Choosing a favorite song is an insane challenge, because there are so many to choose from, but if I narrow it down to classic rock, it would have to be The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” 8 1/2 minutes of musical greatness in one song.
Time for me to give yet another thank you to ArtisDead! He’s been quite a trooper this week! Not only has he taken on the poster artwork for my Episode I edit, but he’s now taking on the poster artwork for this version of Eyes Wide Shut! We’ve been going back and forth between a few ideas, and he’s now cooking up two more. I’ll send an update when the artwork is done!
1-3-2
1’s my favorite too!
Glad to see you back! 😃
Got some more artwork from ArtisDead! Which one is your favorite?
Time for me to give a very special thank you to ArtisDead for doing the poster artwork! Here’s what he’s done!
Just an update for those who are wondering if I died or something.
I’ve been working with some new friends on fanedit.org, and a user by the name of Fran_Garcia is upscaling my 1080p file via Topaz to try and add in some more details! Yes, I’m excited about this! In the meantime, I decided to play around with my current file and work on color grading via adjustment layers, as advised by krausfadr. I also took this opportunity to work on my Resolve FX features (at least, the ones I have, since I’m using the free version), and install a few film grain overlays on the advice of another faneditor named Gieferg. Right now, I’m at the halfway mark and having… A very interesting look around.
While I’m working on “that” scene, I decided to showcase my progress thus far. Here are some screencaps I’ve taken from the first half of the edit! You can find them in the spoiler tag below:
I think the bottom is my fave of the three as well. It certainly has the most detail revealed. It almost looks a little too green (or well in the yellow range and heading towards green) that I’d keep an eye out to make sure it didn’t go any further in that direction. Nearly-yellow green has a kinda sickly feel to it that something closer to the bluer end of the spectrum doesn’t, at least for me.
The bottom one is different from the previous grade in that it’s done via adjustment layers instead of timelines. This makes the bottom grade more time-consuming, but on the plus side, it means that the grading is customized for every scene. So in this instance, the greenish effect you’re referring to is only during the droid control ship scenes.
Anyway, I’ll keep an eye on the rest of the scene just in case it does get too green. But other than that, I’m glad to see that this new grade is getting a good response.
Thanks to the work I’ve been doing for my Eyes Wide Shut fanedit (and on fanedit.org), I’ve been learning some color grading “tricks” as of late. And while I did declare that my color grading is complete, I’ve been thinking of trying it again. So for that reason, I’ve compiled this small sample because any improvement is always a good thing.
First, my official source, the 2011 blu-ray:
Next, my color grade as it currently stands:
And finally, here’s what I have in mind:
What are your thoughts? Is it an improvement, or should I stick to my original grade?
There should be a thread for great films that make no sense. Because i don’t hate them but find them confusing. Like No Country for Old Men. I watched it again, and it is fantastic in editing, acting, directing and execution, but i don’t get it thematically i’m lost.
I thought the ending of the film explained the theme pretty well. Specifically with Juror #3, and his entire motive for voting guilty.
Glad to see that you’re still at work on this! Hope things are going well for you!
It’s always good to hear from you! I hope things ease up for you in the future!
Make an edit out of this idea:
Saw I Spit on Your Grave last night. The original, not the remake. All I have to say about it is… Damn. Just… Damn.
Just done the usual stuff with the color grading. I utilized a lot of the same techniques that I used for my Star Wars edits, although I’ve tweaked things a bit this time around! For one, I decided to use curves instead of color wheels, as the curves did a good job at making things look more contrast-y. I also decided to give the black levels more of a teal blue color, while my previous edits had blacks that were tinted more towards blue. I don’t think it’ll be that noticeable, though.
The only other thing worth noting is that, as with most of my film looks, I’ve had to juggle between giving a blue look and an orange look. My previous yellow-cyan-magenta grade was on the green side of things, so you might think I’m going with a blue look. But, surprise surprise, I think the orange looked more natural in most cases, so I’m going with that look for my latest grade.
Here’s the 2007 blu-ray again:
Here’s that YCM grade I’ve been considering again:
And here’s my latest grade:
As usual, the remaining screencaps are down below in the spoiler tag. The top example is the blu-ray, The middle is the YCM, and the bottom is my latest grade. Let me know what you think!
Turns out, buying the soundtrack was a good idea! I just added the first few seconds of “Jar Jar’s Introduction and The Swim to Otoh Gunga” to the jump cut I made to Gunga City as per Mrebo’s criticisms a couple pages back, and while it is a little frustrating given that there’s another musical score playing in the background, I think this extra musical cue works very well. I think I’ll see if there are any other places where horsing around with the soundtrack is a good idea!
And I guess this might be a little late now, but… Thank you for your criticism, Mrebo!
In other news, I’m talking with a user named ArtisDead over the poster art on fanedit.org. We’ve been discussing the title change a bit, and since “Star Wars Episode I: The Rise of Naboo” hasn’t been taken (as far as I know), it looks like we’re gonna be going with that for the title change. I’ll be updating my title thread very shortly.
Substitute the score “The Battle of Yavin” at the climax of ANH for “Anakin’s Betrayal” from ROTS.
My Episode I soundtrack just arrived in the mail! Gonna see if I can convert the tracks into .wav files.
In other news, I have successfully gotten myself onto fanedit.org, and I’ve posted a thread for my Episode I fanedit! I’m excited about that, and hopefully, my time on fanedit.org will be useful in taking care of anything that needs work before I submit it to the academy.
Speaking of which, due to some of the rules on fanedit.org, I will be working on changing the title. I haven’t finalized my decision on what my Episode I edit is going to be titled yet, but I’m thinking of calling it “The Rise of Naboo.” Not sure if that’s already taken, but that’s the first thing that’s popped out of my head. I will change the title of my thread accordingly when I’ve decided on my title change. Starting with v3.5, you won’t be seeing “The Phantom Menace” in the opening crawl.
Everyone’s got their opinions, and not only that, but the films had more than one look. For example, Technicolor prints from that era have a distinctive yellow-greenish cast, other prints would look different. So one person could be trying to match the Technicolor look, someone else may be trying to match a different color reference, another person might be just trying for a balanced neutral look, and so on. These prints are old and I believe they require significant color correction, although others would disagree strongly.
As far as which one comes out on top, you’re going to have to ask someone else. I’m not actually a big 4K77 fan (although 2.0 looks like it might be okay), but for 4K83 I like the results of the 4K83 Remastered project.
I can testify to the many different looks. In fact, I’m not so sure there is a thing as two film prints having the same look. My reasoning is based on a ton of factors, from which lab it was printed in to the deterioration of the film print itself. I have a 35mm film trailer for the Roger Corman film “Grand Theft Auto,” which has sadly faded to red. However, if you look on YouTube, several other people have uploaded their film scans of the same trailer, and they all yield different results! Here are two versions of the same trailer that I’ve found!
Roger Corman’s official YouTube Channel:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fUM82uBey90
Video Detective:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5aKdTSVOuXs
Time to talk about the color grading! I’ve just recently come up with yet another wild idea for the color grading, and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to test it on this edit! I don’t know if I’ll stick with it or not, but I like seeing what others may think about it, as my latest approach is quite different. However, fans of 35mm film will probably understand where I’m going with this.
Let’s start with what I’ve cooked up. First, here’s the 2007 US blu-ray:
I started off by adding a node to the timeline, and using the curves, I reversed the colors and gave things a negative effect, like so:
Next, I created three more nodes. I adjusted the offset color wheel on all three nodes. One was changed to yellow:
One was changed to cyan:
And one was changed to magenta:
Next, I added a parallel mixer node, right-clicked it, added a third input, and then combined all three of these nodes together:
Then, I added one more node. This one inverts the color scheme yet again, resulting in a positive effect:
And finally, I went back and readjusted the yellow, cyan and magenta nodes again until we end up with the final result:
I might decide to go back and use the same methods that I’ve used for my Star Wars edits, because if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Still, it never hurts to experiment and see if there is another way to grade a film. And that’s what this new process is: an experiment. Maybe it’s better, maybe it’s not. Only way to be sure is to listen to what others have to say about it. As is always the case with my comparisons, the 2007 blu-ray is the top screencap and the latest grade is the one on the bottom. You can find the rest of the examples in the spoiler tag below:
Change the Cantina Band song in the special edition of ANH to coincide with the alteration of Lapti Nek from the special edition of ROTJ. This includes utilizing CGI on the band players.
Just saw Everything Everywhere All at Once! My thoughts coming out is that it was good, but not great. I guess I didn’t enjoy it as much as everyone else (and by everyone else, I mean the 8.8 rating on IMDb. Take it with a grain of salt). I still liked it, and I recommend it. I just wasn’t wowed by it.
The biggest issue I had with the film was the runtime. It’s a little too long at 140 minutes, and I think the ideal length is somewhere in the 120-130 minute range. If the film had been made shorter, I’d probably be going gaga for it. I also have to be honest and say that the theme of finding meaning in meaninglessness is one I’ve dealt with already, so it didn’t boggle my mind as much as it did for everyone else. To me, the basic message I got out of the film is that water is wet.
Otherwise, this is a bizarre movie of the good kind. Michelle Yeoh did a great job in the starring role, and come to think of it, so did everyone else who played a member of the family. When you consider that most of the cast is taking on dozens (or hundreds in Yeoh’s case) of roles, it’s hard not to be impressed with the acting on display. The visuals are also on a level of insanity that’s so much fun to watch! It’s a plot where everything is dependent on how random the characters can get, and this results in some ridiculous (but hilarious) circumstances that have to be seen to be believed! There is one shot in this film that I can never describe in words because it would take several novels to explain what everyone is doing. It’s not often that I would praise a film for being so chaotic and disorderly, but this is one exception where the chaos and disorder is the point, and it works.
So while I have a nit or two to pick with this movie, it’s still a wild and fun ride that I enjoyed enough to recommend! If it’s playing in your area and you feel like seeing it, I say give it a watch!
Just reached the halfway point on the commentary track!
I have a bit of a minor announcement to make! I just bought all nine soundtracks for the Star Wars franchise on eBay (yes, including this installment)! I’m waiting for the soundtracks to arrive in the mail, but when they do, I’m gonna see if I can use them for the sound editing! I’m not sure how much of a big impact they’ll have on my edit, but I’m nevertheless excited!
It’s taken forever to get done with my comments on the pod race, but I’m reaching the final stretch now! Now to get to work on the second half of the commentary track…
