Re-creating the film grain look isn’t that difficult, it’s the color matching that I’ve found to be really tough because each scene (and sometimes each shot within a scene) requires a different color grade. The release of the Fellowship extended 35mm rendered this moot but I’ll probably try and create a ROTK extended hybrid now.
Ok, I think I’m getting around it all. It appears that FOTR and TTT both suffer from varying color and exposure shifts over their different reels.
ROTK is much more uniform, I’m thinking the print was just in better condition overall.I’m in the process of correcting them the best I can in Resolve. Really broad brushes here, nothing too clinical, mostly just fiddling with the green/magenta balance and I’m only applying grades to whole reels, not on a scene to scene basis.
It’s funny going over those movies like that, one really realizes how funky they went with the grading! You correct one scene that seems too green and then the next one is way too magenta! It’s a fine line to navigate, I even purchased some original 35mm cells from ebay to project them as slides and have a reference, but those were shifted as well. And one can hardly use the home video masters as a reference, the grading is just so different in many places, plus the prints have a lot more contrast, which really emphasizes the grading shifts.Anyway, here’s where I’am at the moment on FOTR. It’s hard to shoot for 100% accuracy without a proper reference point, so I’m mostly trying to make it feel right, tell me what you think: https://imgur.com/a/hOzQV5K
Awesome! Will you be releasing your grade of the 35mm? Are you working on the extended or theatrical 35mm?
Question - Has FOTR Extended 35mm been released? I see that in the title but haven’t heard anything else about it…
No one? 😃
I’ve taken Elendil’s awesome FELLOWSHIP 35mm scan and used a bluray rip (colored by someone on MySpleen?) to create an extended edition using the 35mm as the basis. The edit is complete, but obviously the difference between the 35mm scan and the bluray clips are quite noticeable. Some are easy to match, most aren’t - at least for me. Anyone interested in taking my Premiere project and coloring this?
Let me know!
That would be awesome!
I’ve just been running it within a Windows VM.
Thank you for the tip! Any particular VM suggestions?
Hmm. Tried installing the MAC version from the link Dr Dre provided above (thank you again!) but the installer won’t even run on my Big Sur iMac and gives me an error when installing on my High Sierra MBP. It tells me “…Contents/Resources/Bundle.zip does not exist”. Any advice from Mac users?
Here you go everybody:
Dr Dre’s color Matching tool v1.2 (latest version) for 64 bit Windows*:
https://ln.sync.com/dl/e51125f10/njry8grb-juw5i7vz-ttrapwci-cb4cxh9j (385 MB)
Dr Dre’s color Matching tool v1.2 (latest version) for 64 bit OSX:
https://ln.sync.com/dl/89689baa0/6c22akdh-3ct3f4wr-mwmscjkw-5q7xg6hb (10 MB)**
* If you have a 64 bit version of Windows AND you have more than 4 GB of RAM AND you need to color match two giant images (4k or 8k with 16-bit color, or 2 giant 8K size montages of images, then it would be worth uninstalling the 32-bit version and downloading and installing the 64-bit version. I don’t think you will find it is any faster under “normal use” situations.
** Why is the mac version so much smaller? Simple really: in 2014, Matlab enhanced it’s package builder with some new features, one of which is an option to download the runtime package from the internet during install. The windows version was compiled with the 2012 compiler, which doesn’t have this option (or the option to change the icon and splash screen).
Enjoy!
If you have any issues with the new versions, let us know.
Here are the links with a big thanks to Williarob!
Thank you, sir!
Would someone please kindly send me a download link to the MAC version of Dr. Dre’s coloring tool? It seems the previously posted links are expired. Thank you in advance!
There’s a 35mm scan of Blade Runner out there?!
So I think I’ll be able to stitch in the extended bits well enough but coloring the extended footage to match the 35mm is beyond my skillset. Gave it a try but can’t get it to match. If anyone wants to try and collab let me know!
Re: your last point I remember seeing Jurassic Park at an IMAX back in the 90s and it looked terrible because they were taking a regular print that was definitely not meant to be blown up that big and doing so.
That shouldn’t happen during the original run, sounds like they somehow ended up with a multiplex print.
Problem has always been the cost-cutting bean counting tight-ass distributors. If they can save a buck surrendering QC on multiplex theatrical prints they do. The optical enlargement uses Japanese made printing nikkors optics (look them up, and how much they cost - used let alone how much they were brand new back in the 70’s), so you can absolutely go to 65mm/70mm or as is the case with Terminator II Super35 to Scope while the film stays razor-sharp, it’s just a matter of how the final prints are made and the budget. The HQ 35mm ones are called show prints and are designed for special shows or theatres with very large screens.
You’re absolutely right though about the large screens. An average print can look better in a smaller auditorium, but it the places that don’t do any masking will ruin the experience with window-boxing or letter-boxing on the screen and sadly most multiplexes are like that now. They must not understand how it ruins the experience!
This particular IMAX literally just stretched a standard theatrical print to fit the screen. So the aspect ratio was ruined and everything. It was terrible haha. Remember this is back when the only material that was available native to IMAX was nature documentaries essentially.
I’m not a fan of these films but I’ll clear up a couple of things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn21u6j6Ywc
It’s shot on 35mm, so it’s absolutely 4K+ if you’re scanning the oneg. 2K film-out is 2048x1556 and that was the standard since Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park. Before that I believe all CGI had not been attempted to be printed full-frame, that is to say that Abyss and anything older had CGI printed that was then optically matted into the negative.
The first film from the video above does not have a DI, that means it’s photochemical and therefore yes it’s higher than 1080p. The final release prints are probably in the range of 1.5-2K and remember that 2K means 2048x1556 NOT consumer 2K at 1920x1080/2048x1152. The second and third film had DIs, that means 2048x1556. It doesn’t matter what resolution the CGI was rendered in - the CGI can be rendered at 1.5K, 1080p, 720p, whatever. The CGI is simply being added to the 35mm background which would have been scanned at 2K (2048x1556) and the DI will be 2K. Some further information is here:
https://thedigitalbits.com/item/lord-of-the-rings-trilogy-2020-4k-uhd
The Fellowship of the Ring was shot photochemically on 35mm film in Super 35 format using a variety of Arriflex, Arricam, Mitchell, and Moviecam cameras with Zeiss Ultra Prime and Angenieux Optimo lenses. Only about 70% of the film was finished as a Digital Intermediate at the time, as the process was then new and still evolving (the other 30% was finished traditionally on film). For this new Ultra HD remaster, Park Road Post (a New Zealand post facility owned by WingNut Films) went back and scanned the original camera negative in 4K, then scanned the VFX film-out elements (for VFX shots that were finished on film) in 4K, and upsampled the VFX shots that were finished digitally (in 2K resolution) to create a brand new 4K Digital Intermediate at the proper 2.39:1 aspect ratio.
That’s describing the type of CGI in Abyss and older films: VFX that is rendered and then optically matted into the film. Also it doesn’t matter how much was DI and how much wasn’t, the VFX doesn’t set the resolution the background frame does.
The resolution of the final prints will vary. Terminator 2 projected off an original 35mm which I have seen on a huge 70ft+ screen (I’d have to do some digging to find the exact size, but it’s at the size where the difference between 35mm and 70mm is very obvious even with the sharpest of 35mm) and it is clearly 1.5K or lower true resolution perhaps as low as 1K. Most 70mm makes 4K look like low resolution. So as with anything with prints, it’s a matter of YMMMV depending on where it was printed, whether the cinema had a large screen and demanded they print it to a higher standard than a multiplex cinema which was the standard at the time (and sadly still is). So for example it’s possible to print your standard quality for multiplexes and then do some at show-print quality for the Theatres that still had large screens.
Re: your last point I remember seeing Jurassic Park at an IMAX back in the 90s and it looked terrible because they were taking a regular print that was definitely not meant to be blown up that big and doing so.
If only the extended cuts film prints were out there. 😦
I’m tempted to try and edit together an extended using these 35mm scans as the core. A friend has a really great program that processes natural looking film grain onto digital sources. Might try a test and see how well I can match it up. If I can find the time!
Is it possible for you to do it in 4k with hdr or Dolby vision?
If I’m able to do it it would just be in 1080.
If only the extended cuts film prints were out there. 😦
I’m tempted to try and edit together an extended using these 35mm scans as the core. A friend has a really great program that processes natural looking film grain onto digital sources. Might try a test and see how well I can match it up. If I can find the time!
FOTR, ROTK released (pm)
No date for TTT
Thank you, sir!
Let’s go!!!
Would anyone be willing to share? Fellowship is easily my fav. I only have access to the bodily organ site and I’ve never seen it there. Thank you in advance to any kind souls!
Hey everyone. Read online that there’s LOTR 35mm scans out there? Not on the spleen it seems but would anyone with a copy be willing to PM and share? Thanks in advance!
A donor only preview encode/early release is now available for all donors. If you donated to this project, and I haven’t sent you a download link yet, please message me.
Hey please do you still have any codes? I was waiting for so long but I forgot to check the updates… I will gladly donate 😃
I will also gladly donate to the cause! My donation can be used for TITANIC or any other preservation as they’re all worthy! I sent you a PM as well RU.08. If you have time, I would love to hear back, donate and hopefully get a chance to view the current encode with the wife 😃 Thank you again for all the work you and your group do. Legendary stuff!
Will no one save Thanksgiving by sending a download link? What’s Thanksgiving without Aladdin and Jasmine and Genie and Iago???
I would love this! Does anyone have a Blutopia invite they could send me. 😃
Check your PM’s.
Any way I could get a Blutopia invite too? I would be most grateful!
Download link sent to a bunch of people, if I’ve missed anyone let me know.
I would love a download link, please! Thank you in advance for your kindness 😃