AntcuFaalb said:
Can you re-post any/all of the conclusions you've come to in those other threads? It would be useful to start collecting that information here.
Actually my discoveries and conclusions are right there in that post: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Print-variations-in-77-Star-Wars/topic/14705/
...combined with the discoveries here: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Credits-Leaders-Thread/topic/12960/
It's quite easy to see the pattern...
'77 May, opening day prints: "cloudy composite" - "rough credit roll" - "Dolby mix prints only."
'77 June, wide release prints: "cloudless composite" - "revised credit roll" - "both Dolby and Mono mix prints." (other very minor differences are possible, there has been speculation about the opening crawl for example)
^ this is of course only my theory and it may be wrong, but a lot seems to support my idea that this is an opening day variation going by all the sources out there. This is what I, and I believe, none have settled with for now.
Puggo Krig (Swedish 16mm) is too blown out in order to make out what composite it uses but it's most likely a "cloudless"- source as it is a mono mix print and contains the revised credit roll.
Baronlando said:
We know now that some actual prints were made right off the negative and they would have had the subtitles, so that laserdisc interview makes even less sense to me now. The guy seems to be making a leap that the whole movie is a generation away just because the subtitles are present.
Have it been confirmed that theatrical prints were made right off the negative? I recall some speculation on Verta's site but was there a definitive answer to this? There has to be some intermediate steps where the Tantive tears originated. The 80's home video source lack them, which makes me believe the damage originated in the Interpositive stage or Internegative stage.
The IP/IN used for home video from '82 up to '92 is edited together in both small and large chunks with mid-reel changes which results in many frames tossed, a real glue-party.
The IP/IN that was first seen used for the '92 NTSC Letterbox VHS / Technidisc SWE LD release and subsequent THX releases (GOUT) is most likely an theatrical IP or IN, battered from making countless of prints, contains the theatrical timing, albeit severely pink faded in many instances and further removed from it when it was tweaked in post to counteract it.
What doesn't make any sense is that Widescreen Review blurb and the American Cinematographer article's info regarding the IP's. In one of those articles which focused on the SE, it was mentioned that a new IP was created in 1985 that was meant to be the base for all future home video releases as the old one was biting the dust. This definitely doesn't add up with what we know. There are mainly two sources that we have been presented with in the home video market, from 1982 - 1992 and 1992 - 1995.