Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition HD - V2.7 - MKV (Released) — Page 455

Harmy said:

In my opinion, the ideal way to do a restoration of the original SW with the access to all the archives would be to use the original negative wherever possible for the luma information. Even if they did actually cut up the negative for the SE, they surely did keep the cut parts in a vault, not to do so would be insane, so they could scan those separately. There should be no need for any guessing games of "was this shot recomposited" or "was this wipe redone" because the original bits should be easily recognizable by their markings and the kind of stock used.

And then whereever the o-neg may be too damaged or faded, they should use the next best source, be it an IP or IN or only in the worst case scenario a theatrical print.

All this should be done to reconstruct the o-neg in digital in the best possible quality.

Then they should scan a non-faded print (be it I.B. or LPP), color correct the scan, so the colors correspond to the print being projected with a 70s projection light bulb and then apply only the color information from this to their reconstructed negative.

Then a carefully controlled cleanup should be done to remove any remaining dirt and scratches but keep the grain structure of the negative intact.

And then SW would be ready for not only BD but also a 4K release (provided the work was done in 4K of course).

But I'm afraid that a release like that is just a pipe dream.

I too don't believe the cuts made during the SE era have gone anywhere. Fox and LFL know exactly where they are and it would be a rather simple matter to get everything together again.

Reconstruction of the o-neg, wet gate scan, professional color timing to match a 70s era print, and storage in 4k may sound like a lot, but compared to the historical value involved in such a project, the cost would be very little.

I'd love to know what (if any) agreements Disney made to GL prior to the sale. Wait 'til I'm dead? Never? It's fascinating to think about.

Also, for those who keep insisting that Fox has any rights other than distribution for SW 77, I'd like to see evidence of that. Compared to Disney, Fox is nothing and Fox will do pretty much whatever Disney dictates at this point.

Disney wants George Lucas to be a consultant on the three (or more) upcoming films, so they don't want to upset their cash cow at the moment. If they think an OOT would upset him right now, they'll wait, and so will we. It'll happen, though.  

Random question - any thoughts on still making this a 2 disc effort when the authoring gets closer to happening? Just curious if it might be possible to squeeze the special features onto one disc.
Only reason I ask, is that I want to know if I should look for any dual disc cases ahead of time (already have a stack of standard blu ray cases that I got some time ago).

Any input on authoring software, or was one settled on for when the time comes?

Harmy said:

In my opinion, the ideal way to do a restoration of the original SW with the access to all the archives would be to use the original negative wherever possible for the luma information. Even if they did actually cut up the negative for the SE, they surely did keep the cut parts in a vault, not to do so would be insane, so they could scan those separately. There should be no need for any guessing games of "was this shot recomposited" or "was this wipe redone" because the original bits should be easily recognizable by their markings and the kind of stock used.

And then whereever the o-neg may be too damaged or faded, they should use the next best source, be it an IP or IN or only in the worst case scenario a theatrical print.

All this should be done to reconstruct the o-neg in digital in the best possible quality.

Then they should scan a non-faded print (be it I.B. or LPP), color correct the scan, so the colors correspond to the print being projected with a 70s projection light bulb and then apply only the color information from this to their reconstructed negative.

Then a carefully controlled cleanup should be done to remove any remaining dirt and scratches but keep the grain structure of the negative intact.

And then SW would be ready for not only BD but also a 4K release (provided the work was done in 4K of course).

But I'm afraid that a release like that is just a pipe dream.

Well Harmy, you have certainly got my vote to head up the restorative team!  You should brush up that paper resume just a tad (to include along with a copy of SWDE v2.5) and send it into Disney along with your proposal… ;)

(…I say that half jokingly, but ONLY half jokingly!)

I'd be happy to help. Just let me know what I need to do. :)

Would be more than happy to help if you trust me enough :)

Stinky-Dinkins said:

 He decided to put the extras on a separate disc weeks ago.

True. Just thought I'd see if that might've changed. 2 disc cases are no biggie :) (edit: or, using 2 separate cases - either way)

Really wish I had a printer that printed directly on the disc for disc labels, but everything else is easily lined up.

Exciting news on the extras / scripts!

edit: if any more English grammar proofreading is wanted, I'd be glad to review.

English is one language I have a knack for, luckily.  Send me a link if you would like any more help with proofreading.

If you still need help proofreading harmy, I can take a chunk of it to parse.

update: scratch that, just read the "people I know" part :) .  Looking forward to release! :)