Turisu said:
While the 35mm trailer shots may or may not be an excellent source, do you not think it might make more sense to grade to a known source such as LD or DVD rather than trying to guess the look of a theatrical print?
In my view, as soon as one starts going with what 'feels' right or trying to strike a balance between sources, it's starting on the slippery slope towards just another revisionist version rather than an attempt at a preservation.
Any thoughts on this?
The goal of this project as any project I have started is to get as close to a 35mm print as possible. Frankly, in most, if not all cases that not going to be possible since I don't have access to 35mm prints. So removing that whats the best source outside of a 35mm print I can get?
For Alien, it seems that the THX LD is the closest video to 35mm print. That's based off evidence found and basically looking at something like 12 different sources (LDs, trailers, tape, DVDs, etc).
For Aliens, the funny thing is that the DVDs, BD and THX LD are all from a negative scan and all look very different. And as we know a negative scan does not look the same as a release print.
I chose to use the 95 THX LD since it looked like an honest attempt to duplicate the look of a release print with warmer tones, saturated colors and high contrast. That and I used the THX LD for Alien. Problem is that it is too much saturation. I think the colors are generally right but done to extremes. Skin tones are sometimes blistering red. Blue is overwhelming (see the pics on the first page). That's why I went looking for more and found pics from the trailers. The trailer and the THX match is broad strokes. Red here, blue here, etc. But I don't have enough pics from the trailers to shot by shot grade the entire film. So the plan was to use the THX LD as a base and manage the colors to the level of the trailers.
The above was an experiment. If I grade one or two scenes will the entire movie fall into line with the pics in the trailer. If the BD is universally graded instead of shot by shot graded it should work. I'm betting on the BD being done with laziness. And it does for the most part but its not perfect. What it does give me is warmer skin tones and it brings back the Cameron blues that the LD and DVD have and the BD doesn't have. It also gives me things the LD does wrong like the facehugger in the jars scene is more gray in the trailer but purple in the LD (gray with purple/pink highlights on the DVD, green in the BD).
All from changing one or two scenes. I started adding more and more shots from the trailers. Further, work is an attempt to pull it back or closer to the LD, entirely based on the blues of the LD or the reds. The LD has always been the base and then fine tuning with the 35mm shots.
Honestly, I have been accused of being too rigid and dogmatic about following LD or DVD colors in the past. This is first time I have been accused of the opposite. Lol. Rest assured I'm not going for what I like best or what people on the OT like best but what is the best based off the information I have. I'm trying to fix revisionism not create my own.
TylerDurden389 said:
The blacks looks WAAAY too crushed in the 3rd pic (Breakfast table scene).
You win the prize. I was wondering who would be the first to point that out. Yep, I changed the contrast and gamma around on purpose to match the trailer's look (which is crushed like most 35mm trailers and prints). That pic is crushed as is all the pics from my trailer experiment. I still have the original contrast setting from the BD (which sadly started out crushed)
So just playing around. I'm not married to those settings.