Originally posted by: Go-Mer-Tonic
I understand the feelings involved here, but I really don't see Lucas as disrespecting anyone here.
Well, the lack of respect for his fans is clearly evident:
1) You can only get the OOT if you buy the SE edition along with it.
2) Putting a substandard Laserdisc transfer on DVD is ridiculous, especially concerning that HD formats are already knocking on the consumer´s door.
3) In PAL countries, this release is even more sub-standard because of the upscaled NTSC master.
It's not like he set out to rid the earth of the original version. He says that when he went to restore SW for the 20th anneversary, the negatives and prints had deteriorated far more than they were expecting them to. If he didn't restore the films when he did, we wouldn't even have the SE versions today.
He chose to update the films to make them more like he was hoping they had turned out, and in the process, he permanantly altered the negative. Now the only negative he has is the special edition.
The creation of the SE was clearly a project to test market whether the cgi techniques of these days could be successfully implemented to create the prequel trilogy. Will the people actually buy into a cgi generated Jabba, wobbling along Harrison Ford ?
I am not too sure about the details of all those other sets you mention that you feel get far better treatment, but I bet they started from a fairly in tact negative. I don't think they spent nearly as much to make new anamorphic transfers as Lucas did to create the SE version. I know it's the SE, and some of you see that as an entirely different set of films (for valid reason), but it's not Like Lucas was just pissing on us. He reinvested a ton of time and money to "maintain" SW for the next generation.
In film restaraution terms, he destroyed Star Wars. Everything which is left of the original films is the 1997 SE master. Maintaining would have meant to preserve the originals first, and make the SE something which it was supposed to be: a SPECIAL edition.
And btw, there are movies much older and in much worse condition than Star Wars, which have been brought back successfully into the cinema and home video market. Like Hitchcocks Vertigo.
Now for him to make an anamorphic transfer of the O-OT, he would have to clean up a PRINT, not a negative, and not only that, all the prints that exist today have serious issues that would have to be meticulously straingtended out, just to get back to the original picture quality.
You just described the standard procedure which every older film released on DVD has to cope with. Congratulations!
With todays technology, you can easily take a 35mm release print and restaurate it to the point that it will look good on DVD. Especially considering that Star Wars:
- had 70mm releases
- A New Hope was released in the UK in Technicolor dye copies
Digital colour correction and some basic scratch removal is now standard in every studio, very easy to surpass 1993 standards. 20th Century Fox has a great reputation to release old films on DVD in very good quality. My original Alien DVD from 1999 still looks great, and vastly superior to this stinking mess. They most probably have good Star Wars prints in their vaults.
From what I understand, that's possible, but it won't be cheap.
Cheap is nothing. Well, except the way Lucasfilm went in the end, and slap old Laserdisc transfers on DVD. They look much worse than the new THX-1138 DVD transfer. Now this is a highly succesful movie which deserved this premium restauration, right?
(Apart from the fact that he screwed it up, too with cgi effects).
As far as "respect" for us, I think he shows the people who don't like his new stuff a whole lot more respect than he gets in return.
So you think he will make a financial loss on those DVD´s? Because in the end, that´s everything that matters. Sorry, but do you really think he actually cares about what you or anyone else here says?
He always talks about how the fans who disagree with his artistic taste know how to think out of the box, and are very creative in their own right. He has even apologised for not making the original versions available. He didn't rectify it, but he did say he was sorry, even if he still wanted to do things his way.
Sources for these claims?
Now we have this September release, which may not be the treatement we were all hoping for, but it's a step in the right direction I think.
I understand the feelings involved here, but I really don't see Lucas as disrespecting anyone here.
Well, the lack of respect for his fans is clearly evident:
1) You can only get the OOT if you buy the SE edition along with it.
2) Putting a substandard Laserdisc transfer on DVD is ridiculous, especially concerning that HD formats are already knocking on the consumer´s door.
3) In PAL countries, this release is even more sub-standard because of the upscaled NTSC master.
It's not like he set out to rid the earth of the original version. He says that when he went to restore SW for the 20th anneversary, the negatives and prints had deteriorated far more than they were expecting them to. If he didn't restore the films when he did, we wouldn't even have the SE versions today.
He chose to update the films to make them more like he was hoping they had turned out, and in the process, he permanantly altered the negative. Now the only negative he has is the special edition.
The creation of the SE was clearly a project to test market whether the cgi techniques of these days could be successfully implemented to create the prequel trilogy. Will the people actually buy into a cgi generated Jabba, wobbling along Harrison Ford ?
I am not too sure about the details of all those other sets you mention that you feel get far better treatment, but I bet they started from a fairly in tact negative. I don't think they spent nearly as much to make new anamorphic transfers as Lucas did to create the SE version. I know it's the SE, and some of you see that as an entirely different set of films (for valid reason), but it's not Like Lucas was just pissing on us. He reinvested a ton of time and money to "maintain" SW for the next generation.
In film restaraution terms, he destroyed Star Wars. Everything which is left of the original films is the 1997 SE master. Maintaining would have meant to preserve the originals first, and make the SE something which it was supposed to be: a SPECIAL edition.
And btw, there are movies much older and in much worse condition than Star Wars, which have been brought back successfully into the cinema and home video market. Like Hitchcocks Vertigo.
Now for him to make an anamorphic transfer of the O-OT, he would have to clean up a PRINT, not a negative, and not only that, all the prints that exist today have serious issues that would have to be meticulously straingtended out, just to get back to the original picture quality.
You just described the standard procedure which every older film released on DVD has to cope with. Congratulations!
With todays technology, you can easily take a 35mm release print and restaurate it to the point that it will look good on DVD. Especially considering that Star Wars:
- had 70mm releases
- A New Hope was released in the UK in Technicolor dye copies
Digital colour correction and some basic scratch removal is now standard in every studio, very easy to surpass 1993 standards. 20th Century Fox has a great reputation to release old films on DVD in very good quality. My original Alien DVD from 1999 still looks great, and vastly superior to this stinking mess. They most probably have good Star Wars prints in their vaults.
From what I understand, that's possible, but it won't be cheap.
Cheap is nothing. Well, except the way Lucasfilm went in the end, and slap old Laserdisc transfers on DVD. They look much worse than the new THX-1138 DVD transfer. Now this is a highly succesful movie which deserved this premium restauration, right?
(Apart from the fact that he screwed it up, too with cgi effects).As far as "respect" for us, I think he shows the people who don't like his new stuff a whole lot more respect than he gets in return.
So you think he will make a financial loss on those DVD´s? Because in the end, that´s everything that matters. Sorry, but do you really think he actually cares about what you or anyone else here says?
He always talks about how the fans who disagree with his artistic taste know how to think out of the box, and are very creative in their own right. He has even apologised for not making the original versions available. He didn't rectify it, but he did say he was sorry, even if he still wanted to do things his way.
Sources for these claims?
Now we have this September release, which may not be the treatement we were all hoping for, but it's a step in the right direction I think.
This release was nothing but a wasted opportunity. I do not think that this opportunity will come again. Because on HD formats, it will take much more effort to make them look good.