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Post #1243128

Author
Chewielewis
Parent topic
Phantom Menace '99 - HD Theatrical Version by Chewielewis (a WIP)
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1243128/action/topic#1243128
Date created
25-Sep-2018, 9:19 PM

Imgur

A few months ago I had a conversation with ZigZig about this project and what I could be doing better. As it turns out I was totally off base with my assumptions on color. I had assumed from other posts on the topic that the only change in color from theatrical to DVD was a general pink wash that was easily removed with the THX reference.

As it turns out this could not be further from the truth. Throughout the whole film many scenes have been entirely regraded to look very different. Often to balance the poor color grading of the original release but also to brighten or darken a scene to enhance the mood, or to boost skintones where they had been washed out. Many scenes needed this treatment, the pod hanger, jedi council, senate chamber, but often the colors would become unnatural or video like. It was a rush job to fix a rush job, interestingly the bluray reverses a lot of these changes but introduces its own shitty grading decisions.

Restoring the colors shot by shot was an exhaustive process that took around a month an a half of full time work (as a freelancer I have plenty these days), I created over 1700 individual lut files using Dr Dres color matching tool. The HDTV was matched exclusively to the ORF1 SDTV release. As of now I’d say the colors are 99% accurate to the Theatrical Telecine which is a standard I am pretty happy with. It’s is certainly more pleasing to the eye.

Subtitles have also been adjusted. RU.08 suggested that the shadow on the subtitles goes directly down like in AOTC but on closer inspection of the Z bootleg they appear to go down and to the right.

I expect to have a preview out in the next 24 hours and if everything goes well it will be ready for public release soon. I’m eager to get this done and dusted as I have many more projects to work on.