kk650 said:
NeverarGreat said:
^The grading of Star Wars was originally very inconsistent, so wouldn't making the colors consistent remove some of the original aesthetic? I don't mean to argue that the inconsistent color grade was intentional or even appealing, but it certainly was a part of the film and any project that attempts to return to the '77 version (such as Despecialized) should endeavor to keep this look in my opinion. And if changes in color are unappealing, the same argument could be applied to the walls of the Death Star, which were also painted slightly different shades of blue/green. Should those be made an even color just because it is more appealing? Or what about hokey costumes that move oddly in some shots more than others? Should the offending shots be doctored? All I'm saying is that a preservation should preserve a movie, warts and all.
Well it really boils down to whether you consider all the reference frames the despecialised edition was based on to be 100% accurate to how it looked during the original theatrical release. Based on the amount of colour inconsistancies from shot to shot during the same scenes, I strongly suspect that is not the case, at least for many of those frames. Either that or the colour inconsistencies were introduced when the colours were being interpreted by harmy, I can't say because I haven't seen those frames. I know from my own experience regrading Star Wars that it is more inconsistant than other films i've worked on, I had to use 30-40 different settings across the whole film to get the grading fairly consistant, I just don't believe it was THAT inconsistant during its theatrical run.
Say for the sake of argument that all the reference frames are 100% accurate and the theatrical release of Star Wars was that inconsistant colourwise, it brings up the interesting question of what should be prioritised in a preservation/restoration, the colour expectations of the audience or maintaining the theatrical presentation exactly, however flawed it is colourwise.
Everybody I imagine will have a different opinion on this and what a preservation/restoration is meant to be exactly. Me, I think a theatrical preservation of Star Wars is ultimately meant to be seen and enjoyed by normal people rather than studied by film historians, colour/fleshtone inconsistencies get in the way of that IMHO, so I would personally prioritise maintaining colour/fleshtone consistency on a scene by scene basis, even if it meant ignoring certain frames that did not coincide with the overall colour scheme chosen.
I agree that inconsistency in color gets in the way of appreciating the film, but if it was originally inconsistent, that should be preserved in some fashion, and the original inconsistency should be available for film historians, something that just doesn't exist at the moment for Star Wars, except in Despecialized. But I also want nice consistent colors across scenes, so if there was a way to have both versions, that would be the ideal situation. But it would require some amount of artistic interpretation, as there are some scenes with just two shots of differing colors for example. Which one is right? Is either one right, or is the actual color somewhere in the middle? These are tough questions that don't have easy answers.