Flash Gordon Regrade (Widescreen Laserdisc v1.0)

Project Info:

See the origins of this project here:

https://fanrestore.com/thread-1910.html

This project attempts to regrade they Universal BD to the brighter and more colorful Universal laserdisc. The laserdisc was slightly desaturated (since it’s origins are the NTSC world), skin tones also pulled down and black levels adjusted to bring the video in line with modern standards. That corrected video was used to regrade the BD.

Another future version might use the Image DVD as a basis of the project. The Dvd is the same master as the LD but hopefully with better levels and values.

Note: synced to the US Universal BD

Video:
Universal BD regraded to match the widescreen Universal laserdisc

Audio:
1. PCM 2.0 Dolby Surround (from the widescreen Laserdisc at original 44.1khz)
3. DTS-HD MA 5.1 (from the Universal BD)
4. PCM 2.0 Internet Commentary by Sam Jones and Melody Anderson

Pics:

MKV Pics (Final):


Old Pics

Regraded BD


US BD/BD regraded to LD



Contributors and Thanks:
Zoidberg - for the LD video and audio cap
Chewtobacca - for the PCM sync

Do any Of You have the Laserdisc PCM of the 1978 movie The Wiz? The Remastered DVD and Blu-Ray only have a 5.1 Remix, and the 1998 DVD has a 4.0 Dolby Digital Track, but I would like to sync the Original Dolby Stereo Mix to the Blu-Ray.

If only I still lived in California...
If only I weren't days late to the very last IMAX 70mm screening even remotely available in my area...
If only the re-release extended to any theater even within my state...

...Damn. You have one of those moments in the fresh wake of a missed opportunity when you realize that you're not going to get a chance again.
Feels bad.

Dunno if this is the proper place to be asking...

Is there any way to remove watermarks? I have a handful of copies of "Pink Floyd – The Wall", some with intermittent watermarks, some without. Of course, this issue would be a phantom of a less fortunate reality if the higher-quality copies were spared the persistent emblem, but here I am. What tools do I have at my disposal to do away with them?

Hi everyone,
A few weeks ago I was able to obtain copies of 4 rare workprints that haven't been on the trading circuit in about 20 years. I have Holy Man, The Corruptor, A Simple Plan & Rounders. Now I am willing to trade them but only for what I'm after. I'm looking to trade for Crash and or whatever else that's been missing for years. I can be reached at moviecritic1990@gmail.com.

Here is my want list:


Apt Pupil
Armageddon
Basil
Blade
Body Shots
City By The Sea
Con Air
Crash
Disturbing Behaviour
Dogma
Enemy of the State
The Faculty
The Fast and the Furious
Girl, Interupted
Go!
Goldeneye
Heavy Metal 2000
Jackie Brown
Jakob The Liar
Knockaround Guys
Knock Off
Love, Honour, & Obey
Molly
Napoleon Dynamite
Patch Adams
Radio
Lost in Space
The Mask of Zorro
The Ninth Gate
The Replacement Killers
Sleepy Hollow
Snatch
Sweet Home Alabama
The Wedding Singer

Thanks,

I signed up to post on a specific project with something to possibly offer and curious what else things are like here...  fan restorations?  Of TV and movie content?  I'm definately interested in this topic. 

Very interested in things like "original music restorations" for TV shows that were cheaply released without the real licensed music and such if that's even available...  the only series i'm a fan of offhand as an example is the 1960's show The Fugitive which had some anonymous restoration done years ago.  I've heard of alot of other especially US shows being released with cheap music replacements and it annoys me (and makes me wonder why bother to buy the DVD at all) such as Northern Exposure...

I'm also aware of alternate audio versions of certain movies existing in the past, like i'm told the 70mm version of "Aliens" was a notably different far punchier mix.  It was only ever released on a certain release of laserdisc version apparently (in full digital quality though I forget if AC3 or DTS) - and i've long since wanted to make a rip of that and combine it with a Bluray video or something.

I would ULTRA love to get my hand on Sony Digital Dynamic Sound full 7 channel "5 in the front" tracks and stick them on specially mastered Blurays too ideally.  I'm a fan of more obscure audio formats and theatre only mixes...  but I wouldn't even know where to start such a project since i'm sure SDDS audio is not going to be something easy to come by... but i'm just thinking out loud.

Have I found the right place for these kind of discussions?  (and are there any other places on the internet people recommend I try to socialize for related content?  Like i'd heard of the Despecialized Star Wars editions but don't know if that's a fan EDIT or a fan RESTORATION type project...)

www.supermanhomepage.com/superman-the-movie-the-35mm-silver-screen-edition/

I'm downloading this now, I'll update when I have it. Anyone else already checked it out?

I think it would be cool to have the LD audio to add to this. I sent the LD with the digital track to BusterD to rip a while back, if anyone has time to sync it I could get you the files. I'd do it but I've barely any free time with an 11 week old baby girl in the house.

Project Info:

I started this as a new project to test the semi-automatic color correction "workflow", that I was building for a Flash Gordon project. I decided I needed to run it on another separate project in order to see if I can get the same results. So consider this an experiment.

I selected Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (MM3) since I love the movie. It always seems to get the shaft when it comes to the MM movies. And although I don't know if the DVD is more accurate (Valeyard saw a 35mm print and said the BD looked right), I enjoy the colors of the DVD more then the BD. The MM3 DVD and LD have colors similar to the Road Warrior/MM2 DVD with orange/yellow deserts and cool blue interiors unlike the BD. So it will be a better match for that project. Also as a bonus the LD PCM is already in sync. That bypasses the bottleneck I have for many of my current projects.

(I also remember a conversation where spoRv said I would eventually work on this as a project and I said that would never happen. This project will prove him right and me wrong  )

Regardless, I couldn't of chosen a worse project. While the BD, of course has more detail then the DVD but a lot of shots are badly, badly, blown out destroying much of the detail. It is to such a degree that almost no information is able to be recovered. That makes auto color correction very difficult as it creates a posterization-like effect in the blown-out areas.

On the DVD side, the disc has the standard red/magenta push that many early Warner DVDs had. Luckily, I still have the laserdisc which has the same master but without the larger red push. I was able to remove a fair amount the DVD's red from the picture before grading. This brought out more of the master's blues and greens that were always there but buried beneath a nasty red haze. The DVD also has an excessive amount of contrast and an odd black level. I fixed this by setting a new black level in the Regrade and flattening the overall picture.

Even after this workflow was done I had to manually color correct about 210 shots. And even beyond that I had to give up and use the luma from the BD (again badly blown out) for  12 shots as the only solution to the discrepancy of the two pictures.

Note: This is in sync with the official BD so you can add whatever dubs and subs you need. Since the BD has a newer longer WB logo then the vintage one I used, there is a small 10 second period of black at the beginning.

Video:
The BD regraded to look like the DVD/LD video master

Audio:
1. PCM 2.0 from the Warner Widescreen LD
2. DTS- HD MA 5.1 from the BD

Pics and Video:

MKV Pics (Final)


Old Pics


BD/BD Regrade Comparison


Video (No Sound)


(Video sample 2 and 3 didn't survive copyright check)

The (hopfully) lovely new 4k master as been ruined as it only has the fold down remix mono track and not the original mix
I feel a lot of custom rips coming

Hello.

So that project my friend is working on is near completion (still tried to get him to post here, haha). He's run into a bit of an issue recreating the original credits. He's using iMovie, and first created credits that didn't look exactly the same as the credits as they originally appeared (lacking a calligraphy-like look):




I sent him a few fonts that might have been able to more closely replicate the original look. But adding those new credits in somehow created a lot of pixellation, so it looks like this: 




I do believe that my friend only has access to iMovie, but does anyone know if there'd perhaps be a way to add in the credits without resulting in pixellation? I personally appreciate the look of the calligraphy-style credits, but the pixellation is quite off-putting, especially when the rest of the reconstruction is free of it.

Thanks for reading!

P.S. if the dimensions of each image look off, it's because the video that the second image was drawn from was a series of test clips, authored in 720p rather than 1080p.