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Originally posted by: battlewarscouple of questions what is the incredible shrinking ratio?
also i have the '82 laserdisc, this has different pan and scan than the later ones, including a squished scene where luke sees the tusken thru his binoculars instead of it being cropped. i read on the davisdvd star wars video timeline that this version was only shown on HBO in the early '80s, and never released on video.
and what was different about the '80 stereo mix of empire?
also i have the '82 laserdisc, this has different pan and scan than the later ones, including a squished scene where luke sees the tusken thru his binoculars instead of it being cropped. i read on the davisdvd star wars video timeline that this version was only shown on HBO in the early '80s, and never released on video.
and what was different about the '80 stereo mix of empire?
Have you any plans to capture this version to DVD?? It is certainly worth doing at some point, particularly if it from a different source.
In answer to your questions...............
"Incredible Shrinking Ratio"
The letterboxed Japanese transfer was used to create this edition and since the picture on that had been shifted up, some slight re-adjustment was necessary to equalize the letterbox bands and place the 2.35 frame closer to the center. How this was done was through a "controlled video scroll" (like adjusting the vertical hold on an older TV set) to move the picture to the approximate center of the screen. The top of the frame, now vacant of the original picture, was matted over with a black letterbox band. Now here's the kicker: since this was all done by eye, at some point during this correction process the top letterbox band began over-matting onto the top edge of the picture. This essentially changed the aspect ratio of the film midway! To check for yourselves, grab this laserdisc and chapter to the cantina sequence. Go up to your screen and mark where the top letterbox band meets the top of the picture frame. At the point Greedo gets shot, the top black band will creep down lower than its original position. And to make matters worse, this happens a second time somewhere during the course of the film. So by the point the rebels are preparing to attack the Death Star, the film's aspect ratio has changed from 2.35:1 to 2.55:1. This "Incredible Shrinking Ratio" was later corrected in 1992 and issued on both VHS and laserdisc. See below for that.
"The HBO Only release"
Despite popular belief, this was not the only transfer made of Star Wars. At some point, a second fullscreen video transfer was created from a 16mm flat print source. Since an anamorphic (2.35:1) 35mm print had been reduced down to a flat (1.33:1) 16mm print, this 16mm source featured different pan & scan decisions made during the print reduction. One main difference in this transfer was that Luke's macrobinocular POV shot of the Banthas was squeezed to actually show the Tusken Raider walking to the side of the frame. This video transfer was only shown on HBO and was never offered for sale or rent.
Thanks to you getting me thinking, I checked my 1988 UK PAL VHS Fullscreen tape (recently captured to DVD) against later versions including the 1992 LD and 1995 Faces and there is the macrobinocular shot and very different pan & scan screen positions. I have e-mailed the DavisDVD editor with my findings.
Finally "What was different about the '80 stereo mix of empire?"
I have not got a clue. Ask me in a few weeks when I have a copy of it and the Star Wars LD with 1977 mix.
All I know is that in 1985 Fox decided to digitally remaster the audio track for the latest re-release, sound designer Ben Burtt asked to be involved and actually ended up creating an entirely new sound mix for the films making the fourth official Star Wars audio mix and third Empire mix. The 1985 CAV Standard Play LaserDiscs were the last and best release of the original mix prior to the release of the re-mastered version.
I do not know if Jedi was re-done for the 1986 release. Any help on that is appreciated.
