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STAR WARS but every shot comes from a random source (Released)

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Do you ever find yourself wanting to watch STAR WARS but can’t decide on what version to watch? Why not watch all of them! Here is the STAR WARS you know and love but every other shot comes from a randomized source! Laserdisc, SDTV, Bluray, 35mm, 8mm, this has it all!

This is a fun little project of mine that is part of a larger project that I’ll be showing off soon. 4 Versions of Star Wars, broken down shot by shot in a spreadsheet that contains the in and out for each shot and how the different cuts relate to each other. From that database, a script is created that mixes and matches various different sources and different cuts of the film into one nauseating but watchable cut. A single viewing of Star Wars that spans 40 years of authorised and unauthorised home video releases.

The project is created through formulas which create an avisyth script which then creates this. Right now I have a sample but the full length film will be available very soon. A note that the script interacts with files that have simply been downloaded and demuxed from mp4 to mkv, no other alterations have been made, the scrpt mixes SE and GOUT sources without breaking a sweat.

SAMPLES: Battle of Yavin https://streamable.com/soh09
Luke Meets Obi-wan https://streamable.com/4ucal

What is the purpose of this?
First it is to test out this new database, having the source change at every cut allows me to check for misplaced frame counts, one of which is in the sample linked above. Any help identifying misaligned cuts is most appreciated.
Second, as a proof of concept to what I believe will be an important tool for Star Wars restorations, having all these sources catalogued precisely will allow for custom star wars versions to be created with simple expressions. Stay tuned for a separate thread on that.
Third, it’s very interesting to see STAR WARS in this way, with the color changing constantly, image artefacts switching from dust and grain to disc rot, video noise, DVNR smearing, over sharpening, aliasing. It’s a fascinating look at how star wars has looked over 40 years and how it could look when taking into account all of these differences. Every time I watch I find myself enjoying the look of various different colors. I don’t think there is a single film out there that has had so many different looks.

Sources used:
4K77 non-DNR v1.0
4K77 DNR v1.0
4K77 Grindhouse
Silver Screen Editon v1.6
Derann Super 8mm (Althor1138)
Despecialized v2.7
1995 THX Faces LD (Spanish) (Althor1138)
Japanese Special Collections edition LD (Althor1138)
1997 SE LD (Althor1138)
Special Edition Team Blu BD
GOUT (Return of the GOUT Upscale)
HDTV (Schorman)
Retail Bluray

Database sources are the Shotlist here started by none and none’s AARRSSTW which had the frame counts in a spreadsheet which came from negative1.

Full version on the Spleen.

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Very interesting idea although the space shots are almost indistinguishable hahaha. The second half of Luke meeting Obi-Wan is pretty cool.

I think if there are some more low quality sources mixed in like 8 and 16 mm then it could really sell the differences in the space shots as well.

JEDIT I just noticed that you do list 8 mm.

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I tried putting puggo into it but it was a little too degraded, also needed GOUT syncing. I couldn’t find any gout syncable widescreen VHS caps either.

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Ah yes if they aren’t GOUT synced it would make what you’re doing practically impossible.

now I wonder what a video would look like if you alternated every couple of frames instead of every shot cut. Our brains are quite forgiving of drastic changes at cuts.

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NeverarGreat said:

I misinterpreted this thread as ‘STAR WARS but every shot comes from a random movie’ as in a shot that is similar to one from Star Wars but from a different movie entirely.

It’s been done

Currently rendering out a new copy with labels on the sources.

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Just uploaded to the spleen. Two cuts on there, one anotated and one not.

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Chewielewis said:

I tried putting puggo into it but it was a little too degraded, also needed GOUT syncing. I couldn’t find any gout syncable widescreen VHS caps either.

If you look up star wars COLD edition v2 4k it has puggo already gout-synced.

Luke threw twice…maybe.

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the AARRSSTW page states that the shot length data “by negative1, was a documentation of the 2006 DVD (GOUT) release’s shot length.”

Does anyone know where to find the original post? would be great to find that data for ESB and ROTJ

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Chewielewis said:

the AARRSSTW page states that the shot length data “by negative1, was a documentation of the 2006 DVD (GOUT) release’s shot length.”

Does anyone know where to find the original post? would be great to find that data for ESB and ROTJ

Isn’t this it?

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Shot-List-Spreadsheet-v0505-6-films-publicly-editable/id/13403

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Here is where negative1’s “frame-data” started and completed SW GOUT:
https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/frame-data-_star_wars_GOUT_NTSC_widescreen-V10-now-complete/id/9567

For AARRSSTW-WTSSRRAA the above data was re-checked (values tweaked here and there) and certain shots, like wipes and blank black sections, added as individual items, figuring projects like Despecialized would rework those sections as if they were a different shot. So had A. SW Gout and B. LeeThorogood’s SWSE values.

Had been working on ESB and ESBSE for “aBc eEeehi ikkmprr SsTt” think I finished a pass on the spreadsheets but hadn’t applied it to the video yet to check.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1N9nS5zycbY2rku-Tx7DpZO62SSXlQ3uAllHcrsL7p-s/edit?usp=sharing
The first tab is GOUT R3, the second is the conversion to SWSE LeeThorogood’s Laserdisc capture. The “Shift Value” tab documents the number of frames the shot gained or lost between versions. This can help you out when you start to work with sources which are not GOUT sync’d. Apply an initial frame conversion, then spot the minor tweaks here and there. There will be some issues to work out how to cross correlate a shot which moves in the overall sequence, or when a shot is cut into two sections and re-positioned in the edit. Just need to find the formula.

Glad to see someone running with the concepts. I think you and I have many of the same end goals in mind.

Would you happen to have an automated process to cut up the original files into each shot as an individual file without any recompression, modification or data loss?

For other films, RotJ, was looking at an After Effects plugin which ‘spots’ film edits. So the program would hopefully spot the easy 90% of the shots which don’t look the same at the edits, then tweak that to find tune. But didn’t get into that at all before my SW life derailed. Otherwise back to Avisync and just scroll and write down the values, try to do a minute or two at a time and over a few months it’s all done.

Is your random selection done in the spreadsheet or a script of the video editor program?

Remember to write yourself very explicit notes on how you did each step. Ran into many steps I couldn’t reproduce when trying to complete the ESB version of AARRSSTW. Have thus far given up with the frustration, my apathy towards computing is making me a pissy piece of shit. Happy happy joy joy. Good Luck!

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none said:
Would you happen to have an automated process to cut up the original files into each shot as an individual file without any recompression, modification or data loss?

For other films, RotJ, was looking at an After Effects plugin which ‘spots’ film edits. So the program would hopefully spot the easy 90% of the shots which don’t look the same at the edits, then tweak that to find tune. But didn’t get into that at all before my SW life derailed. Otherwise back to Avisync and just scroll and write down the values, try to do a minute or two at a time and over a few months it’s all done.

I was thinking about this myself actually, And Ive just remembered my simpsons restoration scripts have a scene change detector which worked okay, a bit of tweaking could get it working better. Just having it export frames to a txt file and dump into avisynth. All my shot cheking was done in premiere pro, setting the TC display to frame counts.

Is your random selection done in the spreadsheet or a script of the video editor program?

It’s a spreadsheet script, which generates a random number, you pick the sync (GOUT/SE/BR ect) and then it will select between GOUT only sources or all sources based on criteria from the dataset. then the ins and outs are moved into an AVisynth script format.

Remember to write yourself very explicit notes on how you did each step. Ran into many steps I couldn’t reproduce when trying to complete the ESB version of AARRSSTW. Have thus far given up with the frustration, my apathy towards computing is making me a pissy piece of shit. Happy happy joy joy. Good Luck!

Yes definitly. My simpsons project is stalled because i forgot how my script worked. Just a big fat mess that needs rewriting.

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Just for fun i thought id mix the 2011, 2020 blurays and 4K77 1.4 and match them all to one source, the UHD. Here is a snippet.

https://streamable.com/yzpdjj

All graded using Dr Dre’s color matching tool. Cheers

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Hi ChewieLewis,

It looks very nice, thank you!
Two questions:

  1. Will the final rendering be in 4K?
  2. In your previous samples, there was more sources (Puggo, 16mm…). That was very funny and I’d love to see them in this new version. Do you plan to use them ?
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This 9 way comparison will be rendered at 4K and uploaded. Will be handy reference. Will also have frame numbers and such on the bottom.

Will see about including more sources to the randomizer.