emanswfan

As usual I’m refining my color grade more and more. I’m just still not achieving the look I want. Originally I wanted to put my own spin on the colors and change things such as lightsabers or time of day. I will eventually be doing a version with changes like that, but as I’ve said before for now I feel satisfied coming out with a version that does a faithful film emulation but at the same time keeps much of the original color timing.

In terms of film emulation, early on I’ve always wanted to emulate older film stocks such as the ones used to shoot the original trilogy or maybe even older film stocks to make it appear as if the films were produced before the original trilogy. I did have some good tests with that that I’d posted years ago but often my methods only worked for very specific shots and it was hard to figure out a technique that works more broadly across the film. With that in mind, I decided to focus on making the prequel films look more like the sequel trilogy which are shot on modern film stocks. That clip that I’d posted was my latest results at doing that. And while it is a more appealing look to the film, it still isn’t something that I originally envisioned for the project.

One of the looks of films that I really like is films shot on film stock with little to no digital color grading changes. Rian Johnson’s Brick comes to mind (shot on Kodak Vision 500T 5279 and Vision 800T 5289, and finished on film aka no digital intermediate), or even this music video: https://vimeo.com/299219173 (it was shot on 16mm variants of the film stocks used to shoot TFA and TLJ). That look that just screams film is exactly what I’d like for this project.

I’d like to recreate the look of older film stocks but if that’s too hard I’ll satisfy for a better film emulation of the modern stocks.

And even if I get the colors right, there’s a certain motion, texture, and artifacts for something truly shot or finished on film. So I wanna work on that.

Anyhow, that’s my latest thoughts on the project, I’m glad people liked the clip I posted, and I apologize for how poor the compression is on it, a final render will be not only at a higher bitrate and HEVC but not using the built-in Adobe encoder which honestly sucks. I should really post some PNG’s or TIFF’s of shots from my work so you can see all the detail I’ve been working to recover in the 4K upscale.

I also think I really need to save up for a new PC. My old PC broke and while I’m working to get it fixed, it never really had the power to handle 4K. Currently I’m doing everything on my mid-2015 15 inch Macbook Pro, which isn’t ideal, although it definitely packs a punch in terms of rendering power for the size. Plus, I’m so busy in school and work these days that I can’t sacrifice my macbook to do days long renders. I don’t even wanna think about how long the final render is going to be.

This project is close to my heart, and I’m always thinking about it and trying new things with it. It’s been a long journey, but I promise that the results will be worth it. When I started this project, I was only 4 years into video editing, and I’ve gained so much experience since then.

I’m so happy the OT is getting the treatment it deserves with all the preservations coming out. Even though the PT is vastly inferior, I feel it’s important to help make the best versions possible and I know there are people that still appreciate what George tried to do.

My boy Hondo!

To see any of the TCW/Rebels characters come alive really makes me happy.

I’m definitely all for a more definitive death for Boba Fett. I always thought his ending was lackluster.

The Last Jedi was also the best selling bluray of 2018. I think people who didn’t like the film were just very vocal.

The Last Jedi is my least favorite Rian Johnson film, but I still enjoyed it for what it was. I haven’t watched it in a while, so I would definitely need to see it again to see what I really think. I’d definitely love to check out an extended cut if some faneditor has made one. Or I guess I could always make my own, if no one else will.

So apparently the first film of this new trilogy has begun pre-production:

https://www.fanthatracks.com/news/film-music-tv/star-wars-tv-production-begins-in-the-u-k/

“Registered on the exact same day was E&E INDUSTRIES (UK) LIMITED which we understand will be the first film from the planned Rian Johnson trilogy. It should be noted that for convenience Disney register businesses in blocks, and the creation of these businesses does not mean they started production at those dates, merely that they intend to enter production soon. This can of course mean very early design development, and does not necessarily mean they will see final production, as seen recently with PLT Productions (the Kenobi movie.)”

So from the latest MakingStarWars podcast:

• Jason heard about Obi-Wan’s show about three months ago, but then he got a signal that it wasn’t greenlit at that time so he didn’t make an article. He doesn’t know if it’s greenlit now.

• He heard it’s 6 episodes as previously said in SWNN’s report.

• Jason also seconds that Ewan McGregor was on Solo’s premiere because they indeed wanted to announce Obi-movie after some time.

• The series’ script is based on the events from the movie’s script.

Also the show has begun pre-production:

https://www.fanthatracks.com/news/film-music-tv/star-wars-tv-production-begins-in-the-u-k/

“Tonight we can reveal that the third as yet unannounced Star Wars TV series will be shot in the UK under the production name of SERIES III PRODUCTIONS (UK) LIMITED which was registered on the public UK companies register on the 12th October 2018. We anticipate that the focal point of the series will be revealed at Star Wars Celebration in April. It should be noted that for convenience Disney register businesses in blocks, and the creation of these businesses does not mean they started production at those dates, merely that they intend to enter production soon. This can of course mean very early design development, and does not necessarily mean they will see final production, as seen recently with PLT Productions (the Kenobi movie.)”

So apparently this might be turned into a Disney+ limited tv series instead:
https://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/2019/02/report-obi-wan-kenobi-series-to-be-made-for-disney-streaming-service.html

Probably good to be wary of the rumor as there are a lot of rumors around SW tv shows right now.

I would be open for it, as I always saw the idea of an Obi-Wan movie to be something much more character focused and not some big epic, and TV series would be perfect for that.

I am still so saddened that we won’t get Solo sequels, as I really thought it had the potential to be like the new Indiana Jones for Lucasfilm.

I was so disappointed with the new Mary Poppins too, and that’s the film to blame for forcing Solo into that crowded May release date.

I sincerely hope that maybe Disney+ will carry on the story.

Personally, I wish they could just do the stories they want to do regardless of box office success. So many great movies over the years of cinema bombed at the box office. Plus they made more than enough from TFA, RO, and TLJ that they could afford to take the hit with Solo.

Honestly I’m more excited for this than Episode IX, as I’ve been enjoying the non-main saga stuff more. Bring this on!

All I want is two versions:

The true original version with no re-compositing and original color timing

A brand new SE from the ground-up using VFX techniques similar to Rogue One and a more modern color timing.

Simply, sometimes I want to watch the movie exactly as it was made with all the imperfections intact because damn some of those optical composites were crazy hard to do back then, especially the space battle in ROTJ.

Other-times, I wanna be fully invested in the story and I don’t wanna be distracted by poor VFX and errors.

But somehow I think we’ll get neither of those versions, and will just get something as shitty as any of the releases starting in 97 and since then.

vexedmedia said:

I’d suggest going for a Kodak 5247 film stock emulation. The current grade seems very sloppy and over-saturated

Well considering how little time I spent on the grade, I’m not surprised to hear such a reaction. I went for a mix of Kodak 5245 (what TPM was shot on) and a highly saturated look. I’ve tried in the past to make older looking film emulations such as 5247 even using scenes shot on digital and the same scene shot on 5247 and I can’t seem to make a consistent emulation. An ideal film emulation grade should be able to create a consistent recreation no matter the shot rather than having to tweak the grade for each individual shot. Emulating modern stocks is a lot easier, but I definitely want to go for an older look like 60’s or 70’s film stock such as 5247, so I’ll keep trying to work on that and do more research.

My hunt for proper old film stock emulation is why my PT project still hasn’t come out yet. The upcoming ROTS release is based on the modern film stocks TFA and TLJ were shot on rather than the recreating a film stock used on the OT, and honestly I only feel like releasing it to satisfy people’s hunger for a better looking PT and not because it’s something I’m satisfied with.

In terms of the saturation levels, I’m still playing around with that. I think the film’s more fun atmosphere would lend itself to that visual style, but maybe I will settle for something more balanced.

Jackpumpkinhead said:

Getting an error with that key

Okay, I don’t know why it did that, I instead included the full unprotected link this time.

Here’s the first preview clip: https://mega.nz/#!7PpDgaZC!rzzdz1VmvjNpOUATAqd_6XzQ7gWng37Hdl3hN--lus0

Got a clip rendering right now, that’ll I post tomorrow! I haven’t perfected converting the HDR10 to Rec709 yet as the highlights are still clipping a bit, but I’ll work to improve that in the next itteration.

Basically all I did in this go was do the color space conversion, raise the saturation, and apply one of my filmized LUT’s from my PT project. I still think it looks pretty good for a first attempt.

JEDIT: I revised the color space conversion so the highlights don’t clip anymore although they maybe could be a tad brighter.

I’m ripping the 4K Blu-ray as I post this, and will start color grading tomorrow. I was originally just going to work from the standard Blu-ray, but I’ve found for certain sections there just isn’t enough color data to work with in the non-HDR 8 bit source so I need the higher quality HDR 10 bit source. Of course this means I will be able to release a native 4K version as well, although I still don’t have the necessary monitoring equipment for accurate HDR color grading so it’ll just have to be SDR releases for now.

As soon as I can, I’ll post a preview clip on MEGA. I haven’t been this excited to work on a fan project since I started on the prequels, which yes I will still be releasing ROTS soon if anyone’s wondering.

I would definitely love to put in burnt-in subtitles that are the style of the unaltered OT as that would be fitting for the goal of this project.

I’ll see about posting preliminary screencaps soon!

M_H_Frank said:

Hi,
Can you post the link of the first preview of rots?

It’s on the previous page as a MEGA download.

Following the first release of my regraded ROTS, I’m looking to start work on a regrade of Solo.

Of the new Disney era SW films, I’ve been very happy with the unique cinematography each one has had and the color grades that accompanied them. But while I do like the style Solo’s look is, I just don’t think it fits the tone of the movie so well.

My plans is to make this a mix of the vividness of recent films like Mad Max Fury Road and Guardians of the Galaxy while keeping the colors and feel to that of the original trilogy and Indiana Jones movies.

I was inspired to make this after watching a recent regrade of Solo which was shared over at the fanedit forums and showed me just how different the film could be with a drastic grading change.

I’m excited to start work on this because honestly at least this film is a lot more palatable to watch than the prequels.

Just thought I’d get this going now and if any of you have any thoughts or suggestions I’m totally open.

The single pass color grade of ROTS is in the final tweaks. So I’ll render out one 4K hevc mkv at a bitrate similar to that of 4K Blu-rays.

I’m pretty busy these days and my desktop setup is no longer functional so I just have my laptop to work off of so I need to be able to just set aside the time where I can let it take however many days it needs to render.

Before I do the final render, I’ll try and post some comparisons or another preview clip with the new refinements.

Wizard of Oz 3D was my favorite 3D experience, as the 3D was so detailed and the long takes allowed you to absorb the 3D in.

I’d love to see the original trilogy in 3D but only if it’s a good conversion. TPM and the Disney era films’ conversions very much disappointed me.

Yeah fingers crossed he’s practical considering it’s probably cheaper to CG out the puppeteer rather than make him entirely CG ala K2. Or maybe they could do a hybrid of the two like for L3. Likely it will vary shot to shot depending on what he’s doing. I’d like to see him get more action in live action form.

I love how these new scans of the OUT are being used to restore original shots, it looks so much clearer than using GOUT sources.

ChainsawAsh said:

No, all the reference sources (namely the various film prints obtained by Mike Verta, Poita, and Team Negative 1) that have come to light since ANH:R was made have proven pretty conclusively that both of those things were intentional. They were over-exaggerated by the shoddy BR color grade, so early color grades like Adywan’s overcompensated.

Although I think Adywan did say that he made the Death Star’s walls more of a stark gray as an artistic choice even though he was aware of the intentional blue tint, it seems like he’s changed his mind on that in the years since.

Alright, thanks for making that clear. I’m not as familiar with the proper original theatrical colors for the OT as I probably should be.

I really like the skin tones in the new regrade a lot better, and there’s definitely more refinement in the new grade. That said I’m wondering what’s with the differences in color timing for the binary sunset, the death star interior, and the rebel base interior? In the binary sunset it seems to be more uniform in color, and both the death star interior and rebel base interior have the weird blue tint to the shadows, which I thought was part of the bluray and dvd’s color issues.

I plan on releasing both 1080p and 4K versions.

I pretty much have very little more work to be done on version 1 of ROTS. I still need to check certain scenes and make some more tweaks.

There’s a lot more things I want to do with this project, which is why I’m planning to release multiple versions over time similar to what Harmy does with despecialized.

First versions will be single pass grades of each of the films, as well as the deleted scenes, hd and upscaled ones.

Later versions will introduce better upscaling and decompression restoration techniques, new “filmizing” techniques, shot by shot color grading and actual changes to the color direction of the films. I also plan on starting HDR10 grades on all the films once I have the proper calibrated equipment.

I also have planned to release higher quality restored versions of all the deleted scenes that have finished or near finished vfx.

Currently I’m on a bit of hold as I’m taking new classes and picked up a new job with more hours. Sundays are pretty much my only free day especially going into the holidays. But rest assured I’ll be back on it as soon as I can be. As much as I love this project, life still has to be priority #1.

When I started this project, I was on Windows and currently now I’m on mac. I plan on returning to a Windows based environment to work once I build a new computer system for myself as a lot of the restoration software I plan on using in later versions is windows-only.

I can render out version 1 of ROTS in January, so look forward to that!

JEDIT: One quick thing also! I will say I’ve had more motivation and drive to work on this project ever since Adywan’s revisited PT was cancelled. I’m a huge fan of his work on the OT, and while don’t think I can ever live up to his work I feel like I have to be the one now to give some of the necessary work to help make the prequels better, at least from a visual standpoint. I hope these releases can be both superior viewing options for the fans of these films and resources to fan editors that are not satisfied with the prequels.