EJones216 said:
“Empire” used YCMs as well, but accompanied by a substantially enhanced optical printer with, if I’m interpreting the article correctly, a new lens that finished the composite directly to 4-perf anamorphic rather than on VistaVision where it would then need to be reduction-printed.Info comes from https://www.theasc.com/magazine/starwars
Looked at another article (Episode IV "Miniature and Mechanical Special Effects, Page 4) and realized I indeed misinterpreted this part of the “Empire” article-- the original’s opticals were also directly squeezed to 4-perf anamorphic during the composite, which is worded by its writer (John Dykstra) as making them “one dupe generation from the original photography”.
In summary the print chain could be described Negative-YCM-OCN.
Is this why Star Wars effects were deemed so crummy they were replaced by CGI? I.e. in ESB and Rotj were the effects composited in 65mm then copied to 35mm which is probably better?