Original color timing? No, not what I'm after. I'm after an acceptable overall color correction that is better than what we have had. All the pre SE sources seem to be washed out (yet they managed to preserve the highlights) and all the SE sources seem to be dark with crushed blacks. I'm after a unified color grading that will span the saga but may be match (exactly) any sources. And as far as I know, other than the Legacy project, everyone trying to restore any of these films is working with the same handicap. I think these films have been treated horribly by Lucasfilm. Not one version of these film on home video has been of desent quality. The best seems the Definitive Edition LD set (and the faces edition and GOUT taken from it) but that version his hindered by what were then invisible flaws that jump out in the higher formats we are working with today. The JSC LD set avoided those flaws, but suffers from film artifacts and has a different color grading. The Lowry scan has great image resolution, but horrible color grading. My goal is to bring consistency to a messy situation. I'm not doing a scene by scene color correction (except where they already did something and messed it up - the BR has many instances of this). I have identified 4 distinct sources (and debating whether one is actually from a 5th source) for the OT. There is the JSC, Definitive Edition/GOUT, the SE EU broadcast (film artifacts and very different color grading from the BR), and Lowry's scan (used in broadcast, DVD and BR - but I'm only referencing the BR). I'm trying to bring Lowry's scan in line with the other three sources.
I'm hoping that TESB and ROTJ are less work than ANH. I've already identified several things to fix that I had assumed were SE glitches that have turned out to be Lowry glitches (or Lucasfilm... can't tell with some who f...ed it up). Just makes me really mad that they would release such crap on BR and call it good.
I don't know what I may end up sharing when I am done, but my first task is to archive my sources in 1280x720 mp4 files. I need to crop and resize the images and do a general color correction. I'm playing with the ANH 97 SE at the moment. That version is very important because so far, it has the best sky so I can use it to fix the blown out sky shots on Tatooine. My first pass I used the GOUT and got a pretty good result, but that version is even better so I'm hoping for even better results.
Right now I'm working with the following:
JSC - two versions of ANH
TR47 - Still not positive it is that edition, but it is the Definitive Edition LD set, complete with special features with the movies processed with the reverse 3:2 pull down so they are 24fps. My initial guide to the colors I'm after.
GOUT - I have the originals as well as several cleanup attempts.
EU SE broadcast - has a + and a blue square in the upper right corner and includes Ep1. Definitely a different transfer from the DVD/BR. Lots of film artifacts. Probably the same as the SE LD and Ep 1 LD. Shares the same type of DNR smearing as the DE and GOUT. Preserved highlights and less crushed blacks than the BR, but still very dark overall.
BR - my goal is to make these look good. Highest resolution. When you ignore the color issues, they are awesome scans for home video, but they are ruined by the bad colors. Not much I can do with AOTC or ROTS, but the other all need work.
What I really want to do is to make my own edit, but to do that I need the original and BR editions to match seamlessly. Color is the biggest issue in matching up material so if I can do that, creating my own edit will be simple. There are tricks for resolution, such as reducing my edit to 1280x720, that will work once the colors match.
I hope that clears up just what I am after in this.