When do you think the first six movies will get a 4k release?

Now obviously we shouldn’t expect this too soon, or expect the original originals, but with Disney acquiring 20th Century Fox how long until they release an ultra hi def boxset?

You’ll never get AOTC and ROTS in 4K. If that ever happens, it’ll just be an upscale, as they were shot in 1080p (not even 2K, and not really even 1080p due to the letterboxing).

ChainsawAsh said:

You’ll never get AOTC and ROTS in 4K. If that ever happens, it’ll just be an upscale, as they were shot in 1080p (not even 2K, and not really even 1080p due to the letterboxing).

They could upscale the live action and re render the cgi in 4k. That’s most of the film anyway

For TPM, yeah. AOTC and ROTS were shot digitally at 1080p24.

I’d really love a definitive answer on what exact resolution the VFX/DI for AotC and RotS were done at.

We know they were shot at 1920:817 (cropped down from the 1920:1080 of the 16:9 sensor), but it’s not 100% clear what happened next.

2k scope is like 2048:856, so I suppose it’s possible that the live-action footage was upscaled very slightly and then the cgi and final color timing was done natively at that resolution.

But I suppose it’s also possible ILM actually worked at 1920:817, matching the live-action material pixel for pixel.

So, yeah, it would be nice to get clarification on this. But I’m not sure who would even be the person to ask.

The Lowry “restoration” of the OT done for the dvd in 2004 (and reused, with some tweaks, for the blu-ray) was only done at 1920:1080 (actually 1920:817 since it’s scope), not 2k, and there’ve been actual dcp’s made from them. On the other hand, George clearly didn’t consider it the finished master of the OT since he eventually commissioned the RMW 4k job.

The vfx (and eventual rebuild) of TPM would’ve almost certainly been true 2k scope (2048:856) since it was already the late 90’s and TPM was shot on film with a very large budget.

It’s worth noting that many of the releases on the new 4k format have been 2k upscales, even many of the 4k releases of movies made within the last couple years. There’s also been at least one live-action movie released on 4k that was shot at 1080p just like AotC/RotS (Resident Evil: Afterlife).

ChainsawAsh said:

For TPM, yeah. AOTC and ROTS were shot digitally at 1080p24.

Yeah. They could upscale the live action, and re render the cgi.

Oh right, I misread your post as saying the opposite somehow. My bad.

Possessed said:

ChainsawAsh said:

For TPM, yeah. AOTC and ROTS were shot digitally at 1080p24.

Yeah. They could upscale the live action, and re render the cgi.

I don’t think they’d go through the trouble to do that. It would probably just ba an upscale.

2K is barely any higher resolution than 1080p and the vast majority of digital projectors in movie theaters are 2K.

2.39:1 1080p = 1920x817
2.39:1 cinema 2K = 2048x856

Captain_Danielsan said:

As a noob can i ask a question about Aotc and ROTS. If they were shot in just cropped 1080p how on earth did they get it to look clear and everything blown up and projected onto massive cinema screens. Just interested in the technical know how here.

It has a lot to do with what the human eye can actually resolve. It’s the reason why 4K TVs really don’t make a difference in your home viewing unless you A. Get a giant (90"+) set or B. Sit really close…

Typically only the first few rows of a movie theater are close enough, even on that big screen, to truly see the difference in 2K and 4K. Not to say we shouldn’t be pursuing greater resolutions, but really it’s things like dynamic range/HDR and color accuracy that most people are going to benefit from with a 4K format.

The bigger question with AotC/RotS is how much difference - if any - an HDR pass will actually make.

I’m not even sure the camera sensors had a wide enough colorspace for HDR to be doable.

ChainsawAsh said:

I’m not even sure the camera sensors had a wide enough colorspace for HDR to be doable.

Could a modern colorist fake it?