Idea: Recreating the full theatrical experience with previews, etc.

Author: scruffy_looking
Date: 17-Feb-2015, 4:48 PM

Author: scruffy_looking
Time: 17-Feb-2015 4:48 PM (Edited)
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I think a neat way to enhance the presentation of the OT theatrical versions would be to precede the feature films with a collection of vintage trailers for other movies, and any other material (popcorn ads?) that would have actually played in theaters during the original run.

How doable do you all think this is? Of course the actual content would have varied greatly depending on geographical location. Certainly it would be fairly easy to guess what trailers would have been shown in May of 1977 in the U.S. for example. But are there sources where one could determine these contents more precisely?

Of course even an approximation would really enhance the viewing experience imo. I’m a big fan of putting stuff in context, and I think popping in a Despecialized Blu-Ray and having it kick off with a slew of vintage theatrical promo material would be awesome, and a nice contrast to whatever crap trailers might be on an official release.

I personally don’t have the means to assemble such a thing, so I’m just tossing this out there as an idea. Maybe someone has already worked on this?

"For Star Wars to return to its roots it must be based more on emotion than explanation." -- J.J. Abrams

Author: Erikstormtrooper
Time: 17-Feb-2015 5:20 PM
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I know several people here have already put some of these together. There was a UK version in particular that I remember. It had movie mostly movie trailers and a few commercials.

Team Negative One also released a collection of restored trailers for movies from the 80s with their Grindhouse ESB release.

In the end, I think it will come down to personal preference, as I'm not sure there's any real documentation to back this sort of thing up.

You know of the rebellion against the Empire?

Author: Jonno
Time: 17-Feb-2015 5:31 PM
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A neat way indeed! I started tinkering with this kind of thing a couple of years ago (there are some other threads on the subject kicking around somewhere). Here in the UK it's fairly straighforward to work out the types of materials to use, and even if it isn't 100% authentic, it's more important to create the right sort of mood.

This is one I did for Star Wars a couple of years ago: https://vimeo.com/77330966

I've since improved just about every aspect of that edit (including recutting the trailers from DVD/BD sources), but it gives you an idea of the stuff I worked in.

A US version would be an intriguing side project. The Filmack drive-in ads are fairly easy to come by in decent quality - I'm not so sure of in-theater ads and logos. Perhaps someone who remembers their original viewings can weigh in.

Author: Asaki
Time: 17-Feb-2015 5:41 PM (Edited)
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Erikstormtrooper said:

Team Negative One also released a collection of restored trailers for movies from the 80s with their Grindhouse ESB release.

Yeah, there was that, and I thought it was really cool...but something inside me casts a tiny amount of doubt on how period accurate those are ;)

Also see the 2001 Cinerama thread where we discuss making a virtual vintage theatre program.

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Cinerama-70mm-2001-preservation-Is-it-possible/post/640872/#TopicPost640872

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