Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition HD - V2.7 - MKV (Released) — Page 111

Harmy said:

And just FYI, the DVD9 AVCHD and large MKV are still on, but I thought a BD25 with menus and stuff would be pretty awesome too but I wouldn't have any way to burn it - and it's just an idea, I need to find out how hard it is to author BDs first.

Try multiAVCHD first -- it's the freest, simplest one out there. You can actually choose to output to BDMV if you like. You can create an XMB-style menu (like the PS3 interface), a Slide menu (iTunes like) or a Carousel menu... all work with a background image of your choosing. Each video title is represented by a thumbnail, either from a frame of the movie itself or again, your own image.

http://multiavchd.deanbg.com/

http://multiavchd.deanbg.com/tutorial.php

Erikstormtrooper said:

Harmy,

I finally finished watching the first part of the workprint. Everything looks good except for the star warping issue I mentioned during the flyover.

About the colors, I see there's been some considerable discussion about that, and you plan to pull back on the reds a bit. The comparison bkev posted is a good example of the monochrome look I'm talking about. The shade of Luke's hair compared to his flesh tone is too similar to my eyes. Add in the slight brightening from recovering the blacks, and the overall result looks "sepia".

Again, remember that I'm no color expert, and I don't remember what this looked like theatrically.

I look forward to the next 40 minutes :D

Pretty much agree with what you're saying here Erikstormtrooper, i'm not particularly fond of the absence of the colour blue in the workprint as well.  That said, Harmy likes his colours warmer and desaturated, giving the film an 'older' sepia/monochrome look, its an interesting stylistic choice he's made and this being his project, that's what goes. I'm personally very interested in seeing how ESB and ROTJ are going to look though, whether Harmy will continue with this style or whether he will opt for a more modern balanced look. One thing i'm certain of though is that these versions are going to be totally unique colourwise compared to the blu-rays and hdtv streams, so I'll definately be one of the first in line to get my hands on these when he gets round to uploading them. :)

Cobra Kai said:

It looks to me like Harmy has done his homework and is simply trying to preserve the original colors as they appeared in the theater.  From different sources that I have seen, the theatrical version appears to have had somewhat of a warm look anyway, and obviously was much much warmer than the 2004 and later versions. (There's a great reference shot of Leia on Tantive IV over on mverta's site that illustrates the difference between the gout, 2004, and the corrected legacy preservation).

Obviously it won't be 100% accurate until a better reference source becomes available, but I am happy for the most part from looking at the wp.  

I don't doubt for one second that Harmy hasn't done his homework Cobra, I just have my doubts about the colour grading accuracy of sources like the saturated GOUT and the Star Wars frames on jedi1.net that have predominantly strong yellow or green fade. Only these few frames from Star Wars look fairly accurate to me (based on flesh tones) Of course, they have issues as well (second too blue, third, fourth, fifth and sixth too green, seventh too yellow), just not as much as the others IMHO:

http://www.jedi1.net/images/1600/ANH-Ben_Kenobi-05919-1600.jpg

http://www.jedi1.net/images/1600/ANH-Stormtrooper-02011-1600.jpg

http://www.jedi1.net/images/1600/ANH-Rebel_Alliance-04406-1600.jpg

http://www.jedi1.net/images/1600/ANH-Rebel_Alliance-03102-1600.jpg

http://www.jedi1.net/images/1600/ANH-Chewbacca-01325-1600.jpg

http://www.jedi1.net/images/1600/ANH-Chewbacca-04385-1600.jpg

http://www.jedi1.net/images/1600/ANH-C-3PO-03272-1600.jpg

The first film is meant to be warm, no question, I agree 100%. The question is how warm though. I just think that the yellow is a little too overwhelming in the workprint sometimes, like watching the theatrical release through yellow sunglasses. The scene with Tarkin and his boys having a meeting on the Death Star is one such scene, their flesh tones are so yellow that they all look like they're suffering from yellow fever. Just my two cents. I'll shut up now.

Cobra Kai said:

OMEN!-_-! said:

Cobra Kai said:

It looks to me like Harmy has done his homework and is simply trying to preserve the original colors as they appeared in the theater.  From different sources that I have seen, the theatrical version appears to have had somewhat of a warm look anyway, and obviously was much much warmer than the 2004 and later versions. (There's a great reference shot of Leia on Tantive IV over on mverta's site that illustrates the difference between the gout, 2004, and the corrected legacy preservation).

Obviously it won't be 100% accurate until a better reference source becomes available, but I am happy for the most part from looking at the wp.  

I don't doubt for one second that Harmy hasn't done his homework Cobra, I just have my doubts about the colour grading accuracy of sources like the saturated GOUT and the Star Wars frames on jedi1.net that have predominantly strong yellow fade. Only these few frames from Star Wars look fairly accurate to me (based on flesh tones) Of course, they have issues as well, just not as much as the others IMHO:

http://www.jedi1.net/images/1600/ANH-Ben_Kenobi-05919-1600.jpg

http://www.jedi1.net/images/1600/ANH-Stormtrooper-02011-1600.jpg

http://www.jedi1.net/images/1600/ANH-Rebel_Alliance-04406-1600.jpg

http://www.jedi1.net/images/1600/ANH-Rebel_Alliance-03102-1600.jpg

http://www.jedi1.net/images/1600/ANH-C-3PO-03272-1600.jpg

The first film is meant to be warm, no question, I agree 100%. The question is how warm though. I just think that the yellow is a little too overwhelming in the workprint sometimes, like watching the theatrical release through yellow sunglasses. The scene with Tarkin and his boys having a meeting on the Death Star is one such scene, their flesh tones are so yellow that they all look like they're suffering from yellow fever. Just my two cents. I'll shut up now.

 

No, I hear what you're saying.  Certainly the saturated gout isn't a reliable source by itself.  I wish I could look at that Tarkin scene again to see if we're seeing the same thing, but for some reason I already dumped the workprint off my computer. (dang it!)  It also probably doesn't help that we're all viewing this on completely different monitors. 

Someone here at the forum just needs to go ahead and find a pristine technicolor print for Harmy to look at. :)

Here's one screencap from the tarkin scene on the workprint to show you what I mean. On my monitor his skin looks too yellow:

http://imageshack.us/f/841/tarkinworkprint.jpg/

I second that. It looks fine on my monitor, just like if he were in the room with me.

Oh, and Harmy, Peter Cushing is a little too pale in real life! :)

Looks natural to me

J

gotta say the image of Cushing looks perfect to me.

mverta said:

There is no one pristine Tech print out there that we know of; not even a rumored one.  The print which showed up at the Senator Theater, for example, is about a C to C+ at best, having a lot of platter damage and a somewhat dodgy Reel 6, though people think that looks great. There are far better ones out there. And, if you were able to acquire multiple Tech prints of superior quality to the Senator, you could probably get about as close to definitive as is likely to be gotten...

 

_Mike

Mike, how can I acquire multiple Tech prints of superior quality to the Senator?

Fair enough guys. Seems i'm the only one that thinks he looks a little yellow there.

Actually, the color that needs to be just slightly reduced to make Tarkin closer to natural would be green.

Look here, I used curves in photoshop and put a point in the green curve at 127/135 and here's what came out:

You_Too said:

Actually, the color that needs to be just slightly reduced to make Tarkin closer to natural would be green.

Look here, I used curves in photoshop and put a point in the green curve at 127/135 and here's what came out:

Yeah you're right about reducing the green! That definately does look more natural IMHO.

Harmy said:

Yeah, sure, it looks a bit green when you compare it to that but now the walls are a bit too purple.

I loosely based my colour timing of that scene on this picture:

 

 

I know it may not be entirely correct but it seems to be the best reference we've got right now.

Yeah, when one thing is right the others look wrong and vice versa. I think you're doing a great job on balancing it anyway. I just posted that pic to show people that his skin had too much green, not too much yellow in it.

You_Too said:

Harmy said:

Yeah, sure, it looks a bit green when you compare it to that but now the walls are a bit too purple.

I loosely based my colour timing of that scene on this picture:

 

 

I know it may not be entirely correct but it seems to be the best reference we've got right now.

Yeah, when one thing is right the others look wrong and vice versa. I think you're doing a great job on balancing it anyway. I just posted that pic to show people that his skin had too much green, not too much yellow in it.

Point taken, You_Too. I stand corrected. :) I often mix up the effects of too much green and too much yellow on an image to be honest. I should really use photoshop more to get an indicator of how to balance the colours/find out what colours there's too much of like you did here.

The adjusted still looks less lifelike and flatter to my eyes, it seems Harmy might be nearer to correct imo

OMEN!-_-! said:

Point taken, You_Too. I stand corrected. :) I often mix up the effects of too much green and too much yellow to be honest. I should use photoshop more to get an indicator of balanced colours like you did here.

Photoshop is usually the best tool there is to be able to find such things. At least for me.

Then of course, colors are and will always be a matter of taste too. But from what I've seen so far, Harmy always tries to create the best balance using the few references we have.