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Feedback Wanted: 'The Matrix' - 1 pass Blu-ray regrade. Based upon earlier 35mm release.

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This was something I did for myself and had no intention of releasing, however if there is any interest I might reconsider.

This was not done on a scene by scene basis rather I’ve used the fantastic tool made by Dr.Dre & the tutorial posted by the TheStarWarsTrilogy.com Youtube channel to make a LUT based on multiple images.

My main motivation in doing this was the fact that, while the 35mm looked fantastic the lighting looked off. Darks too dark and light too bright. While this certainly doesn’t fix all of that I think it’s atleast a good middleground between the BD and it.

BD / Regrade
http://www.screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/209556

http://www.screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/209559

http://www.screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/209560

http://www.screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/209561

35mm Print / Regrade
http://www.screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/209557

http://www.screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/209562

http://www.screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/209563

http://www.screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/209564

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That looks pretty good. The pictures are a little too small so we can have a better idea on the blacks, the odd seamingly white text in the ending credits etc., but still, that looks good. I would definitely be interested in seeing the Blu-ray regraded to match the 35mm print.

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If anyone has specific parts they’d like to see just tell me and I could post a couple better detailed comparisons.
I could also provide video samples if that would be prefered.

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I’d like to see some screenshots of :

  • Trinity on the rooftop at the beginning.
  • Thomas Anderson in his boss’ office (especially his boss in front of the window to see the background city and sky).
  • Thomas Anderson interview with Agent Smith.
  • The blue pill/red pill shot.
  • The dojo.
  • The breakfast scene.
  • The Oracle kitchen.
  • Inside the Nebuchadnezzar, maybe the scene when they discuss pulling the plug on Morpheus (to see the blues).
  • The lobby scene.
  • The end corridor scene (Neo grabbing the bullets in midair).
  • The end credits (to see the color).
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Looks like the green is removed. Most Matrix fans would say this is heresy, but I actually prefer neutral colors. When I was younger and had the movie on DVD (the first dvd with the snap case), I remember watching behind the scenes clips from the movie that didn’t have the green, or even the music. I remember thinking: “Hmm. Wouldn’t it be cool if they released an alternate version like that. I’d love to try putting in different music and see if it fits”.

Yeah, I was already into fan editing long before I even heard of it, lol.

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I’m not sure how that 35 mm print was scanned, but the Blu-ray is closer to how I remember it in the theater. All the in-Matrix scenes are supposed to have a slight green tint. You could argue that the tint is too much in the Blu-ray, but this has taken it all away. It is part of the film and should not be removed completely.

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You are actually right, yotsuya! I’ve just made a custom color correction based on some different bits I’ve seen here and there including an old CAMrip and it keeps a lot of green aspects. I guess I’ll be releasing it soon if you guys are interested.

“English, motherf***er! Do you speak it!?”

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Updated with better comparisons.

Please do note that there has been no manual edits anywhere in this, I agree that this is a bit too much of a removal, particulary in the end corridor scene, even on the print it shows a lot more of green. My guess is that this is due to the fact that the color correction was based upon multiple scenes throughout the movie.

My own personal issue with this edit at the moment is that it has introduced a noticable yellow cast instead of the old green one, from what I gather this is due to the Agent Smith and Neo interrogation scene. The 35mm print seems to have a very strong yellow cast in that particular scene.

I’m still new to this stuff and am concidering doing more of a scene by scene based approach however I at the moment have no idea on how to do manual color corrections.

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The work you did seems good, capturing the “spirit” of that 35mm scan; I’d like to see a screenshot comparison at 1920x1080, to see better the result.

But, as others said, it seems that this scan lacks all the green that supposedly should be there… even if I like neutral, natural colors, there are certain movies where it should be avoided at all cost, and The Matrix is one of them, IMHO.

Sadly my projects are lost due to an HDD crash… 😦 | [Fundamental Collection] thread | blog.spoRv.com | fan preservation forum: fanres.com

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Thanks for the screenshots. I really like what I see. I think the ending credits should really be green though, and not white with a green border. Also, too much green was removed from the end corridor.

I have read some comments from a guy who, after seeing “the 35mm scratched edition”, said he was glad to see the blues like he saw them in the theater, and that he was distrurbed to see all that green on DVD – and he probably even meant the first DVD, which was way less green than the current color grading.

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So I’ve taken in a lot of feedback and I certainly agree with what everyone is telling me, I’ve been trying to figure out how to work with the print as there seems to be a fair bit of inconsistencies with it. Certain scenes look perfectly fine and others completely overblown with yellow, which compared with the better looking ones doesn’t match at all.

When I watched the first attempt at correcting the bluray yesterday, luma seems to still be the largest issue.

I just tried to match the bluray and print on that basis alone.
Turns out the results are fairly good, the print and BD doesnt perfectly match, so there is artifacting, it varies scene to scene.

Print before and after light matching to bluray.

http://www.screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/209684

I find the end results quite good & while they obviously don’t look all that great at the moment they will probably produce a better result to color match towards.

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2, 3, & 4 don’t look too bad, but there are some significant problems with 1.

You’ve got some color fringing with the lights, which tells me you either did a manual correction with them or the color manipulation blew them out.

There’s also a problem with the grain structure; there’s a lot of color blotching in many parts of the image. This is likely due to the very thick grain in this scene on the original print, but many walls and objects have very poorly resolved color.

It also is significantly darker, which crushes a lot of the facial details in the scene, Neo and the postman’s eyes being prime examples.

This isn’t to say your results are poor. I understand that these are supposed to be a source to reference for a proper Blu-ray color restoration, and that job is fulfilled pretty well in the later screenshots. But DrDre’s tool isn’t an end-all be-all solution for a single-pass regrade of a film. Scanning 35mm introduces its own biases, and some scenes like this one have heavy generational loss that will require their own tactics to resolve in a way that resembles the original material.

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@zxthehedgehog
I’m currently experimenting with the channel mixer from adobe after effects. The main of idea of which was to carry over the light? luma? I don’t know the terms to be honest, I’m learning as I go here, from the bluray over to the print mainly due to the fact, that it had some issues with the very powerful highlights in terms of brightness (in my opinion).

While I said single pass regrade in the title it seems more likely the longer that I keep on working on this that I might take a more of a detailed approach.

Currently I’m testing whether some warping of frames might allow me to carry over the luma from the bd with less artifacting.

I’d love feedback as to what might be more proper ways of doing this, again I’m learning as I go.

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In my Star Wars project I was able to use some of the color (chroma) of 35mm sources overlaid on the blu-ray, but this requires almost frame by frame image registration to prevent misalignment due to the natural gate weave of the film. I would not recommend mixing and matching luma between sources because humans can much more easily detect luma than they can chroma, and the alignment would have to be perfect.

The channel mixer is a powerful tool, and I used that in conjunction with a curves adjustment to remove the green tint in the Blu-ray: (from the Matrix 53mm thread) http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/209768

My guidelines for channel mixer use are to leave the ‘constant’ values at 0, and make sure that each of the 3 channels equals 100.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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Alright, been working on this off and on, and I think I’ve been able to achieve a much better result, my monitor Is only semi-calibrated so I’d appreciate some feedback on these corrections.

https://diff.pics/8dmijf7MoqbJ/1

Image is selected at the top and then you can swap between multiple comparisons at the same time, rather than just being limited to 2.

Edit: Here’s the print correction I’m working off of currently.
https://diff.pics/6cGu4BUcFWB0/1

I’ve also managed to find a site that showcases the earlier DVD release. It shows none of the blanket green compared to later releases, question is how accurate it is compared to the original release in theater.
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0&d1=5189&d2=5188&s1=48381&s2=48369&i=0&l=1
Rather than green it seems to me like it has a slight magenta tinge to it.

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Okay, so I just got back from a 35mm screening of “The Matrix” in the French Cinémathèque in Paris, France. It had French subtitles and I am not aware of any rerelease of the movie, so it was most likely a print from 1999. And I was shocked to see that the Blu-ray is actually not that far from being alike in terms of color grading. It’s not accurate in every part, that’s for sure, but man, the 1st color grading we’ve seen on video back in the day is dead wrong, and it was not the same as the 35mm scan released by our pals here either. Some parts looked alike, that’s for sure, but the Blu-ray also in other parts. And when toying with the color temperature on my TV screen from medium to warm and sometimes the other way around, I manage to closer match the Blu-ray with what I’ve just seen in 35mm.

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Beber said:

Okay, so I just got back from a 35mm screening of “The Matrix” in the French Cinémathèque in Paris, France. It had French subtitles and I am not aware of any rerelease of the movie, so it was most likely a print from 1999. And I was shocked to see that the Blu-ray is actually not that far from being alike in terms of color grading. It’s not accurate in every part, that’s for sure, but man, the 1st color grading we’ve seen on video back in the day is dead wrong, and it was not the same as the 35mm scan released by our pals here either. Some parts looked alike, that’s for sure, but the Blu-ray also in other parts. And when toying with the color temperature on my TV screen from medium to warm and sometimes the other way around, I manage to closer match the Blu-ray with what I’ve just seen in 35mm.

http://www.caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0&d1=5187&d2=5338&s1=48357&s2=49800&i=0&l=1

The HDTV for the screencap is the original cinematic color timing. The Blu-ray is the revised one which matches the sequels.

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I thought so, too. Now I’m pretty sure that it is not.

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Beber said:

I thought so, too. Now I’m pretty sure that it is not.

The original release DVD has the same color timing as the HDTV which is once again from the original cinematic color timing.

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I know all that, but it doesn’t seem to be the actual original 1999 color timing. I’ll ask the Cinémathèque what year their print is from.

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Beber said:

I know all that, but it doesn’t seem to be the actual original 1999 color timing. I’ll ask the Cinémathèque what year their print is from.

One of the main reasons I’m still keeping the DVD released in '99. WB needs to give The Matrix a proper remaster anyway since the Blu-ray disc release, even the HD DVD too, uses a far older transfer. Random mention but I do own the video game THE MATRIX: Path of Neo for PC (IMO far superior to Reloaded and Revolutions) which also uses clips from the films. Really don’t remember what color timing those clips were in-game though, for the first film. Should be a video on Youtube from someone either making a custom cutscene compilation or playthrough.
Maybe color matching?

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The DVD doesn’t seem to be accurate either. The LD has yet another color timing which might be closer yet to the film. I’ve sorta given up on the project for now, while a cool idea there doesn’t seem to be any good scans to match against.

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I was sure the LD had a different color grading; lately, another member did a capture and discover that it is identical to DVD, so at the moment there are two official gradings, LD/DVD/HDTV (open matte, don’t know if exists an OAR version) and BD/HD-DVD.

Sadly my projects are lost due to an HDD crash… 😦 | [Fundamental Collection] thread | blog.spoRv.com | fan preservation forum: fanres.com

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^…^ said:

I was sure the LD had a different color grading; lately, another member did a capture and discover that it is identical to DVD, so at the moment there are two official gradings, LD/DVD/HDTV (open matte, don’t know if exists an OAR version) and BD/HD DVD.

The LD/DVD/HDTV is original (At least the 1999 DVD) and DVD (newer)/BD/HD-DVDbut ths the revised. Already mentioned the current BD/HD DVD doesn’t have very good compression. Would be nice to have a 4K scan with both color timings. Would WB do it? My guess is they’d release other movies first before getting around to it.
My take is the BD is the best video source for current color timing and the HDTV, even though
it’s open matte and better compression (details), for OG color timing. Take note LD and DVD both have lower color space compared to UHD/BD/HD DVD. I even own certain releases of titles from two separate countries and companies with wildly differing color timing.

(i.e. Mona Lisa. The USA Image Entertainment uses a vastly outdated transfer, is a much older release, while the newer UK ARROW Video disc is a brand new glorious 4K scan. Proper color, compression, and film grain retention.
http://www.caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0&d1=6123&d2=6124&s1=57752&s2=57764&i=2&l=1)
A better example would be another stylized science fiction or action film which received a full remaster compared to what the drama received above. Of course if a film has more than one official cut, said cuts need to be directly compared to each other if they vary in terms of color timing.

YMMV.

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I actually like the color timing on that other screener that had no green tint at all. Whether in the Matrix or not.