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BFI shows rare IB Technicolor print of original Star Wars
BFI shows rare IB Technicolor print of original Star Wars
A very interesting short video about the incredibly rare IB Technicolor print of the original "Han shoots first" 1977 Star Wars, before the revised opening crawl. The print was shown with the blessing of Disney/Lucasfilm the other night at the BFI Southbank Theatre in London.
I believe there was also an original IB Tech print in a small climate controlled film and audiotape
vault in Dolby's San Francisco Potrero St headquarters. I recall seeing a print labeled as such
while working there around 2014/15. Another worker there confirmed it was an "original" print
that they kept on file. When Dolby was transitioning to its' fancy new hi-tech building on Market
St around 2016, I recall seeing the contents of that vault being packed up into moving boxes.
Some boxes were labeled as going to Los Angeles, and some were going to the Iron Mountain
storage facility. I don't know where that S-W print wound up.
( I also kept hearing about a working, solid state Perspecta-Sound decoder that Dolby owned,
but try as I may, I was never able to pin down its' location. The San Francisco techs said it
was down in Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles guys told me it was up here in San Francisco.
I do know it exists, because I've read an article about it, and I've seen pictures of it mounted
in a rack at Dolby)
Last edited by Jim Cassedy; 06-13-2025, 08:38 PM.
Reason: To Fix A 100 Year Old Date Error ( I typed '1916' instead of '2016)
It's a bit disappointing that this video gives us a lot of footage of the archivists who, with a release print, have to do very little beyond running it through an ultrasonic cleaner and sticking it in a vault; but it doesn't mention the professionals who will be called upon to subject it to intense heat, violent mechanical stresses, and take all the other risks that could damage the print if something goes wrong, namely the projectionists. And they would likely take the blame if anything does go wrong, too (same syndrome as the pressure on investigators from airlines and manufacturers to blame plane crashes on pilot error, especially if the pilots were killed and therefore can't defend themselves). A former co-worker put it best, I think, when she commented that being a projectionist in an arthouse/cinematheque type venue that plays rare and irreplaceable prints is likely the only occupation in existence in which you take an object that you are not trying to destroy, and put it through a machine that has teeth.
The overarching story of economics being a driver of the superior technicolor process downfall feels all too familiar in so many other threads about economic forces acellerating various races to the bottom in the exhibition industry.
But this screening should be celebrated, as scary as it is to project such a piece of history now, it is an object meant for audiences, without them it is just a roll of film like any other.
being a projectionist in an arthouse/cinematheque type venue that plays rare and irreplaceable prints is likely the only occupation in existence in which you take an object that you are not trying to destroy, and put it through a machine that has teeth.
Same thing with digital projectors. How many other examples of industrial-type equipment in mission-critical applications are deliberately designed to stop working like the projectors are.
This is from a 2010 screening of an original IB 1977 print. The picture was taken from the booth (about 100-feet away), through the port on a phone from the period (likely years older)...so, no resolution there. But it is clear, the color is still there. That print did have the updated crawl spliced in (and that portion, the color had started shifting).
Oh and "Han shoots first" is an improper statement. As all Star Wars fans know, Han is the only one that shoots.
The Academy has a 70mm blow-up with the “A New Hope” title that they have screened a couple of times.
I doubt you'll see it again, apparently it's in bad shape. The last time they tried to run it at the Academy Museum, reports were that it pretty much fell apart.
For many years the Technicolor London lab (opened in 1935) was the only IB printing facility outside the US. It kept running, even during the war. From Cornwell-Clyne, Colour Cinematography:
However, for about the first decade of production (and especially during the war), Technicolor London prints were known for QC issues, and specifically misregistered separations in printing, causing color fringing in projection (looking very similar to image from a DCI projector that is badly out of convergence). They were nicknamed "north of Watford prints," Watford being an outer suburb of northern London, and the implication being that the good prints were kept for the prestige London theaters and affluent suburbs of the south east, while the blurry ones were sent to theaters in working class, industrial areas of the Midlands and northern England. Incidentally, the list of British Technicolor features above leaves out The Jungle Book (1942). We were shown a "north of Watford" reel of it when I was in film archiving school in the '90s: it was so bad that I remember getting a slight headache within 3-4 minutes.
I've been told that Pearl Harbor (2001) was the last movie ever to use the Technicolor dye transfer process. I remember that the place I worked at, was actually promised a dye transfer print, but that one never materialized.
I think that the last film I've ever seen in this process was The Thin Red Line. While I wasn't a fan of the movie itself, I loved the way the rich, saturated colors popped on screen.
Apparently, there are also IB prints of Toy Story 2. I've never seen the IB print of it, but I remember seeing it projected by GE's CRT-coupled "D-cinema" prototype projector. The first and last feature I've ever seen projected in that particular format on that particular projection setup...
I'm 48 and wondering if I've ever seen a technicolor print projected, even though film on film was very much a part of my movie watching experience growing up.
Most likely, yes. If not become friends with a film collector. When I was collecting, I had about ninty IB prints, over twenty 70mm prints, the rest 35mm Eastman. I had so many rare titles that I eventually sold the entire collection to Robert Harris because his collection is in proper storage, and he guaranteed he'd be placing mine in with his after going through them. I did end up keeping about twenty films and took them to Utah when I moved there. Also, back then, films were cheap to buy, imagine picking up an excellent condition IB print of Shane for $300. Today it would be closer to 10 grand. Honestly, today, I'm retired and my interests have somewhat changed, and that is a very good way to retire.
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