Well, I've actually been thinking it's about time to start a DE-SEing the DVDs thread, actually. There seems to be a greater and greater number of people working on projects along these lines at the moment, and there are some common issues everyone is going to have to face. It's true, we're all polishing turds to some extent, but at least these turds aren't going to smell quite so bad. And, since most people working on these things aren't professional editors and post people, nor have Avid desks in their houses, it makes sense to share what we learn, and have a place to go for help if we're stuck on something. I agree though that it's unfortunetly going to require more work than just swapping vobs, you're just going to have to learn some basic editing
I'll kick it off:
Currently working on VOB 2_3 and 2_4 of the ANH hope disc. This is everything from Ben seeing Leias' hologram to some random stuff on the DS. I started here, becuase it's where the most obvious and heinous crap needs to be fixed. So, where to begin? Well, obviously the Greedo scene needs to be restored, so that's where I began. I'm using the DVDs and trying to piece them together with the LD footage available on ISOMIX, Anamorphic, and TR47 sets.
General Problems: The DVD is cropped much tighter than the LD transfers, PLUS the aspect ration is wonky. Any use of the LD stuff is going to first need to be corrected as best you can to fit the DVD (since that's the better resolution footage, I've used that as my benchmark). Lowry also did a bunch of colour correcting (and, I'll use that term loosely...), which throws the footage WAY off of the LD colours. Oh yeah, and it's pretty random from scene to scene. Enjoy. This may be the trickiest part of the edit. You ALSO may run into some weird problems between VOBS. For example, When I open 2_3 and 2_4 in Vegas, and splice them together, for some reason I'm missing quite a few frames in the shot of Han closing the hatch, and running to the cockpit. I have no idea why this should be, and would LOVE someone to suggest a solution!!!!!!!!! I know the footage is there, obviously, but it simply doesn't work properly in Vegas. Finally, you're probably going to have to create a new audio track. This isn't a big thing, especially if, like me, you don't care about loosing the 5.1 mix. If you're on the right track, usually you'll be able to simply drop in the audio from one of the LD transfers. For later fixes, like the battle of Yavin, I anticipate more problems as I try to cut certain CG shots, and leave others...but that's the future.
Han Shoots First:
Diagnosis and Treatment -
At first glance it looks like you can just cut out the wide angle shot of the exchange of fire, drop in some version of the OT audio, and be done with it. Well, sadly that's not quite right. The "yes, I'll bet you have" shot has been trimmed both comming and going. The front end of the shot, I GUESS, to speed up the pace of the sequence (why?), and the end of the shot because there is a frame or two of muzzle flash as HAN SHOOTS FIRST. The best solution I found so far is to stretch and crop two different LD transfers of the shot (I used the Anamorphic and the ISOMIX versions), composite them together (gave me a more solid looking image, I think), and use that to repalce the DVD shot. Finally, you'll either have to colour correct the LD footage or the entire cantina sequence from the DVD, as Lowry did some kinda weird shit in there, making Han look sunburned. There is obviously a drop in quality, BUT since it is a relatively short piece of footage, it isn't too badly noticeable as long as you get the colour correction close.
Lingering Symptoms -
Well, obviously it would be nice to have a better resolution LD transfer, but until that happens, we're pretty much stuck with the quality. One thing I am having difficulty with is an odd colour balancing issue. Everything looks fairly good EXCEPT the DVD footage has blue highlights on Hans' boot, while the corrected LD footage shows it dark red-brown. I'm stumped on how to fix this without ruining the rest of the balance, and would love some input from you guys here. If anyone knows where to post images for free, I'll put up some caps.
Garrindan
Diagnosis and Treatment -
This is the shot of Ben and Luke walking through Mos Eisley after selling the speeder, and being followed by Garrindan. In the OT, this does a blinds-transition to "If the ship's as fast as he's boasting, we ought to do well.". In the SE, this irises-in on Jabba at the Falcon. Further complicating this is that the two shots are colour balanced differently from each other, so a simple use of the LD footage doesn't work, unless you wish to use it for the ENTIRE section. Balancing this I again found tricky, trying to hit the bright green of the foliage in the first shot, while not washing everything in green.
Lingering Symptoms -
Well, this is still looking rough. I tried just repalcing the transition with LD material, but the cropping, aspect ratio, and colour are just so different from the DVD, that it's a sudden POP when you switch to from DVD to LD material. My edit replaces the WHOLE shot of Ben, Luke, and Garrindan with one copy of the LD footage, colour corrected to try and match the DVD footage. As the transition starts, I crossfade to ANOTHER copy of the footage, this one balanced to try and match the incomming shot. This crossfades out very quickly to the DVD footage of "If the ship's...", as the LD actually can be made to fit pretty neatly into the aspect ratio of the DVD footage here. So, you get a soft switch in resolution, but it's quick. It's by no means perfect, and still undergoing treatment, but at least I don't have to look at TPM Jabba anymore..man, somehow ILM managed to make the animation on him WORSE than the "original" SE....
COMMING SOON: The entrance to Mos Eisley, and the banishing of that digital elephant guy in the cantina.