Original trilogy deleted scenes restored Project?

As I was looking through this site, it seemed that there is some great interest in getting the deleted scenes restored so they can be used in others who are doing extended versions. It seemed to me that many tried and either quit or have taken down links to their attempts.
Now that the technology has come along way in the last 5 years as far as restoration tools, I think the time is now to finish these once and for all.
While my plan was and still is to incorporate these into my extended “-x” versions. I could certainly just share these out as I finish them and focus on them first. I am curious if anyone that has WIP on these that would save me time? Below will be the full list of deleted I am adding in, followed by my process which uses the latest Adobe tools.
I would like to start a regular cadence of finishing these off if this is the better approach. Reply to this tread if interested in this and I will divert my focus to it. If I focus on this and plan for 1-3 weeks per scene we should be able to have them all by year end or at least ANH and ESB.

ANH

1. Luke w/treadwell on the surface - Complete-see compare video
2. Troopers searching hallway doors immediately after entering the Tantive - Complete-see compare video
3. Luke on the way to Tosche, old woman drive by - 30% complete [SAMPLE IMAGE BELOW]
   
4. Tosche Station #1 - Luke enters Tosche- Complete-see compare video
5. Tosche Station #2 - Luke exits Tosche to see battle w/friends - 75% complete[SAMPLE IMAGE BELOW]
   
6. Tosche Station #3 - Luke & Biggs - 80% [SAMPLE IMAGE BELOW]
   
7. Blue Milk - Complete-see compare video
8. Search for R2 (POV in the Speeder) - 60% [SAMPLE IMAGE BELOW]
   
9. Extended wide shot of sandpeople mounting a Bantha - Complete-see compare video
10. Longer Cantina scene - All creatures even Black and white scenes - 30% complete [SAMPLE IMAGE BELOW]
    
11. Stormtroopers Search Tatooine (“stilt monster”)-90%[SAMPLE IMAGE BELOW]
    
12. Darth Vader Widens the Search - 60% [SAMPLE IMAGE BELOW]
    
13. Stormtroopers on Death Star corridor searching
14. Death Star Sneaking Around Scene
15. Ben and the tractor beam extended
16. Leia and Han in falcon before Yavin - 50% complete
17. Gonk Droid in Death Star Hallway

ESB

1. Extra Luke intro shot with Tauntaun -93% [Sample Image Below]
   
2. The gang watches luke in tank extended - 95%[Sample Image Below]
   
3. Leia and luke after his recovery - 75% complete [Sample Image Below]
   
4. Extra scene of han and liea in hallway - 90% complete [SAMPLE IMAGE BELOW]
   
5. 3po switching the sign -5% [Sample Image Below]
   
6. Snow Trooper attached from wampa room -5% [Sample Image Below]
   
7. Extra wampa scene breaking free in the base -30%
8. Luke’s light sabre training-70% [Sample Image Below]
   
9. Han repairs the falcon - Complete-see compare video
10. Bounty hunters intro (Extra shots) - complete
11. Boba Fett in carbon chamber (extra shot)- Complete-see compare video
12. Lobot gets caught -Complete-see compare video
13. Luke in Falcon medical Bay extended - Complete-see compare video

ROJ

1. Vader walking to chamber, calling to luke
2. Cave lightsaber construction
3. 3PO and R2 Extended walk to Palace and door scene
4. Luke and the Rancor (tries force Jump to escape)
5. The sandstorm -56% [Sample Image Below]
   
6. General madine going into hyperspace before Lando -4%
7. Deleted B-wing pilots in cockpit
8. lando’s crew inside the falcon during attack
9. Rebels inside the shield bunker
10. Jerjerrods hesitation -5%

My current Restoration process

1. Obtain HD footage
2. Color correction, enhance contrast/clarity using Adobe tools
3. Rotoscope actors off of background if needed
4. Create clean background plates for scene and angel changes and use content aware fill or heal brush in PS to remove scratches and dust (skip if camera/background moves to much and instead use content aware and laso tool to remove all dust and scratches by hand frame by frame full frame with no rotoscoping and masking)
5. Motion track any clean plates if they were made and match to original camera/footage movement if background plates are used
6. Composite back any elements to background plates
7. Use Content aware fill on spot areas of the elements after they are composited back in
8. Use JPG AI neural filters in PS to remove any pixelation
9. (Optional)Using original footage, mask out any elements that need to be composited back in but not edge rotoscoped (shadows)
   (Optional)fix any surfaces that can be improved with a photographic texture remapping, use PS warp, liquify tools and AE’s CC powerpin to stretch over and replace damaged blurry texture on objects or background.
10. Add audio improved where needed, but not surround sound at early stage.

maybe coop with him:
https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/The-Empire-Strikes-Back-Expanded-Edition-Work-in-Progress/id/93285/page/1

I’m interested. Like you say, AI software has made some massive leaps these past few years, so I’m surprised there isn’t more talk here about this sort of thing.

benduwan said:

maybe coop with him:
https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/The-Empire-Strikes-Back-Expanded-Edition-Work-in-Progress/id/93285/page/1

Thanks Benduwan…will definitely try to connect with him.

Hiya, super interested in this thread. Was wondering by any chance do you intend to restore this scene of Crix Madine? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeOhP7KYILU from 0:00-0:39

It’s not part of the ROTJ blu-ray deleted scenes, I think it’s from the rinzler ROTJ ebook. I’m dying for good quality of this to put into my fan edit clip. Anyways, would be cool to see this scene restored if part of the plan.

jadenkorr41 said:

Hiya, super interested in this thread. Was wondering by any chance do you intend to restore this scene of Crix Madine? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeOhP7KYILU from 0:00-0:39

It’s not part of the ROTJ blu-ray deleted scenes, I think it’s from the rinzler ROTJ ebook. I’m dying for good quality of this to put into my fan edit clip. Anyways, would be cool to see this scene restored if part of the plan.

yes…it’s #4 above under ROJ,

#4 - General madine extra scenes going into hyperspace before Lando

I have in HD, but not restored or color matched yet. it’s a good briefs scenes but needs to go in the proper place and also there is a fix where ackbar says on my mark and everyone takes off without even waiting, which is kind of weird. I am working on fixing that part too, Crix should go after ackbar and then lando is left with about 18 craft he is leading and should be the last group to jump, which is a slight re-order from what you see in the original cut, but makes better sense.

You have that in HD?? is it higher quality than this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=811TMjwEH04

I like the idea you have for the jump to hyperspace order. Cool to incorporate more of general madine in ROTJ.

Here’s how I wanted to incorporate Madine in my episode 9 edit. (He will be aged, but I need an HD restored footage first) https://youtu.be/5nlIKCXSZPk

enjoy!

jadenkorr41 said:

You have that in HD?? is it higher quality than this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=811TMjwEH04

I like the idea you have for the jump to hyperspace order. Cool to incorporate more of general madine in ROTJ.

Here’s how I wanted to incorporate Madine in my episode 9 edit. (He will be aged, but I need an HD restored footage first) https://youtu.be/5nlIKCXSZPk

enjoy!

The link you referenced is very low res have not seen that one in HD yet as I have the other more common that is before they are in the battle…Here is a link to my copy of that in 1920 Wide HD.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OFl8wE6qrK48dr3kEEHqH2mEuu7mrr2J/view?usp=sharing

It needs to be enhanced, color matched to bluray or adywan color grade (when his is done) and some dust and scratch removal. Audio needs work to and the battle music behind it. but if you want to have it as is. I really like your idea for episode 9! You should look at EbSynth tool where you just get the first and maybe last frame of him aged using photoshop AI filters or any of the new aging tools out there. I think it would work well if as you said you had an HD version. You could prob do alot with lighting and sparks and really sell it.
I have not played around with the aging tech, but it’s getting pretty realistic now. First I have seen that 2nd clip to be honest. The scream at the end seems odd in the episode 9 clip as I think that scene was meant to be a victory scream? but looks weird as they are all in sync and it is very sudden. Might depend how it flows into the next cut. I would probably stick with just the cameo first shot if it were me. but sorry I do not have that 2nd clip of Madine in HD… if I run across it will let you know

thanks for the share man.

I’m working with “Guy with No Name” to help me restore and remove dust/scratches.

Yes that second clip with the scream is something i’ve been wanting to put as a victory scream when they take down the star destroyer. Because I think that scream was for in ROTJ when the executor super star destroyer was destroyed.

I have topaz video enhance ai, so perhaps ill try running that second clip through every preset there is and hope i get something decent

jadenkorr41 said:

thanks for the share man.

I’m working with “Guy with No Name” to help me restore and remove dust/scratches.

Yes that second clip with the scream is something i’ve been wanting to put as a victory scream when they take down the star destroyer. Because I think that scream was for in ROTJ when the executor super star destroyer was destroyed.

I have topaz video enhance ai, so perhaps ill try running that second clip through every preset there is and hope i get something decent

I use these two for my enhancements.

https://aescripts.com/clearplus/

https://aescripts.com/contrastup/

These plugins by vimager are the best enhancement tools I have seen in years and way better than curves alone and other traditional image enhancement techniques. Although I do run curves or a Hue and saturation after these sometimes. They have a scale up, but did not get it. Curious how it compares to Topaz. Topaz seems good from what I hear If you have that, It might be your best bet… too bad 304P is the best out there for that clip.

I took a shot of running that clip through my plugins in case you want to try to use as a base to scale up from. It’s gonna be tough such low res 😃

could only fix so much because so low res…took some of the pink out…tried to match the other HD clip. Maybe that a 50/50 % looks better…again it hard to improve when such low res. I saved the settings if you end up scaling it up with good results and want to me to try it on what you come up with

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gIcRCQkgIErHbnnpuNLK6FRskZnpoN7Z/view?usp=sharing

Thanks for the share. I’ll see what I can do. If only that clip existed in HD… there’s just so many details missing that AI can only do so much

Loving the colorized cantina shot there…

I think with anything like a rough cut which that is from of the cantina scene there are things that are not so important.

There is however one particular part of the rough cut where Obiwan goes past the bar with Chewbacca and the informant then walks away to the left behind chewbacca.

This would have helped tell the story better, as the wipe would have came a small bit later so that particular scene extension is probably vastly more important than anything else in that part. As when we wipe to outside we can identify he is either a spy or even a disgruntled pilot who is down on his luck and jealous.

Small snippets can make a big difference in a good way where as sometimes whole sequences can be difficult and cumbersome.

I might send you a few clips if you don’t mind later on that you might not have…

Anyway keep up the good work.

I might send you a few clips if you don’t mind later on that you might not have…

I appreciate any clips you may have that I do not, especially if they build on the story as well. I was not going to do B/W but software is good now and there are many still color reference shots to give it a try. below is my deleted scenes I plan to add in:

• Luke talks more about all the aliens he is seeing when they first walk in.
• Deleted scene of ben from behind the group to the bar to sit down before Luke and 3PO enter (deleted scene POV from behind luke as he enters
• extra shot of the two Duros arguing etc
• Deleted from special eddition shot of Defal (aka the Wolfman)
• Deleted shot of hooded fox character and robed balding snaggletooth character
• Deleted shot of Smoker (Dannik Jerriko) Pan shot over to others
• Shot of bald girl talking to the lutrillian (fat rodent guy)
• Twins talking to Mosep Binned character (stringy bearded guy who in the early comics they thought was Jabba)
• Extra cantina shots Model nodes
• Deleted hand sock alien talking to wolfman #2 (less face hair )
• Fly guy and Lutriallian again
• The Twins around another snaggletooth
• Praying manntis guy
• Jenny and Han kiss
• Jenny gets up as the gang sits down with solo (solo compliments ben’s handy work)

I think the extra scenes also are not as important…but more fan service…but worth preserving for some. I was shocked was was all there when I started looking. I looked and looked and do not see the informant guy and Obiwan coming near - walks away to the left behind chewbacca.? This must be the normal looking “Garouf Lafoe” who tells the stormtroopers outside they are inside rt? I am interested in this one and any others you may have

Yeah that is the guy however the rough cut has no wipe to outside.

Some of these shots are in color and ok quality I actually seemed to have found an alternate take of that guy freaking out in reaction to the lightsaber fight. So there is another way around that issue without having to colorize black and white footage.

Most things that were earmarked for use ended up in color.

extra shot of the two Duros arguing etc
Praying manntis guy
Jenny and Han kiss

There are 2 more also shot of the gas mask guy by the Bar
Dr Evanzan approaching Luke before he say “He does’nt like you”

The thing is that that very first puppet in the cantina film version was unfinished it’s most likely a test shot as in the PSA drunk driving comercial and the holiday special you see him with proper skin rather than black fabric they had the eyes done but not the skin simply a fabric wrap. It would be amazing to somehow finish him off like he is meant to look.

The Cantina Band was done in pick up shoot with the wolfman and various other bits. I was not aware of extra shots of these guys.

Anyway it is a fun scene but scenes are not always in the right order and to restore Han’s dialogue “Nice moves Old man” can be done without having to restore the footage of that scene.

There are always alternatives said Obiwan 😃

Pairing things down helps things flow quicker so The film makers will try to get an amazing result with as little work as possible not saying it was not hard work but you don’t want extra work if you can avoid it. you should think the same way.

Here’s the most recent test I’ve done on fixing old footage. This one was enhancing, removing scratches. and testing out a ghit hub ai colorized.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1h4lllRabU&ab_channel=InfectiousSneeze
My PC recently broke so I don’t have access to all the softwares but I have been testing out a software for fixing old audio with mixed results.
Im also really surprised at how accurately you got the colors to match from the Hoth hallway scene. Was that just adobe?

That’s really good… Han looks a bit dull but Leia looks pretty realistically colored and the background is good too.

Ronster said:

That’s really good… Han looks a bit dull but Leia looks pretty realistically colored and the background is good too.

Ya I know, I wasn’t spending huge amounts of time on coloring everything in since it was more on scratch removal.

Ronster said:

Most things that were earmarked for use ended up in color.

extra shot of the two Duros arguing etc

The thing is that that very first puppet in the cantina film version was unfinished it’s most likely a test shot as in the PSA drunk driving comercial and the holiday special you see him with proper skin rather than black fabric they had the eyes done but not the skin simply a fabric wrap. It would be amazing to somehow finish him off like he is meant to look.
Are you talking about the “hand sock” guy…if so I am wondering if there are some images of him for detail to help
or do you mean wolf #2 is really the unfinished guy?

The Cantina Band was done in pick up shoot with the wolfman and various other bits. I was not aware of extra shots of these guys.
Actually this from holiday special. would only use to keep the flow going

Anyway it is a fun scene but scenes are not always in the right order and to restore Han’s dialogue “Nice moves Old man” can be done without having to restore the footage of that scene.

In that scene he also tells Jenny to beat it or similar, so we get to see her again. But yea could do the dialogue with just existing. This black and white you also see Tzizvvt “fly guy” in the background (not in this frame cause han’s head is in the way)…but there are some others in the shot, which is kind of cool

the Jenny kiss is in color but very quick so not sure what to do on this as mixing a colored with another looks weird…may just use the color for reference

Pairing things down helps things flow quicker so The film makers will try to get an amazing result with as little work as possible not saying it was not hard work but you don’t want extra work if you can avoid it. you should think the same way.

Yea this definitely would be a shot out to the creature makers, service to the fans…however interpreted. What I plan to do is finish the scenes cut them together and see what works, what is shortened, what does not flow. With cantina if the cuts has music behind them it is a little more interesting. After seeing this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGpf4U_JKhE
I was motivated to how close one could make a video version that showed everyone in that bar…hopefully it ends working out and flows well from a timing standpoint. 😃

Fruit672 said:

Here’s the most recent test I’ve done on fixing old footage. This one was enhancing, removing scratches. and testing out a ghit hub ai colorized.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1h4lllRabU&ab_channel=InfectiousSneeze
My PC recently broke so I don’t have access to all the softwares but I have been testing out a software for fixing old audio with mixed results.
Im also really surprised at how accurately you got the colors to match from the Hoth hallway scene. Was that just adobe?

Yep Adobe, It is premier for the color match and then the lumetri color correct filter going further. Also using those Vimager plugins mentioned earlier for for contrast and shadow fix where needed so the filter have something to look at. If its match close in tone before color match it is more accurate

Nice scratch reduction there!! Does that require frame by frame or is AI just running does it all?

Yea this definitely would be a shot out to the creature makers, service to the fans…however interpreted. What I plan to do is finish the scenes cut them together and see what works, what is shortened, what does not flow. With cantina if the cuts has music behind them it is a little more interesting. After seeing this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGpf4U_JKhE
I was motivated to how close one could make a video version that showed everyone in that bar…hopefully it ends working out and flows well from a timing standpoint. 😃

HEM DAZON from that youtube clip he pops up into frame… It could just be a color issue however he looks pretty black and in every other clip he is a kind of dark red with some highlights… definiyely lacking contour and definition on him.

I think it is a fun idea you have note in that youtube clip also that guy states who he thinks is Greedo Is. I have to say I agree with him. This shot should go just before the conversation about hiring Han then you can pair greedo and han’s audio together so it’s connective tissue. “Nice moves old man” whilst Greedo looks over. Even if you don’t pair that down… that greedo shot only makes sense at that point before the bargaining happens.

Like you said using the shot’s of the Band as the glue to add extra scenes Is a good approach. It seems though that Wolfman sit’s in many places at the same time so that may mean again the shots are in the wrong order especially that first shot is for somewhere else too more than likely. It always seemed that the Band should be the first shot of the sequence then off around the bar that would make cinematic sense.

The Colorization looks good too. Well Done so far…

Oh yeah the laugh we hear on the guy with the horns whom is smiling seems to be for that character he laughs at the bar in the Holiday Special… I would assume that he was the focus of that shot at one point before being swapped to the guy with horns. I don’t see that as a problem just an observation.

I really want to find audio for Luke ordering a drink too.

EDIT

Just a final thought…

Informant guy freaks out at Lightsaber killing at the bar

HEM DAZON is he supposed to be getting up after Luke is flung across the bar because he was knocked over?

He pops up looks down and makes an irkish noise. I have that sound effect isolated in good quality.

Guy with horns has a gun pulled on Obiwan… Obiwan glances over Lightsaber lit “Do you want some as well?”. Guy with horns smiles. Lightsaber extinguished.

If done like this that would make any sight of lopped of limbs or body parts implied rather than shown and considering what is shown it may be better left to the imagination.

I am going to try this out though…One day when I get time.

It’s both ai and manual. The software gets rid of a lot of the scratches but sometimes I have to step in and remove the left out scratches
replying to kg1977

kg1977 said:

I might send you a few clips if you don’t mind later on that you might not have…

I appreciate any clips you may have that I do not, especially if they build on the story as well. I was not going to do B/W but software is good now and there are many still color reference shots to give it a try. below is my deleted scenes I plan to add in:

• Luke talks more about all the aliens he is seeing when they first walk in.
• Deleted scene of ben from behind the group to the bar to sit down before Luke and 3PO enter (deleted scene POV from behind luke as he enters
• extra shot of the two Duros arguing etc
• Deleted from special eddition shot of Defal (aka the Wolfman)
• Deleted shot of hooded fox character and robed balding snaggletooth character
• Deleted shot of Smoker (Dannik Jerriko) Pan shot over to others
• Shot of bald girl talking to the lutrillian (fat rodent guy)
• Twins talking to Mosep Binned character (stringy bearded guy who in the early comics they thought was Jabba)
• Extra cantina shots Model nodes
• Deleted hand sock alien talking to wolfman #2 (less face hair )
• Fly guy and Lutriallian again
• The Twins around another snaggletooth
• Praying manntis guy
• Jenny and Han kiss
• Jenny gets up as the gang sits down with solo (solo compliments ben’s handy work)

I think the extra scenes also are not as important…but more fan service…but worth preserving for some. I was shocked was was all there when I started looking. I looked and looked and do not see the informant guy and Obiwan coming near - walks away to the left behind chewbacca.? This must be the normal looking “Garouf Lafoe” who tells the stormtroopers outside they are inside rt? I am interested in this one and any others you may have

You may want to start from scratch but here’s a video where I’ve already improved the quality and made it 60 fps, no scratch removal done. This may or may not be the highest-quality version out there you just may need to compare since it was a while ago that I posted this video. I’ll also see If I can do anything with the audio since there’s a massive fan blowing the whole time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOndD5NX-F8&ab_channel=InfectiousSneeze
and here’s my test at isolating the dialogue from the loud fans
\https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtvHLjtHOrE&ab_channel=InfectiousSneeze

Fruit672 said:

You may want to start from scratch but here’s a video where I’ve already improved the quality and made it 60 fps, no scratch removal done. This may or may not be the highest-quality version out there you just may need to compare since it was a while ago that I posted this video. I’ll also see If I can do anything with the audio since there’s a massive fan blowing the whole time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOndD5NX-F8&ab_channel=InfectiousSneeze
and here’s my test at isolating the dialogue from the loud fans
\https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtvHLjtHOrE&ab_channel=InfectiousSneeze

Thanks I’ll take a look at version I have and compare. Just curious, what does converting a 23.97 frame video to 60fps do to help? I mean it’s more frame to edit if you have to go frame by frame for dust etc…just curious I see others have mentioned… I will also try a shot at isolation and see what I can come up with, have not tried it yet.

Out of curiosity reference the cantina…

How well would the drunk driving PSA advert upscale for the cantina band shots?

The reason I ask is those shots are passable as being accurate where as the holiday Special shots are not location acurate such as the lack of window behind them and positioning of the band members.

The footage is not the best from that advert.