This idea came to me after hearing everyone talking about their first experiences with Star Wars in theaters. I never had that until the Special Editions, so my first time was pan & scan copies on home video. My idea is to recreate that (lackluster) experience using Adywan's A New Hope Revisited as a base. What would Revisited look like if it had come out in 1977 and was released on VHS in the 1980's then uploaded to the internet as a preservation?

The plan would be to pan & scan either the DVD-9 or Purist version of Revisited. Then we could digitally degrade it to VHS quality (240i-250i video, "frequency response of roughly 100 Hz to 10 kHz" audio) or actually output it to VHS tape and digitize it back in for authentic VHS fuzz.

No editing would be done, except to add the old CBS/FOX logo perhaps (or a new ADY/WAN logo based on it). The pan and scanning would be the tough part. I'm imagining two releases, the Pan & Scan version and the Downgraded version. Actually, my first experience of A New Hope itself was a VHS copy of the CED my parents had, so we could even make a Time Compressed (120 minutes) version to replicate the limitations of that format.

Now, I'm hoping to get the software this summer to do the pan and scan, but I might not be able to. I wanted to get this idea out into the open and see if maybe someone else is willing to recreate this experience a few of us around here have of Star Wars. The Pan & Scan version could also be used for those people who don't like watching things in the proper aspect ratio (the heathens)!

(The title was Adywan's idea)

DEMO1: Han and Greedo (no sound)

2010-04-27 UPDATE: Started working with a trial of Sony Vegas Pro. Adywan is helping me get the settings right. About 5 minutes into the movie so far.

2010-05-07 UPDATE: Noticed a lot of framerate issues on the main film, although I followed Adywan's instructions to a T and the Greedo scene he sent me was flawless. Turns out its probably because my trial was version 9, which Ady says is crap. The project is on hold until I can find a better editing program, or until someone else takes the reins.