Lots! Spend some time perusing the forum, there are at least a dozen to choose from. And welcome aboard!
Because to make an affordable 35mm telecine, you'd pretty much have to build it from scratch. 16mm and 8mm telecine units can be made using the transports from older home movie projectors, of which you can find tons out there for practically nothing, and that were well-engineered. That's what Roger Evans at Moviestuff did to make the workprinters - he makes them out of old Eiki and GAF home movie projectors. They still have significant amounts of new engineering in them (different motor, completely different optics, etc.), but the film path and housing is largely original.
By contrast, there has never been any such thing as a home movie 35mm projector. The only projectors are the professional kind used in movie theaters. They are much more expensive and there are much fewer of them. They are not easy to find used, they take up a lot of space, they are complicated, require maintenance, and they are heavy. Shipping is expensive. Plus there is virtually no market for an affordable 35mm telecine unit, because there is no such thing as 35mm home movies. You can't even buy 35mm movies, for the most part. So no company is going to make such a thing other than for high end Hollywood-type applications. You CAN buy a 35mm telecine, but expect to pay a good $30,000 or more, installed and working.
So, you'd basically have to go out and buy a 35mm projector, and you'd have to engineer the telecine unit yourself. It could be done, but probably not for under $10,000 and many months of effort even if you had significant mechanical and electrical engineering experience. I think the best chance of seeing something like this happen, would be if someone on this forum were a mechanical engineering student and did this for a college degree capstone project... possibly in a team of students. But then still, someone would have to front the money to buy a used 35mm projector to base it off of. If one turned up for cheap at a theater closing, that might be possible. 35mm projectors of various types and condition pop up on eBay fairly often. You'd have to know what you were getting.
The Workprinters are marvels of clever, quality engineering out of cheap off-the-shelf parts. I've become convinced that Roger Evans is basically a genius who has single-handedly changed the way small-format film is handled.
Or, you could pay a service to transfer it for you... except that nobody is going to touch a print of SW - or any major commercial movie - with a 10-foot pole due to the risk of getting shut down legally.
The capture device shown in Rescuing SW is a workprinter-16, which is described here: http://www.moviestuff.tv/wp_16.html
It looks like a projector because it was built out of a projector. But it doesn't project... the front side of the film is illuminated and the camera zooms in on it. It also has a different motor that controls both the advancement of the film and the clicking of the mouse to inform the computer to capture the frame.
You might want to go back and read some of the discussions on this and the PSB thread, as it will answer a lot of technical questions. Here are some quick comments:
- no it is not videotaping a projection at slow speed. The camera is zoomed into the gate, and a snapshot is taken of each frame. The frames are assembled in software into an .avi file. There is no projection. See www.moviestuff.tv for details.
- 16mm films are not only generally poor quality, they are ALL heavily cropped, even the scope prints. Go back into the thread and look at some of the screenshots as the project progressed, for this and for Krig.
yotsuya said:
I'm not saying the 2004/2011 versions are perfect, but I think they are closer to the theatrical presentation than the TV/VHS/LD versions were. One way to judge is to look at the period prints from the movie stills and look at how dark they were. They weren't as light as the TV/VHS/LD transfers.
I don't think you're going to find much support for your theory here. Certainly my experience with the 16mm prints, made in the years that the films were released, contradict your assertion.
Ginge said:
I will watch DJ's version (assuming I eventually get the Blu) when I am on my own and feel like watching Star Wars as I remember it. I will watch Harmy's version when I am with a group of friends or if I wanted to show some girl I am dating Star Wars... since they will look more contemporary and polished.
That sounds funny to me, because my most vivid memories from 1977 are seeing the film over and over again in the theater when it first came out. So my memories are of a large, sharp, pristine, brilliant image. So Harmy's is more like I remember my original viewing experience.
Bothan's Pies said:
Off topic, but the way those Gungan musicians move has always really annoyed me - they look awful.
Funny because that is one of the few things I like about that final scene. They kinda remind me of the USC Trojan style high-step marching band. What bugs me is anakin's new haircut... doomed to be dated almost immediately.
This thread just got a whole lot more interesting!
Here's one that reminds me of Anakin/Padme frollicking in the fields:
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_nMxLUUSmcU8/TYBaHtLZ11I/AAAAAAAACaY/ofBPAnx2udo/s1600-h/Emy2%5B12%5D.jpg
Anyone who does a SW effort of any kind, and lets it get out into the public sphere, should realize that they are subjecting themselves to all manner of feedback -- praise, criticism, analysis, favorable and unfavorable criticism, comments from the peanut gallery, weird emails, flowers, rotten tomatoes, etc. etc. etc. I've gotten very kind praise for my telecine efforts, but have also seen several instances (mostly on other forums) of people laughing and mocking and making fun of my work. I've also gotten some funky emails. But heck, as long as I find myself comparing, say, Harmy's vs. George's editions, then I should expect someone else to compare mine vs. others, and just accept that. As a species, that's one of the things we do... we like to compare things and share our opinions. I find that being able to laugh at myself helps survive the critiques, and remembering that in the end it's all just personal taste.
Sound sync of reel 3 is complete.
Next I'll start in on the minor repairs for reel 1.
red5-626 said:
Just because it's film doesn't make it a holy grail of quality. So people have to remember that the puggo 16mm projects are an interesting, and I find, highly enjoyable project. But if you're looking for a pristine copy of the OT... Get harmy's despecialized or Dj's gout project.
I understand that a 16mm print is not the best.
But is it not better then 8mm?
In case you aren't clear on what they are:
The "Puggo Edition" is a scan of 8mm highlight reels.
The "Puggo Grande" and "Puggo Strikes Back" are scans of 16mm prints.
16mm or 8mm film scanner that is privately owned by some one that could scan it and “ avoid any Empyreal entanglements”.
That is exactly what I have, and what I did, albeit in DV.
Just saw the "empire hotline" recordings on the ESB disk. Wow, those are cool! I'd never heard those before. Great extra.
bilditup1 said:
Except he didn't executive-produce Empire or Jedi.
Have you looked at the credits?
I suppose we all have our own definitions. Here are mine:
A fan-edit is when someone re-edits a film in an effort to improve on it by making changes, or combining films in various ways to make new films that didn't previously exist. Adywan's SW Revisited and the Phantom Edit are examples of fan edits.
A preservation is when someone takes an existing film and digitizes it so that it can be made available for future generations, sometimes accompanied by cleaning or other fixes to counteract the deficiencies of the previous media. DJ's trilogy and the Puggo Grande are examples of preservations.
A restoration is when someone rebuilds something that once existed but no longer exists or is no longer available, out of whatever can be found that is similar, or by rebuliding missing components. Harmy's is an example of a restoration, because the theatrical version doesn't exist in HD and he has tried to rebuild it out of other parts.
My definitions of "preservation" and "restoration" come from how those terms would be used in the antique business. Sometimes restoring a piece of furniture requires replacing pieces of it with new wood. Thus, I don't consider Harmy's to be a fan-edit. His "partly despecialized editions" that preceded his current work were fan edits, but his DEs are restorations, in my opinion.
It is hard to categorize Lucas' special editions. They are sorta like fan-edits, but not made by fans. They aren't even directors' cuts because he wasn't the director. Maybe "executive producer's cuts" ??
red5-626 said:
LOL
I was wondering if any one had thought of doing a Preservations documentary. But doing it as a spoof on the Special Edition Intro (1997 Star Wars A New Hope Special Edition VHS Intro (1997
I have a spoof restoration video in my sig ("rescuing star wars"), although it's not exactly what you describe.
Has anyone gone through the OT and, for each movie, figured out exactly what percentage of film time contains SE changes? Not that it matters to me, but there are people posting on other forums that it's like .001%, but I suspect it's higher than most people realize - particularly if you take into account all the little changes and so/called "upgrades".
Skyjedi - I respectfully disagree.
The rest of you seem a little humor-impaired. Isn't it obvious that most of the time Shatner is joking? Or at least engaging in hyperbole just to be fun? A lot of the time he's struggling to keep a straight face. There's nothing to be so sensitive or offended about.
The one thing I really agree with Shatner on, is that in most of the original series episodes the crew was faced with an ethical dilemma. Often the dilemma didn't have an easy answer, or it wasn't always clear what was the right thing to do. They always made you think about what you would do in a similar situation. In Star Wars, there's a good guy and a bad guy, and you root for the good guy. Trek was more "intelligent" in that respect.
That was what often disappointed me about the later series'. They tended to not incorporate such ethical dilemmas that seemed the cornerstone of the original series.
I don't know if this one's been posted before:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BYNdTHjstI
It's hilarious, and I even agree with some of it!
mverta said:
Your project and website are very interesting - thanks for sharing what you have and I look forward to reading more as you progress.
I'm not sure, but it looks like the second one isn't a full telecine unit, but works with a telecine unit.
Johnboy3434 said:
SilverWook said:
On the flip side of the same coin, wasn't she also posting tweets that could be interpreted as baiting angry fanboys?Perhaps, but I can't help but side with her when she tirades about the ridiculousness of the phrase "raped my childhood". While you could argue about whether or not the phrase is technically correct, the inescapable fact is that the word "rape" has heavy baggage tacked onto it. To use it in reference to something as trivial as a movie is nothing short of irresponsible.
Lumping all detractors into that boat is a convenient way to avoid the issues.
So
awesome!!!!!
Don't know if this review from dvdfile has been posted here or not:
http://www.dvdfile.com/reviews/blurayreviews/168324-star-wars-the-complete-saga-bd-review