The Empire Strikes Back - Expanded Edition (Work in Progress)

A slow work in progress of an extended cut of ESB. There’s a lot of stuff out there from a lot of sources, so I’m not 100% on exactly what I will and won’t use. I’ve finished a pass most of the Hoth section of the film so far.

Extended Opening
https://vimeo.com/692903101

Extended Medical Bay
https://vimeo.com/690488443

Han/Leia Arguemnt
https://vimeo.com/692906633

Rough Wampa Attack (almost no sound mix)
https://vimeo.com/689887320

Obviously none of these clips are 100% finished yet, and the sound design (more than anything) needs a lot of work as most deleted clips are silent or have an extremely minimilist sound mix using only on-set audio. If anyone wan’t to help out with sound design, I’d be more than happy to work with you.

ADDITIONS (so far)

• added additional shot of Probe Droid rising up after landing
• added exteneded scene of the Wampa attacking Luke
• added extended scene with Han telling Chewie he’ll be right back
• added extended Echo Base argument with Han/Leia
• added a Wampa attacking Echo Base
• added extended Medical Bay scene
• added C-3PO ripping the sign off the Wampa trap door
• added a Snowtrooper being pulled into the Wampa trap room

With all of those scenes back, the film runs at 2:09:22 vs the theatrical 2:04:54. Obviously there is going to be more additions and trims and all that to get the deleted scenes and moments to all work as best I can.

I plan on making one version with the finished colour scene, and another with the unfinished B/W ones, since there is a lot of interesting stuff in these exclusively monochromatic scenes.

This is really cool to see! What sources have you been pulling from so far?

timdiggerm said:

I’m really impressed that there’s as much material for the Wampa stuff as you even have here!

Yeah there’s shocking a lot of the unused Wampa footage out there. There’s a longer version of Luke escaping the cave that I probably use but is very cool.

RogueLeader said:

This is really cool to see! What sources have you been pulling from so far?

Deleted Scenes from the 2011 set, Rinzler eBook, Empire of Dreams, 40th Anniversary Videos, Michel Parbot Making of, Sounds of Star Wars book, Evolution of the Lightsaber Duel, trailers, 2004 DVD Outtakes, and anything else I can get my hands on.

KumoNin said:

Bobson Dugnutt said:

ADDITIONS (so far)

Extended Han/Leia kiss? 😉

It’s in B/W, so I’ll probably save it for a 2nd version of this project. But yes I do like that alt version of the scene.

NeverarGreat said:

Do we know what dialogue was intended for the Wampa attack?

There’s only one line of dialogue, and that comes at the end of the scene, so I could dub it if I wanted to considering their mouths are off screen.

Bobson Dugnutt said:

KumoNin said:

Bobson Dugnutt said:

ADDITIONS (so far)

Extended Han/Leia kiss? 😉

It’s in B/W, so I’ll probably save it for a 2nd version of this project. But yes I do like that alt version of the scene.

Thank goodness the most important section, “OK, hotshot!” is in color.

BedeHistory731 said:

Bobson Dugnutt said:

KumoNin said:

Bobson Dugnutt said:

ADDITIONS (so far)

Extended Han/Leia kiss? 😉

It’s in B/W, so I’ll probably save it for a 2nd version of this project. But yes I do like that alt version of the scene.

Thank goodness the most important section, “OK, hotshot!” is in color.

It’s in one of the 40th Anniversary videos which is good, but it could be tricky cutting it into the long take.

i´m sure there more scenes…have collect everything…😉

Are you going to use the bounty hunter footage, from the 40th Anniversary videos?

Annoyingly, there’s a lot of missing frames, that’s impossible to fix.

A pity, as the scene would fit in nicely with the surrounding material.

Looking good. It would be interesting to see this as an extended grindhouse, seeing how rough is some of the footage. It’d make up for a very charming experience.

timdiggerm said:

So that the final effect is not so jarring, might be good to use some version of 4K80 as the base print once that’s released

Idk, 4k80 is supposed to be a pristine presentation so these would always stick out, much like the Darklighter Cut which used the SSE. Now a grindhouse feature is probably not the projects’ aim, but I think it’d be the ideal way to present this footage. I’m looking forward to see this in any way, though.

I’ve been using D+80 for the time being, but I know I’ll have to swap it for something. What’s the best project or scan to use that roughly matches up with the quality of the deleted scenes? I’m leaning towards something like the Fuji Grindhouse or something but I’m not an expert on ESB scans like I am with SW

IIRC, Fuji’s cleaner and Poita’s (German) have better colors. But since they’re sources for 4k80, I’d lean into Renegade Grindhouse and its offsprings, GRM’s and Dreamastered

JEDIT: I read about the 16mm Dupe Zemastered and it might be a better match, though I haven’t seen it myself. It looks very akin to Puggo’s, which afaik is only on standard def.

I’ve started using the standard Renegade Grindhouse and it’s a pretty good fit for the dallies and deleted scenes.

Here’s some new comparison shots and a regraded version of the MedBay scene

https://vimeo.com/695313927

To: Bobson Dugnutt

I feel that you should release the deleted-scenes only, as you did for ‘Star Wars: Leftovers’, without doing an extended edit.

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Star-Wars-Leftovers-A-Collection-of-Raw-Footage-and-Deleted-Scenes-Released/id/82752

I’m sure that you have a lot of other projects that you want to do, so let someone else use the collection of deleted scenes to produce their own polished fan-edit of ESB.

alexp120 said:

To: Bobson Dugnutt

I feel that you should release the deleted-scenes only, as you did for ‘Star Wars: Leftovers’, without doing an extended edit.

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Star-Wars-Leftovers-A-Collection-of-Raw-Footage-and-Deleted-Scenes-Released/id/82752

I’m sure that you have a lot of other projects that you want to do, so let someone else use the collection of deleted scenes to produce their own polished fan-edit of ESB.

😉

https://vimeo.com/695385372

Slavicuss said:

Are you going to use the bounty hunter footage, from the 40th Anniversary videos?

Annoyingly, there’s a lot of missing frames, that’s impossible to fix.

A pity, as the scene would fit in nicely with the surrounding material.

https://vimeo.com/695381353

Bobson Dugnutt said:

I’ve started using the standard Renegade Grindhouse and it’s a pretty good fit for the dallies and deleted scenes.

Wow! Absolutely seamless. It feels like a “lost cut” of sorts now. Can’t wait to see this!

Bobson Dugnutt said:

alexp120 said:

To: Bobson Dugnutt

I feel that you should release the deleted-scenes only, as you did for ‘Star Wars: Leftovers’, without doing an extended edit.

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Star-Wars-Leftovers-A-Collection-of-Raw-Footage-and-Deleted-Scenes-Released/id/82752

I’m sure that you have a lot of other projects that you want to do, so let someone else use the collection of deleted scenes to produce their own polished fan-edit of ESB.

😉

https://vimeo.com/695385372

Slavicuss said:

Are you going to use the bounty hunter footage, from the 40th Anniversary videos?

Annoyingly, there’s a lot of missing frames, that’s impossible to fix.

A pity, as the scene would fit in nicely with the surrounding material.

https://vimeo.com/695381353

Great Job!

An attempt at using EBsynth and After Effect’s colour blending to colourise the alternate Han/Leia Kiss

https://vimeo.com/695607436

Wow, that is a really impressive attempt.

RogueLeader said:

Wow, that is a really impressive attempt.

Thank you! It’ll just need some more individual and specific colour fixes before I’m happy with it. I’m shocked it turned out so well for a rough pass.

A bit of fun, here’s what the first frame looked like with only my paint on it.

And also an quick integration of the deleted moment into the full scene

https://vimeo.com/695638565