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RU.08

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Join date
5-May-2011
Last activity
21-Jun-2025
Posts
1,367

Post History

Post
#1281114
Topic
Alien 1979 - 35mm scan opportunity (a WIP)
Time

We’re not “trying” to replace official releases, comparing to official releases is a fool’s errand.

T2 doesn’t look that great on 35mm to be honest, it’s one of the softest lowest resolution films I’ve seen no doubt due to the Super35 blow-up process. But there’s no point in saying you want to see it scanned, someone has to come up with the money to purchase or hire a print and to pay for the scanning, without that you’re just complaining about the home release which while it’s not the greatest, it isn’t the worst either. And any potential T2 scan has nothing to do with my projects anyway, I’d much rather scan T1 than T2 and there are many other films I’d rather scan than that (my primary focus remains on Disney animation films of course).

It’s a pity that Tiddy couldn’t keep it civil. There’s no reason to be at each other’s throats over this kind of thing…

Post
#1280988
Topic
Alien 1979 - 35mm scan opportunity (a WIP)
Time

Well for the theatrical experience anyway. The “detail” in prints is 1-2K not anywhere near 4K (although they have much richer dynamic range than digital) and most prints have little shadow/highlight detail, the exception being dye-transfer prints that retain the same detail level into the shadows/highlights. Blurays and 2K/4K restorations are often sharpened way beyond the sharpness of prints as well. This is not a limitation of prints - films like Alien were shot in anamorphic and transferred using contact-printing so there is little to no loss of sharpness between the negative and the final prints.

Post
#1280970
Topic
Alien 1979 - 35mm scan opportunity (a WIP)
Time

TiddySprinklesPimpBillion said:

You better not use noise reduction. Film grain is great. Do not colormatch to any release as you’ve mentioned except other film prints. Pointless to try to match with the extremely outdated Laserdiscs and taking it a step up with what you’re doing.

I think you’re misunderstanding quite a lot about film scanning. I’ve seen both scans we have so far, from two different prints scanned on two different machines, and both of them have quite a bit of scanner noise in them. I’m getting one reel re-scanned professionally on equipment that is virtually noise-free, once we have that we’ll know exactly how much to reduce the noise by.

As for colour grading, it’s a lot more involved then that. We have a few minutes from a (virtually) un-faded print, but both of the prints we scanned were red. The un-faded scan, even though it isn’t much, is our reference for the rest of the film and we have a pretty good idea about how the film should look.

Post
#1280931
Topic
Alien 1979 - 35mm scan opportunity (a WIP)
Time

SilverWook said:

Then you should have no problem ignoring the thread.

I don’t mind his comment, print-based preservations aren’t to everyone’s taste.

TiddySprinklesPimpBillion said:

This doesn’t need to happen, especially with the 4K UHD release.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Alien-4K-Blu-ray/230308/
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0&d1=5205&d2=13061&s1=48549&s2=130852&i=2&l=1

The preservation won’t match the quality of the Bluray (let alone the UHD) but it will preserve the theatrical version of the film.

Post
#1279394
Topic
Spider-Man World-Trade-Center 35mm Teaser Trailer (Released)
Time

Talkytinadoll said:

I HAVE THE MASTERS.
To my knowledge, we destroyed the 35mm masters at Sony…

But I am the only person with the actual DigiBeta masters.

We were told to dispose of anything with the twin towers but my boss told me to just get rid of them but not nuke ‘em, which I normally would’ve done,
and he said get them out of here, as in Sony, so they ‘went away’ to the cornfield.😉

Can you encode and upload them please (ideally at full resolution DNxHR or Prores)? Unfortunately trailers are grossly overlooked by studios, can you believe before I uploaded the Matrix’s trailer:

https://valeyard.net/2017/04/the-matrix-trailer-in-hd-for-the-first-time.php
https://vimeo.com/212361397

That it didn’t exist anywhere in HD?

Post
#1276195
Topic
The Phantom Menace on 35mm (* unfinished project *)
Time

The original project is dead, I will update the OP to make that clear but without removing the original text since I feel it’s important that we are accountable, we did take donations and on this project we couldn’t deliver.

If anyone wants to complain, I take full responsibility for this so PM me any grievances.

Post
#1274924
Topic
The Phantom Menace on 35mm (* unfinished project *)
Time

STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE 35MM

HELP REQUIRED!

This movie has been a poison chalice, quite literally unfortunately. However we currently have a very promising opportunity.

THE PRINT

The print is on eBay and is listed as very good condition. The seller is reputable.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/P2197-STAR-WARS-EPISODE-1-PHANTOM-MENACE-1999-35mm-motion-picture-FEATURE/264242471091?hash=item3d861420b3:g:FWAAAOSw57ZcjZWg

Auction ends in TWO DAYS.

Currently the bid is at $514. We need at least $700 in pledges to make a bid.

DONATIONS

Donations for this project go to a third party who is doing the ebay bidding, not to myself of poita, PM me for details.

Target: $700+

Current total of pledges: $400

SCANNING

I have a sponsor for scanning. If purchased, the print will be scanned on professional equipment and our generous sponsor will pay for it.

IMAGES

As time is short I’ve sent out a few messages to people who donated the first time around, please don’t think I’m spamming you. 😉 It’s partly to make sure that people who might be interested know where to send the money before they assume to send it to me or poit.

THANKS EVERYONE!

Post
#1274466
Topic
The Phantom Menace on 35mm (* unfinished project *)
Time

If you’re interested shoot me a private conversation. I have arranged someone to do the ebay bidding, this is someone who knows the scanner already, however we do need to raise the full cost in donations to be able to bid.

I have recorded Mway1’s pledge, with thanks.

It’ll be scanned in better quality than the trailer, our sponsor is letting us use a professional scanner, but we can’t say too much on the open forum about how it will be scanned.

Post
#1274339
Topic
The Phantom Menace on 35mm (* unfinished project *)
Time

Hi guys,

I’m looking in to getting something organised for this. I have sponsorship for the scanning that will cover the full cost of scanning, but I can’t pay for this item right now. We need to organise one bidder, I’m doing that now, and then any donations would go to him/her.

SO, long story short, if there is interest in this film please speak up now and say how much you would like to donate. PM me if you need to or you want to be anonymous. We probably need at least $700 so keep that in mind.

The ebay seller is a trusted seller who we know, if he says the print is “very good” then the print will be very good.

Post
#1270450
Topic
The Phantom Menace - upscale to UHD (Released)
Time

Here’s an example of what I mean by filtering out the low frequency. First an “upscale” to HD:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/130534

I’ve taken a single screenshot, cropped it to 1920x816, then resized that to 1440x816 (the native resolution it was filmed in), sharpened it and then used waifu2x-caffe to upscale (with denoise set to maximum), and and finally downsized the result to 1920x816. The result is a modest improvement in the overall sharpness of the image, and a significant reduction in the camera noise, but at the expense of bringing the background elements into focus.

Now look what happens when I do the same thing, except this time I filter out low frequency noise first:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/130537

Notice much of the same detail that is lost in spoRv’s upscale is also lost in mine.

Post
#1270217
Topic
The Phantom Menace - upscale to UHD (Released)
Time

Turisu said:

Holy crap, that’s an upscale?! 😮

Where is the extra detail coming from like in the embroidered patterns on Padme’s robe?

I don’t think the upscale looks good at all. The method used is basically throwing away low frequency detail, filtering medium frequency, and then sharpening high and medium frequency detail. For photos the results can be acceptable - if you mask out the background, and/or apply a fresh bokeh blur to the background. But to get a good photographic result you’d need to also mask other elements like Padme’s robe which has become plastic looking due to the loss of medium and low frequency detail, and filter it a lot less than the filtering to other high-detail areas. All that will only make you a super-high resolution photo, it won’t make a video that looks any good. The processing power to make a video, not to mention the manual labour involved in creating masks for depth of field etc, would be huge.