THX 1138 "preservations" + the 'THX 1138 Italian Cut' project (Released) — Page 50

Yes, I choose that snapshot because of what the filters demonstrated ... both right and wrong. But I can't blame SpotRemover too much -- I used it's recommended settings without experimenting (it looked like another one of those complicated filter setups). In that setup, SpotRemover took the nose highlight to be a spot (appears to be a movement problem) and dealt with it. :)

I've used MVDenoise before so that was mostly an optimum script paste-and-copy. By itself, it does a nice job with the "noise" (with spots still in place):

Anyway, it's easy to leave in only those particular processings for your desired result.

It looks like VirtualDub will be the easiest to use for color correction with the "curves" filter I've found (it's a VDub filter, which is supposed to be usable in Avisynth, but the 3rd-party instructions don't apply or work with it).

Roughly following the curves of my paint program tests posted earlier, Gradation Curves (v.1.46b) by BBugBunny, A.K.A. Alexander Nagiller, duplicates it's usage and results nicely. The interface makes for easy interactive adjustment -- just like in a paint program:

With the variations of the transfer, this static correction does not produce consistent results ... even within a single shot. For the following video segment test, I tried for an adjustment that would center the variations around the color-corrective "sweet spot". All things considered, it looks pretty good (hope you like it):

Use this .ACV file, colorcorrection.acv (it's a Photoshop format "curves" file), for import into the VDub filter, for the above settings. It can be further tweaked in case of more capture drifting. If ImageShack doesn't like the file being there (not a picture), just manually input these points into Gradation Curves (as pictured above) with the pictured auxiliary setting (i.e. "RGB + R/G/B") and save it:

POINT . . . INPUT . . . OUTPUT
RED
1 . . . . . . . 0 . . . . . . . 0
2 . . . . . . . 59 . . . . . . 38
3 . . . . . . . 111 . . . . . 96
4 . . . . . . . 189 . . . . . 215
5 . . . . . . . 255 . . . . . 255
GREEN
1 . . . . . . . 0 . . . . . . . 0
2 . . . . . . . 20 . . . . . . 21
3 . . . . . . . 32 . . . . . . 53
4 . . . . . . . 83 . . . . . . 123
5 . . . . . . . 204 . . . . . 189
6 . . . . . . . 255 . . . . . 255
BLUE
1 . . . . . . . 0 . . . . . . . 0
2 . . . . . . . 80 . . . . . . 115
3 . . . . . . . 255 . . . . . 255

@ msycamore, Rogue-theX, Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda

Thanks guys. Practical research ... ;)

@ msycamore

The color-fade restoration is lookin' good! A movie reviewer once wrote of a newly released film, THX 1138, "all that white made me see red". Well, the red is gone and we're back to white! :D

This really be should attempted on a calibrated CRT. My LCD monitor (blast that "viewing angle"!) just can't do a man's job for this kind of work. The overall look of these shots is too bright in the darkest regions. A quick fix (which might be good enough here) is a variation of "gamma adjustment" -- pulling down the low end (low curve thru POINT 2), while keeping the high end untouched (anchored straight at POINT 3).

Set the presently unused "RGB" (brightness) control of the Gradation Curves filter to this:

POINT . . . INPUT . . . OUTPUT
RGB
1 . . . . . . . 0 . . . . . . . 0
2 . . . . . . . 64 . . . . . . 46
3 . . . . . . . 192 . . . . . 192
4 . . . . . . . 255 . . . . . 255

along with the original RED, GREEN, BLUE settings. All together, these make for an easier one-shot color correction than fiddling with only the individual colors for the same effect.

Review the video with this new fix added. If it looks like it needs more darkening (in lighter areas like this shot) while keeping in mind the even darker ones elsewhere, adjust the Point 2 Output Value lower for a better average effect.

"all that white made me see red"

The review was nothing memorable except for this line. Never thought I'd ever quote it. :) I searched beforehand as I too like references, but nothing came up. Also tried the quote in the present-tense "all that white makes me see red", breaking it up as "all that white" "made me see red", variations like "all that white" to "all this white"-- as memory is always vague on these kinds of details -- but still nothing. (If I stumble across it, I'll post the link.)

I was thinking about ... yellow ... and had to look into that last shot. :)

The good news is that, yes, I was able to squeeze some yellow out of that shot. Naturally, I cheated, by looking at the actual movie to guide the color adjustments.

The bad news is that it was tough and the settings had to twist some to do the job. They're probably only good for this shot and, maybe, a few others. Try it! Applying it to "the lost scene" seems to produce a very dark picture.

Anyway, these are the settings that did the trick (ImageShack won't allow any more of my .ACV files so just copy in the numbers, below). [Just a note -- the default for the graph generation is spline. However, with points this tight, the graph becomes a squiggle (an obvious design bug) and needs more control points to counter-act that. A better selection would have been point-to-point. BTW, graph-type can be changed back and forth with points already on the graph, but I didn't want to change the approach mid-stream.] :

POINT . . . INPUT . . . OUTPUT
RED
1 . . . . . . . 0 . . . . . . . 0
2 . . . . . . . 34 . . . . . . 3
3 . . . . . . . 94 . . . . . . 35
4 . . . . . . . 177 . . . . . 214
5 . . . . . . . 216 . . . . . 253
6 . . . . . . . 255 . . . . . 255
GREEN
1 . . . . . . . 0 . . . . . . . 0
2 . . . . . . . 112 . . . . . 96
3 . . . . . . . 242 . . . . . 174
4 . . . . . . . 250 . . . . . 199
5 . . . . . . . 255 . . . . . 255
BLUE
1 . . . . . . . 0 . . . . . . . 0
2 . . . . . . . 80 . . . . . . 54
3 . . . . . . . 200 . . . . . 168
4 . . . . . . . 255 . . . . . 255

@SilverWook
I think I smell a THX movie fan in the Formula 1 Races. :D

@msycamore
I hope this is not too late an observation. Further back in the thread was a posting of "the lost scene" videoed right off a movie projection screen. Although there was a hot-spot from the projector washing out much of the picture, it didn't look like the brightness fluctuated like the film-capture does. Am I misreading this or was the capture camera on auto-exposure (a no-no)? If no choice, are you looking into a brightness control filter (a big job, I would think, as this would be done shot-by-shot, every shot)?

Guys there's yet another italian version

I'm sending clips to msycamore, I hope they don't bounce back, it's 20MB files