Alien/Aliens Color Regrade (a WIP) — Page 8

The work you've done on the "Brett scene" one the previous page is superb!

Ok some updates for those of you who haven't been following the threads on fanres:

Alien

Doombot noticed an error on a different project I was working on. It looked like detail and grain had been erased in my encode. Long story short. Using the file type I was created errors converting back and forth and destroyed grain. This also happened on Alien. So I went back to BD encoded it to a new AVI and started over. That fixed the problem but it means I have to regrade the movie again. That's not as bad as it sounds since I have all the regrade info for the original files, so instead of re-coloring I just need to re-apply the colors. Still it will take a few weeks to re-do.

Otherwise the soundtracks are finally all in sync and ready to go

Aliens (Part 1)

After having a conversation with Stamper over on Fanres, he informed me that what I thought I knew about the TV cut of Aliens is wrong. Orginally, I thought that the TV cut was the Extended cut with the LV-426 removed. That is not true. The Aliens TV cut is a hybrid between the Theatrical and Extended. It contains all the emotional scenes (Ripley's daughter) and all the action with the sentry gun but none of the extra bits and pieces. Comparing it to the Extended cut here are the difference I can find:

-has Ripley's daughter scene (Her 11th birthday)

-no extra conference room lines (...its the view of this inquest...)

-missing Burke's extra lines (...saw the commercial)

-no extra scene in the Sulaco

-no extra Hudson lines (...knives, sharp sticks...)

-no extra Hudson motion tracker scene (Good one, Hudson)

-no scene outside with Ripley, Burke and Gorman entering the colony (Are you alright?)

-does have the robot sentry intro (But the good news..., without they really kick ass line)

-does have the discussion about the planning the barricades (..we put the other sentry here..)

-does have the scene of setting up the robot sentry guns (Fire in the hole)

-does have the scene of the guns scanning the hallways

-does have Ripley and Newt discussing Ripley's daughter (She's dead)

-no bee hives comparison lines (...bees, man...)

-does have first sentry attack scene (..its a shooting gallery..)

-does have the second sentry attack scene (maybe we got them demoralized)

-has the Ellen/Dwayne exchange

Couple of other interesting things about this cut. In this version the gun order is fixed. In theatrical prints, old VHS, old LDs when Ripley gets ready to enter the hive, she pulls down flame thrower from the wall, puts down a pulse rifle on the table, pulls a pulse rifle puts down a flame thrower. Like the Bishop hole, its a famous goof. The SE LD I think has this order too (maybe someone can check). The 95 LD definitely has the wrong order (theatrical order), same with the DVD and the old HDTV master. The TV cut has the correct order. The only other time that has appeared is the BD. So clearly Cameron had a lot to do with this TV cut. 

Another interesting thing is while everyone seems to have their profanity removed or have individual words redubbed by other actors, all of Hudson's lines containing profanity are redubbed instead of the individual word. There is an audible difference in the lines. Is also sounds like Bill Paxton doing the lines not a replacement actor. I wonder if Cameron had him re-do the lines?

So I think instead of the Theatrical cut, I'm going to recreate the TV cut. Its just too interesting of a cut. And the Theatrical is easy to re-create from the TV cut. All of the violence is in the TV cut (chestburster, etc) as it was in the broadcast. I could preserve the TV audio but the main audio would be the LD PCM 2.0 from the extended cut. The only point of contention is the scene were Ripley says goodbye to Jonsey the cat is remove. Most likely for the profanity. I decide to keep this in the my project.

Aliens (Part 2)

So after cutting the Extended cut down to the TV cut (and adding the parts needed from the Theatrical cut) I decided I wanted to "fix" the Bishop scene in the hanger. For those who don't know. When the spacedoors are opened in the end of Aliens, Bishop grabs Newt and saves her from being sucked into the vaccum of space. In that scene you can briefly see Lance Henriksen is clearly sticking out of a hole in bottom of the set. Its been a famous error that Aliens has had from the beginning. Something you point out to your buddies. well for the BD, Cameron went back and had the hole digitally removed. It wanted to put it back.

Luckliy I had a recording of the old HDTV broadcast. It is from before all the BD's changes in colors, etc. Problem was the HDTV had logo at the bottom right.

Taking some advice from Doombot, I was researching how to do rotoscope in Adobe Effects to fix the hole under Bishop when I had an idea. I thought about Adobe Premiere and using layers and opacity. So I re-graded the HDTV broadcast to match the BD. I then layered them up. I turned down the opacity so I could match the frames spacial as much as possible, in keeping with advice _,,,^..^,,,_ gave me. The HDTV broadcast is 1.77 vs the 1.85 of the BD, so the HDTV has more top and bottom picture whereas the BD had more info on the right (the HDTV was a little more stretched and wrapped too). 

So once lined them up, I got the HDTV broadcast and carved out the area where the logo was and lowered the opacity to 0 so the lower layer of the BD came through. And it worked as long as the color regrade. This was the simplest fix since the area of the logo is in the same place all the time. Problem was I noticed all the imperfections of the HDTV broadcast. Not as sharp, lower bitrate, etc. So I decided to reverse the procedure and have the BD as the top layer and bleed in the HDTV part. Problem is unlike the logo, the area to cut keeps changing. So basically it was like old-school manual rotoscoping, I cut the scene into each frame and manually craved out the area to add the HDTV part. 

It worked pretty well. Only problem was the HDTV was still a bit pixealted, so Doombot re-grained the HDTV for me, I did the process again and it seems to be a pretty good match:

BD/BD with fix

I even found a mistake in the BD footage. When the computer guy painted out the hole in the ground he didn't fix the lens flare in one frame. You can see in this pic the triangle cut out of the blue lens flare under Bishop's armpit (and a shadow that doesn't make sense):

BD/BD with fix

Here is the fixed clip in motion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA2AJYXrD4c&feature=youtu.be

I'm very excited to hear about your progress! I've been anxiously awaiting news on both of these projects, especially "Aliens". My unsolicited personal opinion is that I'd prefer to see the theatrical version of the film first, but I can certainly appreciate your decision to recreate the "TV" cut. I know it'll be great (the shots of your fixed Bishop scene look fantastic!), and I'm looking forward to the finished product.

Keep up the good work!! :)

No worries, no fears, the theatrical cut is still in play. I'm not going to do the extended cut but I still thought it best to start at the longest cut and work down. Cutting the TV cut down to the theatrical is a trivial thing, so a theatrical cut will happen; just after the TV

PDB said:

No worries, no fears, the theatrical cut is still in play. I'm not going to do the extended cut but I still thought it best to start at the longest cut and work down. Cutting the TV cut down to the theatrical is a trivial thing, so a theatrical cut will happen; just after the TV

 That's fantastic news!! :)

theatricul cut of alien would be nice, its scotts preferred version and therfore the "real" DC.

#

edit: Oh I realise you were talking about Aliens

I didn't know that they digitally erased the hole under Lance Henriksen on the Blu-ray. I vaguely remember Cameron speaking of that goof on the DVD commentary, and that he said that the way it's shot, you're not supposed to look there, so that's how he justified it. Now, I'll have to listen to the Blu-ray commentary to hear if it's still mentioned.

Why can't directors keep their movies the way they were? I'm beginning to wonder whether the digital technology is a blessing or not. Well, obviously it is, but it turns some directors into morons. Vast subject...

Hi, PDB

I've been following your project of the Alien Color Regrade with great interest.

I would like to ask if you have any news that you'd like to report on your progress.

Thanks,

I have the Japan Quadrilogy that has only the Theatrical Aliens version but it does have home DTS audio for it that the US version does not have.  I'm excited to see this project when it's complete.  It will be a nice addition to the other stuff I have.

alexp120 said:

Hi, PDB

I've been following your project of the Alien Color Regrade with great interest.

I would like to ask if you have any news that you'd like to report on your progress.

Thanks,

 Hi alexp120, I'm still working on both, I just have been doing more updates on fanres then the ot. I fixed the video for the most part for Alien, so its coming together. 

Jetrell Fo said:

I have the Japan Quadrilogy that has only the Theatrical Aliens version but it does have home DTS audio for it that the US version does not have.  I'm excited to see this project when it's complete.  It will be a nice addition to the other stuff I have.

 I think I remember that. Was that the one that came in the big Alien head? Hopefully it will live up to expectations. 

Heads up! I'll be seeing ALIENS on August 1 in 70mm! Anything I should pay attention for? I'm happy to help when possible.

PDB said:

No worries, no fears, the theatrical cut is still in play. I'm not going to do the extended cut but I still thought it best to start at the longest cut and work down. Cutting the TV cut down to the theatrical is a trivial thing, so a theatrical cut will happen; just after the TV

Would you like the Japan DVD DTS audio for the Theatrical release?

kaosjm said:

Heads up! I'll be seeing ALIENS on August 1 in 70mm! Anything I should pay attention for? I'm happy to help when possible.

 Where the hell do you live?! I mean, you get to see all kinds of awesome movies in original film form! hahaha Wish I could. The theaters around me suck!

crampedmisfit1990 said:

kaosjm said:

Heads up! I'll be seeing ALIENS on August 1 in 70mm! Anything I should pay attention for? I'm happy to help when possible.

 Where the hell do you live?! I mean, you get to see all kinds of awesome movies in original film form! hahaha Wish I could. The theaters around me suck!

 The Alamo Drafthouse is an awesome local theater chain that gets a hold of original film prints and shows them very often. They have expanded nationally in the USA but are still pretty small. The one in Austin, Texas called "The Ritz" is famous for showing a lot of films in their original formats. That location only has 2 screens but they're constantly showing good classic movies and they have plush VIP service and reclining balcony seating. It is awesome! Alien and Aliens are 2 of my all-time favorites so I am very hyped for this.

kaosjm said:

crampedmisfit1990 said:

kaosjm said:

Heads up! I'll be seeing ALIENS on August 1 in 70mm! Anything I should pay attention for? I'm happy to help when possible.

 Where the hell do you live?! I mean, you get to see all kinds of awesome movies in original film form! hahaha Wish I could. The theaters around me suck!

 The Alamo Drafthouse is an awesome local theater chain that gets a hold of original film prints and shows them very often. They have expanded nationally in the USA but are still pretty small. The one in Austin, Texas called "The Ritz" is famous for showing a lot of films in their original formats. That location only has 2 screens but they're constantly showing good classic movies and they have plush VIP service and reclining balcony seating. It is awesome! Alien and Aliens are 2 of my all-time favorites so I am very hyped for this.

 You're lucky. If theaters around me would show these kinds of movies all the time, I'd probably go broke fast! haha

Alien and Aliens are also among some of my favorite films too. Classic.

Which Alien film do you like better overall?

Drafthouse is renovating the New Mission theater in San Francisco, I'm hoping we get more filmy goodness to go along with the Castro Theatre!

kaosjm said:

Heads up! I'll be seeing ALIENS on August 1 in 70mm! Anything I should pay attention for? I'm happy to help when possible.

 Luckily bastard! And in 70mm no less!

Well since you ask I have a ton of questions about the look of Aliens (a favorite). I suspect the true look of Aliens is closer to the new color of the BD then the old DVD and HD master. So personally I would love to know if it looks like the BD and/or looks like this:

Aliens 8mm

Aliens 35mm

so less purple, violet, light blue, neon looking of the DVD/old HD vs the more colorful, green, dark blue, yellow (especially skin tones earlier on LV-426) of the BD/35mm/8mm. You can see a ton of examples in this thread of different transfer looks.

Also wondering how dark/contrasty it looks, as I suspect the release prints are much darker, fitting the mood.

Some more specific details: are the walls in gateway station pure white or white with a shade of blue or red? In the inquiry conference room are the walls reddish, blueish or green? Is the hive scene (when the marines first enter) dark blue or green (the highlights)? When Ripley is in the hive and meets the queen is the smoke pure white or have a tint?

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Alien-Aliens-Color-Regrade/topic/17002/page/7/

The big scene I would love to know about is the first shot of the facehugger in the specimen jars.

Again, its different in every transfer I've seen. Purple in some, pink in others, light blue, gray, dark brown-ish (like above)

I know that's a lot but it would answer a lot of questions I have. If you can't or don't want to answer all those and just want to watch a great film, no problem.

Thanks kaosjm

Jetrell Fo said:

PDB said:

No worries, no fears, the theatrical cut is still in play. I'm not going to do the extended cut but I still thought it best to start at the longest cut and work down. Cutting the TV cut down to the theatrical is a trivial thing, so a theatrical cut will happen; just after the TV

Would you like the Japan DVD DTS audio for the Theatrical release?

 I'm good for right now Jetrell. I put Aliens on pause for now to finish other projects.

crampedmisfit1990 said:

kaosjm said:

crampedmisfit1990 said:

kaosjm said:

Heads up! I'll be seeing ALIENS on August 1 in 70mm! Anything I should pay attention for? I'm happy to help when possible.

 Where the hell do you live?! I mean, you get to see all kinds of awesome movies in original film form! hahaha Wish I could. The theaters around me suck!

 The Alamo Drafthouse is an awesome local theater chain that gets a hold of original film prints and shows them very often. They have expanded nationally in the USA but are still pretty small. The one in Austin, Texas called "The Ritz" is famous for showing a lot of films in their original formats. That location only has 2 screens but they're constantly showing good classic movies and they have plush VIP service and reclining balcony seating. It is awesome! Alien and Aliens are 2 of my all-time favorites so I am very hyped for this.

 You're lucky. If theaters around me would show these kinds of movies all the time, I'd probably go broke fast! haha

Alien and Aliens are also among some of my favorite films too. Classic.

Which Alien film do you like better overall?

 Which better Alien film do I like overall is a very difficult question to answer! I guess if I had a gun pointed at my head I'd say the original Alien. It is hauntingly beautiful. I love James Cameron and he is the sequel master in my opinion and Aliens is just a perfect movie as well. If only more movies were 2 hour action rollercoasters.

TServo2049 said:

Drafthouse is renovating the New Mission theater in San Francisco, I'm hoping we get more filmy goodness to go along with the Castro Theatre!

 Oh I'm sure you will. Just keep an eye on the Drafthouse website for your area so you don't miss any good opportunities! Tickets usually sell out immediately online for special showings.