[Idea] Silent Hill (2006) - open matte & "before color timing"!

[spoRv]

I've discovered yesterday that there is a nice version of Silent Hill, found in the French BD as PIP, that shows film before any color timing! Never encountered this thing before, so it would be nice to use it as reference to make a special, non-theatrical color grading!

Got few seconds to test it, and result is quite nice; still don't know how the CGI parts (luckily not too many, it seems) will look like, though...

From top: open matte, non-timed, open matte regraded to non-timed ("de-regraded" or "de-timed")


(link to the image: https://s20.postimg.cc/3jthmnwwd/SH_comparison1.jpg)

If someone with a VERY FAST internet connection would help me with this project, please PM me, thanks!

[spoRv]

Still downloading the reference source... I can say that, despite the nice natural color, it varies a lot in brightness, and it has various color inconsistences between shots - even subsequent ones; for example, the scene when Rose arrives to Silent Hill: first part (when she's out of her car) is toward cyan, then there is a green screen shot, and then the next shot has natural color... it's still possible to regrade the shots without effects with a good approximation, but the ones with green screen should be regraded without a direct reference; the ones which have supposedly the mist should be regraded in another way etc.

After a lot (I mean it!) of tests, I've found a "one for all" setting that fits every shot but the one when Rose and Sharon are in the field under the tree; it's the only scene where the regraded version has natural colors. This should be considered a fan edit, after all, because, even if it matches quite well various shots, it doesn't use a direct color reference... well, here you are the result (top untouched, bottom "de-timed"):



BD/UAR regraded comparison: http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/124338

Feedbacks are welcome!

[spoRv]

With my UAR fever lately, I've decided to change the AR from open matte to UAR; intermediate pass (UAR without color correction) is ready; watched yesterday, and it was great! Never distracting. Corrected few shots - mainly four ones with different angles; in two occasion open matte has been choose, for the other two letterbox (we are talking about few seconds, maybe thirty for all of them); spotted (and fixed) four frames with glitches.

All in all, a nice 2x UAR version, which adds a bit of image on both sides (I guess around 10/15%), and approximate the whole negative aspect ratio (with obviously missing corners) which is confirmed by the direct comparison to the non-timed video present in the French BD; sadly, the lower quality and different contrast/grading of the latter, the big timecode, and the fact many shots are different/missing/green screen, prevented the use of it to fill those corners.

[markymark]

Long time no speak! Looks great!

You probably already know this but from what I remember the original Mpeg2 & VC-1 encode of this on Blu-ray & HD-DVD respectively, had different (warmer) colour and (less) contrast than the later H.264 Blu-ray. There's also a VC-1 Blu-ray around that I'm pretty sure is a direct port of the HD-DVD master. I don't think the black presentation is as good as the H.264 Blu-ray, but the colour definitely looks closer to what you've done here. I'll try to track it down again; it's been a while!

Edit: This film is rather good. It LOOKS extraordinary at the very least.

[spoRv]

Hey, happy to hear you again!

Of course I'm aware of the different contrast/gradings; indeed, I used the HD-DVD for the letterbox source, that may (or may not?) be better than BD port.

And yes, it is a good film, it makes me think every time ("what if that dimension exists?"); even if I should admit original color grading (HD-DVD, and also subsequent one which is rather similar, with slight variations in colors and contrast) is good, and perfect for an horror movie, I wanted to try a more natural, colorful grading.

Of course, as I think everything and the contrary at the same time, I thought to do the opposito on Creep - giving it that blueish tone to let it even more... creepy? http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/132543 - not a definitive version, though... I applied the same settings of Silent Hill, and I must confess I probably like it more... we'll see when I'll start a proper thread about this.

[markymark]

Yeah it does actually look great in Creep! Haven't seen that one in ages either. The new grain really helps it too.

[Stamper]

The french disc is director's supervised while the other discs aren't.

I think it's good to go for the different look, as we already have the director's version.

[spoRv]

I wonder why, in the French Metropolitan blu-ray (which is the best version around) there are both English and French audio tracks in DTS-HD MA 5.1 AND DTS 2.0 384kbps... maybe for compatibility sake?

[Beber]

Are you sure the dts 2.0 tracks are not just audio commentaries? One in French by the director, the other by whomever, the writer, maybe?

[spoRv]

Yep, there are both French and English commentaries at the same quality; so, we end up with the following tracks:
English DTS-HD MA 5.1
English DTS 2.0 384kbps
English commentary DTS 2.0 384kbps
French DTS-HD MA 5.1
French DTS 2.0 384kbps
French commentary DTS 2.0 384kbps