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Info Wanted: Question regarding 'Jurassic Park 3D'... (and info)

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I’ve noticed this recent edition of Jurassic Park has vastly different colour timing from previous home video releases. My question is: I the colour timing accurate or just part of the “orange/teal” colour contrast trend that seems prevalent in today’s movie industry and has gone as far as altering older movies which had no such colour timing?

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Somewhere between is what I have always said 

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AFAIK, the original releases were too biased towards magenta. The re-release is apparently more faithful, but with a few modern biases. 

What’s the internal temperature of a TaunTaun? Luke warm.

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I always hated the abundance of blue in the T-Rex Jeep scene on the DVD and 2D BD releases. I'm certain it was never blue like that theatrically (based on 11 viewings albeit 22 years ago) and the 'Spielberg approved' 3D BD seems to confirm this as the blue is heavily reduced in this sequence.

Here's an example I posted previously to illustrate this along with a photograph of a 35mm film cell:
http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/spoRv-projects-past-and-future/post/669332/#TopicPost669332

Personally, I'd love to see the 2D BD regraded to the 3D BD's colours or even some kind of happy medium if that's the consensus.

George creates Star Wars.
Star Wars creates fans.
George destroys Star Wars.
Fans destroy George.
Fans create Star Wars.

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Another issue I have is I think they went a little overboard with the hot filters as there are instances where the actors look like they have Oompa-Loompa ancestry if you know what I mean.

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OK guys, after searching around for different clues the 3D BD is definitely the closest thing to the colour timing of the the original theatrical prints, however it's not perfect as there are many instances in which the image has this weird pinkish cast and others in which they went overboard with the hot filters (the shot of Gennaro approaching the amber mine looks like a badly preserved 1970s B-movie) and anything that's supposed to be white has a hint of orange, whilst the skies have an odd hint of orange-pink in several frames.

As the 2011 BD is the best in terms of image quality and the frames have less cropping than the 3D BDs I believe adjusting the colour timing of the 2011 BD to match the 3D BD would be having the best of both worlds, wouldn't you think? In fact I browsed a few screenshots and did some adjustments, it's not perfect by any means.

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Looks good. Although the top shot still seems a little too pink. It should be more of a golden brown.

While the daytime scenes in the 3DBD appear to be a close match to the 35mm print, the night scenes have had almost all the blue removed. 35mm stills have shown that the strong blue cast was always present in the night scenes, just not to the degree that the 2DBD pushes it.

George creates Star Wars.
Star Wars creates fans.
George destroys Star Wars.
Fans destroy George.
Fans create Star Wars.

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I've talked to poita, he says the print is indeed less saturated than the video transfers, but that the scan wasn't fully corrected to match the print yet?

I don't understand why the frame grabs from that eBay auction are much richer. The color palette seems about the same between the two, just the saturation and brightness/contrast seem different.

Regardless of saturation, this seems to be another one of those ones where the regrade is closer to the theatrical, but also somehow arther away (pink skies, teal skies, teal water, skin tones being too orange, etc.)

I love it when 35mm prints come along to answer these color timing mysteries...

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We are taking a look at the print also, but again, the colors may vary from what people remember.

Team Negative1

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Just so ya know, we were asked to release it this way, untouched for the first release. Doesn't mean we can't bring some color out on the next release. I still like the way the print looks though, Looks more natural to me.

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Oh, I agree. I think this color palette is much better than any of the home transfers.

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PDB said:

DoomBot said:

Just so ya know, we were asked to release it this way, untouched for the first release (mostly). Doesn't mean we can't bring some color out on the next release. I still like the way the print looks though, Looks more natural to me.

 What Doom said :)

A tiny bit of contrast was added to get some blacks back to black and obviously the cropping but the rest of the picture was left alone. As close to the original scan as possible. Now a version 2 might have some more changes

Fabulous job, both of you and all who participated.

:)

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Wait...you all scanned a print?  Life finds a way!

Where is it? ;)

“Alright twinkle-toes, what’s your exit strategy?”

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You glorious bastards.  

“Alright twinkle-toes, what’s your exit strategy?”

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Poita acquired and scanned this baby.

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Been watching that MKV up on the Spleen.

Impressive.

Most impressive.

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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OK, poita confirmed to me in email that the scan can be tweaked to look closer to the print, but as far as saturation, it can be increased maybe "another 2-3%". He confirms that the print as projected is not very saturated, and that the 35mm stills from eBay are oversaturated "as is often the case with taking photos with digital cameras."

Very intriguing, I wonder why taking photos of a film print would amp up the saturation compared to when the print is actually projected. That means that even theatrical prints contain more color information than would be seen in a theater?

This is is more proof that everything we know is wrong about how movies looked in theatrical release, and that just because a recent video regrade is very different from older video transfers, doesn't make the older transfers any more accurate. It also lends credence to my theory that many of these "revisionist" regrades can in some ways be closer to the theatrical timing, while still being botched and marred by revisionist tendencies (teal skies, Jersey Shore spray-tan complexions, contrast being both crushed and flattened, etc.)

This is why I'm so glad to see amateur 35mm scanning of original release prints becoming a reality.

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poita is no amateur at film scanning, at least not in the newb sense.  He is well aware of what he's got and what he's doing.

As for taking pictures of film print you have to remember the camera has it's own settings that seem to interact with the colors of the print.

I am downloading a CEE version of JP to compare some of the others to.  It seems like it's the middle of the road from screen shots I've seen when it comes to color timing.

No matter one's personal preferrence what we have been given is astonishing to watch and enjoy.  And that is just how this individual intends on treating it.  I've donated for other scan projects happening down the road and I will treat them the same.  These are things you just can't buy at the store or get on eBay ...... a LOT of care and effort have been put in to make them available to all who may want them and THAT is what's important, at least to me ..... and others I know.

Cheers!!!!

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Forgive my use of the word "amateur." I was not using it to slight poita (far from it, he was a projectionist, he worked with film for years, so he knows his shit). I was using it in the classical sense of not doing it as a paid profession. As in, people outside of the industry transferring 35mm with their own second-hand or homemade equipment. I should have used another word, I just couldn't think of one.

I understand all of that about the color, it fits with what poita told me, and I am willing to defer to him because as I said already, I know he knows his shit.

Don't worry, I am not criticizing this transfer. I absolutely think it looks amazing. I also donated to make this scan happen.

What is CEE?