Add a subtitle for Greedo when he says “Maclunkey”:
“I miss my wife, Han. I miss her a lot. I’ll be back.”
Tarkin preparing to fire the Death Star:
“I’ve come to make an announcement…”
…Or you can go the Futurama route and have him say, “Good news everyone!” instead.
I have a bad feeling about this.
Okay, I’ve done what I could to try and fix the issues NeverarGreat brought up. After the work I did on the color grading for my TLJ edit, I wanted to be more conservative with the blue film look for IX. I’m bringing this up now, because as you’ll soon see, my tweaking has made the grade even bluer.
Here’s a shot from the previous grade:
The first thing I did was lower the reds. This made the purple/pink less visible, but it also brought back my biggest nemesis in the grading of this film: The skin tones. They didn’t look red enough anymore. They also made things more teal, which makes it worse. So, in order to fix this, I had to reduce the greens a bit so that the blues could come back. Only the blues remained unchanged. The result is this:
I’m not sure if this is an improvement, or a disaster. On the one hand, I like the increase in blue. On the other hand, I think that same increase might actually be worse. In fact, I think the teal issue is still a problem. It’s hard to make a good judgment call because the skin tones are sensitive to the blue grading I’m giving it. If I make it too blue, the purple tint issue that NeverarGreat is talking about becomes a huge problem. But if I don’t make it blue enough, the skin tones don’t look red, and it loses its film-like quality. Finding the right balance has been quite a difficulty for this grade. It’s also the reason why I haven’t updated as quickly as I did before with VII and VIII. I have to be very sure that nothing looks too off.
My hope is that the increase in blue, oddly enough, fixes the highlight issues and gives the grade an improvement. But I need a second opinion for this one. You may find the screencaps in the spoiler tag below:
I’d say there’s a bit too much blue, especially in the highlights. The reds look a bit purple/pink and the greens are a bit teal. It is striking though, and some shots look a lot nicer.
A lot of that is a consequence of changing the grading to blue, but I’ll see if I can lower it a bit. Don’t expect a gigantic change, but I’ll give it a try.
I’m keen to get back into watching some SW fanedits and this is high on my interest list!
Could i grab the links please 😃
Thanks
Ben
Yes, you may!
Glad to hear! Unless someone finds a flaw or two, it sounds like I’ve knocked the color grading out of the park with this one. I’ll be moving on to the sound editing next, as well as working on the finishing touches for everything else I’ve done with the sequel trilogy.
Time to tackle the color grading for Episode IX.
Now, I’ve said that I like this movie, but one thing I will agree on is this. The color grading for this film is terrible! Terrible! Horrible! It looks like every movie made in the last ten years combined into one, resulting in a film that looks so… Unnatural (Insert Exegol lightning sound effects here). I think I know why too. Here’s the opening shot of Exegol as taken from my blu-ray:
Notice that lightning bolt in the background. On my waveform and parade scopes, this lightning bolt is a teal green color. No, I’m not making that up. The green is slightly more prevalent than the blue. While my main objective in the color grading is to give it a more film-like grade (Just like with VII and VIII), I feel the color scheme needs a makeover. Fortunately, most people should be okay if I go with the blue film look that I mentioned in my Episode VII color grading. Which changes the color scheme from teal green…
…To blue.
I think it works, especially since I attribute it to ESB, the crown jewel of the franchise. I also think it looks more accurate than the original. The only challenge I’ve had is making sure the skintones don’t look too reddish. Otherwise, I think this is an improvement. But as usual, someone could prove me wrong. You may see the rest in the spoiler tag below. Let me know if anything needs improvement.
And on a side note, no, I didn’t go with HAL9000’s idea of changing Exegol to white, and the reason is simple. I don’t like it. I understand the desire to change Exegol to a different color scheme, but it suffers from the same problem that I mentioned with the original. It looks unnatural, and the slight reddish tint only adds to the whole thing looking off. So, my apologies to HAL9000 fans everywhere, but I don’t like it, and I don’t want to do it. You may PM your complaints about Exegol to me, which I will happily ignore. Anyway, on with the screencaps:
May I have a link to the workprint?
Replace all uses of John Williams’ Imperial March and substitute it for AC/DC’s Big Balls.
I agree, I’m digging this one.
My only suggestion, and it’s an odd one, is maybe to do a separate grade for the scenes that show the surface of Crait. The dark, rich, deep reds that spray up in contrast to the pale white are such a great visual, and literally the only downside to this grade is that it mutes them a bit. Other than that, I think this one looks good across the board.
Since I’m aiming for a cinematic looking grade, the desaturation is intentional. I have faith that the reds on Crait will look rich enough since the viewer will have already been adjusted to the grade by that point.
Check out the movie Three Colours: Red by Krzysztof Kieslowski - you might be able to do some colour analysis on it and really amp up both the reds and the filmic look on Crait and in Snoke’s throne room (though I like your grade on Snoke’s throne room). It’s shot on 35mm and (as you might imagine) it extensively uses all different types of the colour red throughout.
The Three Colors trilogy. Now that’s a franchise I’ve not seen in a long time. A long time.
Jokes aside, I decided to try increasing the saturation on my node tree to see what it does, and well…
Original:
Saturation adjustment:
Original:
Saturation adjustment:
Original:
Saturation adjustment:
…I don’t know. For me, it looks too colorful for a Star Wars movie, and the increase in saturation takes away some of the detail. Look at Snoke’s knights in the background. They’re blending in to the red wall a little too much, making them harder to see. I’m open to the possibility of being wrong, but it looks off on my desktop.
No, I agree, the first image looks better - the second loses some of the colour depth and looks flatter.
Yup. Oh well, I tried.
I think I’m gonna start work on the sound editing next.
I agree, I’m digging this one.
My only suggestion, and it’s an odd one, is maybe to do a separate grade for the scenes that show the surface of Crait. The dark, rich, deep reds that spray up in contrast to the pale white are such a great visual, and literally the only downside to this grade is that it mutes them a bit. Other than that, I think this one looks good across the board.
Since I’m aiming for a cinematic looking grade, the desaturation is intentional. I have faith that the reds on Crait will look rich enough since the viewer will have already been adjusted to the grade by that point.
Check out the movie Three Colours: Red by Krzysztof Kieslowski - you might be able to do some colour analysis on it and really amp up both the reds and the filmic look on Crait and in Snoke’s throne room (though I like your grade on Snoke’s throne room). It’s shot on 35mm and (as you might imagine) it extensively uses all different types of the colour red throughout.
The Three Colors trilogy. Now that’s a franchise I’ve not seen in a long time. A long time.
Jokes aside, I decided to try increasing the saturation on my node tree to see what it does, and well…
Original:
Saturation adjustment:
Original:
Saturation adjustment:
Original:
Saturation adjustment:
…I don’t know. For me, it looks too colorful for a Star Wars movie, and the increase in saturation takes away some of the detail. Look at Snoke’s knights in the background. They’re blending in to the red wall a little too much, making them harder to see. I’m open to the possibility of being wrong, but it looks off on my desktop.
I agree, I’m digging this one.
My only suggestion, and it’s an odd one, is maybe to do a separate grade for the scenes that show the surface of Crait. The dark, rich, deep reds that spray up in contrast to the pale white are such a great visual, and literally the only downside to this grade is that it mutes them a bit. Other than that, I think this one looks good across the board.
Since I’m aiming for a cinematic looking grade, the desaturation is intentional. I have faith that the reds on Crait will look rich enough since the viewer will have already been adjusted to the grade by that point.
Add them to the background of all scenes with rey, so that she’s never alone.
Why stop there when you can add all the jedi to the background too?
Sorry, the post accidentally got duplicated. Ignore this post.
Okay, here’s what I’ve come up with now for the color grading. The top example is the previous grade I did:
The bottom example is what I’ve done to lower the reds and raise the blues:
This latest grade doesn’t have as gigantic a difference as I’d hoped, but the subtleties do exist. It’s also the last hurrah for the orange film look. If I adjust the reds any lower, or the blues any higher, the film look is gonna break. Let me know what you think. As usual, the screencaps are under the spoiler tag below.
Yeah, I feel like it needs less red and more blue too. Especially since some of the blue areas look more white than blue (You can see this on Leia’s hologram, as well as the
destruction of the First Order fleet).
I’ll see what I can do to tweak the red grade. Hopefully, we’ll get a Goldilocks situation where it’s “just right.”
…Aaaand here’s the rest!
The top example is the previous blue grade:
The bottom example is the newer faded red grade I’m considering:
Let me know what you think. I’ve done my best to lessen the number of screencaps, but just in case, I’m still putting them under the spoiler tag below.
I’m curious to see it. If it was me, I’d grab a much smaller number of screenshots as a quick litmus test - maybe something from daytime Ahch-To, the Resistance ship, Snoke’s throne room, rainy nighttime Ahch-To, and Crait. Those are broadly the largest differences in colour and lighting across the film.
You make a good point there. I tend to get carried away when I’m taking screencaps, so I end up with too many of them. I’ll see if I can ease up on the number (that, or get carried away again).
Okay, it’s time for an update. Yes, I have been working on the color grading, and well… I think I need to discuss it. I have a feeling this new grade might be controversial.
So, I’ve taken Captain Faraday’s advice on the grade. I’ve lowered the brighter areas, I’ve raised the gamma up, and I’ve even decided to change to the orange look instead of the blue look (with a serious wound in my pride). Overall, I’m not sure about it. To understand why, I’m going to post a screencap of my opening crawl. It gives a picture of what the darkest parts of the image look like.
Here’s what the opening crawl looked like with my previous color grade:
Here’s the opening crawl with the progress I’ve made so far:
As you can see, this new grade has a slightly faded red look to it. I personally don’t think it looks bad. In fact, it reminds me of Puggo Grande’s 16mm preservations of the OT, which is a plus for what I’m aiming for. However, I’m not sure it works for a movie that was released in 2017. Seeing a movie like TLJ with this kind of look is a little… Different. I’m gonna work on getting some more screencaps, but I want to throw this post up as a foreshadowing of what to expect, and/or to ask if it’s really worth taking the color grading in this direction. What do you think? Wanna see more, or should I change it up fast?
Oh, how I’ll miss this guy. I’ve appreciated his support and the last post I received from him was a good luck on both my moving situation and my sequel trilogy fanedits. I wish him the best in whatever he does next.
I am not going to have spaghetti for dinner tonight.
Mamma Mia!
Add the Pinky and the Brain theme song every time Darth Vader and Palpatine are on-screen together.
Change the whole franchise into something like this:
Gone back and tested it again. Everything looks good, but I forgot to throw in my own end credits. So, I’ll be working on that next (When I find time in between TLJ, TROS, and my day job).
Oh yeah good shout, I think that’s exactly the kind of thing we need. I really hope we see AlaskaSandman back soon.
Me too. He sent me on the right track when I first started work on fan editing, and I owe him for the progress I’ve made since. Needless to say, I miss him.
Seals. They’re squishy. They’re cute, adorable and squishy.
