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Post #733860

Author
TServo2049
Parent topic
Alien/Aliens Color Regrade (a WIP)
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/733860/action/topic#733860
Date created
1-Nov-2014, 4:39 PM

I'm not sure if the 35mm trailer exactly match the release print grading. To point to another Cameron example, the original trailers for Terminator 2 have ungraded nighttime footage with natural skin tones, while the clips on the Siskel and Ebert review, the YouTube 35mm screening clip, and a few film frames I've seen, all seem to show that the theatrical prints had those pumped-up blues we know from all the home releases.

That said, teal existed in the 80s. I've seen an original 35mm of Streets of Fire that has a very similar palette to that Aliens 35mm trailer. The Terminator theatrical trailer (which I've seen on two separate occasions) also has a similar color scheme. The problem is that the color balancing done in the digital realm works completely differently from the original photochemical timing. Even if the general color scheme looks similar, the balance of those colors in the digital realm, and the way certain colors can be completely timed out of the image, were impossible when the films were originally made/released. You just couldn't push everything towards teal/green and drop all blue out of the image - there was ALWAYS blue in the color timing back in the 80s.

That said, it also wouldn't surprise me if the '95 LD was somehow adjusted (Photochemically? After transfer?) to pump up the blues. Those deep, sometimes almost indigo blues remind me more of the 90s than the 80s (reminds me of Jurassic Park, Independence Day, and of course T2). Was that LD the theatrical cut, or the Special Edition?