4K restoration on Star Wars — Page 100

JawsTDS said:

Now that this old news is resurfacing once more, I find myself reading the same thing: “the negatives for the originals are gone! no chance for the theatrical cuts!”

Mostly everyone who’ve wrote these articles can guess (or perhaps even know) that Reliance scanned the '97 SE. Because of this, they are all under the impression that there’s no simple way to recover the theatrical versions of the OT – because rumor has it the o’negs for the three films were conformed to the '97 SE. However, you don’t need a negative. Interpositives are very close in terms of quality to the original source, and if I’m not mistaken, they retain the original color timing, unlike the negative.

If the negatives actually are recut, then no sweat. Now, if for some reason LucasFilm only have access to the recut negatives and beat-up release prints, then sure – we can panic. But as seem from both MVerta and Poita’s work, a good 35mm release print scan can hold up very nicely.

My rant is over. Goodnight, and Happy New Year.

That mantra seems to mostly come from the people who don’t want the OOT released.

moviefreakedmind said:

Tyrphanax said:

moviefreakedmind said:

Does anybody remember which of the directors for a Disney Star Wars movie said that he hated the Special Editions? If it was Gareth Edwards then that would be positive regarding the OUT’s prospects, because Edwards seemed pretty excited about the 4K print he saw. I can’t find it online, but I remember one of the director’s old forum posts being dug up years ago and he said a bunch of really dramatic stuff about how much he hates the SEs. Does anyone remember?

Edwards was once very outspoken against the revisionism, yes.

Do you think that his emphasis on the 4K print and how great the experience was points toward this 4K print being non-SE?

I can’t say for sure, but it’s safest to assume not. He worked for Lucasfilm so he’s not going to come out and say “it was the awful SE versions.”

Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

Tyrphanax said:

moviefreakedmind said:

Tyrphanax said:

moviefreakedmind said:

Does anybody remember which of the directors for a Disney Star Wars movie said that he hated the Special Editions? If it was Gareth Edwards then that would be positive regarding the OUT’s prospects, because Edwards seemed pretty excited about the 4K print he saw. I can’t find it online, but I remember one of the director’s old forum posts being dug up years ago and he said a bunch of really dramatic stuff about how much he hates the SEs. Does anyone remember?

Edwards was once very outspoken against the revisionism, yes.

Do you think that his emphasis on the 4K print and how great the experience was points toward this 4K print being non-SE?

I can’t say for sure, but it’s safest to assume not. He worked for Lucasfilm so he’s not going to come out and say “it was the awful SE versions.”

Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

He probably wasn’t supposed to mention it at all. I think you’re right, he wouldn’t say anything negative, but it raises a lot of questions. If “day one” means around when he was chosen to direct, then that would place the completion of the restoration in summer of 2014, which is when this thread started and the rumor of a 4K Star Wars started. I wonder if it’s that version Devon Faraci talked about a while ago where Greedo doesn’t shoot first and there’s a different Jabba scene (but still in the movie). Either way, the existence of a Special Edition restoration doesn’t necessarily bode poorly for a home video release of the OUT.

Devin Faraci…now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time…

Swazzy said:

Devin Faraci…now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time…

Oh God, I just read about his scandal. Either way, his previous Star Wars information seems to make sense now.

This may be useless, but Peter Mayhew’s tweeting of the original script (with emphasis on Han shooting first) to build up to a “big announcement” that he ultimately never made.

EDIT: Also, according to a poster on another forum in 2015, his company was instructed to remaster “Empire of Dreams” in HD.

Did anything ever come of Mike Verta meeting with Lucasfilm about his 4K Scan/Restoration?

Fang Zei said:

moviefreakedmind said:

This may be useless, but Peter Mayhew’s tweeting of the original script (with emphasis on Han shooting first) to build up to a “big announcement” that he ultimately never made.

EDIT: Also, according to a poster on another forum in 2015, his company was instructed to remaster “Empire of Dreams” in HD.

Good point about Mayhew.

As for Empire of Dreams, could that hd remastering simply have been for purposes of putting it up on youtube? Or is that upload still in 480p like the dvd?

Empire of Dreams was added to youtube before I encountered this person about a year ago.

lovelikewinter said:

Did anything ever come of Mike Verta meeting with Lucasfilm about his 4K Scan/Restoration?

I don’t even think that he has done that yet.

He did request that any details be kept off of any web forum other than his though, so we better not get into any of that.

This comment was completely anonymous and could easily be full of sh#t, but it’s worth a gander I suppose:

“This isn’t surprising news… it’s well known within industry circles that the plan was to release the OT’s theatrical versions in new 4K transfers prior to ‘The Force Awakens’ but the 1977 film needed a lot more work than initially thought - Disney even went so far as to ask the Library of Congress for a scan of the print they’ve had in their archives since 1978 - and so it was put back until the 40th anniversary in 2017…” - Anonymous post on the Den of Geek’s article reporting Gareth Edward’s mention of the 4K restoration.

I’m grasping at straws (which is what SW fans have had to do regarding the OUT for years), but this does fall 100% in line with every single thing I’ve heard from people with so-called “insider” information. Hope for the best, expect the worst.

If the SE is a dupe neg and the original is untouched, it has 18-20 more years of degrading that they would have to fix. Or the pieces cut out of the neg to create the SE (even now that sickens me) would probably have needed a lot of work. Empire probably has the same fading issues, and hopefully Jedi was relatively easy.

Fang Zei said:

That dupe neg talk was just speculation on Robert A Harris’ part. I’m pretty sure we know for a fact that George had the changes cut directly into the o-neg. RAH is correct, though, that the o-neg is not needed for an amazing OOT restoration.

Now that it’s Disney’s money to spend on such a project and not GL’s, I’d say the chances are much greater. George even changed his tune from “my original vision” to “it’s too expensive right now” not long before selling the company. I honestly don’t think it would bother him if the remastered original were packaged with a remastered SE.

Nope, lets leave the SE perpetually at 1080p in accordance with Lucas’ “vision.”

Fang Zei said:

That dupe neg talk was just speculation on Robert A Harris’ part. I’m pretty sure we know for a fact that George had the changes cut directly into the o-neg. RAH is correct, though, that the o-neg is not needed for an amazing OOT restoration.

Now that it’s Disney’s money to spend on such a project and not GL’s, I’d say the chances are much greater. George even changed his tune from “my original vision” to “it’s too expensive right now” not long before selling the company. I honestly don’t think it would bother him if the remastered original were packaged with a remastered SE.

The only somewhat reliable person online that I’ve ever found that claimed the OUT would not be released is Devin Faraci, who claimed that Fox wouldn’t release the OUT until George Lucas died, which I think was completely wrong because his article was full of factual inaccuracies. Every other person I’ve encountered with so-called “inside information” claims it will happen in 2017. Hope for the best, expect the worst.

baron_lando said:

lovelikewinter said:

If the SE is a dupe neg and the original is untouched, it has 18-20 more years of degrading that they would have to fix. Or the pieces cut out of the neg to create the SE (even now that sickens me) would probably have needed a lot of work. Empire probably has the same fading issues, and hopefully Jedi was relatively easy.

The good news buried in that Gareth Edwards Rogue One article is that the negative of all the unused negative was just fine, and usable to boot.

The “unused negative”, what do you mean by this?

moviefreakedmind said:

baron_lando said:

lovelikewinter said:

If the SE is a dupe neg and the original is untouched, it has 18-20 more years of degrading that they would have to fix. Or the pieces cut out of the neg to create the SE (even now that sickens me) would probably have needed a lot of work. Empire probably has the same fading issues, and hopefully Jedi was relatively easy.

The good news buried in that Gareth Edwards Rogue One article is that the negative of all the unused negative was just fine, and usable to boot.

The “unused negative”, what do you mean by this?

The camera negatives from the filming of Star Wars still exist, and have not been digitized as of a year or two ago. Gareth Edwards saw them at the Lucasfilm archive.

lovelikewinter said:

moviefreakedmind said:

baron_lando said:

lovelikewinter said:

If the SE is a dupe neg and the original is untouched, it has 18-20 more years of degrading that they would have to fix. Or the pieces cut out of the neg to create the SE (even now that sickens me) would probably have needed a lot of work. Empire probably has the same fading issues, and hopefully Jedi was relatively easy.

The good news buried in that Gareth Edwards Rogue One article is that the negative of all the unused negative was just fine, and usable to boot.

The “unused negative”, what do you mean by this?

The camera negatives from the filming of Star Wars still exist, and have not been digitized as of a year or two ago. Gareth Edwards saw them at the Lucasfilm archive.

Could you link to an interview source? I can’t find any of this online.

At the end of Edwards’ interview by the way, he does mention that the original trilogy were masterpieces without the Special Edition in his opinion.

The OCN is composed of the camera negative (baring effects shots).

Just re-watched the reliance demo reel. Don’t know what y’all think, but it’s stunning IMO, especially the shots from the Bespin duel. On the BD, is just drab and gray looking. In the demo, all kinds of blues are coming out, and the sabers don’t suffer from that terrible over saturation.