Fruit672

Alright, I’ts almost complete. I’ve come to terms with knowing that there are still a few scratches on the video and I can spend another day perfecting it, but its good enough. I am now in the process of colorizing the other three quarters of deleted footage and editing the audio as I must now extend and blend the two sources both visually and audio-ally.

Maybe 75% done colorizing. manually tweaking each frame. Will be another week.

Fruit672 said:

Bobson Dugnutt said:

Here’s my attempt at colourising the scene. Took a hit of work to get it to match the 35mm scan I had used

https://vimeo.com/696986729

Very nice! I’ll see if I can integrate this color into the footage soon.

Ok, I always thought this was just a single photo of a before and after, but I clicked on the link (to try and recall how to upload photos here) and discovered this was a video?! What source was this version of empire? I’d like to maybe match it to this version as well. But anyway, heres a quick color test to see what I’m dealing with:
https://imgur.com/a/YdMSKbG.png
https://imgur.com/a/4wPOMai.png
no clue how to get the thumbnails to work
Also: while matching the frame of both deleted and official versions, after “you’re trembling”, the scenes actually align almost perfectly; the audio does start to lag behind: OK at first I thought it was a fps sync issue but then I realized after muting one and playing the audio over both, it had to be re done in ADR which would explain why both sequences match in visual timing but not in dialogue.
Back to the discussion: I could overlay the two to produce the finer details but you would see the cut in quality right as the overlay stops. But it will still be really solid color info since I can just overlay them perfectly for the first half.
Also, just thought of a genius fix to skip the lines. Since both clips match I overlayed a cropped portion of the official version on top of the portion of footage containing scratches and converted it to B&W, add a slight blur, and tone matched it to fit seamlesly into one. Now I can forget those damn line scratches that run for 20% of the film.

Ok. So after thinking about it, I may release half of the entire deleted scene. They’re both basically the same except for the extended hot shot scene and the single camera shot being held for longer. I will insert the deleted scene after the close up of leia as it’s just a single shot till C-3PO enters. We’ll see how well I can blend the two together. I Should be finished sooner with this editing choice but I can still upload the rest (restored but not completely) on the side.

Ronster said:

It’s probably the most worthy deleted scene of the lot to have been cut out and deserving of a restoration.

I don’t have a clue at how hard this stuff is to recolor or colorize?

Did you ever have a go at the cantina Rough cut? I don’t think there is too much fottage in it worth a restoration but the informant leaving the bar and the storm troopers entering a bit earlier / Han sitting with Chewbacca alone are sort of better explain what is happening nothing more. Orientation and timing fixes mainly to over editing.

Just spitballing but I am currently looking over this part currently and was wondering if you had a go and how difficult it is?

I don’t have HD footage of the cantina scene so I’ve never tried restoring the entire sequence. Colorizing isn’t too difficult and it’s a lot more fun than cleaning scratches. There are several ways of doing it but for the best results I take a few frames, colorize them, run them through ebsynth, then any artifacts I clean by hand in photoshop with a new layer set to color blend.

A video of the bonus dvd supplied in the 2006 book release was uploaded to youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGMrZtHqS9g but its in 480p. I’m gathering reference material of mustafar and I’m wondering if anyone has a higher quality version of the last 5 minutes.

Question, do you use upscaling models to enhance the footage? presumably topaz. And if so, thoughts on Adobe’s Videogigagan upscaler? This upscaler (if ever released) will be a game changer for enhancing these old 480p resolution deleted scenes.

I’m restarting for both that I lost the project files and that version wasn’t the highest quality source so im starting again. Found a good source
60% complete, spending un godly amount of time trying to fix the straight line scratches.

Well no responses still… But I’ve managed to photoshop the colored versions to B&W with a lot of tweaking.

timdiggerm said:

Are you trying to convince industry professionals to send you high quality scans which are now the property of Disney?

Eh, worth a shot. And still, the comics from 1984, it should be in the public domain by now…

JadedSkywalker said:

Quite impossible I’m afraid. Al Williamson died in 2010. I have no idea who bought or holds the original art.

I wish you luck.

Some company should have it photocopied since they released a re-colored version in the late 90s, not sure though.
Update, I’ve emailed 2 people and waiting on a thirds email address-who were credited on the 1994 version.
update update, there was another re issue during disney’s aquisition so they must have it… emailed 7 people now and also the colorist who did the disney version.

Update: I’ve found 2 pictures of early sketches of the comic, and a few others by just searching google images but I’m still missing most of the sarlacc sequence which I need

I’ve been working on a fan project of recreating the 1983/4 marvel comic of ROJ into a comic-film. While drawing over the pannels to fill out missing details I wondered if I could contact anyone who made the original comics and see If I could get my hands on the pure ink version-no coloring or effects added on top; As this could help me with having more sharper images and easier coloring. I’ve checked out the newest renditions of the old comic and I see a bunch of names but googling them for a contact is proving tedious, but I’m still checking. Could anyone let me know of any possible contacts? And I’m talking about digital photocopy scans, not the real thing*

DarthSmaul said:

Tom Spina has a personal account on Facebook you could try messaging, he’s also active in the Blast Points Super Live Super Star Wars Chill Group where you could also try asking.

read my update, I mentioned Tom’s response.

Update on this source in prior message
Anyway, If you look closely during https://youtu.be/RWw8-s_a0vM?t=412 at first I thought it was Rock wart running out on the floor but then realized it was sand being kicked up. Than I noticed the skinny yellow leg and I believe this to be Yuzzum. Which wouldn’t make sense since I think he was seen stuck to a wall in another documentary so how would he be moving his legs? And the last frame has something poke out the door but than the camera cut. And judging by this photo https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o5XEn-fTyN0/UXBRLEts0GI/AAAAAAAAJsA/NPqezzGMd9c/s1600/jtr25yuzzum.jpg he seems to be really small but the shot has him looking maybe twice the size judging where the brown thing pockes out…

With the help of a member from forums.thestarwarstrilogy WE HAVE IT!
pm me for the link- (the highest version of the lazerdisc)

benduwan said:

Sadly Not.
You don’t find a really good Version of this.
Every release you find is from the LD.

Real shame. Well if he sends whatever he has to me, will still be good to archive an attempt a digital remaster. Damn Disney hogging all the film tapes.

Update,found his reddit post, he got it from the laserdisc. Contacting now If I can get the uncompressed version. Guessing that the laserdisc version is far better in quality than the MTV version.

Recently found this youtube post of the MTV lapti nek but in surprisingly better quality than anything I’ve seen prior: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo9j8eNheGs
Wondering if it’s possible to get the highest-quality version, without youtube compression.

don’t need it anymore, thanks though

Does anyone have the special edition ROJ soundtrack- just the instruments no background foley or anything?

missing 2 or 3 shots, the gorilla tapes are a bit much which I can’t handle right now or ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4ofoDzCrag

Does anybody have HD footage from this https://youtu.be/xNUOxBQMdjI?t=1960 BB’s documentary? I want to restore the whole 5-7 minutes and probably colorize it too but I don’t have access to any higher quality sources that are still free.

Some tests I’ve made already https://i.imgur.com/5HzJD3s.mp4

kg1977 said:

Williarob said:

Actually Viva Pro did most of the heavy lifting.

The full Diamant Film Restoration suite starts at a little over $20k. Dustbuster+ is the cheaper, stripped down version which can be had for just under $7k.

Ouch…pricey…Looked like Viva was more of a editor from the website. I assume there are retoration plugins within not shown that beat out anything from premier and AE which isn’t much as far as full frame scratch and dust removal. If that is the case , Adobe has some catching up to do as you examples looked clean and fantastic!

For free alternatives look into the ai market. I tried out this tool https://youtu.be/xkCtFafVlys but I didn’t have a sufficient amount of RAM to support videos larger than 1024x1024. It was a bit tricky to get running but gpt helped out. This one hasn’t come out yet but is the most promising so far with enhancement. https://supir.xpixel.group/ Probably work frame by frame (possible moving artifacts when all combined) till a video version comes out which is probably soon.

I was reading a few articles on the return of the ewok, hoping to see if any new news had come out but no. But an old article mentions: “While it would have made excellent promotional material at the time, it would be an even brighter gem now that the film it was shot around is about to celebrate its 40th anniversary. It’s unlikely, but Davis hasn’t given up hope just yet.” And It’s a terrific idea! It’s such a shame that ROJ seems to be the most disregarded by Disney. And since the 40th anniversary is coming up tomorrow and Disney hasnt announced anything, it’s not likely that they’re going to release any new restored version of Return Of The Ewok.
Like there’s even an unreleased ROJ documentary featuring Richard Marquand in the interview which is only in the hands of one collector which hasn’t been publicly and fully released. I mean seriously, what is Disney doing?
Basically what I think too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB_0G56Mcu4

Tantive3+1 said:

It looks great. Hope to see more progress with this.

Thanks, Currently working on the deleted rancor scene, about 4/10 finished. But I’ll also keep working on this on the side. Probably finish it on the weekend or close to finished.