"Lost Vocals" Mark has graciously provided his amazing videos to The Judy Room. Thank you so much Mark!
First up - an comparison of the A Star is Born DVD from 2000 & the new 2010 Blu-ray.
Below the video are Mark's notes about the clip.
trt: 11 min

From Mark: The top image is the 2000 DVD, and the bottom is the 2010 Blu-ray restoration. I've chosen scenes that had clear color differences - notice that Norman Maine's car has changed from blue to green!

In general, the blacks are no longer blue, and the whites are no longer yellow (look at Glen Williams jacket, the background in "Black Bottom," and Judy's skirt in "You Took Advantage of Me"). Many of the washed out dark areas are now deep and rich (the blacks in the 2010 restoration appear darker on youtube than they do on my TV).

The colorist has opted for bluer pallete throughout, it seems. But the best thing: Judy is no longer green during the "Born In A Trunk" closeup! And the dancers behind her in "Swanee" now look healthy too - yay! The "Peanut Vendor" sets also look much, much better. Also note the striking color difference in the strobe "movie" section of "Someone At Last."

It's also great that they've fixed all the jumps after the dissolves! Note especially the dissolve to "My Melancholy Baby" - in the old transfer there is a big shift in the image, but in the new transfer all the dissolves transition perfectly - sweet!

Everything looks great, except for the marriage proposal scene, which seems washed out on youtube. It looks better on the Blu-ray than it does here, but it is clearly more muted than the 2000 DVD. Finally, I used the used the extended music-only track for "Somewhere At Last."

Check out Mark's YouTube channels:
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Judy Garland in the recording booth: "My Melancholy Baby" & "Swanee"
trt: 5:21

From Mark: Here's Judy alone in the recording booth. Some of these are the actual takes used; others are alternate takes or false starts. By synching and comparing these tracks to the film soundtrack, I've been able to label which section of each take was used or not.

It sounds like these may have been recorded after filming, since she is singing to pre-recorded orchestra tracks, some of which include her voice.

I've also included the finished number, which shows Garland at her best: supremely confident and engaging, She not only performs a difficult dance number, but appears to be having so much fun she makes it look effortless.

In reality, the number of elements in the audio track alone is staggering: Judy's voice (pieced together from the multiple takes included here), orchestra, chorus, foley effects (taps, canes, tambourines), applause - each recorded separately and mixed together to give the perfect illusion of a live performance. Amazing.

"Lose That Long Face" (two versions)
trt: 4:29

From Mark: Here are the outtakes for this number (shown at the 1983 premiere of the restored film) matched to the released takes (found shortly after the premiere).

"The Man That Got Away" - Comparison of three versions
trt: 4:21

From Mark: Here are all three takes of Judy Garland singing "The Man That Got Away" from "A Star is Born."

The top image is the first take, filmed on October 21st, 1953, featuring Judy in a pink blouse.The cameraman could not give Cukor what he wanted: "low light levels, the impressionistic feeling of the musical instruments, Garland moving in and out of pools of light," so he was fired. Changes were made to the costume and set and the number was re-filmed on October 29th (the middle image). Gene Allen: "The first time it looked as if we had painted a set to look like a bar. So to give it a slightly impressionistic look I...put a scrim between the musicians and the back bar. If you look very carefully at that scene you can see the scrim nailed down on the floor..." (Look for Tom Noonan's shadow on the scrim!)

Earl Bellamy: "When Judy sang to playback, you couldn't hear anything...She wanted me to start at full blast and then she topped it...you could hear Judy clear as a bell, and she sang right with it..." Garland did 27 takes of the number over three days, both partial and complete. But "Cukor had her doing bits of business before the song, and all of that action didn't really fit the song - it was just too busy. And she didn't look good - her costume was wrinkled, it didn't fit right." And the color was wrong: too brown.

It was filmed for a third time in February of 1954, with new hairstyle and costume and a new set using reds and blues (the bottom image). Cukor: "I think we have generated a lot of sex...She looks perfectly charming in a new Jean-Louis dress, and I know that this too is an enormous improvement over the way we first did it - it has fun and spirit."

Comparison of Judy's outtake carhop footage from the 2000 DVD and the 2010 Blu-ray:
trt: 1:07

From Mark: Congrats to Warner Bros. for some great audio editing to restore synch to this scene, since the only audio that was found cam fron a different take. The first clip is from the original transfer (clearly out of synch), the second from the new restoration (much closer), and the last runs both audio tracks together to show the difference. Luckily, the music in the background stops just before the dialogue begins to allow it to be edited. Well done!

A few Warner Home Video Blu-ray promotional clips for A Star is Born

"Born in a Trunk"
trt: 2:16

"Gotta Have Me Go With You"
trt: 2:25

Esther's makeover:
trt: 2:13

Esther & Norman:
trt: 2:08

"Scared to take the plunge?"
trt: 1:55