Team Negative1 - The Empire Strikes Back 1980 - 35mm Theatrical Version (Released) — Page 5

I checked against the PAL '04 DVD, and while it's close, it's not an exact match.

I just don't understand why, if they have really made several watchable versions at different resolutions, nothing has been shared. I don't buy the "we're waiting until we've made a better version" excuse - there's nothing wrong with sharing a V1 then improving on it. If these screenshots are from a scan, they've clearly gone to the trouble of adding in the letterboxing to make this up to 16:9 for anamorphic DVD or HDTV resolutions.

And the bullshit with the accounts annoys me - we try to keep everyone to "one account per person" to make the forum easier to manage. We've got negative1 who hasn't been online since June, "team negative1" who is supposed to be someone else (cinch?), yet it is clear that negative1 has been using his account to post.

I wouldn't say negative1 is batshit crazy, but he's certainly very eccentric - from his idiosyncratic posting style, to his tendency to start something then give up halfway through.

Basically, I'm concerned that many people think these projects are some sort of ultimate preservation effort, and I'm just trying to manage their expectations and give a dose of reality so that they are not disappointed when the project fizzles out without ever having produced anything

My continued interest in this project is based on Harmy's reports of interaction with Team Negative1, using some aspects of their work in Despecialized.

Beyond that, my faith lies in poita, who seems to be our real hope. I can't wait to see what he puts out when inevitably at some point he tackles a 35mm SW print.

rchdggr said:

Frankly, I wouldn't bother answering all pushy, intrusive questions about who is posting what and when either if I was a part of the team, seems like they are pretty damn busy as it is. Sure, his/her/their style is weird and all but so what? If they want to be vague or even feel the need to lie about who is writing behind the moniker or whatever, I'm sure they have their reasons. That's largely irrelevant to me at least.

Good point(s), but you have to remember that Moth3r has different concerns than the rest of us, as he's a forum mod.

TV's Frink said:

Is it fair to say you'd consider banning both accounts if he/she/it/them/they/us weren't working on a potentially important project?  Shouldn't they at least share some proof with you or another mod?

No, that's not fair at all.

What you are working on is irrelevant. ocpmovie was working on a very worthy project, but he broke the no selling rule and was banned without hesitation.

However, if negative1 continues to post from team negative1's account, I will ban his original account.

Ultimately... it comes down to the general sharing resources of this community. Many edits use other edits as a basis, many editors use color corrected footage from other editors. Any time a new source is found, it is almost always shared across the community untouched, either before or concurrent with the finder's "Official Version". A lot of us are just ideas people, offering our feedback as we see footage. We offer constructive criticism. But even we all play a role in shaping and sharing.

With that in mind, it is slightly surprising that a project such as Team -1's isn't being shared nearly as quickly. People get focused on a workprint being released for all of us to watch, but I think that's not ultimately the point I struggle with. I take issue with the fact that they are currently the only source of complete 35mm scans of the footage, and aren't sharing their SOURCE to other teams that could potentially color correct and work on the footage for separate releases.

Yes, Team -1's release will probably look outstanding in the end.  But get the unaltered complete SOURCE into Harmy's hands, Adywan's hands, etc. These projects all operate on the premise that the Fans deserve the OUT. Seems out of place then for a fan to hold back a SOURCE from another fan. And yes, this project is unique in facing this issue - every other project is using known and available sources. Perhaps I'm coming across as entitled here... but I feel that this community is built on a level of fair entitlement to see the films they love in the best quality possible...

Part of the problem here is that a raw scan of a single film is over 20TB, i.e. over $700 worth of HDDs. Not easy to share or distribute.

As for entitlement, nobody *has* to share anything, especially something they may have sunk thousands of hours and thousands of dollars into, but I am glad when people do :)

bkev said:

So... anyone gonna pull out the 04 dvd to compare the cropping? Moth3r made a pretty serious, and largely ignored thus far, claim that deserves addressing.

 I didn't bother because the last time I checked, the 04 DVDs did not include the original monkeyface Emporer, and have all of the original grain scrubbed away (though I guess grain isn't the most difficult thing in the world to fake). So if it's a hoax, they're doing a really good job, and doing an even better job with their A New Hope "preservation".

Also, they did a really good job of faking the video footage of the film going through a projector :)

I can confirm that they do indeed have two ESB faded 35mm prints, so this is not the  hoax you are looking for. Move along, move along...

I can also guarantee that there is a 4K scan of an ANH print coming one way or the other, there is an Australian print around, so no need to stress.

I am not part of the team, but I can verify that the ESB stuff they are showing is for real and not some faked stuff. How far along they are with ESB I have no idea.

I meant apart from the problem of sharing a 20TB original scan, even making a '720P' version would take a lot of time and effort. It is incredibly slow working with, and recompressing 4K data and you need at least 30TB of HDDs in your computer just to be able to have the original scan in there, and enough working space to convert it to a lower res version. Or you have to do it in chunks. Either way it is a lot of work.

Doable, but a lot of work. Even just making those low res versions of the Super8 files took days.

There is something that i have been meaning to ask, but it seems you don't have a thread specifically for ROTJ, so i will ask here.

There is a section on ROTJ that is out of focus on the HDTV & Blu-Ray versions. As you have a print of ROTJ i'm hoping you can check this section and post some screenshots that can settle an ongoing argument. From the point of the shuttle reaching Endor and giving the code right up until the beginning of the speeder bike chase ther difference is sharpness is terrible. there seems to be some sort of horizontal smearing. The worse shot that really shows this problem off is the shot below. If you could just post a hi-res screengrab off your scan of this one shot then it would prove one way or another iif there was a huge problem with the official ROTJ transfer

and here is a comparison between 2 shots inside the shuttle of Han that also shows the difference between two sections of the film

What if Tv's Frink IS -1? Talk about hoaxes...