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Restoring the wondrously disastrous Star Wars Holiday Special (Released)

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 (Edited)

VERSION I IS AVAILABLE NOW

After a long and painful journey over the span of 6 months, I am proud to say with the support of everyone who has subscribed to this chain and has given me sources and moral support, I have finished my first edit of the Star Wars Holiday Special! I will never forget all the help you all have given me through this brain destroying process of watching the film over and over again, and I hope that we can continue making this more and more preserved!

Completed on November 17th, 2018 on the 40th Anniversary of this TV Special, I present Version One of the Holiday Special!

Link: Due to the ToS, please message me if you want to view the link šŸ˜ƒ.

Key: TLu2uqT8XunPhC-FZBEAEY16kBaw0WmGgHAPo5O8T0w

Happy Life Day Everyone!

MISSION STATEMENT

Fans of Star Wars know of the low budget flop known as The Star Wars Holiday Special and recognize it for itā€™s heavy impact on Star Wars culture. There exists many low resolution captures of the TV film, but at this point there exist no film reels, upscales, cleanups, or any format that is fit for average flatscreen TV viewing- if you are willing to indulge into the film, that is.

Well, like many avid Original Trilogy members, Iā€™m going to attempt a restoration of The Holiday Special into 720p.

At the moment, I only have the Blu-Ray Boba Fett animation, and one crusty copy of the dreaded film itself. Any sources and pieces of media would help me with this time consuming project, and I shall keep you all updated.

Happy Life Day - Sishyo512

UPDATE LOG

Update March 31

I have found several sources that I have in mind for using in my upscale.

1 - The 2011 Blu-Ray Star Wars Saga set - I shall take the Boba Fett upscaled animation & space shots taken from A New Hope.

2 - Tasjo 2013 WHIO - The highest quality tape without over edge & base for editing

3 - Zion Hybrid - The absolute highest quality I could find, with heavy edge

4 - Angrysun 2005 KCCI - Has the most genuine coloring that I have found so far

It would help if someone could help me find the Broadcast Master as I am having a few issues finding it. But for now those will be the sources I can use. Iā€™ll manually cleanup all the tapes and keep the project as a Work In Progress.

Keep you all updated soon - Sishyo

Updates in the month of April

April 5th: I have received information about the actual Broadcast Master, along with HD versions of the trailers during the program. I have also started playing around with AviSynth which should come in handy when I get into editing.

April 27th: I have successfully combined HD elements of ANH with the Special. I successfully made the color pallet significantly better using the color bar screen in Avisynth, and I am now looking for programs to use for my editing. I am always open to any suggestions you may have, and this will most likely be the last post in the month of April.

Updates in the months of May and June

June 20th: The first few minutes have been significantly improved with color correction and as mentioned before, HD elements from the Blu Ray release of ANH throughout the month of May. I went through a few crisisā€™s in real life regarding family and education, but for now I got my life back on track. Iā€™m probably going to do the same ol dissapearance for a few weeks, however progress should start to get gud during the summer.

June 26th: I got a new program to do some framing and editing of the Holiday Special called HitFillm express. I also got a new computer to do editing on, as my old on was being unresponsive and very slow. Below will be a comparison of some components I will now be using, and what their purpose is.


Below is The WHIO 1st Generation, and I use it for its color pallet


Below is the NTSC Broadcast Master, and I use it for frame timing and filling in empty frames


Below is the Blu Ray release of Star Wars: A New Hope, and I use this for whatever HD bits I can take from it since some scenes were reused in the Holiday Special.

Sorry if the the framing isnā€™t accurate, however these images should give you a sense of what these components serve. If I have any massive breakthrough with my progress I will certainly let you all know, but for now Iā€™ll see you guys later

Thank you - Sid

Updates in the month of August

August 26: Hello everyone, quick update for today. I have finalized a lot of the framing of the Blu Ray segments into the Holiday Special. The deinterlace into 1080p60pfs was rough, so I may have to redo that. I have tried my best to color correct the Special, but that will take a lot more time. The only major thing left that I havenā€™t touched on is the score, and I have found a man who specializes in that department, so that shouldnā€™t be a problem. I will try to post my progress on November 17th if everything keeps progressing like it is right now.

Thanks everyone - Sishyo

Updates in the month of November

November 14. It is 3 days away from expected release, however I am not sure if I would be able to do a render of the final project within 3 days. All major edits and cleanup is done, but this old PC wont give me an easy time saving and exporting in time for the 40th anniversary.

Thanks for bearing with me - Sishyo

Iā€™ve gone batshit several times over for the sake of historical preservationā€¦

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Butā€¦ the holiday special was shot on NTSC video tape. We have a broadcast master. Weā€™re not going to get any better than that.

Whatā€™s the internal temperature of a TaunTaun? Luke warm.

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use the bluray for movie and deleted parts.

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benduwan said:

use the bluray for movie and deleted parts.

Yea I was planning on using the Blu-Ray version of the Boba-Fett animation, and all the space shots they borrowed from A New Hope from Harmyā€™s 2.7.

Iā€™ve gone batshit several times over for the sake of historical preservationā€¦

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Mavimao said:

Butā€¦ the holiday special was shot on NTSC video tape. We have a broadcast master. Weā€™re not going to get any better than that.

Do you know where I can find the broadcast master?

Iā€™ve gone batshit several times over for the sake of historical preservationā€¦

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Sishyo512 said:

Mavimao said:

Butā€¦ the holiday special was shot on NTSC video tape. We have a broadcast master. Weā€™re not going to get any better than that.

Do you know where I can find the broadcast master?

No idea, sorry. Check the holiday special thread.

Whatā€™s the internal temperature of a TaunTaun? Luke warm.

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Mavimao said:

Sishyo512 said:

Mavimao said:

Butā€¦ the holiday special was shot on NTSC video tape. We have a broadcast master. Weā€™re not going to get any better than that.

Do you know where I can find the broadcast master?

No idea, sorry. Check the holiday special thread.

Alright, thanks

Iā€™ve gone batshit several times over for the sake of historical preservationā€¦

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Sounds like you may already have it.
The Editdroid version is the broadcast master.
I am fairly certain the Zion Hybrid version (mentioned above) was taken from that source and a little editing was done to improve it, and the commercials were added back in.
Both those versions have threads on this forum which go into greater detail.

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tbird97 said:

Sounds like you may already have it.
The Editdroid version is the broadcast master.
I am fairly certain the Zion Hybrid version (mentioned above) was taken from that source and a little editing was done to improve it, and the commercials were added back in.
Both those versions have threads on this forum which go into greater detail.

Oh damn, I need to look into this. Thanks for the info, at the moment Iā€™m still getting used to using AviSynth and Iā€™ll check out the other threads

Iā€™ve gone batshit several times over for the sake of historical preservationā€¦

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 (Edited)

Hey guys, quick update regarding the restoration. My mental stability throughout editing and cleaning and merging the Holiday Special isnā€™t doing so well taking personal issues into consideration. Despite this, for the past 3 weeks, I have made considerable progress with the project. Life has been getting in the way of things, so my progress will be real slow for a month or so. If you are interested in helping out, please feel free to slide into my DMs with your thoughts.

Thanks - Sishyo

Iā€™ve gone batshit several times over for the sake of historical preservationā€¦

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Sishyo,

No worries. Real life does tend to override everything else. Take as long as you need, but take care of yourself first and foremost.

One thing I like about the Star Wars saga are the planets, especially the ones wet with rain, hahaha! Kamino, Eadu, and Ach-To - all three of them have enormous amounts of rain, it seems. šŸ˜ƒ

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Forceboat said:

Sishyo,

No worries. Real life does tend to override everything else. Take as long as you need, but take care of yourself first and foremost.

šŸ˜ƒ

Iā€™ve gone batshit several times over for the sake of historical preservationā€¦

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Both fascinated and frightened by the prospects of this thread.

As others have thought and some posted, self-care above any SWHS work. After that we look forward to seeing what you come up with.

ā€œBefore the Dark Times. Before the Prequels.ā€

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Alright everyone who is following this thread, I am back. Iā€™m probably going to go missingno again very soon, but I just wanted to let you all that most of the Color Correction has been done and I started to implant HD bits and pieces from ANH into the special. Although life has been a fucking tremendous asshole to me lately, I will try to get my work done faster considering I am on break now. I hope everyone has been doing well, and I hope to see you all as soon as possible.

Best of wishes

Sid/Sishyo

Iā€™ve gone batshit several times over for the sake of historical preservationā€¦

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Hi Sid/Sishyo,

Good luck with your project, I can not wait to see the result !

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ZigZig said:

Hi Sid/Sishyo,

Good luck with your project, I can not wait to see the result !

Thanks ZigZig!

Iā€™ve gone batshit several times over for the sake of historical preservationā€¦

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Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you guys know I added a few thing to the update log that may be of interest. Please feel free to suggest any other components I should use, and for now I shall resume my editing.

See yā€™all soon - Sid

Iā€™ve gone batshit several times over for the sake of historical preservationā€¦

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i wish you good luck with this.i like this movie (strange) šŸ˜ƒ

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It has to be deinterlaced with YADIF 2X in 60fps.

And Iā€™ve loved every pixel of it.
(Clarissa Darling, Clarissa Explains It All)

Youā€™re so right.
(Kylo Ren, Star Wars: The Force Awakens)

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VintageMan94 said:

There Is A YouTube Video That Was In 60FPS and it was The Star Wars Holiday Special.
Link Below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxtSX1lg8rE

Cool, thatā€™s probably the best the Holiday Special would look on an HD display.

And Iā€™ve loved every pixel of it.
(Clarissa Darling, Clarissa Explains It All)

Youā€™re so right.
(Kylo Ren, Star Wars: The Force Awakens)

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Swift S. Lawliet said:

VintageMan94 said:

There Is A YouTube Video That Was In 60FPS and it was The Star Wars Holiday Special.
Link Below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxtSX1lg8rE

Cool, thatā€™s probably the best the Holiday Special would look on an HD display.

Thatā€™s the Editdroid version from few years back. It was the master tape, not ā€œrecordedā€ like the uploader suggests.

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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LexX said:

Swift S. Lawliet said:

VintageMan94 said:

There Is A YouTube Video That Was In 60FPS and it was The Star Wars Holiday Special.
Link Below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxtSX1lg8rE

Cool, thatā€™s probably the best the Holiday Special would look on an HD display.

Thatā€™s the Editdroid version from few years back. It was the master tape, not ā€œrecordedā€ like the uploader suggests.

No, I was referring to how it looks great (but not much, considering itā€™s the Holiday Special) because of the 60fps deinterlacing.

And Iā€™ve loved every pixel of it.
(Clarissa Darling, Clarissa Explains It All)

Youā€™re so right.
(Kylo Ren, Star Wars: The Force Awakens)

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Swift S. Lawliet said:

LexX said:

Swift S. Lawliet said:

VintageMan94 said:

There Is A YouTube Video That Was In 60FPS and it was The Star Wars Holiday Special.
Link Below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxtSX1lg8rE

Cool, thatā€™s probably the best the Holiday Special would look on an HD display.

Thatā€™s the Editdroid version from few years back. It was the master tape, not ā€œrecordedā€ like the uploader suggests.

No, I was referring to how it looks great (but not much, considering itā€™s the Holiday Special) because of the 60fps deinterlacing.

I wasnā€™t referring to you at all, just the discussion related to the link. It is the Editdroid version, and that is the best you can get really. Not sure what you mean by ā€œnoā€, yes it is.

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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This may stray beyond preservation into fan-edit territory, so I apologize in advance, but would it be possible to insert Duel of the Fates when the hologram circus comes out? I also felt that scene could be more impactful with better music.

Seriously, though, this is a great project and Iā€™d love to see a high resolution version of the Holiday Special!