Info: The Look of Terminator 2 — Page 5

The VCL T2 seems to come from a low-contrast interpositive like the other home video transfers; it just seems to come from a different one with different color. If it had come from a theatrical print element like T1, it would look much different.

I don't think the color changes, I think the whole thing is out of balance. It is just less noticeable at the beginning. (Normally, it looks blue at the beginning.)

This transfer may have been out of balance - I'm almost wondering if they were trying to make the colors look more neutral in the night scenes or something. I'd love for someone to get their hands on this and try to see what the colors of the entire film end up looking like if the Carolco logo is corrected to be silver.

There are a couple copies on eBay Germany, but none of the sellers ship to the USA, so I can't buy a copy myself like I did with T1.

My Terminator marathon is tomorrow. Depending on the kind of projection, I'll see if it's worth taking some pictures here and there with my iPhone.

OK, so I just got back from my marathon:

T1 was the remastered version we all know about, so digital, just like the Blu-ray, except for a couple sound effects that oddly didn't ring a bell.

T2 was also a digital projection, so I didn't take pictures. The same master we currently know. Problem is, on a 26 meter screen, it surely lacks definition, and the blacks were not black enough. It definitely needs a brand new remaster. Interestingly, I believe the audio was the CDS mix. Its effects, its spacialization was not the same as the Blu-ray remix, and yet it sounded familiar.

Finally, T Genisys was of course digital.

It would not have been the CDS mix

And yet, it really sounded like it was. Why do you say that?

I was watching the T2 trailer on youtube and parts of it match the 8mm and people's description of the 35mm.

Lots of purples (like the 8mm), lots of greens in daylight shots (LA and Mexico) and yellow for flames.

Love that shot of Arnie standing over Furlong. Not a hint of blue to be found. Guess I was wrong when I said that only the daytime scenes have a neutral color timing.

The purple in the bar scene is interesting, I'm sure I've seen/read that that shot was very dark & blue theatrically...

I doubt the colors from the trailer are dead on with a 35mm prints but it does add more clues. I would think the purple is all wrong but the 8mm has a lot in the mall scene. Its very interesting.

The trailers raise some questions, because some of them lack any kind of color pushing in the night scenes. I just can't believe that some prints would have no color pushing in the night exteriors, and others would.

And this trailer transfer also seems to be rebalanced for home video?

Speaking of, I noticed that if I just did rudimentary color adjustment on the VCL DVD screenshots in MS Office so that the Carolco logo looks silver instead of yellow, much of the blue blanket comes back.

The Siskel and Ebert review clip has the "you can't go around killing people" scene with a blanket over the scene, but it looks more purple. Though I'm not sure how much of that is due to telecine adjustment, or the fidelity of the off-air VHS recording.

Here is the Siskel and Ebert episode in its entirety: http://siskelandebert.org/video/GD1Y4DDD53BR/Terminator-2-Naked-Gun-2-12-Europa-Europa-1991

Still more intereting.

Here is the shot that Tservo's is talking about from the S&E review

Which makes the trailer look like it wasn't color timed for that shot, which is entirely possible. Other shots like the high five, T-1000 chasing John and the steel mill look pretty close to the trailer.

The purple is just odd, was it purple or purple-ish on the 35mm prints or was that a transfer issue to video and its meant to be blue. I would say blue but that's memory of all the home video versions and the 8mm has purple...

It could also be that blue vs. purple was some kind of consequence of variance in the photochemical processing. Perhaps one batch of prints came out more blue, others more purple? This could explain why Beber's screening, kaosjm's screening and the 8mm point to purple, and TylerDurden's screening and that one 2013 screening that the camcorder YouTube clips come from, point more to blue or teal.

As I said, on the VCL DVD screenshots the night scenes look purple, but when I did some very rudimentary color-correcting on them to remove the tint from the Carolco logo, they went back to blue. (But the explosions in the future war screenshots stayed yellow...)

Even though the VCL T2 is not a theatrical print like T1, I think we need to get it (if only those sellers on eBay.de shipped to the USA). We also need to keep a lookout for more screenings. (Of course, the holy grail would be an actual print.)

PDB said:

Still more intereting.

Here is the shot that Tservo's is talking about from the S&E review

Which makes the trailer look like it wasn't color timed for that shot, which is entirely possible. Other shots like the high five, T-1000 chasing John and the steel mill look pretty close to the trailer.

The purple is just odd, was it purple or purple-ish on the 35mm prints or was that a transfer issue to video and its meant to be blue. I would say blue but that's memory of all the home video versions and the 8mm has purple...

 Oh, boy! It never looked like that. There are no purple shots. There are some purplish tint here and there. Don't think that you just have to switch from blue to purple to be dead on. The blue should be tealer with a touch of purple in it, that's it. Then, reduce the brightness to darken the atmosphere, and decrease the reds so that the steel factory looks more yellow than orange. You can also desaturate the colors a bit.

It would be closer to this:

http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/768325DysonCyberdynevault.jpg

http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/676751T101nightalley.jpg

http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/324154Johnnightalley.jpg

I did this using the Skynet edition, so it lacks grain obvioulsy. I could darken it a little.

The whole Siskel video is purple, it's because it was recorded in NTSC. Never Twice the Same Color. Don't take is as reference.

However as I said here and elsewhere, the bar scene in the theaters was bluer than on home video. Ever since the laserdisc / vhs, the blue was gone from the bar scene.

There! That's the yellow and the cyan I remember:

http://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/698608Terminator2JudgmentDayHD1080pTrailer1991YouTubemp4snapshot012620150702125733.jpg

Trailers are never fully colour timed 

It is coming to IMAX next year, expect the new master and maybe 3d 

Where did you hear this? T2 is kind of messy as far as distribution, StudioCanal owns the film, Lionsgate has U.S. home rights, but Sony still has U.S. theatrical rights. And the rights are different in other countries.

Imdb release dates