Well, folks, I’m already working on a V2 for TTT. Man, that is one weird ass looking movie. Most of it looks fine, but there are still many scenes that look very weird to me… I’ll keep you all posted!
Hi all,
All three movies are done! Lots of screencaps below!
Although I graded this in an HDR friendly environment, I can’t render HDR files with the free version of Resolve so I rendered them in SDR REC 709. I could share my project with someone who has HDR capabilities if they want to render a HDR version!
Also, I’m leaving it to someone else to create torrent files and share them if they want to!
My work is done (for now 😃 ).
It seems like ffmpeg doesn’t like the MKV as input, had the same VFR issue when remuxing to MP4. I had to extract the videostream from the source MKV first with mkvtoolnix and gMKVExtractGui:
https://www.videohelp.com/software/MKVToolNix
https://www.videohelp.com/software/gMKVExtractGUIOpen gMKVExtractGUI, set the mkvtoolnix path, select the video stream and hit extract, which gives you a file called “LOTR FOTR HDR 23_98fps_track1_[eng].hevc”
You can then use MP4Box (part of GPAC Tools: https://www.videohelp.com/software/MP4Box ) with this command to remux the HEVC file into a new MP4 container, keeping the constant 23.976fps:
MP4Box -add "LOTR FOTR HDR 23_98fps_track1_[eng].hevc" -new "LOTR FOTR HDR 23_98fps.mp4"ffmpeg also worked after extracting the videostream (with warnings though):
ffmpeg -i "LOTR FOTR HDR 23_98fps_track1_[eng].hevc" -c copy "LOTR FOTR HDR 23_98fps.mp4"
I’m on osx, so unfortunately I can’t use MKVextractgui…
Ok, it seems the original MKV files had their frame rate made variable when I converted them to MP4 (so I could use them in resolve). I can’t remember what I used for this back then, but I tried again with Shutter Encoder, and the same thing happens.
Could some one convert these MKVs to MP4 for me and make sure that the frame rate stays constant and then send them over?
The same thing happens in TTT
Yeah… The source clip is 23,976fps and resolve wants it to be 24fps. Telling him it’s not won’t change anything. It seems I have to convert the original file to prores… which is going to take a huge amount of storage…
I think there is some stutter, at least in FOTR which I have noticed. Some examples are at
00:01:44
00:02:26
00:03:07
00:03:49It seems like it happens about every 40 seconds
Goddamn it, you’re right… Let me check where that could come from…
Guys, is it just me or do the updated files still have the frame rate shutter!?
I’m pretty certain they don’t, although FOTR has some missing frames here and there that were replaced by the frame just before or after (the “what news of the outside world” shot with the rapeseed field and the sunrise “come along Samwise” shot come to mind).
I sent direct links to everyone who reached out in the last few months! Now if anyone wants to set up a torrent link, please let us all know! Also, if anyone wants to do a new mux with other audio tracks, I’ll be happy to provide any file required!
I’m pretty happy with how those graded came out, still they’re not perfect by any means, so if anyone wants to chime in or just point out any flaws or incompatibilities, please step forward!
Enjoy 😃
Sorry all for the radio silence these last months, I was busy preparing my wedding! I’m back in business, the frame rate stutter issue is fixed, I can share both FOTR and TTT, hopefully ROTK will follow in the next few days!!
Hey, well done, seems great. Is it the extended version or theatrical? If the latter; I’m interested in helping seed FotR.
I’m only working on the theatrical editions! I’ll get in touch once the new versions are rendered!
TTT is done (for now) here are some screens:
As you can see, it is quite less saturated than FOTR. The late Andrew Lesnie said in an American Cinematographer interview that they aimed for a grittier/ less saturated look for TTT, so I had to really be careful to maintain that aspect and keep those colors under control. Once again, too much saturation and those funky grading choices they made kind of fall apart. I hope I did well!
It’s been brought to my attention that there was a frame rate issue with both exports I sent everyone via DM. I’m in the process of fixing it, I will update you with new versions once they’re ready!
I started a new thread to share my graded versions of these scans, head over here https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/The-Lord-of-The-Rings-35MM-GRADED/id/121161
Hey! There are at least three people who have FOTR now, I hope you guys keep seeding because my connexion seems to be kinda whacky and most of times I won’t be able to seed the next few weeks! Could anyone take care of sending the key to potential new seeders?
Then Im very much in favour of you releasing these 90gbs and not compress it any further (or at least not if you want to release only 1 size version), because it would just diminish all the work you’ve done by trying to make it smaller. file size is not a problem for those who really cherish the quality.
Once again, maybe I still wasn’t clear enough hahah I’m definitely not gonna compress it further. Like ever!! If it were 200gbs I’ld still keep it that way hahaha
The ProRes files weren’t available so I had to work off a h265. The output file is 90gb, I’ll send you a DM!!
Would it be possible for you to release the entire 90gb output file? it’s almost as big as other 4k releases as well. it would be a shame to see the quality degraded further (meaning doing an encode from an encode, especially with just pre-fabricated stock settings of encoders)
edit: Unless you mean it is 90gb in scenes/pictures and not as entire movie.
Sorry if I wasn’t being clear, but yes, 90gb is the size of the released files! I did check what the bitrate was on each of the scans and matched my encoder settings to this. In the case of FOTR, the scan was of lower bitrate and it somehow showed, especially in the grain resolution. So I very slightly sharpened the image and exported it at a bitrate similar as the two other instalments, and I think it did a good job! I know I can’t retrieve something that was lost, but at least I know I’m not losing anything else
The ProRes files weren’t available so I had to work off a h265. The output file is 90gb, I’ll send you a DM!!
Would it be possible for you to release the entire 90gb output file? it’s almost as big as other 4k releases as well. it would be a shame to see the quality degraded further (meaning doing an encode from an encode, especially with just pre-fabricated stock settings of encoders)
edit: Unless you mean it is 90gb in scenes/pictures and not as entire movie.
Sorry if I wasn’t being clear, but yes, 90gb is the size of the released file! I did check what the bitrate was on each of the scans and matched my encoder settings to this. In the case of FOTR, the scan was of lower bitrate and it somehow showed, especially in the grain resolution. So I very slightly sharpened the image (nothing drastic, don’t worry guys) and exported it at a bitrate similar as the two other instalments, and I think it did a good job! I know I can’t retrieve something that was lost, but at least I know I’m not losing anything else
How big is it? Have you made the final h265/h264 output? If you haven’t yet, you could Reselio me the ProRes file — I have a computer pretty much dedicated to running Handbrake all the time (would do h265, tuned for grain, slow speed).
If you’ve got the output file already, I’ve got some space on Google Drive, but I can’t leave it there forever. A lot of people just get the cheapest WeTransfer accounts and support the link for a month or two.
The ProRes files weren’t available so I had to work off a h265. The output file is 90gb, I’ll send you a DM!!
What is the aource used for this grade? I know it’s a 35mm scan but there’s many scans that floating around.
I’m only aware of one scan, I got it from Snoopac here on the forum!
Hi everyone,
I’ve been at it for quite some time, and I think I’m finally ready to release my graded versions of the LOTR scans that have been hanging around here.
It has proved a more complicated task than I expected. What started as 1 grade per reel job ended up being a scene by scene, sometimes shot by shot regrade. Not because I wanted to, but because after some time it seemed obvious that the files had been tampered with already and that some sort of grading was applied to them at some point.
As much as I would have loved the grade to be 100% faithful to the original, I don’t think that it would be possible given the material. As I said, the scans seem to have been worked on already, and of top of that some reels have pretty intense shifts going on, plus there’s no other reference to what the original grade looked like, not to mention that those original grades were pretty funky to start with.
What is certain is that the 35mm Fuji prints had a lot more contrast going on that what can be seen on the DVD’s and blurays, which is a good thing in that it makes the picture a lot more vibrant, helps making the vfx compositing a lot more believable. On the other hand, it makes those bold grading choices (and also the color shifts) a lot more obvious, and subsenquently harder to nail, as you always feel like you’re going way over the top.
So what I did was using a “contrasted up” bluray rip as a reference, not to 100% match my grade to it, but just to use a that, a reference. Some shots are very consistent from the 35MM to the bluray, some not so much, especially in FOTR, as the theater realease didn’t use a full Digital Intermediate. When there were obvious difference between the two versions, I just tried to make the 35mm look as good as possible within its palette and relatint to the other scenes on the reel.
I’m ready to share FOTR at the moment, I don’t have a mega account, so I could maybe share it via resilio to someone who could upload it somewhere? I’m away a lot and can’t keep resilio on at all times. If someone wants to help, do reach out!
As said previously, FOTR was the hardest one to deal with. Some bits I’m still not too happy about, but I think they are the parts where the fading was just too bad (The Wizard fight in Orthanc, Arwen meeting Aragorn and the Hobbits and The Shards of Narsil scene come to mind) I’m anxious to know what you all think. I still think this is the best way to experience these movies, the last time I enjoyed watching them that much was 20 years ago in the theater!! This is the real deal, this scan really takes suspension of disbelief to another level!!
EDIT: All three movies are done, here are some updated screencaps:
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…
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
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?