PDB

77FN said:

team_negative1 said:

We will say, although not completed yet. You will have something to enjoy over the holidays.

Team_Negative1

 

Intriguing! Whatever it is, I can't wait! ;)

 Agreed

Sweet, glad I didn't get the Criterion. Thanks for the heads up.

DoomBot said:

I think it looks great Andrea, no need to match 100% to the dvd. Remember the 35mm is still happening, the scan is now complete. If any shots need replacing it can be taken from it. Or depending on what people think about the color timing on the 35mm could use that but i see you using the dvd or LD for that on most of it?

Nice to see you back here, we miss you :)

 Agreed on all points with Doom

Sorry to ask Matt. Did you ever put DM2 up anywhere besides the AsianDVD forum?

DoomBot said:

Hey PDB your PMs filled up  :)

 Sorry Doom. Its clear

I laughed, nothing beats classic Simpsons

Turisu said:

While the 35mm trailer shots may or may not be an excellent source, do you not think it might make more sense to grade to a known source such as LD or DVD rather than trying to guess the look of a theatrical print?

In my view, as soon as one starts going with what 'feels' right or trying to strike a balance between sources, it's starting on the slippery slope towards just another revisionist version rather than an attempt at a preservation.

Any thoughts on this?

 The goal of this project as any project I have started is to get as close to a 35mm print as possible. Frankly, in most, if not all cases that not going to be possible since I don't have access to 35mm prints. So removing that whats the best source outside of a 35mm print I can get?

For Alien, it seems that the THX LD is the closest video to 35mm print. That's based off evidence found and basically looking at something like 12 different sources (LDs, trailers, tape, DVDs, etc).

For Aliens, the funny thing is that the DVDs, BD and THX LD are all from a negative scan and all look very different. And as we know a negative scan does not look the same as a release print.

I chose to use the 95 THX LD since it looked like an honest attempt to duplicate the look of a release print with warmer tones, saturated colors and high contrast. That and I used the THX LD for Alien. Problem is that it is too much saturation. I think the colors are generally right but done to extremes. Skin tones are sometimes blistering red. Blue is overwhelming (see the pics on the first page). That's why I went looking for more and found pics from the trailers. The trailer and the THX match is broad strokes. Red here, blue here, etc. But I don't have enough pics from the trailers to shot by shot grade the entire film. So the plan was to use the THX LD as a base and manage the colors to the level of the trailers.

The above was an experiment. If I grade one or two scenes will the entire movie fall into line with the pics in the trailer. If the BD is universally graded instead of shot by shot graded it should work. I'm betting on the BD being done with laziness. And it does for the most part but its not perfect. What it does give me is warmer skin tones and it brings back the Cameron blues that the LD and DVD have and the BD doesn't have. It also gives me things the LD does wrong like the facehugger in the jars scene is more gray in the trailer but purple in the LD (gray with purple/pink highlights on the DVD, green in the BD). 

All from changing one or two scenes. I started adding more and more shots from the trailers. Further, work is an attempt to pull it back or closer to the LD, entirely based on the blues of the LD or the reds. The LD has always been the base and then fine tuning with the 35mm shots. 

Honestly, I have been accused of being too rigid and dogmatic about following LD or DVD colors in the past. This is first time I have been accused of the opposite. Lol. Rest assured I'm not going for what I like best or what people on the OT like best but what is the best based off the information I have. I'm trying to fix revisionism not create my own.

TylerDurden389 said:

The blacks looks WAAAY too crushed in the 3rd pic (Breakfast table scene).

You win the prize. I was wondering who would be the first to point that out. Yep, I changed the contrast and gamma around on purpose to match the trailer's look (which is crushed like most 35mm trailers and prints). That pic is crushed as is all the pics from my trailer experiment. I still have the original contrast setting from the BD (which sadly started out crushed)

So just playing around. I'm not married to those settings.

TServo2049 said:

I think Cameron used blues in Aliens, and in Terminator. I was just saying that 1.) While it was never a primary color like in modern regrades, teal was NOT an invention of the 2000s; all 80s prints I've seen have SOME amount of teal as a secondary/tertiary color in blue-cast/dark/night scenes, so video transfers with NO teal are probably not accurate; 2.) I'm not sure that the theatrical prints were as overpoweringly blue as the 1995 laserdisc.

The "blue" version looks a bit like some of the prints I've seen projected at the Castro. Yeah, maybe a little TOO cold, but I don't recall the prints I saw of Streets of Fire, Legend, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Lethal Weapon, The Running Man or Evil Dead II having skin tones looking AS red as the "red" version. Can you get skin tones closer to the trailer images? Sure, we just said they may not be theatrically accurate, but they still look close to skin tones I've seen in actual 80s prints.

Another characteristic I've seen in 80s prints - very often, fire looks quite yellow. Anybody ever notice that with 80s prints, or is this due to me seeing all these prints at the same theater through the same projector?

Man, I wish I could see a print.

 I think we are in agreement TServo. I do think there was blue and teal before its current craze . When there exists a movie like Suspira, any color can exist on film. And I do agree that Aliens probably has blue in it. My experiments also kind of confirm my suspicion about that. I think the 95 LD is a good attempt to try to duplicate the colors of a release print. They just pushed it too far. My 35mm trailer test seems to have blue just less then the 95.

My big problem with Aliens is the green, which Cameron added to this, Terminator and for some reason Titanic. I'm pretty confident saying a blanket green is not right. That's modern color timing.

The "blue" version was an attempt to get white back to something concerning white from my "Red" version". It looks good in a vacuum but the problem is without the red there, the background colors tend to go back to green (see the back of that shot and the bottom of Apone's hat bill). Whereas in the "red" version the backgrounds are the light, pale blue. See the surface of LV-426. Frankly, the "red" also matches the 35mm trailers better since those scenes are from later in the film where skin tones change to redder and the lighting goes darker for mood. Fire also look more yellow with the red version. That's not to say its perfect, the shot of Hicks holding the shotgun looking back isn't right. There are a bunch of scenes that are wrong, mostly at the beginning where lighting is cold. But between the 35mm frames and the LD I think that's a little closer to what Aliens looks may have looked liked in theaters.

I'm thinking splitting the difference between the red and blue versions. Here is a bit of refinement:

You are right 35mm print is the way to go. Hopefully someone can find a copy.

bigrob said:

Annoying thing is that I've seen a 35mm print of Aliens TWICE on the big screen lol. From what I remember, the blue timt was there

The Prince Charles cinema in London show it regularly. Will check their programme

If it does come maybe you can take a pic or two? Or a least some notes. I have the blue just need to know how much saturation to put back in.

Turisu said:

Thanks for those comparison pics. So interesting how they differ.

I agree that the 35mm shots look best. It's amazing how close the BD comes to them in a couple of those pics, apart from the general lack of saturation and the blues being more pushed towards green. I really thought the tealified BD would be a radical departure from how the original print looked but, going by these 35mm sources, perhaps it's not as far out as people assume.

The really problem with the Aliens BD (outside of the grain) is the blanket green tint. Those particular scenes that don't have the strong green tint actually look pretty good. 

Turisu said:

PDB said:

Funny you mentioned that. I am no Harmy by any stretch of the imagination (no way I can do rotoscoping) but I do have a few old HDTV Aliens masters that I was going to try and substitute the frames back into the film. That way I can put the hole back in and the scratches on the window.

 

It's widely considered that the BD transfer of Aliens had fake grain applied to enhance the perception of detail. So with the proper color correction and a similar fake grain plate, I'll bet the HDTV frames would blend almost seamlessly with the BD source. :)

That's what I'm thinking and hoping for.

TServo2049 said:

I'm not sure if the 35mm trailer exactly match the release print grading. To point to another Cameron example, the original trailers for Terminator 2 have ungraded nighttime footage with natural skin tones, while the clips on the Siskel and Ebert review, the YouTube 35mm screening clip, and a few film frames I've seen, all seem to show that the theatrical prints had those pumped-up blues we know from all the home releases.

That said, teal existed in the 80s. I've seen an original 35mm of Streets of Fire that has a very similar palette to that Aliens 35mm trailer. The Terminator theatrical trailer (which I've seen on two separate occasions) also has a similar color scheme. The problem is that the color balancing done in the digital realm works completely differently from the original photochemical timing. Even if the general color scheme looks similar, the balance of those colors in the digital realm, and the way certain colors can be completely timed out of the image, were impossible when the films were originally made/released. You just couldn't push everything towards teal/green and drop all blue out of the image - there was ALWAYS blue in the color timing back in the 80s.

That said, it also wouldn't surprise me if the '95 LD was somehow adjusted (Photochemically? After transfer?) to pump up the blues. Those deep, sometimes almost indigo blues remind me more of the 90s than the 80s (reminds me of Jurassic Park, Independence Day, and of course T2). Was that LD the theatrical cut, or the Special Edition?

You are absolutely right Tservo. Trailers are not a good source to color grade off of since they sometimes don't have final color timing. I pointed that out myself back a couple of pages when I first posted pics from the trailer. I'm just trying to gather as much evidence as to the look of Aliens without a 35mm release print to work with. This is just some detective work.

Case in point I have been comparing Aliens two trailers against each other and found a spot where the color timing is different, clearly a result of photo chemical timing. But that difference actually helps me figure out a few things.

I agree with you about Teal/Blue existing in the 80s and before. And Cameron always loved his blues. From the Abyss on he was incorporating them as much as possible into his films. Problem is did he have them in Aliens? The BD has been re-timed to remove any hint of blue and replace most colors and tints with green.

StarThoughts said:

The THX LD was of the theatrical cut, it came out with a wave of Dolby AC-3 releases. The extended version was only in the CAV box set, as I recall.

TServo2049 said:

What does the color on the extended LD look like?

bigrob said:

StarThoughts said:

The THX LD was of the theatrical cut, it came out with a wave of Dolby AC-3 releases. The extended version was only in the CAV box set, as I recall.

 

Thats correct. I own both of these editions and can confirm

Yep that's right. The THX is theatrical only. I don't have the extended edition anymore. Lost it in a move long ago. I have been reluctant to pick up a copy since it is a notorious rotter and the picture on it was terrible. Full of over the top noise (there is a whole story about that). I would like to know what it looks like though.

So I had an idea. I gathered all the picture information from the 35mm trailer(s) I could gather. I wanted to try an experiment. I created a color "average" of how the BD and the 35mm differ. What I was looking for is; if I applied a general grade to Aliens, what would that look like. Would other scenes look like they do from the trailers? Or the DVD, LD, BD, what have you. 

So does it work? Yes and no. More yes then no since a few scenes still seem to have a little green from the BD. And some scenes go randomly of in the wrong direction color-wise. Also, you really need to grade cut by cut to recreate "true" color grading. Having said that I'm pretty happy with it as an experiment. The colors are somewhere between the DVD and LD. More saturated then the DVD not crazy like the LD. Like the close up of Ripley talking to Burke is redish like the LD. The interiors of Gateway station are red like the LD. On the other hand LV-426 are light blue like the DVD not over saturated like the LD. Overall if I had to call it, it seems more LD then DVD. Compare these pics to the ones above and on the first page.

Aliens overall graded to 35mm trailer

This was a first test. I also created a less red more blue version which ended up having very cool timing, a more DVD look and more "Cameron" but the skin tones are too pale compared to the 35mm frames.

BD/BD regraded to 35mm "red" version/BD regraded to 35mm "blue" version

Work on Alien continues

Lil Brutto said:

Just a matter of time. The IB tech will be cleaned and scanned over the next few weeks!

 Very exciting!

BDgeek said:

Hi PDB, 

congratulations on your work here, the results are looking great!

I can't wait to watch Alien with the propper color timing and the LD audio.

Thanks BDgeek. I appreciate it. Myself, I'm reluctant to call it proper color timing. I believe the BD is all wrong and I'm convinced the LD is a lot closer to a 35mm print based on what I've seen and know but without a proper 35mm print, we'll never know. So I just consider this a regrade to the '95 LD for now in the absence of better evidence pro or con.

CircularPastrysaid:

PDBsaid:

The problem with Aliens is that I still haven't decide what to grade it against: the Pan and Scan LD, the THX LD, the DVD, the old HDTV master, the 35mm frames I found, etc

First off, great work! I cannot wait to see the finished project!

Now for the input, I don't know if I'm alone here but I'd prefer to see sequels more consistent with regard to filmography. Making Aliens and even any future projects look more true to the work you've done here than it may have to one of it's original releases. I'm not saying aim to be identical, but with a much closer feel than many sequels often have. More of an organic evolution than just simple transition if that makes sense.

I like the idea but problem is the Alien series was directed by a lot of auteurs who had very specific idea about what their films should look like and are not necessarily compatible. Hell most of them keep changing their minds about what colors their films should look like. My goal as always to get close to what a 35mm print would look like for each film. Have I done that with Alien? Don't know, hopefully I have. Will I do that with Aliens, still trying to figure that out. But you present a fun idea, it might be a fun experiment for later.

Turisu said:

PDB said:

The problem with Aliens is that I still haven't decide what to grade it against: the Pan and Scan LD, the THX LD, the DVD, the old HDTV master, the 35mm frames I found, etc

I had no idea that all the different home video releases of Aliens had significantly different colour timing. It would be great to see some comparisons if you have time.

Also, have you had any thoughts about maybe restoring the hole under Bishop in the loading bay floor Harmy-style? ;)

A great example of this is Jonno's rundown of Ash's decapitated head a couple of pages back. Each home video master is different in that and in most cases. For Aliens I knocked this together quickly:

35mm Trailer/1995 THX LD/DVD/BD

As you can see no version is perfect, they all have issues. (I do need to re-capture my LD to see if I can get a little better colors)

Funny you mentioned that. I am no Harmy by any stretch of the imagination (no way I can do rotoscoping) but I do have a few old HDTV Aliens masters that I was going to try and substitute the frames back into the film. That way I can put the hole back in and the scratches on the window.

StarThoughts said:

I hope you settle on doing the TV cut of Aliens, even if it is as a supplement to the theatrical. All the advantages of the longer version without most of the pitfalls.

I believe I'm going to Theatrical first. That's because of some specific reasons. But the TV cut is near and dear to my heart. It was my first exposure to Aliens so I will definitely work on that too. I like that cut so much better then the extended cut since it ditches the Hadley's Hope scenes. Those scenes remove a lot of tension and mystery from the story and changes the narrative focus away from Ripley. Besides they are not needed since you can infer what happened pretty easily. 

Buster D said:

PDB said:

 Thanks Buster D. Its sad no one make quality anymore. Does that only apply to Verbantim's write once or their re-writables also?

 It looks like there's a few reports on Amazon JP of Verbatim BD-REs becoming bad after the 2nd write or after 6 months, for both their 25GB and 50GB BD-REs.  The most recent BD-REs I've personally used are 25GB ones from TDK since they were cheap and had mostly good reviews.  But BD-REs in general are kinda unreliable in the long run, I think.

2 writes is pathetic. I asked because I wanted to try to burn a couple of test discs but sounds like maybe I should bite the bullet and go with a bunch of BD-Rs instead. Thanks again Buster D for the recommendations.

bigrob said:

This is quite possibly the most exciting project i'm fully pumped for. Being such a huge fan of the Alien franchise, I really cannot wait to see the work that went into this and finally hear the 70mm audio in 5.1 :)

Hopefully you will like it. The old 70mm is great, just remember its not the be all, end all for soundtracks (it is 70s era work)

alexpeden2000 said:

Id definitely go for the dvd/HDTV colours for Aliens over the LD. Cameron's films have always had a cold, blue look to them and the LD seems totally different

 I agree up to a certain point and you are right about Cameron and blue but the LD has a lot more blue then the DVD. Especially for the surface of LV-426 and in the atmosphere reactor. Probably too much. My personal preference is the 35mm frames from the trailer. Those look great, just not enough to color grade an entire movie off of. Barring that, I prefer the LD and pull back the saturation and up the brightness to look like the 35mm. The 35mm is nicely saturated and the DVD and BD lack that. They both have super pale caucasian skin tones which I don't believe Aliens had. 

Lil Brutto said:

Sure looks like the 98 DVD now but darker. Did you adjust brightness at all?

Can you post a download link for this vid as well?

Battery acid...piss...same difference. 4K BD is a total fail IMO.

 No mostly color just a little brightness. Sorry Lil Brutto, I deleted the original file after I made the comparison video. I just have the comparison video left.

Frankly, grading it to the 98 DVD is just a matter of those are the colors I remember best. The Mondo and the 93 LD are more orange/yellow without the green of the 4K and are probably more accurate. I'd love to grade it off your IB Tech someday. That would be the best of both worlds. 

Lil Brutto said:

PDB said:

Lil Brutto said:

Thanks for the download link. 

Will you be making your IC available for others to view once completed?

Oh sure. I'll make available to you and people on the OT. Much like you Lil Brutto, its my favorite film and I'd love to watch the version I grew up with again. Once I finish Alien, I will work on it concurrently with Blade Runner (which is a project that will take a while). In testing it seems easy to grade. I would probably grade it to the 98 DVD and tweak it to the 35mm LPP pics that appeared on ebay. I know most would prefer the Mondo but the LPP looked like the old DVD and I like that look. I guess your IB TECH will tell the true tail of how TGTBATU looks.

Thanks!

I'd love to see your version of the IC. You're taking a different approach and I like what I see based on your rough edit. Also, I have no doubt you'll beat me to it. Unfortunately, I don't have the time right now to make meaningful progress with my project. It will likely progress at a snail's pace for the next couple months.

 Cool what approach are you taking? Don't be so sure about me finishing first. You never know, regrading takes a while. Anyway, some last pics and a video before I shut up. I regraded a few minutes as a test:

4K/4K re-graded to the IC DVD

and the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyIH47lxBIo&feature=youtu.be

Man the 4K looks like it was bathed in battery acid.

Lil Brutto said:

Thanks for the download link. 

Will you be making your IC available for others to view once completed?

 Oh sure. I'll make available to you and people on the OT. Much like you Lil Brutto, its my favorite film and I'd love to watch the version I grew up with again. Once I finish Alien, I will work on it concurrently with Blade Runner (which is a project that will take a while). In testing it seems easy to grade. I would probably grade it to the 98 DVD and tweak it to the 35mm LPP pics that appeared on ebay. I know most would prefer the Mondo but the LPP looked like the old DVD and I like that look. I guess your IB TECH will tell the true tail of how TGTBATU looks.

TheHutt said:

Oh! One small point still!

There is yet a small difference between the 4K and the International / Italian version. After the scene where Tuco and Blondie share the bounty for the first time (and talk about cutting Blondie's percentage), there is a cut to the next shot of Tuco with a rope on his neck.

This cut has a "spin" in the International and the Italian version; in the 4K, that's just a straight cut without any effects. Don't know how to describe this more exactly... the picture is kinda rotating during the scene change.

Good point, forgot about that. I'll have to grab that from the Mondo. Funny thing about that flip, I have been looking at it since Chewtobacca posted about it. It is in some video copies but not in others. For example, it is in the 93 LD:

But not in the 98 DVD (and assuming 98 LD).

I'm not sure about the original Extended English Editions (DVD and BD), I have to check but then it appears in the Mondo and then is missing from the MGM 4K. I'm wondering if maybe that doesn't appear on the ONEG. I'm curious to see if its on Lil Brutto's IB print.

Buster D said:

Note that the Verbatim BD-50s sold in Japan are no longer actually made in Japan, they're made in China, and a lot of people have been reporting write errors on them (the top rated reviews are all 1 or 2 stars and mention errors): http://www.amazon.co.jp/product-reviews/B0043SEMMW/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_summary?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=byRankDescending

I personally use That's (Taiyo Yuden) BD-50s: http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B00GJ95LB4/ , which are made in Japan.  Used to use Panasonic ones, but nowadays they're only available in Japan from resellers and not directly from Amazon.

That's BD-25s and BD-REs are pretty good as well, but their cheaper BD-25s are made in Taiwan now.

Amazon JP won't ship these outside Japan, but you can go through a forwarding site like tenso.com or check and see if anyone on eBay has them.

 Thanks Buster D. Its sad no one make quality anymore. Does that only apply to Verbantim's write once or their re-writables also? And thanks for the recommendations, hopefully I can track some of those down.

alexpeden2000 said:

Just out of interest, are you still planning on doing the theatrical cut of Aliens as part of this project?

At this point, Alien and Aliens are two separate projects. Alien will be finished this year and then work on Aliens will continue after that. The problem with Aliens is that I still haven't decide what to grade it against: the Pan and Scan LD, the THX LD, the DVD, the old HDTV master, the 35mm frames I found, etc

I have an idea for the re-grade of Aliens but I don't know if it will work out. It will take time to figure out the technical details. Its coming just might take a little longer.

Here you go Lil Brutto:

Link Removed

I was just goofing around with this since I realized that with recreating the International Cut there are three hard parts: one the Mono soundtrack which TheHutt took care of and second grading the scenes to match, which I'm getting better at since working on Alien. The last is fixing the dissolves and cuts unique to the IC.

I spent my lunch break removing all the scenes from the 4K and splicing in the dissolve to the grotto, the dissolve in the desert and the train station cut from the DVD. I roughly up-scaled those scenes to 1080p. Sadly, those scenes have print damage that the 4K doesn't. So that combined with the lower DVD resolution origins means they will never perfectly match but the re-grade helps. I also removed the ending from the 4K, since the fade to black on the 4K went to the English restoration credits while the music played. I used the DVD for that too since it has "The End" opposed to "Fine" of the Mondo. Basically the only part I could use from the Mondo was removing the Grotto dissolve but at that point might as well use the DVD for everything.

I left in all the minor bits and pieces that TheHutt points out in this thread and his guide:

http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=1622

since some were in the LD and some were in the DVD. Otherwise, its basically the International Cut. Just needs to be graded.

I tossed together this video to show the difference that I'm talking about. This is very rough example (with rough regrade).

1. Desert Scene IC Recreation - 4K (regraded to the DVD)/DVD dissolve/4K(regraded to the DVD)

2. Desert Scene IC Recreation - 4K with 4K dissolve and hard cut to the mission (regraded to the DVD)

3. Train Station IC Recreation - 4K (regraded to the DVD)/DVD dissolve/4K(regraded to the DVD)

4. Train Station IC Recreation - 4K with hard to Tuco on the train (regraded to the DVD)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghEdtmoOtng&feature=youtu.be/

PDB said:

TheHutt said:

- The end of Tuco pistol buying scene is faded to black prior to the Grotto scene in the Extended Edition. The US Theatrical version does not have this fade and cuts directly to the soldiers riding through town. No idea how to fix this one.

 

The Groto fade can be fixed with the Mondo Blu-ray. The Mission fade would have to be fixed with the old International cut DVD.I agree with you Hutt that the extra gun shot with Blondie should be kept since it appeared in earlier media. Looking at your list Hutt do you think the two, small, extra shots at the end of the movie (Blondie looks anxiously to the bridge and chews on his cigarillo/Blondie waits slightly longer for the cannon to fire) should be kept? They look like small shots that where meant to be in the International cut but were lost somewhere along the way. Going to check the early LD to see if they are there.

 For the hell of it I was looking into what was needed to recreate the International Cut. You can't use the IC DVD to fix the grotto dissolve. The DVD is greatly zoomed, in that scene making it useless.

4K remaster BD/Old International Cut DVD

So you are only left with the Mondo to fix that. The dissolve from the desert to mission can't be fixed with the Mondo. It fades to the guardpost, then fades to the mission similar to the 4K. So it is keep the fade out from the desert and cut to the mission or use the DVD to fix the dissolve. I'm leaning to the first rather then use the DVD.

Edit: The Mondo is zoomed too, making the 4K's framimg interesting

4K remaster BD/Old International Cut DVD

Another problem is the cut from the train leaving the station to Tuco on the train (where Blondie and Angel Eyes meet up with AE's crew). Adding to the problem of the dissolve, the music and train whistle are different in all versions. 

Funcha said:

Verbatim media ALL THE WAY. Ebay has good deals on BD-50 in sets of 10 or more, all the way from Japan. I would recommend you max out the bitrate on your encodes.

 Great, thanks for the recommendation Funcha.

Thanks guys. I'm pretty close to the end of the video part (which is the big part).

Can anyone recommend what brand of BD-R and BD-RE I should get? I'm not burning anything at the moment but I would like to run a few tests.

dvdmike said:

And yet the orange flags and LP who always do good work 

 Sorry dvdmike, I don't understand what you are trying to say. What is LP in this case?

But from the 35mm print h_h mentioned:

Yeah, I'm right there with h_h. I thought there was a ton of evidence that members gather that pointed to the release prints of Raiders were golden/yellow tinted. That kind of chemical color timing was popular in the early 80s.

Thanks for the complements, guys. Still a work in progress.

Lee, there are a lot of people more talented then me on the OT. Hopefully I can get somewhere close to their quality. 

I love that poster, kaosjm. I kind of want a copy for myself.

Lee said:

Just out of curiosity, how is this coming along? :)

 Funny you ask, since a few people have inquired lately. I will paraphrase. The regrading is mostly done. I stopped working on everything else and have only focused on this in my limited spare time. What's left is the obsessive last tweaks. Have to fix skin tones here or there. The hyperspace scene needs some work. So I'd say the regrade is about 90-95% done, maybe more. I probably need a second pair of eyes to look it over to make sure I didn't miss something. I had to manually grade a couple thousand shots, sometimes frame by frame so I might have missed something. I also have the three movie soundtracks. They are pretty much in sync. 

The big remaining problem is I need to figure out menus. I would love menus but I can't make them myself (don't know how to) so unless I can teach myself or someone can help I might not have them. I rather no menus then crappy ones. And then maybe a cover....

Here is some work I just finished up and its a good example of why I did this regrade. When you look at this regrade you might not notice a lot of changes unless you have the BD colors memorized. In truth I did hundreds of subtle color changes to achieve parity with the LD.

When the Director's Cut was release they took the Brett/Landing gear scene which always had a golden hue and turned it up to 10. The 1995 LD has a more balanced look and in the first two pics, when Brett is looking around, I removed the excessive gold and added back the blue highlights (there is overhead blue light in the scene).

When the BD rolled around they took the work that was done on the DC and added a green filter to a lot of the movie. That love affair with adding green to movies is becoming far worse then the whole teal and orange craze. Anyway a lot of the grading I have done is to remove that added green, like these last two pics. I then added red back into Brett's face and then blue highlights. Just the way the LD looks.

So if you like these type of changes this is the regrade for you. Hopefully people will like it.

BDgeek said:

Just a correction, I provided the stems to Doombot, but the rip was made by DJ.

 My mistake. Its fixed. Also added:

Movie: Duck You Sucker (AKA Fistful of Dynamite)

Format: Italian BD DTS-HD MA 2.0, Laserdisc ML100872

Input Soundtrack: Italian BD DTS-HD MA 2.0 BD 48khz, PCM 1.0 Mono 44.1 khz, 16-bit, bit perfect 

Output Soundtrack: PCM 1.0 Mono Surround 48 khz, 16-bit 

Synced To: 2013 Italian Blu-ray Release Region B

Ripped/Synced by: nirbateman

Notes: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Duck-You-Sucker-1971-Fixing-the-mono-mix-V15-Finished/topic/16905