Now that the excellent Raiders of the Lost Ark 35mm LPP Theatrical Experience has been released, it is the perfect moment to restart the Raiders of the Lost Ark regrade thread, only this time using the WOWOW HDTV broadcast as a basis. This will be a shot by shot regrade of that broadcast, using the 35mm LPP as a reference:

http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/RELEASED-Raiders-of-the-Lost-Ark-35mm-LPP-Theatrical-Experience-v10/id/51021

This way viewers will be able to see the film with the original theatrical color timing, but in pristine broadcast quality.

The regrade will be done, using the color matching tool I’ve developed, to ensure the colors are as close to the 35mm reference as is humanly possible:

http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Color-matching-and-prediction-color-correction-tool-v13-released/id/18128

Here’s a first example frame:

35 mm LPP:

Bluray:

WOWOW HDTV broadcast:

WOWOW regraded to match the 35mm LPP:

A special thanks to litemakr, and all those who contributed, for providing us with such an excellent source of reference!

Looks great. What about the cobra scene? Will you keep it as it is presented on the WOWOW broadcast or will you clean up, restore the LPP shots to put the glass between Indy and the cobra back in, so we can see the reflections and fingerprints as we should?

Why exactly aren’t you using the Blu-ray as a basis to be regraded? It should have better image and compression quality than the broadcast, doesn’t it?

Beber said:

Looks great. What about the cobra scene? Will you keep it as it is presented on the WOWOW broadcast or will you clean up, restore the LPP shots to put the glass between Indy and the cobra back in, so we can see the reflections and fingerprints as we should?

The first release will be as presented on the WOWOW, as “despecializing” is not my strong suit, and luckily the changes for Raiders are fairly minimal, compared to Star Wars.

Laserschwert said:

Why exactly aren’t you using the Blu-ray as a basis to be regraded? It should have better image and compression quality than the broadcast, doesn’t it?

As it turns out the WOWOW broadcast is more detailed, despite it’s pedigree. The bluray is notably softer, and suffers from severely blown out highlights in some scenes, for example.

Edit: Never mind, fair enough 😃 Really looking forward to this.

Looks good! I was hoping you would take this up again. The wowow is not too far off color-wise, but it’s over saturated and over-brightened. A few shots are a bit overexposed, but nothing like the blu-ray. I think you should be able to match it up very closely.

The color changes, overexposure and DNR on the blu-ray make it pretty much impossible to use most scenes.

Laserschwert said:

Why exactly aren’t you using the Blu-ray as a basis to be regraded? It should have better image and compression quality than the broadcast, doesn’t it?

Dnr

Thanks for the positive feedback y’all!

RDPlissken said:

amazing result. how would it look with 35mm colors if retained wowow’s less crushed blacks?

I did some tests, but didn’t really like the results. So, I will stick with the current contrast levels, as that is how it looked on the big screen.

Here are two more regrades for the opening scenes of the film.

35mm LPP:

WOWOW:

WOWOW matched to 35mm LPP:

35mm LPP:

WOWOW:

WOWOW matched to 35mm LPP:

Turisu said:

My only argument for using the BD as a source rather than the WOWOW is that the BD restores several original shots that remain digitally altered in the WOWOW. Such as the sea-plane matte painting and the red “travelling line” sequence (I’m sure there are other examples but these are the only two that come to mind).

Conversely, the lamp that Indy and Marion are tied to in the opening of the ark sequence was digitally illuminated in the BD whereas it should be off. Not sure whether the WOWOW has the lamp on or off.

Perhaps just a few replacement shots from the BD would be best overall.

The WOWOW has the lamp off. I suppose a few replacement shots from the bluray could be used. Does anyone have a list of the shots that were altered for the WOWOW, but not for the bluray?

Turisu said:
Conversely, the lamp that Indy and Marion are tied to in the opening of the ark sequence was digitally illuminated in the BD whereas it should be off. Not sure whether the WOWOW has the lamp on or off.

Can I see some screenshots of this?

Also, how’s the matching tool do for the bar scene?

Wazzles said:

Turisu said:
Conversely, the lamp that Indy and Marion are tied to in the opening of the ark sequence was digitally illuminated in the BD whereas it should be off. Not sure whether the WOWOW has the lamp on or off.

Can I see some screenshots of this?

Also, how’s the matching tool do for the bar scene?

Here’s the shot from the WOWOW

http://imgur.com/2Ag0InK

Wazzles said:

Turisu said:
Conversely, the lamp that Indy and Marion are tied to in the opening of the ark sequence was digitally illuminated in the BD whereas it should be off. Not sure whether the WOWOW has the lamp on or off.

Can I see some screenshots of this?

Also, how’s the matching tool do for the bar scene?

Here’s an example for the bar scene.

35mm LPP:

WOWOW:

WOWOW matched to 35mm LPP:

DrDre said:

Turisu said:

My only argument for using the BD as a source rather than the WOWOW is that the BD restores several original shots that remain digitally altered in the WOWOW. Such as the sea-plane matte painting and the red “travelling line” sequence (I’m sure there are other examples but these are the only two that come to mind).

Conversely, the lamp that Indy and Marion are tied to in the opening of the ark sequence was digitally illuminated in the BD whereas it should be off. Not sure whether the WOWOW has the lamp on or off.

Perhaps just a few replacement shots from the BD would be best overall.

The WOWOW has the lamp off. I suppose a few replacement shots from the bluray could be used. Does anyone have a list of the shots that were altered for the WOWOW, but not for the bluray?

Another shot altered in the BD is also from the opening of the ark. The close-up of the top of the pillar of fire in the clouds has stars behind it, but in the Blu-ray the stars are removed and it is just a dark sky background. This is a weird change, I wonder if the DNR or cleanup process identified the stars as specs of dirt and removed them?

The shot is correct in the Wowow.

I’m curious to see how that scene comes out overall in your regrade. There are several over exposed shots (which are much worse in the blu-ray).

litemakr said:

DrDre said:

Turisu said:

My only argument for using the BD as a source rather than the WOWOW is that the BD restores several original shots that remain digitally altered in the WOWOW. Such as the sea-plane matte painting and the red “travelling line” sequence (I’m sure there are other examples but these are the only two that come to mind).

Conversely, the lamp that Indy and Marion are tied to in the opening of the ark sequence was digitally illuminated in the BD whereas it should be off. Not sure whether the WOWOW has the lamp on or off.

Perhaps just a few replacement shots from the BD would be best overall.

The WOWOW has the lamp off. I suppose a few replacement shots from the bluray could be used. Does anyone have a list of the shots that were altered for the WOWOW, but not for the bluray?

Another shot altered in the BD is also from the opening of the ark. The close-up of the top of the pillar of fire in the clouds has stars behind it, but in the Blu-ray the stars are removed and it is just a dark sky background. This is a weird change, I wonder if the DNR or cleanup process identified the stars as specs of dirt and removed them?

The shot is correct in the Wowow.

I’m curious to see how that scene comes out overall in your regrade. There are several over exposed shots (which are much worse in the blu-ray).

I won’t be able to work on it before tomorrow, but it will be the next example.

Here’s a frame from the Cairo sequence.

35mm LPP:

WOWOW:

WOWOW matched to 35mm LPP:

I’m still looking for a good example with the stars. Do you have a frame number for the LPP litemaker?

It’s this shot.

The 5 stars are clear in the 35mm, faint in the wowow and removed in the blu. A minor change, but a digital change nonetheless.

35mm

Wowow

Blu-ray