STAR WARS - A New Hope [Modernized] [Prequel-OT Bridge]

(Cover Art: ArtIsDead - Fanedit.org)

Sources:

• A New Hope 4k Color Graded Version (Self-graded)
• Upscaled version of Adywan’s A New Hope Revisited (“Dazman” of OT.com)

PROJECT EXPLANATION:

My son inspired this project (first four years ago, and now really). He is nine years old, and when we watched the Prequels and then came over to the OT in preperation for the Kenobi Show he asked me as we came five minutes into A New Hope why “it looked so old”. Then I explained to him that they were made many years ago, and this all seemed very hard to grasp for him. Either way, he got bored after 15 minutes and haven’t talked about watching it since, so I gotta change that.

My son know I edit movies, and we watched for example my Titanic edit recently and he “loved that i had cut away the stuff with the old lady” (haha!). However, this conversation sparked my interest in modernizing A New Hope so that future generations and the ones thus far can have a softer bridge between The Prequels and The Originals. So, having my son in mind, I have tasked this mission upon myself.

CHANGELIST:

• The film is heavily color graded, often scene by scene, to resemble a more digital and crisp look. This is achieved through a re-grade of the 4k version of A New Hope and Adywan’s A New Hope (Upscaled version by “Dazman” of OT.com). Video examples down below.
• Re-scoring of scenes (either to bridge a musical continuity from the Prequels with the OT, or to replace bad compression OST from the 1970’s (Leia’s Theme is a good example; it is often replaced with a 2000+ version of Leia’s Theme to get rid of the bad compression of said soundtrack). This massively helps in removing the “Old school” feel.
• Center Channel has been re-compressed and reverbed, as to sound more modern. This will probably be even further tweaked, but the current result is a mix of modern and old-school. It doesn’t sound like it was recorded yesterday, but it doesn’t sound like it was recorded in the 70’s either.
• A few pacing implementations (I know, if you are a hardcore OT fan, you should know this fanedit is already not for you; but yes, the opening of ANH is a little tad slow-paced for modern children, and I have cut a few seconds here and there. I MIGHT put them back in, if requested - or perhaps have two alternate versions.

… and more.

EXAMPLES:

Alderaan Destruction:

https://streamable.com/n9ry01

Color Grade and Detail Refinement Example:

https://streamable.com/bmfy4n

The older examples:

• MODERN COLOR GRADE EXAMPLE: https://streamable.com/w5ddi7

(Also Tantive IV getting hit less obvious a model)

• LUKE FINDS HIS AUNT AND UNCLE: https://streamable.com/3fzlp3

(Sound and Grading Example - Not finished! (Audio mix is too loud at places etc))

• Audio Mix Example: https://streamable.com/16dee3

(Less old-school, better compression)

• FIXED DESERT: https://streamable.com/o56pu8

(explanation below on page 1 - in short; fixed brightness and contrasts, focus, colors and modernized)

• VFX R2-D2 ZAPPED: https://streamable.com/y9nazb

(explanation below on page 1 of thread)

SUGGESTION?

Always welcome.

I LOVE what you did with those video samples.
I’m always down for any attempt at making (especially) ANH more modern, so consider me really interested.

Dude this looks great, I’m really excited! I love the color grade and I’m all for blending the originals and the prequels.

So you were probably dreading this question, but are you gonna use SC 38 Reimagined?

vranir said:

Adywan’s version has been my go-to for a few years now, but I like what you’ve done here to build on his work. I’d be interested in seeing this, especially as New Hope is one of my favorite Star Wars films.

It wouldn’t become my go-to version, however, unless it ends up as a larger project that covers the complete trilogy.

Thank you. I have no idea if I am going to do ESB and ROTJ. I suppose it depends on how time consuming all the different edits I am doing will be.

IlFanEditore said:

I LOVE what you did with those video samples.
I’m always down for any attempt at making (especially) ANH more modern, so consider me really interested.

Thank you, FanEditore. ❤️

G&G-Fan said:

Dude this looks great, I’m really excited! I love the color grade and I’m all for blending the originals and the prequels.

So you were probably dreading this question, but are you gonna use SC 38 Reimagined?

Thanks, G&G. Appreciated.

It is a likelihood I will be using parts of it, but I will have to wait and see. It depends on how modern the rest of the film end up feeling and looking. If it feels like a fit, I suspect I will add the most humble parts of it to the edit.

evansj1983 said:

This sounds really interesting. I’m especially intrigued with regards to what you are going to do in terms of pacing.

Thank you, Evans. ❤️

It will only be in the beginning parts of the film, mainly during R2 and 3-P0’s incident with the Jawa’s. Only a few seconds in total. I will also try to add different aliens to The Cantina scene if feasible, instead of the worm-creature and the fly.

Fullmetaled said:

@Anjohan why not wait and base your project on the hd version of adywan’s revisited version of a new hope when it comes out?

Shouldn’t be too much of a hustle to replace some video files with whatever upgraded version Adywan releases, but I don’t really think it will be necessary. Adywan’s ANH is “Prequel-supported” and have many great additions to the score and new scenes (that will not be in ANH Revisited HD), so this upscaled version combined with 4k regrade I think will do the trick.

mrbenja0618 said:

I’m deeply sorry, I love the concept idea, but at the same time, on my calibrated monitor those clips are over-saturated and some examples you create a few overexposures that have blown out the hightlights.

Am I the only one seeing this?

To give you something to work with (if you choose to do so.) you might try lowering the exposure levels, because let’s be honest, films are darker lit now.

I’ve often wondered if a reverse approach would be more fascinating by making the prequels more vintage looking.

Alas, that is not the point of this project.

I promise, I’m trying to be helpful, and not cast doubt. These are simply my thoughts.

I wish you well with your project!

In scenes with lots of lit backgrounds (like skies) the levels will be evened out. This has only been in the works for a day so far. Interior scenes work the best thus far. I will have to reduce overexposures at certain places when I come there. This will be quite a project I suppose.

Thanks for brilliant feedback.

I really like this. While I did enjoy this movie as a kid, I started with the Prequels, and that’s what star wars feels like to me.

May I suggest including Hal’s alternate Obi-wan line “Your father’s lightsaber. I wanted you to have it, when you were old enough”?

And maybe even a color adjustment on the blade, as the one in ANH doesn’t always have the same color as the one in RotS.

The color grading and music adjustment is definitely going in the right direction, and I look forward to what’s next.

I’d recommend making the saber(s) 50% between a close match of ROTS and ESB.

BedeHistory731 said:

My one question revolves around sound - will you be using the '04-present Vader distortion or the '77/'97 version?

04-present.

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

One thing you could do to modernize this movie is to use the version of the throne room theme from the ROTS soundtrack.

Update

https://streamable.com/o56pu8

I’ve been rotoscoping and tweaking the scenes with R2-D2 and C-3P0 on Tattooine now for the better part of a week, and am looking forward to showing you all how they now look compared to the original footage.

The original footage of them in the desert is unfocused at places, colors are changing and especially C-3P0 changes color and sharpness and goes in and out of focus due to what I suspect are changes to the sun’s placement on the sky as they were filming the scenes.

The scenes also jump up and down in overall brightness and contrast. This is fixed.

Changes:

• I modernized the shots with changes to the skies and the colors around them
• I have, as best I can, kept the colors and focus on R2-D2 and C-3P0 consistent throughout their movements in the desert
• I have increased the quality of the ambience
• Improved overall dialogue compression as to make their interactions sound renewed and modern

… and a lot of rotoscoping on C-3P0.

VIDEO:

https://streamable.com/o56pu8

Upcoming Changes:

• Add glow to C-3P0’s eyes on close-up’s.
• Try to add even more focus to the two droids in the establishing shot
• Add more focus to C-3P0’s (who’s kinda out of focus/blurred out) in the shot at 0:40)

G&G-Fan said:

One thing you could do to modernize this movie is to use the version of the throne room theme from the ROTS soundtrack.

I’m not following. You mean the emperor’s theme?

I’m soooo hyped for this edit. I tried to do something similar, but with my - let’s say - limited capabilities I was only able to change colors here and there, add some suns to space shots and add music.
Even if obviously it’s a WIP, and anything can change from day to day, I’m really looking forward to this.

Anjohan said:

I’m not following. You mean the emperor’s theme?

No I mean this

https://youtu.be/ZK52tEenER8?t=403

IlFanEditore said:

I’m soooo hyped for this edit. I tried to do something similar, but with my - let’s say - limited capabilities I was only able to change colors here and there, add some suns to space shots and add music.
Even if obviously it’s a WIP, and anything can change from day to day, I’m really looking forward to this.

Thank you for that, FanEditore. I hope it will work as a great bridge for Prequel and OT lovers alike.

G&G-Fan said:

Anjohan said:

I’m not following. You mean the emperor’s theme?

No I mean this

https://youtu.be/ZK52tEenER8?t=403

Ah, got’cha. Brilliant. Thanks for the link, G&G. Will definitely be re-scoring the end with that.

Update

So, another little showcase:

I realized quickly when I was editing late last night that as much as I will have to replace or update old, compressed music, I will also have to do something about certain sound effects and not to forget dated visual effects. So for this example, I go with when R2-D2 is zapped by Jawa’s.

https://streamable.com/y9nazb

Changes:

• Added glow and intensity to existing Visual Effect
• Regraded original visual effect
• Added color and glow to rocks with Jawa’s as R2-D2 is being zapped
• Replaced Shot SFX
• Added electrecution SFX
• Added glow to rocks to the right of R2-D2 before shut off
• Re-compressed and modernized all existing sound effects (this goes for the original footage in the clip as well)