MAJOR UPDATE
So, the decision to make The Ancient Lore canon-friendly with a higher accuracy will remain firm, and therefore many of the old plot decisions will be gone. The “new” music is also gone. The film needs its original identity.
As for other things;
The Phantom Menace was shot on film, with high browns, dark shadows and a cyan blue. The denoised, high bitrate Disney blu-ray’s and 4k’s are an abomonation and make the CGI look like wax, and the 35mm film prints are noisy and - at certain points - lack detail.
Therefore, the middle-point for me was to use the (not-denoised-/DNR-less-) version of the film; an upscaled HDTV Rip. Then, with my own custom color grading, the next step was to carefully replace and repurpose the original colors of the film (that have been lost since cinemas, except for the mentioned 35mm film print(s)).
This was also important so that today’s children, whom are used to clean screens and firm colors, was kept in the loop when watching The Ancient Lore.
As mentioned the original palette had dark browns, dark shadows and a cyan blue, whilst the DVD and onward versions have replaced the cyan blue with purple and the dark shadows with bright shadows. Also the orange has been toned down to something more pink.
HANGAR BAY EXAMPLE:
Here is the DVD/BLURAY/4K VERSION:
Here is the original 35mm filmprint version (brightened and upscaled):
Here is my color palette:
TRADE FEDERATION INTERIOR EXAMPLE:
DVD/BLU-RAY/4K/HDTV:
35MM VERSION (Brightened and upscaled):
THE ANCIENT LORE/MY VERSION:
And then to something more fun, which would be video.
VIDEO EXAMPLE:
Here is the new The Ancient Lore version, with this new color grade.
https://streamable.com/eq9dkf
The original filmprint has surprisingly dark shadows and colors, and this was important for me to mimic. I love the vintage style of it, but with a modern twist.
I also included a slightly new but unfinished tweak, which was to extend the Nute Gunray scene to also include the Queen of Naboo’s dialogue about the Ambassadors. I find it more thrilling to the story to have them deny their presence whilst they are in the ship, unknowing of the present danger.