Itzalive Shadoe Masters™

[PDB]

ALL of your projects??!   F***!!! Yes, it does take just short of forever. However, as I am sure you have noticed just like I have, it's the only way to do a true, accurate, color correction for a feature film. Shit, I've even noticed that if a scene is extremely long (where one shot is 15-30 seconds long) and it contains a lot of motion with a changing background, sometimes these shots actually require two different LUTs where I have to render the shot with one render cross-fading into the next render at various points, depending on when the color variance is too great for the 1st LUT and a 2nd one needs to "take over." It's a massive PITA, as each shot has to have the "right"/"average" frame reference for the color correction and choosing the "right" frame can make the difference between a nice correction and one full of artefacts. Although, the more I work on this, the more I have noticed a "pattern" for the "right" frame for each shot to do the correction correctly on the first try. Initially, it took me 3-5 tries before I chose the right frame. Now, I only need to do a "second take" about every 30-35 shots, usually when there are bigger variances then the "average" shot.

Interestingly enough, when it comes to video "mastering"/"restoration," color correction was the last thing that I needed to learn to be able to tackle any project. F*CK!!!! The learning curve is extremely steep when it comes to this skill. Harder than authoring a "professional" grade blu-ray disc... lol (inside joke, some of you will understand, LMAO) But I have this nearly figured out now, although it wouldn't be possible with certain tools that are out there and I'm grateful to the community for the input in that department.

I appreciate your wishes of "good luck," as I will need as much of that as possible...

No, really, at this point it's not a matter of luck, but a matter of time... Grrrr...        

In a little while (I mean like a few weeks, LOL) I will PM you and a few others with a WP version for you guys to check out, including some comparisons between the sources I'm working with  
For that matter, ANYONE that is interested in seeing a partial WP copy of the film once I have something rendered, is welcome to PM me for information AFTER JULY 1st, 2017... Yes, that's almost a month from now... This is intentional, as it will take me a long time to finish the remainder of the film due to the actual time it takes to do all of this, plus IRL obligations that I have to address first... HOWEVER, by the end of the month, I am hoping to have nearly all of the LUTs built for the film and have about half of the footage actually rendered if not more. Hopefully

Either way, by the end of the month I should have enough complete to be able to present a WP "sample" for those that are interested  

Right on the money if you want it exact, you have to take it shot by shot, sadly.

Love to give it a look see, thanks Jerry

EDIT: Side-note... PDB, I love your signature  VERY, "on the money..."

[jerryshadoe]

Slight update:

Ok, so when I made my last post here I was just starting a new job as a manager-in-training at a restaurant not far from my house. They really needed people, people that are willing to work and learn quickly. I have over ten years of experience in the food industry, most of it in management, so I was "the right candidate" for the job. Subsequently, I have been working 60+ hours a week(!) and have had very little time to do much. I work the closing shifts, putting in 10-12 hour days and by the time I get home at 2-3am all I want to do is relax, play some video games, eat, and then go to sleep around sunrise...

This does NOT mean that I have stopped working on my projects, BUT the timeline is going to change a little bit as I just can't put the time in fast enough to "meet" the original projected release dates.

Now, I have the LUTs built for about 75% of the film, with no more rendered out than the last time I posted an update, but with a lot of them assigned to the proper shots on my project, plugin timeline in Vegas and just waiting to be rendered out.

The lossless rendering of the color correction is also an extremely time-consuming process that I have to do in chunks or the render crashes. It takes an HOUR to render every MINUTE of footage which comes out to something like 0.5 frames a second because the color correction is so drastic of a change between the sources I have that are being matched to the French 35mm.


The other projects I have do involve more than the "average" amount of work, but (with the exception of the Frankenstein Audio Reconstruction) nothing is going to be as much work as this Top Gun Open-Matte. One of the sources I have is an open-matte transfer of the new 3DBD transfer, PRIOR to the 3D being added, but AFTER the crazy revisionist color-grading of the new transfer. As "great" as that transfer is in relation to no DNR and LOTS of FILM GRAIN, there is actually a TON of crushed blacks where all the subtle detail is GONE. Subsequently, since the one of the open-matte transfers I have is based on that source, I can't use it in some shots, even after color correction and have to fall back on one of the other two sources I have.

The "final" render will end up being frankenstein'ed together from the three different sources for numerous reasons. One of them is the crushed blacks and details that I mentioned above. Another is the fact that some shots are "better" in one transfer of the others. By "better" I mean that either the shot is sharper due to better resolution/variable bitrate (NOT EE) and it retained all the details better. Or, it could be that the grain was retained better on one transfer versus the others due to either the original source material AND/OR the variable bitrates of the original captures. Or, it could be that the shot was wider in one transfer versus another, as I am looking for as wide of a shot as possible in every case, that fits into a 16x9 AR, especially when it comes to the aerial footage.

On topic of the aspect ratio, I can not believe that this film in its official releases is at the cramped 2.35:1 AR. It removes sooooooooo much from the screen that actually belongs there and makes the aerial shots look very cramped, even "claustrophobic." EVEN the 16x9 aspect ratio is a little too cramped in some shots IMHO and I've been extremely tempted to do some of the shots in an IMAX type of AR and making a second, "alternate" version of this with a variable AR, as one of the HD sources that I have is the full 4x3 frame that is very similar to the footage on the first NTSC 4x3 release - although some shots on the DVD were P&S, whereas the HD 4x3 source is ALL open-matte. (unfortunately, it's the most compressed source of the three and really suffers in some shots where the upscalled DVD looks better BEFORE I add extra grain and some TLC to the render) Most of the film looks great in 16x9 and I would hate it 4x3, but some -if not all- of the "outside the plane" aerial shots would look great opened up more. I'm thinking of a happy medium like 1.5 or 1.66. Will decide after some tests that I'll finally be able to do this weekend because I will be off work


Still, main focus is the 16x9 version and the work on all the color corrections... I'm off for now... Peace

[spoRv]

Great news! Happy to hear someone else enthusiast for the open matte "thing"!

I'd like to see 4/3, as it's full aperture, but at least it would be great to have a VAR with open matte shots for aerials in particular; a 1.5:1 or 1.66:1 is a compromise, full screen or bust!

A hint: haven't tested (yet), but it's possible to use the source with the black crush and overlay it to another source, that would be used only to replace the crushed parts; pretty sure it would work.

Another hint: instead of releasing two versions - on one or two discs - why don't you add the 4/3 as a second video track? It should be read by any BD player - and by many free software players as well - and the audio tracks would take space only once... think about it.

[jerryshadoe]

Well, some of the aerial shots don't really benefit from being opened up completely and would look great at about 1.5:1 judging on some of my initial tests. The idea of adding a second video track to save space on the audio sounds like something I might need to look at and thank you for the suggestion

When it comes to the idea that you have about overlaying sources... In theory, this is a great idea... BUT this ONLY work if the sources align PERFECTLY spatially and they do NOT. ALL of my sources are slightly different, almost like each one of them is "warped" differently and subsequently NONE of them can be overlayed. I know this for a fact as I was going to overlay them to help mask some of the compression arftifacts and to bring out the detail by "averaging" out the sources together (like I have done on other projects and I know you have done this too) but it's a "no go" in this case. In fact, all of my sources, including the NTSC DVD, are slightly different and don't match up which is why I have to "custom" pick the best shot for each shot from the sources available for my final render of the project.

I will be focusing on the 16x9 version exclusively for now and will release that first. I won't delete any of my source or project files, so I will be able to easily do a variable AR version later on down the line, but for now with the amount of projects that I have lined up and how little time I have, "...it is what it is..." LMAO

[spoRv]

Lucky as usual...

May I suggst to take a look at this? https://fanrestore.com/thread-300.html
You may add black bars to get a 2.35:1 (and/or also other ARs) adding just few MBs to your project!

Food for thoughts...

[jerryshadoe]

It seems like you and I always decide to pick some of the tougher, "lucky as usual" projects


The "soft open matte" is an interesting idea. VERY interesting. I wonder how much extra work it would be on my end... Guess there's another "round of tests" scheduled for this weekend, LOL

[spoRv]

Yes, we are the luckest here!

Soft open matte: I would do that for you, just send me the exact length of the movie, if you want just one aspect ratio or more - and which one(s), and I'll prepare the file ASAP; the only thing I ask in exchange is that you burn a BD-R (better BD-RE) and test it on a BD player (or more). Asking too much?

[jerryshadoe]

...and the phoenix rose from the ashes...

I know, I know... I haven't been here in about a month or so and I apologize to any that have been waiting on me to move my projects forward, but I have been swamped at work putting in about 70 hours a week... Between that, trying to spend some time with my daughters when I do have a day off, living some kind of life, and a little sleep here and there... well, there has just been no extra time for anything...

However, things are calming down at work now that we have some more new people trained and "up to speed," which means that starting next week I will be working no more than 45-50 hours a week and I can FINALLY resume work on all of my projects...

I have no idea where things are progress-wise (I might need to re-read this thread to remind myself, lol) so I will be checking all my projects and getting back into the groove of things. Can't wait!!!! I have invested waaaaay too much time and effort into the stuff I already have to not finish it... and now, after all this time, the completion of these will be that much more satisfying... Especially getting to share some of it with trusted friends in the community... Cheers to the entire staff here and members of the community that are still strongly pushing things forward

See y'all very soon

[spoRv]

Welcome back, Jerry, it was time!

[PDB]

Glad to hear life is calming down Jerry.