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4K restoration on Star Wars — Page 123

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Lust-In-Phaze said:

Do you think this could have anything to do with Harmy’s Despecialized mini-documentary getting taken down last month? After years of existence Fox/Disney/Lucasfilm finally feels the need to suppress it, apparently out of the blue? Maybe I’m looking too deeply but perhaps that’s because they’d be competing with an official release?

I don’t know about the takedown itself, but I’m sure that once an OOT blu ray comes out, they’ll be significantly less tolerant of fan projects. For example, if someone on here reuploads their own version so that they can slightly change the colors (and nothing else), I doubt that they would call that fair use.

The Person in Question

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Cobra Kai said:

mutantchair said:

moviefreakedmind said:

I doubt that Disney or Lucasfilm would ever release Mike Verta’s project.

I’d love to see Verta’s project, but I’m not sure I want to see it as the official release. It looks better than the original film did, and I just want to see a good restoration of the original matte work from Lucasfilm.

Huh? Mike Verta’s project is a restoration of the original film. What else would you want?

This video is an example of the kind of subtle enhancements he’s doing that go beyond restoration:
https://vimeo.com/117582796

The original shot carries a lot of artifacts of the special effects process, going through the optical printer several times. The flickering, jittering X-wings are are rotoscoped to get an impressive smooth motion. It’s accurate to the original intent — but arguably isn’t accurate to the original film.

Verta has said he’s comfortable “fixing” things he considers production mistakes, like garbage mattes. “I plan elminating everything that changes the drama, ruins the suspension of disbelief, or alters the characters. Things like Darth Vader’s missing saber glow were simply production missteps, and are not crucial to the drama. Ditto with the “garbage mattes” seen around various ships, or the off-color blobs seen below the landspeeder. I have no problem seeing them fixed.”(http://www.starwarslegacy.com/archive/site/pages/FAQ.html)

He may have changed his goals since then, and I haven’t followed the project too closely, so please correct me if I have the wrong idea.

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mutantchair said:

Cobra Kai said:

mutantchair said:

moviefreakedmind said:

I doubt that Disney or Lucasfilm would ever release Mike Verta’s project.

I’d love to see Verta’s project, but I’m not sure I want to see it as the official release. It looks better than the original film did, and I just want to see a good restoration of the original matte work from Lucasfilm.

Huh? Mike Verta’s project is a restoration of the original film. What else would you want?

This video is an example of the kind of subtle enhancements he’s doing that go beyond restoration:
https://vimeo.com/117582796

The original shot carries a lot of artifacts of the special effects process, going through the optical printer several times. The flickering, jittering X-wings are are rotoscoped to get an impressive smooth motion. It’s accurate to the original intent — but arguably isn’t accurate to the original film.

Verta has said he’s comfortable “fixing” things he considers production mistakes, like garbage mattes. “I plan elminating everything that changes the drama, ruins the suspension of disbelief, or alters the characters. Things like Darth Vader’s missing saber glow were simply production missteps, and are not crucial to the drama. Ditto with the “garbage mattes” seen around various ships, or the off-color blobs seen below the landspeeder. I have no problem seeing them fixed.”(http://www.starwarslegacy.com/archive/site/pages/FAQ.html)

He may have changed his goals since then, and I haven’t followed the project too closely, so please correct me if I have the wrong idea.

That was the original fan-edit Legacy. He has since switched to a full on restoration. And to Frink, I don’t know. Just based off pf rumors and timing it seems unlikely that they are using Legacy for a release. Most likely it’s the RMW scan or something similar.

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Pablo Hidalgo did tweet this today…

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And this a couple weeks ago

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 (Edited)

Where the heck is he getting that 20 years figure from? We still had our VHS and Laserdisc OT versions of recent vintage back in 1997.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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Oh Pablo. I really wanted to continue liking you.

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 (Edited)

I never liked him – it’s impossible for me to like anyone in the upper echelons of the EU hierarchy – but I never disliked him, either.

That has begun to change.

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Some of his other tweets seem to show he appreciates the original theatrical version, but I guess he has a bone to pick with the purists and fan preservationists.

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SilverWook said:

Where the heck is he getting that 20 years figure from? We still had our VHS and Laserdisc OT versions of recent vintage back in 1997.

Since the Special Editions? January 1997, right?

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Yeah, but I never heard a reissue rumor until DVD was the dominant format. And DVD was barely on the market at the time.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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I’m just going to let cognitive dissonance take over and say that he could also be trying to deflect to make the surprise more impactful.

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Wazzles said:

I’m just going to let cognitive dissonance take over and say that he could also be trying to deflect to make the surprise more impactful.

You remind of me, back before TFA’s release, when I wanted to believe that Kylo Ren was gonna be a protagonist who was only being portrayed in the teasers and trailers as a villain for marketing reasons.

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SilverWook said:

Where the heck is he getting that 20 years figure from? We still had our VHS and Laserdisc OT versions of recent vintage back in 1997.

Didn’t the ad campaign for the last VHS / LD release state it would be the last home media release of the original versions? He’s probably simply saying 20 years since the SE.

TV’s Frink said:

I would put this in my sig if I weren’t so lazy.

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 (Edited)

CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

SilverWook said:

Where the heck is he getting that 20 years figure from? We still had our VHS and Laserdisc OT versions of recent vintage back in 1997.

Didn’t the ad campaign for the last VHS / LD release state it would be the last home media release of the original versions?

I don’t believe anyone took that proclamation seriously at the time. Personally, I thought it was just a sales gimmick.

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Wazzles said:

I’m just going to let cognitive dissonance take over and say that he could also be trying to deflect to make the surprise more impactful.

I doubt that. If there is an OOT release in the works, I don’t think he knows anything about it. Doesn’t really have anything to do with him anyway.

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Cinefex Issue 151: Page 76
Quote: “As a template for the reconstruction, Knoll referenced a 4K scan of the original release, which contained 25 seconds of the Cuba graphic.”

Page 53
Quote: “On his first days at ILM, Edwards joined Knoll and key staff members to begin deconstructing their source material. “We sat in the cinema to watch the restoration of A New Hope,” said Edwards”

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none said:

Cinefex Issue 151: Page 76
Quote: “As a template for the reconstruction, Knoll referenced a 4K scan of the original release, which contained 25 seconds of the Cuba graphic.”

Page 53
Quote: “On his first days at ILM, Edwards joined Knoll and key staff members to begin deconstructing their source material. “We sat in the cinema to watch the restoration of A New Hope,” said Edwards”

Cuba graphic?

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Cuba graphic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMeSw00n3Ac
Quote: “(1977) The computer graphics for the first Star Wars film was created by Larry Cuba in the 1970s at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) (at the time known as the Circle Graphics Habitat) at the University of Illinois at Chicago. For more information on the lab, visit our website – www.evl.uic.edu and Larry Cuba at www.well.com/user/cuba

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DuracellEnergizer said:

CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

SilverWook said:

Where the heck is he getting that 20 years figure from? We still had our VHS and Laserdisc OT versions of recent vintage back in 1997.

Didn’t the ad campaign for the last VHS / LD release state it would be the last home media release of the original versions?

I don’t believe anyone took that proclamation seriously at the time. Personally, I thought it was just a sales gimmick.

The SW Laserdisc had this sticker, ESB and ROTJ did not…

Not sure about the VHS release.
Disney had already overused this sort of thing by that time. I wish I still had the ad copy saying Snow White would only ever be released on home video once.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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SilverWook said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

SilverWook said:

Where the heck is he getting that 20 years figure from? We still had our VHS and Laserdisc OT versions of recent vintage back in 1997.

Didn’t the ad campaign for the last VHS / LD release state it would be the last home media release of the original versions?

I don’t believe anyone took that proclamation seriously at the time. Personally, I thought it was just a sales gimmick.

ROTJ did not…

That settles it. The big announcement at Celebration is a theatrical cut BD of Jedi only. Hence the "surprise

TV’s Frink said:

I would put this in my sig if I weren’t so lazy.

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DominicCobb said:

Wazzles said:

I’m just going to let cognitive dissonance take over and say that he could also be trying to deflect to make the surprise more impactful.

I doubt that. If there is an OOT release in the works, I don’t think he knows anything about it. Doesn’t really have anything to do with him anyway.

Right. I think he was just telling a joke.

The Person in Question