Well, hopefully it will be online by the end of the night. So some of you guys might actually be watching it tomorrow, depending on time zone. 😛
First of all, there are 3 fairly large updates. I replaced Harmy’s “A Long Time Ago” card with TN1’s after cleaning and stabilizing it, and then adjusting the color and positioning based on Mike Verta’s sample. Darth Lucas rotoscoped the lightsaber in Ben’s hut with the one from the SSE, using the color adjust BD shot as background. It looks great! Catbus produced new Greedo subtitles based on the SSE that look very nice as well. Following Harmy’s advice, I put a bit less gate weave on the subs compared to his release.
I fixed a few goof-ups from 2.6. I had a few 1997 shots that were technically specialized: the matte painting when Chewie is in cuffs and two blaster shots in the “look out he’s loose” battle.
I messed up the wipe to Ben’s hut in 2.6, if you look closely. That’s fixed.
During the Mos Eisley entrance scene, I screwed up and accidentally had several shots from Harmy’s 2.0, meaning they contained GOUT elements instead of 35mm. Fixed and graded the correct shots.
Also regraded the beginning of that scene including the initial speeder shot and 35mm TN1 sequence, as they were sepia/saturated before. Some other slight tweaks during the rest of the scene.
There have been color changes throughout the film. Mostly small changes for a bit of consistency here and there, but some larger changes. Mostly, to remove overly green tints from certain Death Star shots, as well as a few Tatooine shots.
Off the top of my head, some of the de-greened shots are: C3PO looking up before the Tantive is taken up (it was mismatched to the previous shot of him). R2’s canyon sequence has been given a more uniform brownish red compared to the varying levels of green from before. The yellow has been toned down in the shots where Luke and 3PO catch up with R2 before the raider attack. The closeups of R2 in his rockless cave have been slightly degreened, as have the two long shots of Ben approaching. The following scene with the force choke had some green removed from the walls, as did various other scenes in this room with Tarkin.
Color adjusted the ‘check every part of the ship’ sequence to remove some green, I think. Reduced green in the control room walls/door as Luke/han leave (hope they don’t have blasters shot). The shot of Vader in the halls that Harmy darkened has reduced green in the shadows. Reduced green when the stormtroopers explode through a wall (“get behind me”). There were a few shots of Tarkin during the battle of Yavin where his skin was overly yellow, those were fixed. There are probably several more instances.
There were several scenes where I went back to the BD and regarded from scratch to remove yellow tones. These include the cockpit scenes leaving Tatooine and approaching the Death Star. As well as the scene where Han loads up his reward and argues with Luke (and the shot of Tarkin immediately before that).
Other small color things, again off the top of my head:
De-blued scene before the droids enter the pod. I kind of messed this up last time.
Desaturated a few shots of R2 before and during the droid sale.
Tweaked one shot during dinner with uncle and aunt for consistency with the only other shot from the same angle.
Tweaked a few shots inside Ben’s hut for slightly more consistency.
Slightly brightened the shot of the droids standing around the Sandcrawler as ben and luke talk about blaster accuracy.
Slight desaturation as ben leaves the tractor beam room and as the gang runs in the following shot.
Changed the color of the following scene as Han runs into the storm troopers (and before and after) to remove some strong and varying tints. Reduced the very strong saturation in one early shot in the bridge scene.
Reduced black levels in the 35mm ‘falcon peeling off’ shot at the end, as they were quite bright.
Added a post-credits thanks sequence, as Harmy does.
Edit: and upgraded to project threepio 9.1 subtitles, and included a Hindi dub.