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1997 Star Wars Special Edition 35mm Project (a WIP)

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 (Edited)

I am going ahead with scanning the 1997 Star Wars-A New Hope Special Edition from two 35mm prints.

If anyone would like to help out with this, please let me know.(Check my signature for details)
I intend to have the first print scanned towards the end of November if I can get the funds together, definitely will be done before Xmas.

I’m not a fan of the Special Edition, but there are no High Definition home releases that are true to the 1997 SE Theatrical Release, the Blu-ray has a ton of changes compared to the SE you saw in cinemas in 1997.

Also, it will be helpful with restoring the Original 1977 Star Wars, as a source of frames missing from the original prints that we have (where they weren’t changed from the OT)

 
Any help appreciated with this, it is an expensive endeavour, but one worth doing.
Once this is done, I will be getting back to THX and the Original Trilogy.

For many this version of Star Wars was the first they saw on a cinema screen, so it deserves a preservation.
 

UPDATE
We still need funds to scan reels 3, 4 and 5.
Previews are up for the other reels.

Donations welcome: paypal.me/poit
bitcoin:13QDjXjt7w7BFiQc4Q7wpRGPtYKYchnm8x
Help get The Original Trilogy preserved!

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This was my first Star Wars, so i am excited to see it preserved in HD.

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I am also very excited to see this, man I’ve been on the hunt for preservation of the '97 trilogy for years. I’ve got a SDTV rip that’s DNR’d to death of Star Wars, and I made my own LD rips for Empire and Jedi. Glad you’re back Poita!

Luke astro-projects himself to Salt Lake Planet, gets shot at by gorilla walkers, has a non-lightsaber duel with Darth Millennial, then dies of a broken heart, inspiring broom boys throughout the galaxy to get creative with their sweeping. - DuracellEnergizer

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How much would be needed to fund the scanning of the entire 1997 SE trilogy? It would be a shame if the opportunity to do these scans at this quality level would pass.

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We.d be looking at around $10K for all three films, or thereabouts.

Donations welcome: paypal.me/poit
bitcoin:13QDjXjt7w7BFiQc4Q7wpRGPtYKYchnm8x
Help get The Original Trilogy preserved!

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In said:

Call me in.

This is indeed cool. Could be useful for cutting together a sort of filtered “silver screen” type release since the parts of the print that are unaltered are probably in better shape than the 35+ year old prints.

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poita said:

We.d be looking at around $10K for all three films, or thereabouts.

I see, well I will be able to contribute some more in the next few months.

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This was certainly the first Star Wars I saw on anything larger than a 19" CRT, so…yeah 😉

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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I’m interested in helping out with this and TPM 35mm

“I find your lack of faith disturbing.”

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Great, I’m going ahead with TPM, and the SE will start scanning soon, any help much appreciated.

Donations welcome: paypal.me/poit
bitcoin:13QDjXjt7w7BFiQc4Q7wpRGPtYKYchnm8x
Help get The Original Trilogy preserved!

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One thing that will be interesting to clear up is the conflicting reports that the SE went through a 2K DI before going out to release prints.
We will soon be able to tell once scanned.
Fingers crossed it was not the case 😃

Donations welcome: paypal.me/poit
bitcoin:13QDjXjt7w7BFiQc4Q7wpRGPtYKYchnm8x
Help get The Original Trilogy preserved!

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I’m guessing not. But I am interested to see how the digital scenes look when scanned in 4K.

[ Scanning stuff since 2015 ]

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From what I’ve read (this I believe: https://theasc.com/magazine/starwars/articles/sped/uni/pg1.htm) is that it was too expensive to do the whole thing using a DI at that point, so only the shots that were digitally altered (including recomposites) were done at 2k then filmed out to be assembled into the negative. Everything else was a photochemical restoration.

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That is my understanding, but it will be good to verify it one way or the other.

Donations welcome: paypal.me/poit
bitcoin:13QDjXjt7w7BFiQc4Q7wpRGPtYKYchnm8x
Help get The Original Trilogy preserved!

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I am pretty sure that the first film to ever do a complete DI is O Brother Where Art Thou?.

I cannot imagine them doing this in 96-97. My money is on no.

What’s the internal temperature of a TaunTaun? Luke warm.

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The Rescuers Down Under (1990) was the first feature film to be 100% recorded to film from digital files. BATB, Aladdin, Lion King, Toy Story were also all done entirely digitally as were other animated films put out during that time.

I’m pretty sure they used a DI for the Phantom Menace, that pre-dates O Brother Where Art Thou by 1 year for a live-action movie.

[ Scanning stuff since 2015 ]

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Yeah, O Brother was the first (live action) movie to be 100% digitally color graded, which means it was a complete DI, but I don’t think it was the first complete DI.

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Phantom menace was a cut negative, but since most of the film went through some form of digital manipulation, its mostly 2K filmouts.

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ZigZig said:

Chewielewis said:

Phantom menace was a cut negative, but since most of the film went through some form of digital manipulation, its mostly 2K filmouts.

According to IMDB, TMP was processed through a 2k DI: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120915/technical?ref_=tt_ql_dt_7

Imdb is user-based. I’ve seen some blatant inaccuracies in the technical specs of certain movies listed there. TPM was indeed a cut neg in ‘99.

In 2011 they were able to reconstruct the movie directly from ILM’s digital filmout tapes, which were still readable after more than a decade. This got them as close to the true original negative as possible. I’m not sure what the procedure was for the remaining shots that never went through the computer at all, whether they were scanned in from the cut neg or whether they were sitting on the filmout tapes as well for some reason.

In any event, this final(?) version of the movie would have been assembled digitally as a 2k DI, but whoever edited the imdb page should’ve specified that this was not done until the 2011 release.

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I don’t think that’s what they did for the 2011 version, it looks to me like they re-scanned the camera negatives and recomposed the digital effects.

[ Scanning stuff since 2015 ]

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RU.08 said:

I don’t think that’s what they did for the 2011 version, it looks to me like they re-scanned the camera negatives and recomposed the digital effects.

There’s an article in one of these threads where John Knoll mentions that they built the master from the film outs. He specifically mentioned the Blu Ray masters.

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Ah yes, I didn’t think about the Disney films. Indeed, OBWAT is not the first DI.

There was also the Gone With the Wind restoration from the early 90s. That was completely digitized.

What’s the internal temperature of a TaunTaun? Luke warm.