A version with just the FX enhancements without cutting anything would be fantastic. Loving the redone lightsabers and fixed goofs, but I have some pretty mixed feelings on the changes made to the story.
Shouldn’t it be possible to clean up the “sith lord” audio at least a little bit with AI? Would be cool to see it somehow worked it in while Vader is outside the meeting room, followed by cutting to the meeting and playing the scene normally until he comes in.
Looking great. Could I get a link?
These edits look great. Could I have a link?
I’ve also never received a link from Ziggy or anyone else who claims to have seen it. Starting to wonder if this thing even exists.
This is so cool.
The CGI blends in really well. Good stuff.
Isn’t Luke’s face dark in the original because his hat is casting a shadow over his face? It might not be necessary to try to bring out the detail in his face.
That first shot looks incredible. Never noticed it before, but kind of a funny continuity error in the original where the first shot shows them driving on a flat surface but the second shot shows it being super bumpy.
Wouldn’t restoring midichlorians and the prophecy just be a matter of adding back in a few scenes? Should be super easy with a few minutes in any decent video editing program for anyone who wants to do so and probably not worth asking for a new cut just for those things. FWIW I agree the trilogy works better with those concepts in as the Jedi treating The Force as a scientific field and interpreting the prophecy in a way that’s convenient for them is good for underscoring their arrogance.
Depends on if you can color match what I did. If you just go to the color wheel and move stuff, you’d be wrong. Splicing in the uncorrected scenes would stand out.
Forgot about that. In that case, a version where it’s just SFX and color correction with no story changes sounds like a really good idea.
Coming along very nicely. How’s the progress on the Biggs scenes?
Wouldn’t restoring midichlorians and the prophecy just be a matter of adding back in a few scenes? Should be super easy with a few minutes in any decent video editing program for anyone who wants to do so and probably not worth asking for a new cut just for those things. FWIW I agree the trilogy works better with those concepts in as the Jedi treating The Force as a scientific field and interpreting the prophecy in a way that’s convenient for them is good for underscoring their arrogance.
Yeah, I guess the sleeker look helps it fit better with other edits using CGI improvements, like SC-38 or Rogue One combo edits.
Looking really good. I much prefer the grittiness of the original model for the speeder over what you replaced it with, but besides that this is pretty impressive stuff.
I’m interested. Like you say, AI software has made some massive leaps these past few years, so I’m surprised there isn’t more talk here about this sort of thing.
Seems that there’s been a shitload of attempts to restore these scenes lately? Not that I’m complaining, since I’ve been waiting years for this.
Scratch/dirt removal is really good but there’s also a lot of detail lost, especially in the background. Kind of looks like he was working with a download from Youtube rather than a proper BD encode. I’m also not really sure about the color correction. Luke looks like he’s about to die from a heat stroke with how red he is. Though I guess it could be argued given the placement after the 3PO/R2 scene that it adds to dramatic effect, lol.
Luckily the scene doesn’t have to be colorized, since we got that clip from the 40h anniversary BTS reel on the Star Wars YouTube channel.
In that clip, George’s voiceover continues into that scene, but the clip itself seems to begin on the tail end of Han’s line, "You like me because I’m a scoundrel. There aren’t enough scoundrels in your life."
Here is how the scene goes:
CLOSE-UP OF LEIA
LEIA: Afraid?
HAN: You’re trembling.
TWO SHOT OF HAN AND LEIA
LEIA: I’m not trembling.
HAN: You like me because I’m a scoundrel. There aren’t enough scoundrels in your life.
LEIA: I happen to like nice men.
HAN: I am a nice man.
LEIA: No you’re not. You’re-
Han kisses Leia. Cut to wide as 3PO interrupts them.
This is how the scene could go, with that alternate take.
CLOSE-UP OF LEIA
LEIA: Afraid?
HAN: There aren’t enough-
ALTERNATE HAN AND LEIA TWO SHOT
HAN: -scoundrels in you’re life.
LEIA: I happen to like nice men.
HAN: I am a nice man.
LEIA: You are not nice. You are-
Han kisses Leia. Han pulls back, unsure of Leia’s reaction.
LEIA: Okay, hotshot.
Leia kisses Han back. Cut to wide as 3PO interrupts them.
I do like the alternate take, because it does show some vulnerability to Han. When he pulls back, he almost looks guilty, worried that he might’ve been too forward. He gulps, waiting for Leia’s reaction. Leia taking charge of the situation also fits Leia’s character better, I think. Sort of like how Leia took charge of her own rescue in ANH. And it also fits well with the continuity, since in the wide shot where 3PO interrupts them, Leia’s arm is around Han’s neck. She doesn’t put her arm around him in the theatrical close-up two shot, but she does in the alternate take.
At the very least, it would be cool to have this alternate take of this scene, even if you lose a line or two. I guess it then becomes a question of if you can get the color grade to match, and get the music/audio to fit in seamlessly.
Upscaling and restoration have come a long way in the short time since this was posted - heck, I’ve seen a Spider-Man meme group upscale and restore a bootlegged recording of No Way Home solely for the purposes of making higher quality memes. Has anyone taken a crack at upscaling and restoring this lately?
That alternate take looks awesome. Adds so much depth to the scene and works better with their characters. Would love to watch it integrated back into the film.
Loving how things flow by breaking it up with R2/3PO.
Editing looks good to me. Didn’t notice anything feeling off besides the quality on the Luke out takes, though I don’t think there’s much you can do about that. I probably wouldn’t include the extra early shot of the Falcon shooting, as I think the scene has a bigger impact just seeing Vader get shot out of nowhere.
Interesting how just a couple extra seconds of footage makes Luke’s character at the end a lot more confident/cocky than the theatrical version. I kind of dig it as it bridges well with his character in ESB and ROTJ.
Not sure about the process, but a conversion to 60fps has already been done. Film shots look fine and it’s the best looking version of the special I’ve found overall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxtSX1lg8rE
Edit: Looks like this got linked earlier. Nevermind me then.
I’m no expert, but I remember reading the special was originally broadcast in interlaced 60fps, so deinterlaced 60fps would be the most faithful way to present it at higher resolutions.
I’ve cleaned another snippet of these deleted scenes, and I have to say I really enjoy working on them. I’ve got a decent amount of spare time at the moment, so I will hopefully make a fair bit of progress on these scenes.
Thanks for the note by the way ifjg. I remember watching his restoration a few years ago and being pretty amazed, but from what I’ve seen, he is changing backgrounds and adding new graphics to the scenes, which is not what I’m doing, so I’m not sure if the vision aligns there.
I’ve published a quick comparison of a fairly simple scene that I have done: https://youtu.be/XL4qsva6l9s
Looking good. I smiled at the comparison to the AI restoration. I tried running the scenes through a film restoration script to reinsert in the film before, but something looked really off and I couldn’t put my finger on what it was.
I’m fine with some imperfections in the shots if it means getting these finished in a timely fashion. I feel like it’s way overdue for this restored footage to get out there.
After rewatching, the shaking doesn’t bother me too much but I’m in agreement that there’s a little too much pink in the color graded. Since there’s a lot of subjectivity in what colors people prefer in the main film to begin with, I think it’d be most efficient to release these without color grading.
FWIW, there’s already a guy here who’s been working several years on these scenes. Here’s the latest thing he posted from earlier this year.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTz1E6YFqWE
Maybe you can get in contact with him and collaborate? Seems extremely slow and tedious work for one person to do.
The editing in the original film for the Vader/Kenobi duel does seem pretty weird. Seems like they just randomly cobbled together some shots of them, leading to people thinking the scene is slow and jerky. It was real eye opening seeing that if you just recut the footage in proper chronological order you end up with something that stands up fine with the other duels of the series.
I’m also a big fan of your recut for the Alderaan explosion. Would much rather watch that than the cheesy CGI explosion used in most other edits.
Just created a mockup for a Clone Wars “ending montage” for a potential V.2. It’s very rough and has no sound effect or score, and is more of a proof of concept. It uses clips from the Dark Times and several other cinematics. When V.2 comes around I hope to make my own cinematics to match the aesthetic of the first clip from Dark Times. The purpose is to really cement home the idea that the Galaxy is now engaged in a full-scale war, and to adopt George Lucas’s early ROTS ideas of wanting a montage of the Clone Wars, albeit in a different way.
https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/654684814
Password: fanedit
I like the idea a lot of showing some of the Clone Wars in the movie. AOTC has always had a “blue balls” feeling in the ending for how it spends the whole movie building up the war and then ends right when it starts. That said, it feels a little weird just plopping in a 3 minute battle scene like that. I’d experiment with cutting back-and-forth between the movie footage of the clones with some quick cuts to the battle scenes.