A few further thoughts on that project which might call for a “V3”:
While MJBenito’s color adjustments are great and the slight noise layer maybe rescue at least some filmic style, it cannot hide the already “scrubbed”, de-noised and somewhat waxy nature of the source.
Also, directly comparing the 2D Blu-ray release with the upscaled 3D one, the former still has a bit more resolution (visible on the clothes) so I wonder whether an open matte version could be created out of the 2D source with its higher quality and the missing information above and below stitched together from the 3D open matte version. However, the image angles seem to be a bit different and I’m not sure if either eye frame (left & right) from the 3D BD matches the original 2D film frames.
https://ibb.co/VCCCG5C
https://ibb.co/sPwHC6pThere is also an extended cut floating around from 35mm where the additional scenes don’t seem to be sourced from the film, but rather some Web-DL streaming video.
Sigh, all in all, it is so damn frustrating considering that those morons are sitting on the best source possible, the negatives, and apparently can’t simply release that stuff without screwing things up.
I can’t decide what I find more retarded: the stupid AI sharpening on the UHD-BD, the goddamn orange & teal ugly color gradings on both the Blu-rays or the filtering of the 3D-Blu-ray (the latter one maybe being the least non-sensical in regard to the noise which might distract in a 3D experience, although I doubt even that as our human vision isn’t noise-free either thanks to retinal-noise which can be very visible as well). Even if, there is no good reason not to release the open matte in 2D without the damn noise filtering.
So at the end, neither version is really great.
@MJBenito: maybe you could consider to release also a regraded version like this one here, but based on the 2D cinema scope source with its better quality or test another version with even more noise added as the Blu-ray has a lot more (color) noise than its 3D counterpart:
Hi, I’m quoting your last post but I’ll try to answer every question you’ve asked in this thread.
First of all, the 3D open matte version has less grain than its 2D scope counterpart for sure. BUT it is the only version available in 1.78. I tried to compare it with the scope version and besides the fact that not all shots are open matte but sometimes slightly zoomed, the geometry of the shots are also not always matching. After thoughts, I decided it would be too much work to blend 2D and 3D images together cause it would have to be done shot by shot.
The goal of this project has always been to get the biggest picture with the best color grading and the original audio experience. That’s also why I’m actually doing the V2 version with 10 bits color encoding. When it’s released, of course, anyone would be able to use the final rendering and make its own editing choices. But my work on Titanic will stop with the 4K Filmized Open Matte Remaster.
On the other side, I’m also working on an uncut version of the movie in scope, including the deleted scenes. And the whole project that will also get the 4K Filmized Remaster treatment with adjusted color grading. At some point, I might also make an uncut hybrid open matte scope version of the movie but I just don’t have a goal date for these releases.