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Info Wanted: Color issues with ESB & ROTJ

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 (Edited)

What are the major color issues with Empire & Jedi?  I know Empire has WAY too much blue during the Hoth scenes but what are the other problems with it?  Also, what is wrong with the colors in Jedi?  I know there must be some!  I just can’t seem to recall much talk about Jedi’s color problems.

Olivia James
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 (Edited)

I haven't seen Jedi or ESB on BD yet, so can't really say. I have seen ESB a lot of times on film lately, and the original has really variable colour timing.

Some Hoth scenes are blue on film, some are white, some are grey, and there isn't a lot of consistency shot to shot. It is also quite different to any of the laserdisc releases as far as the Hoth sequences go.

I'll watch the Empire BD release side by side with a print in the next month or so, and can report back, but until then, I'm afraid my knowledge has a big hole in it for anything outside of the original Star Wars release.

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@livserge: Which versions of ESB and ROTJ are you referring to? If you mean the blu-rays then everything is basically wrong since they started from the original negatives and made a new color timing.

If you mean the 2006 bonus DVDs (GOUT) they're sourced from some interpositives made for home releases which didn't have the same color timing as the theatrical prints, and also those two has some issues like red lasers being green in some shots or green being yellow etc. GOUT ESB also has shifted chroma in some parts. An easy explanation of what that means is that the colors aren't in the exact same place as the background where they belong.

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Sorry, I meant the blu-ray versions.  I'm just trying to get an idea of the way these movies should look.  At least an approximation.

Olivia James
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If you mean 'how they looked in the cinema' then the only real way is to get a look at a print. The next closest source is the Derann release of ROTJ, and the 'available' release of ESB on Super8. They are pretty close to the theatrical release colour timing.

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