ImBateman

Hi everyone!

Long time no see. I’ve been taking a break from the forums (and still sort of am), but I wanted to share my newest version of this edit in preparation for Resurrections!

I stumbled on an AI upscaled version of the Enter the Matrix scenes on another forum that I’m a part of and thought I’d take another stab at this fanedit. V1 was very rough, but I learned a lot since then and this edit is far more technically sound (I’m especially proud of the color grading I did for the added scenes) and is overall a better paced edit.

I updated the initial post to include everything that was changed for v2…which is a lot. I’ll be replying to old pms asking for links to this edit, but just in case I miss one of you, just reach out and I’ll send a link.

Thanks for everyone’s interest in this project!
-Josh

Vladimon said:
A 35mm scan would be wonderful indeed.

Oh definitely. Plus we’d be able to see the car that they painted out of the background for all home video releases 😃

https://youtu.be/GOg5x1uMMe4

PJ said:

Making decent progress, but there is still the occasional difficult shot that refuses to look even remotely like the source images i have. I’m gonna try experimenting with similar shots from schorman’s 2004 HDTV rips to see if I can get a little closer to a perfect match. Unlike the 2011 Blu ray, it looks pretty clean in regards to grain, so it might blend in with the 2020 footage.

The grain structure on the 2004 HDTV rip looks pretty natural. I say go for it! You’re doing excellent work here 😃

Kind of off topic, kind of not (this still is about the Matrix):

https://youtu.be/8GdG4Ryt9ro

I just found that someone scanned an open matte 35mm print of the trailer and it looks glorious! It appears that any shots with vfx are matted to 16:9 (they were probably rendered at that aspect ratio). This isn’t surprising since the vfx shots in the full screen DVDs of the sequels are just cropped at the sides compared to the 16:9 HDTV master.

Would anyone have a clue as to where to find a 35mm open matte copy of the film? I know there are anamorphic prints out there as well since the released scan is from one of those prints.

ZigZig said:

My external HD with ALL my preservation work, including the current captures of the SE 97 Laserdiscs (JP and US) just crashed. I lost everything.

I need now a couple of weeks to find the money and buy a new HD, then restart the complete capture process (all disks had been captured 3 times each, then manually detelecined)…

Sorry for this unforeseen delay, I’m pretty desperate.

That’s horrible, I worry about this all the time with my mechanical external drive.

If you want, I’ll throw some money your way for a new drive.

Okay I’m cool with locking this thread indefinitely. There’s not going to be any progress done with this project for the forseeable future since I consider it finished… oh yeah and I’m sick of trolls.

Also yeah Stotchy I would definitely recommend you do that. New members are good, but contributing new members are what we want.

pifpof said:

Ok.dump waiting for links! Don’t lie anymore!

Not happening sweetheart

trillarydump said:

Sorry PIf POF I’m an jerk and schmuck (אִידיוֹט)

Really a fake account? Can we ban this guy?

staracipa said:

The guy doesn’t reply, the topic is closed.

One, I was offline for a few days. Two, I usually don’t give links to brand new users. Three, starting four new PMs repeatedly asking for a link isn’t going to get you anywhere…

LardBladder said:

Is it okay if I get a link too? If not, it’s cool.

Of course you can get a link! PM’d

LardBladder said:

Although, imo, the SE ending and with the new music with Sebastian Shaw as Force Ghost Anakin is the perfect ending for ROTJ. Plus, no Naboo with Wesa fee too! The 97 edition is the perfect definitive way to end the OG trilogy.

That is the main reason why I made this reconstruction! The 97 ending to ROTJ is just too good not to see in better quality. I had to use upscaled SD footage for that bit, but I think it’s the best we’ll get until TN1 gets around to scanning the other two SE films.

But on a serious note I’m very excited to see this! The 2000 re-release does have slightly improved colors, but the article that a_o linked to also says that, “The 2000 box set, although visually striking in terms of packaging and presentation, does not feature a transfer that really sets it miles ahead of the 1997 Japanese box set.” So capping it would probably not to get any more detail, but you would have different colors.

ZaneFlare92 said:

Send me a link when you get a chance. Will you be doing Empire next???

PM’d. And yes after 4K80 releases!

I’m excited to announce that v3 is fully armed and operational! 😉

Check the main post for everything that has changed from V2 to V3 (a lot has been done since I restarted from scratch, new sources and new editing software). Thank you everyone for your support and interest!

As always PM me for a link and for feedback (currently uploading to Mega, it should be done soon).

Chase Adams said:

Palpatine laughter

Nice work, Rancor022!
Now this can become a reality…

That is both hilarious and perfectly edited!

SilverWook said:

It’s easy and better to chop all that tracking bloat off of ebay links. See above.

I didn’t know about that, thanks for the tip

WildngPower8 said:

This is great lol. The fact that you found this at a Goodwill is impressive. This would be interesting to watch and get an audience reaction audio sync with a better looking picture. I’m not sure but I wonder if anyone on here knows of the Matrix sequels 35mm print restoration projects, this would complement that big time.

Yeah I was kind of surprised to find it for sure! I flicked through it and there either isn’t much of an audience there, or they did not like the film at all because there is no cheering, laughing, clapping, etc lol.

As for the sequel 35mm projects, I am not aware of at all. I did however see this print of Reloaded for sale on eBay…

https://www.ebay.com/itm/35mm-Feature-Film-THE-MATRIX-RELOADED-2003/254653786666

Just as an update, I got into contact with someone who has done their own capture of the Matrix on Laserdisc, and unfortunately it appears that the LD master is the EXACT same as the DVD, color grading and all (top DVD, bottom LD):

So there is no real point in doing another capture, since you can pay $2 for the DVD and call it a day. I would however like to shift focus on attempting to get the Hong Kong open matte LD (if the people who posted pledges are okay with that), which is definitely way harder to find but I’ll keep a lookout for it.

Thanks!
-Josh

Hi everyone!

So at Goodwill today I found a fake-looking DVD of The Matrix Reloaded (crappy cover art and a blank white disc with “THE MATRIX DVD” printed on it), and it ended up being a theater bootleg. I figured it was worth uploading if anyone wanted to check it out. I remember there was some sort of argument of how the Matrix sequels were framed differently between theatrical and home video releases, so here’s an example of theatrical framing! It’s a 1:1 DVD folder rip so it has the chapter select and menu. It only comes in at 1.36gb.

PM me for a link!

Below are some screencaps and a scan of the artwork:

Stotchy said:

We’re about to release D+83 which uses Disney 4K and 4k83 footage which has been tonemapped and color corrected from HDR to SDR. You can use that as your source if you like.

If you choose Davinci Resolve as your editing platform I can send you the project files once it’s complete.

That sounds amazing! I’ll have to wait for that then 😃

For Despecialized vs 4k77 and 83, I’d have to go with 4k77 and 83…but my ideal trilogy right now is oohteedee’s D+77 and D+80, with 4k83 (dnr version).

Hi everyone!

So long time, no see. Sorry about that, it’s been! Work on v3 all but stopped completely since I lost all progress on my video editing software after a hard drive crash. I do still have v2 on my google drive but that’s all that I have left of this project. I don’t even have my ESB 97 project at all anymore, not even on GD (partly because it was very flawed when it came to trying to gt it in sync with the DTS audio).

However, I am toying with the idea of starting over from scratch using a properly downscaled copy of the new UHD blu ray, that doesn’t have botched colors because of HDR (if anyone could point me in the direction of one I’d be very grateful) as well as either the DNR or heavy DNR version of 4k83 for 2004, 2011, (and 2019?) changes. The only thing that is really holding me back is finding a new video editing software that I like. The one that I use now seems to like adding ghost frames when encoding video, which messes with DTS syncing, and the program generally gets slower the more you use it. I might consider getting an older Macbook so I could use Final Cut Pro, which is the only other video editing software that I remember liking.

Right now, I do consider yotsuya’s 720p merge and upscale of the 97 SE the definitive versions. Yes even more than v2 of this project. If I do start working on this project again, the goal would be to make it 1080p, which is definitely doable. Also TN1 is working on 35mm scans of the 97 trilogy, so that’s something to look forward to for sure.

Thanks for all of your support, and I’m glad that everyone has enjoyed my work this far!
-Josh

Mark me down for $10. Also, “WILSON!”

Chewielewis said:

This post from the lddb is very relevant here and in general

That is interesting about old home video releases having their colors altered to make up for inaccurate TV sets. Would you still trust the 35mm scan that has been done over the LD in this case? I do know that a lot of people were saying that it is way to oversaturated and blown out (maybe it was unique to that specific print)

SilverWook said:

Amazing how much that still goes for after all these years. The Hong King full frame LD never seems to turn up at all.

I would love to see a decent version of The Matrix in Open Matte 4:3. The Russian TV broadcast with blu ray colors is fine, but that LD would be even better!

marin888 said:
…and the color grading of BOTH is completely different to the original 35mm…
so save your money and forget the mess cause this is precisely one of the cases
where te DVD and the LD received altered transfers (some say the producers wanted it that way for the DVD)
https://forum.lddb.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=7944

That’s interesting. I’ve always heard that the LD for The Matrix was theatrically timed, but those screenshots say otherwise.

I would say that it would still be worth preserving the LD just so we have the LD’s color grade as well, but if the Scandinavian DVD is from the same master (which I think is what you’re implying), then it could be a decent idea to get that and sync it to the LD audio (that I didn’t even know got preserved)