Cobra Kai

Harmy said:

Oh, no, it's good that you pointed it out (though I probably won't be doing anything about it in this case). As to that red sky shot, that is very much intentional.

The shot right before that one looks really blue.  I'm guessing that this is not how it looked originally, but that the blu-ray color-timing makes it impossible to restore to the original look?

Yes, I would also be interested in a dvd. As a mac user I don't have blu-ray burning capabilities.

CatBus said:

Even our definition of "Star Wars" varies.  Mine is a trilogy of three films from 1977-1983.  If pushed, I will expand my definition to include the Holiday Special and some Ewok movies.

The Special Editions aren't Star Wars, they are impostors.  The prequels aren't Star Wars either, they are relatives of the impostors trying to tag along for the ride.  As such, hating them doesn't even remotely dampen my enthusiasm for Star Wars, because they are unrelated.

THIS

Yeah, that's what I was thinking, but I can also redesign those to fit a blu-ray if I want.

I'm thinking about using the 80's VHS style covers that someone posted a couple weeks ago - for the nostalgia.  Those are the ones I remember from when I was a kid.

Man, I can't wait.  I've just got my old TR47's right now, and I haven't even watched them in a few years, because I just end up getting frustrated with the relative poor picture quality.  

I have a weekly movie night with several friends, so I will definitely be bringing this once its released.  I have been keeping them up to date on all the preservation work, and they are very excited at the thought of being able to finally watch the OT again.

Omen, just curious as to what you're currently working on?  Sounds like you've done a lot on all three movies.  Are you going to release them together?

Again, really looking forward to seeing these.

negative1 said:

4 years is a long time..

a very long time to some..

but sometimes its worth the wait.

 

someone gets a 'crazy' idea, and

someone else finds a way to try

to make it work..

 

thanks to all those in this thread

that stuck with it, and gave us the

inspiration.

 

it has begun, mark this day..

 

later

-1

This is the best post I've read in a while. Very encouraging.  Just sent you a pm.  would love to check out the blog.

Ok, I just wanted to chime in here about the color-timing, even though this argument has been beat to death.

First-off, Harmy, I think you're doing an incredible job on this.  In my opinion the new color-timing is not only a huge improvement, but I am also quite confident, based on your new sources that it is very close to how people viewed this movie in 1977, which should clearly be the ultimate goal.

The one shot, though, that really bugs me is the Tantive shot that OMEN posted earlier:  http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/107151   The difference in color-tone here between these two shots is pretty jarring, and it definitely took me out of the scene. 

Personally I would fix that second shot to match up more closely with the rest of the scene.   Fixing a few glaring inconsistencies like this, IMO, would not compromise the integrity of a theatrical restoration, and each scene would still have the same look and feel as it originally did in 1977.

I hate to bring up stuff like this, as I know your position on the matter, but I just had to get it off my chest.  Again, I think you're doing an awesome job, and I think I am more excited about this project than anyone here.  (my wife thinks I'm obsessed)  I think she's right...

georgec said:

kilik64 said:

Best friend and myself are going to see it tonight. Im not really sure why, we both hate the movie, and Im personally not the biggest fan of 3d (although I will say that Hugo has almost changed my mind on it, that movie was phenominal!), but yet we are still going.

We both love Star Wars since our childhood (both of us are late twenties) and we saw all three prequels together, so guess we are trying to keep the streak alive?

Really, why are we going...

Because the Flannel Master has a psychological hold on you, and you feel like less of a SW fan if you don't go, break your streak, and spend more money on crap you've said you don't care to see?

Yes, no reason to go if you hated it.  I just pretend that the prequels don't exist, so I can still retain my unspoiled love for Star Wars that I had when I was a kid.

Harmy said:

I agree. I'm going to see it next week. It's pathetic...

Don't do it, Harmy! 

As for myself, I have no desire to see it, let alone in 3d.  I can't stand watching 3d movies anyway, so seeing TPM in 3d would just be that much worse.

What about this shot?  Maybe I'm nitpicking but the sand right next to the crawler looks overly saturated and doesn't match up with the rest. 

I just watched this scene on the '04 disc - didn't realize they reframed this shot and added in a new matte for the SE. 

Omen, looking great - really looking forward to seeing this.  Couple questions:

1. What exactly are you doing to the Mos Eisley scene?  are you going for a full theatrical or just taking out some of the really bad cg crap?

2. What format are you planning on releasing these in?

Thanks.

-

corellian77 said:

This is apparently becoming quite a heated debate.  I stepped outside and saw people picketing in the streets.

Ha!

For me, it's simple.  These marks were not captured on film, and thus do not truly represent part of the finished product that the crew worked so hard to achieve.

I'm all for theatrical restoration, but the burn mark, unless I'm mistaken, is something that happened to the film AFTER it had been cut.  It was not a part of the filming process, and thus it is not like other "mistakes" like matte lines and such that represent the historical, technological limitations that they were dealing with.

So, since they were not part of the original filming process, I believe a true restoration of Star Wars would not include them.  Just my opinion.

Kingherb said:

http://uloz.to/13226726/deed-v2-0-wp2-3-mp4

Anyone else having trouble downloading this? it says '' Na stránce nastala chyba '' for me, which i assume means error? i also tried the link using mipony and jdownloader no luck.

just tried it.  it worked fine for me. 

Harmy said:

OK, I'm finally getting the references I've been waiting for. So far I have one frame for each second of reel1 (and they're not photos of a screen either). I regret to say that I'm not at liberty to share these, so please don't ask me to; but I can say this: I wasn't too far off the mark with the Tantive IV sequence, in fact, I was pretty darn close, but the early Tatooine is probably gonna need some major rework.

That's awesome news. This project just keeps getting better and better. 

LtTawnyMadison said:

I got the ISO file and my husband has converted it to 4 different formats to play from our hard drive. All of them are playing very choppy -- is the only way for it to play correctly to burn it to a Blu-Ray disc? We don't have that capability.

Tawny, you can play iso files with a free program called VLC. 

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

You_Too said:

You know guys, if you saw Mike Verta's shots from a 70's bulb projection of an original print, you know SW was in fact more "yellow" in the theatres in 1977. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think that's something Harmy is aiming to recreate as well.

Agreed. 

With the new Verta shots to use as a reference, I trust Harmy to do an excellent job in achieving the "look" of the theatrical version.  Anyway, he already said the colors on the latest WP weren't final anyway and to be looking at the other aspects of the footage.

I just fear that the next mention of color or "skin tones" may send Harmy over the edge. :)

I don't know the 2.0 pics look pretty good to me.  Without having Tech photos here to compare them to, saying one is more "accurate" than the other is pretty subjective.

STENDEC said:

Say, just something that occurred to me that I thought I'd ask and this seemed to be the right thread to do it.

Has anyone heard about Technicolor prints of ESB and RotJ being out there in private hands? Were there even any Technicolor prints made of those two? I hear a lot about the various privately owned prints of SW but I haven't heard of any existing for Empire and Jedi.

nope, no prints were made. Technicolor was on its last legs even in 1977 and closed down the following year, I believe.

Harmy said:

To be honest, I'm getting pretty tired of this whole colour debate. Sometimes I envy Adywan, he was doing his colour corrected AVCHDs before all this IB Print madness, he had it easy, the simple fact that he improved the colours over the 2004 version was enough for everyone to be in awe. Don't get me wrong, he did a great job, he just didn't have to put up with people being unreasonably demanding in terms of colour accuracy. Modern Blu-Ray transfers of older movies are often not completely colour-accurate to how they appeared in cinemas and they're still awesome releases, celebrated even by the biggest film buffs. I'm not saying that colours don't matter, they matter greatly, but they just don't have to be 100% perfect.

Hey you're the one that said this a few weeks ago:

"I must say I'm quite disappointed in you guys; making a blatantly careless decision like that, I expected a huge backlash and you didn't say a word. I need you guys to motivate me to do the best job I can..."  :P

Seriously though, everyone here agrees you're doing a fantastic job, and I totally agree with the last two posts: it's because we all see the great potential of your project, that we are naturally going to be that much more critical about every little aspect of the footage.

I mean, just the thought of being able to sit down with a bowl of popcorn and simply enjoy Star Wars again, without constantly being distracted and taken out of the movie by ridiculous re-edits and crappy cgi, is obviously very exciting to say the least for myself and fans everywhere.

It is this excitement that has us all analyzing every frame and engaging in ridiculous and rather nerdy debates about whether Luke's lightsaber looks green or blue, and about how bright the stars appeared at the theater 35 years ago.

We all know it will not be 100% accurate.  That is not possible.  But we also know that DeED 2.0 has the potential to be great, and become the best available SW restoration to date. 

I have no doubt, from what I've seen, that your finished product will look fantastic, and I can't wait to enjoy Star Wars again, just like I did when I was a little kid.  

Maxim, i think the ones from that last link would look perfectly fine.  Also with a little photoshop work you could blend the two together in order to extend the cropped image.