NeverarGreat

Sheepish said:

NeverarGreat said:

Some of the grading goes too far in my opinion, for example making mauls black cloak look green. But I like how you got rid of the purple. Very strange choice for Lucasfilm.

See, I’m not really seeing green. Maybe that has to do with the settings on my monitor, but if there’s green to that cloak, it certainly presents a problem, as I didn’t do any green level adjustments in that scene.

…though I did use a slight teal filter to neutralize some other colors. That may have done it. I’ll give it another look.

One way to check your work is in Photoshop, where you can get RGB info for any pixel. It’s showing higher green levels for the shadows than the other colors.

Some of the grading goes too far in my opinion, for example making mauls black cloak look green. But I like how you got rid of the purple. Very strange choice for Lucasfilm.

Someone (I can’t remember who) uploaded scans of an original trailer, and though it’s a bit yellowed, it has a much more pleasing tone to me. It’s also a good idea of how it may have looked on a release print:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/163375

Sounds good, I’d like to see some screenshots of the new coloration!

DrDre said:

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.

That’s it exactly. By subtly green, I simply meant that the pixels have a few points more green than anything else, which is what this photo shows. 😃

The greenish tone to the Tantive walls is subtle, and I’m not sure that it was intended to be green in the finished film. But if it were to tend toward a color, green it is.

I liked everything about the final scene except for the idea of the scene itself, by which I mean that the movie is structured to be bookended by fanservice to the OT. The opening crawl teases Luke’s eventual appearance, and the final scene reveals him. Through the film we are given the idea that he’s a great Jedi and the Jedi are important and magical, but one small problem with this is that he’s reduced to practically macguffin status, like the Death Star plans. Luke’s power is never shown in the film, only told through exposition.

The bigger problem takes more explanation:

The enigmatic nature of Luke in the final shots most closely mirrors the end of ESB, where Luke is left pondering a big question regarding the nature of his father. Both films clearly lead into their sequels, but they are different in that the audience is given a clear problem at the end of ESB. Luke became a Jedi because of his father, so if his father fell to the Dark Side, he could as well. Also, he is expected to destroy Vader, and if Vader is telling the truth, Luke would be massively conflicted about his entire quest. This is the nature of the film’s end, a very precise obstacle for our hero to overcome.

However, the end of TFA leaves the audience with no revelation, no clear problem. Rey finds Luke and holds out the lightsaber. Will Luke accept it? Will Rey become a Jedi and confront Ren? Is Rey Luke’s daughter? Yeah, probably, is my answer to all of the above. But why bother thinking about it? There is no obstacle here for Rey to ponder. This is no second act reversal, but a first act victory like ANH, and in this case the film should have ended on the shot of the Falcon leaving the base. But TFA wants to be a mashup of ANH and ESB, so it has both endings, with neither being particularly strong.

TL;DR version: Luke is a not-so-interesting macguffin, and the opening crawl and final scene is the beginning and ending of ESB tacked onto a functional remake of ANH.

Lasz said:

it’s funny how they made the bluray look NOT like film. It looks underexposed and the highlights get clipped very harshly. Almost like what you would expect from a cheap digital pocket camera.

As far as my knowledge goes, part of what makes film look like film is that it has a very gradual roll-off near the highlights, like what you see in the Tech and NOT in the bluray

The Tech almost seems to have more latitude in its dynamic range than the bluray.

As far as the highlights of the Blu-ray, there is almost no clipping in any shot if you look at the raw data in the file, it’s just that it’s severely clipped when it’s played. I can’t believe that it’s intentional, which means they just screwed up the encoding of the Blu-ray. I’ve been able to recover these highlights for Despecialized v3.0.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=013r_PNIcxs

One of the most visually impressive fan film’s I’ve seen. Not much in the way of a plot though.

McGayver said:

REPORT-SW-v2.5
chapter 47
01:46:49 - 01:46:50

there is a very sudden change in the trench after a flash of white light. It seems that the first trench is the original version of the film and the second special edition.

That looks like a mistake in the Blu-ray which has been carried over to Despecialized. In Silver Screen, the trench is well lit on both sides of the flash, whereas the Blu-ray crushes the shadows on the first part of the shot.

I think this is a really neat idea. I’d like to see this in theaters actually, where many shots in the finished film would be alternate takes. It could give new life to old performances, and more easily justify repeat viewings.

I’ll throw my hat in the ring.

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/161554

The blue in R2 is the same gradient as the shadow blue that shouldn’t be there, so that can’t be recovered.

I spent probably a full day trying to correct this shot for my project, but the blu-ray’s gradients are too degraded for anything more than an approximation regarding color. In particular, the yellow droid’s gradients are crushed in the source to those of C-3PO and the surrounding buildings.

Interesting. I wouldn’t have put it past Lucasfilm to do that though, after seeing that same thing in the ANH Blu-ray.

Harmy said:

http://picsurge.com/rrGUtW

Ahh, that picture of Leia at the Ewok celebration is tripping me out! Did they cut out her face for the Blu-ray?

https://tattuinardoelasaga.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/tattuinardoela-saga-if-star-wars-were-an-icelandic-saga/

And there was much rejoicing.

I’ve tweaked the color of Reel 4 to make it more consistent. Here’s the updated grade:

https://mega.nz/#!rJcz0ZxZ

Key:
!1VgoPacslPxs1l15dA__OZL9dN_krKCTZ8xD361ifXI

Well for one thing, there’s too much red in the images. The shot of the Falcon docking with the Death Star looks passable, but that’s about that only one in the ballpark.

I would be very surprised if these looked like the '77 film.

Wexter said:
Actually, if you go only by the original Star Wars, Luke’s father was never established as Obi-Wan’s student. Only Vader was. Anakin was merely ‘a good friend’. Only after the two characters merged in ESB, Anakin is soft-retconned into being Obi-Wan’s apprentice.

Good point. But the fact remains that by the end of the OT, Anakin is definitely Obi-wan’s apprentice:
“When I first knew him, your father was already a great pilot, but I was amazed at how strongly the Force was with him. I took it upon myself to train him as a Jedi. I thought that I could instruct him just as well as Yoda. I was wrong.”

‘Train’ and ‘Instruct’ are rather strong words to use about someone you just hang around with.

To understand Anakin, it would be helpful to understand the way in which a Jedi is trained. From what I gather in the OT, Luke’s training begins with Obi-wan telling him to trust his feelings. This preliminary part of training gradually opens the initiate’s mind to the Force, allowing them to go as far as even levitating small objects. Next, the student augments their skills with rigorous acrobatics training and exercise. At some point, the teacher will use some method (like the Dark Side cave) to determine the student’s greatest fear. With practice, the student is able to face this fear in their mind. Finally, the student’s training is complete with the construction of a lightsaber. However, this doesn’t make them a Jedi. The final test of a Jedi is to confront their greatest fear in person, if possible. This test is ultimate, and is pass/fail. There is no running away. Either the student conquers their fear through the use of the Force, or they die. If they use the Dark Side to achieve victory, they must be killed. Yoda’s warning about fear is well placed.

The problem of Anakin can perhaps be solved by recognizing the effect this training could have on students and masters. What if the student’s fear is great, but reasonable? What if the student fails in their final test, but understandably so?

What if Anakin were to realize that his greatest fear was his own death?

When the test of a Jedi is against an enemy, the test is simple. When it is against death itself, how can any test be devised? Ironically, the Lucas Prequels have almost this same test in the character of Palpatine. If Anakin destroys Palapatine, he is severing the temptation to use the Dark Side to become immortal. Since he cannot destroy the promise of immortality, Anakin falls and becomes Darth Vader. This aspect of the prequels, if seen through the lens of the ‘Final Test’, succeeds. Anakin doesn’t even need to commit evil acts. His fall was the ultimate irony - saving a life. However, through the lens of this test, it is essential that Obi-wan kill Anakin, but since Anakin’s fall is entirely human and reasonable, Obi-wan is massively conflicted. The Mustafar duel could play out essentially as it does in the prequels, and over the next twenty years Obi-wan would try to convince himself that Anakin was indeed ‘seduced’ to the dark side by Palpatine. Anakin and Obi-wan are both tragic characters in the end, and when Anakin destroys the Emperor, he finally makes good on his test to become a Jedi.

I find it hard to believe that Obi-wan would willingly train someone who was called ‘Darth Vader’ to be a Jedi. It’s one of the most villainous sounding names ever devised.

The problem with Obi-wan’s speech is that it’s simple enough without ESB and ROTJ:

Obi-wan had at least two students, one of which was later known as Darth Vader, betraying and murdering Anakin. Simple, effective, and good motivation for Luke to become a Jedi.

But with the rest of the story it becomes:

Obi-wan had a student, Anakin, who was seduced by the Dark Side into becoming Darth Vader, after which he hunted down and killed the Jedi. However, Anakin was not only seduced but betrayed and murdered by this aspect of himself called Darth Vader, implying an almost schizophrenic relationship with himself.

The problem with this more complicated version of events is that we’re made to think that Luke is very much like his father. This works with the first version of the story, where Anakin can be made to be a good man through and through, but not with this second story, where Anakin is betrayed by an aspect of himself which has been ‘seduced’ to the Dark Side. Among the dozens of fan theories I have read on this transformation, none of them rings particularly true to me, and I think that’s because Anakin can’t be both the good if impatient man that Luke is in ESB, and still be seduced by the Dark Side.

Anakin is the Schrodinger’s Cat of characters, at once good and noble, and also power hungry and evil.

I think those ideas are excellent. I once developed an outline for an Episode 3 where Anakin and Obi-wan were sent to the beautiful and beguiling planet of Alderaan to help the royal family. My idea at the time was that people on Alderaan, and the royalty in particular, had developed a resistance to the natural force abilities of many of the planet’s native species, which used the Force to trick and trap their prey. Alderaan was thus a dangerous planet and a marvel of the galaxy, which is one reason why Obi-wan says ‘You must learn the ways of the Force…if you’re to come with me to Alderaan.’

brycebayer said:

This is really stupendous! I don’t understand how a professional team managed to color grade the films as they did on the Blurays. They must have had some serious calibration issues on their monitors.

I look forward to seeing the finished product but more importantly when can you color grade the Silver Screen Edition? 😉

Thanks!

Yeah, from what I’ve heard they had very little time to do their work and were basically working out of a closet at the Ranch. I remember one person who was doing it thought that their work was pretty good, considering the time constraint, but that it looked much more uneven when seeing it a few years later. I have to think that their equipment was faulty.

Aspects of Silver Screen are already being incorporated into this project, in order to ensure the highest quality color possible. Here’s a LUT for the greenish highlights in Sliver Screen, but apart from that I’ll be happy to wait for bigger and better things on the film front:

https://mega.nz/#!mQdmjArY
Key:
!chA0GaBea_Q_qwsPJ3yMe-kDpg9sMV6v3WjgMpINfD4

There’s still a lot of color hiding in there:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/160710

And it also looks like it could compete with the Blu-ray in terms of detail and level of grain.

Bah. I shall not be relegated to this desolate backwater of a forum! It’s too quiet here.

Speaking of, how do you feel about your idea to Remake the Prequels, now that Star Trek fans have run into trouble for their own fan film?

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Star-Trek-Movie-Hollywood-Really-Doesn-t-Want-You-See-79287.html

Darth Lucas said:

The “green tint” is due to misalignment of the color channels. It happens when the red and blue channels are perfectly matched up, but the green channel is slightly misaligned so it doesn’t blend properly with the other colors causing green fringe along the edge of things and in the shadows.

That accounts for fringing, but not for a green color cast across the entire shot.