CT STAR WARS LEGACY EDITION - RESTORATION OF THE 1977 ORIGINAL STAR WARS

I'd love to see the Legacy edition in full but it sounds like it isn't really out there complete but the Silver Screen one is available.

 

Wow, that's amazing and just what I'd hoped. Legacy is truly an awesome project and hopefully the Disney/Fox people can recognize that.

Yup Legacy is complete, but only for Star Wars. Mike hasn't worked on TESB and ROTJ. I'm actually wondering the same thing as you. If Mike was offered a full time job by Disney/Fox to restore the the other films, how quickly could he complete them? Personally, I don't think he could get them both done in a year considering it took him 15 years to do the first movie. But then again, you never know; much of that time was also spent developing the tools he used. So let's wait and see what happens and what he says after the pitch.

 

It's complete but Mike never planned to release it, and that's the reason why he was able to obtain such good sources in the first place. Also, he stated a while back that he was told by people at Lucasfilm to expect a visit from the FBI should his project ever be released online.

 

Which is why he's in the process of putting together a pitch for them them, in the hopes that they'll see fit to officially release it. Fingers crossed.

 

It didn't take him 15 years to do the actual work. That's just how long it took to develop the software, gain access to all the various prints, etc. And his process has been constantly evolving over time as he improved his tools and various techniques. Actually I believe this is his 3rd restoration of SW.

 

Ahh okay. So his tools are in place now for the potential restorations of Empire and Jedi. Do you think he can get them both done in a year if employed full time by Disney/Fox to do so?

EDIT: He just mentioned on OT.com that he could do "a film in a year with a crew". So maybe not by 2017, but potentially 2018 if they want him to.

 

Here's a quick video from a few years ago that gives a quick look at his software in action.

 

There's also been some evidence that they're working on a restoration now. A few people on the OT forums who are evidently reliable, longtime posters have heard from various people they know at Disney that a scan was made of the OOT sometime recently. The Library of Congress also answered a query recently that Lucasfilm requested a copy of their scan of the original film, likely for reference material.

So, let's say for the sake of argument that they have it are working on a restoration, but they've agreed to hear this pitch promarily because Verta might have a better quality restoration than they do. Let's say he does, and they like it, and want it. They release it. One of three options: They get Verta to do the other two, and they stagger the release of all three films, releasing them as they're ready (unlikely), they hold off and give Verta time to do/oversee new restorations of TESB and RotJ and release them all at once, or they release his Legacy restoration for SW and release theirs for the other two. To be fair, the original film is in by far the worst shape, Empire and Jedi might not need nearly as much work, so I could see that last option being feasible.

 

he said he never wanted to do esb or rotj.

 

He said he would if Disney/Lucasfilm asked and provided materials, as opposed to him having to scrounge around for them himself.

 

Yes, if provided the materials, I'd happily do ESB and ROTJ. Also, for clarification, Legacy is a combination of several IB Techs and several Eastman prints. It combines the best data from multiple sources to produce a much more detailed, cohesive frame than any one source could ever hope to.

 

Just out of curiosity Mike, would you say that Legacy has essentially restored the original negative? Or is there still more detail that can only be recovered by actually using the original negative?

 

There's a "diminishing returns" thing which happens which means that much past about 5 or 6 layers of data combining, the improvements become negligible, which is why I have to choose carefully for each frame where I'm recruiting data from. If I had the original negative, my best guess would be that there is probably 5 to mayyyyybe 10% more stuff to find, at most, but secretly I think that's optimistic. You have to remember, Star Wars was never particularly sharp - it was shot with lower-grade Bausch + Lomb lenses, AND the Tunisia stuff was deliberately diffused for a sort of hazy/romantic look. The Fox executives showed up at Elstree in London and made the production stop using the diffusion, which is why all the Death Star stuff is inherently sharper than the Tunisia stuff, but still, it's just not that sharp a picture, under the best of circumstances. You know, I would love a crack at the negative just for peace of mind, but I'm absolutely sure there are no night-and-day differences to be gained by its contribution. It'd just be nice, that's all.

 

Any updates on the Legacy edition?

 

I personally feel the best order of things would be to first release Legacy in theatres for the 40th Anniversary of Star Wars next spring. This will accomplish two things:

1) We will be able to see Legacy the way Mike intended (I assume), as a bluray release will by definition be compressed, particulary in terms of it's colors.
2) It will give Disney (and hopefully Mike) time to work on restoring the other two films in the trilogy, for a home video release of the trilogy in the fall.

 

Do we know where he's at? Last I heard, he mentioned that it's moving slowly because executives are "skittish creatures". But has there been any progress since then?

 

That's the last I've heard as well.

 

It would be great if they release them on the 40th anniversary and as I said before I haven't seen the OT non-special editions in over a decade so that would be nice. I did see some of Mike's work, it's impressive and would love to see it officially release on something like blu-Ray.

 

This thread has been a gripping read.

I do not recall seeing any mention of how original special effects cuts between frames are handled. For my experience, I find the sudden displacement of Luke with a lightsaber, or switched models of R2 rolling down a corridor, to be endearing. It's a window into an age of excellence through perseverance. It's also a window into an age when a story that could blow your mind had to be assembled, like three dimensional, elaborated kabuki, out of physical elements by hands, sweat, bruised knuckles, cut fingers. Seeing the seams of reality, around which two scenes of fiction have been stitched, actually deepened the experience for me and heightened my suspension of disbelief. For, the special effects apparatus seen by eye forced a strong interior representation in the mind's eye.

Powerless against the forces of evil that would suffocate an event in history that garnered 6 Academy Awards, I will be / have been endeavoring to stop referring to the initials of the retcon, A New Hope, and now use only SW77. So that I may not be mistaken, for there are other films that exist that claim the name, "A New Hope".

 

To my knowledge, the effects are not being touched up from what they were in the original. The goal of the project is to restore as much of the original negative as possible by combining usable data from multiple 35mm film prints. Those "seams of reality" will definitely be present in Legacy. The real question is whether we'll get the privilege to watch it. I truly hope Disney/Fox can see the importance of this and agree to release it.

 

It's 2016. This used to be the incomprehensible future for a handful on this forum.

1. Consumer technology allows restoration from materials of a certain quality.
2. Consumer technology allows files sizes that exceed the standard transportable media that helps to constrain the length of media we consume.
3. Untold gigabytes of deleted footage exists in materials of a certain quality.

Can someone comment on the technical challenge of someone (like this citizen hero) performing analogous technical restorations to the deleted scenes which also, just to look at them, have lots of scratches and unsightly effects.

And then on the technical challenge of that someone making restored deleted footage available in some form that can be interlaced at the appropriate parts with existing restored footage.

I predict it is too early into the future to have some kind of ala carte menu where one can both include Or exclude deleted scenes at will. As well, the existing footage as it is has wipes and transitions that are rather integral to the presentation, in such a way that the journey is part of the destination. So I don't ask about tokenizing existing footage, for that very own sake, into an ala carte menu. Just having some capability to insert deleted footage into its sequence (which must necessarily, probably, involve altering some of those wipes.)
?

(Save Bandwidth: Do not respond if solely to judge the merit of the deleted scenes for survival. The merit is implicit because the deleted scenes were the scaffolding which came down and were dragged away after helping to give what remains its exquisitely designed shape. Its shape did not come out of a nothing.)

 

http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Star-Wars-Deleted-Scenes-Reincorporated/id/13512

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k2PdzJyBLicXcNb6MxO
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k5BUCYDrAeSKMzb9viX
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k6mjPIzy9DoxAmbaYeh
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k4gCyqlBWCs1n1bhrmZ
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k1OaqJZIFwJ3qkbi1z4
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k67XkiuBdqTBRCbj092
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k2tplFjBv4UWPEbEn9V
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k3uLh013FnJ9mTbG9WR

Rogue1

 

I won't patronize by saying that looks awesome. Rather, after the work you put into it, It looks like it must. So you have done / are doing the right thing. Much can be said about the deleted scenes that is different from the nearly universal slight they receive. The most can be said about both the first and last Biggs scenes. Threads that begin in the first Biggs deleted scene run the entire way through to the ROTJ throne room scene. That is a story for another time. Keep doing what you're doing.

 

Does anyone know if Mike has shown his version to Disney executives yet?

 

It's been very quiet lately, leading some to hope that Mike has now actually entered a phase where good things can unfold...