of his work because he didn’t have and HD or BR source at the time. So, this is the most I can offer. As for Empire, he did a good job at fixing the blue. But, at least the snow scenes he turned the brightness up too much.
(The following is based on looking at Harmy’s documentary on where he got his sources from for his DE. So, if he altered his sources before putting them into his version, my apologies. However, you could take this as a point of reference as to how the original trilogy is supposed to look.)
Harmy
The whites on the Tantive IV no longer look as pink. However, they now look more yellow. Harmy commented about how the blacks look more crushed (sandcrawler scenes). If this is because they don’t pop out as much for the blu-ray release, my dad said that this was natural for a high-def format. What’s more if you’re only point of reference for blacks is an SD/analog release, then you don’t know what blacks are supposed to look like. What’s worse is that, in fixing the blacks, lighter elements now look more yellow.
Something else Harmy commented on was that the sand scenes just after the droids land looked artificial due to a clean up process for the blu-ray release. With the exception of the noise in the overall picture, my dad couldn’t figure out what looked artificial about it. However, Harmy’s tweaks make it look more washed out now.
You_Too
A comment was made about how whenever there is an explosion because of a laser blast, it looks more magenta. Unfortunately, my dad doesn’t have any recollection of how these scenes are supposed to look. However, his opinion is that You-Too’s tweaks on those scenes don’t look much better. However, You-Too’s tweaks on the skin tones make those scenes look much better.
I.B. Technicolor print screening
In attempting to capture a film print by projecting it on a screen and capturing it with a high-def camera, the only color channel that’s correct is the luminance. Otherwise, that kind of capture is useless.
Project Blu V1
I didn’t get any negative feedback from him. Instead, I pointed out the attempt to sharpen the “GOUT” DVD. If anything, Harmy altered the colors of this version for his version (ex: the Death Star got turned blue from grey).
Project Blu V2
The sharpness looks good. But, the images look too bright.
2004 DVD vs 2004 HDTV versions
The sample we saw was in the Millennium Falcon as Luke was training and there was that board game going on in the background. The 2004 DVD is color correct. The 2004 HDTV broadcast has C-3PO looking more bronze.
(My dad stopped here because, in his words, the mistakes were getting repetitive.)
Again, this is me attempting to assimilate everything my dad commented on and repeat it in an understandable form. Some of you may take it as valuable insight as to how close any fan recreating has come to the original version and make your version better. Others, I’m sure, will tell me my dad doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
On that note, allow me to tell you something my dad had to deal with some years ago. He works in television. Particularly helping in the editing department. If an image doesn’t look right, either he eyes it to see what needs to be tweaked or he uses a scope to determine which color channel needs adjusting. Someone was editing an episode of a show they produce and he couldn’t get the color right. He did some tweaking to a piece of equipment and finished editing the show. However, all of the following material edited on that machine looked right on the monitor but looked off when it went to tape. My dad went in, scoped all the equipment, and determined that someone had changed the monitor’s color properties so that projects edited on that computer looked right on that monitor but didn’t look right when they went to tape.
So, before posting any criticisms against my dad or his opinion, keep in mind that he is a professional in the industry who has to stay on top of emerging digital technology and has handled the original film elements for STAR WARS.
