CatBus

I'll send you a PM with the corrected audio.

I like it.  Thanks for bearing with the peanut gallery.

I think he mostly used color-adjusted GOUT (i.e. the GOUT adjusted to remove its known color bias), but there are other good sources, like the Japanese Special Collection Laserdisc and the -1 preservations, which I think were useful in bringing the warmth back to Cloud City interiors--the GOUT was based on some up-level source that made Cloud City interiors cool bluish in earlier versions.

But the lack of any reference as authoritative as a Technicolor print gave him more free rein to just do "what looked right to him", since there was no evidence stating it didn't look that way.  And I agree it looks great.

EDIT: Example of the Cloud City interiors here.

I've found torrents to be a perfectly adequate substitute for patience.

You know you want to.

Depends on the goal at this point.  If it's to match the Senator, it's still a touch too green to my eyes.

But if it's to try to counteract some of the known color bias in the Technicolor prints, then it could be made even less green (you can still leave it with a touch of mint).  IMO for similar reasons you could restrain the clipping a bit more too, but I know that's my particular peeve.

FrankT said:

Could it be that George was telling the truth when he talked about his "original" vision???

Isn't this less "Random" and more "Theatrical Cuts vs Special Editions"?

That said, I tend to mostly believe that George's original vision for the trilogy was godawful, and it was only through the fortunate graces of pragmatism, budget and time constraints, technological limitations, and George not yet being considered infallible by his co-creators that we actually ended up with the great films they were.  If anything, the Special Editions put an underline under Marcia Lucas' Oscar for Editing, because we got to see what happened without it.

But he also makes it up as he goes along: consider Luke's scream or lack of scream falling into the chasm in Empire.  Obviously his original vision, if it even exists, is malleable.

Your sample looks even more blown out than the Senator sample (which I think is already too blown out for my tastes--if in doubt I'd opt to err in favor of less blown out).  Look through the doorframe at the detail of a second doorframe over the rebels' heads, or the shoulder of the closest stormtrooper.

EDIT: but the colors are nice, if that's all you wanted feedback on ;)

team_negative1 said:

We have the advantage of several years of experience by professionals in the industry that have been working on it, along with the peer reviews here on the forums.

Also, you have the critical advantage of being a nonfictional restoration.

Yeah, that's, uh... perfect, really.

Although the purple skin tones of the Blu-ray do have the unintended effect of making the choking look more severe.  But then Vader would have to be choking everyone at all times, maybe some sort of galaxy-wide force-choke...

Yeah, I have to say I'm coming around to liking this too.

PM's sent.

Does anyone have a link to that guy who had more technical details on the projection angle on the Senator screening?  i.e. how the print came in "under cover of night" about 10 minutes before the show started, so they had no chance to do the typical adjustment they do for a film, which resulted in the heavy cropping you see in the photos?  I don't know if any of that last-minute-zero-prep angle might have affected the brightness/colors/etc.

Akton said:

Though it's shame so few of them are lucky enough to have you around to point it out to them, Frinkie, old boy.

Wait, there's only one Frink again? Did I forget to subscribe to the newsletter?

*cough* plane ticket *cough* Virginia

Not right away though.

darklordoftech said:

In 1981-1998, it did say Episode IV in the crawl, but nobody thought "I missed I-III. Back to the video store to look for I."

*raises hand*

Actually I didn't think exactly that, but in 1980, Star Wars was clearly Episode I, and they skipped over three episode numbers when they released Empire as Episode V.

I remember excited conversations with my friends in school about what must have happened in those missing three episodes (in this case, 2, 3, and 4)--there was a hint of something that happened on Ord Mantell, so clearly there was something juicy in there.  Would it come out in a future film?  TV series?  Who knew?  Either way, LOTS of us believed it, until 1981, or maybe later if we didn't see Star Wars again right away.  Finding out Star Wars was Episode IV and not Episode I like everyone assumed was kind of anticlimactic.  Not as much as the actual prequels, but still a little disappointing.

My understanding is that Technicolor prints require a bright-ass bulb to prevent them from looking really murky, and this is part of why they've been historically more difficult to scan than other prints.  Blown out whites and murky blacks are likely just part of their distinctive look.  They don't look like other film prints, they don't look like the prints the DP's look at to approve the timing, heck, they don't even necessarily look like other Technicolor prints--their primary value is that, over time, their color doesn't hardly fade at all, compared to the other crap filmstock used in the seventies and early eighties, so in many cases, they're the best we've got.

hairy_hen said:

Ass Windex?

Well, they say the eyes are the window to the soul.   So it seems there is no other logical explanation than that Mace's ass is an eye, which is a window to . . . well, something.  (The soul of the Force?)  Presumably not a very clean window if it needs Windex to be able to see into it.

 

I challenge anyone to try to disprove this, because you know you can't.  Yeah, I said it.

PSA: Please keep in mind he's referring exclusively to Mace's ass, because ouch ammonia.  Fool me once, hairy_hen...

darklordoftech said:

being pessimistic for the sake of being pessimistic

Hey, that's my raisin, Dieter!

If wishes were horses, we'd all be eating steak.

DominicCobb said:

People aren't stupid enough to think that that's the original crawl.

I disagree--people are extremely stupid.  But more importantly, even when they're not stupid, they're imprecise.  They will use terms like "original" when they actually just mean "pre-1997".  I know a number of casual fans who really want a pre-1997 release, but they really don't care about the crawl, color timing, inauthentic sound effects, missing sound effects, etc--but they call what they want the "original" versions.  They just want a version of the Star Wars they used to know before it sucked, and many only knew it from VHS.  I suspect they easily outnumber us.  And I know Disney will cater to the largest audience first.

yoda-sama said:

CatBus said:

I'm not saying it'd be worthy of an official boycott, but it would certainly be worthy of a sizeable collection of uninterested shrugs, to the same effect.  Why would you watch the official release if you've already had something for years that's better in every way?

Don't forget, even if it isn't us rushing to buy a perfect release, those of us that support the ideals of the Despecialized Edition would buy an official OUT as a legal-peace-offering against outright piracy, since it would probably be a primary source for a future DeEd.

That's why a was careful to say "watch".  Lots of us have the official Blu-rays hidden away in a location where their existence doesn't embarrass us as badly, with no plans to ever watch them.  I don't think that's the definition of a delighted customer base.

As for the 93 audio, I meant content-wise--I agree it would be some upmix, but there will still be shattering glass in the cell block.  As for the 81 crawl, I think it's a given that any packaging would say "Episode IV: A New Hope", and that unlike with Raiders of the Lost Ark, there is actually already film that includes the altered title.  The GOUT got a pass because (by Lucas-logic) it wasn't the main feature, just some bonus material.  Our best hope for a 77 crawl on an official release IMO is a "watch with original crawl" pick on the menu system.

moviefreakedmind said:

I'd accept any release of the OOT. No one was boycotting releases because of theatrical mono mixes before the SE so why should we start now?

The trick is that, unlike before, many of us have now already seen a good-quality high-definition release of Star Wars, just not an official one.  Twenty years ago, the GOUT would have been not only cutting-edge technologically, but would have at least arguably looked better than anything we'd seen yet.  It would have been happily and gratefully received (okay, I'd have grumbled about the 93 audio, but bear with me).  It's easy to sell DVDs to a crowd that's only seen VHS.

Now, if they release Star Wars in HD with the 81 crawl, 93 audio, and poorly-restored colors (and that's your most likely scenario, IMO), we'll likely say: "Meh, I'll wait to see what Harmy can do with it first".  Because we can't unsee our preservations--they are the new de facto yardsticks we use to measure release quality.  I'm not saying it'd be worthy of an official boycott, but it would certainly be worthy of a sizeable collection of uninterested shrugs, to the same effect.  Why would you watch the official release if you've already had something for years that's better in every way?

I don't know the history of French releases at all, but is the French crawl the original 77 crawl or the revised 81 crawl?

Doctor Nick said:

Harmy has implied that he's not going to continue working on this because of the impending official release, so I wouldn't bother at this point.

There is no impending official release, there's just the latest in a twenty-year train of hundreds of rumors that hasn't even once panned out.  But hey, maybe this time is totally different than the other hundred and seventy gazillion identical rumors we've seen over the years.  It only has to be right once, right?  Well, unless it never is.