zombie84 said:
There was a telecine (I think) made in 1977 from a theatrical print that was recorded onto VHS as a street bootleg. I saw it on Demonoid years ago. There was a widescreen and a fullscreen version, I'm not sure if they are two different recordings or not. I think it was made in the projection room. The color and exposure is all wonky because it has been duped on VHS a million times. But it might give indication if the actual release version was close to the photo--and what is shown in the Making of book as well--or if the Japanes or the GOUT (read: more vibrant color) is how the scene looked, if there is any color left on the VHS for that shot.
Ah very interesting, have to check the info about the version I got. It was the widescreen telecine;)
zombie84 said:
I would say that the SE from 1997 might make for a good comparison since it was color-timed to match the 1977 technicolor print, but certain scenes were tweaked to look a bit different, so it's impossible to say if that wasn't another instance. The R2 canyon scene, for example, is colored differently in the SE, and may have been a development based on tweaking from 1993, if in fact it was tweaked in 1993.
Yes, I remember the colors was very good in the cinema in -97 but sadly when released on home video The Special Edition looked so bad especially in this binary sunset scene, it looked like someone had put a sock in front of the lens!:( But memories is just that, memories. I don't know, maybe it looked like that in the cinema as well.
zombie84 said:
Now, the argument here could be made that the Japanese version was based off a foreign print that didn't have the correct coloring in the first place, or that the telecine was done by a foreign company that didn't have access to how it ought to have looked, which the DE corrects. But I'm not sure how much merit that has. I have a 1984 VHS sitting on my shelf beside me, but no VHS player. Since this version pre-dates the 1985 IP that was used for every home video release since, it might be very useful, if only I could run it.
It could very much be the case as many movies on early home video in the eighties looked very bright in similar scenes (shot day for night etc.) as you said. It would be interesting to see how the -84 vhs tape compare, too bad you don't have a player:( Anyway, the scene with artoo in the canyon was shown at the 1978 academy awards when they showed clips from the movie, is there any chance to get a hold of this show in good quality somehow?