Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280270815115

No, I’m not spending 70 bucks on it.

Interesting followup... the seller never was able to provide further information, so I didn't bid.  The winner got it for about $45 (I was curious, but not that curious).  I wrote the winner and offered to digitize it for him, but got an EXTREMELY rude response.  So, I imagine for now it will remain a mystery.

Ziz said:

I'm starting to think kenkraly is either schizophrenic or a spy from LFL.

I don't think he's a spy.  There's a kenkraly2004 who makes similar style posts on a baseball forum.  He appears to be from Cleveland:  http://www.forums.mlb.com/n/pfx/profile.aspx?webtag=ml-indians&userId=843704748&ptpw=y

Frankly, I don't think there would be much complaining here at all if the GOUT had simply been released anamorphic.

kenkraly2007 said:

Stop complaning about the sets people I am tired of it so what it one section of the flim has messed up sound.

That's not the complaint.

I've placed information vital to the rebellion in the memory banks of the....

-wait, let's try that again-

I've placed a 3-minute sample audio clip containing a variety of segments from the raw 16mm mono mix capture, on the PuggoGrande website.  Simply go to the puggo website, select Puggo Grande, then scroll down to "selected AUDIO clips".  It's uncompressed .wav (19Mb), so you'll want to download it and listen to it on a decent system.  I tried to put together a variety of sounds.

You will probably notice a hum during the Beru segment, but it's not present in the other quiet sections, so I think it's intentional background sound of the moisture vaporators.  Other than that, the various pros/cons should be self-explanatory.

I haven't done any filtering, post-processing, etc.  This is the raw capture off the film, warts and all.

jukeboxjoey said:

I am an old and rare lonely "Star Wars" only fanatic, by which I mean my fanaticism extends only into the very first movie that came out.

You are not alone.

70mm of ESB is pretty cool.  Hi-def city, there.

But I don't understand going after a 35mm print of a prequel - weren't they shot in digital?

Yes, it was up on eBay before, but I seem to remember it not selling.  This time there is a bidder on it.  I too am a bit curious about it, but unlikely to bid.

I think it's more likely they will tell you that they DID do a restoration... it's called the "special edition".

ShiftyEyes said:

The way I see it, LFL just doesn't have the manpower or the resources to give these movies the time and love they deserve. LFL is an independent company, so unlike major studios that release hundreds of titles on DVD each year and have the whole thing down pat, I get the feeling that LFL is always scrambling to get a release out. They might have one or two guys sitting standing by at a computer to do whatever change Lucas thinks up on a whim,...

I don't know... have you ever been to Lucas ranch or Skywalker Sound?  I have (twice, for audio postproduction projects).  It is an awesome facility in every respect, and very well staffed.  I don't think lack of resources or capability is the issue.  The issue is that restoration is not a part of Lucas' very successful business plan, so there is no fiscal reason to do it.  Lucas' business is making new stuff for kids.  Period.  I'm still amazed we even got the GOUT.

kenkraly2007 said:

I thought the goal of this site was to get the original versions of The Star Wars Trilogy Epiosdes 4,5, and 6 on DVD and blu-ray. But the feeling I get from a lot of people some are nagitve towards Mr. Lucas. he made these films after all.

Regular posters on this site often display a love/hate opinion towards Mr. Lucas.  That's because yes, he made the OT, which we love.  But he also mutilated it, which we hate.  SW is one of the few all-time great movies that cannot be had in its original academy-award-winning form, and that situation can only be corrected by Mr. Lucas. Doesn't that frustrate you, just a little?  Shouldn't important cinematic history be preserved?  I know he has the right to do what he wants... but I would imagine that a lot of people would have been perturbed if DaVinci had gone mad and decided to change his Mona Lisa into a yak.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250296078825

Bobocop said:

By the way, is it pronounced Puggo 'Grand' or Puggo 'Gran-day?'

'Grrrran-day'... preferably with a rolled 'rrrrr'. :)  That's Italian for 'big'.

MoveAlong said:

Let me know if you need someone to post to usenet...

I will, but that's way down the road.  This one is going to take a lot longer than the 8mm edition.  First off, it's about 3 times as long.  Second, I'm going to want to make the video look as good as I can -- I won't have the excuse that's it's cruddy Ken-film super8.  Yeah, I could SAY it's cruddy 16mm... but frankly, the film looks pretty good.

Bobocop said:

So am I to understand there will be a Swedish overdubbed audio option?

Sorry, it's English audio with Swedish subtitles.  Interestingly, Chewbacca's name appears to be "Tugg".  Hmm, now might be a good time to ask the question that the subtitles left me with --- what's a "misslycat"?

This morning I reviewed the "Swedish" print, and transferred its audio track.  Reel 3 had about 2 meters of sprocket hole repair, which luckily had been done very well... that saved me a LOT of work. The image quality was fairly poor - heavy red shift and with Swedish subtitles.  This is unimportant, because the "main" print will be used for the video and it has very good image quality.  Of interest in the Swedish print was the audio.  So.....

The audio was the original mono mix.  The "other Beru", "close the blast doors", etc.  Condition is excellent, better than I expected.  The transfer was incredibly clean throughout, only 2 or 3 tiny blips which will repair easily.  I will need to review Belbacus' restoration more closely to see how this 16mm grab will compare.  My first impressions are that people will be quite pleased with what I got.

Now can begin the more arduous task of transferring the video from the main print.

I'm using AVG on one of my computers, and Avast on another.  Am very happy with both.  McAfee at work isn't bad, but it's a bit of a hog.  Norton on my fiance's computer is a nightmare.  I would never choose it.  How it stays in business I have no idea.

Janskeet said:

Also if you don't mind, tell me what party you lean towards the most (or hate the least)?

I will avoid getting sucked into these discussions.  But to answer your question, I consider myself a liberal.  I don't always agree with the democrats, but more often disagree with the republicans.  I think the Bush administration has left such a mess that things will get worse regardless of who wins this November.  If Obama wins, I feel sorry for him because he will have a very difficult situation on his hands.  If McCain wins, we are in for some even more serious problems.  That's my opinion and it's as far as I'll go in this thread... I've got work to do -- on Puggo GRANDE!!!

Thanks everyone.  I was able to get a .wav file.

Moth3r said:

Also, wondering if your projector's reproduction of the mono mix optical track will surpass the quality of Belbucus' restored audio from my TV broadcast/VHS source?

I'm wondering the same thing.  Perhaps someone could shoot me a copy of Belbucus' audio?

Mielr said:

So, these are widescreen prints?

They are anamorphic and would thus ordinarily require an anamorphic lens to project.  I will be "cheating" by capturing the anamorphic image as a normal frame and squishing it into 16:9 in post.  If anyone has any suggestions as to how to do this while retaining the best quality, I'm all ears.

Exorcist 2

The Fly 2

skyjedi2005 said:

Am I dreaming thinking this will look better than the gout?

Your prints don't have the same bad fading and pinking that are notorious on the eastman 35mm prints?

Don't expect it to look as good as the GOUT.  Despite the GOUT's flaws, it was scanned from a 35mm master using considerably better telecine equipment than I have.  Hopefully making mine anamorphic will render something with its own unique appeal, though, and the result should be comfortable viewing.

The first and third reels look great, no pinking at all and excellent color.  Reel 2 has some red shift that will require correcting.  I can't say just yet how bad it is. Haven't looked at the Swedish print yet.

skyjedi2005 said:

So 16mm will be a better source than the derann super8mm print?

A full movie on a workprinter must be labor intensive if you have to scan each individual frame, Still hopefully you can finish and distro before the X0 gets done.

I don't know how the 16mm compares with the derann super8 prints.  However, I'm certain that the 16mm workprinter produces better telecines than the 8mm Workprinter-XP (the image is more steady).  The 16mm prints are anamorphic, just like the derann.  On the minus side, the derann is stereo (magnetic, right?), whereas 16mm is almost always optical mono.

Yes it's frame-by-frame, but at about 6 frames per second, that's not really all that bad.  The hardest part is resetting the camera's white balance and brightness for each scene... that's what really slows the process down.  This will certainly be more work than the Puggo Edition was.  But it was frame-by-frame too.