ON HOLD: A New Hope: ReVHSed (Pan & Scan of Adywan's Revisited)

This idea came to me after hearing everyone talking about their first experiences with Star Wars in theaters.  I never had that until the Special Editions, so my first time was pan & scan copies on home video.  My idea is to recreate that (lackluster) experience using Adywan's A New Hope Revisited as a base.  What would Revisited look like if it had come out in 1977 and was released on VHS in the 1980's then uploaded to the internet as a preservation?

The plan would be to pan & scan either the DVD-9 or Purist version of Revisited.  Then we could digitally degrade it to VHS quality (240i-250i video, "frequency response of roughly 100 Hz to 10 kHz" audio) or actually output it to VHS tape and digitize it back in for authentic VHS fuzz.

No editing would be done, except to add the old CBS/FOX logo perhaps (or a new ADY/WAN logo based on it).  The pan and scanning would be the tough part.  I'm imagining two releases, the Pan & Scan version and the Downgraded version.  Actually, my first experience of A New Hope itself was a VHS copy of the CED my parents had, so we could even make a Time Compressed (120 minutes) version to replicate the limitations of that format.

Now, I'm hoping to get the software this summer to do the pan and scan, but I might not be able to.  I wanted to get this idea out into the open and see if maybe someone else is willing to recreate this experience a few of us around here have of Star Wars.  The Pan & Scan version could also be used for those people who don't like watching things in the proper aspect ratio (the heathens)!

(The title was Adywan's idea)

DEMO1: Han and Greedo (no sound)

2010-04-27 UPDATE: Started working with a trial of Sony Vegas Pro. Adywan is helping me get the settings right. About 5 minutes into the movie so far.

2010-05-07 UPDATE: Noticed a lot of framerate issues on the main film, although I followed Adywan's instructions to a T and the Greedo scene he sent me was flawless. Turns out its probably because my trial was version 9, which Ady says is crap. The project is on hold until I can find a better editing program, or until someone else takes the reins.

If the demand is there, I'm sure it could be done...

Bingowings said:

It would need a CBS FOX style ADY WAN cheesy ident.

EVEN BETTER!

Then you could do an upconversion to Blu-Ray, but you may need to solicit donations from the people who want a copy. But there's nothing wrong with that, since you'll be buying the equipment yourself.

none said:

Please add in a green 'PLAY' in the upper corner over the Fox Logo.  Maybe some:

And you could gag the switch from channel 3 to 4, and the movies already in play..  or the gag where the movie is recorded over your wedding video...  or at the dramatic moment, a piece of some cheesy 80s sitcom...

That's where actually outputting it to a VHS tape and re-digitizing it would be great for more authenticity.  This won't be a "grindhouse" edit, so I wouldn't want to do the cut away or something like that.  The idea is that someone in an alternate reality found a copy of Revisited on tape and uploaded it to originaltrilogy.com as a preservation. *

This guy's figured out your packaging scheme:

http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/vhs-tape-external-hard-drives-21-01-2010/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+geeky-gadgets+%28Geeky+Gadgets%29

THAT is awesome.

none said:

Dark Jedi has done a Pan&Scan preservation, so if you need a digital reference of the AWESOMELY DRAMATIC PANS and the AWESOMELY DRAMATIC SCANS that's the set to seek out.

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/SW-pan-amp-scan-def-collection-myspleen/topic/3163/

I might have to find that.  I've been debating on a new scan or copying the existing one shot for shot...

vote_for_palpatine said:

Then you could do an upconversion to Blu-Ray, but you may need to solicit donations from the people who want a copy. But there's nothing wrong with that, since you'll be buying the equipment yourself.

* I was going to make this joke, but I took too long writing this post.  :-*(

I did upload a friend's preservation of the Faces VHS (P&S) of ANH but never got around to the others.  Not sure if anyone has it.  I still have the dvd+r lying around here somewhere.

Anyone know where I can get a good scan of Star Wars CBS/FOX VHS box?  I want to recreate it for the "cover".

doubleofive said:

Anyone know where I can get a good scan of Star Wars CBS/FOX VHS box?  I want to recreate it for the "cover".

I would want it as well, for similar purposes.

doubleofive said:

Bingowings said:

It would need a CBS FOX style ADY WAN cheesy ident.

EVEN BETTER!

These are the ones I want to recreate:

I think Molly did a recreation of those particular CBS FOX covers, but I don't know where to find them in that massive thread. Good luck Doubleofive! I'd go with the "Record Revisited on VCR then digitize it" method.

http://usotsuki.info/usosw.zip

They're based on 1984-VHS scans a friend of mine sent me from her own tapes.

J, that would be so awesome! If you can find better fonts than I did, that'd be great too! I wouldn't try to digitally degrade it, just 480x640, and we'll let the VCR do all of the dirty work.

I wouldn't have the skills to do any further changes, Bingo. But the idea remains for others to take up. If the VHS happened to be letterboxed, any change could be covered up as there would be, what, 100 lines of video?

I have an S-VHS VCR around here somewhere. I may run some tests today. I'm going to give it all of the resolution I can and see how it comes out the other side. My parents have an RCA to USB adapter that isn't the best, and therefore perfect for our needs. I'll try to have them send that soon.

Now that we've figured all this out, the hardest part remains the pan and scan. I'm going to see how I could do it with the tools I have, but I really need a full screen copy of the movie. I think a friend of mine might still have his FS DVDs. I'll have to find out...

I was thinking the same thing. However, it turns out my VCR only has a coax input. Not sure what to do about that...

Im sure my inlaws have one I might use.