Star Wars Prequels 35mm 4K Filmized Editions by Emanswfan (a WIP) — Page 17

Opening text 4K cropped shot:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/79768

Though it may not be exactly along the lines of what you are looking for, I find the dark lettering unappealing and would prefer a closer yellow to what was used in the OT. Not sure you can do that with existing colors without too much manipulation.

ExNihilo said:

Though it may not be exactly along the lines of what you are looking for, I find the dark lettering unappealing and would prefer a closer yellow to what was used in the OT. Not sure you can do that with existing colors without too much manipulation.

Well, actually I might just turn off the film filters during the titles, but I would assume a print would be the inherit the same filmic look throughout, unless the version they printed to film was a little different, to compensate for the color changes.

One of my favorite projects at the time.

Really interested to see the final result and how much it could actually magically improve the movies.

emanswfan said:

ExNihilo said:

Though it may not be exactly along the lines of what you are looking for, I find the dark lettering unappealing and would prefer a closer yellow to what was used in the OT. Not sure you can do that with existing colors without too much manipulation.

Well, actually I might just turn off the film filters during the titles, but I would assume a print would be the inherit the same filmic look throughout, unless the version they printed to film was a little different, to compensate for the color changes.

 I trust your judgement, your work has been fanstastic and I can't wait to see what the result is. I'm just an OT kinda guy and always hated the orange looking title and crawl in the PT.

Rogue-theX said:

The letters might be too sharp.

Odd, since I added no additional sharpening, I even turned the sharpness setting down in Instant HD, to prevent haloing and other EE artifacts.

ExNihilo said:

 I trust your judgement, your work has been fanstastic and I can't wait to see what the result is. I'm just an OT kinda guy and always hated the orange looking title and crawl in the PT.

 Well remember that this is a shot from my first version that will bring the appearence of the movies closest to what would have been seen on screen.

I referenced information about how they print digital sources to film, what film stocks would have been used, the characteristics (color, dynamic range, grain structure) of those film stocks used, and even referenced at bootleg DVD copies of the theatrical versions I happened to finally have a use for.

In terms of the OT version, I have been thinking about putting that version on hold, as many colorists I've asked on other forums say that the technology required to accurately emmulate film stocks from the 60's through early 90's is still virtually impossible due to the color and texture characteristics varying for each different level exposure or color hue exposed to a single film cell.  BUT color grading tools are evolving towards more complex adjustments, so that may make it possible at some point in the future.

That said, I still have tried to create an accurate Kodak 5247 look.  This is a comparison between an untouched color board and that same color board with my universal Kodak 5247 LUT that I made myself along with 5247 film grain added on.

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/79856

It's really as close as I can get, and I still have yet to try it on the prequel footage.  I do know though you have to calibrate the white balance to very warm and flat prior to applying the LUT, so that it looks correct.

Wow, funny. Maybe I'm deceiving myself but I really find the Kodak one more appealing. Rock on man

ExNihilo said:

Wow, funny. Maybe I'm deceiving myself but I really find the Kodak one more appealing. Rock on man

 Well since it was the film used to shoot the huge majority of the films from the late 70's throughout the 80's(including the OT), being able to accurately recreate it would be awesome, but I'll have to work it out.

This project and attempt of trying to simulate another camera source for a film that was captured with different equipment, actually reminds me of stuff in music production.

There are plugins around where you can simulate the characteristics of a specific microphone. If you know the exact source microphone used, you can then simulate another microphone.

I don't even know which type of microphones are used for filming. Expect they're called boom mics. I hardly believe those are the same types as used in studios. However the big difference is probably the big pop filter they use to protect them.

Anyway if you know something about audio equipment used I'd be delighted to hear.

look for Antares Mic Modeller, it's actually a stoneage software there has been an update called MicDX or something the like. There are other plugins available doing the same maybe more advanced.

You could also simulate the distance/proximity of microphone to the source and it's correct physical behavior of air/dampening and delays

Whatever, keep up the good work!

Do you have an estimated completion date for this? Looking great, by the way.

emanswfan said:

Opening text 4K cropped shot:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/79768

Looks excellent! Personally I have the fondest connection the more golden-orange SW Logo and text crawl from TPM, which this setting closely resembles. IMO it looks more harmonious than the original yellow one, which is now back in every Episode's BD release.

DominicCobb said:

Do you have an estimated completion date for this? Looking great, by the way.

 ROTS is complete for the theatrical recreation, and ATOC is about half way done, and TPM doesn't have much progress at the moment, but it may be the easiest of the bunch.  I also do have the deleted scenes to go through still also.

ROTS (and its deleted scenes) you can expect this summer, and ATOC/TPM probably sometime later this year.

I'll probably render a short full 4K clip on to Youtube sometime this week or next week.   (Note: no audio will be on the clip to prevent copyright detection)

Why does Attack of the Clones look so bad color-wise, is it just oversaturated? I'm attempting something similar to what you're doing for my own edits of the prequels but I'm kind of at a loss when it comes to what to do with the color of these movies. I want to remove the "cartoony" look of Episode II (and III to a lesser extent). I tried a pass that was mostly crushing the blacks and desaturating, and it certainly looked more "real", but it didn't look like the OT, which never had a dingy, dark look but were for the most part, bright and colorful.

Octorox said:

Why does Attack of the Clones look so bad color-wise, is it just oversaturated? I'm attempting something similar to what you're doing for my own edits of the prequels but I'm kind of at a loss when it comes to what to do with the color of these movies. I want to remove the "cartoony" look of Episode II (and III to a lesser extent). I tried a pass that was mostly crushing the blacks and desaturating, and it certainly looked more "real", but it didn't look like the OT, which never had a dingy, dark look but were for the most part, bright and colorful.

 Well ATOC looks the worst of the three prequels, because it was the first to use all digital cameras, so it was very experimental at the time for a blockbuster movie of that calibur.  They really didn't know how to do much of any good color grading (and honestly it's not till more recently digital movies have looked really good, as the technology and skill to make them look impressive has taken a long time to develop, and is still very much developing still now)   Also, the Bluray has a really weird psuedo-teal/orange color grade that ruins the film's look as well.

I have yet to post any screenshots from ATOC, and probably should soon.

Making a film look that is very filmic yet very bright and colorful as the OT, has been a big challenge that I have been struggling with, which is why I still have no clue when an oldified version of the PT will be complete.

I think that one of the biggest issues AOTC has colorwise is that many shots are almost monochrome and almost every shot has no contrast at all. (And it has an orange tint.)

I'm no expert in correcting this but it really helps to increase the blacks and whites. That gives much more contrast, making it look more like film and more real.

Custom Kodak 5247 LUT test:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/80761

Maybe, too much grain in the shadows, but I really like how the skintones are turning out.

That's looking really nice. Out of curiosity, what are you using for reference when it comes to the color?

My bad, on the grain.

Here's the same shot with real anamorphic film grain scanned at 4K, I purchased recently.

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/80765

So I've just learned that the blu-ray of AOTC is screwed up color-wise, so I'm going to hold off on any color correction until I get a better source. I'd like to check out schorman's version although I'll have to wait on a myspleen invite unfortunately :(

EDIT: the grain there looks much better. Still interested to hear how you'be arrived at the colors.