- Time
- (Edited)
- Post link
Hi everyone,
I’ve been at it for quite some time, and I think I’m finally ready to release my graded versions of the LOTR scans that have been hanging around here.
It has proved a more complicated task than I expected. What started as 1 grade per reel job ended up being a scene by scene, sometimes shot by shot regrade. Not because I wanted to, but because after some time it seemed obvious that the files had been tampered with already and that some sort of grading was applied to them at some point.
As much as I would have loved the grade to be 100% faithful to the original, I don’t think that it would be possible given the material. As I said, the scans seem to have been worked on already, and of top of that some reels have pretty intense shifts going on, plus there’s no other reference to what the original grade looked like, not to mention that those original grades were pretty funky to start with.
What is certain is that the 35mm Fuji prints had a lot more contrast going on that what can be seen on the DVD’s and blurays, which is a good thing in that it makes the picture a lot more vibrant, helps making the vfx compositing a lot more believable. On the other hand, it makes those bold grading choices (and also the color shifts) a lot more obvious, and subsenquently harder to nail, as you always feel like you’re going way over the top.
So what I did was using a “contrasted up” bluray rip as a reference, not to 100% match my grade to it, but just to use a that, a reference. Some shots are very consistent from the 35MM to the bluray, some not so much, especially in FOTR, as the theater realease didn’t use a full Digital Intermediate. When there were obvious difference between the two versions, I just tried to make the 35mm look as good as possible within its palette and relatint to the other scenes on the reel.
I’m ready to share FOTR at the moment, I don’t have a mega account, so I could maybe share it via resilio to someone who could upload it somewhere? I’m away a lot and can’t keep resilio on at all times. If someone wants to help, do reach out!
As said previously, FOTR was the hardest one to deal with. Some bits I’m still not too happy about, but I think they are the parts where the fading was just too bad (The Wizard fight in Orthanc, Arwen meeting Aragorn and the Hobbits and The Shards of Narsil scene come to mind) I’m anxious to know what you all think. I still think this is the best way to experience these movies, the last time I enjoyed watching them that much was 20 years ago in the theater!! This is the real deal, this scan really takes suspension of disbelief to another level!!
EDIT: All three movies are done, here are some updated screencaps:
