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GOUT Technicolor regrade (single pass) (* unfinished project * - lots of info)

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I decided to create a separate thread for this, as it’s only vaguely related to the subject of the theatrical colors of Star Wars. I would like to present my single pass Technicolor correction of the GOUT/The Definitive Collection laserdisc. It turns out the GOUT is actually the most consistent OT release when it comes to color, and after some tweaking all the hallmarks of a Technicolor print can be pulled from the GOUT. Just to reiterate, these results can be obtained with a single LUT.

Here’s a set of sample frames:

GOUT:

GOUT regraded:

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It’s baffling to me how accurate this simple one pass correction of the entire film seems to be (these frames are from the Definitive Collection laserdisc):

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Even after all those HD releases, in GOUT we trust ? 😃

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Yeah, I still have to make a few tiny adjustments to the saturation levels of some of the colors, specifically the teal.

Speaking of which, perhaps you would like to do a second pass based on the collage of frames? You have a keen eye for such things…😃

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I’ll render it if you package it together, ready to go 😆

Preferred Saga:
1/2: Hal9000
3: L8wrtr
4/5: Adywan
6-9: Hal9000

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A bit of a fix needed for second row, picture 4 and 5. With that I’d say you have it. Still a bit too green in the darks vs your recent examples of those shots.

Preferred Saga:
1/2: Hal9000
3: L8wrtr
4/5: Adywan
6-9: Hal9000

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DrDre, I like colors very much! I’d prefer it less dark, to retain more details in the shadow, but this is just my opinion.

I wonder if this LUT could be applied somehow using AviSynth. Also, could it be used to regrade BD as well (in the corresponding scene/shots, of course)?

Sadly my projects are lost due to an HDD crash… 😦 | [Fundamental Collection] thread | blog.spoRv.com | fan preservation forum: fanres.com

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^…^ said:

DrDre, I like colors very much! I’d prefer it less dark, to retain more details in the shadow, but this is just my opinion.

I wonder if this LUT could be applied somehow using AviSynth. Also, could it be used to regrade BD as well (in the corresponding scene/shots, of course)?

Saturation levels are currently set at film like levels, so they are too high for a low resolution transfer like a laserdisc or the GOUT. The LUT won’t work for the bluray, as it specifically is tailored to adjust the GOUT to closely approximate a technicolor print. It seems the color correction applied to the GOUT may have been a single correction to correct the color levels of the faded interpositive after it had been telecined. I don’t think the same treatment could be applied to the bluray, as that was scanned directly from the negative, and therefore does not contain any information about the original color timing.

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In my humble opinions the blacks are a bit too dark and you lose some detail in the darker colors… For example, the shot of Han as they are getting out of the trash compactor - his vest kind of blends in with the dark background. Same with the shot at the Yavin IV base.

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stealthboy said:

In my humble opinions the blacks are a bit too dark and you lose some detail in the darker colors… For example, the shot of Han as they are getting out of the trash compactor - his vest kind of blends in with the dark background. Same with the shot at the Yavin IV base.

I refer you to my previous comment…

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So, at the end, it is possible to apply the LUT to the GOUT using Avisynth? And, if so, how?

I thought also that the regraded GOUT could be used as color reference to regrade BD - a bit convoluted, I must admit, but it should work (in theory)!

Sadly my projects are lost due to an HDD crash… 😦 | [Fundamental Collection] thread | blog.spoRv.com | fan preservation forum: fanres.com

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Here’s a version with lower contrast. To be clear these are not final. Contrast levels for film are generally higher than for bluray. Contrast levels for bluray are generally higher than those for laserdisc. So, the contrast will depend on the source you want to regrade. Since, I will first regrade the GOUT, contrast will be lower.

GOUT:

GOUT regraded:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/199070

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^…^ said:

So, at the end, it is possible to apply the LUT to the GOUT using Avisynth? And, if so, how?

I thought also that the regraded GOUT could be used as color reference to regrade BD - a bit convoluted, I must admit, but it should work (in theory)!

I don’t know if it is possible to apply a LUT in Avisynth, but you certainly could use the regraded GOUT as a color reference. However, a regrade of the SSE would be higher on my list…

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Unfortunately, a single pass regrade of the SSE probably won’t be so easy: It uses several different sources and most scenes were graded independently, more than once, by more than one person… And then I applied a one size fits all LUT on top of that to get it to where it is now.

Edit: Never mind, I see that’s not what you were suggesting: Use the regraded GOUT as a guide to regrade the SSE.

http://www.thestarwarstrilogy.com

http://www.the007dossier.com

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Great work Dr Dre! These are looking very nice!

This new discovery about the GOUT is certainly helpful

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

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Wonderful work Dre! What specific GOUT source are you referring to here, if not the SSE’s?

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dlvh said:

Wonderful work Dre! What specific GOUT source are you referring to here, if not the SSE’s?

Thanks! I was referring to the idea to use the regraded GOUT as a color reference for regrading other sources. The SSE would be a candidate.

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From the beginning I have been working with the GOUT. Not as the best source of color, but as the best testbed for global color corrections. I have the 1 fps sample that Mike Verta shared of the Tech IB scan. It suffers from a lot of color issues at either end. When I balanced it and then worked on making the GOUT match it, I got pretty much what you have gotten. Just less green in the darker areas and less yellow in the brighter areas. I think what I got could be called a mint green for the Tantive IV walls. And that shot of Leia and R2 in the corridor has that distinctive green tint, just not as strong as what you are getting.

One of my operating theories is that the interpositives used for Eps 4, 5, and 6 from 85 to 94 were all scanned with the same settings to yield the GOUT versions we have (except for the opening crawl of Ep 4 which came from some other source). When I applied those same settings to Ep 5 and compared it to the test scan and initial color correction Poita has been working on for TESB, the colors matched very close. I have not tested it with the grindhouse ROTJ yet.

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The previous examples were from the Definitive Collection Laserdisc. Here are the first three frames for the GOUT Star Wars DVD with an obviously better resolution. These are not final, but I love them all the same (for example the mint green walls and the soldier’s light blue shirts are very obvious):