The Dark Knight Trilogy - Theatrical Preservation. (* unfinished project *) — Page 5

The screener looks closest to the BB prologue but it does have the blue the Servo described. It seems to match his description of the IMAX print the best. I think that maybe you have your go to color scheme, CSchmidlapp

The bank robbery does look very good. Basically as I remember it...

I will warn, I'm not sure that the white balance on the screener is theatrically accurate in ALL scenes. Specifically, at least some of the Bat-bunker scenes have a blue cast to everything, when I always remembered the ceiling lights being essentially pure white. That's my memory of the 35mm, and what I saw in the IMAX.

I do think the screener has way to much blue in it. Like you pointed out with the Bat Bunker, there is a blue cast over the whole presentation.

But it still shows that it was a different grade to what we have released on any home video version. The bank vault is what sways me more than anything,, as (I think) it's not a change you can fix with a color adjustment applied the whole film, and certainly not in the color space available to work in.

I don't think outside of a 35mm scan were going to get any better a reference for the project.

I fully agree, this is the best reference until then.

That comparison really demonstrates the differences - thanks for that.

I wasn't aware of how similar the screener was to the prologue. 

Thinking about it more, I guess it would make sense that the screener could be closest to what I saw in 35mm more than anything else. 

I saw Heat on 35mm just this thursday, and I can tell you that the color grading is accurate on the Blu-ray, except that it just needs more saturation, pretty much times 2 the current color saturation to match the 35mm. In fact, you can check the Blu-ray of Michael Mann's The Insider and take it as an example as to what Heat should look like and then use both movies as an inspiration to work on The Dark Knight.

Slightly OT:

Any plans for a 2.35 Interstellar?

Beber said:

I saw Heat on 35mm just this thursday, and I can tell you that the color grading is accurate on the Blu-ray, except that it just needs more saturation, pretty much times 2 the current color saturation to match the 35mm. In fact, you can check the Blu-ray of Michael Mann's The Insider and take it as an example as to what Heat should look like and then use both movies as an inspiration to work on The Dark Knight.

Is there any Quotes or Articles on any of the TDK filmakers using a color pallet like Heat?

I know I read somewhere it was an influence, but I always thought in Scale & Mood.

budwhite said:

Slightly OT:

Any plans for a 2.35 Interstellar?

Not by me :)

Saw it the other week and it would be great if somebody did a 2:35 version.

I just got back from a DCP 2k projection of The Dark Knight in Paris, France, and it was gorgeous. The Blu-ray, the DVD, the TV broadcasts are way off colorwise. The movie is tealer (almost nothing is really blue, from the very introduction logo to the night sky when Batman, on top of a building, hears he can find "Harvey Dent" on 8th and Orchard or when he stands on the ruins of the 250, 52nd street after Rachel dies), golder, browner (like Begins and Rises). Its colors are warmer and there was no edge enhancement. Also, it felt darker. The Joker's face when he removes his clown mask in the beginning wasn't as bright as it is on the Blu-ray, and so the details of his makeup were less visible. And finally, there was no distinction of quality whether the shots were shot in 35mm or IMAX. The DCP I saw was 2.35 all the way.

I don't understand how Warner messed it up on home video since a gorgeous digital master clearly exists.

The description of teal, gold and brown fits my memories of the first-run 35mm (and the IMAX print I saw back in March) to a T.

The Blu-ray transfer was created before DCP was a thing, so I'm not surprised that the DCP would be different/newer. WB has never upgraded the transfer on home media. (Is the version on iTunes the Blu-ray transfer also?)

I wonder if the color timing you saw on the DCP will be retained when WB does a 4K home version. (They probably won't use the 2.35 DCP master, they'll almost certainly go for the 1.78/2.35 variable AR again...)

Apparently, the DCP I saw was from back then. That's what the guy at the theater told me.

OK, then that would be bizarre. If a DCP was made in 2008, why wouldn't it have been used for the all-2.35 DVD version at least?

When TDK came out, very few theaters were even using DCP. I had always assumed that TDK screened on film everywhere it went.

When the Castro Theatre screened it a while back, I think it was on DCP, but I passed on it, partially because I tend to assume that DCP = HD transfer that is commercially available somewhere else (for example, last summer I saw a DCP marathon of the Back to the Future trilogy that was just the BD transfers in 4K). I am slowly learning that is not the case, and some DCPs are new transfers that haven't ever been seen outside of the repertory circuit.

I saw it as a dcp opening day in the uk

CSchmidlapp said:

budwhite said:

Slightly OT:

Any plans for a 2.35 Interstellar?

Not by me :)

Saw it the other week and it would be great if somebody did a 2:35 version.

Yep!

just finished today the sony vegas project for Interstellar letterbox theatrical reconstruction!!! I followed a pirate version filmed directly from the silver screen and cropped all the imax scene to the correct position/ camera movement etc.. My fingers hurts so bad...

But i have a problem. I used as source an mkv file converted with noob programs to some shitty file that vegas could handle... audio too has terrible lossy quality.I don't have Blu-Ray on my pc and can't rip myself audio and video out from it.
.. i need a source file as much unaltered as i can... if somebody can help me...

Greetings from italy!

And now I just came back from a back-to-back screening of Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns. The first one was a DCP, so it felt like watching the Blu-ray. But the second one was a 1992 35 mm print, and now that I just play my Blu-ray to compare with what I saw, I can say that Warner also fucked it up on video. Batman Returns has warmer colors and is also teal. There's pretty much nothing truly blue in it.

This sounds like a cool project... I have always hated how the BD of Dark Knight had multiple aspect ratios within the movie. haha

I have just watched the IMAX Dark Knight prologue on Begins bonus, and it's completely off. The vault shots are supposed to be green/cyan, not blue. And the whole thing misses some warmth.

Also, I watched The Dark Knight trailers and TV spots, and though inconsistant between them, they're basically a lot closer to the DCP.

Next thursday, the same theater in Paris will show the trilogy. Since I recently went to see The Dark Knight, I was considering to just go for Batman Begins (probably in 35 mm), but a trilogy marathon does sound appealing.

Interesting, I remember the bank vault scene being cyan. That's how it looked in the screener too. But the German theater cam rip looked more greenish.

Beber, have you ever seen the screener DVD?

Nope, never seen the screener.

OK, I have just rewatched the 4-source comparison CSchmidlap posted on the previous page. The screener does look closer in the vault shots. It's less the vault door itself than the back green wall that captured my attention when watching it in theater the other day. Otherwise, the prologue looks closer of all the 4 sources, but it needs to be warmer. William Fichtner's face needs to be more orange, as if he came back from 3 weeks in the Bahamas or from a UV session, you know... Also, the screener, being darker, is closer in the Joker-revealing-his-face shot.

paoloreboldi said:

CSchmidlapp said:

budwhite said:

Slightly OT:

Any plans for a 2.35 Interstellar?

Not by me :)

Saw it the other week and it would be great if somebody did a 2:35 version.

Yep!

just finished today the sony vegas project for Interstellar letterbox theatrical reconstruction!!! I followed a pirate version filmed directly from the silver screen and cropped all the imax scene to the correct position/ camera movement etc.. My fingers hurts so bad...

But i have a problem. I used as source an mkv file converted with noob programs to some shitty file that vegas could handle... audio too has terrible lossy quality.I don't have Blu-Ray on my pc and can't rip myself audio and video out from it.
.. i need a source file as much unaltered as i can... if somebody can help me...

Greetings from italy!

 Interesting! You might want to start a new thread when you're done with it. 

Sure!

Exporting the title right now from vegas... in the end i bought a BD burner and ripped by myself video and audio at the best quality i could.

next step will be burning the BD with DVD architect with menu, both italian and english audio and subtitles, of course.

Thanks for the interest, man! When everything will be alright we gonna enjoy the show all togheter!

paoloreboldi said:

CSchmidlapp said:

budwhite said:

Slightly OT:

Any plans for a 2.35 Interstellar?

Not by me :)

Saw it the other week and it would be great if somebody did a 2:35 version.

Yep!

just finished today the sony vegas project for Interstellar letterbox theatrical reconstruction!!! I followed a pirate version filmed directly from the silver screen and cropped all the imax scene to the correct position/ camera movement etc.. My fingers hurts so bad...

But i have a problem. I used as source an mkv file converted with noob programs to some shitty file that vegas could handle... audio too has terrible lossy quality.I don't have Blu-Ray on my pc and can't rip myself audio and video out from it.
.. i need a source file as much unaltered as i can... if somebody can help me...

Greetings from italy!

paoloreboldi and budwhite, you should really start your own thread.  Thanks. 

So folks know, the cinema DTS is being worked on for these, to sync.

:)