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.
Alright so I’ve spent some time looking through websites and youtube videos of the PSA videos and I think I have found the 3 best-quality videos for an upscale attempt.
The first one is the 16mm blue-tinted video where it doesn’t have the right color but has most of the right exposure to see everything there is to see in the frame, but it does have scratches.
The second video is a better quality version than the “remaster” version up on youtube which was posted a longer time ago with a lower maximum quality set at 360p but when compared to the “remaster” it has less compression and blockiness to the video. This one has color but needs to be color graded as it has a grey/green tint and has no scratches.
The third and uncertain one is a version that was posted by the company Motion Picture Video from 2 years ago as a youtube short. In its description, they say “The p.s.a. has been restored from a 16mm film print that was in pretty bad shape. Enjoy some rarely-seen Star Wars from MPV! Restored by our expert Robert Kauspedas”
Now the video has been posted as with an aspect ratio of a phone so we’re missing the sides of the video but the exposure and detail are almost as close as the blue 16mm version. It does have scratches but that’s an easy fix. I have emailed the company asking if they still have the video In its original quality and aspect ratio, and if not, if they can give me the email of the person who restored the 16mm film (Robert Kauspedas). Now their company is in America and I’ve just sent them the email so It may take a day for a response. I’ve tried googling Robert but have had no luck so far.
What I plan on testing is seeing whether I can blend each video source on top of one another like a fusion. So I have the #1 (blue tint) as the base layer (all the correct exposure and detail), I set the blue tint to black and white for easier color adding, and then either #2 or #3 on top of #1 and set it to (color blend) so its now in color. It sounds kind of confusing probably but I’ll start testing it out soon once I fix up my PC and have access to the software again, and once I can confirm whether or not it’s possible to obtain the restored version from Robert.
Videos: let me know if you find a better version (compare them)
Video #1 (Blue tint) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_VW9O9Y5ZU&ab_channel=TheRetronaut
Video #2 (better than the remaster) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0JQid50UNE&ab_channel=ScratchedMedia
Video #3 (“Restored” footage) https://tinyurl.com/bdfh9axv by Robert Kauspedas