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Free "farewell" Screening of 1977 Star Wars collector's print (British I.B. Technicolor) — Page 3

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The Star Destroyer shot looked really pink, but the rest of the film looked pretty much fine. I'll bet that was a 1981 splice to a 1977 original.

Also, you can see the odd spec of dirt really clearly--and by this means, you can tell how clean the film looks otherwise. None of that huge, coarse grain that the GOUT has for the first reel or two! Love that velvety Technicolor texture, you can see it on the video clip if you look closely.

Shame though, that the only way to watch prints of the film now is if you have a Technicolor print. I saw Jaws the other month, and the opening credits that were supposed to be black on white were blood-red on white. I thought it was an alternate title card because it was vividly red, and I thought maybe it was supposed to be the color of blood since it sort of worked in that way, but sadly the rest of the print, while not so red, was very, very pink, on the borderline of watchability.

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Oh, okay, didn't realize that line was absent for so many versions.

As for the Binary Sunset comparisons, I wish I could help you, but I don't remember now. A friend of mine took some photos, and while that's yet another layer of processing going on there, I'll let you know when they're available.

ROTJ Storyboard Reconstruction Project

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zombie84 said:

but sadly the rest of the print, while not so red, was very, very pink, on the borderline of watchability.

Did you notice if it had the new sound mix?  Because there's some newer Jaws prints with the 2000 sound being shown here and there, and they look pretty great, (colorwise, no pink).

Do we have a rough guess at how many technicolor Star Wars prints were made? (For some reason I thought Lucas had the only one, made special.)

 

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The Jaws print was a 1975 original to be sure. It looked and sounded very rough.

As to how many Technicolor prints...I'd say maybe a half dozen at the most. I.B. Technicolor didn't exist in the U.S. in 1977, but it still was being done in England. So, you probably had 2 Technicolor prints per major city in England, probably approaching a half dozen in total. That's a complete guess on my part, but it's what I would peg it at. Plus, one that Lucas had printed for himself. So it's pretty rare that one of them was privately purchased or stolen. It's clearly a collector, given how greatly the print has been cared for--hardly any dirt and scratching at all, and this must have been used in a regular theatrical run. I wonder if it was put through a formal cleaning process at some point.

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The British Technicolor lab was one of the last to close (a few years after the last US labs shut down), which is why most Americans haven't had the opportunity to see one of those prints. Star Wars was right on the cusp, which is why no Technicolor prints of ESB or ROTJ exist.

It's good that people saw this- I hope LOTS of people attended, and brought their kids!!!

FWIW, supposedly Technicolor d-t/IB prints aren't good candidates for video-transfer due to their density (according to Robert Harris, anyway).

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Backlighting it is a bit tough because of the dye layers, but with modern scanning tools it can be done. Not ideal, but more than doable. Take a look at all the films that are Technicolor negatives--Wizard of Oz, for example. Looks pretty kick ass to me. The bigger issue is that the layers shrink at different rates, so you often have to seperate them and scan them individually, but for something 33 years old that's probably not an issue. The biggest issue is that the 100% fade-free claim is a bit misleading. It doesn't fade, but it never gets printed 100% faithful. You can see in the clip, there is a bit of a tint to it, although the white balance on the video camera is probably making it worse. The problem is that the color balance of the dyes is never 100% the same, so no two prints are exactly a like. If you want to use Technicolor for color reference, it's the best source possible but it will always be a tiny bit off if you want to start splitting hairs.

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zombie84 said:
Backlighting it is a bit tough because of the dye layers, but with modern scanning tools it can be done. Not ideal, but more than doable. Take a look at all the films that are Technicolor negatives--Wizard of Oz, for example. Looks pretty kick ass to me. .

But remember- unlike Star Wars, The Wizard Of OZ has B&W negatives as it was shot back in the day of the 3-strip cameras, so only the prints were Dye-Transfer. The negatives were used for the DVD/Blu-ray transfers, not the prints (except for color reference).

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Ah, true about that.

Still, I doubt Technicolor prints would have any significant affects if LFL intended to transfer them to Blue Ray :p.

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timdiggerm said:
P.S. The Senator will reopen under new management...soon, hopefully. Gorgeous theatre.

P.P.S Some footage viewable at the end of this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEctWVF4J_w


That is a gorgeous theater- I hope it reopens. There's a theater near me (also Art Deco) that was built in 1935 and it was recently saved from the brink and completely restored. It had been deserted for several years and it now has live shows and classic films, with the help of many donations and a sponsorship from a local car dealership. http://www.earlsmithstrand.org/ I hope the same thing happens for The Senator.

I have to admit I got goosebumps while watching that clip! There is just nothing like the theatrical experience. I loved seeing the British Board of Film Censors tag at the beginning.

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The censor tag is interesting. The Derann print doesn't have it, but does have a logo for Fox's UK film distributor that comes up after the closing credits fade out.

Where were you in '77?

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timdiggerm said:

As for the Binary Sunset comparisons, I wish I could help you, but I don't remember now. A friend of mine took some photos, and while that's yet another layer of processing going on there, I'll let you know when they're available.

 That would be great, thanks.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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Moth3r said:

"Close the blast doors" was missing in the first 1977 run as well - it didn't appear until the mono mix, which was finished some time after the Dolby mixes.  The 1981 print you saw probably had the original 1977 Dolby Stereo sound mix.  

I saw SW three times in June 1977, and it had the "close the blast doors" line.  That means I saw it in mono?

"Close the blast doors!"
Puggo’s website | Rescuing Star Wars

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Yes, you probably did. As Moth3r said, the line "Close the blast doors!" was added to the Mono mix that was finished for the second run of prints later that summer but I've heard it wasn't until July. It's believed the '81 ANH release only was in Dolby Stereo though.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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zombie84 said:

Backlighting it is a bit tough because of the dye layers, but with modern scanning tools it can be done. Not ideal, but more than doable. Take a look at all the films that are Technicolor negatives--Wizard of Oz, for example. Looks pretty kick ass to me. The bigger issue is that the layers shrink at different rates, so you often have to seperate them and scan them individually, but for something 33 years old that's probably not an issue. The biggest issue is that the 100% fade-free claim is a bit misleading. It doesn't fade, but it never gets printed 100% faithful. You can see in the clip, there is a bit of a tint to it, although the white balance on the video camera is probably making it worse. The problem is that the color balance of the dyes is never 100% the same, so no two prints are exactly a like. If you want to use Technicolor for color reference, it's the best source possible but it will always be a tiny bit off if you want to start splitting hairs.

Still even if someone could just record with a high quality video camera off a projected screen (where the camera was properly centered), that might be helpful to have another reference.

It would be free of DVNR, would have the original colors and a print like that might be less faded than anything Lucasfilm had in their archives. I hope the owner has some digital copy of the print.

Take back the trilogy. Execute Order '77

http://www.youtube.com/user/Knightmessenger

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I thought that the owner's speech at the beginning of the YouTube clip was interesting. I had to listen to it a couple of times with headphones to get everything he said, but among other things he mentions people expressing concern that Lucasfilm might send one of their henchmen out to confiscate the print. :-P

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That should have been the cue for some local stormtroopers to burst out from behind the curtains.

I wonder if anyone showed up in costume?

And here we have a businessman expressing the same sentiments about a 33 year old movie only us bitter old "fanboys" are supposed to have. ;)

Where were you in '77?

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"Lucasfilm's henchmen might come..." I guess that's a big part of LFL's image now. It's funny that they have a whole PR machine constantly chugging away and yet they still can't erase that sentiment. I get that it's just about selling trinkets now, like some Tijuana gift shop, but I have to assume they could have sold even more without alienating anyone.

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I certainly feel alienated now and I hesitate to purchase any LFL items for that reason. Even something as cheap as a package of stickers which I saw in a supermarket today, I liked them but I decided not to buy because I really don't feel like contributing one more cent to the Evil Empire.

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Welp, kinda wish I'd gone to this as I'm only an hour away in northern VA. Didn't read all the details until just now. I'd seen the thread title but I'm just so used to reading so much non-news in regards to the OOT that I thought this was no exception.

Obviously I was wrong.

Still, it warms my heart to hear people having such a good time in that youtube clip. Seeing camcorder footage of an actual 35mm print projected in a theater ..... it's unreal.

Ugh, kinda feel like Bart and Lisa after the nerds pulled the tv's power plug just as Scratchy was finally gonna get Itchy. An opportunity like this is probably never gonna come around again.

But with me it'd be like preaching to the choir. Just thinking of all those people watching the OO Star Wars in the highest quality possible gives me a slight boost of hope for our cause!

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That print looks fantastic, such a shame we cant get a new transfer of the OT

Moth3r said: No, there is no video embedding option in this forum software (thank god!)

 

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Wow, that's beautiful. If it's in the UK I wish someone there could get this thing transferred. :)

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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timdiggerm said:

4. The print is owned by a private collector in Britain. The Senator had been run by the same family for 71 years, so they had a lot of connections. Thus, when word got out that they were closing, friends talked to friends talked to friends and got them the print to use.

Someone get in contact with this private collector in Britain lol

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Yeah, but its colors seem more accurate that we've seen on most prints, and the detail, even in a low res picture of a movie screen, is incredible. So jealous....

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