NeverarGreat

As far as I can tell, it’s good for the entire film. Although when I uploaded it, I saw that some of the green lights in the film turn slightly blue, an unfortunate side effect of removing the green tint from the film. I’ve played around with the settings some more, and I think this new LUT is better in most respects:

https://mega.nz/#!nFE0kbTB

Key: !zhXrB_AaERV2t5DzQpJ890At-YDHzMzebN25xrs28lo

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/154445/picture:0

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/154447/picture:0

clutchins said:

How can one go about applying your LUT to the .mkv on the spleen? Also, thanks for doing this!

I used TSmuxer to convert it to a TS stream, then used Adobe Media Encoder to apply the LUT (there’s an option for this under export settings - effects in Premiere Pro and Media Encoder) and re-export it as a h.264 video with 23-25 mbs quality. The comparison images are taken from this render. There’s a little bit of loss, so you may want to bump up the quality even more, but that should get you a file that’s similar in size and quality to the original.

I’m no expert in video formats or rendering, so if there’s a better way to do this, let me know!

Some friends and I were going to have a Star Wars OT marathon before TFA, and I decided to use the Grindhouse version of ESB. So to that end I have made a LUT to correct the colors:

https://mega.nz/#!2FdX0QIb

Key: !HCtmQgTtkQtuj6qIbLw4mvrIEodn2q1hODyAr_Pm9l0

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/154438/picture:0

JEDIT: See updated LUT below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTRbkIBn2j0

More praise for Despecialized! Glad to see the word getting out before TFA.

Is this article for real?

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/12/hot-yoda/419454/#article-comments

I am not an expert on audio preservation, but I would have thought that digitizing this stuff would have happened a long time ago.

Yeah, this is a pretty great edit, it actually managed to remain compelling throughout. I still think some of the mindless action sequences (such as Obi-wan chasing Grevious with a lizard) could be cut without much problem, and the flashbacks sometimes cause more confusion than anything. I think a more streamlined and chronological version would be better, though I do think it would add to the narrative if a few flashbacks to Anakin’s childhood remained near the end of the film. Also, not sure why midichlorians were left in.

I really liked Maul turning into Grevious, it would be brilliant if it was better executed. I also loved the line near the end where Anakin shares with Obi-wan his final vision. It finally brings the saga full circle without feeling shoehorned in.

As far as Anakin’s body dematerializing, I like that we don’t see it happen because it leaves it open to interpretation. Perhaps it dematerialized a few seconds after the end of the shot, and you can believe that if you want to. However, there is the fact that Anakin doesn’t just have a cyber suit, it is that much of his body has become mechanical. Would all of his robotic limbs and implants just be rattling around in an empty suit like in the Left Behind series? Seems silly to me.

I just watched the Phantom Menace edit. It’s quite good, though I think that some parts now feel rushed. The podrace could be cut quite a bit shorter, however. The way that the Nemoidians are portrayed in this is rather cool.

This was the first time that I genuinely FELT the villainy of Palpatine. That we don’t get a chance to see the villainy on screen is one of the biggest problems with The Phantom Menace, even if that is implied in the title. If we saw the suffering of the people of Naboo, just one shot of the overcrowded camps at night with a mass grave in the distance, it would go a long way to making the stakes real. Then the Nemoidians could be subtitled to order the death of Sio Bibble in the scene where they say ‘tuck him away’, and we could perhaps hear the laser blast.

I saw all 3 of the official trailers and then the Japanese trailer. When I saw the first TV spot, I vowed not to see any more, and haven’t so far. When a spot came on the TV during Thanksgiving, people probably laughed as they saw me dart out of the room.

To collect the synopses in one place:

Episode 1:
Two Jedi attempt to resolve a brewing conflict between a peaceful planet and an aggressive interplanetary corporation, but soon see signs that sinister forces may be at work. After a long and ultimately futile journey across the galaxy to garner support for their cause, a final showdown defeats both the corporation’s military and their shadowy master’s powerful henchman. But the identity of the mastermind of these events and his true purpose remains mysterious…

Episode 2:
After an assassination attempt on a galactic senator a young Jedi is tasked with protecting her, while his master follows the trail of the assassins only to discover a conspiracy of galactic proportions and gets captured. Meanwhile the senator and her Jedi protector go into hiding and fall in love but when the young Jedi discovers that his master has been captured he flies to his aid and our heroes are rejoined for an epic final battle.

Episode 3:
Two Jedi accomplish a daring rescue of the leader of the Galactic Republic, but at the cost of the young Jedi’s conscience. As his master fights to end the galactic war, the young Jedi succumbs to the temptations of the galactic leader, who lures him into a Faustian bargain with the promise of power. The leader then reveals himself as the mastermind of the entire war, thus ending it and turning the Republic into an Empire. In the final battle, the villains are revealed, and the heroes flee.

I think the contractual survival of Yoda and Obi-wan is the worst thing about Episode 3, even more than Anakin’s confusing fall, since it paints them as stupid and cowardly. True Heroism and villainy don’t exist in this film since the characters are so muddled.

One thing that is actually nice for certain threads is that you have to go to the first page of the thread before navigating to any other page. Not optimal for browsing updates to projects, but potentially useful for people who ignore clear instructions in the first post of the thread.

Guys, I think I may have a problem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l49Yl_gixUI

Yes, I've joined the supercut craze. So ashamed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymia_ivHVOo

Just popping in here to post my regrade of the 3rd trailer, as I don't want to read all the spoilerish stuff around here...yet ;)

RicOlie_2 said:

As I said in the other thread, the only problem I had with it is that it felt too dark. I'm hoping there are some more lighthearted moments in the actual movie.

Thinking back on ANH, there were actually very few moments that I can point to as being genuinely funny. The only one that comes easily to mind is Han's conversation with Luke after the rescue "Do you think a princess, and a guy like me...". As far as lighthearted goes, there's a lot of fussy banter between the droids and the final scene of the film, but other than that it takes itself quite seriously. It doesn't give the audience a wink like Marvel movies, it's not jokey. I don't mind if TFA is serious fare.

Besides, the trailer was selling itself as EPIC, so lighthearted moments wouldn't have worked with the music. :)

Okay, just watched the trailer a good dozen times. I'm not going to spoil any specifics, just give my reactions to the overall effect it had on me.

First of all, I noticed a lot more JJ-isms such as extreme closeups and a few lens flares. Dynamic camera, very in-your-face stuff. It felt most similar to 2009 Star Trek in style, and though that style worked for the Trek Reboot, I don't think it works so well for a continuing story, especially not Star Wars.

I liked a few shots in the first seconds of the trailer, one in particular screamed classic Star Wars and gave me hope for more in the film. but most of the rest of the shots could have come out of any big budget action film of the last several years, for all the effect it had on me.

The colors feel off, as I think JJ prefers a more saturated look than exists in any of the OT films. He's definitely not out to recapture the look of the originals, so I wonder why he even bothered to shoot on film. All in all, it was a disappointment.

One bright note (haha) is the music. If nothing else, we get a new Star Wars soundtrack from the Williams, and that alone is worth the price of admission for me.

Brilliant stuff. Especially Spinoda. :)

FanFiltration said:

I still think people are missing the fact that R2-D2 was present during most of (if not all of) Luke's training by Ben and Yoda. Therefor that little droid contains the knowledge to be the greatest Jedi training master of all. 

And of course, R2 was levitating himself in the swamp. He's just a quick learner.

What if TFA is lawful?

Even if we got a 'perfect' restoration, there would still be people here who would value a GOUT upscale simply because of nostalgia. Besides, there ARE differences between the '77 version of the film and this one, which would be valuable on their own.

About v15: It looks good, I like it more than any previous version! The problem has always been the ringing artifacts, and these seem to be impervious to any attempt to bring under control. But perhaps if there was an automated tool, such as Photoshop's Magnetic Lasso tool, which could identify edges of a sufficient contrast (such as Vader's helmet against a featureless wall) it could be made to equalize lesser variations in luminosity which run parallel to these edges, but only equalize them on the side of the edge which has the most parallel gradients (which are the ringing artifacts). In this way, details on the other side of the edge remain unaffected, which is where most of the superresolution detail is gained.

I say either of the last two are great. On my monitor, the skin tones are practically perfect, the hair is blonde/gray in keeping with his apparent age, the blue of the uniforms remains intact, and the hallway is ever so slightly green, which, as far as anyone can tell, is how it is supposed to look. Why does this last one look worse to you?

g-force said:

Blu-ray regraded from post 445 is better than the improved from post 449 on all three of my monitors.

-G

On both my calibrated monitor and my laptop monitor, the skin tones on 445 shift too much between green (around the eyes and nose) and pink (in the cheeks), though the shift appears more subtle on the uncalibrated laptop monitor. More than that, 449 just feels warmer and better to me, though 'better' is entirely subjective.

DrDre said:

 The improvement is a good one :) The skin tones, hair, and shirt all look just right.

rchdggr said:

sunglassesatnite said:

This is a vague feeling and it is hard to explain, but there are micro-moments in Abrams’s various  films where I get sucked straight out of the movie, out of the fantasy--and into a realm where “this doesn’t quite make sense.” Or, “that seems odd why that character would do [or say] that.” 

There are several of these “micro-moments” from J.J.’s films that I could get into (but won’t).  There is, though, one in the latest behind-the-scenes TFA footage (presumably from San Diego, but I’m not certain about that) which, at least for me, demonstrates what I am talking about.  For a few seconds, a guy appearing  to be Oscar Isaacs is being hustled down a very Death Star-looking starship passageway by a Stormtrooper.

 I will get accused of being overly anal about this, but something  about the composition of that shot and the body language of the characters was just wrong.  It immediately made me think of similar shots in the OOT where our captive heroes are being made to walk places they don’t necessarily want to go (think of Han Solo at the Carbonite chamber, or the surrendered starship troopers at the beginning of A New Hope).  Not really a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but in the TFA footage it just looked “off.”  For one thing, in J.J.’s footage the Stormtrooper has his gun on Oscar Isaacs with one hand, while attempting to briskly shuffle him down the passageway with the other; presumably to take him to some kind of “detention block.”  The thing is, why does the Stormtrooper have his gun on Isaacs when they are presumably on the Stormtrooper’s own ship to begin with?   Why the hell is the Stormtrooper in such a hurry when, again, they are on the Stormtrooper’s own ship?  Why aren’t there two Stormtroopers handling Isaacs?  Why am I being so completely anal about two seconds of footage, the completed version of which I haven’t yet seen?

The reason is because it just looks “wrong.”  It doesn’t look like Star Wars (or at least the only Star Wars that exists to me—namely the OOT).  In the OOT, a shot like this would have had two Stormtroopers walking behind our hero, weapons at port arms, with a pace and body language that suggested power and control…thereby infusing the scene with a sense of gravity and foreboding.  This scene, by contrast, just doesn’t come off well.  It just looks like a Stormtrooper hustling some dude down a hallway, and doesn’t really communicate anything beyond that.  Worse, it kind of makes the Stormtrooper look like--in the words of late-great TV series the Wire—“a graspy little bitch” who can’t handle his business somehow. 

Am I making  my prediction of TFA’s lack of quality based on this one scene?  Hardly.  I am merely attempting to give an example of how J.J. Abrams’s style, for me, doesn’t completely work.  

 

The lone stormtrooper does look off. He seems nervous and agitated. Not typical stormtrooper behavior. He doesn't seem to be just like every other stormtrooper. It's as if he has more personality and emotion to him.. See where i'm going with this?

 He does seem 'a little short' for a stormtrooper ;)

I wonder if the steelbooks version of ANH has fixed the mis-encoded highlights situation of the 2011 Blu-ray.

Chewtobacca said:

poita said:  6) Every print, and every screening would have looked different...

...grading Star Wars now is really down to the individual.

I completely agree with this and with everything that you wrote in post #333, poita.  It's what I've believed for some time.

1) The IB Techs are all too green, Senator print included.

Even though this is true, I still absolutely love the way all the green makes Star Wars look.  It feels right to me somehow, and I don't want my go-to version to look any other way.

Let's hope that this new tool will lead to more people's finding a release that pleases them in terms of color.

Perhaps it's not strictly accurate to the scene, but the greenish shadows combined with just slightly reddish/blue highlights do give a nice 'antique' or 'romantic' look to the film, in my opinion. It may be partly a time period color choice combined with the natural shifts in the Technicolor process, but the Technicolor version of Star Wars is what made me fall in love with the color of the film more than anything else.