poita said:
Absolutely, if anything it is slightly more pink than the images I have shown.
I have seen 9 different prints now all up, as well as countless Super8 prints which were taken from the international negative and all of them are pretty close to the image I posted here. Some are a little lighter, some a little darker, but all have a definite pinkish sky in this shot. (The only ones that don't are the dodgy 16mm dupe prints, most of the colour casts in scenes are washed away in those prints)
Reproductions in magazines and books will nearly always be balanced out by the pagesetter and appear without the colour-cast, they would most likely assume it was an unwanted artefact and adjust it out. Try taklng the image into photoshop and applying autocolor and you will get a nice dull neutral sky, which looks more natural, but is less striking. I have found on set photographs and books to be a useless source for colour, as it doesn't take into account the on-set lighting, any filters used, the final colour grade or the film stock.
The reddish tones appear to be intended, quite possibly to add to the menace and colour temperature to accompany the 'burning' of Luke's family, and adding to the 'hellishness' of the imagery with the skeletal remains.
But for whatever reason, the sky was pinky-red in 1977 when Luke's Aunt and Uncle breathed their last.
Sorry, I should have been more clear, prints was typed print sources, I'm well aware of that printed source material found in magazines, books and such are pretty much useless.
No, I'm surprised because I was lucky enough being able to see a beautiful albeit incomplete LPP projected last summer (reel 4 and 6 was missing unfortunately.) And being the obsessive SW-freak I am, I made sure to take great notice of anything unexpected in terms of the films timing, and this particular shot in that print didn't stand out to me as being graded any differently compared to any other overcast Tatooine daylight sequences. I'd say its look was very consistent with some of the opening desert scenes with the droids as well as those overcast shots in the droid sale at the farm. Warm, yellow, beige or brown with light gray skies is the way I would describe it.
So I'm not entirely convinced that this shot was timed to set a certain mood, if anything it should have been timed colder if that was the case I think, in order to contrast it with the otherwise warm desert scenes. But when you say that you have seen the same thing in nine different prints! I'm sure you know what you're talking about. And of course I trust you, you're sitting with prints right in front of you. :) Anyway, the amounts of pink in that panning shot there doesn't sit right with me but I guess I'll have to unlearn what I have learned. ;) Memories are memories...
In any case, this is awesome, poita! Had succeeded to somehow miss this thread earlier. We need to set up some way to donate.
That -1 print scan looks way too cold, why is that?