remsouille

Okay, I think I did my best for the time being, here are some snaps, let me know what you think:

FOTR: https://imgur.com/a/mJtrZEx
TTT: https://imgur.com/a/o3kVNOd
ROTK: https://imgur.com/a/IL1cl2O

Like I previously mentioned, I only applied grades to whole reels, not on a scene to scene or shot to shot basis. Some reels were pretty hard to match, especially in ROTK, but I think I did pretty good in most cases.
I don’t have a mega account, but if anyone would want to upload these on theirs, I’ld be happy to transfer them via resilio!
Should I maybe start a new thread?

Quick update folks, I’ve been busy with other things, but I’m back at trying to grade those the best I can, I think FOTR and TTT are pretty good where they are, there’s one reel in ROTK that’s still giving me a bit of a headache, but the project is not dead. Due to popular demand, I may tackle FOTR EE when I’m done with those…

felpotomous said:

remsouille said:

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?

I’m working on the theatrical! Not too interested in the extended versions to be honest, I’ve watched them almost exclusively for the last 20 years, only to realize that my decreasing love for this trilogy was solely due to the extended sequences. Like it’s been said before, for a couple of nice bits, I think you get a lot of stuff that’s just plain bad and undermine the movies a great deal (the pirate scene, the stew scene, the whole army of the dead business,…) The theatricals are just better movies overall IMO, and so says the director!
I would really love to be able to do a release but I’m not sure I have the means of actually sharing the files with the world, so maybe someone can chime in and offer a solution…

I’ve said it before, but I can’t state enough how much these scans are by far the best way to experience these movies! Everything is just so seamless, it’s crazy how much the grain holds it all together! After spending many hours on this grade the last couple of weeks, I put the 4K remaster on my projector last night, and honestly, it is just painful to watch. It really does feel like watching a bad videogame at times.

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

brad86 said:

fmalover said:

Wraths said:

elendil42 said:

Read the thread to find out how to download, do not pm me.

You should already own a copy of these films on official home media.

Do 35mm prints exist for the Return of the King Extended Edition?

No, which is a real shame as this means the EE LOTR trilogy in 35mm will forever remain incomplete.

Theatricals are superior, anyway. Not just in terms of the movies themselves, but also the prints. I have seen both the theatrical and extended versions in the cinema, and the extended has the same disgusting colour grading as all home releases.

Damn right! With EEs, for the sake of a couple of tasty lore thingies you get a lot of scenes that undermine the movies big time!

I would really like to know how the prints were scanned and encoded from the people who did it! I’ve been fiddling with them in Resolve for a week now, and even though I can get the colors pretty much right by applying broad grading to the whole files, something tells me that there is just something weird with the way the files were delivered that makes them look funny in the first place! Any info, good people?

I’m really wondering what software these files are supposed to be watched on! I usually monitor HDR files with IINA with great success, but those don’t look right in there, way too much contrast and low saturation. With VLC they look better but they shift a bit towards green and the reds have a massive shift towards magenta. I’ve managed to make them look right on my 4K projector for my marathon but I’d really love to have play-ready files for the future. I’ve tried opening them in Resolve to correct the shifts but it looks different in there as well… Any input form the guys who made the files in the first place?

I’ve downloaded all 3 scans, and I must say, this is the way I’ve always wanted to watch these movies, ever since I first saw them in the theater!
With every new home video edition, some problems get solved and some others appear. The DNR on the blurays is so distracting, everything appears so pasty. The DNR on the 4K versions is sometimes better (face shots without effects are usually incredible detailed) but some other times absolutely terrible (Edoras, Caradhras,…). And most importantly, the absence of grain makes the compositing look soooo bad. That wide shot of Rivendell in FOTR right after Frodo says “I’m ready to go home” just looks so badly composited, nothing feels “together”… How can they not see that it’s the film grain that actually holds it all together in helping blend all these layers? The vfx never looked better than on those 35mm prints, sure they are grainy, but everything feels so real! That full cgi shot of the fellowship going down the stairs of Moria is so fake in commercial versions, whereas here, you almost can’t tell it’s fake at all!

One remark though: the colors are a bit better on TTT and ROTK. On FOTR, the reds are a bit much in some scenes and most others scenes are more on the greenish sides, so it’s not a global thing. Is it because the print was in less good condition than the others? Or is it because ROTK and TTT benefited from a better scan? Or is it just because of the way the first movie was photomechanically timed?

Anyway, amazing work! Thank you everyone who made that happening, I’m doing a marathon with these next weekend!

This looks perfect! Bravo! Can I get PM links to all three movies please?