A Few Words About A few words about... Star Wars on DVD (2 Viewers)

[Dave Farley]

Didn't Lowry say they did it at 2K because 4K really showed the limits of the special effects?

 

[Vincent_P]

Since the effects were filmed on VistaVision and 65mm, I don't see how 4K would "show the limits" at all, since VistaVision and 65mm have much greater resolution than a 4K digital scan. 4K is generally given as the maxiumum resolution of 4-perf 35mm- 8-perf VistaVision and 65mm are far beyond that.

Regardless, I think Lowry said they were given the pre-scanned files by Lucasfilm, so they didn't do any actual scanning of the original film elements at all.

Also, HDTV maximum resolution is 1920 pixels horizontal (1080 is the verticle limit), which is closer to 2K, not 1K.

Vincent

 

[Dave Farley]

In a Sound and Vision interview, he seems unsure whether the effects were up to 4K standards.




Here's the whole article.

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/art...article_id=671

 

[Michel_Hafner]

#Since the effects were filmed on VistaVision and 65mm, I #don't see how 4K would "show the limits" at all, since #VistaVision and 65mm have much greater resolution than a 4K #digital scan.

In theory. In practice these special effects put together on the optical printer with many passes will hardly have much detail beyond 2K, and almost certainly none beyond 4K. It's a big mistake to confuse the theoretical resolution of stock with the actual resolution of footage which depends on many other aspects and then is printed several times for a final element from which prints are made.

 

[Kevin M]

He made it fairly clear in the article:

:makes sense to me.
Of course these same "Imperfections" were apparently there even in the 1997 SE film prints and I don't recall anyone complaining then.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

Thanks. Could you please post the part where he talks about the restoration resolution?

 

[Dan Rudolph]

THe sudden change in quality whenevver a lightsaber was turned on always bugged me.

 

[Kevin M]

...that's it.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

Thanks. I think it's clear. It' not 2k but HD.

 

[Vincent_P]

But the light-saber shots would've been shot in "normal" 4-perf 35mm, then optically printed, whereas all other effects shots were filmed in either VistaVision or 65mm so that the final composite would better match the OCN 4-perf anamorphic 35mm footage. That's the whole point of shooting effects in a larger format- so that after all the optical printing, it will still have enough resolution/fine-grain structure to match the OCN 35mm footage. As such, aside from perhaps the lightsaber shots in "Episode IV- A New Hope", the effects shots in the three films should all be up to speed with the rest of the OCN anamorphic 35mm footage, no?

Vincent

 

[Geoff_D]

Technicalities aside, that article (thanks for the link Dave!) makes clear Lucas' involvement with the video side of things. He looked at the films almost scene by scene according to Lowry, and it's reassuring to know that Lucas oversaw the digital restoration to this extent. For all the inconsistent colour timing and dodgy lightsaber effects, Lucas saw exactly what we're seeing and hopefully he'll work to fix these minor flaws for the next release. In the meantime, this set is still a great (if not quite perfect) example of what can be done with digital restoration and it's a pleasure to have these movies look and sound so good on DVD.