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Team Negative1 - Star Wars 1977 - 35mm Eastman Vs Technicolot Theatrical Version (* unfinished project *)

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 (Edited)

Welcome to the official thread for the discussion of Star Wars 1977 - 35mm Eastman Vs Technicolor Theatrical Version 1.0

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This is the collective project that is not officially part of OT, or Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox, Disney, etc. but in the spirit of preservation, has been put together with the wish to relive the memory of the original 1977 Star Wars Technicolor version.

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We have made a lot of progress, but we have some more steps to take.

This is the place to keep on top on the when/where/how/who/and why of it.

If you want to discuss technical details, please refer to the Technical forum.

This is just to keep people informed on the status and updates.


What is it? - A conversion/preservation of the 35mm version of Star Wars East vs Technicolor hybrid from:

  1. Kodak Print (6 reels)+1 Extra Reel 3

  2. Various Technicolor references


Who are we? - A group of individuals working on it, color restoration and technical advisory, support


Why? - Because we love the Star Wars Trilogy, and appreciate George Lucas.


When will it be out? - Its done when its done.


Where can we find out more? - Right here.

Technical details

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Video - Our goal is to have a preserved version that will be released in a high definition 1080p anamorphic MKV 25G, and bluray disc 25G, and a 9G MKV downscale as the final product.

There might be several other downsamples in avi/mp4 later on.

Audio - We will have the 35mm English theatrical mix.

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Thanks from our entire team!

Team Negative1

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Reposting:

Edit: But I will add one more teaser, just for the OT crowd.

http://we.tl/8s0ABfcoLG

This video was produced using this technique (plus a little post processing to clean it up a little more), and it only took about a week… It has not been color corrected.

Team Negative1

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There are several scenes in the recently released Star Wars 35mm LPP:

Starfield shots
Dark scenes
Parts of the flyover

See if you can tell what other scenes are from the Eastman version.

Team Negative1

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Well, the color and contrast look amazing already!

However, I did notice some quite noticeable light streaking on the far right side of the frame almost throughout the entire sample:

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1519/23934842693_0112dfce27_o.jpg
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1716/24453343812_0abd9c0e54_o.jpg
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1677/24453343692_1b4559e81e_o.jpg

Is this present on the film or did it get introduced in the scanning process?

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 (Edited)

Forum Rules

Added to OP:

With these rules in place, we kindly ask that any chiding or mocking of team accounts cease immediately, especially in topics where those team accounts aren’t permitted to post and defend themselves. We consider these posts personal attacks under the existing moderation rules, subject to the same administrative action.

Team Negative1

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I’m dumb so if somebody could enlighten me that’d be appreciated:

What does it mean by “A conversion/preservation of the 35mm version of Star Wars East vs Technicolor hybrid?” Is this a version made from both Eastman and Tech prints?

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Darth Mallwalker said:

Williarob said:

Edit: But I will add one more teaser, just for the OT crowd.

http://we.tl/8s0ABfcoLG

This video was produced using this technique (plus a little post processing to clean it up a little more), and it only took about a week… It has not been color corrected.

Missing 26 GOUT frames from the start of the reel (these things happen)
and none after that!

But did you spot the 26 frames I replaced using the LPP? If you look at the lightsaber duel, there are several frames that were missing from the Tech and I replaced using the LPP. At full speed it’s hard to spot unless you are looking for it, but if you slow it down, you’ll see it gets much grainier.

Initially I replaced 23 of those first 26 using the LPP, but I trimmed them from the final sample because they looked pretty rough and I didn’t want it to be judged on LPP frames…

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Unbelievable…not only does all this seem incredible after all these years but it also gives many answers about the video transfers we’ve all debated for years.

Tech is always different and even varies from IB print to IB print, plus all SW prints were done in the UK whose labs always turned out different results than the US lab, generally a colder and more refined palette than the “Technicolor” vivid that came in US prints. (For example, many of the classic Hammers were much more vivid in color here in US prints when compared to UK ones. This has led to the big color debate on HORROR OF DRACULA) Any archivist or preservationist worth their salt will tell you they can’t ever be a fully accurate color representation because of this, unless there is a director/cinematographer supervised check print etc. and even then they had to allow for the printing nature to color the results.

But comparing the two shows the Eastman/LPP as having that elevated contrasty look we’re so used to that is inherent in both JSC/SWE and even to a degree in the GOUT/Definitive/Faces. The grain is also clunkier and more consistent with the little bit we could see in old SD video. The IB vaults ahead on every level, and yes at times the color is too rich compared to what was shot…just like a proper CRT can round out a perfect video image with blacks and color depth. AFAIC it nails it, but then again I’m a diehard Tech supporter. It isn’t exactly what was shot and presented in 1977 as the E/LPP is, but probably the best the film ever was-just as the 70mm blowups bumped the sound to the Dolby 70mm format, the IB prints increased the PQ in every possible way while providing a much more refined, natural and visually pleasing image.

I also think this is the reason why GL loved his personal IB print, and requested the 97SE be matched to it. This also explains why so many at the time complained the 97 print was not as the last screenings in 93 were. I don’t think they could quite get that IB look without dye transfer, which was only revived in 1999-2003 or so.

Just still beyond shocked we have all this to compare now…reminds us of just how far we’ve all come.

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A dumb question - why?
Why as :

  • why are you working on it?
  • why the “vs” ?
  • will it be “better” than the already released version and if yes, in what terms?

Or let me re-phrase it : when the version 2.0 comes out, what will be the reason for me to delete the version 1.0?

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Did you watch the sample they posted? I think that should answer your question. As long as they manage to make it at least as clean as the v1.0 version that is, because even after the initial cleanup, it’s still pretty rough.

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I love the Silver Screen edition to begin with, but this looks almost immaculate. I need to get my hands on a Blu Ray burner soon.

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Wow. That looked fantastic! Aside from some scratches and damage to the film on the right side, of course. Can’t wait to see it when it’s ready!


**😮ver&out:
**mumbles

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team_negative1 said:

http://we.tl/8s0ABfcoLG

Glorious. I might need to buy a pack or two of Depends.

So to be clear, is this actual Technicolor footage, or Eastman film re-graded to match it? In the flood of newbies posting in the SSE thread, I may have missed that information.

This signature uses Markdown syntax, which makes it easy to add formatting like italics, bold, and lists:

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Harmy said:

Did you watch the sample they posted? I think that should answer your question. As long as they manage to make it at least as clean as the v1.0 version that is, because even after the initial cleanup, it’s still pretty rough.

Actually I did and it doesn’t really answer any of my questions 😦

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That sample looks stunning! I love - and am truly grateful for - the recent Silver Screen release, but this looks far superior to my eyes. Very punchy, it leaps off the screen, and I love those colours. Superb black levels too! It just feels ‘right’! Very exciting time to be a Star Wars fan - thanks to all involved for keeping the original versions alive! 😃

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Has anyone seen my jaw? It hit the floor while I was watching that preview of Reel 5 and I haven’t been able to find it since 😛

Seriously, this is truly amazing. I figured that SSE v1 was as good as we could hope for, but this Technicolor footage goes beyond my wildest expectations. Can’t wait to see the finished product!

Also, it might be too early to ask, but since you guys have been able to up the scanning resolution from 2K to 4K, does that mean we may get a 4K release somewhere down the line?

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The preview is amazing! Looks so good. I do have a question, though. Why is the image so squished? I run it in VLC and set aspect ratio to 2.35, and it seems wider than it should be. It’s definitely wider than the SSE, as I pulled them both up and looked at them together. They’re both set to the same ratio, but the tech preview is stretched horizontally. Setting to 2.21 almost helps, but it’s ever so slightly too tall then.

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Lust-In-Phaze said:

Could it be because it hasn’t been cropped yet?

I cropped off the optical audio track, but did not crop the frame at all. The aspect ratio in this sample is slightly off. If you resize it to 2048 x 880 then it should look about right.

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STENDEC said:

Has anyone seen my jaw? It hit the floor while I was watching that preview of Reel 5 and I haven’t been able to find it since 😛

Seriously, this is truly amazing. I figured that SSE v1 was as good as we could hope for, but this Technicolor footage goes beyond my wildest expectations. Can’t wait to see the finished product!

Also, it might be too early to ask, but since you guys have been able to up the scanning resolution from 2K to 4K, does that mean we may get a 4K release somewhere down the line?

We do have several prints (including this Tech) scanned in 4k, but 4k processing requires more computing power and more disk space than we have at the moment.

If there is ever a time when everyone has 4k TVs, then maybe. Hopefully we won’t need to, though. Perhaps by then Mike V’s Legacy Edition will be on sale in stores in 4k.

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