77FN

RU.08 said:

That’s already been covered - no they aren’t. They’re taken using different cameras, and lighting might not be set up for filming, etc.

I remember reading WAY back when those TOPPS cards were released (I’m sure it was in one of the Star Wars monthly magazines) they they were scanned from the same sources as GOUT. So scanned from an actual film print rather than on-set production photographs.

I too love the idea of a private topic - Following the progress of this project has become a necessary accompaniment to my morning coffee! Without either I’m not good to go 😉

Kermit the frog crazy dance of joy!

cmckendry said:

samlowry said:

Hey There,

Heres an update of my custom set. Finally got the positioning right to fit the covers perfectly in the 15mm Criterion Blu-ray boxes and was able to track down some higher resolution art for the back. As for the inside/reverse, I printed them with the Noriyoshi Ohrai collage style prints. All in all, pretty happy with the results. Hope you enjoy.

Any chance I could get a PM of these? They’re EXACTLY what I’ve been looking for!

I sent ‘samlowry’ a message about those amazing covers a while back now, and got no reply. I hope he’s OK.

Thanks for these wonderful covers FrankT - having a hard time picking a favourite 😃

Request: Is it possible to create a version of the TEAM NEGATIVE1 SILVER SCREEN EDITION V3 cover which hasn’t got the artwork distorted to fit into that shape? The Death Star and Vaders head look quite weird as it is. Is it possible to alter that or would it be too much trouble?
Somebody else mentioned it too, but I can’t get used to the ‘fully resorted’ part either - any chance of changing this to fully restored? Many thanks for all your great work!

Stunning work on these covers and all the extras Ronwlin! Wow!

I hate to be ‘that guy’ as the work you’re putting into these puts any official release of the Star Wars trilogy to shame. But there’s a spelling mistake in Chapter 22 - ‘Hungting’, and Chapter 23 - ‘Somone’. Other than that, stunning work! Thanks for all the effort you’re putting into these 😃

Has anybody checked out the HD release of The Black Hole on iTunes? Is is worth buying, and using for this project at all?

I’d appreciate a link to the 2.7 version MKV too as/when you have the time. Many thanks 😃

SleepyBear said:

I’ve been thinking about working on a restored version of the original Star Trek series. Can somebody provide me with the source material needed so I can do it?

Goals:

To remove all dirt from the special effects shots that weren’t cleaned up on the Blu-Ray version and do an overall color correction.

Covering the changes that were made to the Blu-Ray with the DVD version

HELP WANTED

So, you want somebody to give you a free copy of the blurays?!!

I’d love to help too.

Darth Lucas said:

Plus, it’s not like it would be hard to digitally add extra layers of grain on top of it to simulate the grain that would be present on a 35mm print in 77, if that’s what you really want.

To me adding in digital grain is a HUGE no-no. Because one is then at the mercy of the judgement call of the person adding it back. And it’s fake. It’s an addition. No matter how well done. Mike’s is a unique process of course as he’s not degraining, but by combining multiple prints the ‘gaps’ between film grains are presumably being filled in by the other ‘layers’ of film scans, to get closer to how the original neg. would likely look. I’m cool with that for an ultimate version of what Star Wars could look like, but part of me would prefer an honest representation (albeit cleaned up) of a 35mm print, with the original grain intact, extra grain & contrast anomalies on the FX shots when more elements are added in the shot, etc. But I guess we have Silver Screen for that (which I’m very thankful for!). I think my own personal holy grail will be the Tech scan, if that ever comes to light.

Harmy said:

Actually, in that particular shot, the channel misregistration is different on the models and on the background, so it was clearly part of the original compositing and in order to fix it, Mike had to cut everything out of it’s background and shift each element separately, thus literally re-compositing the shot.

Thanks for putting it way more eloquently than I did 😉

It’s not a big deal to me, but it just ‘feels’ wrong to correct that, IF its visible on all prints and not just a bad single print. But again it highlights how many different opinions exist to what constitutes the ideal restoration/representation.

Other than that and the crawl (the colour timing remains to be seen) I’m totally blown away by what I’ve seen of Legacy from the videos.

Dek Rollins said:

I would say that my only things to pick with what I’ve seen of Legacy are as follows:

1. The grain reduction. I prefer 35mm grain over the negative, and even when he’s using 35mm prints, he’s reducing the grain to achieve a near negative medium.

2. The opening crawl. After I saw the crawl preview on his vimeo, I just thought, Why would you do that? I mean, the crawl losing detail as it goes further up the frame is the natural fade into black. He even said that he doesn’t want to change anything internally, and I would say that is doing exactly that.

Other than these nitpicks, I am really liking how the previews look, aside from the color grading of course, and I am looking forward to more news.

I felt the same way about the registration problems he fixed in the starfield and engines etc. in the approach to the Death Star shots. I mean what he’s done constantly astounds me, literally astounds me, and I love watching his videos, but once the restoration gets to that point it starts to become a change, at least for me. Just because you can ‘fix’ something, etc. If the matt lines are left, then the occasional registration errors should be left too as they’re a by-product of the tech. of the time, and to this film. Agree with the opening scroll comments too for the same reasons. Having said all that, the work he’s put into this is staggering. I truly hope Disney hire him and hand over the negs 😉 My ideal restoration would be all 35mm grain left unaltered, colours as close as possible to how they would have been seen back when (though I guess you’d almost need two different versions at this point depending upon which print was being referenced!), and only the scratches and wear and tear eliminated. No fixes to errors caused by the photochemical processes of the time. But everyone naturally has differing viewpoints on their ideal. I still live in hope the one day we’ll all be able to see Mike’s Legacy edition in full.

I don’t visit these ‘ere parts as often as I used to, but just wanted to add that I’m quite literally blown away by the work you’ve put into in restoring Star Wars; in many ways it’d wager it’s arguably better than a pristine straight scan from the negative itself, as you’ve gone above & beyond in getting this thing into shape, tidied up a few registration problems (thinking here of that photo shot of the X-wings on their way to the Death Star) and applied many techniques you’ve come up with over the course of all your work, rather than over-reliance on off-the-shelf tools and automation. Not to mention the fact you’ve been at it for 15 years too! For what it’s worth I think Disney would have to be bantha-shit crazy to not go with your talents if they’re receptive to releasing the original version, perhaps for the 40th. I somehow think they won’t ignore that Anniversary without some special announcement.

Thanks for all the efforts you’ve gone to, and are still going to, to preserve this film the way it should have been done back in ’97.

I’m hoping we get to see the results of all your work via Disney sometime next year 😉

This looks absolutely amazing! Thanks so much for your efforts on this Harmy, and those responsible for the scanning. All three films now out on 35mm scans… truly a dream come true! I love the Grindhouse vibe too - Takes me back to a more analogue age! 😃

TR2N said:

Hi Harmy,

I don’t understand the people here that are complaining over colors, crushed blacks etc. Wtf are they talking about? I mean you gave us the best experience of ROTJ ever and people are complaining the Shit out of that. We have to be so thankful for what you have done and the time you spent for this version. I think the colors are awesome, ROTJ never looked better imo!!

Some people really have 1st world problems…

I agree. I also think many just aren’t used to how a 35mm film looked in the cinemas, because that’s something that’s, regrettably, largely been lost to digital projection. Many are used to today’s pin-sharp ‘perfection’ and if looking for ‘flaws’ will certainly find them. Harmy has succeeded magnificently in restoring these films very closely to how I remember them looking. But people do seem to like to look for faults on internet forums. Easy to criticise than to praise I guess. Not a good trend.

Have you asked -1 if they have a scan of the 81 crawl & opening? I’m sure I read that they did…

xenoch said:

samlowry said:

Hey There,

Heres an update of my custom set. Finally got the positioning right to fit the covers perfectly in the 15mm Criterion Blu-ray boxes and was able to track down some higher resolution art for the back. As for the inside/reverse, I printed them with the Noriyoshi Ohrai collage style prints. All in all, pretty happy with the results. Hope you enjoy.

Hi could you please PM me this set? I love the selection of art in these covers.

Hi there.

I too would love a link to your covers please, if still available - stunning work! 😃

This looks amazing - and the extra effort you went to to use the 35mm footage to replace the blurry mess that is the blu-ray in that Endor sequence (criminal that mess got through ‘QC’) makes such a difference and is hugely appreciated. A massive step up from Jedi v.1. I can’t see it getting much better than this to be honest! The only quandary I now have is whether to watch all three over the weekend, or wait until April’s (rumoured) blu-ray release of Force Awakens and watch them all in sequence. Having willpower approximately to the power of zero, I daresay an Original Trilogy marathon awaits this weekend 😉
THANKS HARMY 😃

After a crappy week with various health problems, this news has completely turned it around for me. Fabulous news indeed. Your tireless work to help keep these films alive in their original forms is greatly appreciated Harmy. The prospect of being able to shortly see Jedi from a 35mm scan is just remarkable! Thanks for all that you do 😃

Harmy said:

OK, so I have v2.0 cut assembled and I have the audio tracks from hairy_hen but I’d still like a few volunteers to check out a final workprint before I do the final release. Any takers?

I’d love to give it a run through on my projector if you’re still looking for volunteers Harmy. Cheers.

That sample looks stunning! I love - and am truly grateful for - the recent Silver Screen release, but this looks far superior to my eyes. Very punchy, it leaps off the screen, and I love those colours. Superb black levels too! It just feels ‘right’! Very exciting time to be a Star Wars fan - thanks to all involved for keeping the original versions alive! 😃

Duplicate post.

I just wanted to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone involved in bringing this project to fruition. I’ve watched a few scenes from it now and am going to burn it to a bluray later, and watch it on my Epsom projector on a 110" screen later - heaven! From what I’ve seen it looks beautiful - love seeing that grain intact, instead of the digitally scrubbed, fake grain added back afterwards look of the blurays. It’s surprising how much difference it makes. One can relax into the film more without the unnatural ‘sheen’ caused by digitally added grain and excessive use of the sharpening tools. The colours look so much better too, though I think they’re possibly just a little washed out looking (looks like the GOUT colours were used as a reference?). Easy to bump the colour up a notch or two when watching anyway. Overall it looks bloody marvellous - the work that’s gone into this is astonishing, and the end result is a miracle! The importance of this release cannot be over-stated: Star Wars '77 is truly back. Thank you so much 😃