Waterworld [spoRv]

[kk650]

The more eyes the better definately, can't agree with you more, after regrading the same film for a while its easy to not see the forest for the trees and lose your way, as happened with me with The Empire Strikes Back Semi-Specialised Edition V2.1 where it ended up being too yellow, extra eyes help stop that from happening.

Andrea, are you planning to include any scenes from the extended edition of Waterworld in this release? I've never watched the extended edition myself but i've only heard good things about it.

[spoRv]

kk... you read into my mind!!!

YES! I'll release the extended edition... but not now... first I'd like to release the TC, because it's almost ready... I'm still working on the EE, though! Think that it should have been a surprise... you ruined all!

Here you are the latest experiments:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/118437
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/118438
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/118440
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/118442

I dialed down a bit contrast, so more details are "revealed" (for example in the second picture, under the sail), and tinkered with blue (and red, and green...)

What do you all think?

[jerryshadoe]

The first image looks pretty good IMHO.

The second image is better, but it look just slightly too greenish-blue to me. This is especially noticeable is the "white" of the sunlight right under the sail. However you are right about the fact that it looks more "detailed" than the original and the grain really helps here.

The third image appears IMHO to have a slightly too greenish look to it as well (almost reminded me of "the matrix" and the green tint applied there, LOL) However it still looks WAY better than the original, almost like it was struck from a different master (kudos) because there are a lot of fine details that "pop" out at you, where the original image looks like it was heavily DNR'd. Reduce the green by, maybe, 5% and it should be perfect.

The fourth image is perfect.

Now I'm curious what kk650 has to say about these (since he does some very exceptional color-grading work and I think his opinion will help here)

[kk650]

Very kind of you to say that jerryshadoe

haha sorry about that Andrea, I had a feeling that you might have something up your sleeve regarding the extended edition. I love the detail that is being brought out by the grain and the reduction in contrast works really well to reveal extra details, it really does look almost like a new master to me which is a pretty amazing feat in and of itself.

One thing that did jump out at me with these new screencaps though is that they look a bit underexposed now. As jerryshadoe pointed out they also look a bit greenish overall. The thing with this film is that the lighting is so inconsistant at times from shot to shot that you're always going to have certain shots looking more red, others more blue, others more green, so you've got a lot of leeway to go whichever way you prefer personally.

I've been messing around with your latest screencaps, boosting the exposure and trying to strike a kind of balance between those four very differently lighted screencaps, getting the highlights on the water in the first screencap and the highlights on his forehead and the plants in the fourth screencap as white as possible while keeping fleshtones from being too red. I kept the contrast the same as your screencaps but it might need to be raised to darken the blacks a little bit, you'd get a better sense of that in the night scenes. Saturation has also been left the same but that might need to be reduced to keep fleshtones from being being too saturated in other parts of the film. Here are screencap comparisons below:

http://www.screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/118521
http://www.screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/118522
http://www.screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/118523
http://www.screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/118524

In terms of colour adjustment, in the program I use I boosted the reds by 3, reduced the greens by 20, boosted the blues by 9 and boosted brightness by 6.

[DoomBot]

Frame 1 and 4 i like better but 2 and 3 seem to have more magenta in the blue but the exposure is better now. I think your right KK that from scene to scene it can be different and almost needs to be corrected this way.

[spoRv]

Guys, thanks for the feedbacks!

Agree with DoomBot; frames 1 and 4 are OK, but the other have too magenta to my eyes, but before I thought was my due to my monitor...

So, I decided to discard all previous settings, and restart from the beginning; set blue to 1, then lower a bit green, and lower more red; now I think we are really near to... may I dare to say? the "perfect spot"!

frame1: http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/118559 - now sky is "celeste" - italian color
frame2: http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/118555 - sky is not magenta anymore
frame3: http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/118563 - again, no magenta sky
frame4: http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/118562 - no magenta sky, "greener" green

[DoomBot]

I like the blues and it being brighter over all, much better Let's see what the others think.

[kk650]

Looking good! I would say that those new screencaps are pretty much spot on. Nice job!

[DoomBot]

I think you have a green light Andrea.

[spoRv]

Happy to hear that! Thanks again for your advice!

So, let's wait for jerryshadoe to give his feedback, he deserves it... even if I'm pretty sure he'll like the new settings!