4K restoration on Star Wars — Page 40

Oh, yeah, as long as it is given a proper treatment, an IP (or preferably multiple IPs) should be a perfectly acceptable source - the BD of Blade Runner looks great.

So people would be happy with a 2k scan of the IP Criterion style with grain management like The Hidden Fortress?

Or do people really want an 8k scan like the Wizard of OZ straight off the negative. 

What resolution does VistaVision come close to anyway?

Supposedly Dysktra tested 65mm neg for the effects but found  it would be too expensive and unwieldy.

Assuming the 4K project is only for the SE, I still think that for the inevitable OT re-release before Ep. VII, they'll include the OUT as an incentive to re-buy the trilogy, maybe with some Ep. VII teasers like that 2008 Indy Trilogy had for Crystal Skull. What if we get a 2K scan of a good condition IP, or multiple IP's if necessary as Harmy suggested, and they clean it up where necessary and color correct it appropriately in order to give it consistent colors throughout that match up with what the original colors looked like, also hopefully including both mono and 70mm stereo mixes (I'd love for New Hope to be branched, but I'm not holding my breath)? It's essentially a cheap alternative to the 4K restorations and a way for Disney to release the OUT respectably. Would this be acceptable? It's essentially what the GOUT should've been, and even if it is a disappointing release it'd make for an excellent source when creating the Despecialized Edition since entire shots would fit alongside the SE blu ray (which I'm assuming will be released in 4K soon) much better than GOUT.

@skyjedi: The resolution of Vista-vision is about twice that of a normal 35mm frame but it's quite irrelevant, because I'm pretty sure the finished effects only exist on 35mm anamorphic.

@mfm: I would personally consider that good enough but I also think, that today 4K is pretty much the standard and with their resources, it wouldn't be much more expensive than 2K, so 4K should therefore be used, even if they are scanning an IP - even theatrical prints benefit from 4K scanning, so an IP certainly would.

I think that an IP scan in 2K or 4K will be what we most likely get as of right now. A friend of mine who frequents Home Theatre Forum has said that is also the general consensus amongst the people there as well. I do think we're guaranteed some kind of OUT release though, both to hype the nostalgia surrounding a more OT based Sequel Trilogy, which will win back distraught fans just in time for the new movie, as well as to give people a very big incentive to double dip for more blu rays of the same movies (essentially what the '06 DVD was, except this version of the OUT won't suck). I'm just not convinced that they've gone back to the negative like the rumor says though because I think that the new 4K scan from RMW has the '04 lightsabers (or at least very similar ones) which obviously means it's not unaltered, but it's very possible that they simultaneously scanned and restored the 97 negative as well as the removed parts to create a 4K version of the current SE as well as the OUT. Either way I'll be satisfied enough for the time being.

I know on their video we noticed that the lightsabers looked 04-ish in the Star Wars clip, but what about this picture from Empire? Are these the original lightsabers? I believe they were redone on the blu ray, but I don't own it so I can't check.

http://www.rmwusa.com/

On their website at the top several images cycle through and one is of Luke and Vader in their Bespin duel.

Darth Id said:

IP scan is the only way to be sure all the wipe-cuts will be correct.

I would personally prefer a scan of a well-preserved IP to any reconstruction of the O-neg.

Agreed. Same here.

AntcuFaalb said:

Darth Id said:

IP scan is the only way to be sure all the wipe-cuts will be correct.

I would personally prefer a scan of a well-preserved IP to any reconstruction of the O-neg.

Agreed. Same here.

 I think that's likely what they'll do. There's so many things that could go wrong with restoring the negative, especially since if it's true what they said and the negatives were hacked up to be conformed to the SE, then so many tiny frames would've been removed. Even just little things like censoring the bullet impacts on the Death Star etc. etc.

moviefreakedmind said:

I know on their video we noticed that the lightsabers looked 04-ish in the Star Wars clip, but what about this picture from Empire? Are these the original lightsabers? I believe they were redone on the blu ray, but I don't own it so I can't check.

http://www.rmwusa.com/

On their website at the top several images cycle through and one is of Luke and Vader in their Bespin duel.

 That looks very much like the BD and it probably is too - remember, they are what used to be Lowry, so they did the 2004 restoration as well. And those sabers most likely weren't actually redone either - they just screwed up the colors.

Didn't I just say, that the sabers in the ESB duel weren't redone in the SE? They just screwed up the colors. We were talking about the SW duel's sabers, where the sabers were recomposited in the 2004SE (and therefore the BD as well) and they seem to be recomposited in the RMW video as well.

Harmy said:

Didn't I just say, that the sabers in the ESB duel weren't redone in the SE? They just screwed up the colors.

To be fair, it should be he screwed up the colors. I actually know someone who worked on the Star Wars Trilogy in 2004 and worked on the colors for SW specifically (which in my opinion has the worst colors of the three) and he said that the mucked up colors were all George's idea. He said at one point he actually got into a bit of an argument with George when Lucas kept insisting that the Jawa Sandcrawler scene had to be extra dark. So it really isn't the colorists' fault, and the colors were in fact intentionally ruined by Lucas.

The thing is though, the colors of the '04 master are plagued by technical issues as well as bad coloring choices.

I know, I believe they were rushed as well, which really isn't an excuse because there's no way that they wouldn't have noticed Luke's GREEN lightsaber even if they just watched it once. I was just saying that most of it was specific orders from George himself. Including the crushed blacks etc. etc.  

unamochilla2 said:

I thought the 2004 version actually wasn't a rushed project but just lazily done?

 It may have been a lazy job as well. The person I know said he tried to make it work but there were a lot of difficulties and George had no clue what he was doing and ruined all the colors. I'm paraphrasing ;) he's much too professional to say something that harsh. It's also possible that he was one of the only ones putting any effort into the project. I do think that there had to have been a lot of laziness to allow such blatant errors in a DVD release. Especially one as big as Star Wars. The green lightsaber stands out a lot but there are many other ones too. 

I should also add that I haven't seen the DVD's in what, 10 years now? I don't have a good memory about some of the coloring issues, and looking at Hayden Christiansen's ghost makes me physically ill, so it's been a long time since I've even watched any of the butchered versions. I think it was that change that completely turned me off of the Special Editions forever.