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Alien/Aliens Color Regrade (a WIP) — Page 6

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We will like it, we will like it. Keep up the good work.

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PDB said:

Actually the color grading is based on the 1995 laserdisc and not the 1999 DVD, that accounts for the weird hues you are seeing. On first page I presented those two possible regrades. Initially, everyone seemed to like the 1995 LD better for a variety of reasons, like warmer skin tones, more 70s era look, etc.

Yeah, I understand that. I was only referring to those '99 regrades on the first page. They don't match my '99 DVD that well, hence my question. Not trying to be critical to your project in any way, quite the opposite, just being curious of why I see these differences in hues.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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 (Edited)

msycamore said:

PDB said:

Actually the color grading is based on the 1995 laserdisc and not the 1999 DVD, that accounts for the weird hues you are seeing. On first page I presented those two possible regrades. Initially, everyone seemed to like the 1995 LD better for a variety of reasons, like warmer skin tones, more 70s era look, etc.

Yeah, I understand that. I was only referring to those '99 regrades on the first page. They don't match my '99 DVD that well, hence my question. Not trying to be critical to your project in any way, quite the opposite, just being curious of why I see these differences in hues.

 Well that grading was a first run, a which looks better. There was a bunch of fine tuning to do but no radical hue shifts to correct that I can see. What example  are you having trouble with? It matches pretty close for me, just checked the DVD:

DVD/BD graded to LD (Pic from the first page)

The big thing that needed work was the pic of Lambert's face needs warmer skin tones. That's why Alien is taking so long, grading the colors right 90% is easy, the last 10% is hard. 

In the end, it doesn't really matter since its all work that been abandoned. 

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Honestly, in the above images the blu-ray (top image?) shows better shadow detail as well as gamma... in the bottom image it almost looks like detail in the cloud is being blown out.

What are you using to monitor your video? Are you running scopes in your grading software to avoid clipping or crushing?

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Ah, okay. Sorry, PDB. I mistakenly thought those '99 DVD samples of yours were final.

Synnöve said:

Honestly, in the above images the blu-ray (top image?) shows better shadow detail as well as gamma... in the bottom image it almost looks like detail in the cloud is being blown out.

The top images of what he last posted are the '99 DVD.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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Just out of curiosity, how is this coming along? :)

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 (Edited)

Lee said:

Just out of curiosity, how is this coming along? :)

 Funny you ask, since a few people have inquired lately. I will paraphrase. The regrading is mostly done. I stopped working on everything else and have only focused on this in my limited spare time. What's left is the obsessive last tweaks. Have to fix skin tones here or there. The hyperspace scene needs some work. So I'd say the regrade is about 90-95% done, maybe more. I probably need a second pair of eyes to look it over to make sure I didn't miss something. I had to manually grade a couple thousand shots, sometimes frame by frame so I might have missed something. I also have the three movie soundtracks. They are pretty much in sync. 

The big remaining problem is I need to figure out menus. I would love menus but I can't make them myself (don't know how to) so unless I can teach myself or someone can help I might not have them. I rather no menus then crappy ones. And then maybe a cover....

Here is some work I just finished up and its a good example of why I did this regrade. When you look at this regrade you might not notice a lot of changes unless you have the BD colors memorized. In truth I did hundreds of subtle color changes to achieve parity with the LD.

When the Director's Cut was release they took the Brett/Landing gear scene which always had a golden hue and turned it up to 10. The 1995 LD has a more balanced look and in the first two pics, when Brett is looking around, I removed the excessive gold and added back the blue highlights (there is overhead blue light in the scene).

When the BD rolled around they took the work that was done on the DC and added a green filter to a lot of the movie. That love affair with adding green to movies is becoming far worse then the whole teal and orange craze. Anyway a lot of the grading I have done is to remove that added green, like these last two pics. I then added red back into Brett's face and then blue highlights. Just the way the LD looks.

So if you like these type of changes this is the regrade for you. Hopefully people will like it.

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You do nice work sir. There are a lot of talented people on this site. Blows me away. Can't wait to see the finished product!

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Thanks for the complements, guys. Still a work in progress.

Lee, there are a lot of people more talented then me on the OT. Hopefully I can get somewhere close to their quality. 

I love that poster, kaosjm. I kind of want a copy for myself.

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Im a silent observer around these parts mostly.

I follow many of the threads here, but rarely comment as I feel that it is best to go with the flow unless I feel I really have something to add.

What you are doing is awesome, with this and your Blade Runner project.

I look forward to seeing your completed work.

All the best.

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Both Alien & Aliens are looking great, can't wait to see the final results. Thanks for saving these films from the dreaded teal!

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 (Edited)

Thanks guys. I'm pretty close to the end of the video part (which is the big part).

Can anyone recommend what brand of BD-R and BD-RE I should get? I'm not burning anything at the moment but I would like to run a few tests.

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Verbatim media ALL THE WAY. Ebay has good deals on BD-50 in sets of 10 or more, all the way from Japan. I would recommend you max out the bitrate on your encodes.

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Funcha said:

Verbatim media ALL THE WAY. Ebay has good deals on BD-50 in sets of 10 or more, all the way from Japan. I would recommend you max out the bitrate on your encodes.

 Great, thanks for the recommendation Funcha.

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Note that the Verbatim BD-50s sold in Japan are no longer actually made in Japan, they're made in China, and a lot of people have been reporting write errors on them (the top rated reviews are all 1 or 2 stars and mention errors): http://www.amazon.co.jp/product-reviews/B0043SEMMW/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_summary?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=byRankDescending

I personally use That's (Taiyo Yuden) BD-50s: http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B00GJ95LB4/ , which are made in Japan.  Used to use Panasonic ones, but nowadays they're only available in Japan from resellers and not directly from Amazon.

That's BD-25s and BD-REs are pretty good as well, but their cheaper BD-25s are made in Taiwan now.

Amazon JP won't ship these outside Japan, but you can go through a forwarding site like tenso.com or check and see if anyone on eBay has them.

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Just out of interest, are you still planning on doing the theatrical cut of Aliens as part of this project?

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Buster D said:

Note that the Verbatim BD-50s sold in Japan are no longer actually made in Japan, they're made in China, and a lot of people have been reporting write errors on them (the top rated reviews are all 1 or 2 stars and mention errors): http://www.amazon.co.jp/product-reviews/B0043SEMMW/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_summary?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=byRankDescending

I personally use That's (Taiyo Yuden) BD-50s: http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B00GJ95LB4/ , which are made in Japan.  Used to use Panasonic ones, but nowadays they're only available in Japan from resellers and not directly from Amazon.

That's BD-25s and BD-REs are pretty good as well, but their cheaper BD-25s are made in Taiwan now.

Amazon JP won't ship these outside Japan, but you can go through a forwarding site like tenso.com or check and see if anyone on eBay has them.

 Thanks Buster D. Its sad no one make quality anymore. Does that only apply to Verbantim's write once or their re-writables also? And thanks for the recommendations, hopefully I can track some of those down.

alexpeden2000 said:

Just out of interest, are you still planning on doing the theatrical cut of Aliens as part of this project?

At this point, Alien and Aliens are two separate projects. Alien will be finished this year and then work on Aliens will continue after that. The problem with Aliens is that I still haven't decide what to grade it against: the Pan and Scan LD, the THX LD, the DVD, the old HDTV master, the 35mm frames I found, etc

I have an idea for the re-grade of Aliens but I don't know if it will work out. It will take time to figure out the technical details. Its coming just might take a little longer.

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Hi PDB, 

congratulations on your work here, the results are looking great!

I can't wait to watch Alien with the propper color timing and the LD audio.

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PDB said:

 

The problem with Aliens is that I still haven't decide what to grade it against: the Pan and Scan LD, the THX LD, the DVD, the old HDTV master, the 35mm frames I found, etc

First off, great work! I cannot wait to see the finished project!

Now for the input, I don't know if I'm alone here but I'd prefer to see sequels more consistent with regard to filmography. Making Aliens and even any future projects look more true to the work you've done here than it may have to one of it's original releases. I'm not saying aim to be identical, but with a much closer feel than many sequels often have. More of an organic evolution than just simple transition if that makes sense.

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PDB said:

The problem with Aliens is that I still haven't decide what to grade it against: the Pan and Scan LD, the THX LD, the DVD, the old HDTV master, the 35mm frames I found, etc

I had no idea that all the different home video releases of Aliens had significantly different colour timing. It would be great to see some comparisons if you have time.

Also, have you had any thoughts about maybe restoring the hole under Bishop in the loading bay floor Harmy-style? ;)

George creates Star Wars.
Star Wars creates fans.
George destroys Star Wars.
Fans destroy George.
Fans create Star Wars.

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I hope you settle on doing the TV cut of Aliens, even if it is as a supplement to the theatrical. All the advantages of the longer version without most of the pitfalls.

“That’s impossible, even for a computer!”

“You don't do ‘Star Wars’ in Dobly.”

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PDB said:

 Thanks Buster D. Its sad no one make quality anymore. Does that only apply to Verbantim's write once or their re-writables also?

 It looks like there's a few reports on Amazon JP of Verbatim BD-REs becoming bad after the 2nd write or after 6 months, for both their 25GB and 50GB BD-REs.  The most recent BD-REs I've personally used are 25GB ones from TDK since they were cheap and had mostly good reviews.  But BD-REs in general are kinda unreliable in the long run, I think.

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This is quite possibly the most exciting project i'm fully pumped for. Being such a huge fan of the Alien franchise, I really cannot wait to see the work that went into this and finally hear the 70mm audio in 5.1 :)

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Id definitely go for the dvd/HDTV colours for Aliens over the LD. Cameron's films have always had a cold, blue look to them and the LD seems totally different