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kk650's Lord of the Rings: Regraded (Released)

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kk650, tehparadox and former ot.com member, has created versions of the Lord of the Rings movies with corrected color timing. The following is copied from his description on tehparadox:


Fellowship of the Ring

When The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition blu-ray came out, many noticed that in comparison to the theatrical release and previous DVD and blu-ray releases, a darkening green tint had been applied across the whole film, turning snow and clouds meant to look white green and making everything look underexposed. Even the title, end credits and fade to white in rivendell were affected by this blanket green tint, giving everything in the film a green tint, including fleshtones.

The underexposed nature of the new transfer also led to many darker scenes like the mines of moria being very difficult to make out on the screen and daylight scenes like those in Hobbiton seeming very overcast rather than sunny like they were in the theatrical release and every other home release.

As you can imagine, there was a lot of controversy, with many calling for the studio responsible and the director to admit with a statement that a mistake had been made with the transfer of the blu-ray and for new corrected replacement blu-rays to be provided to those that had bought the flawed original blu-ray release. As you can imagine, that did not happen and that´s how things have stayed to this day.

With that in mind, I have gone ahead and created a corrected version myself, removing the blanket green tint so the snow, clouds and the fade to white in rivendell are indeed white again like they were in all the previous releases, returning this beautifully shot film back to its former glory and correcting the brightness and contrast so the film no longer looks underexposed.

I hope you like what i´ve done here. Please post back here saying whether you enjoyed this release, it would be greatly appreciated.

Technical Specs:

Name: Regraded The Fellowship of the Ring: Extended Edition

Size: 15.3 GB

Video: 1920x804 H264 23.976

Audio Track: English DTS Audio 6.1

Subtitle Track 1: Elvish Subtitles in English

Subtitle Track 2: English Subtitles

Subtitle Track 3: Spanish Subtitles

Available in 2 versions: one less dynamic/contrasty and the other more dynamic/contrasty (kk650’s preferred version)

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Return of the King

Like the Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition blu-ray, the Return of the King also has a green tint running throughout the whole film, so I have created this regraded version which has the green tint removed, returning the films true colour and making for a far more visually satisfying experience. Unlike with the Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition blu-ray, the contrast and brightness on the Return of the King Extended Edition blu-ray are spot on IMHO so those remain the same in this regraded version.

In terms of editing, two changes have been made to the film:

The first change is removing the silly scene at the start of disc 2, the one where Peter Jackson gets shot by Legolas by mistake when Gimli nudges Legolas´s bow when he shoots, then Gimli has a very silly Oops reaction. It was removed for two reasons, the first being that its very cheesy and silly and comes across more as a Peter Jackson and crew cameo fanboy scene than a proper scene in the film that serves a real purpose. The second and more important reason is that it reveals the Army of the Dead too early, taking power away from their dramatic entrance into the battle of Pelennor Fields later in the film. The theatrical release did this much better without this superfluous scene IMHO so I have returned it to how it was in the theatrical release.

The second change is to remove something that has bugged me a great deal ever since I first saw the extended edition, that is Aragorn beheading the Mouth of Sauron. This never happens in the book, he is allowed to leave unharmed as a emissary of Sauron protected by the rules of Parley. To have Aragorn behead him in the film when under Parley cheapened Aragorn´s character a great deal, taking away a lot of his nobility for me and worst of all was completely at odds with his character as established in all the other scenes in the three films. The film version of Aragorn established throughout the three films would never do that. The book version of Aragorn would never do that. I lost a lot of sympathy for Aragorn after that, very stupid change from the book by Peter Jackson IMHO. Definately the low point of all three extended edition films for me.

So I have edited what is a great addition to the film IMHO, the Mouth of Sauron, so a lot of Aragorn´s stupid reaction shots have been removed and the beheading and everything directly leading up to it (starting with Aragorn moving menacingly towards the Mouth of Sauron) has been removed. Everything else has been left intact and I feel the scene flows seamlessly and is now much better than the extended edition, the Mouth of Sauron is able to say his piece and then leave unharmed which is much better IMHO, the nobility of all the main characters remain intact.

I hope you like what i´ve done here. Please post back here saying whether you enjoyed this release, it would be greatly appreciated.

Technical Specs:

Name: Regraded The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Extended Edition

Size: 16 GB

Video: 1920x804 H264 23.976

Audio Track: English DTS Audio 6.1

Subtitle Track 1: Elvish Subtitles in English

Subtitle Track 2: English Subtitles

Subtitle Track 3: Spanish Subtitles


The Hobbit

Like the fellowship of the ring extended edition blu-ray, the hobbit: an unexpected journey blu-ray release also had the same blanket green tint added across the whole film. It´s easiest to see when the film title comes up against the background of the clouds. Both the title and the clouds are green on the blu-ray. I personally like my clouds and snow white rather than green though so I have gone ahead and removed the blanket green tint across the whole film. I now feel that the film is far more pleasing to the eye and therefore a lot nicer to watch.

I hope you enjoy what i´ve done here. Please post back here with feedback of what you think of this release after you check it out, it would be greatly appreciated.

Technical Specs:

Name: Regraded The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Size: 15.5 GB

Video: 1920x804 H264 23.976

Audio Track: English DTS Audio 7.1

Subtitle Track 1: English Subtitles

Subtitle Track 2: Spanish Subtitles


Uploaded to Uploaded and Netload; links and screenshots available on Tehparadox.

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The Hobbit one sounds interesting. Did they change the colors of the film for Bluray, or were the colors like that in the theatrical version as well? It would be very surprising for a film to have its coloring changed so soon after release.

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Thanks for the heads up Aluminum Falcon ... most appreciated.

:)

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The regraded version of the Hobbit is a deviation from the theatrical version as far as I can tell. The theatrical version did have a blanket green tiny similar to FOTR. There's a good screenshot comparison on the tehparadox thread if you want to see for yourself. The whites were off-white in all the releases, including the DVD.

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Wow! From green ...

... to clean!

What is wrong with Jackson & crew -- shifted green spectrum on the brain? With their high tech, bleeding edge, massive budget company, they can't get right something so simple?

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I'd be really interested to know for sure whether this green tint was present in the theatrical release or not. The low-quality screener DVD that the studio put out for Oscar consideration definitely had no green tint to it; actually the colours were pretty poor with blues looking purple etc. but there definitely was no hint of green.

I dunno about everyone else but I'm gonna be paying serious attention to the colours when watching Desolation Of Smaug in the theatre.

George creates Star Wars.
Star Wars creates fans.
George destroys Star Wars.
Fans destroy George.
Fans create Star Wars.

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I don't remember it looking that green in theaters. I know that 3D glasses can have a slight yellow-green tint, but I saw it in 2D. It didn't look that obviously green-tinted (though I'm also not sure if it was as neutral as the regrading).

That said, I have seen a few instances where the home version seems to look darker/duller/have a more pronounced tint than the theatrical DCP. Jurassic Park 3D comes to mind, it looked beautifully bright (especially with glasses off) but the Blu-ray screenshots I've seen look dim and drab.

And I also don't remember noticing FOTR:EE's green tint in the 2011 Fathom screening. I was aware of the color timing changes, but not a blanket green tint. Doesn't mean it wasn't there. It could be due to how our eyes self-adjust white balance with no other reference, but I'm not sure.

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From The Hobbit blog about 3D with Peter Jackson:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHF536TJ0iE
mentions of coloring begin @ 5:41

Peter Jackson: "If you look at the ungraded footage, the trees look incredibly psychedelic. They look like they were painted in 1967. In the movie, they won't look anything like that. They'll be graded down and you'll just get the barest hint of color in the finished film."

Prosthetics Superior: "we have to change our whole way about coloring these things, 'cause we found out in early tests that if there wasn't enough red in the pieces they would punch-up yellow and react differently than normal skin with blood running through it"

Frankly, all this sounds like they are "laboring under a misconception", unless their state-of-the-art cameras are "color challenged". Even so, there still is no excuse for green-tint clouds or, worse green-tint titles ... here, or in any of TLOTR movies:

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/topic/295388-lord-of-the-rings-extended-edition-trilogy-6585-fs/#entry9847547

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Thanks so much for starting this thread! I've been hoping someone would fix the horrible green colours on the EE blu-ray.

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For my part, AUJ never had a green tint in the first place. Not really anything needing to be fixed.

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I have to strongly disagree with you there TheHutt, the blanket green tint is very much there on both An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug, on my main PC it is very visible and obvious.

The top screencap of the title An Unexpected Journey posted by Spaced Ranger, where the whites of the clouds and title are green in the blu-ray screencap, clearly demonstrates its presence and it sadly stays there throughout the whole film, as it does in The Desolation of Smaug. You may not see it but trust me when I say its there throughout, I've gone through both films scene by scene many many times when I was regrading them.

IMHO An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug look MUCH better without the blanket green tint. Anybody interested in checking the difference out for themselves, search for 'kk650 the hobbit' on tehparadox and you'll find both the regraded theatrical and extended releases there.

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Even if it's there, there is no evidence that it actually shouldn't be there. ;)

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TheHutt said:

Even if it's there, there is no evidence that it actually shouldn't be there. ;)

Well yeah, I certainly agree that it seems that the filmmakers intended it to be there, considering that The Desolation of Smaug shares pretty much the same blanket green tint as An Unexpected Journey.

Its just my personal preference that clouds look more white instead of green and since others seem to share my preference as well, I share the regraded releases I've done that fix this. Whether it officially should or shouldn't be there honestly doesn't concern me either way, only what looks more appealing to my eyes when watching the films, which is without the blanket green tints.

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The Aluminum Falcon said:
The first change is removing the silly scene at the start of disc 2, the one where Peter Jackson gets shot by Legolas by mistake when Gimli nudges Legolas´s bow when he shoots, then Gimli has a very silly Oops reaction. It was removed for two reasons, the first being that its very cheesy and silly and comes across more as a Peter Jackson and crew cameo fanboy scene than a proper scene in the film that serves a real purpose. The second and more important reason is that it reveals the Army of the Dead too early, taking power away from their dramatic entrance into the battle of Pelennor Fields later in the film. The theatrical release did this much better without this superfluous scene IMHO so I have returned it to how it was in the theatrical release.

While I feel that removing scenes seems to go a bit beyond the scope of what you seem to have been trying to do here (couldn’t you at least have also released a version with those scenes intact, if color-correction was the main point here?), I do agree that this particular part took away from the movie. Ever since I first saw the extended cut, I just felt that actually showing us 1: that the Army of the Dead accepted Aragorn’s offer, and 2: them commandeering the corsairs’ ships, really took away from their eventual Big Damn Heroes moment in Gondor. Especially seeing how it was already fine the way it was in the theatrical cut, just “What say you?!” and then we don’t see Aragorn again at all until he arrives during the battle. Just… the moment he jumps off that ship, we already know everything we needed to know about what happened in-between. And this is a thought I had when I was twelve.
I prefer the extended cuts in general, but for this particular moment… yeah it was better in the theatrical cuts.

Though to prevent this from just being a pointless revival of an ancient thread, I’m curious, since this seems to be a recurring problem with these movies… Was Battle of the Five Armies also excessively green? I would just check, but being that I honestly never noticed a problem with any of the previous movies anyway, I probably wouldn’t even be able to tell.

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kk650 said:

TheHutt said:

Even if it’s there, there is no evidence that it actually shouldn’t be there. 😉

Well yeah, I certainly agree that it seems that the filmmakers intended it to be there, considering that The Desolation of Smaug shares pretty much the same blanket green tint as An Unexpected Journey.

Its just my personal preference that clouds look more white instead of green and since others seem to share my preference as well, I share the regraded releases I’ve done that fix this. Whether it officially should or shouldn’t be there honestly doesn’t concern me either way, only what looks more appealing to my eyes when watching the films, which is without the blanket green tints.

I’d like to say I do agree wholeheartedly with you Kk650 concerning the Middle Earth Colors.

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