I decided that the best way to check my colors was to compare my work to 3 other versions. 4K77 1.4, GOUT (my color correction), and 4K97 IV (Grindhouse 2). So I laid them out in parallel and reduced each to 1/4 the screen. Mine is based on Oteedee’s D+77.

Oteedee did some fine work, but he didn’t address the flaws in the 2019 source. There are a lot of them. I have been sorting through those more than fixing things that inherant to the original 77 version. Several sequences have been problematic because they are so bad. The Blockade Runner interiors. The Lars dinner conversation. And the Death Star Battle. Other sections I have barely toucheded. Comparing them side by side makes some issues stand out. For instance, today I noticed that just as Han is turning around after corning the Stromtroopes, there is a shot of Chewy that is far too yellow. Now, 4K97 IV being a grindhouse, there is no real set color correction for it, so I’m just going by the general look. But I did find a rough color correction that brings it in line with 4K77 1.4. You can really see that they used the technicolor print as a master for re-color-correcting the negative. It shares some of the same flaws, such as green shadows. But overall it gives a good feel for where the colors should be.

I’ve had to revert quite a few shots to 4K77 because both the 2013 scan and the new scan show extreme fading and bad attempts to correct it. A few others just because they changed the shot. I found 4 new shots in battle sequence that they changed.

I really think I need to prepare a corrected OUT version.