ROTJ V 2.5
All the new shots in the Rancor pit from the Workprint totally don’t match. They are all much darker and much more green. Could they be taken from the HDTV broadcast? My memory is that fix was not done in 1997, but in 2004. Best would be a custom matte done along the edges of the Rancor just to return the hard matte line. As it stands they are totally jarring. (Although I will admit this is one of two fixes George did which I was happy about. The other was when Obi Wan’s lightsaber lost its glow being pointed towards camera in ANH).
This has been discussed a bit already. I forget which thread it was in, though.
The HDTV broadcast is the 2004 edition.
When Harmy sent us all the preview edition of 2.0, it was synchronized to puggo’s 16mm print which, along with the 35mm print, made it pretty clear that the Rancor scene was dark and blue on film. He did all that could be done to match it to the blu-ray shots that were included, but there are definitely limitations on shots like that. I agree with you that it’s not perfect, but it is a lot better than the previous revision. And looking at the original film, the consistency wasn’t 100% then either. But perhaps 3.0 could use 35mm for every single shot within the pit and some additional corrections can be made. Or maybe, as you say, the matte lines could be rotoscoped.