101_303 said:
If it helps, the original color timing had skies that looked either white or green but NOT blue.
April '99, interview with the DP / directors: http://www.theasc.com/magazine/apr99/matrix/index.htm
Because the entire film was meticulously storyboarded in color, though, Pope did have an understanding of the visual style that the directors wanted to create. "Larry and Andy wanted The Matrix to have two distinct worlds," says the cinematographer. "There is the world in the 2197 future — in which we have the pods made by the computers — and then there's the present-day Matrix world, which was designed to be a slightly unappealing reality.
"The future world is cold, dark and riddled with lightning, so we left the lighting a bit bluer and made it dark as hell. Also, the future reality is very grimy because there's no reason to clean it — only the pods need to be sterile. Because humans haven't actually manufactured anything for a hundred years, anything that had been manufactured is now old and rusty.
"We didn't necessarily want the Matrix world to resemble our present world," adds Pope. "We didn't want any cheery blue skies. In Australia, the sky is a brilliant blue virtually all the time, but we wanted bald, white skies. All of our TransLight backings [for the stage work] were altered to have white skies, and on actual exterior shots in which we see a lot of sky, we digitally enhanced the skies to make them white. Additionally, since we wanted the Matrix reality to be unappealing, we asked ourselves, 'What is the most unappealing color?' I think we all agreed on green, so for those scenes, we sometimes used green filters, and I'd add a little bit of green in the color timing."
Another interview with the DP: http://www.whatisthematrix.com/cmp/interview_index.html
As evidenced by the "the other day" comment it took place during shooting.
MATRIX: Can you tell me about the two colors that are used to distinguish the inside from the outside of the Matrix?
BILL: To distinguish the Matrix from 'reality', from the Nebuchadnezzar and the pods, 'reality' was given a cooler look, a bluer, more normal, less sickly look. The future in the film is cold, the sun is blotted out, there is no real warmth unless it is artificial heat, so that is whey they went for the cool side. Whereas the Matrix, created by the computers, is a decadent, decaying world, so it has a green hue. These are the two different colors - green and blue. The Matrix should make you feel sick, and in 'reality' you should feel a little more at home, but never comfortable. If you make it gold and warm you know that it is home, a safe haven. The other day I started using warm lights, I did this unconsciously for the first time in Neo's bedroom. It just felt right that it should be slightly warm. As harsh as that bunk is, it is the only home he has got.
Take that from a huge fan of the film/trilogy; I might haven't seen the original on the big screen, but from everything I know about it, I would be extremely surprised if the color palette wasn't that of the original DVD.
Sure, there is the possibility that it might haven't been transferred very well (eg looking duller than normal, or browner than normal or whatever) however don't expect the color timing to be completely different from the DVD, eg like this:
