Attack of the Clones: Color Correction of the Blu-Ray (Released)

Hello guys,

I found this article about changes in re-releases of the prequels: http://www.dvdactive.com/editorial/articles/star-wars-the-changes-part-four.html

It stated that the Blu-Ray version of AOTC has some weird color grading. I decide to use DrDre’s tool from http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Color-matching-and-prediction-color-correction-tool-v13-released/id/18128 to fix it.

The following changes have been made to the colors:

• The Jedi meeting in Palpatine’s office has been made more blue.
• An orange hue has been added to the meeting with Obi-Wan, Anakin & Padmé to add to the effect of the sunset.
• A pink glow present in the entire chase sequence has been removed.
• I added a slight yellow touch to the Jedi Council meeting for better skin tones, especially for Yoda & Windu.
• The same yellow touch has been applied to Palpatine’s conversation with Anakin.
• A purple hue in the conversation between Obi-Wan & Windu in the hallway of the Jedi temple has been removed.
• The scene of Padmé packing her things in her apartment has been made a bit more green.
• The Archives have been made more blue to be consistent with how we see them in Revenge of the Sith.
• Skin tones have been improved in the refugee spaceship with Anakin & Padmé.
• Added a bit of green to the younglings scene without altering the lightsabers.
• Removed pink from the arrival of Naboo scene. The result is much more orange, which suits the bright sun of Naboo.
• The colors in the conversation between Padmé and the Queen have been slightly tweaked.
• All scenes on Kamino, Naboo & Tatooine have been made more orange, as well as the Geonosis scenes up until the arena battle.
• Orange has been removed from all scenes starting with the arena battle.
• The same orange hue has been added to the Naboo wedding.

A 15-minute video showing the changes can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjdol99wjEE

The only used video source is: STAR WARS Episosde II Attack of the Clones Official Blu-Ray 2011
Format: MP4
Available in HD 1080p and SD 360p, H264 29.97 fps
HD File: 2.62 GB, 2.5 Mbps
SD File size: 945 MB, 800 kbps

Can I ask why 29.97fps? And 2.62GB for a 2 hour long HD movie?

I added the data rates to the file info. This probably explains the file sizes.
The original Blu-ray had a framerate of 23 fps, but my editor gave output files of 29.97 fps.

Chris358cp said:

I added the data rates to the file info. This probably explains the file sizes.
The original Blu-ray had a framerate of 23 fps, but my editor gave output files of 29.97 fps.

Well, that is not right, then. 😃 should be 23.976 as output.

Also, there are HDTV caps and restorations of the DVD version of the film if you want to watch it in HD with better color.

I have made a comparison of the DVD version with what I made. In some occasions I saw that the DVD version had more blue, so not the most realistic colors.
My intention of this color correction was to create the most realistic colors for each scene. I made multiple LUT files and looked scene-by-scene what I thought was the most realistic.
If it’s necessary, I can reprocess the video’s with 23.976 frames/second.

It’s necessary. Don’t want ntsc stutter. You also might want to export it with about 10 times the bitrate for 1080p, or about 4 times if you want to do 720.

Possessed said:

It’s necessary. Don’t want ntsc stutter. You also might want to export it with about 10 times the bitrate for 1080p, or about 4 times if you want to do 720.

Yep. Worth learning these things, as you don’t want to spend a bunch of time color correcting things, only to introduce new problems in the final step.

As wonky as colors are in some of the Star Wars releases, I think I’d probably take that over repeated/stuttery (or blended interlaced) frames or super low bitrate. But again, issues like these help you learn about the different important steps in rendering and editing.

Thank you for the feedback guys. While I started fixing the framerate and data rate, it would be nice to get feedback on the actual color correction as well. I’m going to continue with this project, because I think everyone deserves a Star Wars film with realistic colors.

poita said:

I still haven’t seen AOTC, I really should try to watch it.

I would watch a fanedit. If you’ve truly never seen the theatrical you might be able to actually enjoy it, but you are pretty much guaranteed to not like the theatrical.

Possessed said:

poita said:

I still haven’t seen AOTC, I really should try to watch it.

I would watch a fanedit. If you’ve truly never seen the theatrical you might be able to actually enjoy it, but you are pretty much guaranteed to not like the theatrical.

I was considering the exact same thing when I went for my very first viewing of The Phantom Menace, but in the end I did go with the official Blu-Ray version (not DVD because puppet Yoda in TPM sucked). This allowed me to get my opinion on the real thing before heading to a fanedit.

Yeah and that makes sense but if your first experience with a movie is that it’s terrible that’s going to be hard to shake, whereas if your first experience is a well done fanedit you might at least think it’s decent.