Idea: 'Man of Steel' - color fix (lots of info)

this isn’t an actual project (yet?) but I thought you guys might like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du-eYiD9OfM

It looks terrible and is not very well done.

Plus the before example is fake.

Looks like crap, the new color is 2004 SE-level painful on the eyes, but I agree with the IDEA. Someone just needs to do it correctly.

I did a couple of quick test regrades. Take it for what it's worth.

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/123736/picture:0

I think it's at least feasible.

Can you fix the fact that the movie is awful? :)

The movie is a horribly written, horribly directed and horribly edited piece of boring shit, no colour correction can fix that. But I must admit the new colour palette looks much better

I have actually been getting inundated with tons of requests to do Man of Steel because of that video. It looks i'm going to be doing a regrade of this :)

The big problem I'm seeing with both that screenshot regrade and the video is flash tones- they all look very orange. Even Laurence Fishburn's character takes on a slight orange look. It just seems too unnatural. I guess that's just what gets lost when you try to bring that much red out of Superman's cape.

_,,,^..^,,,_ said:

A thing that puzzled me is the fact that youtube comparison is linked by many sites, while other better, and finished, projects, made by members of this community, remain in the shadow...

@kk650: let's see who'll be able to finish it before the other! (^^,)

by the way, here you are the BD 3D Vs 2D:
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/45349

That thought had crossed my mind as well but that sort of thing is happening all the time, inferior products with better marketing having much more fuss made over them than they deserve, while superior products that haven't had that marketing behind them, that are far more deserving of attention, are only known by a few.

I've found that time has a way of putting everything in its place, quality products like cream always rise to the top in the end, just like The Shawshank Redemption did, while overrated inferior products always end up being revealed for what they are in time, inferior, regardless of the buzz/amount of articles written about them.

You taking up this Man of Steel challenge as well Andrea? The more the merrier :)

Mitch said:

First one needs to star with the best available version of the film

Does anyone have that?

If your are going to get serious ONE should start there.

I see no comparisons between different releases on caps-a-holic and the blu-ray releases in the majority of countries are by the same company, Warner Bros, so one can safely assume that they all use the same transfer.

Do you have a particular release in mind Mitch?

Just to be clear on this, these projects are aimed at altering Man of Steel not to how it is supposed to look, but to how people want it to look?

That's all fine I guess, but you're all talking about a revision, not a restoration. There's a fan edit section for that sort of thing...

Yeah, agreed, this should probably be moved to fan edits?

Jonno said:

Just to be clear on this, these projects are aimed at altering Man of Steel not to how it is supposed to look, but to how people want it to look?

That's all fine I guess, but you're all talking about a revision, not a restoration. There's a fan edit section for that sort of thing...

Hmm, interesting definition of a 'fanedit' you have there Jonno. Fanedits are called fanedits because they are edited differently from the official releases, not because they have different colour grading. Otherwise you seem to be suggesting that any release with colour grading different to the official release is a fanedit, which would of course make the despecialised editions fanedits as well.

This section is called 'Other Preservations AND Fan Projects', I think regrading Man of Steel without any editing falls quite comfortably in the later category. No editing is involved so fanedit would be the wrong category for such a release.

kk650 said:

Otherwise you seem to be suggesting that any release with colour grading different to the official release is a fanedit, which would of course make the despecialised editions fanedits as well.

Not quite - I'm suggesting that a fan-modified release with colour grading different to the original/theatrical release constitutes a fan edit, or at least fan version. Unlike Star Wars Despecialized, which is based on precise examination of original prints, a recoloured Man of Steel won't restore or 'fix' any authentic experience; it will be a personal interpretation.

The official releases are, for better or worse, what the makers intended and what was seen in theatres. Reinterpret it by all means, but such a project shouldn't be considered a restorative measure, however much some may prefer it.

Jonno said:

kk650 said:

Otherwise you seem to be suggesting that any release with colour grading different to the official release is a fanedit, which would of course make the despecialised editions fanedits as well.

Not quite - I'm suggesting that a fan-modified release with colour grading different to the original/theatrical release constitutes a fan edit, or at least fan version. Unlike Star Wars Despecialized, which is based on precise examination of original prints, a recoloured Man of Steel won't restore or 'fix' any authentic experience; it will be a personal interpretation.

The official releases are, for better or worse, what the makers intended and what was seen in theatres. Reinterpret it by all means, but such a project shouldn't be considered a restorative measure, however much some may prefer it.

Nobody here has called regrading Man of Steel a 'restoration'. I don't see how it not being a restoration suddenly makes it a fanedit though. No editing has been suggested by anybody here, so the only change would be the colour grading, so clearly the 'fanedit' category you want to place this project in does not apply.

The grading of the despecialised is based on harmy subjective interpretation of the colour of frames that he's been provided with from various sources that may or may not be accurate compared to how it looked in the cinema when it was first released.

You may feel that thats how the Star Wars Original Trilogy is 'supposed to look' and therefore not 'fanedits' by your definition but I have seen them and I disagree, there is a great deal of colour/fleshtone inconsistency thoughout those releases that makes me think that its very unlikely they looked that way in the cinema originally. By your own definition that makes them fanedits.

What you appear to be saying Jonno is that any release that doesn't look like it's 'supposed to' according to you is a fanedit,  which is something that I think you can understand I don't agree with. I don't really see why your subjective opinion on what releases are 'supposed to look like' should somehow be the deciding factor on whether a project is considered a 'fanedit' or not. I prefer to use something more objective and universal in deciding what is a fanedit, which is basically: has it been edited compared to the official release? Yes, fanedit it is. No, fanedit its not. Its that simple. I really don't see the confusion here, with the term fanedit being short for 'fan edit', its clear that editing is required for the term to apply. The 'Fan Projects' category fits this type of project perfectly IMHO.

pittrek said:

The movie is a horribly written, horribly directed and horribly edited piece of boring shit, no colour correction can fix that. But I must admit the new colour palette looks much better

 Movie wasn't perfect but I think that's taking it a bit far.  Personally, I would do some trimming to streamline the story a bit and remove some of the less important moments, but I think the writing is fine.  If you don't like it, that's one thing, but you know, that's like, your opinion man.

kk650 said:

Nobody here has called regrading Man of Steel a 'restoration'. I don't see how it not being a restoration suddenly makes it a fanedit though. No editing has been suggested by anybody here, so the only change would be the colour grading, so clearly the 'fanedit' category you want to place this project in does not apply.

The thread title includes the word 'fix', and it's in the preservation thread - hence my concern about its taxonomy.

I think your hard and fast definition of 'editing' is reductive, and that a deliberate alteration of colour constitutes an edit, but to me the larger issue is that the film materials are being manipulated for the hell of it, as opposed to restoratively.

I absolutely agree that 'proper' image and sound for a given film is subject to interpretation, but for my money a well researched and evidence-based approach such as Harmy's is always preferable to 'what looks right'. The intent is markedly different - on the one side, trying to recover *an* original look for the film from all available evidence (however limited), and on the other using personal taste and judgement to make adjustments.

Whew! I hadn't intended to argue my angle quite so vociferously, but I think this particular case (and people's attitudes to it) is an interesting one, because the original video was touted, embraced and posted here as some sort of repair when it was clearly nothing of the sort.