Mavimao

Ah I see what you mean. Just to finish up the MV discussion, I know he has some other prints as well (97 and perhaps some Eastman prints) and he may have used those but I’m not sure.

Right back to the 2004 idea: I think the main problem is that they all use the same digital master. The only difference is the level of compression. The bluray is already the closest we’re going to get. The advantage to using this technique for laserdiscs and film prints is that they are analogue copies and this averaging technique is trying to peel away the analogue generational anomalies.

This is pretty much what Mike Verta is doing with his restoration. He puts all of his IB prints in and averages them out and, according to him, you should have an image that closely resembles the original negative.

Lasz said:

The Eastman vs Technicolor sample as well as the Silver Screen Edition seem to have quite noticeable light streaking/banding on the whole far right side of the frame.

It this present on the film as well or does this get introduced during the scanning process?

I think the sample given was the entire scanned frame so you see the junk on the edge that normally gets cropped.

But seriously, I can understand why Mike Verta used these prints for his own restoration. I’m amazed by how sharp they are.

I was also surprised by how undersaturated Vader’s lightsaber was.

That. Was. Beautiful.

https://d.gr-assets.com/hostedimages/1392656081ra/8590400.gif

The original Star Wars has had a 4k restoration done. It’s beautiful and it’s called Legacy. The creator just needs Disney to give the word and he’ll give it to them.

Density said:

I hate to sound whiny, and I hate that my first post on this site is a complaint, but if you really want the public to have access to this–as well you should, as it is of great historical significance–SOMEONE should upload it to a public torrent tracker. 99% of the public–myself included–has no access to a private tracker and no way of obtaining an invite, no understanding of or access to usenet, and no time or bandwidth or premium account needed to download a massive amount of large files from ulozto. As of now practically the only people who even know this project exists, let alone have means of obtaining a copy, are the most hardcore fans and internet users. I understand you may be trying to avoid legal issues, and I kind of understand uploading it by these means first (though Harmy, let me say I really love your work–which I was only able to obtain because thankfully someone uploaded it to a public tracker–but if you’re going to broadcast on Facebook that you’re uploading it to ulozto you might as well just upload it to a public torrent site to make life easier for everyone) but someone who has it now really should take one for the team and seed it to a public place if you really want it to spread and be seen.

Plus, it’s not like this whole scene is exactly a secret anymore. I’ve seen articles about Despecialized in major news publications. The genie’s out of the bottle. If Disney or whoever owns the rights to Star Wars now really wanted to shut you all down they would have already. You might as well go public with your initial releases and make sure the maximum number of people obtain copies and continue seeding it. Then there’s no way they could stop it from spreading. I honestly do not understand why everyone here makes their work so inaccessible and exclusive, and us mere mortals have to just sit back and wait for some good samaritan to share a secondhand copy with us.

Uh sorry. There is some definite sass here. Let’s start with: “if you really want the public to have access to this–as well you should, as it is of great historical significance–SOMEONE should upload it to a public torrent tracker.”

I am sorry but “SOMEONE should” comes off like you’re giving orders to us.

“someone who has it now really should take one for the team and seed it to a public place if you really want it to spread and be seen.”

Take it for the team? Really? Hyperbole much? Again, you continue with this tone of giving orders instead of polite suggestion.

“I honestly do not understand why everyone here makes their work so inaccessible and exclusive, and us mere mortals have to just sit back and wait for some good samaritan to share a secondhand copy with us.”

Inaccessible - exclusive - us mere mortals - good samaritan. I’m sorry but you come off as petulant here. You seem to concede that someone will eventually upload it to a public tracker but you whine because you can’t get it now.

imperialscum said:

Frank your Majesty said:

Now, Vader’s lightsaber being retrieved from the exploded DSII would definitely need a good explanation. Doesn’t it fall down the ractor shaft when Luke cuts off Vader’s hand?

It is about the same as Luke’s lightsabre falling into gas giant.

Weeeell… It goes down a bit pit. We don’t know if there’s a hole at the bottom. It could have just been stuck down there and scavengers found it.

Density, I honestly understand your train of thought: you have a certain system that is logical and works for you (in this case, torrents) and the way that this board is choosing to initially share this work is through a system that is totally different from yours (newsgroups and multiple rars+file sharing sites). I, personally, would prefer torrents as well. I honestly don’t want to pay for newsgroups and finding a clean download of jdownloader without spyware can be a little difficult.

However, if people are lashing out at you, it’s more because of your tone which, while I understand you had the best intentions, did come out sounding a little condescending. People have their reasons for not creating a public torrent and instead of saying: “Hey guys, I’m just curious why you don’t just distribute this by torrent. Is there some reason why?” You went for a more agressive tone (“this crap is useless, my way is so much better!”)

But please know that the more popular projects here end up on ye olden bandits of the sea bay and other public trackers pretty quickly. Other people are more than willing to do that and the original creators tend to be ok with it.

Bosk said:

http://www.returnofkings.com/75991/why-star-wars-the-force-awakens-is-a-social-justice-propaganda-film

This guy knows

Alright, posting this shit just lost you any respect I could offer you. You’re already fringing on trollery but posting this garbage just knocks you down a peg.

I find Rian Johnson to be one of the best modern directors today. While Looper had some plot issues, the film itself was wonderfully crafted.

I have faith in him.

Yes, there was a bit more, but it wasn’t a big piece of information and I don’t know if I should have shared so I didn’t. So nothing happened then?

DavidMerrick said:

I missed something cool, didn’t I.

There was just a teaser photo of the Star Wars logo. Nothing too major.

moviefreakedmind said:
By the way, I am talking about the theatrical cut of Alien 3. I know a lot of people like the assembly cut version more; I have the blu ray anthology set so I’ll be checking it out soon.

The Assembly Cut total changes the tone and feel of the film… In a good way. It goes from being a ‘meh’ monster film to a strange, meandering story of faith, loss and sacrifice. It still has some issues, but it definitely feels like Ficher’s unique take on the alien and not a retread of the 1st film.

From additional research I’ve done, the rest of the prequels were shot in 16/9 1080p using spherical lenses and then hard cropped to 2.35.

Technically speaking, those films WOULD have additional information on the top and bottom. Although where one could find a copy…

yoda-sama said:

Actually, I think The Phantom Menace was shot in 35mm, while framed for 2.35:1 and only ever presented in that fashion (and the only Prequel to even be shot on film), it may be the lone standout Star Wars film to have been matted and therefore have more picture to offer. You’ll never see that happen, and frankly who wants to see any more of TPM, but the material may exist out there somewhere.

Just to be clear, it is a rare circumstance where those black bars are hiding anything, and on the cases where they are, the covered footage usually was not intended to be seen and would be less polished than the portion originally framed for (especially in SFX heavy films, as there’s little reason to perfect effects in parts of an image not intended to be seen). Take 4:3 “Fullscreen” video (or “Fullframe” older films), on a modern TV you see black bars on the side, you can’t believe there is video they’re hiding on the sides (well, except for movies that WERE widescreen and then cropped in the CRT era to “fit your TV”), in that same way there’s not likely something hidden in black bars at the top and bottom of an extra wide video presentation.

TPM was shot using Arri cameras and 2x squeeze anamorphic Hawk lenses.

https://www.theasc.com/magazine/sept99/phantom/fx2/main.htm

Therefore all live action is not matted (only Super35mm/VistaVision/70mm can be properly hardmatted to 2.35 and maintain picture quality) and what you see on the screen is pretty much on the film frame (apart from some very light cropping around the edges). There’s nothing hidden.

Here is the same shot with the KCCI version.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5914642/Screen Shot 2016-01-06 at 3.03.28 PM.png

Basically, yeah, this new version blows them both out of the water.

I corrected a few mistakes, Marvins. Hope you don’t mind.

Considering the success met by the movie in the US, the French version of Star Wars will be released in stereo, but SND* theaters only allow mono mixes. Pierre Davanture immediately reserved the “Cathedral”, the biggest auditorium of the SIMO, in the studios of Boulogne-Billancourt. He wished to include Jean Nény, who designed it. This outstanding technician only does a few dubbings, but he agreed to attend a projection of Star Wars in Saint-Ouen for his friend Pierre Davanture. Impressed by the movie, Jean Nény was convinced and agreed to do the mix. In August 1977, he locked himself into the Cathedral to mix the various French voices with the international tracks containing sound effects, extraterrestrial voices, as well as John Williams’ music. The American sound engineer Ben Burtt, the creator of Star Wars’ revolutionary sound universe, came to Boulogne-Billancourt to oversee the final phase of the French version and therefore became the first spectator of La Guerre des étoiles.
    The work did not end there. The release prints were made in the United States and the sound was added in Saint-Cloud at LTC laboratories. Because the Dolby process is not currently used in France, the stereo mix of the French version was recorded on magnetic strips: 4 for 35mm and 6 for 70mm. These magnetic strips were added to the film by LTC using a machine made by Pyral, a company which is also involved, at the same time and with the same process, in the manufacturing of the tickets of the Parisian subway.
    On Wednesday, October 19th, 1977, with a week’s delay, Twentieth Century Fox France, associated with Gaumont, began distribution. 23 copies premiered exclusively in Paris and its periphery. 13 were distributed in the capital, including three in its original English version. For the French version, two 70mm copies (6 tracks) were distributed: one at “Le Grand Rex”, the other one at “Pathé Marignan” along with two 35mm copies (4 magnetic tracks) and finally, six 35mm mono copies. On October 26th the movie was released throughout the country, and this is how we will discover La Guerre des étoiles… A long time ago…

*SND: Société Nouvelle de Distrubution. A French film distributer now owned by M6

Just downloaded this and WOW! The quality is really sharp. A bit desaturated, but definitely blows the other versions out of the water.

Any history about how this broadcast master was found?

Count me in as one of those who liked the Rathar scene! It’s not worthless since it: shows us that Rey is not infallible, saves Han and Chewie, gets Han and Chewie back into the Falcon and kind of forces him to take them to the Resistance. It also re-establishes the fact that Han is a shoot first, talk later kinda guy when he punches the henchman and throws him into the mouth of the beast. (Better him than me!) Perhaps it was JJ’s middle finger to Greedo shooting first?

I understand that it may have seemed a little Men in Black-ish, but I liked that it did something different than other large creature encounters we’ve seen in the other films.

CatBus said:

Looks like I delayed watching TFA for so long this thread isn’t about rating TFA anymore? Oh, well, on the OP’s 100-point scale, with high and low markers:

The Third Man: 100
ESB: 80
SW: 75
ESB:SE: 70
ROTJ: 60
SW:SE: 60
TFA: 55
ROTJ:SE: 40
Holiday Special: 20
TPM: 8
AOTC: 6
ROTS: 3
Battlefield Earth: 1

At least for me, ratings for TFA are subject to change over time as the newness wears off, expectations change, etc. Certainly the best new thing in the Star Wars universe in 30 years, but 55 is pretty average.

Ahh! You finally caved in and saw it. Glad you liked it.

I recently watched Citizen Kane on the big screen and it really hit home for me then why this film is so revered. I’d seen it, God knows how many times, on a TV and thought it was alright. But when projected up on the large screen, you fully understand the awesomeness of the craft (the makeup, the cinematography, the sfx - there are a lot more than you’d think), the details on the sets, the acting… Everything just made sense. It’s a very “cinematic” film that uses the unique aspects of the medium to convey meaning and emotion.

That said, I think Magnificent Ambersons is a much more emotional story and if it wasn’t for the studio messing it up, it could have dethroned CK as his masterpiece.

How can I have been a member on this forum for nearly 10 years and never seen the skyscraper meme!? I feel enlightened.

Wow, that really is amazing. I wish more films would combine practical effects and computer composition to this extent.

At the end of the day, they’re just movies.