StarWarsLegacy.com - The Official Thread — Page 53

Wow. That's simply beautiful

I've figured out Mike's plan. He's gonna put up before and after videos for each shot and scene and let us piece together his restoration of Star Wars right under the noses of Lucasfilm!

It's genius...

Holy goodness, that difference is phenomenal! Wow!!

Whatever algorithms, software you've created for this you should market, it's amazing.

SVHS said:

I've figured out Mike's plan. He's gonna put up before and after videos for each shot and scene and let us piece together his restoration of Star Wars right under the noses of Lucasfilm!

It's genius...

 On the contrary, I feel like he cuts a lot of these restored shots a bit short in his videos so that no one lifts them. :)

Mike, do you suppose the reason the Tunisia stuff has that much noise is from static electricity due to the sand? I know that if they had any kind of dust storms it could have affected the camera magazines. Also, that could be why those shots are so rough - depending on how careful they were with those cameras when loading/unloading and swapping mags there's a lot of room for contamination. Just kind of thinking out loud here...

Huh. I wonder if their cameras were shielded back then? Do you know what model they were using for Tunisia and possibly Elstree? (not that it really matters, just curious). Yeah, I know what you mean though about the diffusion. 

Off topic, did Gil piss GL off enough to have to put the filters back on? I'm always baffled by GL decision to use filters/diffusion. You can add it in post if you want (albeit with a slightly different look), so to me it's kind of silly to do it in camera and jack up your negatives...

Yeah, I guess even the other "in Mos Eisley" parts kind of look like that.

I wonder if they processed all the stuff at the same time? If so, could their color developing bath have been too hot? I know I intentionally boil (not literally) my B/W negs to increase grain, and I know that has an effect on color film too - I wonder if they rushed development of stuff run through the optical printer? Mike, are the shots you're talking about at Elstree run through the compositor/optical printer at all?

Not completely sure if I posted in this thread yet, but I've been following it for awhile. 

I'd just like to say that you're pretty cool and talented Mike. We share the same favorite movie. I only wish I had the same resources as you so I could give it the same treatment, but I'm glad someone out there will be able to see the film as it was originally intended, and certainly that someone deserves to be you after all the work you've put in to it. I can only hope that someday the powers that be allow the rest of the world to finally see this brilliant (and immensely important) film as it should be.

Anyway, I just had a thought, it might be interesting, when all is said and done, for you to piece these videos together with new ones to create a sort of documentary on the making of this project. I'm sure there'd be a lot of great insight into this film we all think we know, as your videos have proven. It'd be cool to have all your work and knowledge in one package.

mverta said:

Thank you for the kind words - sharing the work is my dream; restoring it is the mission.  

There actually is a documentary about the project in the works, being shot by an insanely talented up-and-coming cinematographer named Laura Beth Love, with interviews with all the people who've helped, breakdowns of the process, clips, etc.  If everything goes according to Murphy's Law, the final scene should be Disney announcing a pristine 4K release of the original, just as I'm finishing up, for your sort-of Scorcese ending.  :)

_Mike 

Wow, that sounds great. 

That's what I fear about the Disney endorsed 4K restoration of Star Wars.

The blu-ray restorations of their animated features are unashamed revisions at the best of times with redrawn cels, flattened colour and removal of vibrant compositing details. All of these quirks and by-products of working in a wholly hand-crafted environment before the use of digital cel colouring and compositing really brought life to the animation. Gave it a shimmer and feel that we were watching 24 very unique frames per second, rather than a more perfected but paradoxically blander set of images.

It's like watching new Simpsons episodes. I believe the cels are still hand drawn but the colour, compositing and editing are all done digitally. So what you get is a strange 'flash animation' feel about it all which stands in complete contrast to the earlier seasons that have a very atmospheric and hand assembled quality to them that helps assist the storyline and ability for the audience to indulge in the characters and the show.

Now, to Star Wars. In my estimation, it's gonna be difficult for Disney to put out a very pure, unaltered restoration much like Mike's without having more than a few people within the company asking to recomposite effects shots, remove wires, fix the obvious visual and sound errors and grade the colour more in line with what a present-day audience is used to. In that effect, we may very well get another Special Edition in all but name. It'll be free of the 1997 and onwards CGI additions, but it will still be a revision and still not adhere to what audiences first saw in 1977.