Darth Tater

Oh, wow! My favorite zombie flick (along with the original). You guys have made my day! Cannot wait for this!

I did some googling about the Twilight Time color issues, and I found this article pretty interesting. It says Sony reportedly made the transfer "with the approval of the film’s cinematographer, Frank Prinzi." It also says Savini calls it "fantastic."

ARTICLE LINK

*shrug* Wouldn't be the first time I have disagreed with a director over changes to a theatrical release. ;) All I know is that I am stoked for this preservation!

Cheers,

DT

@ -1: Thanks! Great stuff. I really need to branch out of this subforum more often.

Thanks, guys! Everyone really enjoyed it, which makes it even more fun for me. Plus, it's nice having your own screening room, even if it's only open at night and they set the AC a bit too high during the winter. ;)

Laserschwert said:

Looks great! Did you build the screen yourself?

Kind of. It is a kit from Carl's Place, which I learned of at the BackyardTheater.com forums. Projector is an Epson 710HD I got on sale from VisualApex.com. I use a PS3 as the player. The PAs and subs are PW100T and PW112-S from Powerwerks (from a local music store). Super-affordable and great sound for the price. I run everything through a small Behringer Eurorack MX 802A mixer I bought used. I plug the PS3 into one of the mixer's stereo inputs using the PlayStation's RCA outs with a pair of these RCA to 1/4" adapters attached, and I run HDMI to the projector. I've also got a small Rolls HA43 Pro headphone amp from Amazon and 4 pairs of these headphones from Monoprice for quiet viewing late at night

Carl sends the plans, screen, and elbows, and you go to the lumber yard and have the tubing (1" EMT) cut to length. I leave it up except in lightning or high winds, but it can be assembled/disassembled in about 10 minutes with 2 people.

I bought this kit but asked for a custom aspect ratio (~2.085:1), which lets me zoom 1.85:1 movies top-to-bottom or 2.35:1 movies side-to-side and have them take up the same square footage (Constant Image Area instead of Width like a TV). This way, viewing distance is the same for both types of film and black bars are minimized.

Setup in action at watch party

EDIT: Added some links

Threw a double feature party featuring DE v2.0 last night in our backyard theater back-to-back behind the new Raiders of the Lost Ark Blu-ray. The screen is roughly 9'x18', and the projected image takes up about 142 sq. ft. Here are a couple of pics.

Setting up:

"The battle station plans are not aboard this ship."

Sorry for the quality; rest assured, the picture was spectacular, and so was the sound. We had about 12 people of ages from 6 to 35, and everyone was blown away. Folks loved the retro color timing and discovering small details on the big screen they had never noticed before. A running game was keeping track of C-3PO's disappearing/reappearing dents.

At this size, the handmade charm of the props and effects is a lot more obvious, and it really makes you appreciate what Lucasfilm and ILM were able to accomplish with the tools at hand. It also has the effect of making the SE additions seem even more ridiculous and out of place on reflection (not that there were any to be seen this night!). One highlight of my evening was pointing out my tiny contribution, the TIE fighter fire re-color that I discovered and Harmy fixed. :) At the end, there was actual applause! :D

Thank you Harmy, hairy_hen, and every other contributor for your efforts. I think by now you know what it means to me and so many others.

-DT

Link to setup details

EDIT: Added link and replaced the blown out pic with a more representative one.

Harmy said:

[...] I'll set an alarm to get up in two hours, to hopefully start the download of h_h's audio, so that it's done in the morning and I can start muxing right away. [...]

Harmy,

So excited to hear of the pending release. Did the above plan work out, or did you end up having to use the old h_h audio? I combed back through, and wasn't able to find an answer between here and there. Either way, thanks a ton.

-DT

George Lucas in that shirt = Ow! My childhood!

Harmy said:

Actually, I'm definitely doing the BD now but it will come out later than the AVCHD and MKV, because it will need some work to make a BD release worthwhile.

My thoughts on this announcement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-T1h7J0R-Q#t=1m11s

doubleofive said:

I just hope I can play the final copy on my Blu-ray player this time. The last copies of RotJ and ESB I burned were all pixelated and gross, while they worked on another person's.

I had this problem with 1.0 (pixelated on mine, fine on another), and upgrading the firmware on by Blu-ray player solved it. Maybe worth a shot if that's an option.

Hey! I'm the one that discovered that Tie Fighter flame! Whoo-hoo! I'm a part of Star Wars history! LOL

Looking great as usual, Harmy (the movie's not bad either, you handsome devil! :P)!

^*ohpleezohpleezohpleezohpleez*

I, too, would like to view the workprint, H.

You_Too,

Awesome answer. Thanks! I can totally relate to burning yourself out on hobbies.

-DT

You_Too,

Most of these shots do really look great. I haven't gotten around to following your instructions for recreating at home it yet, but meanwhile I have sort of a dogmatic question. Obviously, you are putting a considerable amount of work into this. Is there a reason behind doing this type of adjustment for the whole film and not per scene? Is that a practical or technical limitation, or both? Just curious. I don't know what additional work it would imply compared to what you're doing already.

-DT

Thanks, Yt, I'll give that a try!

-DT

I think it looks good so far, You_too! Is there any way a newbie like me with a digital copy of the GOUT discs can apply these settings and watch at home, either in advance or on the fly? Free is the key here. :)

Oldschooljedi said:

I watched your workprint and was surprised, how much detail is visible.

Oh, man, yes. Check out this shot. Look at the Stormtrooper just to the left of Leia. He has a #2 stamped on his chest that I would have never noticed without the high quality (and intense scrutiny).

http://i.imgur.com/Rh9Kc.jpg

I guess we finally know who #2 works for, eh? :)

On a serious note, as a couple of others have mentioned, I think it's possible the  interior Tantive IV scene could use just a touch more blue in some places. I noticed that Leia looked bit strange here (lip color looks kind of brown, for instance; more obvious to me when in motion), and rasing the blues slightly in GIMP seemed to even it out. Just a suggestion, though. I continue to have confidence in your abilities.

My display is calibrated using an HD calibration disc (DVE HD Basics) and color filters, but only by eyesight and not with a colorimeter, FWIW. I noticed the separate colors on You-too's whites quite easily. First as two distinct halves, and then as quadrants as I paid closer attention. 

-DT

pittrek said:

[...] The main problem are the "black" borders. The problem is that they're not BLACK :-) They change color from scene to scene.

[...]

Is it possible for you to work only with the "video area" and add the borders at the end ?

I've got to think that the whole video will be cropped/bordered at the end, but I don't know for sure how the process goes. But, yeah, it is quite noticeable as is. I just checked that scene and this popped out at 3:38:

Harmy said:

P.S.: There's a little surprise near the end of the WP :-)

 

lol. At first I was like, "Wtf happened with the music?" Then I remembered you saying this. Haha.

Looks great at first pass, Harmy. I just jumped around and looked at some obvious fixes (i.e. - new binary sunset mask), and they looked great. I plan to set it against GOUT/Puggo if I get time to examine closely, but it looks awesome so far.

Job well done again, buddy.

-DT

I'm interested, if you'll have me, Harmy. Also, the cantina exterior looks GREAT!

-DT

Ha, yeah, kind of what I was thinking. It just seems like meddling for meddling's sake at that point.

There are so many changes that make you go, "but...why?" Then I think about the Jabba scene, and I am reminded of the level of sacrilege that we're dealing with. :)

Glad to contribute.

"It's Shake 'n Bake despecialized, and I helped!" lol

-DT

Yes. I just checked the 2006 SE DVD, and it's green in there, so I'm guessing that's one of the changes made along the way.

Harmy said:

Yeah, I may yet make it a little brighter. I'll see :-)

But guys, good news!!! The HDD finally arrived and it seems to work great! So, many thanks to Troy again! It's awesome and now I can really get to work!

Right on! Glad to hear it! I can't wait to see the progress now that you're "really" working! lol

-DT

Also, you probably already know about this, but just in case, here's another change I noticed recently:

Tie fire:

Harmy,

The new dewback seems much darker in contrast to the surrounding area and seems to have a feathered edge around him, especially around the saddle area. Is this a side-effect of blending the sky around him?

Also, when comparing this to the next shot as they walk into the cantina (where you repaired the dewback shake), the colors/contrast there seem to match the 1.0 version a little better than this new, darker version.

Comparison:

Love watching your process, BTW. It's like a little Christmas every time I see you've posted a new clip. :) The new Falcon approach is killer.

-DT

Harmy said:

Or you can DL ImgBurn (it's free) and burn it yourself.

http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/burn_avchd_with_imgburn.cfm

I found that ImgBurn gives errors with my setup/discs, but I was able to use BurnAware to burn mine.

I am using Memorex discs because they are sold locally. I know Verbatim discs would probably work with ImgBurn and last longer, but for my current situation, this worked for me.

http://www.burnaware.com/downloads.html

HTH,

-DT