Hal 9000

Looks good to me, the fuzzy edge feels right. What’s that last image?

AdmiralWasabi10191 said:

Yup. The 35mm scan is looking mighty fine too compared to this outdated project from the mid-2000s.

Says the guy asking about LaserDisc preservations?

Probably not, because in order to use it the sequence cannot be any longer than the OOT version. I recall trying to make it work but it’s too short. Some rendition of ‘Dianoga’ is needed if you’re using any of it. Which I will, at the very least for the initial shot of the landspeeder.

AdmiralWasabi10191 said:

Would rather wait for a 35mm film scan in 4K of TESB 1997 Special Edition compared to whatever this is.

You do that. Back in the mid-00’s this was as close as was possible to get.

The Lowry master’s version of the Death Star explosion is bad. But the 19SE isn’t, and it has the fiery colors back.

And I’m open to whatever material for Mos Eisley may exist. I PM’d Dat_SW_Guy to see what he had made. I think he was even going to try to use that shot but with the SE background of the buildings. That’d be cool.

It’s not possible to cobble together something totally seamless between the original and SE versions of these movies, but I’m shooting for as close as I can get. When I was first introduced to Star Wars through renting them from Blockbuster in the late nineties, the original and SE versions were both available and I experienced both. The personal motivation for this project is to get at the ideal compromise that I have a pseudo-memory of from back then. What feels right while maintaining continuity. Can’t be totally realized without a team of VFX wizards, but can get close enough in a way that’s at least preferable to the SE as it is.

Master Lawdog said:

Are you planning on keeping the despecialized version of this shot, Hal?

Can’t see the image. What shot are you talking about?

The first Death Star exploded very quickly like a firecracker. The second exploded more gradually, and also in light of TROS we’re expected to believe it wasn’t totally vaporized. (Granted that’s a post hoc rationalization.)

Again, the way I have it there’s only one explosion that happens to have a shockwave, making it unique and less weird to always happen in the OT but never anytime else.

I find it weird that the SE introduces a praxis shockwave ring around all three major explosions of the trilogy. If there’s only one, that feels better to me.

And since I’m using the SE version of the battle of Yavin, I feel it’d be weird to switch into the OOT right at the moment of the climax. Plus, that shockwave (first Death Star) actually feels like it adds something to me.

Yeah I’m still open to possibilities with Mos Eisley, but it’ll be some hybridization between the OOT and SE for sure. (For the ‘Victory Celebration’ version ending of ROTJ, it helps to have seen that SE-ish version of Mos Eisley.)

People a while back pushed back against using this shot between the speeder first pulling up to the city and arriving at the checkpoint:

But according to this map, I don’t really see why it would be wildly inaccurate to cut to it instead of the SE helicopter shot. Evidently the checkpoint is well into the city itself, so either shot should be fine. That would allow me to use a shot that actually looks halfway decent instead of something that doesn’t.

That guy with no name said:

. Most changes from Darth Editous’s edit have been replicated here.

Wow!

EDIT: Are you on meth?

Could you perhaps flip the shot of the destroyer, and the destroyer in the second shot, shifting the Death Star to the right to make room for it?

I started out renting the OT from Blockbuster. At that time both the original and special edition versions were laid out to choose between. So I had rented and seen both a good handful of times that way before getting my parents to buy a set, the pan-n-scan SE. I traded my SE copy of ROTJ to a friend (who was casual toward SW) for his OOT copy. Later I’d buy a widescreen copy of the SE also.

Good point. I recall some ‘official’ condemnation of it, but I can’t say I’m aware of anything that came from GL personally.

Sending PM.

Sending a PM.

If I remember correctly, at the time the GOUT was released it was agreed that there was very little virtue in LaserDisc conversions because the GOUT was the best presentation of that master on video. There was Project XO which was canceled shortly after, which at the time was attempting to mine as much detail as possible from the LaserDiscs by using the best LaserDisc player in the world and doing fancy things to squeeze every drop out of it. With the GOUT, that put an end to all such things.

That said, I also recall the EditDroid version being regarded highly. As far as bonus material, there’d be some LaserDisc-specific content to compile, sure.

R2 dies from losing the will to live, until he regains it.

I’ll see about that one shot, anyway, with the heroes running by. But I imagine leaving it as the SE has it, even though I agree it’s not super well executed.

Fascinating little snippet. I wonder if it’s sort of all fun and games until it happens to oneself, as his sentiment about looking forward to seeing how people ostensibly remix existing films using the Internet did not seem to carry over into The Phantom Edit.

Yes, and for that change I was able to recreate it using stereo sources rather than folding down the 5.1 version. It’s simply lifting a consonant from earlier in the scene.

The stereo should be identical in content to the 5.1, with one notable exception. The 1997 mix doesn’t always present 3PO’s dialogue very well, and at least on my setup I hear some distortion. You can hear it most clearly in Luke’s garage. It appears to be like that in every iteration of the 1997 SE mix that I have access to. So for the stereo mix, I use the 1993 mix for any scenes in which I can discern this distortion. (Can’t do much about it in the 5.1 mix because no 5.1 mix available is anywhere close enough to use for swaths of the film at a time.) This supposed issue appears to be an inevitable part of using 1997 as the main source, but at least the (PLII) stereo track is free of it.

Sending a PM!

PM sent!

Oh, and another thing is I’ve made custom stereo mixes for all three. Because the changes are straightforward for the most part it wasn’t too much trouble to recreate the mixes using the 1993 and 1997 stereo mixes from PCM from LaserDisc. A few short portions aside, these are natively 2.0 Dolby ProLogic II. And the portions that I mixed down I did so targeting ProLogic II. Not that it matters because there’s a 5.1 mix anyway, but still.

I’m gearing up to revamp this project based on a few things changing. For one thing, I finally tried out DrDre’s color matching tool, and have fallen in love. I have used it to bring ESB a little closer to what feels right, using Adywan’s old 1997 reconstruction. I’ve targeted a happy medium between the two, and at least enough to remove the aqua color throughout the 19SE of ESB. For ROTJ I plan to bring it just a bit closer to the DeEd, but not changing it as much as ESB. ANH I may go ahead and grade it a little closer to Adywan’s color corrected 2011 BR.

In addition to regrading it like that, I plan to use Adywan’s fix for the Cloud City window that introduced a continuity error in the SE rather than resorting to OOT footage (color correcting it to match).

I hope to steal a few things from The Man With No Name’s Devastator project for ANH.

There’s a few things I’d like to list to see if anyone has the means and desire to assist with. These are wishes, not necessities, but would be welcome if someone shared the desire to see them realized:

• The first shot of the Battle of Yavin has been trash since 1997. Impressive CG at the time or not, I find it ugly. But I feel starting the battle with the OOT version doesn’t feel right because we see CG fighters frequently throughout. Not to mention seeing a straight line of sight between the moon of Yavin IV and the Death Star. I know Adywan is tackling this part of it, but I’d love a replacement for the whole shot. Pie in the sky, most likely.
• The added CG rats (or scurriers) to the first shot of approaching Mos Eisley feel like intrusive CGI. It’d be cool to see them removed, but it sounded like it may be trickier than it sounds.
• The shot with the two mirrored sets of troopers, it’d be nice to remove one set of those troopers. (And bonus points for removing the unconvincing CG droid also.)

Stay tuned!

I watched it like a year ago, and it was a lot easier to follow once I turned the subtitles on halfway through.

I don’t think I tried too hard to focus, because I knew I’d have to rewatch it when the second part comes out anyway.