Added one of the Starkiller links. Thanks The Aluminum Falcon, the other one was too brief.
I've been watching the MeBeJedi bootleg and was wondering if it had been firmly established that Tarkin's line during the Death Star conference ("We will crush the rebellion once and for all") was only cut off because of a reel change.
Moth3r's & Catnap's version you can see the reel change burn marks and the full line "one swift stroke" is there. When Tarkin goes "Vader will provide us with the location" you can see the first burn mark then there's another after the swift stroke line. Both MeBeJedi and Starkiller do not. Which is a great clue that they are the same source. Maybe the original recording got eaten, maybe the source was played a lot and that part of the film got ruined. pure speculation.
Added the 1979 Airline version into the Honorary Mentions category. It's closer to a 16mm print, on first impression, but interesting enough to look out for. Never heard of that. They used to show films on airplanes?!
I didn't watch it all the way through, but did anyone spot any reel-change markers, which would prove this was from a theatrical print?
Yes there are some there (see above), maybe i'll go through and pull out the ones which can be found.
Yes, this tape could be straight from the horse's mouth, from the very individual who taped it off the screen in the 70's, but how often does that happen...?
The pirate market has existed for some time. In Variety articles from this time period they were afraid of actual film copies being run off. If they were doing that, getting the telecine done, doesn't seem to problematic.
Could a "bootleg" be faked today, and would we, the OT forum members, be fooled?
Who's going to take the time to insert a hair into a faked bootleg. (maybe that's why the GOUT was so expensive, they were also...) I'm all for the wild theory, and it'll be phun to debate this one. Catnap mentioned that the original tape was:
The tape came in a Hildebrandt covered case (old- style big box), and is recorded on a very early vhs tape (the heavy pitted type ones they used to make way back when) I imagine this tape has been around for many years!
This is something we can ask. Could we see a picture of the tape. Personally I just like seeing the actual item, gives them a sense of history. and i'm not sure what a heavy pitted type looks like.
The black bars are electronic, not part of the original capture which would have been 4x3 analog video.
How certain of this are you? Don't know the specifics of the telecine operation, but would assume there's a physical object which stops the light from hitting the receptor, so the blacks should be very black. The Moth3r source also has well defined top and bottom black bars. Ok see what you're talking about, there is very little noise in the blacks. some top and bottom, but yet very little noticable white flecks popping up. Which could mean it's close to the source or great equipment was used. If you take a frame into photoshop and crank the brightness and contrast, it's not flat. there are variations but extremely slight. I'd say the cut off was done out of expediency. If this is from the piracy market, you do it once and move on.
Would assume that part of the reason these films get changed slightly for each re-re-release is so they can be tracked. A positive side effect of wanting to see what new technology can do.
The Catnap bootleg seems like it was made much more recently than the 80's, camcorded/telecined or not, which it obviously couldn't be, because noone would have access to a Pre ANH film print that would look so fresh at this time.
Nah it's possible, but unlikely. Here's an example of a rebel screening from summer 2010: http://savestarwars.com/technicoloribscreening.html Nice pics at the bottom. Not sure if it was Pre-ANH, but it's the other 99% of the film.
Added : Belbucus Audio recording. Thanks Moth3r, Satanika mentioned the morgands1 and BrianM, more the merrier. I'll read through the linked thread to see if the sources are mentioned. In the first post, it's just the two theaters where the recordings took place. Need reference links for the morgands1 and BrianM anyway.