PT I recreated The Phantom Menace trailer in HD, scene-by-scene, using the Blu-ray version

Hello everyone. Sorry to barge in on here with a first post like this, but I just spent the best of the last three days working on this and I'm pretty excited.

It has always bugged me that we never got an HD version of the prequel trailers on any of the Blu-ray releases. Even the official Star Wars YouTube upload comes from SD/480p sources.

So I had an idea - why not take footage from the Blu-ray release, re-edit it and create a proper HD/1080p version of the trailers, starting with the trailer that fooled us all, Episode I: The Phantom Menance. And that's what I did, sourcing the footage from the Blu-ray version of TPM. Here's the trailer on my YouTube channel:



Most of the work was just painstaking searching for the right footage (there were 70 clips in total that needed to be found and recreated) and recreating some of the transition effects (in the excellent, and most importantly, *free* DaVinci Resolve). Unfortunately, as I found out, some shots in the trailer aren't in the movie or have extended versions in the trailer. This meant that some parts aren't exactly the same, and some have been sped down in order to fill the gaps. I've also applied minor color grading since some of the Blu-ray scenes are kind of washed out - I'm a real novice at this, so this is something I hope to improve on in the future. Also, the last part with the title screen and credits haven't been touched, since, well, I couldn't find a good way of re-doing those easily.

Oh, and digital Yoda instead of the "young" puppet. Can't do much about that one. Thanks George!

And yes, I upscaled it to 4K. With a relatively poor quality source to work with (we all know about TPM's soft Blu-ray transfer), there's probably not much point in doing 4K (you really need either a ~150 Mbps ProRes master, 2K DI or 4K scan of the 35mm film to do proper 4K - a ~30 Mbps Blu-ray transfer is not going to do it), but it's all to take advantage of how YouTube gives 4K uploads a higher playback bitrate and so you get a better-looking picture even when you watch the trailer in HD.

Here's a side by side comparison of the original trailer with my HD remastered version:

http://www.youtubemultiplier.com/5d...-episode-i-the-phantom-menace-original-vs.php

Here's my DaVinci Resolve timeline (click to enlarge):



Here's a side by side comparison still (click to enlarge):



SO, what do you think? Waste of time? Or should I continue and remaster the other prequel trailers?

 

I think it looks amazing! Very well done! Congrats...

I'd love to see the Ep II Breathing Teaser in HD. Also the first Ep III Teaser with Ep IV Ben talking about the empire...

Great Work!

 

Thanks KyleKartan! Might have to take a little break before attempting to do the other ones, it's quite time-consuming.

 

Those heady days of early 1999. Before the crushing disappointment.

 

Not the place to cry over a 20 year old movie mate. Comment on the guys work.

 

Who’s crying? It was a backhanded compliment of the trailer which was always great in any resolution. Mate.

 

I love it! Keep up the good work!

 

Bringing the conversation back on topic: Job well done, DVDGuy!

The shot of the burning Naboo Fighter spinning towards the Droid Control Ship is on the DVD's Deleted Scenes documentary in case you need a higher bitrate source. I would have added a Kodak emulsion LUT to emulate the surface detail and film grain that were DNR'd out for the BD.

You can find scanned 35 mm Trailers of most modern SW trailers on Vimeo. Most are dubbed in Czech, but they look just like the analog projections did in theaters (with heavy wear and discoloration due to the print's age of course). Some fans are also working on doing 35 mm print restorations of Ep. 1-3, as well as TESB SE and ROTJ SE.

 

I would have said the pure elation. As great at the teaser and trailer were the movie was far more than the promise.

Excellent!

Keep going!

Here are some film versions:



and the Czech:

 

Wait..what!?! Seriously, someone is trying to restore 35mm prints of the PT!! I’ve craved a nice version of the theatrical cut of TPM for years. It gets ignored in all the noise over the OT..but the theatrical version of TPM is the best version. The Podrace on the DVD/ BluRay is a mess.

 

Pretty cool. Loved that trailer (and loved the actual film even more).

 

Thanks for all the positive comments and the really useful tips. I'm currently working on something slightly different, more original (and still Star Wars), which I hope to release in the next week or two. Once that's done, I might then tackle the other teasers and trailers (hopefully won't take as much time now that I have a bit more experience).

 

Just posted the "something slightly different" video here:

https://boards.theforce.net/threads/star-wars-rise-of-an-empire-fan-edit-short-film.50052163/

 

Totally onboard with it, and I wish you luck. I think there is a lot of historical significance behind the Star Wars trailers, both the teasers and the main theatrical versions.

It's awesome that we have a network of fans that can provide high quality sources to rarities like @Qui-Riv-Brid linked to. I'm nostalgic for film, but some of that looks rougher than I remember. Ideally, something could be a accomplished like the Despecialized Editions where the highest quality sources are used and fan restoration bridges all the gaps.

The most mind-blowing case of fans reviving a forgotten trailer was a fan restoration of a 4K transfer of the original Spider-Man teaser

I believe this is a case of the print being in better condition to begin with, but the result is so crisp, yet still retains the dynamic range of the film.