NeverarGreat

yoda-sama said:

Got this response from them on facebook.  I also have since given them Jabba pictures to pick between to tell me which one is in this movie, that should narrow down what they're looking at.  I'll let you know if I get a response.

" I did get to see 20-25 min today . It is a stunning digital print and is the "Special Edition " version . Hans shoots second . We are using the term special addition to help with confusion but technically there is no such thing . "

If they are sure that Han shoots second, this could be the '97 version untouched by 2004 and 2011 changes, because in the 2011 version Han shoots only two frames after Greedo, and is easily confused, whereas in the '97 version he shoots a full 8 frames after Greedo and is impossible to miss.

AntcuFaalb said:

NeverarGreat said:

AntcuFaalb said:

NeverarGreat said:

That's my vote. My tickets to the screening in Atlanta have already been refunded though.

NOOOOOO! You must go! :-(

All sold out. Besides, six hours is quite a drive for the SE. I'm sure we can find someone who has tickets who is obsessive enough to recognize what went into its making.

Ah, sorry. I was under the mistaken impression that you live close by.

 Six hours away is very close by for a screening of the original, but far, far away for a screening of the SE ;)

AntcuFaalb said:

NeverarGreat said:

That's my vote. My tickets to the screening in Atlanta have already been refunded though.

NOOOOOO! You must go! :-(

All sold out. Besides, six hours is quite a drive for the SE. I'm sure we can find someone who has tickets who is obsessive enough to recognize what went into its making.

E. The original negative scanned at 4K around the time of the 3D conversion announcement in 2010, with special edition changes.

That's my vote. My tickets to the screening in Atlanta have already been refunded though.

The "original" in the restoration comparison can't be the interpositive made for the SE, as most of the damage of the original was dealt with in the cleanup for that version, and the damage matches the O-neg pretty perfectly. Furthermore, the original Lowry cleanup left some scratches on the Blu-ray which are cleaned up on the new video. This leads me to believe that it is a completely new cleanup of the original elements. Whether or not they include the SE changes is another matter, but it's pretty clear that at least part of what they have their hands on is the original.

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/83728/picture:0

It's got the same exact damage as the 2004 restoration from the negative (found on SaveStarWars.com). It may have different warping however, which would suggest a new restoration from the original negative.

Here are three screengrabs which I've fit to the bluray dimensions. There's different warping on the stills in question, so it's pretty clearly a new scan:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/83700/picture:0

The skintones look much better on this scan, as well as the shadow detail (check out the switches behind C-3PO and the X-Wing starfield). The oppressive pink flashes are handled much better as well. The reds are not bleeding, nor are the greens (R2's green panel lights), and the exposure is far better here. The only gripe I have is that C-3PO looks too green, but that's small potatoes compared to the dramatic jump in quality in this scan.

JEDIT: http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/83709/picture:0

The shadow detail regained in the trench run shot is quite excellent.

ONE OF US

Tobar said:

NeverarGreat said:

So I guess I'm getting a refund then. It seems like they're not sure what they're getting from Fox, but in my mind there is no chance that it is anything except the Special Edition, and the 2011 version at that.

 We still need someone to make sure!

Ha! A six hour drive may be worth it to see the original, but not the SE. Sorry chaps.

The Plaza Atlanta responded to at least two questions asking if it is the non-SE version claiming that it is the original, but then later deleted the questions and their answers. I messaged them to get a definitive answer, and they answered that Fox claims that it is the original 1977 movie, and that this theater is getting the very first DCP for this movie. Part of the theater's message reads: "The Original means the first Star Wars for those that don't know IV ..."

So I guess I'm getting a refund then. It seems like they're not sure what they're getting from Fox, but in my mind there is no chance that it is anything except the Special Edition, and the 2011 version at that.

Apparently "No one will believe the story" of how it came together, according to Plaza Atlanta. I've got some tickets, so I'll let you guys know how this looks in the theater!

Well, I took a hiatus from this for a month to finish the semester, but I haven't forgotten about you guys, or this project. R&D has completed and the real work has begun.

I haven't been updating this thread because I've encountered no real problems as far as the project is concerned. Setting a release date would be premature, as progress is slow but sure. So hang in there, and it will be done in due time!

Darth Lucas said:

So I just had a thought.  It would be slightly challenging, but if Adywan so wished, he could potentially get some guy dressed up as Vader and another guy dressed up as Ben, shoot against greenscreen to comp them into different death star backdrops, using the actors masked out of the original scene for dialogue and close ups (get a couple screens of ben's face to cover the actor's in wider shots) and expand the Ben/Vader duel to sort of move throughout the death star to make it more exciting, epic, and able to stand alongside the other duels of the saga in terms of excitement and scope.  Ultimately they would move so that they end up with Ben's death in the same place as the original.  It wouldn't be too difficult, just time consuming.

 Honestly I don't think such a change of location would be necessary to give a heightened sense of danger to the scene. In the two or three establishing shots at the beginning of the fight, the view could be zoomed out to show a giant open shaft to the left of Ben (without guardrails of course), with only a five or six foot walkway skirting the side.

Ben realizes that he must make it past Vader to get to the Falcon, and he first tries to cut close to the wall, but Vader blocks his passage. Next he cuts along the edge of the pit, and all that would be needed here would be an added shot of Ben's feet and robes skirting the edge in a closeup. That would go a long way towards making the environment important to the fight.

JEDIT: Adding echoey sound effects which imply open space and perhaps a slight wind ala the Empire catwalk scene would really sell the concept.

Nope, it's the NTSC version. It was probably an importation problem, because I just quickly pulled it into an existing project. I'm getting a duplicated frame at random points in the video, so ignore my previous post.

I found something else which is strange. Mike talked about how the last two frames of the '81 version would have been "lopped off", and so I checked the '97 version against the Team Blu GOUT, and the final frame of the composited Star Destroyer is gone in the '97 version, however the laser blasts are still composited to be in the same place, meaning that the entire Star Destroyer is shifted back one frame in the '97 version compared to the original.

Download both images and flick between them. The Star Destroyer is at precisely the same angle in both, yet this is the second to last frame of the GOUT shot, and the last frame of the '97 shot.

That's awesome. I was just noticing that problem for the first time while watching your timing video just now.

Anyway, I've figured out part of the problem. There's an extra frame on the 2006 DVD somewhere during the pandown in frame 3022 of the GOUT, but not on Team Blu's verson of that DVD, which is GOUT source I assume Harmy is using. So that explains the match.

I've been doing quite a bit of experimentation with other programs such as After Effects, which is why this thread has been silent for a while. I'm able to get good results in both Premiere Pro and AE, but as the scopes in AE are insufficient, I'll probably be sticking with Pro.

They should have placed less emphasis on genetics with regards to Force sensitivity. In the original, more emphasis was placed on the Force being "with" somebody, and I assume this was because the Force is able to aid those willing to fight for peace and justice. Now the primary factor is who your parents are.

DuracellEnergizer said:

Madhouse (1974) - 7.5/10

Starcrash (1978) - 4/10

You clearly haven't seen Starcrash in a theater full of bad movie aficionados. Then it would undoubtedly be a 9/10 at least.

Now I really want to see Black Angel. There was one sequence in Excalibur which had all the same elements of the cave scene in ESB, the snake, the lizard, all that subconscious symbolism, and I thought that one of them clearly took that from the other.

frank678 said:

This is my favourite correction of an old source to date:

https://vimeo.com/89749265

http://we.tl/x0kT5XUMny

Brightness and saturation look really good there. One thing I noticed was the blues look a bit too bright, especially in the shadows. I like the grainy nature of this, no sharpening required IMO.

Sorry to hear that, this is why I have multiple hard drives with important files duplicated.

Well, any project worth doing is worth re-doing. Don't lose hope!

mverta said:

When you degrain an image and do noise reduction, it tends to look very soft - smooth, but soft.  When you add grain back - it's the wildest thing - it suddenly looks sharp again.  It's like your brain has something sharp to focus on, so it just rethinks the image.  I'll show this in action too, before/after.  It'll blow your mind how adding grain suddenly makes a soft image seem sharper.

_Mike

That's so absurd, you'd think that if they didn't like the noise reduction they would just revert back to the original instead of degrading the image twice! It sounds about like what they would do though.

On the subject of color noise, why would this have been consciously added to the blu-ray? Many times I've been unable to salvage certain gradients in the blu-ray because there's more difference in the color noise of a single color than there is in two colors which should be worlds apart!

Excalibur (1981)

I can't believe this movie escaped my attention for so long.

It does a good job of compressing a massive amount of Arthurian legend into a reasonable running time. Though many early scenes seem to end abrubtly, it flows quite well.

I was not expecting to see Patrick Stewart and Liam Neeson in it, Neeson in his first major acting role and Stewart very early in his film career. Very cool to see for that alone.

Some of the location shooting is absolutely gorgeous, and though the combat can be clunky and awkward, it just adds to the realism in my opinion.

Merlin (Nicol Williamson) was excellent, serious, cheeky and droll, often at the same time. Clearly the standout to me.

9/10 knights of the Round Table

That sounds awesome.