yeah, sorry about the links, I've changed web provider and haven't got round to putting my web content back up with the new provider. excellent progress is being made. I think Russ can speak on that as I am in cahoots with him regards footage etc.
I am 70% done re-rotoscoping the kenobi/darth duel in the DS at the moment which as Mverta says has astounding capacity to make you very medetative about life, the universe and everything.
I am on the home stretch re - compiling all the footage together, then I need to pick and paw at it a bit more, then menus etc. my dual layer burner arrived yesterday so I have revised my intent with this presentation of ANH.
dual layer will have
motion menus. the movie in anamorphic presentation 5.1 sound uncompressed PCM sound mono sound (probably from editdroid) commentary track
single layer,
static menus movie 5.1 or 2.0 sound, depending on image quality v space on disk. When a woman says yes, she means no - when she says maybe, she means no.
Very cool project tellan, the discs sound impressive. When you are finished moving everything to the new server and everything's setup, would it be possible for you to go back through your posts and update the links with the correct paths on your new site? Also, how would one get a hold of these discs in the states? I'm very interested in getting them. Thanks!
yeah when I get a spare moment I'm going to do that, it's on my daily goal list right after learn esperanto. I'm very busy at the moment so I will get to it, just not sure exactly when. When a woman says yes, she means no - when she says maybe, she means no.
I know I've come to this late in the day, but just a request to leave the original Ben's house in the movie. Why ? Because it's a real place in Tunisia that some of us have visited and it means something to us. Besides Ben's the crazy old man living in the desert, he would live somewhere simple, just like Yoda.
No worries if you've finalised the movie, I'll enjoy it all the same
time passes, flowers bloom, autmun draws near and another piece is done. finally. Obi -wan v vader saber battle has been completely re-rotoscoped from start to finish with the lightsabers, (particularly vaders) corrected and made internally consistent (ie the saber thickness does not vary.)
and now a word from our sponsor
*whoever had the job of doing this for the DVD release should be F* shot. I don't think I've seen a greater example of someone being lazy and being paid for it."
even if they hadn't touched it and left the original rotoscope work, it would have been better than the hash job that was made of it.
at one point Ben's saber goes purple for gods sake!!!! after a mind bending three months I have re-rotoscoped the vader kenobi duel, re rotoscoped luke on the falcon and re rotoscoped luke while at bens house.
links to follow for example images etc When a woman says yes, she means no - when she says maybe, she means no.
Beyond a few tweaks and checks of colour in certain scenes, things are now drawing to a close on this stage of the project. Therefore I am posting a list of the changes and fixes that have been made to the SE 2004 DVD release.
I have been graciously helped during this project by Darth Editous, Mverta, Russ Dawson, Garret Gilchrist, Mebejedi, Laserman and Zion and many others.
While this version of A New Hope is primarily taken from the SE DVD release of 2004, I have also used footage from the following Projects currently available.
GKAR 1997 SE Versions Gonzo Darth Editous 2004 SE DVD Editdroid V2 and V1 Moth3r Isomix
I have also referred to Mike Vertas site a lot, noting his changes and incorporating as many as possible into my edit.
Q./ Is this a complete restoration of the DVD’s back to the original release form?
A./ No. While original footage, particularly in Mos Eisley has been restored I recognized after a while that certain things either could not be fixed, or if they were fixed would produce too glaring a difference with the restored footage near to it. This is because the DVD release is so sharp. Mixing of Laserdisc footage in some cases was too obvious.
After months of staring at the screen, it became clear to me that towards the end of the film, a lot of the space battle SFX shots were actually quite poor. While I hold very fond memories of this film (having first seen it when I was four), I made a conscious choice to shoot for visual quality first, restoration second.
So for example, while Ben’s house has remained as its original static plate, the ronto in Mos Eisley during the landspeeder panning shot remains as I was unable to mask it out and fix it and the Laserdisc versions of this shot are so poor.
Regarding the end space battle scenes. While the quality of them on the Editdroid version is quite good, I was faced with a dilemma. Even with sharpening, I could not get it to look as good as the footage around it. In addition, the old Laserdisc footage suffers from a lot of sparkles and dirt, again making it obvious when the footage changed. Here I made a conscious decision to keep all of the new CG FX shots. However, the long panning shot of the 30 rebel fighters and Yavin has been cut and changed back into a two shot like the original movie.
Remember, overriding principal for new footage is ‘In the spirit of the original.’
Q./ Have you made other changes I won’t like?
A./ Can’t say. Some might not like the changes, feeling it messes too much with the original. To some I might be considered a heretic, but realize this. I have done the best job I can to deliver a version of the film that looks good and has good quality sound without having to accept Lucas’s changes to a beloved film. Whether you like my changes or not is something you have to decide for yourself.
Q./ You mentioned referring to Mvertas site. What other technical fixes have you done?
A./ Quite a lot actually. The entire film has been colour corrected. Quite frankly I’m appalled by the poor colour correction performed by Lucasfilm and I’m outraged that this film was judged to be THX compliant for either sound or picture quality.
In some scenes R2’s blue was artificially boosted over 40% above normal. Lots of scenes have red and blue casting as a result of having their colour palettes tweaked too far. Everything has been rebalanced with constant referral to the Star Wars Chronicles book for verification on colour and tone.
Here is a list of the changes and fixes I have made. A [DE] prefix indicates a Darth Editous change he has graciously allowed me to use.
1. 20th Century Fox Logo. (still not sure on whether or not to do this or not. Like Mverta I am torn between the original and the shiny new one.) 2. Pull back speed on STAR WARS logo has been corrected before the opening crawl. 3. Matted in new background starfield 4. Used GKAR 97 SE footage for the initial Tantive/Star Destroyer overhead pass as this is more detailed than the Laserdisc but kept the laser glows and engine glows. Kept the 2004 SE DVD background of Tatooine and the moon. 5. Corrected the red of the Tantive IV from candy red to a darker maroon. 6. Colour corrected the blaster flashes during the overhead pass to pure white rather than bright pink. 7. Colour corrected the entire sequence on the Tantive IV so that the corridors are not colour casted. Extensively referred to Mvertas site for this sequence, seeking guidance on colour correction to retain good black levels without compromising shadow detail. 8. [DE] First Darth Editous change. The jump cut of the background Stormtroopers where 3PO and R2 cross the corridor and the doorway is blown up is fixed. 9. More pink blaster flashes during the corridor battle are partially corrected. 10. [DE] Smoothed a jump cut as R2 starts rolling away from Leia towards 3PO 11. De-saturated the red in the corridor in this sequence. 12. [DE] When 3PO and R2 are in the pod, the Star Destroyer recedes into the background. Unfortunately so do the stars, which is not what they should see. I've replaced the stars with non-receeding ones. 13. Colour balanced all of the Tatooine background plates to be more consistent with one another. Not perfect but better. Also managed to make the starfields a bit more visible during these early sequences. 14. Desaturated the desert sequences. They had about 30% more red in the palette than they should have. This change also stops the blue hatch on the escape pod being too garish and bringing it incorrectly forward into your perception on this shot. 15. Restored the canyon shot at dusk with R2 travelling down the canyon. Created a new static digital plate and matted in R2 in the canyon. It no longer pans down from the skyline to the canyon. This is the first of Lucas’s little changes that affect the texture of the film. In 1977 Star Wars did not have any grandiose epic landscape panning camera moves and this corrected shot did not fit the tone of the rest of the film. 16. [DE] After R2 is fitted with a restraining bolt at the Jawa sandcrawler it moves up and down his casing. 17. [DE] When 3PO stands in the sandcrawler, his eyes blink off for a moment. This has been fixed. 18. Removed the CG stormtroopers on Tattooine. The shot has been restored and timed back to the original. CG Dewbacks in the background have been kept. The only modern thing that has been retained is the sandcrawler in the second half of this shot. No decent segment of the original sandcrawler coming over the dune was obtainable so the modern shot has been retained. However, it has been slowed down so that its speed better matches the previous shot. 19. When the droids are being bought at the Lars farm, there is a continuity error where Lucas repeats a shot of R2 standing next to the red R5 unit. The only problem is, this is after that R5 has already trundled off and blown its stack. I’ve repeated a single shot of R2 on his own shaking side to side to get attention instead. 20. In the techdome when Luke is working on R2, a single scene when he walks across to the droids saying “Sounds like she’s in trouble. I better play back the whole thing.” R2’s colouring in this shot is 40% above normal creating a garish blue cast to everything, including Luke’s clothing. This has been corrected. 21. Just after Luke looks at the twin sunsets, the film wipes back to him walking through the garage. It was horribly oversaturated and red casted. This has been corrected. 22. When Luke hits the restraining bolt activator in the techdome and 3PO leaps up, for some reason the DVD is almost monochromatic. GKAR footage was colour corrected and dropped in to replace this sequence. 23. Colouring in the canyon during the encounter with R2, Ben and the Sand people was all over the place. Alternating between red, green and blue casting. This has been corrected. 24. Ben Kenobi’s house. The new matte plate showing a large vista around Ben’s house has been replaced and the original plate restored. This is a brand new plate replacing the original LD footage. 25. [DE] I've morphed Luke and Ben, and adjusted 3PO, so the jump cut is not so obvious when he turns on the lightsabre (the lightsabre also visibly extends). 26. Luke’s lightsabre has been re-rotoscoped. 27. Death Star conference where Tarkin announces the dissolution of the Senate has been colour corrected. Noticably blue casted scene. 28. During this same sequence, there is a bizarre continuity error where in the arch behind Luke and Ben, a cloak is hanging up. During the lightsabre sequence it is no longer there but returns when Luke turns the lightsaber off and sits back down again. This has been put back in. 29. Opening shot of Mos Eisley has been fixed; sort of. The original shot had a very nasty composite of a landspeeder and a static background. The new CG version takes that, adds an awful lot of extraneous buildings to make Mos eisley look more like a sprawling city and adds in wamp rats to the foreground. My take on this was to remove the extra buildings and pare back the background in a new digital plate that used the new CG shot but made it look more like the original. 30. The scene where Luke comes to a halt by the stormtroopers had a CG ronto added to the foreground. Use a screen wipe I’ve combined 2004 DVD and editdroid Laserdisc footage so the ronto is gone and sharpened and recolored the laserdisc footage to match the 2004 DVD version. 31. Comedy Jawa scene on the ronto has been switched for the original footage 32. Spy droid behind the stormtrooper has been removed. 33. [DE] Painted out a small stone that could be seen rolling across the ground for apparently no reason behind Ben, as he mind-tricks the Stormtroopers. 34. [DE] I've fixed a few frames as the speeder approaches the Cantina, where the shadows were not correctly painted. 35. [DE] In the same scene, a ship in the background flys in front of two poles, which makes it appear to be tiny. I've moved it behind the poles. 36. As Luke looks at the cantina. The CG dewback remains but the new civilians that were added in the 1997 SE going into the cantina have been removed. 37. Both wolfmen have been restored in the cantina from original Laserdisc footage. 38. Bat bay at the bar has had his see through eyes made dark so you can’t see through the mask. 39. Where Threepio says “I don’t like the look of this.” The shot has been zoomed and reframed so you can no longer see the CG dewback and stormtrooper. It has also been colour corrected to remove a nasty green cast. 40. Han fires first. This has been retimed to match the original scene. 41. The single frame of Greedo before he fries is no longer a poor dummy. 42. The spy droid around the stormtroopers in the alleyway has been removed by putting in some original Laserdisc footage from the Moth3r version. 43. The Jabba scene has been removed and the surrounding scenes retimed to match the original footage. 44. The sync on Ben's line ("If the ship's as fast as he's boasting...") was out. 45. [DE] I've painted in the radar dish on the Falcon as it sits in docking bay 94 just before "What a piece of junk!". 46. [DE] I've painted out the guy in a green shirt behind Han, in the first shot of Han in the cockpit after they take off. 47. [DE] Before Leia is brought to Tarkin, there's a shot of him and another officer standing in front of a poorly projected picture of Alderaan. I've replaced the projection with a shot of Alderaan from later, replicating the original shading and size. 48. When the Death Star fires I’ve matted in a new starfield. For some reason on the 2004 DVD it’s virtually gone. Signs of the sharpening restoration I think. 49. Added a glow to Alderaans atmosphere as the Death Star beam hits it. This glow persists for a few seconds to help cover a horrible jump cut as the planet explodes. 50. Using original footage from Moth3r’s version, I’ve put back in the original Alderaan explosion and removed the horrible new one with the flat expanding ring of gas and flame. 51. [DE] Just after Alderaan bites the big one, I've shortened Luke's lightsabre because at one point the tip remains completely out of frame, causing it to appear far too long. 52. The lightsabre has been completely re-rotoscoped while on the falcon and the remote droid kept in front of it. 53. [DE] I've used reversed footage to fix a horrendous jump cut when Luke turns off the lightsabre. 54. [DE] I've used a morph to fix a bad jump cut when Luke ignites the sabre while wearing the helmet. 55. The laser bolt on the training remote has been rerotoscoped so that it is yellow and red as it should be 56. added a flare to the lightsabre blade when laser bolts hit it. 57. When the Falcon enters the DS docking bay, I've fixed the gap in the glow from the docking bay light. 58. When the Falcon enter the DS docking bay I’ve masked around the Falcon and corrected its shadow and contrast to match the shadows in the rest of the shot. 59. [DE] Using morphs and pastes, I've fixed a few jump cuts and wobbling doors in the docking bay control room. 60. Removed some pink explosion flashes during the detention bay shootout. 61. Put the original Dianoga back in the trash compactor 62. [DE] Fixed a jump cut when R2 comes out of the closet in the hangar office. 63. Made a new backplate for the tractor beam shaft, correcting where the set is visible against the original matte painting. 64. Using 97 SE GKAR footage put back in the original tractor beam readout in English. 65. [DE] Before the cut-away to Leia ("No wait, they'll here!"), Han's gun emits a puff of smoke even though he hasn't fired it yet (painted out). 66. The corridor joke where Han chases the stormtroopers down the corridor has been put back to the original shot using Moth3r’s version. 67. [DE] A morph fixes a jump cut when Leia shuts the door on the approaching Stormtroopers, leaving her and Luke trapped on the unextended bridge. There was also a visible squib on the door, which I've painted out. 68. [DE] On the DVD, they made a half-hearted effort (a single frame morph) to fix the jump cut when Ben ignites his lightsabre. I've made this a lot smoother. 69. The entire duel between Ben and Vader has been re-rotoscoped from scratch. Threefold purpose. a. To give the sabres pure white cores of a consistent thickness b. To give the sabres consistent glows c. To fix irregularities in the colours of the sabre glows. 70. [DE] When Ben gets cut down, I've added in his face so it looks less like an empty cloak. 71. [DE] I've painted Vader's sabre red in a few uncoloured scenes (when he's in the background behind the Stormtroopers as they shoot it out with Luke.) 72. When the Falcon exits the Death Star Hangar Bay I’ve masked around the falcon and corrected its shadows and contrast to fix the rest of the shot. 73. [DE] The Falcon shudders as the TIEs pass, but the shake effect on Han and Luke is entirely horizontal and shows no motion blur. I've added rotational and translational movement, and some motion blur. 74. [DE] As the TIE makes it's first attack, the glow from the Falcon's engine has a gap in it (from the model's support?) and it flickers. I've smoothed it and filled in the gap. 75. The entire Falcon Vs TIE duel has been color corrected and recontrasted shot by shot. There was a lot of variable colour casting in this sequence. The contrast has also been altered to help bring up the starfields in some of the shots. 76. [DE] In five or six shots, I've removed the garbage matte boxes from around the TIEs. One shot was particularly awful. 77. [DE] I've desaturated a green-tinted TIE fighter that passes in front of Han, and a blue-tinted TIE fighter that passes in front of Luke. 78. [DE] I've reframed one shot of a TIE approaching the camera which had no stars on the right 1/5th (or so) of the frame. 79. As the Falcon approaches Yavin I’ve sharpened up this original footage. 80. The third shot of the Falcon approaching Yavin, I’ve retained the new CG shot but reframed it and slowed it down. 81. I've painted out parts of the motion control rig on the falcon that are briefly visible as the Falcon makes it's final descent towards Yavin IV. 82. Retained the new Massassi temple background Matte painting of the rebel base so we see more detail. 83. In the rebel hangar bay you could see that the Y-wing in the foregound was just a partial set and that the backend behind the cockpit was missing. This has been fixed by being reframed. 84. [DE] I've fixed the Death Star schematic that appears on the monitor and in the briefing. The weapon bowl should appear above the equatorial trench, not on it. 85. As the film goes from jungle to rebel briefing, the jungle had a weird blue cast to it, this has been fixed. 86. [DE] The death star schematic has been corrected on the briefing screen. 87. At the end of the briefing, we get a long shot of the Death Star approaching Yavin. This has been changed. As nice as the restored matte painting of Yavin is, it no longer matches Yavin’s look in the rest of the film. The plate had a new Yavin added to make things match. 88. The countdown on the Death Star screen has been altered to match the time spoken during the space battle. 89. In the hangar, the red values have been adjusted so the red stripes on the fighters don’t leap out at you and burn into your retina. They were 55% above normal. 90. The Biggs scene is gone. The jump cut as the technician walks in front is horrible. It also means I had to fiddle where Luke walks under the wing as that was a different take. The long shot of the hangar immediately afterwards was shortened. I slowed it a little to fill time but have ultimately had to cut the sound the match the new length of this scene. 91. As the rebel pilots start boarding their fighters, we see Red Leaders X-wing from earlier, only now it’s been flopped in post production to make us think it is another fighter. I’ve flopped it back to keep internal consistency. 92. The shot immediately afterwards was also flopped and is again, a repeat of a fighter we saw about ten seconds previously. This has also been flopped. 93. The new CG takeoff sequence has been retained. The original was poor and this adds more drama. 94. The rebel control room has been colour corrected. There was some noticeable green casting to the scenes. 95. The rebel control table showing positions of Yavin and the Death Star has been completely colour corrected with additional corrections for brightness and contrast. This was blue caster 60% above normal. 96. The famous CG shot of the rebel fighters panning past the camera has been re-edited to match the original movie model shot. Instead of one big panning move it has been cut into two separate shots. Firstly of the fighters from behind. Second, from the front. It has also been retimed to match the original. 97. Throughout the space battle Red Leader has been colour corrected as his helmet goes from green to yellow on a frighteningly regular basis. 98. Where Red Leader says “All wings call in.” there was a lot of bleed from the blue screen onto areas of the cockpit and Red Leaders helmet. This has been fixed. 99. The hue of the X-wing engines glow has been corrected. This was pink for some strange reason and should be red if it is going to match the engines in Return of the Jedi. 100. The new CG shot of the X-wings pulling up from the surface of the Death Star after the first pass had some lurid blue casting to the green laser bolts, this has been fixed. 101. When Porkins blows up, I’ve colour corrected the in cockpit explosion and the exterior model explosion to be a more natural colour and not over saturated. 102. The first shot showing the TIE fighters coming in is wrong. The two TIE’s at the back are coloured differently to the front 4. Using masks I’ve colour corrected the two rear TIE’s to match the ones in the foreground. 103. When Luke is dogfighting the TIE fighter and says “I can’t shake him.” I’ve flopped this shot as his microphone pickup on his helmet is on the wrong side. 104. The rebel control table showing positions of Yavin and the Death Star has been completely colour corrected with additional corrections for brightness and contrast. This was blue caster 60% above normal. 105. When the Y-wings are first seen flying down the trench towards the camera, some of the laser bolts are coloured incorrectly. These have been rotoscoped and restored. 106. Just before the Y-wing pilot says, “The guns, they’ve stopped.” There is a shot looking forward from behind the pilot. The panels on the left side of the cockpit were blue as they reflected the blue screen. This has been removed. 107. As Vader kills the first Y-wing some of the laser bolts are coloured incorrectly. These have been rotoscoped and restored. 108. When the Y-wings blow up, their explosions have been colour corrected. 109. Numerous shots of Luke and Red Leader during their respective trench runs have been colour corrected and they were blue and green casted. 110. When the X-wings blow up, their explosions have been colour corrected. 111. [DE] I've added an X-Wing to the shot where Luke looks down to see Red Leader bite the dust. It always bugged me that there was an explosion with no visible cause. 112. When Biggs says “At that speed, do you think we’ll be able to pull out in time.” It was blue casted, this has been colour corrected. 113. The two shots of Luke and Wedge that immediately follow this are almost monochromatic. Apart from the orange flights and skin tones. No other colour exists in the shot. Wedge’s helmet is grey instead of Green. 114. Biggs death explosion has been colour corrected. 115. When the Falcon pulls up from the Death Star, while I have retained the new CG shot to replace the dire original, I’ve reframed it so that the Falcon pulls up vertically, rather than going off at an angle. This is a much more consistent manouveur after having seen the Falcon dive straight down and makes more sense to the viewer. 116. The Death Star Explosion has been completely restored back to the original using mattes and masks and a combination of original and new footage. 117. [DE] Denis Lawsons name is now spelt correctly in the end credits. When a woman says yes, she means no - when she says maybe, she means no.
Now that is what I call a list, it has taken me 3 days to take it all in!!!
Not only does it correct the 2004 SSE back to the OT (mostly) it also corrects some of the glaring errors in the original OT which the later versions should have corrected.
I am lucky to have had a wee tiny supporting role in this and I have seen some of the changes and they are amazing.
Nobody but the most hardened professional will see the wipe from the 2004 SSE to Editdroid OT mentioned in No 30. Even after it was explained to me, it was still tough to see as it is that good.
here is a quick clip of the space battle where I have altered Luke's dialogue to blast it wedge which I think has to be in for the line to make any sense at all.
blast it scene When a woman says yes, she means no - when she says maybe, she means no.
Man those screenshots look absolutely fantastic! Especially the Leia/Vader ones aboard the Tantive. One question tho, Do you think the contrast for Luke's speeder outside ben's hut is a little low?
“I love Darth Editous and I’m not ashamed to admit it.” ~ADigitalMan
I'm still toying with this to be honest. while it's 'done', I'm always prepared to take another pass at something that bothers me.
the problem here is that the speeder is taken from LD, and is off LOW quality so when I match it with the new plate, you're right the contrast and definition is lacking. the problem is I ain't got anything to replace it with.
I toyed with CG'ing a new shot of a CG landspeeder from behind, but I frankly don't know enough to do it. the other alternative is there is a photo of the landspeeder at Bens house from the side. I could maybe redo a new plate from this new angle. BUT then I would be straying from the original which is not the point of this exercise. When a woman says yes, she means no - when she says maybe, she means no.
some intriguing - and obviously exhausing work gone into this tellan. Always good to see another PAL based release. Will be eagrly looking out for it when it's ready .
A little patience goes a long way on this old-school Rebel base. If you are having issues finding what you are looking for, these will be of some help…
… and take your time to look around this site before posting - to get a feel for this place. Don’t just lazily make yet another thread asking for projects.
it's just I've managed to get a DTS encoder through work. of interest at all? do we want to see DTS on a star wars disc? When a woman says yes, she means no - when she says maybe, she means no.
As long as it was mixed correctly and didn't come out sounding like one of those crappy Asian boot tracks, DTS would be most welcomed! Would there be room?
A long time ago in the faraway galaxy...
Star War: The Third Gathers Backstroke Of The West
As long as it was mixed correctly and didn't come out sounding like one of those crappy Asian boot tracks, DTS would be most welcomed!
well I don't think it will. the point being is that I'm using proper programs to do it. the dialogue has been isolated and removed from the rear surrounds and confined to the correct channels.
Would there be room?
the big question, would there be room.
I'm not entirely sure.
on the one hand, the Darth Editous version still looks excellent with about 4GB of video file.
the official release M2v file from the DVD is 5.5GB so when we consider 8.5GB of space on a Dual layer disc that leaves about 3GB if I bring my movie file in at about the same size.
by my calculations a full bitrate DTS track will come in at about 2GB. if that is the case then I must make some choices. you see a full stereo 2 channel PCM track weighs in at 1.3GB if we use the above figures for video as a rule of thumb that leaves me naff all space for motion menus, mono soundtrack, and menu music.
in fact I'll be so bold as to say it won't be enough. 200mb for motion menus and mono soundtrack just doesn't fit, the math doesn't track.
the original plan was to have
5.1 track which is about 600mb 1.0 mono track which is about 140mb 2.0 pcm track which is about 1.3gb Gonzo commentary track which is about 200mb
that's about 2.3gb altogether. Leaving room for menus full 2 pass variable bitrate movie.
DTS on the other hand is bloody expensive in relation to allocation.
peoples opinions welcome on this. When a woman says yes, she means no - when she says maybe, she means no.
