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Preserving "French" Original Trilogy - ANH V1.0 released - ESB in progress — Page 3

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marvins said:

 

Here is the beginning of the french end credits.

 

It's funny to see that in the penultimate frame, we see the english credits and then in the next frame the french credits are there. And the stars background is not the same too.

 

I suppose that it must be so in all the foreign ending credits.

 

The French pre-THX letterbox LD transfer seems to be the same one used on the 1989 German letterbox LD.

Both versions switch to an inferior print for the Greedo scene, suggesting that the main print had the burned-in English subtitles. So it seems that they used an English source, and swapped in the French and German crawls/credits in the video editing stage.

However, I'm not sure if the cut was done during the iris, or at the start of the final group shot. If it was the latter, then this weird edit is a real film edit. (Anybody know how the transition looked in the German closing?)

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TServo2049: I'm interested in these French and German pre-THX LBX LDs. Do you have access to them?

A picture is worth a thousand words. Post 102 is worth more.

I’m late to the party, but I think this is the best song. Enjoy!

—Teams Jetrell Fo 1, Jetrell Fo 2, and Jetrell Fo 3

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Unfortunately, no. I don't even have an LD player.

In the German preservation thread, grisan said there was just a hard cut to the German credits, and he guessed it was probably a few frames earlier to hide the original iris effect.

Since I doubt that any foreign-language version had a new wipe, I'm now starting to think that the sloppy transition Marvins found was how the original French prints looked. (I'm guessing that the video edit to the French picture element was right before the group shot - with only a few exceptions, the end of the opening flyover shot and the beginning of the final group shot have always been the cut points for every alternate crawl/credit roll.)

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TServo2049 said:

Both versions switch to an inferior print for the Greedo scene, suggesting that the main print had the burned-in English subtitles. So it seems that they used an English source, and swapped in the French and German crawls/credits in the video editing stage.

However, I'm not sure if the cut was done during the iris, or at the start of the final group shot. If it was the latter, then this weird edit is a real film edit. (Anybody know how the transition looked in the German closing?)

 

It seems like this is a real film edit. Look at the video ripped from my LD : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rP37uO7SzM

The final group shot has a bad quality compare to the previous shot, especially the colors. It's the same that what you described about the Greedo scene.

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Yeah, it definitely switches to a different print at the final shot. I'm guessing that the Greedo scene comes from the same print.

Also, I was wrong about a 1989 German letterbox LD. It was actually *France* that got an LBX release in '89; Germany didn't get one until 1993, and it appears to be the same transfer, or at least the same film source - including the same faded Greedo scene from this French print. The only difference is that it had the German crawl and end credits instead of the French.

I wonder why Fox's French division didn't think to ask for the clean, unsubbed source that was used for the Japanese and U.S. widescreen releases. In fact, in the German OT thread, you can see a screenshot from an 80s German TV airing which has video generated subs, and the color doesn't look as bad as the French LBX transfer:

So either that transfer was done in the U.S. or U.K., or there was a good-looking subtitle-free print of the scene at Fox's German office or somewhere in continental Europe. (Though who knows, maybe this WAS that print as it looked in 1982 or thereabouts, and it had faded by 1989.)

Curiouser and curiouser...

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The colours on that actually look pretty good.

Keep Circulating the Tapes.

END OF LINE

(It hasn’t happened yet)

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Another funny fact is the "Widescreen" and "Fullscreen" editions. From what i see, in Germany, England and lots of countries in Europe back in the days, they did have fullscreen versions of almost every movies (including Star Wars.)  In France we've never had one of these. On every VHS, LD, DVD or TV version it's always the correct theatre aspect ratio. Which is a good thing in a sense.

 

marvins:  Dou you have a flat image of the end french credits? Also, do you have the Greedo french subtitles too?  I would like to have the exact same titles to improve my version. ;)

“English, motherf***er! Do you speak it!?”

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ilovewaterslides said:

Another funny fact is the "Widescreen" and "Fullscreen" editions. From what i see, in Germany, England and lots of countries in Europe back in the days, they did have fullscreen versions of almost every movies (including Star Wars.)  In France we've never had one of these. On every VHS, LD, DVD or TV version it's always the correct theatre aspect ratio. Which is a good thing in a sense.

 

Weren't the first old VHS release of Star Wars in France fullscreen version ? I think so.

 

marvins:  Dou you have a flat image of the end french credits? Also, do you have the Greedo french subtitles too?  I would like to have the exact same titles to improve my version. ;)

 

I will post the Greedo scene from my LD, I must just ripp it.

Yes, I have a flat image of the end french credits because I'm redoing it. I will post it, but because it's a widescreen version of the movie, it's difficult to read all the little characters.

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marvins said:

Weren't the first old VHS release of Star Wars in France fullscreen version ? I think so.

 

Well, i just checked and you are right, the two first VHS editions are in fullscreen indeed. That's interesting, it's quite unusual to find pan&scan versions in France. 

I will post the Greedo scene from my LD, I must just ripp it. Yes, I have a flat image of the end french credits because I'm redoing it. I will post it, but because it's a widescreen version of the movie, it's difficult to read all the little characters.

 

Thanks a lot, good luck with your work! :) 

“English, motherf***er! Do you speak it!?”

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Here are the Greedo sequence ripped from my LD :

1st LD Release :

http://vimeo.com/55737846

There is no subtitles here and we can see that the Greedo sequence come definitely from a different source.

 

THX LD Release :

http://vimeo.com/55798628

There is no more differences between the sequences, because it's the video come all from the english version. But there is subtitles.

 

I must check how it is on my olds VHS.

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Wow. I can't believe the Greedo scene actually made it into a home release looking like that!

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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bkev said:

Wow. I can't believe the Greedo scene actually made it into a home release looking like that!

Unfortunately, LFL isn't known for giving a damn about home video release quality. :-/

A picture is worth a thousand words. Post 102 is worth more.

I’m late to the party, but I think this is the best song. Enjoy!

—Teams Jetrell Fo 1, Jetrell Fo 2, and Jetrell Fo 3

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Thanks a lot, marvins!  Great job. ;)

Indeed, the Greedo scene is VERY dark. We can barely see something...

the THX edition is better, but the subtitles are a little strange, they're not exactly the same as the original ones.

 

I've noticed that the THX edition is presented with the typical 4% speed up, but they changed the tempo only, the original pitch is preserved. 

The 1st edition is speeded up by using the classical way (tempo+pitch).

“English, motherf***er! Do you speak it!?”

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AntcuFaalb said:

bkev said:

Wow. I can't believe the Greedo scene actually made it into a home release looking like that!

Unfortunately, LFL isn't known for giving a damn about home video release quality. :-/

Recall, LFL wasn't as involved with the video releases back then, Fox was doing all the work.

As I said, I am guessing that Fox's French division simply didn't think to look for an English-subtitle-free element of the Greedo scene which looked better than that faded element of the French version. Perhaps they weren't even aware that a superior clean element had been used for the Japanese and North American widescreen LDs.

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Excellent work !

Luc Courleciel is there... :)

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What an amazing job you did there! 

 

“English, motherf***er! Do you speak it!?”

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marvins said:

Here are the french ending credits redone :

 http://youtu.be/ktw8L4k8Kwg

 

Very nice! However, it would help adding a bit gate weave to this, it looks too clean this way. :)

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Hey, just found this thread, it's a cool project !

 

I have posted the French 2.0 AC3 @192kbps ripped from the PAL 2004 DVDs (converted into 23.976 to sync with harmy's version) on alt.bin.starwars some time ago (about 480 days).

 

 

PM me if you want the nzb.

 

 

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I just ripped another videos from VHS tapes.

First from this VHS in LBX format. It's an official Fox video release :

 

An then from a recording of the first french diffusion on televison on channel "Antenne 2" in 1987.

 

Videos from the "Fox Video" release in LBX format :

intro : http://vimeo.com/56769178

Greedo : http://vimeo.com/56860807

end credits : http://vimeo.com/56868439

 

Videos from the televison :

intro : http://vimeo.com/56724168

Greedo : http://vimeo.com/56741775

end credits : http://vimeo.com/56741776

 

 

There are some interesting things :

On the officiel Fox video release

There is not the Fox Fanfare.

The Greedo sequence has subtitles but there are awful. There are the worst subtitles I ever see.

The french ending credits are beginning a little before as what is on the LD. There is no more the "hole effect".

 

On the "Antenne 2" television video :

The Greedo sequence has good subtitles and there is not the loss of quality that is in the LD release.

The ending credits are bad pasted at the end of the movie and before they begin there is a little time of "no sound".

 

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Thank you for all of this, marvins! This is literally pure gold!  Damn, the subtitles on the FOX edition are awful indeed. It looks like they used an automatic translator... 

“English, motherf***er! Do you speak it!?”

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Alright,  marvins is doing an incredible job on this French preservation.  He is basically trying to make the french titles the more accurate to what they used to be in 1977? Still not sure if the titles were the same in the theaters in 1977 but anyway they are exactly like what we can see on the different analog sources available.

I'm working on a barely different project. My goal is to make the titles the more accurate to the original English titles. 

Here's my latest attempt:  https://vimeo.com/57764295  Password is:  OriginalTrilogy

Overall, my titles and my crawl are definitely not 100% accurate to the English titles but the result is quite good in my opinion.  My crawl is a bit too big and the font is different. The text position does not match the English text all the time but it's still not bad.  Finally, the "LucasFilm Limited" is different too since the original one was made by hand and mine was made with a simple font on Photoshop.  

I'm working with the Harmy Despecialized edition 1.0 (i hope it doesn't bother you at all Harmy.)  I've made some color corrections on it you can see that on my Vimeo sample above. 

I'm not planning to share the final version anywhere by the way except if some people are interested but i seriously doubt about it. ^^

The Greedo scene is hard subtitled in English on the Harmy V1.0 so i used the scene from my 2006 DVD instead and it looks quite decent.  I just finished the French subtitles (thanks to marvins for his VHS TV rip because the subtitles are great on this version.)

For the end credits i was wondering if i could use your version marvins? They do look quite impressive!  Of course i will put the nicknames of all the people that were useful for this project at the end of the movie.  :)

So, tell me what do you think about my opening titles/color corrections. I'd be glad to see what you guys have to say about it!


“English, motherf***er! Do you speak it!?”

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ilovewaterslides said:

For the end credits i was wondering if i could use your version marvins? They do look quite impressive!  Of course i will put the nicknames of all the people that were useful for this project at the end of the movie.  :)

 

Of course you can !

But in the video I posted, there a few mistakes. I have made a new version and I will post it soon.

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Alright thanks a lot marvins! :)  You should upload it on Vimeo so i can easily download it in full quality.

“English, motherf***er! Do you speak it!?”