Team Negative1 - Return of the Jedi 1983 - 35mm Theatrical Version (unfinished project) — Page 15

Wouldn't a 70mm copy be lower quality?

I mean, 70mm has a higher resolution, but since Star Wars was shot on 35mm, it would have had to go though more steps to create a 70mm print, resulting in more generational loss.

There's always loss in the printing process, and a 70mm has much less loss than a 35mm print.  Also there's a good chance the process was done more carefully/slowly for the 70mm print, further increasing quality.

Star Wars looked pretty damn nice in 70mm in 1977.

Actually, you can have too much material. It takes up valuable space, and it is hard to organize several Terabytes of data, and distribute them.

Even with highspeed access, it still takes a long time.

We have a lot of unused prints, reels, etc, that won't be used, because they have been superseded. We try to preserve what we can.

But at some point, you have to cut the older stuff, and the things you won't use for practical reasons. We've seen prints of all 3 of the original trilogy and passed on them, because they were faded, missing reels, and other issues, where in the past we would have acquired them.

So, yes, you can have too much material.

Team Negative1

We are actually looking into 70mm transfers currently. Running some test clips of Empire to see what happens. Nothing about full prints though.

We would want those primarily for their soundtrack.

Team Negative1

70mm films are usually cropped more than the 35mm versions.

Team Negative1

Capturing 70mm sound would require some way to capture magnetic audio. I know poita did it for that Fantasia print...

We are investigating the hardware for this, when the time comes, if we can get the sources.

Team Negative1

I call first dibs on working with 70mm audio if viable sources for it ever turn up.  ;)

The soundtrack is the stereo 35mm from the print. Thanks for the comments.

Team Negative1

You're probably already aware of this, and not that you need anymore sources, but there's a 35mm print of ROTJ up for bids on eBay right now, in "very good" condition.  

http://www.ebay.com/itm/131534419621

Thanks. We're not looking for anymore prints. We have more than enough material. At some point we'll get around to the SE versions. We don't need any more of the originals.

Team Negative1

Out of curiosity, would the SE prints be of higher quality than the originals? Due to age, the cleanup it underwent and being produced by more modern equipment?

It might be interesting to see a hybrid version, the 77 version, but edited together from a mixture of original prints and SE prints.

Red Dwarf said:

Out of curiosity, would the SE prints be of higher quality than the originals? Due to age, the cleanup it underwent and being produced by more modern equipment?

I really don't know. I'm pretty sure the first film would look worse on an SE print, because the negative fading ate away detail and color information that could not be recovered even by the restoration. (I remember anecdotal reports from old timers like Treadwell that there were visible color shifts *during* scenes. Also, I read someone who said that the opening corridor shot looked grainier and fuzzier on the SE than on a revival screening in 1994. And I definitely know mverta has said the SE looks worse.)

Also, the digital work was done at 2K, so anything that was digitally scanned had its resolution reduced (though once you get to a theatrical print generation, it may not be easy to tell).