Eyepainter

Sounds like it’s settled. I’ve currently graded about two-thirds of the way through the opening sequence and I’m laboring through the General Grievous meetup. I’m trying to see if I can remove R2’s distraction through the use of zooming and cropping, so that Obi-Wan just snatches his lightsaber right in front of Grievous’ face instead. Needless to say, it’s a pain in the neck.

I’ll grab some stills of the opening sequence as soon as I’ve completed it.

Assuming there are no objections to the yellow adjustment of the HDR, I’m going to use that for the color grading of the edit. I’ll post some more stills of the adjusted HDR grade in the future as I continue working on it.

JackNapier said:

When Palpatine kills Mace Windu, as soon as he goes”ahhh” have a wet spot appear on his crotch.

Better yet, have a wet spot appear on his crotch every time he gets to witness something evil through the whole saga.

Replace “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” with “Space: the final frontier.”

Artan42 said:

If you could reduce the blue from the HDR a smidgen, I think it’s the best looking one overall and fits RotS as a film.

I hope I can. I think a lot of what makes the skin tones look better in the HDR is because the grade has been tinted to the opposite color (green being the opposite of violet by computer standards). If I change it too much, the skin tones will end up with that weird red-violet hue again. I just did a minor little adjustment and moved the dark and shadow levels from green to yellow to see if that made any difference. Here’s a comparison between the two adjustments.

Here’s the entrance hall shot:

…And here’s the adjusted version:

Here’s the first still showing the skin tones:

…And here’s the adjusted version:

Here’s the fancy water ball:

…And here’s the adjusted version:

Here’s the close-up shot:

…And here’s the adjusted version:

As you can see, the purplish-red skin tones are coming back somewhat in these stills. However, I do believe it’s a small improvement over the previous HDR grade. If nothing else, it looks more natural.

Here’s another sampling of images I’ve taken. This one is from the Darth Plageus scene. I’ve singled on this one because of how problematic the purple skin tones are. I figure this scene is another good demonstration for how the edit will look depending on which color grade I choose.

Let’s start innocently enough with the opening of the scene. We’ll start with the beginning shot of Anakin running into the opera house. I realized the first still I took didn’t show any reds, and because of how common red is for Episode III, let’s take a look at a shot that’s mostly red.

Original Blu-Ray

Episode II Themed Grade

HDR Grade

Overall, I think the HDR Grade wins in the red category. However, the teal appearance I’ve been worried about is also prevalent, especially if you look at the Coruscant background. While the original and episode II grade show a normal grey Coruscant, you can see a green hue to the HDR grade.

Let’s get to the opera house, shall we?

This shot has a lot of faces, which makes it a perfect demonstration. Here’s the original blu-ray as shown.

As you can see, the skin tones look too reddish. Let’s take a look at the Episode II theme grade.

And here’s the HDR grade.

Once again, I think the HDR grade wins this round, but the teal issue is a consistent one. Perhaps even more so here because the dark areas (particularly on the left side of the image) are much greener than in the other two grades.

Next, let’s look at the fancy ball itself. Here’s the original blu-ray image most of you have seen.

Here’s the ball with the Episode II grade.

And finally, the HDR grade.

The choice to make this shot darker in the Episode II and HDR grades than what was shown on the blu-ray is intentional, as the blu-ray suffers from a lot of white clipping. You can see this at the bottom of the biggest ball where it’s so white that you can barely see any detail in the blu-ray still, while the other two grades show more detail. Regardless of which grade is chosen, the white clipping issue is one I intend to fix. Overall, I think the Episode II grade wins simply by being the darkest one in the bunch, but I’ll let everyone else be the judge on that.

The last still I have to show is a shot of Anakin and Palpatine. This one is more of a close-up than the others, making the decisions on skin tones even clearer. Here’s what the blu-ray blessed (or cursed) us with.

I really hate the skin tones in this shot, even if it is natural to the scene. Palpatine’s face looks so weird in all the wrong ways.

Let’s look at the Episode II grade.

The yellow-ish tint in this grade is subtle, but an improvement over the blu-ray release.

Now, for the HDR grade.

Personally, I think the HDR grade skin tones look phenomenal here. However, the green tone is at its most visible in this still as well.

So, I’m currently learning all the new tools in DaVinci Resolve 17, and I’d like to get a second opinion on what looks best.

I’ve come up with two ways to go about with the color grading for this film. The first is a version somewhat similar to the color grading I did for Episode II (but not completely), and the second is a grade I’ve been experimenting with using the new HDR color wheels.

I’m not sure which one to go with, so here’s a still I took from the opening Count Dooku confrontation. I decided on this one because it features skin tones and lightsabers while also placed against a dark background. This should hopefully give an estimate as to what the rest of the film could look like.

Note: I have placed the images under spoiler tags, because I find that the expand and collapse tabs make it easier to draw comparisons between the three.

To give you an idea of the differences, here’s what the blu-ray transfer looks like first:

Now, here’s what the Episode II-themed color grade looks like:

Finally, here’s the color grade I did using the HDR color wheels:

On the one hand, I like the Episode II theme because the yellow tone makes it look more cinematic, but it suffers from having a sepia-toned look that doesn’t really spell “Star Wars” to me. However, I’m not a big fan of the teal-ish look of the HDR version, since it reminds me of too many present day movies. What are your thoughts?

“…The time has come… Execute order 66… Make sure it has barbeque sauce and hold the pickles… Oh, and I want a large diet Coke…”

G&G-Fan said:

That line was referencing a deleted scene in which Obi-Wan talked to Padme about his worries about Anakin (which would’ve actually been a great scene from what I read in the script had it been left in; the dialogue is actually fantastic, you can read it on Internet Movie Script Database), not Obi-Wan and Padme having an affair.

In the novel that delves into what Palpatine made Anakin think what was going on, it wasn’t an affair either: he was trying to convince him that the Delegation of 2000 and the Jedi were teaming up to overthrow the Republic.

I thought so. It’s quite a shame that the deleted scene with Obi-Wan talking to Padme isn’t around anywhere. Or at least, with the versions I own. Even without reading the script, it sounds like a great scene.

Anyhow, I just started work on color grading and because of the updates to my editing software, I’m having to learn something new. I tried the HDR color wheels for the first time, and I’m really enjoying the results on the opening shot. I still have to experiment and see what works, but I think the results are gonna look nice. I’ll post some images when I’ve come up with something.

Have the Empire and the Sith sing Gilbert and Sullivan while everyone else talks normally.

CaptainFaraday said:

I’d like to watch a workprint of this once it’s at that stage, if possible.

I’ll see if I can come up with one, but I still have to take care of the sound editing which is usually the final stage of editing for me. I have a lot of droid dialogue to remove (Like I did for Episode I), lines and conversations I’d like to get rid of, cross fade transitions, etc. I’m beginning to think this edit is gonna have more sound editing work than I and II, believe it or not. Still, I’ll see what I can do.

Well, that was quick. I got the wipes and transitions completed today. Gonna start work on the color grading in the next few days.

Anakin Starkiller said:

Is that really the worst you can do?

Anakin - Elmer Fudd
Obi-Wan - Joe Pesci
Padme - a series random Tik Toks
Luke - Dee Bradley Baker with his Waddles the pig “voice”
Han - Jim Carrey
Leia - Christopher Eccleston
Rey - Kanye West
Finn - George Bush II
Poe - J.J. Abrams
Palpatine - Lotus Juice
Vader - Danny DeVito
Kylo - Ariana Grande
Snoke - the seals from A Hat in Time
Jar Jar - Richard Attenborough
Boss Nass - Hugo Weaving with his terrible American accent from The Matrix
Nute Gunray - Ash Ketchum
Jabba - Ben Shapiro
Bib Fortuna - astromech droid noises
actual astromech droids - nokia ringtone
C-3PO - morse code
BB-8 - Billy Dee Williams
Lando - Billie Eillish
Yoda - JonTron

Joe Pesci? You mean to tell me you don’t secretly want to hear a foul-mouthed Obi-Wan who goes berserk over the mention of a shinebox?

Gave the edit a watch, and I’m mostly satisfied with it. It’s currently at a runtime of only 100 minutes, and I think that’s enough. All I have left are a bunch of nitpicky things for the cutting stage, which is most likely a sign that I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel.

I will most likely start work on the wipes and transitions soon. I’ve got quite a lot of them to work on, too.

Give all of the movies a “Blood Debts” style ending. What does that mean, you ask? Watch the link below and see Episode IV’s example.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FcAGDXYkOzM

Add A-Ha’s “Take on me” to the Obi-Wan/Darth Vader confrontation in Episode IV.

GMatias said:

Eyepainter said:

Looking at this from a glance, I gotta say that this sounds cool.

Anyway, I noticed your mention about the lack of a crawl, and how you plan to go about this using text. Well, I have an idea. I’m a sucker for Seven Samurai, and I’ve always loved the opening credits and text prologue of that film combined with the thumping musical score that sets the atmosphere. I think something similar would make a perfect alternative to the opening crawl (not to mention give it more of the aesthetic that you want to acheive). I don’t know how to do it myself, but I think it would make for a nice little detail.

Thanks!

Shock of shocks, I’m also a fan of SEVEN SAMURAI and have actually been binging on the Fumio Hayasaka score all week. That intro is fantastic and something I am definitely looking to evoke/homage/crib to some degree. I think I’ve got a nice balance figured out between that aesthetic and some necessary SW features, but you’ll have to be the judge on that!

I’ll be happy to.

Just tried the new arrangement, and I think it works better. I did have to remove a few lines of dialogue from Anakin and Palpatine’s conversation about how trustworthy Padme is, but that’s about it. I’m going to try watching the edit sometime in the next few days to see if it works, but I’m hopeful that we’re reaching the end of the cutting stage.

With that said, I still have a lot to take care of. I’ve got a lot of transitions, edits, and wipes to add. The new blu-ray source has a miserable purplish tint that could use some color grading. And I think this one may require more sound editing than even Episode I. So I still have a lot to take care of, but I think the first stage is close to complete.

Just watched L8wrtr’s and HAL’s edits of Episode III again to see if I can come up with some ideas on how to add the rebellion subplot. Overall, I think I’ve got a few ideas, but I’m gonna have to see if they’ll work for my edit, since I’ve also removed a few scenes that both of those edits have.

Looking at this from a glance, I gotta say that this sounds cool.

Anyway, I noticed your mention about the lack of a crawl, and how you plan to go about this using text. Well, I have an idea. I’m a sucker for Seven Samurai, and I’ve always loved the opening credits and text prologue of that film combined with the thumping musical score that sets the atmosphere. I think something similar would make a perfect alternative to the opening crawl (not to mention give it more of the aesthetic that you want to acheive). I don’t know how to do it myself, but I think it would make for a nice little detail.

CaptainFaraday said:

Eyepainter said:

CaptainFaraday said:

So, I’m currently having a very weird issue; when I play the movie through my bluray player, there’s a static phantom image of the opening crawl overlayed across the entire opening crawl. But when I play the same file on my laptop, there isn’t. I’ve checked and it doesn’t happen in the editing software either. I’ve got the same problem later in the film when some hazy blobs which look like mattes appear in a couple of scenes, which also aren’t there on the computer.

Edit: I’ve tried re-exporting from my editing software, and had the exact same problem.

This is new to me. I’m not 100 percent sure on what you’re describing. If it doesn’t bother you, would you be fine sending me a link? Since I’m the one who sent the crawl, I can look it over and see if there’s a mistake on my end when I have the spare time.

I don’t think it’s anything on your end - it’s not present in the .pngs, nor in the editor, nor when I watch the movie on my laptop. I’ll have to take a photo of my TV screen to show you.

That said, you’re welcome to see my export before I release it to the public; always helps to get more eyes on it. I’ve already found a couple of little errors I’ll fix first.

Understood. Looking over what I’m reading so far, it’s possible that you might’ve accidentally clicked on something in Handbrake to cause the effect. Trying to find out what it was could take forever, so here’s a list of settings that I use for exporting a file. See if these settings fix the problem.

Summary tab
Format: MP4 or MKV
Presets (on right side of the window): SuperHQ 720p30 surround under General tab or H.264 MKV 720p30 under Matroska tab (I would say 1080p but your file is 720p, so that’s probably the better option)

Dimensions tab
Width: 1280
Height: 544
Cropping: Custom
Left and right: 0
Top and bottom: 132
(Note: if you ever decide on 1080p, go with 1920 width, 820 height, and customize the cropping to 130 top and bottom, and 0 left and right)

Video tab
Video Codec: H.264 (x264) (If you have a compatible Nvidia graphics card, you can speed up the export by selecting H.264 (Nvidia NVenc) instead)
Framerate (FPS): 24 or 23.976, if possible. (Most movies are at 24FPS, so this is an ideal choice by default. However, you might want to make sure you edited the film in 24 frames per second, or else, some issues may occur. Check Premiere Pro to see what settings you used for the framerate. If you’ve picked a different framerate, it might be wiser to export it in that framerate instead.)
Constant quality: 0 (for a lossless export. It will slow the export a lot, but the quality is worth it)
Encoder Preset: Slow (Usually, slower results in a better quality image, but like the lossless option, it will also slow down the export. If you want it faster, be warned that it could affect the quality of the file)
Encoder profile: Main or High (Truth be told, the effects of this one aren’t quite as noticable, but I think Main and High look slightly less compressed, so those are my recommendations)
Audio tab
Anything goes with this one, as it’s basically which audio tracks you want the file to have.

Mixdown: I like to make one track a 5.1 channel and the other track a stereo track, but if you only have one track, I recommend a 5.1 or higher mixdown.
Codec: This one’s a really picky one, and the best choice is whatever works. AAC (avcodec) is a very widely used one amongst us fan editors. AC3 is code for Dolby Digital, while E-AC3 is Dolby Digital Plus. I often use the DTS-HD passthru on my fanedits, and that option works perfectly for me. However, your experience may differ.
Bitrate: This option depends on which codec you select, but if bitrate is an option, be aware that the larger numbers are the better options. However, as you probably figured out, the larger numbers make the export slower, so pick your numbers wisely. If you don’t have enough patience, you are free to select a smaller number. Just be aware that the audio quality will be lowered.

I was stumbling around on YouTube and found this video:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F63EKxAvDbA

Add in a scene like this somewhere in the franchise, but replace the tiger with Chewbacca.

CaptainFaraday said:

So, I’m currently having a very weird issue; when I play the movie through my bluray player, there’s a static phantom image of the opening crawl overlayed across the entire opening crawl. But when I play the same file on my laptop, there isn’t. I’ve checked and it doesn’t happen in the editing software either. I’ve got the same problem later in the film when some hazy blobs which look like mattes appear in a couple of scenes, which also aren’t there on the computer.

Edit: I’ve tried re-exporting from my editing software, and had the exact same problem.

This is new to me. I’m not 100 percent sure on what you’re describing. If it doesn’t bother you, would you be fine sending me a link? Since I’m the one who sent the crawl, I can look it over and see if there’s a mistake on my end when I have the spare time.

In the final scene of Episode I, Jar Jar says, “I have to go now. My planet needs me.” A slide whistle is heard as Jar Jar ascends to heaven. A note appears on the screen that says, ‘Note: Jar Jar died on the way to his home planet.’

Yeah, I’m running out of ideas.

CaptainFaraday said:

Also, there was apparently a plot thread that got dropped late into the scriptwriting stage of ROTS where Anakin would (wrongly) start to suspect Padme and Obi-Wan were having an affair. It was the right decision to cut it, but you can still feel vestiges of it in the shooting script, when Anakin suspects Obi-Wan has been in Padme’s apartment and when he declares “You’re with him!” on Mustafar.

Interestingly enough, I’ve wanted to cut out Padme’s line about Obi-Wan visiting, but haven’t found a way to cut it successfully without causing some continuity issues. Still, someone thought it would be a good idea to throw an implied affair into this movie? Geez, that’s crazy even for Lucas.

Anyway, I’ve been busy with a bunch of other tasks, so I still haven’t gotten around to finding a good placement for the deleted scenes. Right now, I’m thinking of placing all three of them before Obi-Wan says goodbye to Anakin, since I’m still convinced about Padme suggesting Obi-Wan. Where the scenes should be placed now, however, is the tricky part.