there’s a decent shot they include it in the UHD disc release they are planning (they have always talked about this) and if not, they will be including the deleted scenes, making it pretty simple to put together.
We finally have a release date for the new 4K/HD master of Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Director’s Edition, releasing April 5th on Paramount+ with a disc release later in the year! Produced by the orignal team, this release is very exciting, and I can hardly wait. Obviously the new master will have different creative decisions with regards to how best update the old CGI, (from the trailer, some of it very nice and some is quite iffy) but irregardless, the general quality of the new edition should thoroughly exceed my old fanedit and will be the one to watch. This project will still remain up for posterity, but for first-time viewing, I will direct you to what hopefully will be the definitive edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
This guide is from 2016 and was only for the bluray. If you have the UHD, the file names will not match and you’ll unfortunately have to determine how things fit together on your own.
Here are the original PDFs from the first post in the thread:
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/rcndsev4e4c6v/Aliens+Cuts
This is still available as of 2025.
PM me (click my username and select “create a private topic”) if you would like a copy.
This is still available as of 2025, and I have PM’d everyone who wanted a copy in this thread.
PM me (click my username and select “create a private topic”) if you would like a copy.
This was captured by a member here so we are good. If anyone needs a copy I can provide one via DM.
There’s just far too much artifacting there. It may look superficially sharper at a glance, but the detail it’s faking is both uncanny (look at the poor guy’s octopus arm in the lower left) and unfilmic (look at the weird gird pattern it put over everything because it confused MPEG compression for part of the scene). These problems are universal to all machine learning “AI” tools: they are not suited to restoration or archival work. Not to mention half of this plate is (a very outdated) HD scan already, so it’s not even increasing the resolution, just doing odd things to it.
If you want better-looking images, you need a better source. It’s that simple; there’s no magic shortcut you can take. I really hope Paramount greenlights a 4K restoration of this film, because that’s the only way we will get it in the quality it deserves.
Overview:
Roy Budd was a British jazz pianist and composer best known for his film scores, including Get Carter and The Wild Geese. In 1993, Roy Budd composed a symphonic score for the 1929 version of the 1925 silent film The Phantom of the Opera, realizing a long-held dream. Unfortunately, his abrupt death prevented the score from being heard, until it was recently released on CD and DVD in conjunction with a premiere of the score at the London Coliseum.
The DVD uses a version of the score recorded in the mid-nineties, and the picture is a low quality telecine prepared for that release. This version syncs the score to an HD picture. This updated version of my first effort improves the picture quality further (utilizing the latest HD image I’ve prepared for Phantom) while adding tinting inspired by the tints used on the Roy Budd DVD.
The film largely plays at 22 frames second within a more standard 60fps file and is synced to the score as it appears on the DVD.
Video: 1080p 60fps 16gb MKV - Tinted black and white with technicolor sequence – 01:25:55
Aspect ratio: 1.2:1
Audio: Untouched Dolby Digital from the DVD (there are brief dropouts, but those are on the DVD)
Extras:
Producer Euan Lloyd in discussion about Roy Budd’s score to the Phantom of the Opera (I’ve edited together two interviews available on Roy Budd’s website)
BBC 1 story
Trailers
From the DVD:
Interview with Get Carter director Mike Hodges
Roy Budd playing piano with the Roy Budd Trio at the 1983 Bob Hope Gala
Screencaps:
https://imgur.com/a/jIAipzh
Video technical notes:
This release largely uses the image from my previous rare scores collection (with some small fixes) while added tinting inspired by the tints used on the Roy Budd DVD. I’ve added some additional tints to scenes to keep things varied.
As the various home media releases of Phantom have differing levels of quality, this edit uses the Kino, Image, and BFI blu-rays for greatest picture quality.
The Image and Kino blurays use the same underlying master. The Kino master is a much better encode with a better grain structure, but inadvertently crushes the black levels of some scenes while trying improve the look of the tinting. It also has various small editing and sync errors, mostly introduced while trying to fix splice marks. I created a composite by syncing the two together and overlaying the mid-tones and highlights from the Kino disk over the shadow detail from the Image disk. This helped me preserve shadow detail while correcting sync errors. The resulting picture is somewhat softer than the Kino disk, while still looking much better than the Image disk. This affords a good look to the film with less problems than the Kino or Image presentations on their own and in my mind is the best option outside of evaluating the picture on a shot-to-shot basis.
The opening of the film through Carlotta speaking to the owners is taken from the BFI bluray, as it digitally removes the troublesome hair that wiggles all around the gate. Because the BFI bluray runs at 24fps and uses frame duplication to sync to it’s soundtrack, I had to use a decimate filter and then carefully match the footage frame by frame to the Image/Kino source to ensure there were no frames missing.
Some shots in the cellars were taken from the newly discovered sound reel of Phantom on the BFI disc. It lacked the damage in the other 35mm copy.
Bal masque sequence: The BFI bluray has poor coloration. The Kino Bluray and 24fps Image bluray has frame blending from an incorrect frame rate conversion. I took the interlaced 20fps Image bluray and deinterlaced it, eliminating as many blended field frames as possible.
Rooftop scene: The shots of Christine and Raoul come from the BFI bluray (better detail), with color correction to fix the rather poor tinting. The shots of the Phantom come from the Kino disc (better detail than the BFI, which uses a copy taken from an earlier Channel 4 restoration).
Finale: The Kino Bluray and 24fps Image bluray again have frame blending from an incorrect frame rate conversion. The BFI bluray is tinted so strongly here as to be indiscernible. Even color correction shows that there is no detail to regain. I took the interlaced 20fps Image blu-ray and deinterlaced it, eliminating as many blended field frames as possible. This results in a rather soft look with lots of dirt (the interlaced master had no computer restoration done on it), but it’s the best the sequence has ever looked on home media.
Pm me for a link or available on myspleen.
EDIT: I sent you a PM, but it’s not showing up in my private topics section (my private messages with others are though). I sent it again but that’s not not showing up either. Figured I’d let you know in case there’s some issue with the website.
I sent you a reply to your 2nd pm, let me know if you haven’t received it.
DarthVader1981 said:
But some scene are not of the Director’s Cut. In the scene of kirk, spock and McCoy in the officers Lounge from the windows there’isnt the Warp Nacelle. When the Enterprise came in the V-Ger Location the scene is from the Teatrical Edition, not of the Director’s.
There are two versions of this, the purist edition has the further DVD effects you want. I will pm you the links.
I see that account has already been banned for being rude and spamming, but I found the comment funny. I include subtitles for this project (in multiple languages) and I certainly don’t mind it being on public trackers: I want as many people to enjoy it as possible. The problem is no one seeds stuff like this on public trackers anymore.
Pm sent.
In my opinion, the 1.66:1 framing feels way too tight in many scenes. The crop isn’t even applied consistently, leading me to believe it may not have been intended to be masked.
http://www.framecompare.com/image-compare/screenshotcomparison/9B2BMNNU
Really? Those matted screenshots sure do show more horizontal picture info than the open matte screenshots…
Their point is that the opening title and subsequent crop are different, which would not be the case if the film was intended to be matted to 1.66:1. The 2nd crop has that off center crop reminiscent of how they screwed up Seinfeld and some other shows shot originally for 4:3. The extra image on the left would be matted out when adding the soundtrack to the final print.
It’s definitively quite tight. I had always assumed it was one of those deals where it’s framed for academy ratio and protected for 1.66:1, but the fact that you say the crop changes throughout challenges that idea. If that’s the case, why release the other two in their original ratio and crop this one? Very strange.
I’m totally up for the a 4:3 version at PAL speed. Maybe you could use ColorMatch to make it closer resemble the bluray (which has better colors).
I mean, the 1.66:1 is supposedly a valid aspect ratio for A Close Shave, which was framed with theatrical exhibition in mind as well.
I used the NSTC DVD. All of the Director’s cut was completed at SD resolution in NSTC (including introducing weird hard-pulldown issues in the edit process) The Pal DVD is actually an upscale and thus doesn’t look as good and has framerate issues where the NSTC DVD ran at 30fps or broke the pulldown cadence. I thought about using the PAL disc to help get rid of hard subs for the one establishing shot of San Francisco Bay but ,because of these issues, the approach I went with initially worked better anyway. I did use two different PAL discs to source the subtitles for this release.
Thanks! Enjoy your holidays as well!
You could try to go back and do version closer to your original test, but cut out the “rather talkative cargo pilot line” and the “time and ally of the Rebellion” line. Cutting those lines can help from repeating those shots as much as possible.
I’m going to potentially try something like what you initially suggested and also see if shortening his dialogue in this way makes the current version any better.
But you would still need to change the background of the Krennic shot, or at least remove the panel where we can see the Death Star in the background. Enough to show that it might just be the other side of the bridge windows.
Oh, that’s a good idea, I can probably work with just changing what’s in the window.
If you just had to have another insert for that second Tarkin scene, maybe you could use another angle of the technicians pressing buttons that is from the scene that you removed after the Jedha test.
I have a version that does this, but I actually feel that this shot of him turning works better than the other shots (maybe with some more color correction). We don’t really see this angle in this scene otherwise, and there’s nothing to suggest that there can’t be windows behind them. (And I can probably get rid of the left window panel to obscure the death star more than it is already).
Well there reason I suggested cutting that scene sooner where he asks if the plans are on Scarif is because the multiple wide shots are awkward partially because how the officer keep slowly swinging his arms as he is standing there because of how you reused the shots. If you could make just make that part of him a still image it might be less noticeable.
Yep, it’s smart to get rid of the last one, I going to give it go again. The arm swinging can probably be fixed too, I just need to get creative with the speed control and matting.
Thanks for all the feedback! I agree with everyone that changing the backgrounds of some shots would clear up the continuity issues, but I’m afraid that’s a bit beyond my abilities.
RogueLeader said:
it is really hard not to show Tarkin’s face in that first scene, but what if you instead you just try to limit how much you show his face
Broom Kid said:
The only real problems with digital Tarkin are the lighting (he’s a little TOO translucent and starkly lit, he should be flatter) and the way his mouth moves unnaturally
My objections to the CGI aren’t just limited to how bad it looks, but more so the fact that Peter Cushing is dead and couldn’t consent to the process (whatever his estate approves). It just feels incredibly violating to me to have your visage commodified by a corporation long after you have any control over it. I think their insistence that they are honoring his performance is a little rich considering that they recast two other roles whose faces weren’t as distinctive. If they truly valued his acting they could honor it by giving the role to another fine actor to interpret (Guy Henry’s real face and all).
(Also just trying to cut down his face is a losing battle; they already limit it a great deal and the shooting and editing style in his scenes changes a fair bit to accommodate this). Really, editing him out partially or completely is going to look rough without additional coverage. (All that extra footage in the trailers and almost none in the scenes I needed!).
RogueLeader said:
As Tarkin turns to deliver the line about the “rather talkative cargo pilot”, this is when you cut…
All of these are good ideas, but the problem is that it’s all match cuts as he moves around Krenic, and cutting it down just make it look like he’s telporting. Some of your ideas are somewhat different than what I tried, so I’ll give them a go.
Cut the “You have made time and ally of the Rebellion.” line and shot.
This is a good idea, I remember doing it and then reverting it. I think because the music pulses a bit here it was a more obvious cut, but I might be able to finesse it a bit.
Then, after Krennic turns to face Tarkin, you could cut to the close-up of Krennic that you slowed down. “I will not fail.”
The neat thing is I took a shot of Krennic from the trailer of him just staring, color matched it to the later footage in the final film and smoothed the gap between the two by abusing Resolve’s “smooth cut” feature.
For the next Tarkin scene, I don’t think you really need the extra shot you added in that has continuity issues. I honestly think you could jump cut from the shot of Krennic stepping forward to the shot of him turning around and it wouldn’t feel that strange. I at least think it would be better than if you kept that additional shot that is from an entirely different scene.
That would just be a jump cut; the shots are framed basically identically. I could do a big zoom on the second shot, but it’s still missing time of him turning so you couldn’t get a match cut out of it. I originally had another shot of the technician working the controls here, but the fact that I do this quickly again made it obvious he was filling a gap.
I like the way you had Tarkin’s following dialogue in the next scene as VO. I think it works well here.
Thanks, there’s really no other way to handle this scene other than making Tarkin a hologram or a audio waveform on the Death Star screen, which is beyond my skills.
The scene where Tarkin wants to speak to Krennic, I think you should just end that scene with Tarkin asking if the plans are on Scarif and the officer replying yes. Ending the scene there would be enough to infer what he is going to do, and we don’t need to know that he is “informing Lord Vader”. Vader can just be a surprise at the end of the film. Another reason to do this is because you’re forced to overuse that one wide shot and it is noticeable.
I think I tried to do this but the audio wouldn’t cleanly cut; maybe the center bled into the stereos or something to do with the music length? I might see if there’s a way around it.
If you keep Leia’s face concealed (Broom Kid made a very fair point about it!), maybe you could add the sound of R2’s wheels getting closer to Captain Antilles, which will help the audience assume that he is right there with him and Leia when she delivers that line.
Smart move.
Also, I don’t think you need the quick shot of the rebels pulling the plans back out and saying, “Let’s go!”. Just showing the plans transmitting (and hearing it say ‘transmitting’) is enough to know what is going on. I just assume those are some rebels on the Profundity who don’t make it off alive, and they’re transmitting it to the Tantive IV.
Yep, that’s how it should look like (and what makes sense within the context of the first film and presumably similar to how it was going to be before the reshoots.) The reversed footage actually looks pretty good. I think I needed the 2nd shot for length, but that was before I added that closeup of Vader, so I might be able to cut it now.
I don’t know if you’re using wipes throughout, but I think having the fade-to-white just fade back onto the Tantive IV flying away from the Profundity would work as well if you decided not to use wipes too. It just feels a little out of place there to me because wipes typically imply time is passing, and you don’t really have wipes in the middle of battle.
I actually like the idea of some time passing here, because it makes more sense for the Tantive to be some distance away. I do think a fade might work better, how does this look?:
https://vimeo.com/364437724 pwd: originaltrilogy.com
BedeHistory731 said:
Now that you’ve moved 3PO and R2 to the end, would you consider cutting out their Yavin appearance?
Yeah, if I can do it cleanly that makes sense.
I generally like Rogue One, but I thought that the CGI recreation of a dead actor was deeply wrong. Seeing Peter Cushing’s corpse digitally puppeteered around is deeply unnerving and there’s something really weird to the idea that a CGI model is necessary at all rather than just recasting (which they already do for two characters in the film). They have a whole video where Guy Henry says he’s not an impressionist and his portrayal will be an evocation of Cushing’s and then they cut to ILM painstakingly matching Cushing’s expressions. So much of the discussion around this focuses on the uncanny valley, but for me the uncanny bit isn’t just the CG model, it’s the idea that any of this is necessary or okay.
As an experiment, I cut together a version of the film which only shows the back of Tarkin’s head during his scenes, in a similar manner to how an older Hollywood film might handle the absence of a distinctive actor. I also took the opportunity to cut out Evazan and Baba, the Darth Vader hallway scene (which I have never liked) as well as cutting around showing Leia’s face. (I have much less issues with her CGI appearance as Carrie Fisher could consent to it, but the idea that it’s necessary is again really weird to me. It’s cinema, it lives and dies on closeups! Ending your film with a shot of technology just feels hollow).
Here is a video showing the scenes I changed:
https://vimeo.com/364211470
Password: originaltrilogy.com
There’s not really any extra coverage in these scenes to work with, so this involved splicing in shots from elsewhere in the film, often with obviously off continuity. I used footage of Ben Mendelsohn found only in a trailer, as well as emulating rack focus in a shot to blur out Tarkin. To cut around Leia’s face, I added footage of the droids from the original Star Wars with some Anthony Daniels lines from the latest Battlefront game. I like the idea of ending with the droids as they are the core of the first film.
The result is very unpolished, but it turned out better than I thought it might. If anyone has any ideas on how the editing might be made smoother I’d love to hear them.
Link sent
It’s a font from the Bauhaus family (Bauhaus LT Bold seems to match very closely).
Sure, it’s just the copy on Amazon Prime: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B07NS382P9/
If they have the ability to cap it in 1080p at 23.976fps, that would be wonderful. All I’d really need capped is the opening of the film, beginning with the subtitled shots of the Klingons through the Kolinahr scene with Vulcan subtitles.