STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE - DSG SPECIAL EDITION

(The “DSG” stands for Dat_SW_Guy)

This is essentially a more “beneficial” version of the Special Edition and is heavily inspired by Hal900’s “Custom Special Edition”, along with Adywan’s Revisited version. This will aim to fix some continuity errors apparent in the film, restore some theatrical sequences whilst keeping some SE changes that fit more in line with the aesthetic of the film and being non-intrusive visually and narratively. The goal is to create an immersive and seamless experience without being thrown off by a CGI Ronto walking into frame, while also enjoying the new changes that shaped some of the movie for the better.

This project’s main source is “Neverar’s Technicolor Recreation”, the same used by Harmy in 3.0 of his Despecialized, while other sources include Skydude’s 4k77 “The SkyMaster Edition” and Harmy’s Despecialized 3.0 for the cleaned up theatrical shots, as well as the 2011 Special Edition.

UPDATE 04/11/21: The project’s main source is now from @oohteedee’s 2019 SE UHD Regrade and his D+77 2.3 project. I will still include Skydude’s “Skymaster” edition Beta 2, as well as Hal9000’s “Custom Special Edition” with some pro-res files he has graciously given me.

The goals of the project has changed since my last updates on this back in 2019/early 2020, and this project will now fall in line more towards a revisited-esque cut, keeping the effects to a level wherein it couldve been feasible in 1997.

The changelog has been revamped to update the sources, however these are subject to change as I might add more in the future.

Sample videos showing the changes:
Alderaan Explosion - https://streamable.com/ut567t
Mos Eisley Recut - https://vimeo.com/628306487
Death Star Explosion (DRAFT) - https://streamable.com/pekj8f

CHANGES:

• The crawl will now be in it’s theatrical version. (From D+77)

• The escape pod will now appear to go into the planet, going downwards and burning into the atmosphere. (From ANH Revisited)

• The wide shot of Threepio will be from the theatrical version. (From D+77)

• The wide shot of R2 in the canyon will be from the Special Edition as the original shot was very grainy. (From the 2019 UHD Regrade.)

• The wide shot of R2 being loaded in the Sandcrawler is from the SE. (From 2019 SE UHD)

• The next shot of the Sandcrawler driving at night and the wipe to the “Look sir, Droids!” scene will retain their SE elements, but will be edited to sync with the theatrical version. (From Hal9000’s Custom Special Edition)

• The binary sunset will revert back to it’s theatrical version. (I’ve decided to keep the SE ver. of the scene)

• The fly that goes through the shot will now be removed. (This has already been done in the 2019 SE)

• R2’s CGI rock-pile is now reverted back to it’s theatrical version. (From SkyDude’s Beta 2 ver. of “SkyMaster”)

• The Mos Eisley sequences have now been re-cut for better pacing, similar to Revisited’s version (From D+77)

• The 138-frame landspeeder shot will now be re-done and modernized to remove the hand-drawn shadow underneath while retaining the SE level of quality. (Thanks Sky_ for the edit!)

• The wide shot of the cantina has now been replaced with a new shot, akin to Adywan’s version, with the correct time of day. (AggelW’s versiom + Adywan’s version + Extra stuff)

• The Jabba scenes will be removed using an iris wipe transition instead of the fade used in the theatrical cut to maintain consistent quality within the shots. (D+77)

• The Millennium Falcon escape is from the SE version. (From 2019 SE Regrade)

• Both the Death Star and Alderaan explosions will be replaced with new versions to upgrade the outdated explosion effects, however keeping them somewhat in-line to a 90’s aesthetic to match the SE. (Alderaan shot is done)

• The censored scenes of the Imperial officers getting shot in the SE will revert back to it’s theatrical version. (From SkyDude’s Beta 2 ver. of “SkyMaster”)

• Vader walking through the hallway has been reverted to the theatrical version, but combining the 35mm and UHD to make it look better. (From the 2019 UHD Regrade + D+77 2.3)

• The set corridor extension will be the SE version. (From the 2019 UHD Regrade)

• The Dianoga will revert back to it’s theatrical version. (From SkyDude’s Beta 2 ver. of “SkyMaster”)

• The Aurebesh text on the tractor beam has been removed and replaced with the theatrical version. (From D+77)

• Biggs and Luke’s reunion will be removed as per the theatrical version as it serves no purpose narratively as Biggs was never introduced in the theatrical cut. (Will be using footage from the 2019 UHD Regrade)

• The Battle of Yavin will be recut to mix both versions (theatrical and SE) and create a seamless viewing experience.

• Adding in Yavin in the pilot’s cockpits during the Battle sequences

• Dantooine will be removed on the SE shot of the X-Wings approaching the Death Star, as it is clearly within firing range and is a big mishap.

• The matte painting during the Award Ceremony will be from the Special Edition. (From the 2019 UHD Regrade)

AUDIO CHANGES:

• Like Hal9000’s cut, I’ll add in the distance sounds of the cantina from the exterior shot.

• The missing Dianoga theme in all English home video versions (yet still present in the European releases in the 90s) will be re-instated.

• “Blast it Biggs” will now be “Blast it Wedge” as per Hal9000’s cut.

• The theatrical score during the Battle of Yavin will be re-instated as it was drowned out by the blaster fire in the SE.

(EDIT AS OF 10/08/21) FUTURE CHANGES:

• Replacing the Speeder shadow to match the SE versions

• Smoothening out the jumpcuts transitions

• Making R2-D2’s lights flicker red and blue

• Possibly(?) using xxtelecine 7xx’s cut of A New Hope to recomposite all the lasers

Do you plan on using Adywan’s version of the Alderaan explosion, as well as some shots from the Obi-Wan vs. Darth Vader remaster (SC 38 Reimagined)?

Firstly, I wont be using the Alderaan explosion from Adywan’s due to its dated effects.
Same goes for the Darth Vader and Obi Wan sequence, the effects and CGIness of that scene sticks out like a sore thumb in comparison to the rest of the shots

Sounds like a great cultist. I’m especially interested in your ideas for Mos Eisley.
Just a tip: if you want to use the original Death Star explosion, you may want to do a little effects work on the first few frames of the shot. They redid the model with the same CGI used for the Death Star a couple shots prior, so replacing it manually with the SE model and blending the transition into the original explosion would help it fit in seamlessly.

UPDATE: This project isn’t dead, however things are going by very slowly as of the moment due to personal matters.

However, I have been slowly developing this and so far have created a very, very rough rough-cut of the final film, using Neverar’s Technicolor Recreation as a base.

I am also doing preliminary VFX work for the infamous “139 frames” scene of the speeder going to the cantina, I might post a snippet of that soon.

Ok, so heres a small snippet of the new “enhanced” scene of the speeder traveling towards the cantina (directly after the mind-trick scene in the OUT), with a new SE-ish shadow underneath the speeder while retaining the bottom half of the speeder seen in the theatrical.

This scene is still W.I.P. (moreso a proof of concept), and there are tons of things that need fixing (trying to clean up and stabilize the 4k77 source, color-correction) and I am not particularly good in doing such thing (I’m a first-timer) so any VFX help with this scene is greatly appreciated!

https://streamable.com/br7au

Here’s a look at the new Alderaan Destruction scene, without a praxis ring! I tried to keep it somewhat faithful to the SE version of the scene, since the theatrical had two seperate explosions that looked really jarring.

LINK:
https://streamable.com/3m8fb

RogueLeader said:

I Ike it! I think it works better as an almost blinding light rather a very clear, properly exposed explosion. I did notice some flickering on the bottom a little.

The flickering is from an encoding issue, otherwise, the only thing left is the debris of what remains of Alderaan.

I like it, but I agree that there’s no visible debris, which would make it better. The fire seems to look like a miniature has been blown up.

Could you break down what elements (original and new) you used? I’m interested in this shot and would like to just see if it could be improved further.

Dat_SW_Guy said:

RogueLeader said:

I Ike it! I think it works better as an almost blinding light rather a very clear, properly exposed explosion. I did notice some flickering on the bottom a little.

The flickering is from an encoding issue, otherwise, the only thing left is the debris of what remains of Alderaan.

I would try some rubble over laying some of the blast, with a glow coming from behind it that will do a light wrap. So we get the effect of rubble coming toward us. If you check out my Prequels Revised Trailer 1 or 2 there is a shot im creating where a building blows up. Its still in production and not done but something akin to that.

Hal 9000 said:

I like it, but I agree that there’s no visible debris, which would make it better. The fire seems to look like a miniature has been blown up.

Could you break down what elements (original and new) you used? I’m interested in this shot and would like to just see if it could be improved further.

Well the only thing original is the starfield. I added the glow and then the explosion after it. I might have to use Despecialized since the SE has that added glow I couldn’t remove.

Updated first post.

Hello, it has been a year and I finally found time to work on this project again. I thought it would be a good opportunity to do it now as my computer has been upgraded and I can work on VFX on this movie. First and foremost, I plan to re-do the Alderaan explosion scene to add in an extra shot, in which you can see the planet in an orbital view exploding whilst ships try and flee away from the impending doom that is behind them.

I wanted this shot to somewhat look like it was done using optical bluescreen, with the hand-drawn laser beam and the planet being a matte painting, which would fit the aesthetic of the film nicely.

So I made a quick photo on Photoshop and sort-of made it look like it was shot in 77, albeit a very rough concept although I might’ve added too much grain for the record lol.

I used an unused matte painting of Tatooine that Ralph McQuarrie made for ANH, some ships I found online, and an intentionally janky looking explosion that resemble those 70% opacity explosions literred around the ships during the Battle of Endor in ROTJ.

In other news, since SkyDude over in the Star Wars Trilogy Forums has done a very good cleanup up of the Mos Eisley drive-by shot by merging in different sources including 4k77, I’ll probably use that and slightly enhance it to make the transition alot more seamless.

That’s a cool concept! I’d definitely like to see what can be done while keeping in the style of the original effects.

Dat_SW_Guy said:

Hello, it has been a year and I finally found time to work on this project again. I thought it would be a good opportunity to do it now as my computer has been upgraded and I can work on VFX on this movie. First and foremost, I plan to re-do the Alderaan explosion scene to add in an extra shot, in which you can see the planet in an orbital view exploding whilst ships try and flee away from the impending doom that is behind them.

I wanted this shot to somewhat look like it was done using optical bluescreen, with the hand-drawn laser beam and the planet being a matte painting, which would fit the aesthetic of the film nicely.

So I made a quick photo on Photoshop and sort-of made it look like it was shot in 77, albeit a very rough concept although I might’ve added too much grain for the record lol.

I used an unused matte painting of Tatooine that Ralph McQuarrie made for ANH, some ships I found online, and an intentionally janky looking explosion that resemble those 70% opacity explosions literred around the ships during the Battle of Endor in ROTJ.

In other news, since SkyDude over in the Star Wars Trilogy Forums has done a very good cleanup up of the Mos Eisley drive-by shot by merging in different sources including 4k77, I’ll probably use that and slightly enhance it to make the transition alot more seamless.

That looks amazing!

Hello there, I am looking to find a Darth Vader line from any video game, deleted scene, etc. that can be suitable to replace the dialogue that he and Tarkin have after the TIE Fighter attack on their way to the rebel base.

Governor Tarkin:
Are they away?

Darth Vader:
They just made the jump into hyperspace.

Governor Tarkin:
And you’re sure the homing beacon is secure onboard their ship? I’m taking an awful risk, Vader. This had better work.

I am removing the “hyperspace” line as it is evident that in the next shot, they can be seen flying in space and not on hyperspace.

Feel free to use what Sir Ridley did for my project if you’d like to depict them in hyperspace for that scene.

https://vimeo.com/356790113

PM me for files.

Hmm, that is interesting. However I feel like it would be a better solution overdubbing Vader’s vocals to not anymore imply that they had just made the jump into hyper-space however I am not sure where to find a library of Vader’s lines from different games, TV series, etc. that can help with this, or even straight from ESB, ROTJ, ROTS or RO.

ThisIsCreation said:

Wow. I am blown away with this. Is there edit of the movie with this in it?

Yeah, man: mine!

And fair enough, just wanted to make sure you had the option.

Updated first post as the changelog has been completely updated to fit the sources and to add some new art into the mix 😉

I will make a poster to later submit to Fanedit.org (if they approve of it, anyway)

Also, I just might have an idea to fix the Darth Vader hyper-space continuity error in the film, but I wont reveal it until later, so its more of a suprise!

JEDIT: A pending change I’d like to add is the adition of the re-done shots Adywan did for the TIE Fighter attack on the Falcon, but that would require some upscaling to 1080p (though I’m not sure it would look very good). So if anyone out there can lend a hand and upscale that scene for me, then it would be very appreciated!