Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[Lutz]

This is a good read about the silver screen edition:

http://moviemezzanine.com/the-fans-who-saved-star-wars/

It also mentions that there has been an even better unofficial restoration done with a technicolor print which they are trying to farm around to Fox/Disney and a link to videos from the other restoration.

[dvdmike]

Originally Posted by D00mM4r1n3

The library of congress has archives of the original 1977 Star Wars, and 1980 Empire Strikes Back. There are also private collectors with 35MM prints, it can easily be restored, it just takes the copyright holders to get their heads out of their asses.

Star Wars is there thanks to it being submitted for copyright, and Empire is there thanks to the National Film Registry actually being provided a print when it was inducted a few years back.

There have also been private screenings of original prints from private collectors in the past, so they are no doubt out there in the wild as well.

The archive copies they have are laserdiscs

[Riddler95]

If they do restore the Original Versions of The Star Wars Trilogy shouldn't all of the Visual Effects be re-composited digitally?

They did that when the 1997 Special Edition Versions were made and it should probably be done again if the Original Versions are given a new restoration in the near future.

[SuperFlyHighGuy]

Damn I want to see that SilverScreen edition, that looks great. Bad time to only have phone internet.

[Riddler95]

Originally Posted by SuperFlyHighGuy

Damn I want to see that SilverScreen edition, that looks great. Bad time to only have phone internet.

Hopefully 20th Century Fox & Disney will see what kind of painstaking work Fans have gone through to try to preserve the Original Versions of The Star Wars Trilogy and will finally restore and officially release them on Blu-Ray.

[filmmusic]

The thing is if the UOT is officially released I'm 99,99% sure that it still won't be the really really original and will have some tweaks here and there and corrections!

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by filmmusic

The thing is if the UOT is officially released I'm 99,99% sure that it still won't be the really really original and will have some tweaks here and there and corrections!

Won't bother me in the least. Heck, if they did what the Special Edition SHOULD have been, e.g. recomp'ing the VFX (preferably from the large format originals) without adding anything and digitally tidying up the seams without affecting so much as a frame of the original narrative (no han shooting first, no jabba scene) then I'd be all over it.

It's funny, I'm a stickler for original audio but when it comes to stuff like subtle digital tweakery I'm getting more and more relaxed about it, even though I've championed the original versions of War of the Worlds (mit strings!) and Blade Runner more than once.

I think it's more that I like to have versions of movies that I'm used to seeing getting preserved that way, so that the warts are still where I'd expect them to be, whereas Star Wars has been altered so much over the years that I'm used to it looking a certain way, even though I've got Harmy's version, the 2006 UOT DVDs etc.

I'd still bite your hand off for a warts and all restoration, do NOT get me wrong, but I wouldn't be crying into my cereal if they did some subtle digital fixes either. Perhaps they could even call that the Final Cut instead of marketing it as the original originals?

[alexpeden2000]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Won't bother me in the least. Heck, if they did what the Special Edition SHOULD have been, e.g. recomp'ing the VFX (preferably from the large format originals) without adding anything and digitally tidying up the seams without affecting so much as a frame of the original narrative (no han shooting first, no jabba scene) then I'd be all over it.

KK650's versions are good for that...

[crissrudd4554]

What I hope would be restored versions of the originals and a tweaked Special Edition. No Prequel references (although keeping Ian McDiarmid in ESB wouldnt be too bad) and fixing things that have either not been fixed yet or were errors as a result of the restorations done in 2004 and 2011 (lightsaber errors, incorrect color correction, etc.). But I know thats just wishful thinking.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by alexpeden2000

KK650's versions are good for that...

I don't like his regrading though, and most of these semi/de/whatever-specialized type projects are still using the Blu-rays as their source which I want to avoid completely.

[The Fallen Deity]

Restore the theatrical cuts and re-scan the three versions of the special editions and you're good to go in terms of transfers.

[PrestigeWorldwide]

Originally Posted by dvdmike

I love Harmy he is a cool guy, but you are over egging his involvement in the 35mm scans

True, he didn't do the 4K scan himself for ROTJ. It is encoded at 1080p and has additional audio options added to it (lossless). It's superior to the Sliver Screen Star Wars edition since the silver screen edition has portions in 720p and it just has dolby digital.

I doubt this motivates Disney to get the theatrical editions out there sooner. Fingers crossed for the 40th anniversary. I'd gladly buy the OUT on blu-ray and again in 4K.

[dvdmike]

Originally Posted by PrestigeWorldwide

True, he didn't do the 4K scan himself for ROTJ. It is encoded at 1080p and has additional audio options added to it (lossless). It's superior to the Sliver Screen Star Wars edition since the silver screen edition has portions in 720p and it just has dolby digital.

I doubt this motivates Disney to get the theatrical editions out there sooner. Fingers crossed for the 40th anniversary. I'd gladly buy the OUT on blu-ray and again in 4K.

Eh

[BillieCassin]

Originally Posted by RickDee

Guys Lucas is lying. There are plenty of sources out there of the UOT for Disney to release BDs. He did not cut into the only print for his SE.

/sigh

This, again.

I had to delete the link from my signature because the location of the article moved and I can't locate another one, but there was an extensive reconstruction, meticulously researched narrative of what happened in the creation of the SE, by the author of The Secret History of Star Wars.

The O-NEG - the original camera negative - is what was destroyed in the creation of the SE. It was heavily damaged due to storage over the years (they thought it was unrecoverable when they cracked the cans for the first time in a decade or so to prepare for the SE's), and they did a beautiful traditional chemical film restoration of it to it's original glory - and then he sliced and diced it and (in some folks opinions) shat upon it. And it cannot be undone, as frames were lost forever on either end of every single cut because they physically spliced the film.

Like the SE's themselves, and pretty much the prequels - the technology to do what he wanted to do simply wasn't up to the task in terms of long-term viability. Today, or even if the SE's had been delayed for a few years, that pristine O-NEG would have been scanned digitally and the SE made with that. Not that Lucas really cared anyway, as he famously wasn't terribly fond of how any of the original films ended up.

So yes, there are plenty of sources out there to make a quality restoration of the OT - just not the best one, the O-NEG, because it was shredded up so Greedo could shoot first.



BTW, to the Silver Screen topic - I realize it's not an "ideal" version in terms of what we'd expect in a Blu-ray, but on the other hand, it really feels like an accurate representation of what the theatrical experience would have been like way back when it was released (with better sound). I find it quite enjoyable from that aspect. Kind of has that drive-in theater feel.

[tvine2000]

Originally Posted by Alfred E. Neumann

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/02/16...s-restore-1977

I really don't care to see the 1977 version again,as I did in 1977.I for one like the new version 10 times better.

[crissrudd4554]

Originally Posted by tvine2000

I really don't care to see the 1977 version again,as I did in 1977.I for one like the new version 10 times better.

Que sera sera

[Cobra Kai]

There already exists a fantastic 4k restoration of SW, done by Mike Verta that completely blows away, not only the Silver Screen edition, but the official blu-ray as well.

Plans are currently underway to screen the restoration to lucasfilm/disney execs later this year in the hopes that they will use it as part of an official release.

[Alfred E. Neumann]

Originally Posted by tvine2000

I really don't care to see the 1977 version again,as I did in 1977.I for one like the new version 10 times better.

LOL

[Alfred E. Neumann]

Originally Posted by Cobra Kai

There already exists a fantastic 4k restoration of SW, done by Mike Verta that completely blows away, not only the Silver Screen edition, but the official blu-ray as well.

Plans are currently underway to screen the restoration to lucasfilm/disney execs later this year in the hopes that they will use it as part of an official release.

I have seen videos of it, looks amazing.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by BillieCassin

/sigh

This, again.

I had to delete the link from my signature because the location of the article moved and I can't locate another one, but there was an extensive reconstruction, meticulously researched narrative of what happened in the creation of the SE, by the author of The Secret History of Star Wars.

The O-NEG - the original camera negative - is what was destroyed in the creation of the SE. It was heavily damaged due to storage over the years (they thought it was unrecoverable when they cracked the cans for the first time in a decade or so to prepare for the SE's), and they did a beautiful traditional chemical film restoration of it to it's original glory - and then he sliced and diced it and (in some folks opinions) shat upon it. And it cannot be undone, as frames were lost forever on either end of every single cut because they physically spliced the film.

Like the SE's themselves, and pretty much the prequels - the technology to do what he wanted to do simply wasn't up to the task in terms of long-term viability. Today, or even if the SE's had been delayed for a few years, that pristine O-NEG would have been scanned digitally and the SE made with that. Not that Lucas really cared anyway, as he famously wasn't terribly fond of how any of the original films ended up.

So yes, there are plenty of sources out there to make a quality restoration of the OT - just not the best one, the O-NEG, because it was shredded up so Greedo could shoot first.

The negative was disassembled anyway for cleaning, having been made up of several different stocks which needed different chemical treatments, and 60-odd shots which were on CRI stock had faded so badly that they had to be replaced with dupe sources. All of that would've happened during restoration whether they did the SE changes or not.

While I agree that if they'd waited a few years then the tech would've made doing a digital restoration a lot more viable, they were so dismayed by the state of the negative in 1997 - Star Wars being a victim of its own success - that they simply couldn't leave it any longer.

But what your post doesn't reveal is there's still a good chunk of "shredded" original material without any tinkering in the SE negative, and I simply do not believe that the trims from the original would've been junked. Providing that the trims can be recovered, the seamless digital reconstruction of missing frames due to splicing (which is nothing new, it was done as far back as 2003 for the then-new transfer of T2) would make reintegrating the cut footage an almost routine task. The issue of missing frames is simply not a problem any more.

Hell, even IF the original negative was utterly destroyed, there exists YCM separation masters (minted from the original negative back in the day) which will not have faded or been tampered with so far as the SE is concerned. They may have warped out of registration during the last 40 years, fair enough, but with a scan of each sep they could be digitally realigned and recombined to create an extremely high quality source that would serve as the basis of a restoration if they wanted to integrate any negative footage that still exists. Or it could just be used on its own.

So while the whole 'sky is falling' thing is fun, I prefer a bit more balance to these reports of the original being so far gone that it's beyond all hope. IIRC even Robert A. Harris said a while back that if they gave him a bunch of simoleons and access to the vaults he'd be able get it done without a great deal of difficulty. It would be time consuming and expensive FOR SURE, but not overly troublesome given the digital tools that are at their disposal these days.