RU.08 said:
Right, the dirt is something I noted to poita, in fact the very first thing I noticed and I gave him quite a few examples. It’s not on the print it’s in the print. Not just black dirt, but white dirt also (i.e. dirt on the positives). And yes it would still be in both because it’s a composite shot and the dirt is on the film used to make the composite.Black dirt is dirt on the positive, white dirt is on the negative. So this dirt can’t have been on the original photography element else it would be white. It’s also not on the grindhouse version of 4K77.
That dirt splodge is not ‘on’ the print. I can tell that by looking at the IR dirtmap.
The wipes were done optically, not digitally and were done by Pacific Title.
Yes, not all shots were re-done digitally, but those that were… it was in 2K and put back out to film and cut into the negative. The removed pieces of the negative were kept, and Disney now has them.
Having had to do optical composites, I find it really unlikely that this shot was recomped optically just for the telecine. Firstly, there would be no need, the sabre comps really transfer easilyto video, and it is nice and wide, there would be no reason to think it wouldn’t transfer that well to video.
Secondly, I can see any way that the alignment would end up so precisely perfect to the release print if it is an optical re-comp. There would be more discrepancy, it is really, really, hard to get that level of precision.
It looks like an adjustment made on the telecine, threepio has also been affected by it. Nothing else in the scene is bright enough to be affected, so it makes sense to me.
I’m not saying it is impossible, but there is really no reason to redo this scene for telecine, no reason to believe that it would have been problematic as is, and it would have been a pain in the arse to seek out the elements and re-comp unless there was a really compelling reason to do so.
So, it could have been done, but I’m not convinced so far. Look at the ‘split sabre’ syndrome on the Definitive Edition laserdisc and you can see how much the transfer can mess with the look of the sabres.
I will be able to answer definitively whether it is a digital comp or not when I receive the full files, there is a difference in the framing surround in the shots that have digital content, but unfortunately it is cropped on the ProRes Proxy, so I can’t quite see it, so frustrating, but we will know for sure.
That is something else we will be able to log, which shots have digital enhancement, and which don’t, for the entire movie.