DrDre

The problem is that none of the production photos I’ve seen seem to reflect a pronounced green shift. The JSC is pretty inconsistent in this respect, and so are the print scans. So, although it certainly off-white, if there is a green color, it’s a creme color with the slightest hint of mint.

Here’s some interesting food for thought. NeverarGreat mentioned to me a while ago, that the inside of Tantive IV was not white, but slightly greenish. Watching the JSC yesterday, I did notice a green hue to the walls:

Then I came across this website:

http://deeplyobsessed.blogspot.nl/2013/01/rebel-blockade-runner-part-3.html

which has this color scheme for the inside of Tantive IV, which is not completely accurate in some respects, but still:

grudnock said:

Any progress on this or an ETA of completion?

I started working on this a few days ago. Sadly, because it’s a shot by shot correction, this one is many months in the making, but we’ll get there in the end.

It probably is. I will have to look into that. 😃

It could be delivered as a set of LUTs for each shot in the bluray. So, you essentially have a list of which frames go in which shot, and then you can correct them in a program like Resolve. Would still be some work though, since we’re probably talking about two thousand shots.

I’m in the process of creating reference shots for the final color regrade. My process involves:

1. Do a rough correction of the Technicolor IB print reference frames.
2. Match a bluray frame to the corrected Technicolor IB print with the color matching algorithm. If necessary do another correction based on the Japanese Special Collection laserdisc, if the print reference has issues.
3. Correct anomalies in the corrected bluray frame, such as black levels, contrast, luminosity, and saturation, or unwanted color shifts.
4. Save the color reference.
5. When all color references are complete, do an automated color correction for each shot in the bluray.

You’ve got nothing to be ashamed of Williarob. The work you’ve done has been marvelous, and so have your very frank posts on OT and thestarwarstrilogy.com. As far as Mike Verta’s comments go, I think it’s comparing apples and oranges. Mike has a really high standard, and he’s been slaving at Legacy for 15 years to approach those standards. Mike wanted to restore Star Wars back to it’s original release state, and he used numerous prints to do it. As far as I can see it, the Silverscreen Edition was made with a different goal in mind: preserve the Spanish LPP, while improving the experience by removing dirt and scratches, and enhancing the color. It’s restoration versus preservation.

Sad to read that you will leave OT, but considering everything that’s going on in your life, it seems a sensible decision. Your wisdom, and kindness will be missed. All the best to you and your family, Peter!

Back to the Tantive IV…

Bluray:

Bluray regraded:

Like towne32 said, it will depend on whether I use the 2004 or 2011 version. I must say this shot worked out rather well. I think the sand looks really good, and Tatooine is desolate again.

Here’s the first Tatooine shot. This one was a real pain in the ***, because of the terrible amount of blue/magenta noise in the bluray, that was interfering with the algorithms ability to estimate the colors correctly. So, in the end I had to adjust R2’s panels manually to get the right shade of blue. I think he now looks perfect, despite some residual color noise, that seems to be impossible to get rid of completely.

Bluray:

Bluray regraded:

Thanks for the update and clarification Mike. Let’s hope the Disney and Fox people appreciate your 15 year labour of love…

Here are two more corrected shots.

Bluray:

Bluray regraded:

Spaced Ranger said:

DrDre said:

I think this shot worked out pretty well. … I love the contrast of the deep black of Vader’s cape, against the bright hall of the Tantive IV. Also, check out the lights on Vader’s belt…

GL is going to be so mad at you … undoing all his new, messy colorings. 😄

Three observations though. One is I still see some Blu-ray blueness trying to peek through, ever more as areas darken. Another is the deep darks have little breathing room and tend to blend together (like Vader and the Commander). And the last is that Star Wars was a Technicolor film with colors that should “pop” a bit more, which I can do with my “Technicolor-izer” (emphasizes the purer-primary colors). So I tried a manual color correction of that Blu-ray snapshot, aiming towards your auto-cc, with my 3 ideas incorporated.

What do you think of this (top is auto-cc, bottom is manual-cc w/3_ideas) . .

WARNING: This was worked up on an older LCD laptop. It appeared to change just by moving my head. 😃 Hopefully, your mileage may will vary from that.

I like your manual correction, but like towne23 said Leia’s hair is a bit much, and I’m actually quite fond of Vader’s deep black atire in my correction 😉. Also, keep in mind that most of these shots were actually matched to the colors of a Technicolor print, so aside from some slight corrections of color shifts, the colors should be pretty accurate in terms of their pop. The isue of the blueness in dark areas has been fixed. Thanks for pointing that out.

The reason I doubted the accuracy of the Technicolor print, is because the green shift like in the Vader strangle scene does not appear in any home video releases, and I came across this production photo, that seems to confirm my suspicions:

Laserschwert said:

That one looks a little too greyish on Leia’s face (especially the shadow beneath her mouth and on her jaw).

The saturation of the colors is a pretty much exact match to the Technicolor print scan, I used as a reference. The scan has a green shift for this sequence, that I corrected using the JSC laserdisc as another reference, but the greyish shadows are also in the print and in the JSC.

Two more shots regraded. This time it’s Leia and R2-D2.

Bluray:

Bluray regraded:

This terrible news! I’m just shocked!

I think this shot worked out pretty well. If it seems bright compared to the bluray, that’s just the way it looks on the Technicolor IB print scans. I love the contrast of the deep black of Vader’s cape, against the bright hall of the Tantive IV. Also, check out the lights on Vader’s belt…

Bluray:

Bluray regraded:

Great to hear you’re making so much progress… 😃

Darth Lucas said:

I think this is my new most anticipated release right up there with Harmy’s 3.0

Thanks, that’s a great compliment!

What’s amazing to me is how bad C-3PO looks in the bluray. I mean, he’s green…

Bluray:

Bluray regraded:

Actually, only the 0/0/0 and 255/255/255 have no information. The color matching algorithm should still be able to reconstruct the colors pretty well if only one of the channels is crushed, and to some extend if two are crushed, if that RGB combination can be uniquely matched to an RGB combination in the reference.

This is a challenging shot to do manually with curve adjustment, getting the skin tone, creme color of Leia’s dress, the red lipstick, and the gray/blue bottons on the stormtrooper armor just right…

Bluray:

Bluray regraded

Here’s another shot from the Tantive IV sequence:

Yup, it will be untouched 2011/2004. I think I might actually use Schorman’s HDTV transfer, as I can’t stand Vader’s noooooo in ROTJ.