[Proposal] Deep Rising - UAR (mainly Hybrid) + regrade

[spoRv]

OK, I confess... I like this movie - shoot me now (with one of the badass guns found in the flick)!

Well, BD has a very lifeless, dull color grading... everything seems sad, colorless, dead. But I discovered the German DVD is live, colorful, happy in comparison! Yes, clipping whites, I know... http://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?d1=1776&d2...=7&l=0&a=0

I thought to use is as guideline, retain more BD contrast - to avoid white clipping - but at the same time get its colors.
And, as it's not enough, release it in UAR - actually, a lot of shots are full open matte, so in reality it will be mostly hybrid, with some UAR shots.

Rough test, still not in sync; a compromise, I know, but it gave good result IMHO - single setting for the whole movie excepts last, only scene in daylight; few examples - top BD, middle DE DVD, bottom HDTV (which has the same BD grading) regraded as DVD:

[Bigrob]

IIRC, the open matte version revealed some mistakes. You can see the matting under the sand on the beach at the end when they are sitting down.

[spoRv]

IIRC, the open matte version revealed some mistakes. You can see the matting under the sand on the beach at the end when they are sitting down.

This one? Well, this problem could be fit quite easily!

To be honest, I'd just like a regrade of the BD to the DE DVD. That would be a great project in of itself.

[Bigrob]

the characteristics of that German DVD always reminded me of a Telesync in all honesty

[spoRv]

@PDB: of course, I could always release THREE different regraded versions - OAR, open matte, UAR; I haven't checked it all, but it seems most part of this would end as hybrid (BD overlaid to full open matte), while only few shots would be UAR; taken this in account, with a bit of patience would be possible to build a proper YAO subtitle track; the only thing would be uneven bars - top slimmer than bottom; but, apart that, it will solve the OAR/UAR "dilemma"; for the ones who would prefer open matte, I could always prepare another YAO track that would mask only UAR shots - that, for them, would became a VAR version: mostly OM, with few shots OAR - the contrary of the IMAX VAR versions, at the end!

Latest attempt; for the initial credits, I removed the automatic color match script because the title would became a splotch of colored underwater... "fog", so I tweaked a bit the settings, and got an almost perfect match "by hand"
For the rest, I slightly adjusted the previous settings, so to have balanced contrast and color for the whole movie - I think, still have to encode it, and it will take A LOT...

@Bigrob: indeed the German DVD seems a telesync to me, too, with good colors but too pushed, as well as contrast; I decided to lower them, to avoid white clipping, and getting not too hot colors; this, of course, will influence the color fidelity in many (all?) shots, but I think it's an acceptable compromise, and a lot better than the dull, lifeless colors found in the BD (and HDTV, LD, and other DVD editions, that all share the same master).

Alleged final version: top BD, middle UAR, bottom German DVD

[applesandrice]

Great work! It's been a while since I watched my BD, but after seeing these shots it would be hard to go back to such a lifeless image. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

[spoRv]

@applesandrice: thanks! You are absolutely right... once seen, cannot be unseen!

I tried to add the fullscreen DVD to the UAR equation, without success... its contrast is too different in many places, and its image is also rotated in comparison to the BD/HDTV; even if it adds few lines of resolution top and bottom, I discarded the idea, and remained with the original 2 sources.

But during the script refinement, I've found that the BD has more image on top in comparison to open matte - apart the few UAR shots, of course - so it ends up that most of the movie would be around 1.75:1, gaining the same part of the image on top as the fullscreen DVD (but with more on both sides, of course), and losing a bit on bottom.

Last comparison here: http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/133351

[zoidberg]

Play the blu ray and point your phone's camera at the screen and see how it looks 

Haha this movie is a riot! Dumb fun. The colour grade alone makes a huge difference; looking nice! It's awfully flat on the Blu-ray.