Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda

First look:

There are two prints, which from now on I will refer to as the "main" print and the "Swedish" print.  The main print does not have subtitles.  The Swedish print has Swedish subtitles and supposedly the original mono mix.  I anticipate my primary focus to be grabbing the video from the main print, and the audio from the Swedish print.  Although I may find it useful to grab parts of the video from the Swedish print, too.

Despite my intent to concentrate on the audio from the Swedish mix, I have in fact already grabbed the audio from the main print.  I'm not sure what it's mix is - probably a mono collapse of the 35mm print ("close the blast doors" is absent).

The main print is on 3 reels, and is in excellent condition.  It has the original crawl.  Prepended on front of the print is a pristine copy of an SE trailer, which I will also go ahead and capture while I'm at it.  The presence of the original crawl was a surprise to Jaxxon, who assumed that it was an Ep.IV print because of the presence of the SE trailer.

There is about 10 seconds of sprocket hole damage on one of the reels, which I will be able to repair.  Reels 1 and 3 haven't faded at all.  Reel 2 is slightly red.  I will need to recapture the 10 second audio in the area of the sprocket hole damage, but I'll wait until I start capturing the video before I think about that.

I haven't yet reviewed the Swedish print.  My next task is to do that, and capture the audio from that print in the process.  Jaxxon claims that it also has the original crawl, and that it has the original mono mix.  I haven't confirmed that for myself yet.

Many thanks to Jaxxon for entrusting me with these wonderful prints.

This thread is devoted to the Puggo GRANDE.

What is the “Puggo GRANDE”? It is my telecine transfer and restoration of two 16mm prints of Star Wars. These films were borrowed from a source who wishes to remain temporarily anonymous, and who for now will go by the name Jaxxon. Both of the prints have the original crawl. One of the prints has Swedish subtitles and the original mono mix! I haven’t yet decided if I will grab the video from both prints, or just use the Swedish version as a source for the mono mix. As I review the quality of the frames, I’ll decide as I go along.

For the video capture, I will be using a 16mm Workprinter manufactured by Roger Evans of Moviestuff. For the optical audio tracks, I will use an EIKI Slimline 16mm projector. I will use a variety of tools to clean up the video and audio, including Virtualdub, CoolEdit, Ozone, and then Vegas Video to sync the tracks.

I have set up a website where I will post frame grabs and maintain the timeline of my progress, much the same as I did for the 8mm Puggo Edition project.  Both pages can be accessed from my new and improved (well, new anyways) Puggo website, shown in my .sig below.  I look forward to your suggestions and expert advice as Puggo GRANDE proceeds.  May the force be with me!

Now all you have to do is make scans like these for all the other frames, and we're off to the races!!  :)

Oops, yeah my mistake.

What an awesome find!  Siskel and Ebert look so young (Brokaw too).  Simon tipped his hand when he said "...if I had them" (refering to kids).  I bet if he had kids, or spent more time with them (or had a happier childhood himself?), then he might be singing a different tune.  As it is, I agree with Siskel that I feel sorry for him.  Siskel and Ebert rock!

As much as I'm enjoying these, I'm becoming afraid myself about this project getting shut down with some sort of legal action.  It could even affect the boards themselves.  Someone earlier suggested "going dark", retreating to some sort of PM or email chain.  It might not be a bad idea for some sort of agreed-upon defensive action, like the mods shutting down and removing these threads and -1 setting up a mailing list or pw-protected website.  I'd hate to see all your efforts get the wrong kind of attention.

Wow, those are getting good!

Still some focusing issues, but they're getting better!  R2D2 looked pretty darn good.

negative1 said:

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later

-1

It's very exciting to see these scans.  My first impression is that the color is very good, but that the focus is poor.  Since these images were intended to be blown up on a big screen, I have to assume that the focus issue is not on the film or it would look awful at full projected size.  Is there a way to manually focus the scanner?

I'm curious... although a 70mm copy would be "lossy" compared with a 35mm original, I wonder if a telecine scan of a good enlarged 70mm copy might turn out better anyways.  The scanning process itself should be more effective when the source is physically larger.  Or am I missing something?

I'm cool with whatever happens (or doesn't happen) to X0.  I'm even ok with having donated to what may turn out to have been a black hole.  However, given the way things are going, I can't help but question whether it is appropriate that the X0 site is still soliciting donations.

In fact, on a separate note, was it ever appropriate for X0 to solicit donations?  The rest of us adhere to a strict code of accepting no financial compensation for our restorations or edits, and people have been kicked off the forum for it.  Was the X0 granted an exception?  Under the current circumstances, would it be that hard to remove the PayPal link from the site?

No rush - I've got a gazillion things on my plate as well.

You bagged that reel?  Cool, dude!

Janskeet said:

Are these going to be in Blu-ray also?

Hey, maybe he'll annoint us by releasing the non-anamorphic GOUT in Blu-Ray. :)

iRantanplan said:

But be aware that there is a Definitive Set out there missing the Leia wielding scene.

Pardon my naivete... what is the "Leia wielding scene"?

It's done, and fits on a DVD-R.

The transfer is pretty awful - grainy and low-res, with lots of contrast problems.  It was obviously a very poor transfer to begin with.  But the color is there and I think that was the whole point of the effort.  Nice atmospheric movie, with one extremely creepy scene in the sewer.

tom said:

Thank you for the scan.  That looks like a theater snipe.  How long is it?  Are you going to make a video of it?

I'll be happy to volunteer my workprinter.  It's 16mm?  For some reason I had thought it was 35mm.

negative1 said:

no, i did not watch the movie again, i just pulled up a reference, and commented on them...

That explains why many of them were quoted incorrectly.  If you go back and watch the movie, you'll find that many of them were actually considerably different in the movie than how they were listed in your reference.  Even considering that, I'm surprised you'd find ANY of those lines poorly conceived... most of them strike me as very well-written dialogue.

And, one of those British accents you so mockingly deride earned an Academy Award nomination.  By contrast,  ROTS garnered an impressive Golden Rasberry award in this same category.  I'm surprised you'd single out Alec Guiness and Peter Cushing thusly... they surely are the two finest actors in the entire "saga", and in my opinion turn in by far the best performances.  But you're entitled to your opinion.

This was a terrific series and I've wondered when it was ever going to be released on dvd.  Once you get to the point of working on it, let me know if you need any help.

It's all abominable.  All this effort into "improving" the original films should be spent restoring them instead.  Mark my word, years from now it is the originals that will be prized, not the versions that contain tweaks done decades later.  If the original methods had matte lines, then I want to see those matte lines.  If the original used puppets, then I want to see those puppets.  These are great works of art, not playthings.  ARGH!!!

I hate that special effects were spruced up digitally, eliminating of its rightful spot in history.  It is no longer possible to watch Star Wars and get any idea what a masterpiece it was in 1977, no way to appreciate the techniques that were used, no way to do comparisons with other films that came before, because it is no longer a 1977 movie.

Suppose, for example, you were to line up the movies that won each years' Academy Award for special effects, in chronological order.  One should be able to study and assess techniques available at the times, as well as to appreciate the artistry used given the limitations of the time. That GL was able to do SO much with so comparatively little (by today's standards) is one of the hallmarks of the film. By going in and adding a bunch of digital changes, he has effectively masked his own mastery and made the film less clearly the masterpiece it was.

Films like Metropolis, Wizard of Oz, 2001, and Star Wars are cinematic milestones and should be considered sacred.  The whole idea that the SE replaces the OT makes me sick to my stomach - its like rewriting history.

There are probably a few dozen people on this forum who can provide the same service.

Finally got around to transfering the LD to my hard drive.  I'm going to just encode it straight, without any postproduction, so anyone who wants to try and fix it up will know what it looks like raw.  This thing isn't going to win any awards... my player obviously isn't the best.  Image is pretty soft.  Color is ok, though, and not too much noise.

SKot said:

Working on it now.  Not sure if I'll be able to get the original tape, but I will certainly be able to get a copy of the DVD transfer from it.  And I'll do the best I can to see if there's a way to get raw, uncompressed video.

I'm confused... if you get a copy of the DVD transfer, it's by definition NOT raw uncompressed video, right?  Or do you mean that there had been a transfer to some uncompressed digital medium (such as a mini-DV tape)?

Tobar said:

Hey everyone, I think I might have found a new copy of the Holiday Special.

Looks nice!  I hope you follow-up on it.  I've got a good VHS deck with tracking control and a variety of TBCs and would be willing to transfer it.  But I wouldn't be surprised if someone here on the forum is even better-equipped, VHS-wise.