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Disney Will Never Restore Original Star Wars Trilogy
https://forum.lddb.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=7083		 Page 5 of 5
Author:  nissling [ 11 Aug 2019, 11:07 ]
Post subject:  Re: Disney Will Never Restore Original Star Wars Trilogy
I've got to agree with Signofzeta in his his Spotify and SACD comparison. If we were talking about a pre 50s film, were many prints were indeed made directly from the camera negative (which is sacrilege), those old theatrical prints on nitrate film that still exist can actually hold up very well. But in this case, without knowing anything really about SW, I believe we are talking about prints that have gone through multiple generations due to optical effects and have most likely been screened many times over so scratches and damages would be very apparent. Color fading will probably also be a problem, depending on the film stock. No official, "serious" restoration would be done with such a source unless there's nothing else available. Sure you can do digital restoration but anyone who've spent hours in Phoenix or DRS Nova knows for sure that those prints are in many cases just like polishing a turd. The end results may admittedly have a certain charm in its visual appearence and the fan work would certainly be appreciated, but still a long way from a "regular" restoration even on a minimum basis.

Also, if you're scanning a theatrical print the results will be highly dependent on your scanner due to the high contrast. The Cintel II, which I'm working with, tend to struggle with shadow details when scannings prints, but duplicate positives/negatives and camera negatives are much easier to achieve good results with. The HDR mode can certainly get the job done with prints but at the cost of taking four times as long to scan the film. Scanity, Scanstation and ArriScan all fare clearly better in this regard but are also much more expensive.

While there may not be an original camera negative left that's actually usable, I'm fairly sure there are still IPs that would still be up to the task. Still, as a film archivist I know for sure you cannot be completely certain about the availability of a specific film. But, in this case... I believe there are still ways for Disney to create an unaltetered version of the film.
Author:  deadlegion [ 11 Aug 2019, 11:40 ]
Post subject:  Re: Disney Will Never Restore Original Star Wars Trilogy
If you look at OT grindhouse releases, yes damage is very apparent. These are 35mm scans that lack any serious restoration.
Author:  pokefraker [ 11 Aug 2019, 11:45 ]
Post subject:  Re: Disney Will Never Restore Original Star Wars Trilogy
The real question is, when are we going to get a restored version of the Holiday Special?

I know we got the animation from the special released in an official manner on the Blue-Ray set, but I would love the rest of special in 4k (most likely with the Jefferson Starship music removed).

C'mon Disney! We need Ackmena in 4k!
Author:  deadlegion [ 11 Aug 2019, 12:04 ]
Post subject:  Re: Disney Will Never Restore Original Star Wars Trilogy
I don't know about the Holiday Special. There isn't any really good source for it so what's available now might be as good as it'll ever get, anything beyond would be upscaled.


@nissling
I'm not in the business of restoring films myself, but I believe what my eyes can see. The 35mm fan efforts are quite good considering sources used, actually far more nostalgic than watching any home video release I've seen. Yes, I saw all the original films in theatres back when they were fresh...although in the case of the first film I was very young, but it was the pre-ESB version (no ANH in crawl).

I could C&P some technical stuff but I'll just link to 4k77 project page instead, you can scroll down to some parts with the headings;
Why does the quality seem to vary so much?
Where did the other 3% of the movie come from?
How does it compare to the Silver Screen Edition?
Why is the bluray still sharper, despite only being scanned and presented in HD?.

Code: Select all
http://www.thestarwarstrilogy.com/starwars/page/Project-4K77
Author:  nissling [ 11 Aug 2019, 12:24 ]
Post subject:  Re: Disney Will Never Restore Original Star Wars Trilogy
I'm a professional scannerist who is also working with color grading and restoration. Judging from the screenshots in your link, I can see some serious uniformity issues and the scans seem to lack finer detail. All of this is to be expected and I wouldn't say it's bad in any way considering the sources used (and especially not for a fan project) but I have no reason to believe that Disney couldn't do a better job with their resources. That is, of course, if they wanted to. Judging from the before shots and videos though I know for sure that the work of this degree takes a very long time to finish.

I really wonder though where they scanned the film and which scanner was used.
Author:  deadlegion [ 11 Aug 2019, 13:36 ]
Post subject:  Re: Disney Will Never Restore Original Star Wars Trilogy
Yes Disney should be able to do a better job, which was what I already said. They won't be able to use a poor quality negative (it was already bad way back when the SE set was done) on its own for a restoration though, some frames will have to come from elsewhere. The info leaked already hints at that.
Author:  takeshi666 [ 11 Aug 2019, 14:51 ]
Post subject:  Re: Disney Will Never Restore Original Star Wars Trilogy
deadlegion wrote:
I don't know about the Holiday Special. There isn't any really good source for it so what's available now might be as good as it'll ever get, anything beyond would be upscaled.

Yeah, even with the piss-poor resolution of the copy that's been floating around the internet since the dawn of time, it's pretty obvious that at least good chunks of it were shot on videotape.
Author:  harlock [ 12 Aug 2019, 22:49 ]
Post subject:  Re: Disney Will Never Restore Original Star Wars Trilogy
In regards to what scanner the Star Wars preservations use, it's interesting. Everything from homemade rigs to one effort which imported a refrigerator sized scanner rack made by Imagica (Japanese film processing house you always seen in anime credits) from the used market. Not sure what they used for the 4k scan. I'm not a huge Star Wars nut, yet this stuff remains fascinating for sheer dedication.
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