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Topic: Star Wars, early printing on Kodak LPP question.
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Rob Young.
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1633
From: Cheshire, U.K.
Registered: Dec 2003
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posted March 30, 2004 12:57 PM
My copy of Star Wars was one of the first print runs on Kodak stock, back in 1989. Bought it at the fantastic convention that Keith Wilton did at the Waterman's Art Centre (anyone remember that?) where I saw and heard some of the best 8mm presentation I have ever seen before or since. It really was 8mm in a proper cinema!
Anyway, straying from the point a bit! The print isn't quite as good as the best prints available, being a little soft, but the colour is lovely and a real reflection of the original theatrical release. Many audiences have really enjoyed this print time and time again. There is occasional neg. wear, but nothing to worry about. I remember one reel of my copy suffered from lots of white sparkles, almost like neg. dust, but Derann at the time told me to send it back as it was a "lab fault". Sure enough, the replacement didn't suffer this "fault". I wonder if some people just put up with it? (and what caused it?)
I also recall that Derek wrote a few years later that the printing methods were changing from wet gate to dry gate, resulting in sharper prints, but revealing more neg. damage on the final print. Can anyone clarify this technical change?
Also the sound is fine; nice and clear. Had mine re-recorded by Derann into stereo from the original mono a few years back and this improved the presentation no end! The sound master does have a couple of seconds of "drop-out" on it at one point, about ten minutes into Pt. 2 as I recall, but all original sound versions have this.
The picture is nice and steady; a steady neg. in the first place, I presume, but also helped by the consistency of a smooth Kodak sound stripe going through the gate. I know the heart-ache that went into producing stripe in the early nineties and am nothing but grateful, but do others think that sometimes the picture steadiness suffers a little from a "bumpy" stripe???
Alan, if your print is one of these early ones (and it sounds like it is) then you're really in for a treat! Every video system I have ever seen really gives itself away as those yellow opening titles scrawl up the screen and reveal nasty line structure!!! A good 8mm really is like seeing it in the cinema again!
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James N. Savage 3
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1375
From: Washington, DC
Registered: Jul 2003
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posted March 30, 2004 03:20 PM
Well, this may explain a few things for me.
Back in the early 90's, I opted to by Star Wars one reel at a time (a service Derann used to offer). I got the first and second reel about two months apart, but then had to wait about a year to buy reels 3 and 4.
The first two reels had very good colors, but there is notable difference in the colors on reels 3 and 4. This is most notable on the scenes in the death star in that big meeting room with all the chairs. In the first two reels, the room is blue (the proper color), in reels 3 and four, the room is green.
The stereo sound on all four reels is good, though not fantastic.
All in all, the quality on Derann's release is better than the Ken digests (especially Ken's second extract) and the scope effect is so great, you probably wont notice the little flaws.
Still one of my favorites in my collection.
Nick.
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