Star Trek: The Motion Picture - Director's Edition HD Recreation (Version 3 out now)

[eldiablosuizo]

Anyone else go to any of the theatrical screenings of the new Director's Edition?

It was my first time seeing the 4K restoration. I couldn't help but notice the drastic differences in details. One shot would seem scrubbed of detail, another would be the exact detail that I would want from a restoration.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

[WXM]

Anyone else have a similar experience?

Yeah, my asking and reply on OT...

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Star-T.../7#1485525

[iguanaclerk]

I just got the UHD of this and skimmed through the DE (having previously only seen a miserably encoded 1080p stream on P+).

Weirdly enough, as noted in the last two comments, many live action scenes have an excessive amount of DNR added to them compared to the 4K theatrical cut master (which has its troubles with noise reduction but generally looks okay). It's very extremely inconsistent with how much they smooth it out, but it can get real bad, and it's ridiculous that they added any compared to the master Paramount prepared. Likely one of the producers asking for it to be smoother in the room, lol, boooo. I had been pretty gentle with those guys because they got this made basically on their own, but this is real stupid. Not all of the live action is affected either, it's either "off" or on at a very excessive level.
Effects shots vary as to if the theatrical or DE looks better as they both have (differently applied) DNR on them.

Here's a very quick sample, for shots with and without added DNR (from the blurays, but same masters):
https://slow.pics/c/v22RNJoB

I don't have the ability to grade or edit in HDR, but looking at this, I'll likely be doing a 1080p SDR fan edit similar to what I did here (preferring many of the theatrical effects for the most part) but with the added benefit of killing as much noise reduction as I can.

No idea when I'll actually get around to making/releasing this (could be awhile), but I'm putting it out there, because, boy, does some of this look rough.

[WXM]

These kinds of things are a little frustrating.  I did a feature film restoration and it showed somewhat exclusively (unadvertised, invite only) at a large-ish screening theater in Hollywood and not only was David Fein there but he was one of only three people who talked with me after, had good words, the like. (Most people there were talking to the star of the movie who was also there, his presence being super awesome of course so I fully understand!)

DF talking to me meant a lot to me, and because of that I was (and still kind of am) rooting for him in regards to this project, want to give him benefits of doubts, like they were under big pressure, didn't have enough resources to do what they really wanted, etc.  Why is it so freakin' hard for something to just come out perfect?! Is instant perfection really too much to ask for?

[iguanaclerk]

Yeah. I basically understand the unpolished nature of the new FX. It's to be expected, even if there's a lot I think they should have done differently.
The DNR is extremely frustrating, particularly when studios are finally, more often than not, getting over all the most common mistakes they made in the past here (and did okay enough with the material by themselves). But the producers ended up making calls they shouldn't have, so what should be the definitive version of the film ends up looking a lot worse that it should because someone in the room (who probably has never thought about what temporal noise reduction does to details or even what it is) asked for a scene to be less noisy and then to their eyes it was, as if by magic, lol.

[WXM]

I'll just say that for me it's the lounge scene that screams out... well, I continue to want to be on the more diplomatic side so I'll stop, except to say I couldn't believe my eyes when watching that one. A for me there for sure.

Anyway, I see this page is getting flooded with my posts that don't say much so I'll retreat back to relative silence again. Thanks for posting your updated notes, observations, thoughts on the new version, iguanaclerk!

[Pauln6]

I love the new DE but as I am trying to make a hybrid DE/SLV I am going back to try an tweak some of the new errors, like the looped footage in the Federation office.

I'm experimenting with rotoscoping from the TC bluray. It looks like it will be possible to improve the quality but I'm a total amateur, so I am not sure how far I will be able to take it.

[Gieferg]

Just did a little, quick fix for Director's Edition:

Before: https://images4.imagebam.com/89/a1/5c/MEFYHRN_o.png
After: https://images4.imagebam.com/b2/11/8e/MEFYHRK_o.png

And more screenshots:
https://images4.imagebam.com/95/dd/56/MEG0WE7_o.png
https://images4.imagebam.com/94/a7/93/MEG0WEA_o.png
https://images4.imagebam.com/f7/fd/55/MEG0WED_o.png
https://images4.imagebam.com/31/0c/60/MEG0WEH_o.png
https://images4.imagebam.com/04/de/5b/MEG0WEM_o.png
https://images4.imagebam.com/bb/01/fb/MEG0WEP_o.png
https://images4.imagebam.com/54/5a/99/MEG0WET_o.png
https://images4.imagebam.com/97/65/bd/MEG0WEX_o.png

[SHM]

Much better.

[Gieferg]

And this is actually just grain plate slapped as the overlay on the movie in Vegas.

If someone is interested here's the grain plate used:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sUkM7Jg...sp=sharing

And here's the same plate after adding some settings that I used for this project:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bySTyuP...sp=sharing