.: LeeThorogood's Original Trilogy Replica Technicolor Project :. (Released)

As the title suggests this project will be my attempt to replicate the Technicolor aesthetic seen in the photos from the Senator Theatre Technicolor I.B. showing for the whole of the Original Trilogy. Now as Technicolor stopped making Imbibition prints by the time The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi were made, whatever this project produces for those two films will be at best examples of what could have been.

At present I am working on Star Wars as that is the film we have a source of reference for. Once Star Wars is complete I should then be able to use the same colour correction settings to re-color the other two films, tweaking the settings for Empire and Jedi as necessary.

Star Wars in Technicolor DVD Label

For this project I am using the G-Force enhancement script on the video from the NTSC DVDs of Star Wars & Empire, and the PAL DVD of Jedi, albeit without G-Forces levels, colour correction and subtitles commands, I have also modified the scripts to output at PAL resolution rather than NTSC, this was I can do both without loss of quality. 😄 For the Audio I have Belbucus’ theatrical audio for Star Wars and his '93 PCM captures for Empire and Jedi however these are kind of my plan B as I would ideally like to use dark_jedi’s captures of the theatrical audio for Empire and Jedi when they are released instead. For the alien subtitles I have recreated the theatrical subtitles (placement,size,timings) using myscamore’s avisynth script as a guide. Naturally I would like to thank G-Force, Belbucus, dark_jedi and myscamore for their contributions to this wonderful community.

For the colour correcting I am using Apple Color 1.5. I have played around with several different ways to get the GOUT to look like the Technicolor print but the one that seems to work best is to increase the GOUTs saturation then dial down the reds so neutral colours are no longer tinted, and then selectively correct individual colours for example even with these adjustments Obi-Wan’s cloak and undershirt are still rather washed-out and red, so isolating the HSL range of this washed-out reddish-brown I can selectively colour correct it to be a more greenish-brown as in the Technicolor print. Similarly I can isolate the HSL range of skin-tones and adjust them to avoid the “carrot people” look.

As I want to be able to copy these settings over to the other two films when I am done I am not correcting on a scene by scene basis but rather building up a colour grade that is applied to the whole film. That said there is one exception in Star Wars and that is the binary sunset scene, which I have colour corrected to more closely match what I understand to be its original colouring (Lighter, more reddish/orange than blue/purple.)

I think that covers all the basics of this project, if you have any questions I would like to hear them. 😃

zombie84 said:This could be very interesting. Also, the wording in your post is a bit unclear--are you de-greening Owen's shirt in that shot?

zombie84 said:Also, this is something that I posted in my thread on the colouring, but I recommend a bit of a contrast bump to the image. The GOUT is relatively flat, I don't know if the G-Force gamma change solves it completely, but the DVD itself definitely could use a bit of a kick here to get things popping more.

Many thanks for all the useful pointers zombie84. :)

EDIT: @AluminumFalcon at this stage I have no idea when Star Wars will be finished, it could be a few days it could be a few weeks, it all depends on when I hit that sweet spot with the colour grading. ;)

Thanks Zombie that sounds like it could be quite useful! I too hope to have some screenshots to share by the end of the weekend. ;)

Personally I would be more happy to see someone take a stab at the pre-THX LD transfers instead, but every attempt to get the films colortiming closer to its original state is always welcomed. :)

I'm glad to see that my sub-script coming to good use, don't feel restricted by it though, it's not perfect IMO, I would be happy to see someone improve upon it.

As this is mainly a color correction project, I suggest that you keep these glitches in mind: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Star-Wars-Trilogy-Original-Theatrical-Versions-2006-DVD-Flaw-List/post/462787/#TopicPost462787

Maybe you could splice in footage from other sources in those scenes.  

The close up of the twin suns should also be red in color and not blue/purple as you can see in this post for example: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Star-Wars-Colortiming-Cinematography-was-What-changes-was-done-to-STAR-WARS-in-93/post/428819/#TopicPost428819

That is something I'm 100% sure of as I've obsessively studied that close up on many transfers out there, and that close up is only blue/purple in the '93 telecine.

I'm looking forward to see what you can accomplish, good luck with this project.

rockin said:
:O

Shockingly awesome Lee.

I never knew there was more life left in the GOUT source. It almost looks like a totally different source.

Thanks Jetrell. :)

I don't want to jump the gun as I won't know until I have watched this on my 26" LCD TV, but I think this colour grade might be the one! :D

Nerfherder said:
Awsome-zilla!!! However  - and please don't think I am nit-picking - I think just a TAD more colour would bring it closer to those Technicolor print shots, unless it's my laptops screen of course...

At any rate it's leaps and bounds better than the stock 2004 GOUT, and shocking that Lucasfilm couldn't even be bothered to do a basic colour correction to it like you have here for its release. Just goes to show what some love for this film and technical competency with video tools can reveal.

I salute your technical prowess, Sir!

:D

The Aluminum Falcon said:

Wow Lee! Those colors look fantastic! They're so vibrant and completely unlike the monochromatic (in comparison) GOUT! I think you've hit the correct grade :-)

Nice results! IMO and this is just my opinion as there's as much opinions when it comes to color-timing as there is colors, you should go a little warmer. Star Wars IMO had a very warm color palette.

The sunset:

The colors in the wide shot look way off and unnatural to my eyes, the lower sun is too pink and the sand have a sickly green/yellow tint.

The shot of Luke is incredibly close to how it looked in FOX-promotional material for the SE before it went looking like night in the '97 video release. It's been a while since the '97 SE played in cinemas but I clearly remember that I reacted when I first saw the SE on video and thought it looked weird and couldn't remember it looked that way in the cinema. Anyway, it looks beautiful, the photo of the Technicolor screening have more pink in it though.

A little more red in the close up of the suns and it would look much better.

Again... just my opinion, what you've accomplished so far is really nice. Keep it up! :)

zombie84 said:

I think the saturation could be bosted by about 10% as well, at least for most shots, to match Technicolor levels without sacrificing anything. But these still look very nice. Good job!

msycamore said:

Nice results! IMO and this is just my opinion as there's as much opinions when it comes to color-timing as there is colors, you should go a little warmer. Star Wars IMO had a very warm color palette.

The sunset:

The colors in the wide shot look way off and unnatural to my eyes, the lower sun is too pink and the sand have a sickly green/yellow tint.

The shot of Luke is incredibly close to how it looked in FOX-promotional material for the SE before it went looking like night in the '97 video release. It's been a while since the '97 SE played in cinemas but I clearly remember that I reacted when I first saw the SE on video and thought it looked weird and couldn't remember it looked that way in the cinema. Anyway, it looks beautiful, the photo of the Technicolor screening have more pink in it though.

A little more red in the close up of the suns and it would look much better.

Again... just my opinion, what you've accomplished so far is really nice. Keep it up! :)