Yeah, the recent pessimism in this thread is kind of hilarious considering there are at least three major Star Wars preservation/restoration projects going on at the moment. When all is said in done, there will be three very high quality copies of the original 1977, if not all being distributed freely. This isn't disappearing from history, folks.
Last year someone linked to a fantastic, in-depth piece on the colour grading in the first Star Wars, highlighting its stark lighting and subdued tones compared to the sequels. I thought it had been linked to on Puggo’s site but that seems not to be the case. Anyone have a clue about what I’m talking about? Thanks!
Temporary as those colours may be, I don't think they've ever looked as right.
EDIT: Also, I'm flipping between your shots and their parallels in Harmy's DE 2.5, and it looks like his scenes--which are official Blu Ray-sourced--actually have slightly tighter cropping than yours. I know you say this cropping isn't complete, but at least for these shots you seem to preserve a bit more of the picture than the official BD. That surprised me.
Yeah, when I think of the actual "menace" of the Ewoks I think them leaping down on stormtroopers from above and viciously beating them to death. For me, it's not so much about them being intimidating, but being surprisingly effective at guerilla warfare and conquering and occupying force despite their stature and seemingly minimal intelligence.
And they're cute, and I love cute things.
Ronster said:
It wouldn't be angled up like that, I know for sure. The cockpit and mandibles are parallel and on the same plane so if the right mandible were visible it would be pointed farther downward, perhaps just above the bottom edge of the leftmost window.
Jedi has been my favourite since I was a kid, and upon reevaluating the whole trilogy as an adult it still is. Luke is mature, imposing, and a true leader. Han is no longer a reckless, selfish rogue; he defers to others, apologizes when needed, and is a true soldier. The throne room scenes with Luke, Vader and Palpatine in the Death Star throne room are among my favourite in the trilogy (second possibly only to the meeting between Luke and Vader on the Endor landing platform), I respect the Ewoks for the cute, terrifying insurgent fighters they are. Most of all, it's just so, so cathartic.
I'm naturally predisposed to final chapters in this way, I guess. The Dark Knight Rises is my favourite of Nolan's Batman trilogy, The Year of Our Lord 1983 (same year as Jedi, coincidentally) is the best of the Red Riding trilogy. It's emotionally and maybe even spiritually fulfilling to see things wrapped up in a satisfying way, and Jedi does that in spades.
I understand it has the weakest plot of the three, and retreads old ground with the Death Star, but to be perfectly honest I'm drawn more toward characterization and the aforementioned catharsis when I read, watch or play various forms of art and entertainment.
So Jedi all the way. Can't wait for the 2.0 of Harmy's Despecialized and Team Negative One's first version of their 35mm scan.
Troyig88 said:
when it does get release please try not to crop it that much and thank you.
I understand we'll be losing a bit of the edges due to necessity, but honestly I don't think that minimal of cropping is something I'd consciously notice. I had to go to Screenshot Comparison before I could perceive the framing difference between the official Blu Ray of Empire and Team Negative One's Grindhouse version. Obviously I'd notice if they went from 2.35:1 to 1.85:1 or widescreen to fullscreen but it's nothing nearly that drastic. Heck, most modern TVs don't distinguish between 1.78:1 and 1.85:1 and I don't even notice the difference. Our attention just isn't focused on that part of the screen and depending on overscan we might not see that portion at all.
generalfrevious said:
and mouth rape us
Okay, can we not do this? I don't care how "butchered" these films have been since 1997, let's not compare some director's editorial ego trip to an inhuman act far more people than you might realize have been subjected to. Call the SEs shitty, call Lucas a jerk, insist you'll only watch some third-hand beta tape of Empire you found in a flea market, but don't be immature and insensitive and compare it to sexual assault, no matter how metaphorical you're being.
Even if it really does need further cleaning, wow, that detail. Look at the individual water droplets on the X-wing's cockpit.
Excellent!
In your Star Wars thread, you wrote about how some cropping was necessary to properly preserve the image. Did you already do some cropping to the Grindhouse of Empire?
Now I'm just going down a deep mental rabbit hole: removing the CG characters from the picture, basically halving their animation frames, and compositing them back in so they have that stop-motion jitteriness. And yes, matte lines.
But now I'm getting sidetracked. This is about regrading the look of the prequels, not going full Ray Harryhausen on them.
I think it's worth noting that these "after" pictures are smaller and much more compressed than the "befores" so some of those stars are probably made invisible from the lossiness. But that is an intriguing question.
Erik Pancakes said:
I like both, actually. Makes the shot feel more like a '70s/'80s matte painting and less like CGI.
Granted, it doesn't make the shot look realistic, either, but still - I like the matte painting look.
I just thought of a silly idea for a fan edit--part of a fan edit, rather: putting fake garbage mattes around the various ships. Actually, it's got me thinking about ways one could old-ify modern effects.
I don't even think it looks cheaper. The Tatooine scenes have an incredible crispness to them, and it looks lived-in in a way the latter two movies don't. It's just... different.
It's kind of like how movies from different eras have a different look to them. I can discern if something was made in the '80s or '90s just by looking at them--with some exceptions; Se7en looks like it was made today. Jedi definitely has the look of an '80s blockbuster, Empire is very much a mid-to-late '70s film. It's just the first that looks out of time; not to its detriment, mind you.
What is that long rectangle at the bottom of the untouched frame? All dirt?
It also looks like you've done some colour correcting, yes? Unless that print was already in good shape to begin with. Looks good either way.
Those audio logs actually aren't recorded by Ian Holm--he wasn't available for some reason--but they got a pretty good impressionist. As for sounds from Isolation, a great many of those are sourced directly from 20th Century Fox's archives so their accuracy is unparalleled.
Stunning how little Weaver's voice has changed in 35 years. That woman was blessed by the Fountain of Youth.
I'm genuinely amazed how much detail people are able to pull from this supbar LD scan from two decades ago.
This is something more for consistency's sake, and maybe not even possible, but it's worth pondering.
A New Hope looks noticeably different from Empire and Jedi, almost night and day. I'm not talking about special effects or even the hairstyles, but the way it was photographed and graded. ANH has very stark lighting and subdued tones, and at times resembles something out of the late '60s like Planet of the Apes than a film produced a decade later; a good way to describe its look would be "dry." Empire and Jedi have more saturated colours and they "pop" a little more. The shots also tend to be a lot more dynamic.
Obviously Adywan can only alter shot dynamics and composition a little bit, but is it possible to regrade ANH to better match its sequels in terms of visual presentation?
I'm really sorry if I gave the impression I'm ticked off or ungrateful. I was confused, and should have read through this thread better. When all is said and done, Team Negative 1 will have achieved what most Star Wars fans have hoped would happen since George Lucas claimed the theatrical cuts had been effectively taped over. It'll take longer to get there than I originally thought, but holy crap it's almost a reality.
Like, when you think about the notoriety of the Special Editions and Lucas' determination to keep the previous versions out of public consumption, this restoration is one of the most important in cinematic history, and entirely fan-made to boot. The only thing that could top it is if, against all odds and recorded knowledge, someone pieced together the original cut of The Magnificent Ambersons.
It definitely does look good and, yes, authentic for now. A great step forward for the preservation community.
Yessss, thank you. I may order some of those cases this weekend and have some custom cases made by the time my birthday rolls around.
I feel like I've stumbled into a world where people have radically different definitions for certain terms. And I live in Ottawa, where our "Bluesfest" music festival is being headlined by Kanye West.
I see. Well that's fine enough quality to tide me over you or someone else actually restores it.
Oh. Well, shoot. I appreciate all your work, but I guess I'm going to have to wait on a proper restoration, aren't I.
EDIT: I truly mean no disrepect. I guess I didn't properly mentally differentiate between "preservation" and "restoration."
