Zero

Mrebo said:

TheBoost said:

Zero said:

I'd say that the OT had the greatest impact on my life. But they aren't my favorite movies. They came out when I was a kid and I really loved them. Ever since I grew up, my tastes became more refined. So much so that I can't really pick out my "favorite movie".

I'm not sure you meant it this way, but personally I don't think there's anything 'unrefined' about "Star Wars."

lol, that raised my eyebrow also. Certainly there are more polished, artistic, and philosophically deeper movies. But I don't think that makes them any more competitive with Star Wars as the greatest movies of all time. My tastes have certainly expanded but Star Wars remains atop the heap for more than nostalgiac reasons.

I probably should have used the word "expanded" instead of "became more refined". When I was a kid, I just wasn't interested in movies other than sci-fi, adventure, and fantasy. I think Blade Runner opened the door for me to movies with more complex characters than the archetypes presented in Star Wars. I feel lucky that my dad took me to see Blade Runner in the theater back in '82.

ben_danger said:

i look forward to seeing this! i like the idea of multiple versions of any star wars film.

you should call it the APOCRYPHAL CUT perhaps?

I look forward to seeing, too! In fact, I've been wanting to see it since I first learned about those deleted scenes from the Star Wars Storybook, bubblegum cards, Bantha Tracks newsletters, or wherever else I heard about them back in the late '70s and early '80s.

Calling it the Apocryphal Cut is a nice idea but it sounds a little negative. I thought Spirit of '77 was nice because it hearkens back to popular slogans from the previous year, 1976, which was the bicentennial of the USA.

timdiggerm said:

Maybe find a stopmotion guy to make the stopmotion Jabba head that never was....

 

Maybe not.

I considered doing the animation myself. I have the skill and the means to do it. But Jabba was established to be a big, fat slug in Jedi. And since this is a sort of "director's cut" created in a fictional 1984 from an alternate timeline, using the Special Edition scene might not look out of place.

Although the idea of creating a CGI slug Jabba so that he looks like he was done with stop-motion is a possibility. It would certainly make my fan edit very unique. But I think it might be more trouble than it's worth.

Perhaps if I collaborated with the folks who do Robot Chicken? Ha! That would be funny.

Star Wars: Spirit of '77

<span style=“line-height: 14px;”>I can’t say that my fan edit will be the best. But I hope that it is unique enough to be interesting to other fans.</span>

<span style=“line-height: 14px;”>Imagine, if you will, an alternate timeline. The year is 1980 and The Empire Strikes Back is released. But there is no “Episode V” in that film’s opening crawl. This is because Lucas decides to hedge his bets and just make one sequel at a time. He hopes that if Empire does well, he will make just one more film to round out a nice trilogy. The film is a smash hit and he retakes the director’s chair to make Return of the Jedi. Again, there is no episode number in the opening crawl. For various reasons, not the least of which is criticism that Jedi is not as good as the first two movies, he decides to abandon the idea of making any more sequels. The creation of prequels does not even enter his mind.</span>

<span style=“line-height: 14px;”>In 1984, his trilogy complete, he decides to go back and re-edit Star Wars. He figures that he owes it to the fans to refine it so that it matches the production quality of the other two movies. He doesn’t add any new special effects shots. He merely cleans it up and refines existing special effects. However, he causes controversey when he decides to add several scenes that were originally cut in the 1977 release. This new edit of Star Wars includes scenes that provide more of Luke’s backstory and his friendship with Biggs Darklighter. This delights many of the die-hard fans who had only heard rumors of these scenes. But it also outrages many other fans. Film critics righteously lambast this “desecration” of a landmark movie and correctly point out that these additional scenes slow down the pace of the film.</span>

<span style=“line-height: 14px;”>Lucas responds to the outrage and criticisms with profuse apologies. He subsequently releases a new version of Star Wars that is the same as the 1977 theatrical version but has the minor cosmetic improvements that only the most dedicated fans notice.</span>

<span style=“line-height: 14px;”>My fan edit, which I call Spirit of '77, is that controvertial 1984 edit from this imaginary alternate timeline. The reason I call it Spirit of '77 is that it keeps as close to that original version with only the addition of existing footage from that original shoot. It is meant to have a nostalgic appeal to life-long fans who have been curious for decades about those deleted scenes.</span>

<span style=“line-height: 14px;”>Here are the major features of my fan edit:</span>

• <span>The Treadwell scene featuring Luke observing the space battle from the surface of Tattoine using macrobinoculars.</span>
• <span>The Tosche Station scene featuring Luke and some of his friends including Biggs Darklighter.</span>
• <span>The scene where Biggs confides in Luke his plan to join the Rebellion.</span>
• <span>The Jabba scene where the ganster confronts Solo in docking bay 94. Realistically, it doesn’t make sense to include this based on my stated parameters because that level of CGI technology didn’t exist in 1984. But I’m including it anyway since that scene was originally supposed to be in the movie. Just pretend that they used really good stop-motion animation. I might reconsider including this scene. Then again, this is supposed to be an apocryphal edit from an imaginary timeline.</span>
• <span>The scene where Biggs reunites with Luke before the final battle.</span>

I plan to incorperate a few other shots that were cut. And I’ll lift a few bits and pieces from the Special Edition. I’ll make a concise list of those changes as I work on the project. I also need to research what many other fan edits have done. But for now, I just wanted to state my offical intent to create a fan edit.

<span style=“line-height: 14px;”>This project will incorporate the footage from my</span> <span style=“color: #c2cdd2; font-family: verdana, geneva, arial, helvetica, ‘sans serif’; line-height: 16px; background-color: #484e5e;”>clean-up and restoration of deleted scenes project.</span>

I'd say that the OT had the greatest impact on my life. But they aren't my favorite movies. They came out when I was a kid and I really loved them. Ever since I grew up, my tastes became more refined. So much so that I can't really pick out my "favorite movie".

Nevertheless, Star Wars has a special place in my heart. And making my own fan edit has become one of my latest hobby projects.

Bingowings said:

I don't think he waited for CGI.

I think CGI developed just when he needed a bit more cash.

I remember seeing an interview with him in the bonus material on some DVD from sometime in the last 10 years. I'm paraphrasing but he said that he saw the development of CGI technology and where it was going. After Jurassic Park the moment seemed to have arrived and he began work on the prequels. Of course, he could have been talking out of both sides of his mouth. Your take on it could very well be closer to the truth.

In any case, I still maintain my opinion that he should have done the prequels in the 1980s.

But if I were in George's shoes, I wouldn't have made the prequels at all. Maybe that's the most apt fatal flaw criticism. This whole prequel stuff started when he re-titled Star Wars as A New Hope. Calling that film "A New Hope" still feels weird in my mouth. Regular folks (non-fans) who are my age or older still call it "Star Wars". Oh, sure, I was all psyched up about there supposedly being nine episodes in all. But in hindsight, I would have just left it as a trilogy and gone on to make a beach party sequel to THX 1138. Or something.

So many of you have already made really good points in this thread. I can only summarize what has already been said in my own fashion.

I think the "fatal flaw" was that Lucas should have done the PT back in the 80s. Instead, he waited for CGI technology to develop and he ended up heavily relying on it. Then he felt compelled to rework the OT. That was a bad idea.

When I first saw the PT, I didn't expect much because I knew the context: Star Wars is a tribute to the cheesy sci-fi serials. And I enjoyed and didn't think too much about it. I was actually annoyed at all of the extreme criticism. But then I started to deconstruct them. And I realized the important thing that RLM pointed out: who is the protagonist? RLM really nails it and I can't top that criticism.

I do not hate the prequels. I don't love them either. I enjoy watching them on occasion. I freely acknowledge all of their shortcomings.

EDIT: I originally wrote a post that was too long.

I see what you mean now. Yes, that was an option that I was going to consider for that establishing shot of the Treadwell scene. It would certainly save a lot of time. The trick, of course, would be to add very subtle animated noise so that the matte wouldn't appear flat and fake.

Forgive me for discussing subjects like this that have probably been discussed many times before on this forum. I'm new here. Over the next few weeks I'll read old threads to see how other people did their work.

Moth3r said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq5nxaUebIA

Discussed here.

Thanks for the heads up.

MagnoliaFan said:

It kind of kills me how little effort they put into cleaning these up.
This is just two shots, but I threw this together in about 2 hours.
Imagine how much better it could look if they threw in half the effort with George's resources.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq5nxaUebIA

I apologize for not noticing this thread earlier. I'm a newbie to this forum.

You might be interested in my own effort towards a clean-up of the deleted scenes:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Clean-up-and-restoration-of-deleted-scenes/post/539187/#TopicPost539187

MagnoliaFan, would you be interested in describing your method of clean-up in that thread?

I'm considering the idea of blending the layers together in either Premiere or AfterEffects instead of Photoshop. (Probably AfterEffects.) That way I can manage the color corrections to each layer and quickly see the results in motion.

You are right, Angel. I suspect that a bit of digital painting will be involved in order to reconstruct a few frames.

What do you mean by "creating patches as a global fixer"?

I started a thread dedicated to clean-up and restoration of deleted scenes:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Clean-up-and-restoration-of-deleted-scenes/post/539082/#TopicPost539082

I'm going to leave this post empty for now. Perhaps I'll rearrange this post and the original post to be used as an index for this project.

What think you?

“Out, damn’d spot! out I say!” – Lady Macbeth

The recent release of The Complete Saga on Blu-ray comes with bonus discs that contain deleted scenes from all six of the movies. Since all of these deleted scenes are presented in high-definition 1080p video, it is possible to edit these scenes back into their respective movies. Unfortunately, most of the deleted footage was transferred from film directly to video without any post-production. Many scenes contain a tremendous amount of dust and scratches. So a simple edit would have less than desirable results.

If no one else has done so, I would like to initiate a project that is focused on cleaning up the deleted scene footage. Specifically, the deleted footage from the original trilogy. From there, others can edit the restored footage into their own fan edits. Other issues such as audio soundtracks would not be addressed. And fan editors could color-correct the footage in a manner that matches their respective endeavors.

The wisdom of doing such an edit is questionable in all cases. Nevertheless, many fans would enjoy adding some of these scenes to their own edits of a particular movie. For example, I believe there is absolutely no point in trying to clean-up and restore the landspeeder scene featuring Luke and C-3P0 in ANH. But it might be interesting to restore the ANH scenes featuring Luke and Biggs.

Some deleted scenes are pretty clean of dirt and devoid of scratches. Those would require very little work. But there are other worthy scenes that are in pretty bad shape. For example, the Treadwell scene that features Luke observing the space battle with macrobinoculars at the beginning of ANH.

Here is an example frame:

http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j466/ct1970/treadwell0001.jpg

As you can see, there is a considerable amount of dust and scratches. This particular frame is vertically misaligned with most of the other frames of this shot. And like all the other frames of this shot, there is a strange curved border at the top.

I’ve already begun work on cleaning up this particular shot. First, I brought about a half-dozen of the “cleanest” frames into Photoshop. Starting with one frame, I placed another one on a new layer. Then I carefully erased any specks of dirt or scratches. The holes created by the erasure revealed the frame on the layer beneath it. In some places, these holes only revealed the dust on the bottom layer frame. To address this, I then added a different frame on a new layer and did the same thing. After repeating this process six or so times, I did a little pixel-pushing to repair the borders. This was the result:

http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j466/ct1970/treadwellcleanup.jpg

I plan to use this “TreadwellCleanup” image as the basis of editing all the other frames of this shot. I loaded up the example frame (the first image in this post), put it on a layer above this Cleanup image (the second image), and erased away the dirt. This was how much I erased:

http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j466/ct1970/treadwell0001_e.jpg

But that’s not the end of it. This frame, for example, is slightly discolored with a greenish tint. I color-corrected the top layer so that it matched the Cleanup image beneath. I had to do this twice in order to match the sky as well as the ground. This is the result:

http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j466/ct1970/treadwell0001_f.jpg

Using the Cleanup image as a foundation, the clean-up of one frame took me 30 minutes.

THIRTY. MINUTES.

There are over a thousand frames in this entire scene. And the example I presented above was a frame from only one shot in this scene. There are 20 shots total in this scene. And each of those shots will present different problems that won’t be solved in exactly the same way as I did for this shot.

I also have to admit that this process might not be the best process. But based on over a decade of experience with Photoshop, Premiere, and AfterEffects, I believe that this tedious method might be the most effective. Although I have experience with professional art software, film restoration is not my profession. It is possible that there is software or some sort of plugin out there that would greatly accelerate the process. But I doubt that it could replace the effectiveness of working each frame by hand.

Before I start asking people to help, I need to test this method. Once I have 24 frames completed, I’ll load it up into Premiere and see what it looks like. It might look horrible. Or it might look great. I don’t know yet.

The most important thing at this point is that I would like to attract the attention of others who might like to help. And I would like to attract the attention of others who may have already started restoration work on these scenes.

Another caveat: I’m planning to go on a two-week vacation shortly. So I won’t be able to continue my experiment until I return. However, I will have access to the internet so I’ll be able to discuss ideas in this thread.

WhatsMyName said:

pretty cool. I wouldn't mind seeing some of the scenes reinserted into the movies. Such as the ROTJ scene with Luke building his light saber. Most of the scenes i saw deleted though, were done for good reason IMO.

Ah, to heck with it. I couldn't wait.

Here is a rough example of what I'm planning to do:

http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j466/ct1970/treadwell0008.jpg

http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j466/ct1970/treadwell0008_f.jpg

(Note: Photobucket shrank the images from the original 1920x1080 dimensions. But you can click on the links above to see larger versions.)

The top image is the absolute worst frame from the first shot of the Treadwell scene. The bottom image is the same frame after clean-up. Using information from about a half-dozen other frames from the same shot, I was able to reconstruct something that might be useful.

When I start a dedicated thread at a later time, I'll go into more detail. Because it's more than just clone-stamping in Photoshop.

Sluggo said:

Zero,  might I suggest a new thread once you begin your edit? 

And MAKE SURE you watch BOTH Deleted Magic and Star Wars Begins before you begin your editing.

I think I will start a thread focusing only on cleaning up the deleted scenes from Episode IV. It's possible that the workflow I'm developing will result in a less-than-satisfactory product. So I don't want to count my chickens before they are hatched by declaring the launch of a new fan edit of the entire movie.

I'm working on a couple of frames right now. Tomorrow I'll try to post my results.

On a side note, I'm planning to take a two-week vacation and I'll be away from my workstation during that time. But I'll be able to get online and discuss the project further.

Perhaps other people will be interested in helping out. I can organize and divide up the workload. But that discussion can wait until later.

dark_jedi said:

Zero said:

Myspleen.cc appears to be dead. And so far I'm having no luck finding a torrent.

It is not Myspleen.cc, it is .org

Ah! I see. I was confused.

I look forward to seeing your work.

fishmanlee said:

Zero said:

Hello, everyone. I'm new here. This is my first post.

I purchased The Complete Saga BD set and I'm very interested in restoring some of the cut scenes to Episode IV. I have experience with Photoshop, Premiere, and AfterEffects. Although some of the deleted footage has a tremendous amount of dust and scratches, I'm certain that I can clean them up enough for splicing them into a new edit.

Nevertheless, I know that the deleted scenes can be cleaned up enough to look acceptable on a standard definition DVD. Especially if it is edited into the original 1977 version that was released in 2006.

If/when you do restore these, would you be sharing them with us fan editors? ;)

Yes. Probably in the form of individual image files for each frame in 1920 x 1080 resolution. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Myspleen.cc appears to be dead. And so far I'm having no luck finding a torrent.

timdiggerm said:

Zero said:

Nevertheless, I know that the deleted scenes can be cleaned up enough to look acceptable on a standard definition DVD. Especially if it is edited into the original 1977 version that was released in 2006.

Let me recommend you get ahold of Dark Jedi's V3 Preservation. It's the 2006 GOUT (George's Original Untouched Trilogy) release, but made anamorphic, color-balanced, etc. That's the version you're looking for.

I'm having trouble finding that. (I could use some help.) I'll keep looking. Thanks for the excellent suggestion.

Sluggo said:

Hi Zero, welcome aboard.  I like your avatar.  I had a poster of that painting  when I was a kid.

I'd be doing my own edits, but I don't have the computing power right now.  If you want to do an edit of ROTJ, I've reconstructed the shooting script which you can use to see where all of the cut scenes belong.  The link to it is in my signature.  It might be a good place to start.

Thanks. I like Ralph McQuarrie's work. Ever since I first saw the recent Clone Wars TV series, I've wondered if they have been using McQuarrie's color palette for the 3d animation. Just a theory.

I do indeed have the computing power to do this. I built my workstation late last year with the latest and greatest hardware. Not the least of which is 24 GB of RAM.

Although working on a fan edit of RotJ would be cool, I'm going to focus on ANH for now.

Hello, everyone. I'm new here. This is my first post.

I purchased The Complete Saga BD set and I'm very interested in restoring some of the cut scenes to Episode IV. I have experience with Photoshop, Premiere, and AfterEffects. Although some of the deleted footage has a tremendous amount of dust and scratches, I'm certain that I can clean them up enough for splicing them into a new edit.

Over the weekend I experimented with inserting those scenes with appropriate wipe transitions, subtle music edits, and a few sound effects. The results were impressive enough for me to seriously consider doing my own fan edit.

But before I dive into a hobby project that will take several months, I wanted to find out if other people on the internet were doing the same thing. I'd rather combine efforts instead of working independently on the same thing. That's how I found this forum and this thread.

I can't believe that I've never heard of Adywan's edit before now. I read the description and I will give it a view. Before I say much more about my ideas for a fan edit, I should see other edits by other fans that have been done in the past.

Nevertheless, I know that the deleted scenes can be cleaned up enough to look acceptable on a standard definition DVD. Especially if it is edited into the original 1977 version that was released in 2006.