First new, verified change between AOTC 35mm theatrical and AOTC home versions!

Thanks to user Phase3 for spotting a weird teal rectangle going across part of the top upper left of a transition between scenes at around the 28m mark I was then able to find the 35mm frame and note that the weird rectangle was NOT there in the original 35mm theatrical release.

This weird teal rectangle has been on all versions of AOTC going at least back to that, German I think?, HDTV broadcast that was captured (and probably it is on VHS then I’d guess).

So definitely proof of muddling around with things post theatrical. Almost looks like teal power windows brush hah. I wonder what the story with it is.

It is not the most momentous difference ever hah! And certainly not really the sort of ‘change’ you’d expect at all, looks more like a weird mistake of some sort that apparently got backed in super early post-theatrical (perhaps even for the digital theatrical?) and has been there for at least the whole HDTV through UHD release.

Also, assuming it was not there in the digital theatrical then it also proves that the UHD was also sourced from the same modified for home versions as all the rest and not a going back to an original digital master or anything (again, assuming it was not there in the digital theatrical and I doubt anyone would possibly remember that or have even noticed it if it was there).

And with the UHD also seeming to lack some of the wide gamut insane teals/greenblues found on the 35mm and the odd trace teal blue “A long time ago…” intro text even though UHD CAN show those colors it seems like the early home revisions might have accidentally (?) been done in REC709 and then they were stuck with that gamut unless they were to go back and re-do all the little changes for home??

Here is a snap that Phse3 made of one of the home versions:

And here is the original 35mm:

So what the what is this weird blue blob??:

As someone else pointed out elsewhere, of course this sort of thing is common enough with normal productions. There are often more than one IN and IP and thus different chain paths can make different prints have different mistakes/defects/etc.

But here we had an initial digital master and we have a “clean” 35mm and a “dirty” digital set of releases.

Anyway, it seems that for AOTC they digitally printed out an original negative (ON) straight from a digital master (I guess pre-color timed to how it and the print stock would react?) and then struck the release prints from that. So release prints for AOTC went through less stages than normal no OCN->IP->IN->RP. Just digital master->ON->RP. Maybe they made more than one of these direct 1st gen digitally printed ON to produce release prints from. Whatever, that doesn’t matter since the print in question doesn’t have the weird thing.

But what did they produce the DVD/HDTV/blu-ray/UHD from? If they just directly used the initial digital master and that had no blue blob then how the heck did it get into the chain? But maybe they did not do that? Did they really go and print out a new ON and then scan it back in and then use that scan as the final true digital master? If so, I guess a blue thingy could’ve fallen in the way for a few frames when they printed out the ON for the digital theatrical release (which would’ve been produced almost two weeks later than the one(s) for the 35mm prints). And maybe the way it was printed made the ONs have virtually no grain so it wouldn’t show up much at all in the digital releases after it had been scanned back in? But do you really think they would have bothered to go digital master->directly digitally printed ON->final digital master produced from scanning back in the ON rather than just go digital master directly? If they wanted it a touch more filmic why then DNR all the home releases up? Why have the grain basically not noticeable I think even in the digital theatrical version? So what would have been the point of going DM->ON->TDM? Maybe to give the digital theatrical a more print film set of colors and contrast? Then why seem to go to a more digital set of colors and contrast for the digital home releases?

One thought is that they maybe wanted to give the digital theatrical a slight filmic touch and digitally printed out an ON for the digital version and then some blue thingy fell into the scanner for a few frames and then they scanned this ON back in to make the new final digital master and that is what the digital theatrical and all home versions are based on. The digital release of AOTC theatrically was cut so short they had like zero time to redo anything so even if they did see a blue thing fall onto a few frames they would have had no time to reprint and scan a new ON.

But since the home ones at least don’t seem to have filmic contrast or colors and they did some DNR why would they have bothered doing the above instead of straight. Also, since the digital theatrical was such a close call for timing would they have even had any time to slowly print out a digital negative and then scan it back in?? Wouldn’t they just go straight from digital master? In which case we are back to no explanation again.

It’s perfectly aligned with the frame and has a string of perforations on one edge. So a physical object of some kind, surely?

A quick search of Attack of the Clones film cells for sale shows that they have a strip this same teal color along the edges (part of the audio). But the reason for this artefact will have to be explained by someone else.

Mocata said:

It’s perfectly aligned with the frame and has a string of perforations on one edge. So a physical object of some kind, surely?

A quick search of Attack of the Clones film cells for sale shows that they have a strip this same teal color along the edges (part of the audio). But the reason for this artefact will have to be explained by someone else.

Although if it is a real, physical object that somehow fell into the path of the scanner when they scanned the ON back in to create the final digital master (although I still have doubts they did such a thing since they kept going on about the purity and trueness of their pure digital master as well as an incredible rush for time, so would they really take pure digital master, digitally print out an ON, then scan that back in and then use the scan as the final digital master for the digital theatrical (and all future home) release?) it would seem surprising that it would fall in the way so perfectly aligned and just for so few frames (although perhaps someone spotted it and nabbed it out right away after having knocked it off a table into the path or something and the time was so rushed they had no time to start the scan again??). The potential performations also seem odd.

I still am not sure whether it is a real object that somehow ended up in the image or some digital processing artifact (I did notice on the UHD for ROTJ that in one frame you can see a perfect circle or fairly large size where the image is all totally smoothed out, like someone accidentally droped a large radius smoothing brush on part of the frame). And then there is this error in the first pressings of the Grease UHD where they applied some sort of ‘power window’ to enhance red and then forgot that Travolta’s head would pass through it for a few frames and you got this weird mistaken effect below:

original blu-ray:

initial UHD:

Maybe it’s a Whill!

I’d love a theatrical version, too bad there never was a laserdisc for this like Phantom Menace.

As for film cels there are a lot of fake ones on Ebay.

I love that one guy who keeps finding the same fake 35mm ones for the sequel trilogy and all the poor sods who keep buying them. Just being a little humorous, i also was almost fooled by that guy.