CatBus said:
Harmy, we're bottling up all our color memories and preparing to dump them out in your Empire thread. You have been warned! Hoth is white! Hoth is blue! Hoth is teal! Hoth is cerulean!
Some background on this comment: Harmy does not (yet) have a good objective color reference for Empire like he does for Star Wars, and the color of Hoth has proven the decisive color controversy in the film. So there will be much arguing, and Harmy won't be able to close down arguments by saying "I've got a professional scan of a top-quality low-fade print and this is just how it looks" anymore. His color choices will be educated guesses. Again, not intended to belittle anyone--intended to contrast the our confidence in the colors of this restoration with the chaos coming up for the next one.
I beg your pardon, but I distinctly remember Hoth being a rich mauve. Also, I had a spicy vegetable burger with sweetcorn relish yesterday. On the 15th of July 1998, I had Scotch broth with a freshly baked, buttered baguette.
But well done Harmy, or whatever, I suppose.
"Some people.."
“Stargazing wizards, stare into the night,
Hurricanes and blizzards, here comes the final fight”
lol. I love you guys.
The big controversy for this film was regarding skin tones, I think wasn't it?
Edit: also, it's unfortunate but I have to agree that memory is not a good reference for color. Remember I said that I remember the landspeeder's racing stripes being some shade of pink?
chyron just put a big Ric pic in your sig and be done with it.
Greetings fellow Star Wars fans!
First time poster here, just popped in to say HARMY, YOU'RE A SAINT!!!
Thank you so much for your work!
“But I was going to Tosche Station to pickup some power converters!”
Quick question for all the sharp eyes out there. When watching the trash compactor scene, is it just me or are there some color timing issues? The beginning of the scene plays out just fine but if you look at their faces, is it just me or is there a weird shift in color going on. I may just be imagining things. Just wanted to see if anyone else noticed this or if I am truly crazy. Not picking things over or anything, just curious if my tired eyes are playing tricks on me.
Another thing I think I noticed, in the scene where C-3PO and R2-D2 are in the death star hanger, across from the ship, I swear the image stretches up and widens ever so slightly. Check it out at 1:27:08 through 1:27:10. Again just something I hadn't caught before.
TK421138 said:
Another thing I think I noticed, in the scene where C-3PO and R2-D2 are in the death star hanger, across from the ship, I swear the image stretches up and widens ever so slightly. Check it out at 1:27:08 through 1:27:10. Again just something I hadn't caught before.
That's just what happens when you adjust the focus with an anamorphic lens. Watch: first the focus is on the stormtroopers in the background, then it switches to Threepio in the foreground.
You can see that sort of distortion in almost any movie, if you look for it.
When I first saw that stretch, I thought I found some weird artifact from the Blu-ray--but I checked the Laserdisc and it was there too. I think part of the problem is that when the image is all low-res, dirty, and shaky, a little stretching every now and then doesn't stand out so much. Now it does.
As for the compactor scene, I felt that way too and even PM'd Harmy about it, but if it's that way on the Tech IB reference, well I guess that's that.
Any idea how close to being released v2.5 is? I saw the first post saying there's some issues with the audio on the 70mm six track mix on v2.1 (I was planning on removing all other audio from the file and just keeping this version) and I saw you also had some other tweaks you were going to make when creating v2.5.
Given that v2.5 will have the minor tweaks and stop me from having to replace the audio etc it makes sense to wait for that version to be finished (but at the same time I'm really looking forward to watching this and would like to get it ASAP :)). Would be after the highest quality upload you have of course, there's a 4TB drive in my media player and the Star Wars films certainly deserve a large chunk of that space, my Star Wars Blurays can stay in the drawer gathering dust where they belong!
Ps I looked at your EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Despecialized Edition thread first post which seems to be at version 1.0 but then lower down you say your working on 'PARTLY' DESPECIALIZED EDITION v3.0 which you've decided to call DESPECIALIZED EDITION to save confusion... Sorry but I managed to get confused by that :)
To help me out could just quickly confirm that the most up to date versions of the original 3 Star Wars films you have ready to download? I'm looking for as close to the original theatrical versions as possible and in the best quality possible (so AVCHD/mkv/ts etc versions of the largest file size and DESPECIALIZED rather than 'PARTLY' DESPECIALIZED, even if they're 40GB each it'll be worth the download time and I'll keep them uploading for a while after I get them).
It goes without saying of course that I'm really happy someone with the time and the skills to do this has gone and done it, should look a lot better than my 1995ish release pre special edition DVDs!
Harmy said he's pretty much done with 2.5; it just needs to render, which takes days and he needs his computer for school at the moment so he'll render it after school is out. Also, yes the Despec versions of ESB and ROTJ are available. They are 1.0 though so they don't use the Blurays as a source like 2.1 or 2.5 of SW DEED does, but they're still the best versions available anywhere. They're in AVCHD on MySpleen.
...and no, they aren't just PARTLY Despecialized anymore.
chyron just put a big Ric pic in your sig and be done with it.
I believe 'partly' despecialized was a term used a long while back when he was first trying to despecialize from a DVD source. When he dropped that project in favor of putting his effort into an HDTV-based despecialization (and, I assume, with more confidence that he could do better than just 'partly' put things right), he adjusted the naming scheme.
So, yes, 2.1 or 2.5 of SW, and then 1.0 of ESB and ROTJ for now.
I'm watching v2.1 as we speak.
Detail is breathtaking. It just hits you like a brick in the face. Mesmerizing.
I have a couple of questions, and please forgive if they've been answered. I'm relatively new here, but have been following this thread on and off.
The new color timing. I really have to get used to it. The difference is astounding. Especially on Tatooine. Is this how the film looked back in 1977?
Another question: some scenes have details that are lost compared to v1.0. For example, when the Millenium Falcon have docked with the Death Star. v2.1 is considerable more black in the sides with details lost. Another scene is the final ceremony. The infamous shot with the cardboard rebels. The picture is very dark on the sides of the frame.
Again forgive me if these questions have already been answered.
“But I was going to Tosche Station to pickup some power converters!”
Re: color timing. The short answer is yes. The long answer is it's complicated.
This color timing is based on a professional scan of a high-quality low-fade print, so it's closer to '77 colors than anything else you've probably seen since the 70's.
That said, there's a little variation in different types of prints, how faded or abused they got over the years, different projector bulbs, etc, making every theatre viewing unique, even in '77. Also, Harmy was starting most of this from the Blu-ray timing and sometimes he might not have been able to approximate the '77 timing perfectly from that source. But it's damn close.
The new color timing. I really have to get used to it. The difference is astounding. Especially on Tatooine. Is this how the film looked back in 1977?
CatBus did a good job of explaining the color timing, in that it came from a "high-quality low-fade print", and the fact that a LOT of factors go into how a person saw the film in the day.
It could very though WIDELY how a person saw it, starting with the kind of projector that was playing it, the kind of illumination (sometimes a bulb) the projector used to illuminate it, the number of foot lamberts and sometimes even the screen may have had a factor on how it was viewed, and how it was/is remembered.
The prints that were in-part a factor of how this version was color timed, according to what I have read here on this forum by the author, and others who were involved in this project, were said to have been from Technicolor I.B. prints, if I am not mistaken. Please someone correct me if I am wrong people. If those facts are correct, we all know that Technicolor prints have a completely different look to them than non-technicolor film, and may be in-part why the color timing looks different to your eyes, and I and others on this forum, don't recognize this look, to how it was in the theaters in the time of it's original run, unless you/they were viewing this movie in a theater which was showing Star Wars in Technicolor, IMHO.
Technicolor has a MUCH warmer and vibrant color palette than non-technicolor prints do. If you've seen some older movies, of the silver-screen era, you most likely know what I mean...They are beautiful to watch.
Given all these facts, and others that are not mentioned here, there is a good chance that this is indeed not how it looked in the theaters that did not show a Technicolor print in the theater in the days of Star Wars original film release.
I know these statements will not give you a clear answer, but I'm sorry to say, that there is no clear answer. This version is a good HD representation of what a Technicolor print of Star Wars might have looked like in 1977, but I was not privy to that version, but do wish I could have seen one.
Edit: Does anyone have an know how many theaters showed the Technicolor version, or what the percentage was versus the non-Technicolor prints?
Not quite true - yes, technicolor prints may have looked a bit different, but likely not substantially so - what I saw of the LPP print used by Team Negative 1, it matches the I.B. print quite closely in most cases.
OK. I was hoping to have a release ready by now but since real life interfered, I can't release the BD on today's anniversary of the original premiere.
I did however decide, as a little premiere anniversary present to you guys, to release a little documentary that I was going to keep for the BD, which maps out all the sources used in Despecialized Edition v2.5 and give you a little peak behind the rontoscoping :-)
Awesomesauce! I'm downloading it now.
Donations welcome: paypal.me/poit
bitcoin:13QDjXjt7w7BFiQc4Q7wpRGPtYKYchnm8x
Help get The Original Trilogy preserved!
Coolio! Is it different from the earlier version I've seen?
Wow, Harmy, it's wonderful xD
Thank you!
@Laserschwert: No, it's the same. There may still be some tweaks on the BD version of this but nothing big.
Thanks Harmy, downloading now. I agree, today would have been an awesome date to release the Blu-ray but of course real life is more important. And a happy anniversary (in a way) to every Star Wars fans all around the world!
"Let's face it, the Ewoks sucked, dude" -Hurley, Lost 5x13-Some like it Hoth.
Please bear with me if I tend to get too excited about anything or say too much, I have issues.
While I don't like your voice (sorry :-) ) I absolutely LOVED the "featurette"
pittrek said:
While I don't like your voice (sorry :-) ) I absolutely LOVED the "featurette"
Why not just say "I absolutely LOVED the "featurette""? Jerk.
I think pittrek was joking when he wrote that. That was a outstanding featurette.
looking for HDTV of the Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Also HDTV of The Lord of the Rings trilogy
I must say, I knew this was a lot of work, but I had no clue how it was done. That video was AMAZING!
"Let's face it, the Ewoks sucked, dude" -Hurley, Lost 5x13-Some like it Hoth.
Please bear with me if I tend to get too excited about anything or say too much, I have issues.