team negative1 - star wars 1977 - 35mm theatrical version (Released) — Page 83

We have started to get requests for these, and have sent out the links accordingly.

In anticipation of a lot of requests, please be patient when expecting a reply, you will have a week to get them.

Team Negative1

Many of the troublesome scenes from the LPP are the dark ones. These do not have a lot of contrast in them.

In the preview, they are just cleaned. We are in the process of replacing them with better quality shots.

One of the major scenes was the sequence when R2D2 goes into the valley and gets captured by the Jawas.

This scene had a lot of artifacts, and did not compress at all in the preview.

Here is a higher quality version of that scene:

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http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k7MrXTpcHKKOwNbIeyj

Parts of this will be replaced in the next internal preview that we will release.

Team Negative1

All PM's have been sent with links.

For those that don't want to wait, the files are now on Myspleen.

After next week, that will be the location to get them from.

Team Negative1

CatBus said:

team_negative1 said:

As you can imagine, it's taken a few years of hard work to get to this point,

we currently have about 90%+ of the movie cleaned, and are finalizing the rest

of the clips and replacement shots.

The LPP was already a hybrid of Eastman prints (for the Crawl, and also the

Han Shoots First scene), so we are only enhancing some of the shots that

look very dark, or don't have enough detail. This is mainly the shots with

starfields and a few others. Possibly some interior sandcrawler shots, and

Luke at nighttime.

In before Frink to say welcome back, and looking forward to seeing your progress.

 We don't look forward to progress.  We have infinite patience.

Team Olie

First of all, thanks for sharing the previews with us! The cleanup looks very impressive. You guys did an amazing job! The first reel of the LPP print looks to be in a worse shape than some of the other samples I've seen of the other reels, and TESB Grindhouse. Looks like there's still some work to be done in that respect. The replacement shot looks really good, though. I hope you can approach the dynamic range of this shot for the other scenes in reel 1 during post-processing. 

We're not sure, by what you mean, concerning the condition of the first reel. They all have areas of damage, and varying quality across the shots. That is the way the film looks.

This first reel is no better or worse than the other reels. The dirt and dust cleanup has removed almost all the artifacts that were on the film.

If you could be more specific about it, maybe it would be clearer.

There is no comparison of this to any other film, the Empire Strikes Back scan is taken from a faded Eastman print, mixed with FUJI reels also, so the detail and grain levels are completely different. That's comparing apples to oranges.

As mentioned in posts above, the LPP print has its own unique characteristics.

The replacement shots also have varying quality, so you can't just judge it by that one sample.

Finally, you're looking at the earliest preview, as we mentioned, and you noted.

We have enhanced it several times since this was made.

We anticipate one more preview with the replacement shots, and that will be it. Again, it will be released to Blog members first, and to the public eventually.

Team Negative1

Hope you don't mind me asking an odd question.

What is the most unusual or unexpected thing you discovered about Star Wars during the process of going through all of the reels?

I understand that comparing SW and TESB is comparing apples and oranges. However, looking at these projects from the perspective of someone who doesn't care about the type of print used as a basis for a 35mm preservation, and is simply comparing the quality of the source material, the TESB prints are more pleasing to my eyes than the LPP. The same is true for the replacement shot, although like you said it's only that one shot. I also watched the 35mm shots you used in the 8mm Grindhouse, and they seemed to be in a better shape than reel 1, although I'm saying this from memory, so I could be mistaken. That is in no way a critisism of the great work you guys have done cleaning up these prints. 

When I say there's some work to be done, I'm assuming the team will want to achieve a consistent look for the entire film. Therefore certain scenes will probably need a little more work than others in terms of contrast adjustment, deflickering, etc. 

Anyway, I certainly very much admire the work that went into this, and I'm very much looking forward to the release. 

Thank you for clarifying your remark. We understand some people prefer a less grainy, and more detailed look to the prints. We do not take that as criticism, it is just a matter of fact.

But they all have their individual qualities. You are correct, that in each phase of the cleanup and adjustment, we will try to match the overall look.

However, a Reel to Reel look, and not a shot by shot adjustment will be made, there are too many anomalies to contend with.

As an example, the cleaned up Han shoots first shot, will look much sharper and detailed, than the rest of the reel. We don't even have the original LPP version, since it was spliced out, and replaced with a faded Eastman version. However, with correction, it will not look out of place.

Finally, there are many unexpected things throughout the film, especially when you go through frame by frame, some we knew about previously, and some new ones. We're sure people will discover more:

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http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Watching-star-wars-frame-by-frame-slow-motion-Cool-stuff/topic/14027/

The links are down, but it would be good to add some current frames to it.

Team Negative1

Considering how many different print and film elements you guys are juggling with, the results are very impressive! I have always loved the grainy, and "dirty" look of film as opposed to the sterile, and bland look of digital.

As you said, consistency across the entire film is important. But consistency across the trilogy is near impossible due to the different elements available.

Excellent work as always, and thank you!

Here's a sample of the 'Han shoots first' sequence. Note that the exterior Deathstar shot is a replacement also:

NOTE : The colors will vary throughout the clip, and have not been corrected.

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Videoclip:

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http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k3wY9yh4jnq3lebIMuh

Team Negative1

I've got to say, I was kind of worried until I saw the higher quality clip of the Jawas nabbing R2 in the canyon. A lot of the grain in the preview ends up just looking like noise, but I'm guessing that won't be the case with a BD25-sized final product.

The clips with dark scenes are being replaced, along with the one posted with R2D2 and the jawas.

It is not final yet.

Team Negative1

Yes, there were audio issues at the end of the Reel, there was a skip in it to keep it synced better.

When the final mixdown is down, it will be fine.

Thanks for your comments and memories about it.

Team Negative1

Currently, we have a lot of footage about the making of the restoration, but due to privacy issues, all the scenes have been subtitled.

Either that, or they would be audio only, like our interview on the podcast.

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http://www.theexpandedfandomverse.com/2015/01/episode-023-mr-black-and-team-negative-1.html

They may just be bonuses when we are done.

Team Negative1

Thank you so much for the preview. All of your work is greatly appreciated. Aside from issues already discussed, I think this is looking fantastic so far!

I have a weird kinda question though about something. At about 6 mins into the reel one preview of star wars, there's the shot of the storm troopers pursuing the rebel scum down the corridor in the Tantive into some smoke. At the end of the shot there's a storm trooper on the right side of the frame who fires 2 one handed shots into frame right. In the preview, I hear the shots, but I don't see them. I'm not sure why that is. Is it just my crappy monitor? I've noticed in some other projects there seem to be some extremely faded blaster bolts against a white background, so maybe it's just some sort of contrast issue?

I've seen these movies a million trillion times, but I'm too young to have seen these movies in the theater, and I've never seen the original theatricals on 35mm ever. I'm just wondering if maybe those blaster bolts were added at some point. They are in the GOUT, my laser disc, and every tape, I think, I had when I was a kid. Super curious about that.

Again, thank you for the preview and all the work. Whenever I see previews, stills or clips from these 35mm projects, I feel as though I've never actually seen these movies. :)

You might know who we are, but no one else does. We know who you are too. So it goes both ways.

Regardless, we're not taking that chance.

Team Negative1

We have no problems with people revealing their identities. The other team members are involved in professional companies, and choose not to disclose their identities. The team members that left, like -1, don't care about the project anymore, so they preferred it that way.

We choose to respect their privacy at their request.

Team Negative1