Originally posted by: CO
I totally agree. I remember 'slick talking' McCallum said in the '97 Laserdisk SE Interviews that if they didn't restore the negatives back then, a couple of more years and they would have deteriorated to nothing. I think that is a hyperbole just to make a big deal that you should thank us cause we saved the Star Wars! I'm sure they were in bad shape, but the timing of the 20th anniversary and then saving the original negatives was too coincidental.
McCallum also said Boba Fett would be in Episode III, so I take him more with a grain of salt than I do with what Lucas says.
Originally posted by: zombie84
This is unsurprising--the original negatives were barely usable in 1993 when they were dug up for the Special Edition and restored, likely in a new Internegative and Interpositive. They caught them in the nick of time and had they waited a few more years the negatives would have been unusable. So it is no surprise that after thirteen more years of decomposition they are basically museum relics. But its no matter--the new 1993 Internegative made from the original 1977, 80 and 83 negatives is in pristine condition--this is what the basis was for the 97 SE. How did it look in theaters in 1997? Pretty good i think. So thats what the new transfers should look like.
This is unsurprising--the original negatives were barely usable in 1993 when they were dug up for the Special Edition and restored, likely in a new Internegative and Interpositive. They caught them in the nick of time and had they waited a few more years the negatives would have been unusable. So it is no surprise that after thirteen more years of decomposition they are basically museum relics. But its no matter--the new 1993 Internegative made from the original 1977, 80 and 83 negatives is in pristine condition--this is what the basis was for the 97 SE. How did it look in theaters in 1997? Pretty good i think. So thats what the new transfers should look like.
I totally agree. I remember 'slick talking' McCallum said in the '97 Laserdisk SE Interviews that if they didn't restore the negatives back then, a couple of more years and they would have deteriorated to nothing. I think that is a hyperbole just to make a big deal that you should thank us cause we saved the Star Wars! I'm sure they were in bad shape, but the timing of the 20th anniversary and then saving the original negatives was too coincidental.
McCallum also said Boba Fett would be in Episode III, so I take him more with a grain of salt than I do with what Lucas says.
Boba Fett was indeed supposed to be in Episode III originally.
As for the convenient timing of the "rescue" perhaps it was a bit exagerated but i think the negatives truely were on the cusp of being nearly unusable (or, to put it more lightly, of the same or worse condition than the other dupe prints such as the 1985 interpositive). But by now they must be useless, i completely agree with reports which state the original negatives are basically useless by now. But like i said it doesnt really matter because the 1993 restorations are as good as the originals anyway. The camera negatives have seemed to have held up okay though, since we got all of those outtakes in the 2004 dvd.