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Info: The Dark Knight - EE Reduction and Original Color Timing — Page 5

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Looks great.

I was going to do the same but have had to abandon my projects to to the arrival of a new family member, new house, new job, new life.

All the best with the project and im looking forward to watching your finished version.

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Just finished the Blu-Ray version of the prologue. Now onto the rest of the film.

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 (Edited)

Good to know it’s coming along nicely. Can you post a small sample from this? I hope the ‘TDK’ Full Screen DVD* comes handy in your project. : )

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TheDarkestKnight said:

Unfortunately, not much more reduction can be done without causing any nasty hazing. I might go back eventually though and reduce EE on a scene by scene basis, which should maximize the effect.

Look at some of MSU’s video filters, they might help.

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It’s been a long time coming, but with another year of university behind me, I finally have some free time again. Here are some stills of the project. For time’s sake, I’ve been going through on a scene by scene basis. Once finished with that, I’ll go back over the film and adjust any shots that need major correction and match them individually. While it’s far from perfect, it’s certainly an improvement over the Blu-Ray.

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Corrected

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 (Edited)

This looks really good. Keep it up man! The Reds in the last shot can be a little less though. It affects the eyes a bit.

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Noted. I’ll be sure to look for a shot that better shows the eyes in that scene and compare the screener with the corrected version.

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No no, I meant my eyes. As in - the red feels a bit too intense.

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Oh haha. Yes, that scene is quite red in the screener. As the corrected version looks very close to the screener though I will probably leave it as is for the time being.

I do intend to go back after putting out a version 1 (possibly before) and seeing if there’s a way to better balance the colors of the screener. As many scenes have high black levels and saturated shadows, while others seem to look natural.

I may look into adjusting the screener to match the BB Intro better, as at the end it has several scenes throughout movie. Of course, the timing of those two sources may have been different.

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Possibly yes.

Are you planning on adding the IMAX scenes in 1.43:1 as well and with a common width (vertical expansion for the IMAX scenes)?

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Anyone have an idea why Nolan or WB would even alter the film like this? I’m just curious as to the thinking.

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Papai2013 said:

Possibly yes.

Are you planning on adding the IMAX scenes in 1.43:1 as well and with a common width (vertical expansion for the IMAX scenes)?

Yes. Once I’m finished with color correction for the whole film, I’ll make a new timeline with adjusted resolution to allow for the IMAX scenes at a width 1920 pixels and swap all the 16:9 shots with the true IMAX aspect ratio shots.

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 (Edited)

I wish you’d keep the IMAX scenes in full 16/9 and/or the entire movie in 2.40:1. Even though it’s not the actual full frame of the IMAX shots, when watching on a widescreen TV, going from 2.40:1 to 1.33:1 is rather odd. That’s what has been made on the recent release on the spleen, and even though it’s a nice bonus version to have in our collection, it’s kind of weird and not really a go-to version (it had the theatrical DTS track though!). It would be great if we were still in the 4/3 TV era, but we’re not. The expansion value of the IMAX scenes, I think, relies on the filling of our screens. That’s what’s supposed to happen anyway in an IMAX theater, and most of these theaters crop more than our TVs (1.90:1 vs. 1.78:1). Plus, not all IMAX shots are available in glorious HD. The recent spleen release used DVD upscales here and there, and it clearly shows.

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Using the full IMAX shots will be a separate release. So there will be a version with the all the original Blu-Ray IMAX shots at 16:9.
Then I will add in the full IMAX shots for a separate release. The shots that require the DVD upscales I will try to composite together with the Blu-Ray shots to maintain the most detail (like how I composited together the BB prologue with Blu-Ray to keep the framing the same).
Finally, after this I will make another release with all the shots cropped to 2.40:1 for those with anamorphic projectors.

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Then, “three of a kind”, let’s do this! I’m excited with this. Have you already color corrected the night shot of Batman on top of a building hearing the Joker on the police radio about “Harvey Dent” being on 8th and Orchard Street? I’m wondering how it looks on your screener. On the DCP I saw twice in about one week, the night blue was a gorgeous cyan.

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It’s a bit of a blue, but a good deal brighter than the Blu-Ray. However, on the BB prologue, the same shot is that bright cyan. As I have mentioned earlier, I will later try to see if it is possible to adjust the screener to better match the BB prologue, as it includes a variety of shots from the movie. For the time being, however, I will adjust everything to match the screener.

Since that shot is a standalone and no other shots are in same location, there’s a chance I can match it to the BB prologue without it seeming out of place. Once every scene has been corrected, I have list of shots that I’d like to do more work on. I will be sure to this shot to that list.

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There are gorgeous shots in some of the trailers also. At least one of them went too far in colors though.

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Thanks for the update on this project since your progress is showing tremendous results so far and I’m glad to see this movie is in good hands here.

It just so happens that today I stumbled upon what looks to be a local screening, 3 weeks from now, near me of what I think is a DCP of The Dark Knight. http://www.gortoncenter.org/film/all/the-dark-knight

Tickets are still available if anyone happens to be in the area and I’m planning on making careful observations since I haven’t seen this in theaters since 2008 and I’m open for taking any notes for anyone wondering about color details.

I hope this isn’t too off topic of a post, it’s really nice to see this project making strides and we’re more than grateful to know that the dawn is coming for The Dark Knight and I wish for all the best in your endeavors to see this to the end!

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TheDarkestKnight said:

Using the full IMAX shots will be a separate release. So there will be a version with the all the original Blu-Ray IMAX shots at 16:9.
Then I will add in the full IMAX shots for a separate release. The shots that require the DVD upscales I will try to composite together with the Blu-Ray shots to maintain the most detail (like how I composited together the BB prologue with Blu-Ray to keep the framing the same).
Finally, after this I will make another release with all the shots cropped to 2.40:1 for those with anamorphic projectors.

It’s great you’re being so comprehensive about this. I’m very excited about the version with the all the full IMAX shots included 😃

Complete Star Wars Poster Collection

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Swazzy said:

http://batman-news.com/2017/07/10/christopher-nolan-4k-remaster-dark-knight-trilogy/

Interesting that Nolan himself is instigated in the production of this remaster. Maybe we’ll see a theatrically faithful version yet?

Will be awesome to buy these again on UHD. Especially with Batman Begins and The Dark Knight fully remastered in a 4K DI. Hoping the BDs included will be sourced from the remaster. Hell, I’d rather get a UHD The Dark Knight Trilogy boxset with the remastered BDs included. Hopefully BD100s for said UHDs.