Original Negatives lost when creating SE

Mrleemur

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Sooo, Lucas has always maintained that the reason we couldn't get an HD version of the original cut because the negative were destroyed in the making of the Special Editions.

now I've personally never believed this, and surely before you do anything once it's digitised, you back it up, you take another copy, you take it off site.. you make it safe, basic disaster recovery stuff, can't imagine they're not doing that at Lucasfilm.

Read something today that suggests that Gareth Edwards may have let the cat out of the bag that there is still a chance of getting it.

http://epicstream.com/news/Heres-How-Rogue-One-Acquired-Unseen-Star-Wars-Footage

Though of course this could be utter nonsense, aren't film negatives supposed to be stored in environmentally controlled conditions, unless they got them out specifically for him??
 

afsupplies

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I thought they had to scan old versions of the film for the Special Editions? I'm sure there are backups of any scans they made available somewhere, unless Lucas destroyed the archive with the Death Star :D
Anyway the Library of Congress has a print of the original 1977 Star Wars so that could be scanned and cleaned up for a 4k release.
Attack Of The Clones was filmed on 2K digital so that can't be upscaled to 4K.
 

db94

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Richard_H said:
It is believed that a 4k version of ANH exists. Unknown about the other 2.

This is all I want from the SW universe in 2017 - please give us the original unaltered theatrical release on blu ray
 

Mrleemur

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afsupplies said:
I thought they had to scan old versions of the film for the Special Editions? I'm sure there are backups of any scans they made available somewhere, unless Lucas destroyed the archive with the Death Star :D
Anyway the Library of Congress has a print of the original 1977 Star Wars so that could be scanned and cleaned up for a 4k release.
Attack Of The Clones was filmed on 2K digital so that can't be upscaled to 4K.

I thought Lucas only ever offered the SE, which wasn't accepted by the Library of Congress, had to be an original version??

when it was scanned, there MUST have been a backup, or a copy made to work from, the amount of time that takes, and given the cultural value of it, I can't believe the would have scanned it, destroyed the negs, and then altered the only copy they had. Just doesn't make sense!!
 

peekaygee73

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The Library of Congress does supposedly have 35mm prints of the original trilogy in their original format, though these were filed for copyright reasons and as such are not accessible (I'm not sure how true this is, but it's what I've heard)

I've never understood why it was stated that the 'original negative' was destroyed making the SE. There would be no reason why a negative would be destroyed in order to make a digital master - the process would be sympathetic to the negative not destructive. As has been mentioned above a digital master would be created prior to any editing, and knowing Lucasfilm's approach I'm sure this will be backed up somewhere. It's also very unlikely that there would only be one negative in existence - the manufacturing of prints upon the release would be reliant upon a number of internegatives. I can't imagine Lucasfilm would only have a single internegative. Personally I think this was a story formulated by Lucas to stop people asking for the release of the original trilogy in their original format.
 

edd_jedi

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With today's technology it would not be difficult to restore the originals, considering what an amazing job a couple of individual amateur fans have already done in their spare time.
 

peekaygee73

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edd_jedi said:
With today's technology it would not be difficult to restore the originals, considering what an amazing job a couple of individual amateur fans have already done in their spare time.
Agreed. The Team Negative 1 'Silver Screen' release of Star Wars in particular is fantastic. A fully restored official release from a low-generation source could be even better....IF performed by the right people!
 

edd_jedi

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Plus I would much rather watch a slightly grainy version of the originals than a super sharp version of the special editions
 

peekaygee73

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edd_jedi said:
Plus I would much rather watch a slightly grainy version of the originals than a super sharp version of the special editions
Where's that 'Like' button! This is absolutely what I love about the TN1 edition the most.
 

monkey_roo

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I'm not sure. The wave of nastulga that drives this is all well and good, but ultimately wouldn't it be best to leave it where it belongs, locked safely away in the romantic corner of our now aging brains.
The special editions are now the accepted version and while I would love to see Han shoot first and not get dodgy Jabba I would hate to have the reality of a grainy poor viewing experience rouin a memory. If the 4K it then we are back in special edition territory again so not much point .
 

Mrleemur

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I disagree, i have the de-specialised editions, and they are FAR superior to any of the official digital editions I've seen.

Whether that is down to nostalgia, i couldn't tell you, but there aren't all the digital bits all over, that didn't look right when it was released, and have aged even less well.

I got excited like everyone else when the SE came out, and then excited for the VHS, and the dvd, but after watching those for a while, even more excited about the GOUT (Georges Original Unaltered Trilogy) versions on the next DVD release, but none of those have come close to how the Despecialized Edition looks and feels.
 

peekaygee73

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monkey_roo said:
I'm not sure. The wave of nastulga that drives this is all well and good, but ultimately wouldn't it be best to leave it where it belongs, locked safely away in the romantic corner of our now aging brains..
No. As I (and others) have mentioned we have HD copies of the original versions of the films. They're great!

monkey_roo said:
The special editions are now the accepted version and while I would love to see Han shoot first and not get dodgy Jabba I would hate to have the reality of a grainy poor viewing experience rouin a memory. If the 4K it then we are back in special edition territory again so not much point .
The film grain would be evident but not poor. We're not talking about a noisy picture, just the grain as would've been seen at the cinema back in the day. And I'm not sure what you mean by a 4K version meaning we're in SE territory. Unlike the prequel trilogy the original trilogy were shot on film so a 4K version would be possible (and I imagine rather gorgeous).
 
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