team_negative1

Here is part of the sample video comparison we made earlier in this post:

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 http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/team-negative1-star-wars-1977-35mm-theatrical-version-release-details-and-updates/post/666678/#TopicPost666678

The point was not about the quality or compression. It was about the colors and the look of it.

There is some cleaning done, and you can still dirt in it though.

We have upgraded our entire hardware chain from previous versions:

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- Better optics, and higher quality.

- Faster framerate capture

- More stability and higher resolution

We have the capability to do even more, but for the time being we are concentrating on what we have already, and if there are troublesome scenes, we are redoing those.

Any comments regarding our previous captures only refers to that footage, and not to our new redone ones.

This was an early test from awhile ago,

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Notes - No sound, and the top is using the new equipment, the lower is using the previous capture method.

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https://vimeo.com/78836278

Password : OT

*Sorry about the previous password.

Team Negative1

Brooks said:

I'm not very knowledgeable on this kind of thing, but would a brighter bulb on your projector set up improve the darkness?

This is what Cinch says about the bulb:

"it was an lcd back light panel, i'm still using it for all my transfers.

the other one i can use interchangeably for 8 or 16mm.

i guess it doesn't matter much, but you want to have a neutral light source, 

or one that's similar in color temp to a projection lamp. 

just seems to make sense."

Team Negative1

Just to show you how dark the original version of the LPP is.

Check out this comparison, with the LPP on the top, and the

cleaned, and recolored version on the bottom.

(It goes out of sync of few frames at the end).

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https://vimeo.com/78580912

Password : OT

Team Negative

The LPP is very dark by its nature. It's not due to the scan process or cleaning, as we've done several tests on it, and scanned in different ways.

So most of the starfield shots will appear dark. We have other sources that we can use to replace frames, partial areas, or entire shots.

Team Negative1

These test clips are just to show the cleaning process on the film. We will be posting some comparisons.

Also, there is very little color correction done from the original source.

The starfields will be replaced with a higher quality source.

The cropping will reflect theater standards, so no frame edges will be seen.

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We'll be posting more samples across the other reels as we complete more test clips.

Thanks for all the comments, and compliments.

Team Negative1

Looks live VEOH might not be the answer.

We have re-uploaded it to

vimeo here in 720p:

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https://vimeo.com/78385990

Password : OT

There is a very light area around some of the effects scenes,

when they are approaching the Death Star.

Team Negative1

Here's the rest of the "that's no moon" sequence.

This time with audio, however, there are a few sound glitches, due to sync

issues, not due to the video. 

Again, it's very dark, especially the starfields.

This was a clean up test for the clip.

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http://www.veoh.com/watch/v63151778EKGPnxHk

Team Negative1

Another test clip from reel 4.

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http://www.veoh.com/watch/v63112441p3fBS2F6

There are a few  compression artifacts at the beginning.

Also, the starfields are very, very dark, and no sound for this one.

We don't need the 81 crawl, because we're not going to be

using it for our version.

Team Negative1

Here is another minute continuing from the previous clip:

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http://www.veoh.com/watch/v63024474ewFnjqAn

There is some compression noise at the beginning. Also it appears darker than our original clip.

Team Negative1

Here's another sample : 1 minute and 30 second.

It looks a little darker on the site, however, the resolution should be 1080p.

We are not sure what compression they are applying to the original clip though. =========================================================== http://www.veoh.com/watch/v62846381a9BFwPpN

Team Negative1

Here is another minute of footage. This is not final footage, so any skipped frames, tearing, or other anomalies may be present.

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http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k4zlC5iw4IYLUt4Omxa

We are trying a different video host. Let us know if there are any issues.

Team Negative1

Here is a short 30 second video sample,

from the beginning of Reel 2, in 720p:

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https://vimeo.com/77518460

PW: OT

Team Negative1

We mentioned earlier that we have been testing some rescans of certain scenes. Here are some examples, with the rescan being on top, and our current scan on the bottom.

No color correction was made. Also, there is some dirt on the right hand side. These are just test sequence frames.

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Team Negative1

Along with the screening of Star Wars last year. This year continues the tradition of screening the Original Trilogy.

Although film is no longer being used, this year allowed for a digital screening of a combination of several of the prints used for our restoration.

Also, this gave us the advantage of synchronizing the sound correctly, and allowing for a more accurate adjustment of the color correction on it.

A few members of OT attended, and we will try to have a report, and thoughts of how it went, along with our impressions.

Thanks again to OT for the support, and to all the members following our restoration projects.

Team Negative1

Another sample of ROTJ:

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http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/1031/nbny.jpg

Team Negative1

About the sound syncing. Here is what I got from Cinch:

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we may create an all-new reference here.

all video versions i tried to match to prints are missing a few frames every 10 minutes.

so we actually have more frames at head/tail as in the middle of each reel.

i'm not sure if the gout has those frames, as the audio (i think) was mostly taken from official releases.

also not sure if the bluray is missing those frames. 

so as of right now, we don't know.

we most likely have the sound even if frames are missing at head/tail, since there is an overlap of about 1-2 secs on each reel for changeover and/or lay(platter) projection.

this is necessary due to the offset of sound and picture on film. so we'll have to take stock of what's actually there.

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Team Negative1

We will only be using the sound off the actual films for release.

Which means Spanish/English for Star Wars. English for the others.

These will be the new standard, they will not be synced to any other soundtrack.

Another example:

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Team Negative1

Yes, there is a lot of activity going on.

And there will be color correction on these scans.

These are just raw examples:

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http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/8499/jyb3.jpg

Team Negative1

Much like what occurred last year, with our screening of the Spanish LPP:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Private-Screening-of-Star-Wars-1977-35mm-spanish-LPP-USA-oct-2012/topic/14719/

This year, it's time for a screening of The Empire Strikes Back.

This will be a digital projection of an early version of our scan. Sorry, we can't give out the details as it's a private screening.

But we'll have pictures, and commentary about it also.

As far as releases go, we've had to rethink our strategy as I mentioned due to having 2 more high quality prints of Star Wars. 2 more prints of ESB, and of course ROTJ also.

It's not even a question anymore about if they will be released. It's just the logistics of dealing with so much data at once. We wanted Star Wars to be first. But then it looked like Empire was going to be done sooner. Now we know that Jedi would be the quickest. Maybe we'll release them in reverse order.

Thanks to all our supporters, who know what we've been doing.

There's a lot of activity going on right now, once things settle down, we can formulate a more optimal release strategy.

Team Negative1

1) We're still using a camera for these.

2) No color correction on them.

3) We're all interested in what Harmy will do with these. Some of us prefer more detail.

4) Here is the Dolby NR unit for sound.

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5) Another sample:

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Team Negative1

From cinch, about the new process:

Tell interested folks that we upgraded the film mechanism to run realtime with sound. The actual scanning process is happening the same was as before.

And we have better optics, too.

Samples:

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1) Our new process gives us better detail than before. We'll put up some examples.

2) We're not trying to compete with the bluray. Obviously there is more detail there.

3) Another sample:

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4) Someone asked about other ESB prints, and the color of the snow.

Here is a comparison of 2 other uncorrected prints we have.

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Team Negative1

1) We have multiple high quality copies of Star Wars now. We also have 2 other copies of ESB also. There is no need for any more copies of ROTJ since it's LPP.

2) We're used to waiting for it to be done right. We've had previews, and put up many samples, so there's plenty to show the progress. I would say it's been about 4 years since the start, and maybe $10k of our own money, not including the hundreds of hours put into it.

3) As with all other major projects, Harmy's, Team Blue, Adywan's, it will be done when it's done.

4) Another sample:

Team Negative1

Harmy, we will definitely work with you when the time comes, so we'll be in touch about getting you some material.

JEDI is LPP, so some stuff needs some color correction, but that's about it.

1) Actually everyone, feel free to ask any questions. We don't mind, whether we can answer them or not (especially when it comes to release time frames) is another story.

2) I don't want to say it's a done deal, but the release for JEDI will be super quick (relatively speaking) after ESB, if that's how we do it, because there will not be much to fix.

3) You're not dealing with -1, he is distantly involved with the project, but  has moved on. You're addressing the Team.

4) And of course, more previews: 

5) And another one...of...(!)

http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/1053/vtg7.jpg

6) Normally, we don't pay attention to people that keep declaring projects are dead, or because they don't see something in awhile. Let's just state it one last time, just because you don't hear anything for awhile, DON'T ASSUME that something is dead, or done. It's not DEAD unless we say we aren't going to do it. This isn't aimed at any person, but just wanted to make it clear that if you think this project isn't going anywhere, why are you following it?

Team Negative1

Just to answer another question.

1) The parts that were re-scanned were not those. We had to do tests with several other things, and decided those looked better than the original ones.

2) Releasing all 3 movies at once would logistically be harder, and you would have to wait longer. However, they 'may' be released out of order depending on how things are going.  Odds are ESB might be released first, we'll just have to see what works out.

Don't worry, we'll keep you updated.

3) Anyways, as someone else requested, another teaser from ROTJ:

Team Negative1