Sources
Hello Star Wars fans!
We've had a few questions about the 35mm sources we are using, so I figured I would just show you what they are.
Most of project 4K77 will be either Eastman or Technicolor, supplemented by an upscaled Silver Screen Edition when needed, most notably at the reel changes. We are still waiting on a complete 4k scan of the Spanish LPP on which the Silver Screen Edition was based, but we do still have access to those reels, so if it became absolutely necessary we could make our own 4k scan of any given shot. But since both the Eastman and the Technicolor prints are sharper and less grainy, the LPP is really only being used as a repair layer and we can move ahead without that new scan.
Some of you may be wondering, "but are you using THAT Technicolor print, the one Mike Verta used for his Legacy Edition and that caused so much trouble earlier this year?" Well, we are using it as a color reference for sure, and it may be called upon to provide some frames if they are missing from other prints, occasionally even entire shots. As you may recall, Mike Verta himself sent us the entire Greedo Sequence from this print in 4k for us to use in the Silver Screen Edition and that's exactly what we did. But the fact is that we actually have access to another 35mm Technicolor print of Star Wars that has far less damage. And this is one that Mike Verta does not even have. Let me show you.
So this is the Tech that Mike used as the backbone of his Legacy Edition. As you can see, there is lots of damage, but the colors are really good. Still, it's a lot of work to clean that up.
Now this is our scan of the other Technicolor print. The colors are not so good, but that really doesn't matter because we have Dr. Dre and his wonderful algorithms that can almost perfectly match our scan to the other one. But just look at how much less damage there is! So, rest assured, when it comes to the Technicolor footage, we will be using our own scan over Mike's most of the time.
As you know we also have several Eastman Reels. Reel 1 is in pretty good shape despite the fading, but not all of the reels are so good. Here is the same sequence we were just looking at but on the Eastman stock:
Yikes, clearly our Technicolor scan is the best choice for this sequence. As you saw in our Techniques video, every shot is really a combination of prints, so really it would be our Tech laid on top of the Silver Screen Edition.
So there you have it. We pick the best source we have for each shot.
