In 1977 I was working on the Kinks tour and Ray was begging to see Star Wars. So, since the band was playing Pine Knob a Detroit area venue I called a suburban Detroit theater and made arrangements to get everyone in to finally see the film. Ray, Dave and the entire band were blown away! Loved it! What a treat it would be to get a 4K copy now. Good luck!
@@milkmanchristian9859 - You have excellent taste. Ray & Dave are both good guys. They’d buy me breakfast most mornings in a hotel restaurant and we’d chat. They were very friendly to fans. A young lady had a custom van completely painted to look like a Kinks album cover and Ray agreed to sign the mural with a paint brush. I haven’t seen the guys in years.
Around the 1 hour 10 minutes mark you say that you are not a "real Star Wars" fan and that it's not about Luke and the Rebellion or TIE fighters. It's about the people who created this film - and about the meaning and impact it had for so many others. I've never heard my own attitude to the things I love and preserve expressed so perfectly. My 50 years on this earth were wasted on horror, comics and toys, monsters and B-Movies, trashy and weird music and kooky artistic concepts. And although I was often able to infect others with my love for these things, I was never able to fully explain that it is neither the content nor the form of these things that touch me the most. You say it: It's the thought of people creating those things, the environment they existed in, the zeitgeist they often represent and the impact they had on children, becoming teens, becoming adults, growing old... Thank you, Mike!
I completely agree with this sentiment, though as an aside, it is rather difficult to claim one's self is not a "real Star Wars" fan when sitting in front of a life size R2-D2 in your living room, lol.
When I saw Star Wars, it was like a program started running inside me. From that day I never had any doubt about what I wanted to do with my life. That's an insane gift to be given. I keep Star Wars stuff around me to remind me of the transformative power of art; to remember to do my best every day, be as skilled as I can be, because who knows? Maybe some little something I do makes a difference to another 5-year-old little boy somewhere. Having that stuff around is comforting, inspiring, and a joyous celebration of what human beings are capable of.
Not knocking any other Star Wars films or any other films in general, but the Original Trilogy was truly ART made by master craftsman who, upon setting their tools down for the last time at the end of ROTJ, had accomplished something of immeasurable proportions and rewritten the book on how films are made. Technology has advanced so much in the 40 years that has followed, but the OT still looks just... so unexplainably good. I’ve been reading “Inside The Star Wars Empire: A Memoir” and it’s incredible hearing even a slight inside look into how they pulled it off.
And that is exactly why he should wear a Panama hat. Because this doesn't belong in his bedroom... This belongs in a museum! Just because he did the digging, doesn't make the artefact his. [insert reductio ad Hilterum here, but use proper tone mapping so the shadows on your cheek show your tongue]
Disney has proved thousands of times over that they don't care about making money, and they sure as hell don't care about preserving history. No one at Disney gives a crap about your project, but me and lots of other fans all over the world sure would. I hope you have a change of heart and drop this restoration on the internet someday.
It's a very minor thing, but one thing I look for in any restoration of the original Star Wars is a bird, flying in the distance in the jungle shot just before the Death Star briefing at about 1:37:04. In that shot, the camera pans right across the jungle. In most current versions of the film, it feels like a gratuitous camera move. But in the 1977 theatrical (film) release, you could see a tiny bird at the center of frame, and you realize that the bird's flight motivated the pan right. Sadly, it seems to have been lost in noise reduction, and I haven't seen the bird in decades. Not that it's important, it's just something that I look for.
Michael, high praise to you and your wife for the decades of wonderful work you've brought to my life through Star Trek. Regarding Star Wars, is it possible that your memory of that bird is a little different than what you actually saw 40 years ago? Memory is a very tricky thing, and our brain tailors our memory in weird ways, especially older memories. What we think we remember is not always what we actually experienced.
Trekkie Junk That is, of course, a possibility after so many years. Nevertheless, I recall having seen and noticed it many times when I saw the film in its original theatrical run, so I think it’s unlikely that it is a figment.
It's totes there in 4K77. Well, it's a little hard to tell if it's a spec of dust or a bird. But there's a small white animal/object moving center-ish that the shot tracks with (or that tracks with the shot). For comparison, the same isn't there in the current Disney Plus 4K releases.
Definitely not minor in my book, Michael! :). One of my tools compares features across sources and looks for "most likely," and if I don't properly weight a detail, can obfiscate instead of clarify. It's part of why every shot has to be carefully guided by a human and guided through iterations. It also means that stuff like that can get past me, but thanks to you, caught. 100% that the bird is in the data, and it's my job to make sure it isn't relegated to noise or something else. Thanks for catching it!
Disney, buy this from him. Toss him a few million for the work. Put it in the theater, for a few weeks, then put it out on uhd and charge $40-50 for it. I guarantee you will make your money back. Do it for fans. Please.
@@alfredooliva5175 4K77 gives us the original theater experience, mostly from 1 Technicolor print. The aim of this project is entirely different. It aims to get as close as possible to the quality of the original camera negative as possible, by utilizing several prints so that the generational losses may be vastly reduced. The result will be a whole new experience, what Star Wars might have been like if it was made with modern 4K equipment.
Disney is an even worse George Lucas in terms of the "my version is better" mentality so a proper treatment of the original films will never happen officially.
This is a stunning (STUNNING) revelation to me. So many films could be restored, not Frankenstein-ed for profit, but truly RESTORED, that it almost gobsmacked the mind. If there is fairness in this chaotic universe, may the true restoration happen. May the Force be with you.
Just to continue on with my last comment. I saw the film in Hicksville, NY on May 25, and in the following weeks. I remember it was the best on that screen for brightness, sharpness and clarity. It was a medium size screen, and the projectionist had the bulb up bright, and he really kept a close eye on the focus. Some of the scenes were much more clear than others. Different lenses, different filters, but I loved the clarity of the opening reel and the final reels. The definition was excellent. As to my reaction to the film the first time; I was 21, a cynical science fiction fan, and I was not sure I liked the fantasy aspect in the start of the film, but I was slowly melting into a puddle of amazement. With the combination of story, effects, visuals, sound, music, editing, I was loving it, and by the attack on the death star I was literally mesmerized. When the name George Lucas started the credits the audience burst into applause. The music was so good, even with the theater's failure to mix the Dolby tracks correctly, and walking out all I could think of was how so many children would love this movie. I was in a haze of joy, I couldn't wait to see it again.
I saw Star Wars for the first time in 70mm at the Century Plaza Cinemas in LA early June 1977 (10am show, 4 other people in the theatre) What I distinctly remember was the visceral experience of the sharpness of that print and the smooth tonality and balance of the colors (plus the clean multitrack sound). When I saw the 1997 'special edition' those colors were so faded-- and it saddened me. Your restoration is as close as I have ever seen to that original day-- You have pulled off a miracle (somebody needs to get you to the original negative!)
I saw it as the same theater, but it was packed for a midday showing and we were lined up around the block for hours beforehand--must have been days or a week after you saw it.
Probably AI/ML algorithms and tools could speed that up a lot today. It would be interesting to see what this guy could do with a whole Disney payrolled team behind him for restoration software dev and sourcing/buying up different film prints for ESB and ROTJ.
This douche bag isn't saving shit. Anyone can claim to have done what he's done and then say "oh, but I'm not going to show it or share it with the public" Disney isn't going to pay him a dime for his trademark infringing efforts and I'm sure that their lawyers are watching and waiting for the opportunity to take his work and sue his ass into oblivion.
@@exoticcarfactsofficialchan7050 I agree 💯 with you this guy is another George Lucas clone , according to what he's saying looks like he's gonna take all of his work to the Fucking grave !!!
From one VFX artist to another, this really held my attention for the full 3hrs. I certainly hope that somewhere in the background Di$ney execs are curiously aware of this enough to the point that this may one day see the light of day. I’d love to see it, but I totally get the fact that it would need to be through official channels. Getting sued by Di$ney wouldn’t be fun. Getting sued as an industry professional would be catastrophic. So passion and patience is the only way. Amazing work. Whilst I acknowledge the special editions exist, my Star Wars came out in 77, 80 & 83. Its the reason I pursued a career in film. My issue with the special editions are not to do with the new FX. It’s the fact that the newer FX ruin a longtime familiar narrative. You can’t watch it without thinking “new bit”. Top work.
In all my heart I hope Disney will license you to release that full restoration. You and them would make a good profits. I would buy it even if a copy is 100$
He’ll probably release it for free to people that can prove they either bought and own an official copy of the movie like the special edition or have Disney plus. That’s how it worked with all the other fan edit releases that remove the specialized rerelease effects. The despecialized edition and project 4K77 are free if you can prove you’ve bought an official copy first.
@@computergenerated3833 you don’t have to price anything. It’s on the honor system. If you know where to look, you can find them. You won’t find this version but the other restorations are easily found.
Don't mention the Mouse, they have algorithms that search for their content online and will sent out S&D's as well as do auto take downs on vids on youtube too. Just say the mouse or the DisCor etc...something close but not. They are extremely a-Holes when it comes to their copy rights. smh
Lucas sold everything to Disney/ABC/Comcast/FOX corp(they are all one company just kept the names for distribution and non-monopoly reasons.), so he has bumkiss say in anything they do with starwars. Hence the horrible latest trilogy.@@OlafProt
Fascinating. Here I am with the Despecialized 2.7 and 4k77 w/DNR and looking forward to Despecialized 3.0. And Mike's sitting on a version that beats all three of those by a mile.
Functionally those other projects probably have the resources to do what he has done if they can stomach the new work - between them they have plenty of sources to work from (especially 4K77).
@@streamone1183 I can't speculate on his motivations beyond what he says in the video. But he overtly states multiple times through the video that he is not offering them online at this time to avoid reprisal from Disney. And you cannot find Mike's versions at the usual places with Project 4K77/Despecialized/D+77/etc.
Holy crow, man! How did I miss this video. The TH-cam algorithm REALLY blew it on this one. Oh well, I've found it now. I'm so excited that you're actually getting into some of the actual methods you've used to restore it. Much more detailed explanations than I've seen elsewhere on similar projects. Thank you so much for this; and I mean thanks for ALL of it. Taking the time to make this multiple hour video filled with timeless information, and thanks for caring as much about Star Wars as you do, and thanks for sharing all of your knowledge with us. You're the best.
The very definition of 'labour of love'! I think he is going about this the right way by inviting Disney/Fox to view his efforts. I really hope one day his version gets officially released - hopefully in cinemas!
Here's hoping they don't C&D him into oblivion as they did the Apeiron/Poem guys who were basically making a KOTOR remake from scratch minus the voice overs and music which were always going to be separate from any release.
@@hideofreakingkojima5457 They got a theatrical 35mm donated I forget when and i dont remember my source but im sure the information is easily available
Library of Congress wouldn’t accept the SE version prints as a matter of policy. Has to be the original version of the film prints, since that’s what is being selected for preservation.
I thought Star Wars was selected by the library of congress before 1997 so the only print LFL could have sent at the time was the original version. Unless Lucas refused to send one without "A New Hope" and that's why they're still waiting for an original print.
Thanks for doing this. As a sound man and projectionist, if you can find a 1977 70mm print with a magnetic 6 track audio tracks that are in good shape, you may want to consider adding those to the final project. As long as the appropriate Noise Reduction has been applied ( Dolby A ) it might be a worthy thing to add to the experience.
Incredible. Unbelievable. I can't even process how much work that is. But also I don't know how anyone could get that film clearer. So nuts man. I want it!
That's because regardless of how good (or you know, bad) the SE's were, they were still just slightly different cuts with new, not entirely convincing and often distracting effects added.
@@portland-182 All the same they would never have considered Spielberg's new version of ET for oscars, or any of the 2-3 cuts of Apocalypse Now or any other alternative cut. The only thing truly worthy in modern times of an oscar revisit would be Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven Directors Cut - that added about 40 minutes of runtime and story which crippled the theatrical cut story when he was forced by Fox to remove it. The Directors cut is a markedly superior film to the theatrical release in that case.
@@mnomadvfx The End battle is rescored for music and has significant editing and shot changes, it is not the same film that won the Oscar for editing. Agree on Kingdom of Heaven!
Wow. I did this sort of thing in 1985 with Dr Who Jon Pertwee episodes that the BBC had wiped. Only Monochrome film versions existed in the BBC archives. Colour copies though still existed on multi generation, twice converted cassette copies. The story is well told in many places, mostly the Dr Who restoration sites, but the tech didn't exist in 1985 to make it financially feasible back then ! It does now, so the shows are now back in Colour.
th-cam.com/video/eYKDKJaqgZw/w-d-xo.html this is where they show how it was don't on Tomorrow's World. Think it was later than 1985. More like the early 90s
@@philiponicho I don't remember seeing this ! I must have done though. It is dated 1992 at the end credits, my experiments were 1988 ish IIRC. I used a Quantel 680 to make the colour the right size as well as the right shape. www.impossiblethings.net/restorationteam/colouris.htm tells the story and says 1986. There were other problems too. The conversion to 525 and back from Betamax - itself a dupe of a copy of a transmission at the edge of reception area from a university TV station - sourced from a Umatic ( so I was told ) - had made all the cuts in to three frame mixes. Also, frame sync was lost, so each cut had to be done individually - that's one reason I could not convince the Dr Who production office to pay for it ! By the way, you could get better sound too by mixing the LF heavy tape with he HF heavy film and get a far less toppy result. That trick has still not been done. The Dr Who restoration team eventually got the job done - brilliantly ! The technology that has been developed since then to fix the errors is magnificent - and all done for the love of it.
kind of funny, they use image stacking and pixel averaging in astronomy as well, to look at galaxies far, far away.... what an ingenius use of this process, for film restoration
Seems like Mike could use a program like Lxnstack to automatically handle the registering process (free-astro.org/index.php?title=Image_Processing:Main)
Haha, I was reading through the comments looking for exactly this comment about astrophotography techniques as they immediately came to mind watching this video.
@@boardriderz regardless though, i actually think it's such a good idea to average every frame of multiple prints as a film restoration process, i dunno when the s/n ratio would become sufficient... by 3-5 prints? depending on how damaged the prints are, i guess. even if bad scratches are 1/5th as opaque as they were, that may be enough to make them not noticeable at all. and surely there are automated processes for registering all the frames as that person above pointed out
gregkrazanski he could be doing sub pixel alignment to increase resolution. But once that is done I’m sure it will just be some form of averaging algorithm.
I would definitely pay for a restoration like this in 4K. I loved the original film. I was only a couple years older, about 7, when I saw it. I must have seen it a dozen times. It was a revolution in cinema.
Agreed. Speaking of which....Dale, do you prefer the latest Harmys or the latest Silver Screens for any of the 3 movies? I want to like the SS more because they are from actual prints, but on my 60-inch plasma, the Harmys just look more polished. Thoughts?
@@RotanCam 1.6 is out now. I recommend everyone to check out the completed and ongoing preservations and "restorations" that Mike is curiously unaware of, or at least doesn't mention.
I've watched and read a lot of material on film restoration. This is, sincerely, the most engaging and revealing. I've kept up with this project for years, and I fully support it. I'll help support it financially if I can.
You :1. only watched on youtube stupid bullshit guys 2.Never read serious literature (because you have no money for it). and then, you appraise this nonsense, because you are moronic western amateur that try to seems like professional but is NOT. i'm seriously tiered of all those western stupid morons, that are everywhere and compromised professionalism and destroying it. But this is good because then in East remain professionals and at the West remain morons-amateurs.
@@RetroBulgaria You cannot even employ proper grammar or spelling, so you should avoid making assumptions about what others have, or have not, read. No one here cares what Eastern European trash think anyway. It looks as though the only person speaking of your very few accomplishments in life is you. I searched your name, and based upon the pics I saw, you really should consider shaving that unibrow, you Bulgarian Neanderthal. While I don’t usually spend time defending others on social media, Mike Verta is a friend, and I assure you he’s achieved far more in his life and career than you have.
Saw Star Wars when I was 12. Been horrified with what Disney has done. This makes me so happy. Even if I never see your restoration in theatre, to know that it exists is enough. Thank you so much!!
I've only seen a little bit of Harmy's HD version, but it is quite good. He basically found and combined the best available non altered versions of the original trilogy and cleaned them up a bit. Best part is that it is available to download.
D+ 77 project has surpassed Harmy’s despecialized by quite a lot since it uses much higher quality sources (Combination of new 4K UHD Blu-Ray and 4K 77 elements).
This is pretty amazing, Mike. I had no idea you were doing this. But now my life will never be complete until I've seen this restoration!!! Please don't let me die unfulfilled!
Wow, dude you've set yourself up for a huge disappointment because this shit will never see the light of day. Prepare to meet your maker with a life of regret 😂😂😂
Your comments about light, grading, color, and the physicality of things is something I haven't heard people talk about much, and especially don't see in practice. Thanks!
I just watched this tonight on my pc and this version blew my mind. The quality is incredible - both visual and audio, and I cannot recommend finding a copy more. I saw SW in 77, so this particular version holds an incredibly special place in my heart, as it’s probably the closest interpretation of the original movie that’s out there, and really, after seeing this version, and with the super clean Despecialized edition, my own search for the best SW version available today is now over. This version was made for us fogies that saw SW in 77 (ish), and is just totally phenomenal! Yes, this 4K version is huge, and current media servers will indeed probably struggle with playing it, but as the 4K gang stated, it was really done to take fans back as close as possible to the original print, so do as I did, grab a coffee, park yourself in front of the biggest PC screen you have, and be utterly amazed at the care and attention to detail that went into this, and if you care enough about SW, then you’ll find a little glimpse of what going to see this movie was really like, back in 1977. PotPlayer played it perfectly for me tonight.
I assume what you saw was "Project 4K77" which is not Mike's version. 4K77, 80, and 83 are different restorations of the original films. As far as I know, Mike hasn't released his version anywhere.
I just wanted to say thank you to you and everyone who has preserved Star Wars in all its forms! I really hope Disney/Fox purchase this so we can all see it in this quality! May the force be with you!
Mike, if you finish this work and decide not to release it publicly or sell it to Disney, please consider putting your work on a form of media that will survive the test of time and leave it in your will to a trusted person or institution that can release the film to the public after the original copyright expires. We may never see it, but our children might be able to legally benefit from your hard work.
I saw Star Wars in 1977 in the theatre with my father, I was 6 Years old, and just like you that was maybe my first or second coming to a theatre. This movie changed my whole life and I belive that's probably the reason I'm myself an Audio Engineer today running my own studio and now working for animation movies and Television even if I'm independant. I totally get you when you talk about jittering or phasing in audio comparison so I believe it's just insane doing such a precise work you're doing, I have to salute you for this. Let's say, in the process if you need any Audio Restoration I'm opened to collaborate freely when there is a need on this project, so don't hesitate to contact me back ;)
Mike, this process, as painstaking as it may be(i can only imagine), is absolutely Brilliant! Additive analog vs algorithm is mind blowing! I feel as though you literally where on some Thomas Edison next level discovery vibes with this process! Thank you for setting a standard in what a restoration should be in its purest form. I look forward to seeing the finished product!
I saw Star Wars at the age of 10. Idea age to see it for the first time. Mind blowing was the reaction from my friends and I and it changed all our lives. I recently found the original 3 movies including episode 4 at a thrift shop on VHS . Paid a dollar for each. To say I was excited is an understatement. I felt like I found the holy grail! It was amazing to watch again and to show my kids. This is what we saw back in the 70s. It gave all of us a new appreciation for the special effects. So glad with the work you are doing!
I remember following you closely when you were putting restoration videos on vimeo, after a while that went quiet and I thought hope was lost. Luckily years later I heard of 4K77 and now we have the 4K disney+ version. That at least gives us a couple of more options. I have tried to do my own colour corrections and edits to get a what I would consider a perfect 4k version of the original 77 Star Wars, but it's a lot of work and I have taken many breaks. I've probably done the first boarding scene 3 times now, as my sources improved and my techniques became less intrusive. I might not be the most purist when it comes to the restoration aspect, but we are out here the people who care immensely about the original.
I was born May 25th 1972 just like you and saw Star Wars on my 5th birthday. I love the original version of Star Wars. It's very exciting to see what you're doing. Keep up the good work.
Would be great to hear you talk about this more. Maybe show a few more clips/comparisons. Really love seeing that kind of thing. Cheers, hope all is well, and happy new year!
What an absolute treat and honor it must be to be one of your friends. You’re an amazing individual…the loyalty, passion and WORK that you have put into this literal “labor of love”…the depth of sharing all of that knowledge your friends have no doubt been able to experience. Wow. Just to visit your “museum”…to see THE restoration. How very special. I hope your son realizes what a cool-ass dad he has there. Lol. All hats off to you, and the sincerest of thanks for sharing this video with all of us fellow Star Wars lovers, whose lives were also forever changed by this amazing galaxy far far away…
Yes, “A New Hope” changed my life too. It was when this film’s first television ads aired, I saw as a nine-year-old, that I declared my need to become a model maker in the motion picture industry. Eleven years later after graduating high school I sought out and started my career with Richard Edmund’s Boss Films in the model shop. That led to an almost 10 year run in miniatures and special effects on some of the most well-known productions at the time. I was VERY FORTUNATE to work with the veterans of the craft and was even lucky to have had a friendship with one of the original ILM model makers who worked on “A New Hope”! Thank you for your vision and work great work Ken. I hope to see the final version soon.
Would love to see a breakdown of the shot when the camera enters the trench. I love the transition from the pan-and-scan still to the motion control shot.
This is a FANTASTIC video. Thanks for posting it. I still hold the belief that: A. The version that won the awards should be the version available to the masses B. Disney could "right the ship" so to speak, by releasing a version like this, in theaters and via digital/On-Demand. Well done!
This guy is so full of shit. I have been collecting a long time and met many like him, claiming to have something and making all kinds of excuses why he won't release it. I'd bet everything I own he doesn't have more than 10 percent done IF THAT.
@@SBBLURAY1 so you already judge and sentence SOMEONE you don't know before he has done any wrong and shows some of his work. Shows your level of maturity. and that "guy" as you refer to him has a very good background, check for yourself before you trash someone. 😒👎🏻
@@ggourmetmeals Background means nothing. I have met MANY famed people who make false claims. IF he could, he would, very simple. But he does what he does for the attention from sheep like you. When you saw two grown men having a discussion and you had that overwhelming desire to jump in like a female is drawn to gossip, that shows the type YOU are, and there are soooo many like you - weak-minded sheep. It is the same reason politicians say the most ridiculous things they say KNOWING there are plenty of dumb sheep who will slurp it up and regurgitate it out.
Thank you. The poor handling of Star Wars has actually caused me stress. I don't need to tell you that this is a landmark film, that NEEDS to be preserved for prosperity. So please, please, please make sure you work is backed up and spread around, so if the politics don't workout, it isn't lost forever. If I never get to see this restoration thats ok, it's enough just to know it exists. Thank you again for your work preserving our human legacy.
Thanks for the update, Mike. Been following the project for years now. Just another fellow IATSE member in the industry who wore out a VHS copy of the OT. Once the economy opens back up in LA, would love to grab a coffee and pick your brain about all things including film grain, Maurice Murphy, and why vertical filmmaking sucks so much. Stay healthy, looking forward for more.
it was a real pleasure listening to the full video with tons of background information about film making and post production. The only thing i want to add is the issue of shooting analog and using additional lightning. If you're shooting on film or add additional lightning during the shoot you indeed need to have a very clear idea of what you want to emphasize in your footage, because both methods do not capture the real image as we see it in nature, but are a form of art in terms of image composition without the need to do this in post. This is in fact often needed because the human eye can adjust and see things in realtime, which is pretty hard for any camera to capture. So we need to force the human eye to focus on specific things we want to show in that picture. In fact no camera can capture an image which is 100% real in terms of "as we see it with our eyes", because cameras do not have a brain to choose from the individual database, which Mike also mentioned. Of course the lens choice and settings do also help the human eye to focus on exactly the object we want it to. Again, this is not the "real" image, it's manipulated. Nevertheless, from a technical standpoint it's far better than doing all that in post. As Mike said, if you do this in post you put the image apart and create something unreal. If you're doing this by choosing the type of film, lightning and lenses you can create something which we notice as "real", but only because we are used to see movies in a certain way since decades. A 60fps 4K digital recorded movie with the best camera available always looks more real than a 70mm 24fps Tarantino movie. But for most people who have grown up with analog 24fps movies it still does not feel like a movie. All attempts to switch movie production to 48fps (The Hobbit, Geminini Man) have failed, because the current target audience is simply not used to it. It's most likely that this will change in the future, but not in the near future, at least as long as people are alive who haven grown up with analog film. 3D is another issue. I really like 3D, although it's much more uncomfortable to watch. But 3D just feels more real and some movies are really amazing to watch in 3D. But if you shoot 3D the same way as a 2D movie this can be distracting because you watch a 3D world with a certain depth of field (depending on lens settings), which is forced and not adjusted by the human eye. This is something the human brain has problems with. But again, you can get used to it if you feed the brain with this type of input. Unfortunatelly 3D was cancelled by the movie industry after more than 10 years (again). I think 3D will be the future anyway, no matter how much attempts and fails will be done to push this into the market. As soon as we can watch 3D without glasses the market will completely change (again). Maybe not for us old school movie fans, but for some future generation.
The Special Editions actually did one incredible thing, a fantastic thing that gets overlooked because of the CGI slapstick, the reshoots and other baffling choices. For the longest time, I assumed they just digitally erased the black lines around the models with some kind of rotoscoping, fixing unwanted transparencies and other bluescreen problems. I was wrong. Turns out they've pulled off the Lucasfilm shelves the original negative elements of the effect shots, and recomposited them, but this time digitally, not optically. This blew my mind. They didn't bother to time them exactly as the original ones, so you get, for example, ships that lag behind or laser beams in different positions (it's obvious they didn't care much for historical accuracy), but that's a minor problem, when compared to the results. This kind of fix is a dream come true: it's the best of both worlds (one of the reasons why nineties movies like Starship Troopers still look so damn good, is they used digital compositing and still had lots of models and practical shots) and it doesn't betray the original artistic vision. The improvements in picture clarity (no generational loss, even with ten, twenty separate elements!), and the complete absence of matte lines make the experience even MORE immersive. It helps forgetting you're watching an effects shot. Don't get me wrong, I still want a completely original version, for authenticity, so I can still have the same moviegoing experience that audiences had in 1977; but if ILM had digital compositing back in 1977, you can bet your ass they would've used it all the time. In my ideal world, we'd have a 100% original Star Wars, and a digitally recomposited Star Wars (without all the other changes). I know I'm not telling you anything new, mister Verta, but what do you think about it? ^_^
P.S. When I wrote this comment, I still hadn't watched the whole video, and sure enough, eventually you talk about digital compositing and you say that you'd love a separate version with just that enhancement. So you basically replied to my question, and we completely agree ;) Still, forgive me if I missed that part, but it sounded like you didn't know they already did it for the Special Edition... and of course that's impossible, you know much more than I do about anything Star Wars related.
I suspect part of the reason they weren't as careful in the compositing process is likely the techs involved had started their career in the digital world and didn't have the instincts of an old analog processor. Just guessing, mind you.
@@etansivad I guess we'll never know for sure. But since they had complete control over the position of the elements. this could also be more pointless tinkering by Lucas himself: "yeah, the X-Wing looks a bit too low in the original, I want to show more space over Luke's head" (in the scene where Yoda lifts the ship from the swamp using the Force, here's a visual comparison: twitter.com/StarWarsVisComp/status/1047516634490056704/photo/1 )
@@thornok2131 Well but also keep in minded that the original shots were intended to be seen in a theater projected on white canvas. And the "special editions" were very much remastered with the idea of people watching them (eventually) on CRT tvs. That right there has a big impact on all sorts of choices during image adjustments.
One thing I really like about this kind of restoration is it keeps Star Wars in the human realm. What I mean is if you pause a lot of the special affects scenes you can see all the details in the models and how they were built. Rather than detracting from the experience, for me, it adds to because I can think about the artists that worked on the movie and I can imitate them. Yeah, the CG models look more realistic and I have done enough 3d modeling (Star trek models, but that's another story) to even make images more convincing than the originals. But the original are overflowing with the touches of the artist when they made it, and for me it's really handy to be able to pause the movie, see the model, and then use it for reference when doing my own crude miniatures painting for board games. The genius of the artists that worked on the movies back then was working within the constraints of the tools they had at the time and using it to their advantage. They knew what looked hokey, how to hide it, but also how to intentionally use it to make it look alien. Forget who shot whom first, I hate how the beautiful work of Hensen labs was swept under the rug because it looked dated. Thank you for putting this together. It makes me really happy to see the puppetry in the Star Wars universe and models above all else. Taking that out kills so much of what made me fall in love with it back in '83 and I'd beg my dad to take me to the dollar theater (so small, they had to manually switch reels mid-movie) to catch the reruns of the first two movies while we waited for the third to come out.
The best strategy would be to share the film as an encrypted blob via torrent, and then release the key publicly with some failsafe dead man switch. In the event that Disney co-operates and the film is released proper, the key can be deleted, rendering the encrypted blob useless.
I hold onto those 2006 poor quality two channel sound original trilogy theatrical release bonus DVDs like gold. This effort needs to happen for the original trilogy if the art and significance that was Star Wars is to survive for future generations to have the opportunity to see these great films for what they were, history, and students of the arts and culture. Keep up the good work and thanks for the video.
This is how astrophotography is done to remove noise and atmospheric distortion. I tried doing similar with VHS sources of an out of print video a few years ago but it was unbelievably time-consuming.
Wow, this is like Alec Guinness' Obi Wan found an ancient holocron of Jedi knowledge and is trying to share it with the universe. As an untrained layman, just looking at those shots you showed I am blown away by the detail. No joke about this being a whole new level of star wars restoration. Reminds me of when, after only seeing the televised version, I finally got to see a widescreen edition. I would pay MUCH just to view the whole thing once! A real official theatrical release would be amazing (And Profitable, Disney!). Fingers crossed!
you need to source Harmy's despecialized edition... it's like seeing it on the bigscreen in 77 compressed down to fit and all that detail is still there!
Right =) But I think something like this HAS to be an OFFICIAL release. It's good karma, and the right thing. Both these are running low within the Disney Corporation. Sooo... why the heck not? I would certainly buy it - just because this is something so clean, unique and pristine - it's a real centerpiece.=)
@Brandon Cleland Logic suggests they don't owe nerds like you anything. You try to appease one group of deranged, self-absorbed Star Wars fans and alienate another at the same time. It's a no-win situation. Maybe some day you'll act like an adult.
@Jay McDanieL I'd take you seriously if you could actually spell words out rather than use stupid internet lingo. Who's the child? Ask yourself why my comment offended you then ask yourself whose problem that is...mine or yours.
This is important work! I truly want to see the Star Wars I saw as a young boy in 1977. I would pay good money to have such a copy and it would behoove Lucas/Disney to support this work and get it out to the public. They would finally have some success once again in the Skywalker saga. P.S. I'm amazed at how this process even works so well.
The sad thing is that had George Lucas allowed the 'restoration' team for the crappy DVD theatrical version releases to have given the original IP's (interpositives) a proper and thorough brand new 2K pin-registered scan followed by a meticulous frame-by-frame remaster that cleaned up any print damage while leaving the actual filmed content of those films' otherwise completely unchanged, he would have been hailed a hero by 99% of the (sane) SW fanbase, and we would have had full 1080p HD versions of the OT as originally released to enjoy for posterity... and George would have made a FORTUNE on the physical media sales alone!!! I personally would have absolutely been MORE than happy had he taken that approach, alas...
Im curious if this will also work for videotape sources. Say you have a vhs recording with noticable generation loss. Can the software make it look more like 1st generation vhs SP mode?
Incredible work here, I know this video is a few years old now and maybe you've come up with some new techniques since, but you say a few times that this process would be difficult to commercialize. As somebody with some compositing experience, I think you're dead wrong on that one :) Instead of lining up the images with your eyes as they blink (clever idea! Seems to have worked!) I'm reminded of a similar process we had at a studio I used to work for that would use a difference merge operation that allowed the artist to align previous or future frames with the one they wanted to paint onto. Instead of using this with previous frames, you could use it with the stacked prints as you mention. Writing an algorithm to match them should be as simple as moving the image, checking if it has a lower or higher overall diff score, and moving in the direction that generates the lowest score in a loop, eventually stopping it as it converges to the lowest possible score, then moving onto the next frame.
Just a few minutes into watching but I want to say: I really love and support your idea! (I've got grainy VHS copies of the original versions but would probably default to the fluffier flappier modern versions at this time... What you are talking about though on a big screen in the future would be glorious)
You can also download all 3 versions of Harmy's "Despecialized Editions" for free. Even if you don't care about the Special Edition changes that we all hate, the fixed color timing alone make them worth it. The official BluRays have a really bad red tint to them.
@@trekkiejunk I've heard about the Harmy versions before but couldn't figure out how to download them with that tricky system? Right this moment I'm ready to do a new google and give it another go, it probably isn't that hard... Thanks!
this will impact lives all over again. The way it impacted my life, it now impacts my little children. I hope we can see this complete one day. We as in my children and myself.
My hope is that this final version gets lots of 35mm print backups. Or even better, on 70mm. A 35mm backup for every single colour would also make sense. Like those 3 Strip Technicolor movies did it. To be sure no color would fade in one single print. Because colourfilm is really only colour stable for about 50 years.
35mm back up for different colors is I think referred to as separation masters. It's actually a fairly common practice for films that were recorded on 1 strip color film.
Technically speaking, those VHS versions are not the originals either. Lucas tinkered with all 3 films multiple since their initial theatrical release, mostly audio cues. But with Star Wars, his changes started while the film was in the theaters in 1977. If you saw the movie a few weeks after initial release, it's possible you heard a different soundtrack.
not really. There was a laserdisc release at the same time as the vhs. Those have much improved picture and audio quality utilizing the same source. And there was a dvd release in 2006 that used the same master. It does look sharper than any laserdisc transfer because you can watch a direct digital signal via HDMI off the dvd, while the LD is basically composite connection.
there is TONS of stacking software out there used in astrophotography. I've used it for stabilizing footage. It can take single frames in and turn them into video or take video and turn it into stabilized/stacked frames. What's great is that it's open source and tons of controls. You should do a little research. I used it on Apollo 4 footage and voyager film.
Watched the entire thing. You seem to have very good visual taste and the right approach to this project too. I hope it does see the light of day both for me and for other Star Wars fans. There's no way they wouldn't make a tonne of money out of this release too, so do it already Disney!
Same here, I've got all Harmy's despesialized versions, and have to say I'm more than blown away by his work, including all those amazing fans who contributed to making the original theatrical release available to us mere mortals, but if this version by Mike ever sees the light of day it will be a real pinnacle amongst all the restoration versions.
Harmy's is best imo... because he used what, 16 diff sources of film/LD/BR/pictures/stills? and it feels like the original, and it's 1080... you CANT see 4k... so why bother? 1080 is fantastic without the need to have extra pixels of info that... you cant even see... especially when that data doesnt exist!
@@brown22sugar25 im a simple guy, i see good quality i click, if thats really only 720, gona take alooootttta work to get 1080 then, these look really good for 720 tho
I'm just leaving a comment for the TH-cam algorithm gods, because for some reason this 3 month old video only now popped up in my feed. I don't know the author of this restoration, but on the chance that all this is for real, I hope this video grows in views and reaches the right people. I agree that something as good as this, if real, shouldn't just be thrown on the internet, that the right thing would be for Disney to come to an agreement with the author of the restoration and make it an official release. Especially if other original sources that Disney presumably has can be used to further enhance the results. Of course, if Disney doesn't see sense, I could live with it being leaked on the Internet :)
you're my kind of fan, dude. you're doing vital work here, and its brilliant. I hope someday someone with some sense will own the rights. a 50th anniversary run with your restored edition would print money.
Hey Mike. I watched this a year ago and I watched it again the other day. I’m really intrigued with your project! I’ve seen all your Vimeo videos as well. I really, really hope Disney or George or whomever does the right thing and releases this to us all. Has there been any more progress to that end (that you can talk about of course!)? Thanks!! I’m watching for any more footage to surface from you!!
The logo title restoration blew me away the most. You couldn't even see the stars in the laserdisc version! It really did look like a modern remake, done on a computer.
They need to pay you for it and release it in movies for after this pandemics over kind of like a celebration that way we can all go and see the greatness of this and the world can see it
Thanks, Mike V., for preserving our past! Cinema buffs everywhere owe you big time. Yes, 1980's Flash Gordon has some gross compositing errors I would love to see fixed -
In 1977 I was working on the Kinks tour and Ray was begging to see Star Wars. So, since the band was playing Pine Knob a Detroit area venue I called a suburban Detroit theater and made arrangements to get everyone in to finally see the film. Ray, Dave and the entire band were blown away! Loved it! What a treat it would be to get a 4K copy now. Good luck!
Amazing story! Absolutely love the Kinks!
@@milkmanchristian9859 - You have excellent taste. Ray & Dave are both good guys. They’d buy me breakfast most mornings in a hotel restaurant and we’d chat. They were very friendly to fans. A young lady had a custom van completely painted to look like a Kinks album cover and Ray agreed to sign the mural with a paint brush. I haven’t seen the guys in years.
Awesome story 🔥 Excellent band
Around the 1 hour 10 minutes mark you say that you are not a "real Star Wars" fan and that it's not about Luke and the Rebellion or TIE fighters.
It's about the people who created this film - and about the meaning and impact it had for so many others.
I've never heard my own attitude to the things I love and preserve expressed so perfectly.
My 50 years on this earth were wasted on horror, comics and toys, monsters and B-Movies, trashy and weird music and kooky artistic concepts. And although I was often able to infect others with my love for these things, I was never able to fully explain that it is neither the content nor the form of these things that touch me the most.
You say it:
It's the thought of people creating those things, the environment they existed in, the zeitgeist they often represent and the impact they had on children, becoming teens, becoming adults, growing old...
Thank you, Mike!
I completely agree with this sentiment, though as an aside, it is rather difficult to claim one's self is not a "real Star Wars" fan when sitting in front of a life size R2-D2 in your living room, lol.
When I saw Star Wars, it was like a program started running inside me. From that day I never had any doubt about what I wanted to do with my life. That's an insane gift to be given. I keep Star Wars stuff around me to remind me of the transformative power of art; to remember to do my best every day, be as skilled as I can be, because who knows? Maybe some little something I do makes a difference to another 5-year-old little boy somewhere. Having that stuff around is comforting, inspiring, and a joyous celebration of what human beings are capable of.
Not knocking any other Star Wars films or any other films in general, but the Original Trilogy was truly ART made by master craftsman who, upon setting their tools down for the last time at the end of ROTJ, had accomplished something of immeasurable proportions and rewritten the book on how films are made.
Technology has advanced so much in the 40 years that has followed, but the OT still looks just... so unexplainably good. I’ve been reading “Inside The Star Wars Empire: A Memoir” and it’s incredible hearing even a slight inside look into how they pulled it off.
And that is exactly why he should wear a Panama hat. Because this doesn't belong in his bedroom... This belongs in a museum!
Just because he did the digging, doesn't make the artefact his. [insert reductio ad Hilterum here, but use proper tone mapping so the shadows on your cheek show your tongue]
Disney has proved thousands of times over that they don't care about making money, and they sure as hell don't care about preserving history.
No one at Disney gives a crap about your project, but me and lots of other fans all over the world sure would. I hope you have a change of heart and drop this restoration on the internet someday.
Michelangelo blows up his statue of David and one lone Italian man spends the rest of his life piecing it back from memory.
It's a very minor thing, but one thing I look for in any restoration of the original Star Wars is a bird, flying in the distance in the jungle shot just before the Death Star briefing at about 1:37:04. In that shot, the camera pans right across the jungle. In most current versions of the film, it feels like a gratuitous camera move. But in the 1977 theatrical (film) release, you could see a tiny bird at the center of frame, and you realize that the bird's flight motivated the pan right. Sadly, it seems to have been lost in noise reduction, and I haven't seen the bird in decades. Not that it's important, it's just something that I look for.
Michael, high praise to you and your wife for the decades of wonderful work you've brought to my life through Star Trek. Regarding Star Wars, is it possible that your memory of that bird is a little different than what you actually saw 40 years ago? Memory is a very tricky thing, and our brain tailors our memory in weird ways, especially older memories. What we think we remember is not always what we actually experienced.
Trekkie Junk That is, of course, a possibility after so many years. Nevertheless, I recall having seen and noticed it many times when I saw the film in its original theatrical run, so I think it’s unlikely that it is a figment.
It's totes there in 4K77. Well, it's a little hard to tell if it's a spec of dust or a bird. But there's a small white animal/object moving center-ish that the shot tracks with (or that tracks with the shot).
For comparison, the same isn't there in the current Disney Plus 4K releases.
Definitely not minor in my book, Michael! :). One of my tools compares features across sources and looks for "most likely," and if I don't properly weight a detail, can obfiscate instead of clarify. It's part of why every shot has to be carefully guided by a human and guided through iterations. It also means that stuff like that can get past me, but thanks to you, caught. 100% that the bird is in the data, and it's my job to make sure it isn't relegated to noise or something else. Thanks for catching it!
@@MikeVerta Cool! I hope to be able to see the bird someday! In the meantime, I'm happy to know that it lives in the data.
Disney, buy this from him. Toss him a few million for the work. Put it in the theater, for a few weeks, then put it out on uhd and charge $40-50 for it. I guarantee you will make your money back.
Do it for fans. Please.
Why? 4k77 is already out for free. It is nothing but perfection
@@alfredooliva5175 Where can we get this?
@@alfredooliva5175 4K77 gives us the original theater experience, mostly from 1 Technicolor print. The aim of this project is entirely different. It aims to get as close as possible to the quality of the original camera negative as possible, by utilizing several prints so that the generational losses may be vastly reduced. The result will be a whole new experience, what Star Wars might have been like if it was made with modern 4K equipment.
it was actually couple billion..though some of that was in disney stock I do believe, that being said you are over all right.
Disney is an even worse George Lucas in terms of the "my version is better" mentality so a proper treatment of the original films will never happen officially.
This is a stunning (STUNNING) revelation to me. So many films could be restored, not Frankenstein-ed for profit, but truly RESTORED, that it almost gobsmacked the mind. If there is fairness in this chaotic universe, may the true restoration happen. May the Force be with you.
This guy looks like a restored George Lucas !
He's hot
Believe or not Mike is actually a composer, and this is just his side gig. 🤣
damn you made my day, i laughed more than i should have :D
I was thinking about a straight Stephen King.
Eh, he's more Spielbergy
Just to continue on with my last comment. I saw the film in Hicksville, NY on May 25, and in the following weeks. I remember it was the best on that screen for brightness, sharpness and clarity. It was a medium size screen, and the projectionist had the bulb up bright, and he really kept a close eye on the focus. Some of the scenes were much more clear than others. Different lenses, different filters, but I loved the clarity of the opening reel and the final reels. The definition was excellent. As to my reaction to the film the first time; I was 21, a cynical science fiction fan, and I was not sure I liked the fantasy aspect in the start of the film, but I was slowly melting into a puddle of amazement. With the combination of story, effects, visuals, sound, music, editing, I was loving it, and by the attack on the death star I was literally mesmerized. When the name George Lucas started the credits the audience burst into applause. The music was so good, even with the theater's failure to mix the Dolby tracks correctly, and walking out all I could think of was how so many children would love this movie. I was in a haze of joy, I couldn't wait to see it again.
I was born 25th May 1977. Never knew I was born same day Star Wars was released.
I saw Star Wars for the first time in 70mm at the Century Plaza Cinemas in LA early June 1977 (10am show, 4 other people in the theatre) What I distinctly remember was the visceral experience of the sharpness of that print and the smooth tonality and balance of the colors (plus the clean multitrack sound). When I saw the 1997 'special edition' those colors were so faded-- and it saddened me. Your restoration is as close as I have ever seen to that original day-- You have pulled off a miracle (somebody needs to get you to the original negative!)
I saw it as the same theater, but it was packed for a midday showing and we were lined up around the block for hours beforehand--must have been days or a week after you saw it.
The allignment process 20 minutes in blows my mind, and to do that frame by frame by hand. This is incredibly inspiring to see.
Probably AI/ML algorithms and tools could speed that up a lot today.
It would be interesting to see what this guy could do with a whole Disney payrolled team behind him for restoration software dev and sourcing/buying up different film prints for ESB and ROTJ.
Is this fine gentleman just singlehandedly saving Star Wars and revolutionizing digital restoration?
He has a life sized R2D2 in the background next to that massive poster. I think he knew this day would come since his childhood lol
This douche bag isn't saving shit. Anyone can claim to have done what he's done and then say "oh, but I'm not going to show it or share it with the public" Disney isn't going to pay him a dime for his trademark infringing efforts and I'm sure that their lawyers are watching and waiting for the opportunity to take his work and sue his ass into oblivion.
@@exoticcarfactsofficialchan7050 I agree 💯 with you this guy is another George Lucas clone , according to what he's saying looks like he's gonna take all of his work to the Fucking grave !!!
no he is not,
@@bam062988 your mom likes me tho, so you should probably start calling me Daddy. ..just saying
From one VFX artist to another, this really held my attention for the full 3hrs. I certainly hope that somewhere in the background Di$ney execs are curiously aware of this enough to the point that this may one day see the light of day.
I’d love to see it, but I totally get the fact that it would need to be through official channels. Getting sued by Di$ney wouldn’t be fun. Getting sued as an industry professional would be catastrophic. So passion and patience is the only way. Amazing work. Whilst I acknowledge the special editions exist, my Star Wars came out in 77, 80 & 83. Its the reason I pursued a career in film.
My issue with the special editions are not to do with the new FX. It’s the fact that the newer FX ruin a longtime familiar narrative. You can’t watch it without thinking “new bit”.
Top work.
In all my heart I hope Disney will license you to release that full restoration. You and them would make a good profits. I would buy it even if a copy is 100$
He’ll probably release it for free to people that can prove they either bought and own an official copy of the movie like the special edition or have Disney plus. That’s how it worked with all the other fan edit releases that remove the specialized rerelease effects. The despecialized edition and project 4K77 are free if you can prove you’ve bought an official copy first.
@@computergenerated3833 you don’t have to price anything. It’s on the honor system. If you know where to look, you can find them. You won’t find this version but the other restorations are easily found.
Don't mention the Mouse, they have algorithms that search for their content online and will sent out S&D's as well as do auto take downs on vids on youtube too. Just say the mouse or the DisCor etc...something close but not. They are extremely a-Holes when it comes to their copy rights. smh
Lucas sold everything to Disney/ABC/Comcast/FOX corp(they are all one company just kept the names for distribution and non-monopoly reasons.), so he has bumkiss say in anything they do with starwars. Hence the horrible latest trilogy.@@OlafProt
Fascinating. Here I am with the Despecialized 2.7 and 4k77 w/DNR and looking forward to Despecialized 3.0. And Mike's sitting on a version that beats all three of those by a mile.
Functionally those other projects probably have the resources to do what he has done if they can stomach the new work - between them they have plenty of sources to work from (especially 4K77).
Yes but how do we get these versions that Mike is showing?
@@streamone1183 Sadly, we don't.
@@CaptPostmod He has to be offering this in some way like the others why else would he go to this much work for just him?
@@streamone1183 I can't speculate on his motivations beyond what he says in the video. But he overtly states multiple times through the video that he is not offering them online at this time to avoid reprisal from Disney. And you cannot find Mike's versions at the usual places with Project 4K77/Despecialized/D+77/etc.
Holy crow, man! How did I miss this video. The TH-cam algorithm REALLY blew it on this one. Oh well, I've found it now.
I'm so excited that you're actually getting into some of the actual methods you've used to restore it. Much more detailed explanations than I've seen elsewhere on similar projects. Thank you so much for this; and I mean thanks for ALL of it. Taking the time to make this multiple hour video filled with timeless information, and thanks for caring as much about Star Wars as you do, and thanks for sharing all of your knowledge with us. You're the best.
LOL! It was recommended to me three years late!!! First I tho he is somewhat linked to one of the fan restorations… sadly doesn’t seem to be the case…
The very definition of 'labour of love'! I think he is going about this the right way by inviting Disney/Fox to view his efforts. I really hope one day his version gets officially released - hopefully in cinemas!
Here's hoping they don't C&D him into oblivion as they did the Apeiron/Poem guys who were basically making a KOTOR remake from scratch minus the voice overs and music which were always going to be separate from any release.
Give one to the Library of Congress. They've been bugging Lucas Film for an "original" true to theater print for years.
They have a copy
@@MrThecoolman I thought they ONLY got the 97 version of Star Wars, when did that happen?
@@hideofreakingkojima5457 They got a theatrical 35mm donated I forget when and i dont remember my source but im sure the information is easily available
Library of Congress wouldn’t accept the SE version prints as a matter of policy. Has to be the original version of the film prints, since that’s what is being selected for preservation.
I thought Star Wars was selected by the library of congress before 1997 so the only print LFL could have sent at the time was the original version. Unless Lucas refused to send one without "A New Hope" and that's why they're still waiting for an original print.
That feeling of the frames coming into alignment? That’s The Force.
Thanks for doing this. As a sound man and projectionist, if you can find a 1977 70mm print with a magnetic 6 track audio tracks that are in good shape, you may want to consider adding those to the final project. As long as the appropriate Noise Reduction has been applied ( Dolby A ) it might be a worthy thing to add to the experience.
Incredible. Unbelievable. I can't even process how much work that is. But also I don't know how anyone could get that film clearer. So nuts man. I want it!
Leaking this to the internet is certainly the *moral* (and courageous) thing to do. It's the greater wisdom (aka, don't be a tool)
The original won the Oscars - the Special Edition didn't. You are doing heroic work. George Lucas owes you a big thank you!
@bigevilworldwide1 Not the same films after Specialisation though
That's because regardless of how good (or you know, bad) the SE's were, they were still just slightly different cuts with new, not entirely convincing and often distracting effects added.
@@portland-182 All the same they would never have considered Spielberg's new version of ET for oscars, or any of the 2-3 cuts of Apocalypse Now or any other alternative cut.
The only thing truly worthy in modern times of an oscar revisit would be Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven Directors Cut - that added about 40 minutes of runtime and story which crippled the theatrical cut story when he was forced by Fox to remove it.
The Directors cut is a markedly superior film to the theatrical release in that case.
@@mnomadvfx The End battle is rescored for music and has significant editing and shot changes, it is not the same film that won the Oscar for editing. Agree on Kingdom of Heaven!
That’s the dumbest response ever, lol. How could the special editions win an Oscar? Oscars are for new films not re-editions
Wow. I did this sort of thing in 1985 with Dr Who Jon Pertwee episodes that the BBC had wiped. Only Monochrome film versions existed in the BBC archives. Colour copies though still existed on multi generation, twice converted cassette copies. The story is well told in many places, mostly the Dr Who restoration sites, but the tech didn't exist in 1985 to make it financially feasible back then ! It does now, so the shows are now back in Colour.
Amazing! Those were my favourite episodes.
I was thinking exactly the same
th-cam.com/video/eYKDKJaqgZw/w-d-xo.html this is where they show how it was don't on Tomorrow's World. Think it was later than 1985. More like the early 90s
@@philiponicho I don't remember seeing this ! I must have done though. It is dated 1992 at the end credits, my experiments were 1988 ish IIRC. I used a Quantel 680 to make the colour the right size as well as the right shape. www.impossiblethings.net/restorationteam/colouris.htm tells the story and says 1986.
There were other problems too. The conversion to 525 and back from Betamax - itself a dupe of a copy of a transmission at the edge of reception area from a university TV station - sourced from a Umatic ( so I was told ) - had made all the cuts in to three frame mixes. Also, frame sync was lost, so each cut had to be done individually - that's one reason I could not convince the Dr Who production office to pay for it ! By the way, you could get better sound too by mixing the LF heavy tape with he HF heavy film and get a far less toppy result. That trick has still not been done. The Dr Who restoration team eventually got the job done - brilliantly ! The technology that has been developed since then to fix the errors is magnificent - and all done for the love of it.
kind of funny, they use image stacking and pixel averaging in astronomy as well, to look at galaxies far, far away.... what an ingenius use of this process, for film restoration
Seems like Mike could use a program like Lxnstack to automatically handle the registering process (free-astro.org/index.php?title=Image_Processing:Main)
Haha, I was reading through the comments looking for exactly this comment about astrophotography techniques as they immediately came to mind watching this video.
@@boardriderz although honestly i feel like he's doing things a bit more manually than pixel averaging. or am i wrong
@@boardriderz regardless though, i actually think it's such a good idea to average every frame of multiple prints as a film restoration process, i dunno when the s/n ratio would become sufficient... by 3-5 prints? depending on how damaged the prints are, i guess. even if bad scratches are 1/5th as opaque as they were, that may be enough to make them not noticeable at all. and surely there are automated processes for registering all the frames as that person above pointed out
gregkrazanski he could be doing sub pixel alignment to increase resolution. But once that is done I’m sure it will just be some form of averaging algorithm.
Yo that Obi-Wan impression at 50:31 is fantastic. You just have the exact right voice for it.
Just gotta sound nasal, that's all.
@@ebinrockThere's more nuance than that.
I would definitely pay for a restoration like this in 4K. I loved the original film. I was only a couple years older, about 7, when I saw it. I must have seen it a dozen times. It was a revolution in cinema.
The best version of Star Wars we'll never see. 😓
There are loads of good quality projects online bro Inc. despecialised and silver screen editions, you just gotta know where to look
Agreed. Speaking of which....Dale, do you prefer the latest Harmys or the latest Silver Screens for any of the 3 movies? I want to like the SS more because they are from actual prints, but on my 60-inch plasma, the Harmys just look more polished. Thoughts?
All this talk of Harmy's Despecialized Editions and Team Negative 1's "Silver Screen Edition". You should be seeking out TN1's "4K77v1.4"
@@RotanCam 1.6 is out now. I recommend everyone to check out the completed and ongoing preservations and "restorations" that Mike is curiously unaware of, or at least doesn't mention.
Never see? We have had 4k77 for years now 🙄
I've watched and read a lot of material on film restoration. This is, sincerely, the most engaging and revealing. I've kept up with this project for years, and I fully support it. I'll help support it financially if I can.
You :1. only watched on youtube stupid bullshit guys 2.Never read serious literature (because you have no money for it). and then, you appraise this nonsense, because you are moronic western amateur that try to seems like professional but is NOT. i'm seriously tiered of all those western stupid morons, that are everywhere and compromised professionalism and destroying it. But this is good because then in East remain professionals and at the West remain morons-amateurs.
@@RetroBulgaria You cannot even employ proper grammar or spelling, so you should avoid making assumptions about what others have, or have not, read. No one here cares what Eastern European trash think anyway. It looks as though the only person speaking of your very few accomplishments in life is you. I searched your name, and based upon the pics I saw, you really should consider shaving that unibrow, you Bulgarian Neanderthal.
While I don’t usually spend time defending others on social media, Mike Verta is a friend, and I assure you he’s achieved far more in his life and career than you have.
this is one of the coolest videos i've ever watched
Gotta love your casually dropping absolutely bombshell advice for creatives. 🤘This video is absolutely enthralling. I'm mind blown.
Saw Star Wars when I was 12.
Been horrified with what Disney has done.
This makes me so happy.
Even if I never see your restoration in theatre, to know that it exists is enough.
Thank you so much!!
The brilliance of this guy's Obi-Wan Kenobi imitation is sorely understated!
I've only seen a little bit of Harmy's HD version, but it is quite good. He basically found and combined the best available non altered versions of the original trilogy and cleaned them up a bit. Best part is that it is available to download.
D+ 77 project has surpassed Harmy’s despecialized by quite a lot since it uses much higher quality sources (Combination of new 4K UHD Blu-Ray and 4K 77 elements).
@@charvelgtrs link?
@@jdastro Join "TheStarWarsTrilogy" forums.
This is pretty amazing, Mike. I had no idea you were doing this.
But now my life will never be complete until I've seen this restoration!!! Please don't let me die unfulfilled!
Wow, dude you've set yourself up for a huge disappointment because this shit will never see the light of day. Prepare to meet your maker with a life of regret 😂😂😂
This is the best Star Wars news I've heard in a long long time. Thank you Mike Verta.
Your comments about light, grading, color, and the physicality of things is something I haven't heard people talk about much, and especially don't see in practice. Thanks!
Literally watched the 4k77 version last night and was blown away. Really hope to see this version one day either officially or off the Internet.
DaPunkNdFunk sent you a email
check your inbox 👍
I just watched this tonight on my pc and this version blew my mind. The quality is incredible - both visual and audio, and I cannot recommend finding a copy more. I saw SW in 77, so this particular version holds an incredibly special place in my heart, as it’s probably the closest interpretation of the original movie that’s out there, and really, after seeing this version, and with the super clean Despecialized edition, my own search for the best SW version available today is now over.
This version was made for us fogies that saw SW in 77 (ish), and is just totally phenomenal!
Yes, this 4K version is huge, and current media servers will indeed probably struggle with playing it, but as the 4K gang stated, it was really done to take fans back as close as possible to the original print, so do as I did, grab a coffee, park yourself in front of the biggest PC screen you have, and be utterly amazed at the care and attention to detail that went into this, and if you care enough about SW, then you’ll find a little glimpse of what going to see this movie was really like, back in 1977.
PotPlayer played it perfectly for me tonight.
I assume what you saw was "Project 4K77" which is not Mike's version. 4K77, 80, and 83 are different restorations of the original films. As far as I know, Mike hasn't released his version anywhere.
What an amazing project! I hope I will be able to watch your restored version one day. This is my new hope!
I just wanted to say thank you to you and everyone who has preserved Star Wars in all its forms! I really hope Disney/Fox purchase this so we can all see it in this quality! May the force be with you!
Mike, if you finish this work and decide not to release it publicly or sell it to Disney, please consider putting your work on a form of media that will survive the test of time and leave it in your will to a trusted person or institution that can release the film to the public after the original copyright expires. We may never see it, but our children might be able to legally benefit from your hard work.
I saw Star Wars in 1977 in the theatre with my father, I was 6 Years old, and just like you that was maybe my first or second coming to a theatre. This movie changed my whole life and I belive that's probably the reason I'm myself an Audio Engineer today running my own studio and now working for animation movies and Television even if I'm independant. I totally get you when you talk about jittering or phasing in audio comparison so I believe it's just insane doing such a precise work you're doing, I have to salute you for this. Let's say, in the process if you need any Audio Restoration I'm opened to collaborate freely when there is a need on this project, so don't hesitate to contact me back ;)
Mike, this process, as painstaking as it may be(i can only imagine), is absolutely Brilliant! Additive analog vs algorithm is mind blowing! I feel as though you literally where on some Thomas Edison next level discovery vibes with this process! Thank you for setting a standard in what a restoration should be in its purest form. I look forward to seeing the finished product!
I saw Star Wars at the age of 10. Idea age to see it for the first time. Mind blowing was the reaction from my friends and I and it changed all our lives. I recently found the original 3 movies including episode 4 at a thrift shop on VHS . Paid a dollar for each. To say I was excited is an understatement. I felt like I found the holy grail! It was amazing to watch again and to show my kids. This is what we saw back in the 70s. It gave all of us a new appreciation for the special effects. So glad with the work you are doing!
I remember following you closely when you were putting restoration videos on vimeo, after a while that went quiet and I thought hope was lost. Luckily years later I heard of 4K77 and now we have the 4K disney+ version. That at least gives us a couple of more options.
I have tried to do my own colour corrections and edits to get a what I would consider a perfect 4k version of the original 77 Star Wars, but it's a lot of work and I have taken many breaks. I've probably done the first boarding scene 3 times now, as my sources improved and my techniques became less intrusive.
I might not be the most purist when it comes to the restoration aspect, but we are out here the people who care immensely about the original.
I just wish Roku's Vimeo app didn't suck. You can't go to the People you follow in your account.
@@ebinrock Roku just sucks in general
4K77 used the Blurays as refs though, makes me wonder if the new UHD Lowry master might cause them to redo some bits.
One thing is for sure though - if this guy doesn't release it himself he will probably end up getting targetted by hackers who will drag it from him.
I was born May 25th 1972 just like you and saw Star Wars on my 5th birthday. I love the original version of Star Wars. It's very exciting to see what you're doing. Keep up the good work.
Thank you EVER so much. And if this version is ever released by Lucasfilm/Disney it is a TOTAL cash register for them.
They could out-Apple Apple in valuation.
Would be great to hear you talk about this more. Maybe show a few more clips/comparisons. Really love seeing that kind of thing. Cheers, hope all is well, and happy new year!
I DON'T EVER HAVE TO SEE THIS VERSION
THE FACT ALONE THAT I KNOW IT EXISTS MAKES ME FEEL SO GOOD INSIDE
YOU RULE
THANK YOU, SIR
The closet we have is 4k77
What an absolute treat and honor it must be to be one of your friends. You’re an amazing individual…the loyalty, passion and WORK that you have put into this literal “labor of love”…the depth of sharing all of that knowledge your friends have no doubt been able to experience. Wow. Just to visit your “museum”…to see THE restoration. How very special. I hope your son realizes what a cool-ass dad he has there. Lol. All hats off to you, and the sincerest of thanks for sharing this video with all of us fellow Star Wars lovers, whose lives were also forever changed by this amazing galaxy far far away…
Man,.. you're the man.
I really like your way to think.
Let's hope they give you a couple million for the movie, and 10 more for the new tech!
Absolutely incredible work. The attention to detail, and the time and care you've put into this is outstanding!
utterly pointless if no one sees it though
Today its been 3 years since this livestream went up. I wonder what Mike's progress is on restoring the film now?
Others completed 4k theatrical print restorations years ago. Search for 4K77, 4K80 and 4K83. They're amazing
This Guy would never realese this he would sell this to Disney 😂
Yes, “A New Hope” changed my life too. It was when this film’s first television ads aired, I saw as a nine-year-old, that I declared my need to become a model maker in the motion picture industry. Eleven years later after graduating high school I sought out and started my career with Richard Edmund’s Boss Films in the model shop. That led to an almost 10 year run in miniatures and special effects on some of the most well-known productions at the time. I was VERY FORTUNATE to work with the veterans of the craft and was even lucky to have had a friendship with one of the original ILM model makers who worked on “A New Hope”! Thank you for your vision and work great work Ken. I hope to see the final version soon.
Would love to see a breakdown of the shot when the camera enters the trench. I love the transition from the pan-and-scan still to the motion control shot.
This is a FANTASTIC video. Thanks for posting it. I still hold the belief that:
A. The version that won the awards should be the version available to the masses
B. Disney could "right the ship" so to speak, by releasing a version like this, in theaters and via digital/On-Demand.
Well done!
I'd pay $50 tomorrow for a release like this, on Blu-Ray.
Please "lose" this version in an internet leak
and blame North Korea
This guy is so full of shit. I have been collecting a long time and met many like him, claiming to have something and making all kinds of excuses why he won't release it. I'd bet everything I own he doesn't have more than 10 percent done IF THAT.
@@SBBLURAY1 so you already judge and sentence SOMEONE you don't know before he has done any wrong and shows some of his work.
Shows your level of maturity.
and that "guy" as you refer to him has a very good background, check for yourself before you trash someone. 😒👎🏻
@@ggourmetmeals Background means nothing. I have met MANY famed people who make false claims. IF he could, he would, very simple. But he does what he does for the attention from sheep like you. When you saw two grown men having a discussion and you had that overwhelming desire to jump in like a female is drawn to gossip, that shows the type YOU are, and there are soooo many like you - weak-minded sheep. It is the same reason politicians say the most ridiculous things they say KNOWING there are plenty of dumb sheep who will slurp it up and regurgitate it out.
@@ggourmetmeals And next time reply from a real account or it looks like he made a fake account to get support. Dr. Eams. LOL
Been following this for years, don't know how I missed this vid
Thank you. The poor handling of Star Wars has actually caused me stress. I don't need to tell you that this is a landmark film, that NEEDS to be preserved for prosperity. So please, please, please make sure you work is backed up and spread around, so if the politics don't workout, it isn't lost forever. If I never get to see this restoration thats ok, it's enough just to know it exists. Thank you again for your work preserving our human legacy.
Nah. I want to see it!
Thanks for the update, Mike. Been following the project for years now. Just another fellow IATSE member in the industry who wore out a VHS copy of the OT. Once the economy opens back up in LA, would love to grab a coffee and pick your brain about all things including film grain, Maurice Murphy, and why vertical filmmaking sucks so much. Stay healthy, looking forward for more.
You have to carry on and get the film re-made! The detail is amazing! Totally trust you’re the man for the job. 👍
it was a real pleasure listening to the full video with tons of background information about film making and post production. The only thing i want to add is the issue of shooting analog and using additional lightning. If you're shooting on film or add additional lightning during the shoot you indeed need to have a very clear idea of what you want to emphasize in your footage, because both methods do not capture the real image as we see it in nature, but are a form of art in terms of image composition without the need to do this in post. This is in fact often needed because the human eye can adjust and see things in realtime, which is pretty hard for any camera to capture. So we need to force the human eye to focus on specific things we want to show in that picture. In fact no camera can capture an image which is 100% real in terms of "as we see it with our eyes", because cameras do not have a brain to choose from the individual database, which Mike also mentioned.
Of course the lens choice and settings do also help the human eye to focus on exactly the object we want it to. Again, this is not the "real" image, it's manipulated. Nevertheless, from a technical standpoint it's far better than doing all that in post. As Mike said, if you do this in post you put the image apart and create something unreal. If you're doing this by choosing the type of film, lightning and lenses you can create something which we notice as "real", but only because we are used to see movies in a certain way since decades. A 60fps 4K digital recorded movie with the best camera available always looks more real than a 70mm 24fps Tarantino movie. But for most people who have grown up with analog 24fps movies it still does not feel like a movie. All attempts to switch movie production to 48fps (The Hobbit, Geminini Man) have failed, because the current target audience is simply not used to it. It's most likely that this will change in the future, but not in the near future, at least as long as people are alive who haven grown up with analog film.
3D is another issue. I really like 3D, although it's much more uncomfortable to watch. But 3D just feels more real and some movies are really amazing to watch in 3D. But if you shoot 3D the same way as a 2D movie this can be distracting because you watch a 3D world with a certain depth of field (depending on lens settings), which is forced and not adjusted by the human eye. This is something the human brain has problems with. But again, you can get used to it if you feed the brain with this type of input. Unfortunatelly 3D was cancelled by the movie industry after more than 10 years (again). I think 3D will be the future anyway, no matter how much attempts and fails will be done to push this into the market. As soon as we can watch 3D without glasses the market will completely change (again). Maybe not for us old school movie fans, but for some future generation.
Stacking is done in astrophotography as well. The detail you can get is incredible.
Yes! I love astrophotography!
I can't believe what i just watched... TWICE! Hoping this will see the light of day... some day in a galaxy far, far away.
The Special Editions actually did one incredible thing, a fantastic thing that gets overlooked because of the CGI slapstick, the reshoots and other baffling choices. For the longest time, I assumed they just digitally erased the black lines around the models with some kind of rotoscoping, fixing unwanted transparencies and other bluescreen problems. I was wrong. Turns out they've pulled off the Lucasfilm shelves the original negative elements of the effect shots, and recomposited them, but this time digitally, not optically. This blew my mind. They didn't bother to time them exactly as the original ones, so you get, for example, ships that lag behind or laser beams in different positions (it's obvious they didn't care much for historical accuracy), but that's a minor problem, when compared to the results. This kind of fix is a dream come true: it's the best of both worlds (one of the reasons why nineties movies like Starship Troopers still look so damn good, is they used digital compositing and still had lots of models and practical shots) and it doesn't betray the original artistic vision. The improvements in picture clarity (no generational loss, even with ten, twenty separate elements!), and the complete absence of matte lines make the experience even MORE immersive. It helps forgetting you're watching an effects shot.
Don't get me wrong, I still want a completely original version, for authenticity, so I can still have the same moviegoing experience that audiences had in 1977; but if ILM had digital compositing back in 1977, you can bet your ass they would've used it all the time. In my ideal world, we'd have a 100% original Star Wars, and a digitally recomposited Star Wars (without all the other changes). I know I'm not telling you anything new, mister Verta, but what do you think about it? ^_^
P.S. When I wrote this comment, I still hadn't watched the whole video, and sure enough, eventually you talk about digital compositing and you say that you'd love a separate version with just that enhancement. So you basically replied to my question, and we completely agree ;) Still, forgive me if I missed that part, but it sounded like you didn't know they already did it for the Special Edition... and of course that's impossible, you know much more than I do about anything Star Wars related.
I suspect part of the reason they weren't as careful in the compositing process is likely the techs involved had started their career in the digital world and didn't have the instincts of an old analog processor. Just guessing, mind you.
@@etansivad I guess we'll never know for sure. But since they had complete control over the position of the elements. this could also be more pointless tinkering by Lucas himself: "yeah, the X-Wing looks a bit too low in the original, I want to show more space over Luke's head" (in the scene where Yoda lifts the ship from the swamp using the Force, here's a visual comparison: twitter.com/StarWarsVisComp/status/1047516634490056704/photo/1 )
@@thornok2131 Well but also keep in minded that the original shots were intended to be seen in a theater projected on white canvas. And the "special editions" were very much remastered with the idea of people watching them (eventually) on CRT tvs. That right there has a big impact on all sorts of choices during image adjustments.
One thing I really like about this kind of restoration is it keeps Star Wars in the human realm. What I mean is if you pause a lot of the special affects scenes you can see all the details in the models and how they were built. Rather than detracting from the experience, for me, it adds to because I can think about the artists that worked on the movie and I can imitate them. Yeah, the CG models look more realistic and I have done enough 3d modeling (Star trek models, but that's another story) to even make images more convincing than the originals.
But the original are overflowing with the touches of the artist when they made it, and for me it's really handy to be able to pause the movie, see the model, and then use it for reference when doing my own crude miniatures painting for board games. The genius of the artists that worked on the movies back then was working within the constraints of the tools they had at the time and using it to their advantage. They knew what looked hokey, how to hide it, but also how to intentionally use it to make it look alien. Forget who shot whom first, I hate how the beautiful work of Hensen labs was swept under the rug because it looked dated.
Thank you for putting this together. It makes me really happy to see the puppetry in the Star Wars universe and models above all else. Taking that out kills so much of what made me fall in love with it back in '83 and I'd beg my dad to take me to the dollar theater (so small, they had to manually switch reels mid-movie) to catch the reruns of the first two movies while we waited for the third to come out.
You should leave an encrypted copy somewhere in event of your passing with the key becoming public, they can’t sue you when you’re gone.
The best strategy would be to share the film as an encrypted blob via torrent, and then release the key publicly with some failsafe dead man switch. In the event that Disney co-operates and the film is released proper, the key can be deleted, rendering the encrypted blob useless.
I hold onto those 2006 poor quality two channel sound original trilogy theatrical release bonus DVDs like gold. This effort needs to happen for the original trilogy if the art and significance that was Star Wars is to survive for future generations to have the opportunity to see these great films for what they were, history, and students of the arts and culture. Keep up the good work and thanks for the video.
This is how astrophotography is done to remove noise and atmospheric distortion. I tried doing similar with VHS sources of an out of print video a few years ago but it was unbelievably time-consuming.
Wow, this is like Alec Guinness' Obi Wan found an ancient holocron of Jedi knowledge and is trying to share it with the universe.
As an untrained layman, just looking at those shots you showed I am blown away by the detail. No joke about this being a whole new level of star wars restoration. Reminds me of when, after only seeing the televised version, I finally got to see a widescreen edition. I would pay MUCH just to view the whole thing once! A real official theatrical release would be amazing (And Profitable, Disney!). Fingers crossed!
you need to source Harmy's despecialized edition... it's like seeing it on the bigscreen in 77 compressed down to fit and all that detail is still there!
Impressive, but will we ever get to enjoy the fruits of your labor, as far as Star Wars is concerned?
HAVE FAITH! (and tell Disney, can't hurt.)
I am not here as a starwars fan but I am here as an artist. Very informative watch it till the end.
Why not give a final 4K restored copy of the film to Ryan Reynolds for safekeeping. He would never dare release it to the world. 🤞
Right =) But I think something like this HAS to be an OFFICIAL release. It's good karma, and the right thing. Both these are running low within the Disney Corporation. Sooo... why the heck not? I would certainly buy it - just because this is something so clean, unique and pristine - it's a real centerpiece.=)
China
If it was a celebrity "sex tape" it would already be on the web! Just sayin'.
@Brandon Cleland Logic suggests they don't owe nerds like you anything. You try to appease one group of deranged, self-absorbed Star Wars fans and alienate another at the same time. It's a no-win situation. Maybe some day you'll act like an adult.
@Jay McDanieL I'd take you seriously if you could actually spell words out rather than use stupid internet lingo. Who's the child? Ask yourself why my comment offended you then ask yourself whose problem that is...mine or yours.
This is important work! I truly want to see the Star Wars I saw as a young boy in 1977. I would pay good money to have such a copy and it would behoove Lucas/Disney to support this work and get it out to the public. They would finally have some success once again in the Skywalker saga. P.S. I'm amazed at how this process even works so well.
The sad thing is that had George Lucas allowed the 'restoration' team for the crappy DVD theatrical version releases to have given the original IP's (interpositives) a proper and thorough brand new 2K pin-registered scan followed by a meticulous frame-by-frame remaster that cleaned up any print damage while leaving the actual filmed content of those films' otherwise completely unchanged, he would have been hailed a hero by 99% of the (sane) SW fanbase, and we would have had full 1080p HD versions of the OT as originally released to enjoy for posterity... and George would have made a FORTUNE on the physical media sales alone!!!
I personally would have absolutely been MORE than happy had he taken that approach, alas...
Any updates? Are we still only at 85% complete?
That's the one i remember. Thanks man. Good work. Please Disney - Pay the man and release this.
This is absolutely amazing! Somehow, someway, I would like to get involved with restoring films using this technique.
Im curious if this will also work for videotape sources.
Say you have a vhs recording with noticable generation loss. Can the software make it look more like 1st generation vhs SP mode?
Incredible work here, I know this video is a few years old now and maybe you've come up with some new techniques since, but you say a few times that this process would be difficult to commercialize. As somebody with some compositing experience, I think you're dead wrong on that one :)
Instead of lining up the images with your eyes as they blink (clever idea! Seems to have worked!) I'm reminded of a similar process we had at a studio I used to work for that would use a difference merge operation that allowed the artist to align previous or future frames with the one they wanted to paint onto. Instead of using this with previous frames, you could use it with the stacked prints as you mention. Writing an algorithm to match them should be as simple as moving the image, checking if it has a lower or higher overall diff score, and moving in the direction that generates the lowest score in a loop, eventually stopping it as it converges to the lowest possible score, then moving onto the next frame.
Just a few minutes into watching but I want to say: I really love and support your idea!
(I've got grainy VHS copies of the original versions but would probably default to the fluffier flappier modern versions at this time... What you are talking about though on a big screen in the future would be glorious)
You can also download all 3 versions of Harmy's "Despecialized Editions" for free. Even if you don't care about the Special Edition changes that we all hate, the fixed color timing alone make them worth it. The official BluRays have a really bad red tint to them.
@@trekkiejunk I've heard about the Harmy versions before but couldn't figure out how to download them with that tricky system? Right this moment I'm ready to do a new google and give it another go, it probably isn't that hard... Thanks!
@@StefanBorglducky even the 2006 dvd would be light years ahead of any vhs copy. Especially if the tapes are pan & scan.
this is the coolest thing! you are a genius, I pray that your method will be the standard of movie restoration one day! You are my hero
When it comes to logic and Lucasfilm, never the twain shall meet.
this will impact lives all over again. The way it impacted my life, it now impacts my little children. I hope we can see this complete one day. We as in my children and myself.
My hope is that this final version gets lots of 35mm print backups. Or even better, on 70mm. A 35mm backup for every single colour would also make sense. Like those 3 Strip Technicolor movies did it. To be sure no color would fade in one single print. Because colourfilm is really only colour stable for about 50 years.
35mm back up for different colors is I think referred to as separation masters. It's actually a fairly common practice for films that were recorded on 1 strip color film.
@@Knightmessenger Yup, you're right. Wasn't sure anymore what it was called.
Great work. Hope I can get to see this REAL restoration.
The last decent original version official release was on VHS digitally remastered widescreen in 1996, sad that it’s been butchered ever since.
Technically speaking, those VHS versions are not the originals either. Lucas tinkered with all 3 films multiple since their initial theatrical release, mostly audio cues. But with Star Wars, his changes started while the film was in the theaters in 1977. If you saw the movie a few weeks after initial release, it's possible you heard a different soundtrack.
not really. There was a laserdisc release at the same time as the vhs. Those have much improved picture and audio quality utilizing the same source.
And there was a dvd release in 2006 that used the same master. It does look sharper than any laserdisc transfer because you can watch a direct digital signal via HDMI off the dvd, while the LD is basically composite connection.
In the UK it was 1995.
@@pferreira1983It was 1995 in the U.S. too. The laserdisc was from 1993.
I'd pay up to $200 just to see your restored version in theaters, it's one of those things you need to experience at least once in your life
there is TONS of stacking software out there used in astrophotography. I've used it for stabilizing footage. It can take single frames in and turn them into video or take video and turn it into stabilized/stacked frames. What's great is that it's open source and tons of controls. You should do a little research. I used it on Apollo 4 footage and voyager film.
Does it work for cleaning up vhs footage.
Watched the entire thing. You seem to have very good visual taste and the right approach to this project too. I hope it does see the light of day both for me and for other Star Wars fans.
There's no way they wouldn't make a tonne of money out of this release too, so do it already Disney!
I've got an older version of the Trilogy redone my Harmy, its great. I want to see what Verta's version is like.
Same here, I've got all Harmy's despesialized versions, and have to say I'm more than blown away by his work, including all those amazing fans who contributed to making the original theatrical release available to us mere mortals, but if this version by Mike ever sees the light of day it will be a real pinnacle amongst all the restoration versions.
Harmy's is best imo... because he used what, 16 diff sources of film/LD/BR/pictures/stills? and it feels like the original, and it's 1080... you CANT see 4k... so why bother? 1080 is fantastic without the need to have extra pixels of info that... you cant even see... especially when that data doesnt exist!
@@narmale they are actually 720p, he is working on 3.0 which will be 1080p
@@brown22sugar25 im a simple guy, i see good quality i click, if thats really only 720, gona take alooootttta work to get 1080 then, these look really good for 720 tho
@@narmale they do look really good, I only notice the rough resolution when I’m only a few feet from my tv
This is crazy. A perfect example of how analog and digital can compliment each other when used respectfully.
This is like the sci-fi geek equivalent of un-burning the Library of Alexandria! o.O
Considering how Disney f_ed up Star Wars and is losing money with it, these days we prob have the best chance to get your version man, thanks alot!
I'm just leaving a comment for the TH-cam algorithm gods, because for some reason this 3 month old video only now popped up in my feed.
I don't know the author of this restoration, but on the chance that all this is for real, I hope this video grows in views and reaches the right people.
I agree that something as good as this, if real, shouldn't just be thrown on the internet, that the right thing would be for Disney to come to an agreement with the author of the restoration and make it an official release. Especially if other original sources that Disney presumably has can be used to further enhance the results.
Of course, if Disney doesn't see sense, I could live with it being leaked on the Internet :)
you're my kind of fan, dude. you're doing vital work here, and its brilliant. I hope someday someone with some sense will own the rights. a 50th anniversary run with your restored edition would print money.
Hey Mike. I watched this a year ago and I watched it again the other day. I’m really intrigued with your project! I’ve seen all your Vimeo videos as well. I really, really hope Disney or George or whomever does the right thing and releases this to us all. Has there been any more progress to that end (that you can talk about of course!)? Thanks!! I’m watching for any more footage to surface from you!!
The logo title restoration blew me away the most. You couldn't even see the stars in the laserdisc version!
It really did look like a modern remake, done on a computer.
They need to pay you for it and release it in movies for after this pandemics over kind of like a celebration that way we can all go and see the greatness of this and the world can see it
Thanks, Mike V., for preserving our past! Cinema buffs everywhere owe you big time. Yes, 1980's Flash Gordon has some gross compositing errors I would love to see fixed -