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Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring - Extended Edition - 4K Dremastered

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 (Edited)

After some careful consideration I decided to have a go at remastering the extended edition blurays of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, starting with The Fellowship of the Ring. Since the bluray for FOTR has a number of issues, and is generally considered too green, the first step will be to regrade the bluray based on 35mm film reference frames. I finished regrading the first half of the film. Here are a few example shots:

Here’s an album with a 150 shots:

https://imgur.com/a/loB5eQ2

More coming soon!

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Looks great! Looking forward to having a definitive version of the Extended trilogy.

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Oh hell yeah.

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MTFBWY…A

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Glad you are having a stab at the extended editions.

I guess you will just be going with a straight up port with no changes in structure? Whilst still a huge task.

The Extended editions are great but after looking at fellowship for quite a while I noticed that the remnants of how the film was to go together or fit together are quite obvious and it’s not how the extended edition is presented.

If I may explain. After the scene where the Black Rider Leaves there is this very long shot of Frodo looking at the ring… We are holding on that image a very long time.

The other oddity around this part is The long zoom up the corridor in Orthanc where Saruman talks of joining Sauron.

Basically those two long held moments are meant to actually combine in a dissolve so Frodo looks at the Ring in the palm of his hand and then dissolve through the ring up the corridor of Orthanc to Saruman.

These two moments are shot and filmed to transition and join however the extended edition does not present them in the original planned sequence. This obviously has ramifications for structure for the whole first half and many scenes work better in a different order than is presented.

Although I appreciate you effort to simply make the Extended edition look better It would be quite something to present it closer to how it was planned. The extended editions are made around the theatrical cut’s after the fact and not assembled in the fashion of an assembly.

Audio does not present any challenge for assemvling the original order either for instance If you take the midgewater marshes scene It’s scored with music then the music stops to allow the insert for the second breakfast sketch in snow and then back to the marshes then continues the score after the insert. The snow on the ground and the second breakfast sketch do not match the rest of the scenes and where slam dunked in.

So I don’t expect you to have a go at this because I don’t think it’s your style to attempt something like that but there is a much better version than what we were given although it’s still a brilliant film but we are missing some artistic craft in which it would have been originally assembled.

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Interesting, I never noticed this. Might be something to consider in the future, however like you said, I first would like to present the extended trilogy in the best way possible as it was released.

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I know the EE Blu-ray has its issues, but in terms of detail, natural grain, and compression, it’s superior to the theatrical release in my opinion (and if memory serves, the audio on the theatrical Blu-ray was the same overcooked track from the DVD). With your color corrections, which look great, I think I can deal with a bit of black crush to get all the other benefits of the EE upscaled to 4K (assuming you’re not taking a stab at addressing the black crush also).

Really looking forward to this.

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MTFBWY…A

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DrDre said:

Interesting, I never noticed this. Might be something to consider in the future, however like you said, I first would like to present the extended trilogy in the best way possible as it was released.

That is fair enough I figured as much. The other thing to look out for that you might be interested in is the Cannes preview a 26 minute piece which was released on the ultimate box set recently. This contains some extended and alternate shots especially for the Mines of Moria battle. It is in very good quality also as in perfect HD and finished professionally.

Good luck with this though. I wish you all the best.

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Looks outstanding, even before the upscale.

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MTFBWY…A

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Wow, this looks incredible. The definition of the Blu-ray, but with the style of a film print. What comes next, after the regrade? Also, is there a special method to dealing with the problem shots where the green tint darkened and took detail from the image? I know the other big colour restoration here used the chroma from the theatrical blu-ray for that stuff.

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coreyatad said:

Wow, this looks incredible. The definition of the Blu-ray, but with the style of a film print. What comes next, after the regrade? Also, is there a special method to dealing with the problem shots where the green tint darkened and took detail from the image? I know the other big colour restoration here used the chroma from the theatrical blu-ray for that stuff.

The black crush isn’t nearly as bad as I feared. However, in so far as the shadows have been compressed, the AI upscaling/detail enhancement treatment should restore what was lost.

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So glad that these films are getting the care and attention they deserve. Eagerly awaiting this!

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Count me in as one who is looking forward to this being completed…Thanks so much for your efforts!

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Hello Dre, when running the film through Topaz did you upscale each shot or did you run the whole film? I’ve heard things about Topaz intoducing artifacts from the previous frame to the next, when changing to a different shot, so I wanted to know if you have encountered something like thsy with the recent Topaz releases. I’m mainly asking because I’m trying to upscale some of my blu rays to 4k and it seems like you would probably notice if the issue happend to you.

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I ran the whole film. I haven’t seen any issues with artifacts from different shots with the latest versions. For the EE I created by own custom combination of upscaling settings, which is now possible in the last two versions, because I want to retain all the film grain in the original source, whilst adding detail and deblurring the frames.

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Looks FANTASTIC!! Cant wait to see this.

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It’s fantastic !
How will the project be finalized?
Rec2020 or 709?

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Rec709, since it is based on a Rec709 source.

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It does indeed look really good.

In terms of the new release what are your thoughts on the revised grading when Gandalf falls down the crevace of Khazad-dum?

In the new release version they made that blend better with the surrounding scenes adding some more red… and then laxk of when Balrog falls…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9NHIdMrWlQ

Whilst I don’t have the new Release I did see screencaps for the Gift Giving when they leave lothlorien an it was one of the very few instances where I felt ok that looks better what do you reckon on the new grade on the gift gibig scene?

One more final point upon reaching Cahadras (Lothlorien big tree) Notice swap from Day to Night suddenly… Is it possible that it is all graded as night in the adsence of any missing part there. I think this is where Legolas got his new costume and the leaves are falling and the elven women run through the forest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihmTAn-9ve4

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I’m oke with the new HDR grades. They look fine to me, but I prefer the original look for all three films.

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DrDre said:

I’m oke with the new HDR grades. They look fine to me, but I prefer the original look for all three films.

Ok but what about the sudden swap from Day to Night?

We see the big tree roots at the base “Daytime” when pan up the bigature model of the winding stairs around the trunk it’s night.

How about grading the first shot as night for continuity?

This feels a quite choppy otherwise…