Joel

4:3 720P Pan&Scan Reel 1 is up:

https://vimeo.com/655234472

Agreed, though I assume it’s an artistic choice made by someone at Ken Films and not anyone directly related to the original production? It is is nonetheless a fun - if a little repetitive and tedious - project.

I was able to replicate the framing pretty closely for most of Reel 1 using the 2011 Blu Ray and D+80 as sources, but a few of the Millennium Falcon Interior shots required GOUT to show everything that was in the 8mm frame.

Reel 2 has more unique framing/more in the lowest part of the frame than my main sources. I will still complete it with the framing approximated as closely as possible though. Maybe 4k80, when it materializes, will prompt me to redo this whole thing?

Thanks for reading! I’ll try to get the 4:3 Reel 1 up by the end of the week.

Reel 1 is now up on Vimeo as well:

https://vimeo.com/652821260

I’ve done some work on a 4:3 version (as the 8mm film digest was presented) but it’s even more of a project than the audio… every shot has different framing, there are some pan & scan moves, and one shot (so far) is less cropped than any home release since GOUT. It might take a bit of time to complete.

Meanwhile, enjoy both Reels in 720P!

Ah ha!

I admit that I thought the “missing radar dish” was a myth, and that people misunderstood the framing of that shot in the context of the 4:3 8mm ESB. But after enlarging the image and comparing, it turns out that it really was missing the dish!

It has now been removed. I smoothed the audio in a few of the scene transitions too. If you are hearing any rough audio edits that I’ve missed here, please feel free to let me know where.

The latest:

https://vimeo.com/643128427

Meanwhile, there’s less editing involved with Reel 1 so far. Still a WIP.

Hey, someone watched it - Thanks CatBus!

My intention was to replicate the 8mm cut, not the 70mm, but I will take a gander to make sure I didn’t goof up the ending shots for that.

Meanwhile, (re-)construction of Reel 1 has begun.

Reel 2 is finished! Same audio/video choices as the original ESB digest. Very weird.

After all this, I’m not sure I have it in me to do Reel 1, but I may come back to it during the holidays.
For now, enjoy Reel 2 on Vimeo!

https://vimeo.com/643128427

Current update:

The video is finished. Even with the learning curve, matching up the video only took a couple of days!

The audio mix, however, is a total bear. Thankfully, some stuff is taken straight from the 1980 version of the film. Other parts, however, have different music, overlapping music, sound effects borrowed from other shots, etc. Making it more difficult is that the center channels (from every surround mix I have, anyway) usually have music married to the dialogue, so if the 8mm music is different, isolating the dialogue requires trickery that works better than others sometimes. This makes some choices necessary for compromise. I do realize, incidentally, that the intended audience is limited - and in fact may be just myself.

The good part is noticing bits of dialogue that are, AFAIK, exclusive to the 8mm digest version (and possibly the 70mm release): Leia saying “We’ve got to go BACK!” Instead of “I know where Luke is…” (btw, the footage suggests that she actually said “We’ve got to go Back” during filming), Lando speaking to Han off camera in Cloud City, Leia saying “Hurry Up” to Lando, and the (temp?) alternate Cloud Car Pilot lines…
The bad of course, is trying to get clean, usable versions of those.

Mad respect to the people who’ve had to deal with audio changes in their own projects.

Has anyone watched the 8-minute cut of ESB? And has anyone digitized the cassette that came with it? Wondering if any alternate goodies made it into the “selected scenes,” and what the quality of the audio on the cassette was…

I stumbled across this post yesterday and since I had some time, I decided I’d look into doing this as a project myself.

Tonight - several immensely satisfying hours of learning Premiere, matching up shots, and searching for fonts later - I’m now exporting the hi-res video for Empire Strikes Back Reel 1. I used the Blu Ray for most of Reel one, so I kinda want to do a color pass, but for now…

The sound mix from The Puggo Edition (at least the version I have) is fascinating and I’m hoping I have enough source material between the GOUT, the 5.1 tracks from the Blu Ray, and the warbly Puggo version itself to reconstruct something close.

Whenever this is finished (may do a 4:3/mono version?), I’ll be happy to share with anyone who might care to check this out.

Nilbog said:
However, wouldn’t stacking prints also lead to increase in grain? Obviously his samples were sharp, but I’m wondering what additional steps he took.

Stacking the prints would do that. But where grain is concerned, If I understand correctly, the software does more of a subtractive process: it compares each frame from, say, 5 sources and determines which elements are common to all, and which are unique to each. Any grain or dirt that appears in only 1 source is then rejected/eliminated, leaving only the stuff that is common with the rest of the sources as stuff to “keep.” With enough sources, this would theoretically leave only the image and grain from the original source (in this case, the negative) intact.

DMC said:
Looks like ITC Serif Gothic to me

It is indeed that, thank you!

Does anyone know what this font is, used for the opening credits (but not the title) in Droids?

I’m sure I have it somewhere, I feel like I’ve even used it in projects before, but I can’t seem to place it now.

Any help weill much appreciated, thank you!

So happy to see this!

Is this the first time that the first story (The White Witch saga) has been commercially available?

For me it’s not the Ewoks, the problems start with the cartoon-y rubber monsters/Jabba’s palace. But there’s also less subtlety in the acting, everyone is shot in close up, and Han Solo apparently lost IQ points after being frozen in Carbonite. It’s just not as well directed and the characters are sort of one-dimensional versions of themselves, which is especially jarring after everyone was given a little more depth in ESB…I have the same complaint about the Indiana Jones movies after Raiders, too.

And I LIKE Return of the Jedi! One thing I noticed during the '97 re-releases is that it plays better on a bigger screen. It’s beautiful and there’s lots to look at.

This has been Joel’s unsolicited opinion.

Asaki said:

HAPPY LIFE DAY, FOLKS!

Happy Life Day indeed.

Wasn’t it corrected for the Blu-Ray release? I am curious as well and 440 miles away from my discs…

YRK01 said:

Do you guys reckon the bitrate is the reason my video is so choppy. Like I said earlier im playing it on a TV though a hard drive. I’m not that good with computers so any help would be much appreciated.

There are several factors that could be contributing - which version are you playing? You might try both versions to see if the constant bitrate one plays more consistently than the variable or vice versa…

Tomas Stacewicz said:

My Panasonic Ultra HD Blu-ray player flags the metadata of 4K77 2160p v.1.0 as 23.976 fps. I cannot se any reason that the 1.4 is any different. But I will check it out soon.

Thanks - I know it shouldn’t be 60fps, just wondering why none of my Mac media players can tell me what the frame rate is. Interestingly, using Handbrake “same as source” to re-encode gave me a 23.97fps file, so mystery (probably?) solved, but it doesn’t explain why, for instance, when I try to create a new file with my own settings, it only offers me frame rates in the 30/60 frames world.

Anyway, 1.4 looks great!

Forgive me if this has been answered already, but is V1.4 a 60fps file? For some reason all of my software seems to see it as such…

I saw the 35mm print only once in the theater, and the digital twice. I had a question back then that I don’t really remember answering:

After the title crawl, the digital/home video version has an upward tilt through the starfield (the only one in the trilogy that does that)… does the Film/Centropy version move up as well, or does it move down?

Thanks kindly!

Has it ever been determined which of the Star Wars audiobooks was read by Ed Kemper, the serial killer?

I’m sure there’s a way to do this digitally, but…

One way to do it --in real time-- using hardware is to get a modern Surround Receiver or preamp with analogue outputs for each channel (The NAD T748II has these, for example). Make sure the receiver is playing back the DTS-Master Audio, play the blu ray and record the output of the center channel to whatever recording system you have. Though I haven’t done this specifically with Star Wars, I’ll still bet you’ll end up with a very high-quality recording with almost 100% dialogue, with a few center-panned sound effects popping in as well. Most modern movies have the music panned to some combination of the L, R, and surround channels.

I don’t remember any trailer ending with Darth Maul’s second blade igniting.

I downloaded and saved all of the (US) online trailers from 1998-1999, but they’re on a hard drive at home and I won’t be able to get to them until the weekend. Will definitely check!

Obvious question: have you checked the TV spots from the DVD box set? I don’t remember if they’re the same as the “tone poem”/tv spots or if there are others.

Were all of these shots replaced in the SE?

What if this very reel was missing in the mid-90s, inspiring the idea to “digitally improve” these particular shots, giving rise the Special Edition?

poita said:

I have spoken to Mark Wileage who did the colour for the SE, and I have an almost unfaded Kodak print here, it isn’t very different at all to the Tech IB other than the slight green in the IB being absent.

Mark did color for the 2004 DVD release - I worked at Technicolor at the time and his description of the conditions and timeframe were pretty dismal and surprising. It’s amazing the DVDs look as good as they did - Did he do the SE as well?