logo Sign In

97SE... how were the negatives assembled?

Author
Date
Author
Time
Post link

Hi! I’ve been under the impression that the 1997 Special Edition only had select shots scanned from film to 2K for editing purposes. However, a friend of mine is convinced that the 1997 SE originated in its entirety from a finalized 2K master… on the grounds that “Otherwise, the transitions between the digitally-assembled shots, and the authentic film shots would be awful” and “Either it’s digitally restored, or it’s all just a newly-struck film copy. The latter wouldn’t make sense at all.”

I need specific sources that prove either my theory or my friend’s theory right. Can you guys provide?

Nobody sang The Bunny Song in years…

Author
Time
Post link

You know people in person that actually talk about this stuff? That’s pretty neat I suppose.

Author
Time
Post link

Not “in person”… in a Discord chat lol.

Nobody sang The Bunny Song in years…

Author
Time
Post link

1080p. NOT 2K.

The original negatives were disassembled, physically cleaned up and the shots which had CGI changed planned were scanned in 1080p and after they were changed they were printed back on 35mm film. So they ended up with shots coming straight from the original negatives, new shots which were a combination of the scanned original negatives and CGI additions, and new shots featuring new optically re-created dissolves by Pacific Tiles. These 3 types of shots were edited together and new “special edition negatives” were created. These were source of the 1997 SE and subsequent home video releases. These “special edition negatives” were scanned again in 1080p, digitally re-timed by a random color generator also known as a professional colorist, and these 1080p scans as a frame sequence were shipped to Lowry Digital. Lowry cleaned it up and sent back to Lucasfilm, were a new 1080p “digital negative” was created. These “digital negatives” were source of the 2004 DVDs and subsequent HDTV broadcasts. These “digital negatives” were then changed even more, colors were corrected, but ONLY in the scenes which fans complained about, and these corrected version was released in 1080p on Blu-ray

Author
Time
Post link

Thanks for the information, but I’m pretty sure I need info straight from the horses mouth for my friend to be convined.

@Handman I’m not sure if I really “returned”, as I can’t say whether I plan on returning as a regular poster or not.

Nobody sang The Bunny Song in years…

Author
Time
 (Edited)
Post link

pittrek said:

1080p. NOT 2K.

The rest sounds about right but i’m pretty sure in 1997 digital intermediates were almost exclusively scanned in at 2K and not 1080p. Unless you have a source for this.

I figure the 2004 master was done in 1080p as it was done primarily for DVD/BR release and DCP hadn’t been invented yet.

Edit: There’s a great writeup about the whole workflow but i cant find it.
Found it. https://web.archive.org/web/20150227122715/http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/savingstarwars.html