Originally posted by: tweaker
I forgot that, being hardcore fans, you'd be archiving both versions "Both versions"? That has been my point there entire time, that there is only one version. And Laserman, I'm aware you're doing it both ways, and I have been for quite some time - I just don't understand why. By the way if you took what I said in context, you would have realized I was remarking that the matte boxes (not the lines) are barely visible on the DVD. But dress it up how you might, it doesn't alter the fact you're using today's technology to edit yesterday's movies. I never saw Babe Pig In City... but I remember when I saw the original Babe, because I wanted to have pork-chops!

Anyway, you yourself said that you've thought of colourizing the black R2D2 - and I suppose somehow this is still different from colourization?

They weren't a 'necessary' by product, just an unwanted one.

They were both - they were unwanted, but necessary for the special effect.True the matte lines were somewhat visible at the cinema ... 1: However, they were never intended to be an integral part of the film, 2: they are akin to a processing error, or a scratch on the film

Let's see: #1. Well intention does not guarantee performance. The best intentions in the world don't necessarily make right. Imagine going through an old film scene by scene and adjusting colour, brightness and contrast to make it more consistent, and then saying "this is obviously what they would have done if they could have, they obviously intended to have their shots look a little more consistent". While you're at it you could say "And they obviously intended it to look cinematic, which is difficult these days since widescreen subtly makes people feel the movie being cinematic, so we'll convert it to widescreen - which is what they would have done, if they'd made the movie today".

With today's compositing techniques the matte boxes would have been avoided entirely. With today's compositing techniques they never would have used a black R2, they would have used green-screen. With today's compositing techniques they wouldn't have had black matte lines either. With today's compositing techniques they could have removed the speeder wheels digitally. With today's technology, they wouldn't have made the movie they way they made it in 1977.

Your project is supposed to be a preservation project, and as I understand it you feel that Lucas can make changes to his films - but that he should also preserve the OOT, correct? Well that's the way I feel; and if some people want the 1997 SE preserved as well - well then Lucas should preserve it too. Maybe if I lent you my copy of The Terminator you could digitally paint out the wires connected to the flying HK's, and make the stop-motion animation look a little more fluid? Of course, if they could paint out the wires in 1984 they wouldn't have shot the shot in the same way - the lighting, placement of the camera and amount of fog was carefully used to make the wires as invisible as possible. What about the wires in the levitation scene in The Exorcist... they painted those wires the colour of the background to try and avoid them being visible - but I'm sure digitally painting them out would be a good idea, because "they were never intended to be an integral part of the film, they are akin to a processing error, or a scratch on the film, i.e. something that may have been unavoidable, or missed, but definitely unwanted"? Or how about digitally adding their breaths to make it look more consistent - never mind that they had to actually refrigerate the set so that their breaths would show up on film - they look inconsistent, and so you should fix that by digitally creating their breaths.

Maybe I'm wrong... and all these things *should* be fixed. But I didn't make the movies and so I certainly wouldn't go through and fix them myself. I can't understand - and if I can't I'm sure Lucas doesn't - how you, Laserman, can spend so much time and effort preserving the OOT from a laserdisc cap, and then go and make some of the exact changes that Lucas made to the Special Edition. No wonder he actually wonders if people really want the OUT - or if they want a *fixed* version. And to make matters worse, so many people complained about the production errors with the 2004 version, however when they made it they rushed it ahead of schedule because of piracy... and so I understand that the errors made for the 2004 version are largely the result of there being so many "Five Star Special Edition" pirated copies of the SE on eBay back then, and Lucas just wanted to get the damn thing out before everyone had one. Imagine if you will that 18 months from now the OUT is released fully remastered to HDDVD and BluRay. With no technical glitches repaired. Do you mean to tell me you would then take it apart and spend days or even weeks fixing them?