Complete Comparison of Special Edition Visual Changes — Page 47

DVD-BOY said:

I'm wondering if there is a use / call for a summary of the changes described in these comparisons and where the best quality example is available. 

For example, currently the best example of the original shots would be either Team Blu's project or Harmy's De-specialised Edition.  For most of the Special Edition shots, it would be the Blu-ray, except when they were changed in the 2004 / 2011 edition - Jabba for example, and so forth.

The core sources we have to work with are:

• 2011 BD with colour correction
• 2004 DVD (certainly for Audio Mixes)
• 1997 Special Edition (Broadcasts / Laserdiscs / Team Blu)
• 1977-93 Releases Team Blu / Harmy / Ultimately Saving Star Wars

Would this seem accurate?

This can probably be gained from none's shot lists, but the amount of information in that impressive work still makes my brain ache...

Just spending 10 minutes 'fleshing' this out:

So most content could come from either Harmy's release or a colour corrected 2011 Blu-ray rip, the only exeptions being the 1997 Long Time and the Twin Suns for example.  Obviously this is only the first part of the film.

What is currently the best source for the 81 Logo and Crawl?  I guess it would have been the GOUT before they spliced on the 77 Logo??

Back in 2011 Zion posted X0 Project capture from DC LD.
Maybe that's currently best?

Oh, yeah, does anyone have that? I could definitely use a nice clean version of the '81 crawl for my bonus features.

928 days on the newsgroups by the looks of it - 38GB - will have to clear some space and give it a go!

re: 81 crawl

A PAL LD would have fewer blinking stars and more scanlines...

Oh, I forgot I had the OUT Rules project, that has a pretty nice '81 crawl.

Let me send you the 81 crawl I've been working on.  I've used an altered version of g-force's median script to combine captures from five different LD pressings.  

I included the X0 transfer as one of the sources, along with copies of the 2 versions of the US DC, the Japanese DC, US Faces, and the Japanese CLV THX LD.  I can send you the raw avi for you to use how you'd like.

It looks really good for what it is, but I haven't done any other processing to it, so I'm sure it could be improved upon.

Sure, I'd like to take a look at that :-)

Can anyone confirm this one: GOUT SW Frame 5702 (I think) - flash frame starts and ends one frame earlier in the 2004 version?

AntcuFaalb said:

005: Certain explosions/flashes during reel #1 of ANH arrive one frame early (or late) in the 97SE.

I discovered these by running a scene-change-detection algorithm on reel #1 of GOUT and 97SE (TB) and diff'ing the results.

Are these one-frame differences something you're interested in recording?

Just noticed this post - I guess my observation above is one example of these recompositions.

I examined it against the SE and your observation is indeed correct, a result of the recomposite work done for the '97 SE. Kind of odd though as in this case it's the flash frames that are off in timing compared to the original rather than the laser bolts. I guess the entire opening shootout in the corridor was recomposited to get rid of grain... and then in 2004 someone brilliant enough, grain reduced the digital recomposites...

SilverWook said:

Welcome back, msycamore! I was getting worried...

Ha ha thanks! Sorry, been too busy. :( It's nice to know that people take notice of members absence around here though. ;) I saw the THX thread, I've sent a PM to spaced ranger...

I guess I should add a flash frame to the list and say "I'm not going to post all of these".

Are the flash frames out of sync anywhere else in the movie? Like the detention block?

I'm not sure which other flash frames AntcuFaalb was talking about, there may be more of them but most of the times they were done in-camera/on-set rather than in post like in Moth3r's example. So I guess you could mention only this flash frame unless there are more of them.

This is a great article, which TServo2049 just posted in another thread. It's about the advances in optical compositing made by ILM for the SW Trilogy - it is perfect to illustrate the point I was always trying to make about how digital recompositing destroys the artistic integrity of the FX shots, even if it uses the same elements, because the method and quality of the optical compositing was a huge part of the original effects.

Don't know if you're still updating this but I noticed a couple of undocumented changes in the first film when I IVTC'ed a LD-transfer recently, a couple of reframings akin to the Falcon zooms in ESB but usually a bit more subtle. This was often done when they went back to the negative (wipes, dissolves and flipped shots etc.). Examples of this can be seen in the remade detention shootout whenever they tinkered with the background:

Sometimes shots received a tighter framing and sometimes they were adjusted horizontally... I can post a few examples when I get access to it.

Reframing, very interesting.... Let us know what you find.

Harmy said:

This is a great article, which TServo2049 just posted in another thread. It's about the advances in optical compositing made by ILM for the SW Trilogy - it is perfect to illustrate the point I was always trying to make about how digital recompositing destroys the artistic integrity of the FX shots, even if it uses the same elements, because the method and quality of the optical compositing was a huge part of the original effects.

 Is that why you put back the original optical compositing back into your de-specialized edit?

Because most people would probably be happy if the stuff was redone digitally but otherwise no visual changes or CGI additions. I can see you're a perfectionist.

this was a great video by the way.

http://youtu.be/dHfLX_TMduY

If you update the comparison site showing the changes and ways you restored the film, I would think it would be easier to go through if you gave the ability to separate it into different sections. Such as.

Undoing major changes

Restoring original effects or details that were redone, but not with new footage or CGI.

Other noticeable examples of color correction. (Since you're version seems to have a different color balance than any of the other video versions, I'm curious as to why you went with that and how well you think the THX version or 97 special edition got it right or didn't.)

The different colors are explained in that video you linked to.