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Empire Strikes back 35mm restoration feedback thread (POUT) (a WIP) — Page 5

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Funnily enough, a DeLorean was genuinely involved.

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poita said:

Funnily enough, a DeLorean was genuinely involved.

Well, this print just jumped to 11 on the cool scale.

Army of Darkness: The Medieval Deadit | The Terminator - Color Regrade | The Wrong Trousers - Audio Preservation
SONIC RACES THROUGH THE GREEN FIELDS.
THE SUN RACES THROUGH A BLUE SKY FILLED WITH WHITE CLOUDS.
THE WAYS OF HIS HEART ARE MUCH LIKE THE SUN. SONIC RUNS AND RESTS; THE SUN RISES AND SETS.
DON’T GIVE UP ON THE SUN. DON’T MAKE THE SUN LAUGH AT YOU.

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dahmage said:

1985 - 1983?

I’m guessing 1985-1993, which roughly matches up with “cold storage for 25 years until present”. So basically it was approx five years of unknown storage, eight years of cold storage, another couple years of unknown storage, and then another 25 of cold storage. So maybe six or seven years of fade, depending on how it was treated during those other years… which from the looks of it, was pretty good treatment as well.

EDIT: Damn thread page breaks. DeLorean?!? Do tell! Did you need roads where you were going?

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CatBus said:

I’m guessing 1985-1993, which roughly matches up with “cold storage for 25 years until present”. So basically it was approx five years of unknown storage, eight years of cold storage, another couple years of unknown storage, and then another 25 of cold storage. So maybe six or seven years of fade, depending on how it was treated during those other years… which from the looks of it, was pretty good treatment as well.

17C isn’t cold storage. So basically - 1980-85 unknown, 85-93 in archival storage, to a collector for a couple of years, and then into cold storage until it was sold.

[ Scanning stuff since 2015 ]

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I’ve just noticed this in the first post:

poita said:
The samples posted so far have not been colour adjusted …

The pictures on page 1 of this thread all look great too, despite them coming from scans before the acquisition of the new, unfaded print. Presumably there was at least some basic adjustment to remove red fade from them? In layman’s terms, is it a case of applying a blanket reduction to the R value of the RGB codes across a reel so that it “looks about right”?

Bluto

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Erm, not really.
It involves boosting the cyan mostly, but in very specific ways. Film doesn’t fade evenly, the highlights end up with the most fade, so it is a matter of looking at the fade across each layer of film (CMY) and working out how much it has faded at each level and in each channel.

Having a good colour reference is essential for this, then you can do some fun computations based of probability density functions to get the two sources to match, and then use the results from that to correct the rest of the reel.

It is based on this technique http://www.mudgee.net/ot/colourgrading.pdf

The basics are here: https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Colour-matching-for-fan-edits/id/7257/page/1

Dre’s tool originally started off using this technique and then he went a lot further, but the images I’ve used on the front page of my other thread, where the very faded ‘red’ German print is adjusted to the less faded print are using the code from the links above, and then some more correcting in Nucoda.

The images on the front page of this thread are from the other print I had access to which was only very slightly faded, but unfortunately had a lot of mold on a lot of frames. That print will be used for any frames that are damaged/missing on the new print.

Hope that helps!

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 (Edited)

I don’t know yet as I haven’t watched this print projected. LPP from 1983 tends to be grainier and lacking shadow detail, so hopefully this Eastman print will be much better, but I will know more once it has been cleaned and scanned, then I will risk projecting it.

The LPP was made a few years later, so may not be the same colour-wise as the 1980 release, but we will soon know for sure.

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Fascinating times! 😃

And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as the Son of the Suns.

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poita said:

I don’t know yet as I haven’t watched this print projected. LPP from 1983 tends to be grainier and lacking shadow detail, so hopefully this Eastman print will be much better, but I will know more once it has been cleaned and scanned, then I will risk projecting it.

The LPP was made a few years later, so may not be the same colour-wise as the 1980 release, but we will soon know for sure.

These are the frames I’m most curious about, can’t wait!


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The frame I am most curious about is the one where Luke is recovering inside the bacta tank with Han, Leia, Chewie and 3PO watching. That scene looks so different from one edition to another that I don’t know which one is the correct one.

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Trying to send Poita $20, and now PayPal is charging $4.99 since it’s USA -> non-USA. That’s bullshit. I’ve sent him some $10-$20 donations before, and the fees were small (or zero – don’t remember).

Is there some other way to donate? Don’t really want to pay a 25% fee!

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For many of us, it doesn’t even let you complete the transaction if you decide to cough up the 25%. I’ve paid him before, so this is something new with PayPal.

Happy to donate a bit again, but I’m going to see if the situation clears up at all.

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Okay, I’ll see if I can setup a US account, a $5 fee is crazy, it kind of negates the whole purpose of paypal, greedy buggers.

In the meantime, I can use a friends US account, PM me if you would like to donate that way. Thanks so much!

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It’s definitely 25% and not $5 fixed. Very crazy.

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Is that if you try to donate without changing currency (e.g. Donating in USD if you are in the US)?

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fmalover said:

The frame I am most curious about is the one where Luke is recovering inside the bacta tank with Han, Leia, Chewie and 3PO watching. That scene looks so different from one edition to another that I don’t know which one is the correct one.

This shot?

(Note this isn’t from the print, I just want to clarify which shot you mean.)

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Is it too late to donate and get an invite to that screening? 😃

Not that I wouldn’t donate otherwise. An OT.com meetup and screening sounds fantastic, though.

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towne32 said:

It’s definitely 25% and not $5 fixed. Very crazy.

no, it isn’t. it is crazy when sending small amounts however.

but i gave over 100 USD and it was like a 10 dollar fee…

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The screening will be late in the year, so definitely not too late.
Jeez those amounts are high, I’ll see if I can sort a US account.

Donations welcome: paypal.me/poit
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 (Edited)

poita said:

fmalover said:

The frame I am most curious about is the one where Luke is recovering inside the bacta tank with Han, Leia, Chewie and 3PO watching. That scene looks so different from one edition to another that I don’t know which one is the correct one.

This shot?

(Note this isn’t from the print, I just want to clarify which shot you mean.)

Although I do not know @fmalover personally, I’m going on the assumption that the said shot is the one he’s referencing. He had created a thread here…

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Hoth-Bacta-tank/id/17025

… that you, @poita, participated in.

It involved this frame…

…from Jedi1.net’s 70mm cell page.

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Aww man, I never got back to that thread!

Well thanks to an un-named studio in LA, I got to pop a reel on for projection and snap a few photos. These photos are not colour balanced, but the colour in them isn’t drastically off.

That scene is in fact, quite red.

For reference, with the same camera settings:

Questions like this are why a relatively unfaded print is so valuable in preserving and presenting how the film was shown in 1980.

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Did any consumer format have red? What about PSB?

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