Team Negative1 - The Empire Strikes Back 1980 - 35mm Theatrical Version (Released) — Page 42

We anticipate a lot of requests. So please be patient when expecting a reply, you will have a week to get them.

Don't forget to leave comments or impressions on the forums.

Team Negative1

Looks absolutely amazing! There's also more information at the top and bottom of the frame which is great.

I can't hear any sound though. Normal?

You're going to have to be more specific. Which files. Both had sound encoded into them.

They are partially cropped already, and might have some slight cropping to hide artifacts.

Thanks

Team Negative1

Did I read correctly that this preview is for everyone? Not exclusive?

As we mentioned before, all the current previews are public.

Team Negative1

Update: I can hear sound in After Effects but not on my desktop (iMac)... 

It might be my office computer, i'll check when I get home. 

Check your media player. VLC is bloated, but works fine for most people. Mplayer might be a good alternative.

Media Player Classic is the better choice for PC Users.

Team Negative1

I just watched the new preview and I must say that aside from the color issues and some damage, it looks fantastic!!! When the damage is removed and the color is fixed, you will have a great restoration here. So impressive. Bring on more!

All PM's have been sent with links.

For those that don't want to wait, the files are now on Myspleen.

After next week, that will be the location to get them from.

Team Negative1

poita said:

I have often wanted to compost the SE.

 We lol'd.

Team Olie

Thanks for sharing the previews! The cleaned Grindhouse looks awesome! There is great detail, sharpness, and dynamic range in the two samples you provided. If the Fuji print is in better shape than this, we're really in for a treat. I can't wait for both this release and the official release in the hopefully not to distant future. 

The preview looks great! Detail is sharp, colors look natural to the film elements, and its very clean all around. Looking forward to more!

Thank you for all your hard work!

The cleaning process might be affecting the sharpness of the final output, and making it appear softer. However, we feel that the tradeoff, when compared to the original with the dirt and noise is worth it.

Also, this is not the final render, so the colors may shift again.

Finally, the colors do need more fine tuning, especially the latter reels, such as the cloud city shots. But we don't know if we will have time for that.

Thanks for the comments.

Team Negative1

We're not sure what you are trying to show. They are different frames.

The placement looks like it would be the same. Here is the merged picture:

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Team Negative1

team_negative1 said:

Check your media player. VLC is bloated, but works fine for most people. Mplayer might be a good alternative.

Media Player Classic is the better choice for PC Users.

Team Negative1

I hear sound using VLC but not with the default quicktime player on Mac.

It's really not a biggie but maybe for the future releases to make sure the mp4 has a compatible audio codec for both platforms.

..and great job on those cleanups!

Again, we know it is the SE version. But the frames don't match up. Are they missing completely.

From the looks of it, the Tie Fighters path seems to match the original, so we're not sure what the comparison was for.

Team Negative1

Fantastic preview! Such eye candy.

Sorry about the following rant about colors and "brown grain", I know the colors aren't final but I did not know where else to post it:

I'm relieved to find that the "brown blotchy grain" (the stuff I wondered about earlier regarding the Falcon escaping Mos Eisley in the SW-thread) evident also in some outdoor VFX shots in ESB may just be a coloring "thing".

I took a screenshot to GIMP and used the color balance sliders on the mid tones. I moved away from red towards cyan and away from yellow to blue and it looks a LOT less obtrusive to my eyes. Moving the lever towards yellow made the brown grain VERY prominent and dirty looking.

So maybe it's really just down to some yellow shift in the elements. The brownness of the grain is there inherently but I think it is over-pronounced by the yellow shift and the way it contrasts with the background (sky, snow).

I'm glad to know I can easily tweak those shots further to my preference if I still find the brown grain too in-my-face after the Team has released their final version. I think I'll try the same trick on SW's "Luke driving his speeder"- and "The Falcon flying away from Mos Eisley"-shots etc. when the time comes.

I understand if the Team will not venture very far from yellow towards blue since yellow is probably crucial for the 70s-80s film look and "is Hoth blue?/how blue is Hoth?" is a touchy subject but it is something I'll experiment with later on.

But the question remains: Did they use pantyhose on Hoth?

As far as we're concerned, please do correct the colors to your liking. We don't really have the time to revisit this movie shot by shot.

There are already 3 color corrected versions out there:

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1 Grindhouse

2 DCP

3 Original preview (low bitrate)

Each have varying degrees of correction.

There may be some minor tweaking to the scenes near the end, but that's about it for now.

The FUJI version has better colors, but more grain.

Team Negative1