[Proposal] Escape From New York - hybrid

[Evit]

From the little that we can see on Caps-a-holic, some colors are very close to MGM version, others are different but in general it has lost a bit of blue. More accurate? Less accurate? Who knows. We'll have to wait until the first screengrabs to start comparing with 35mm frames from PDB.

At the moment we have no idea what they used as color reference for this UHD version (or how close they stuck to it), both MGM and the new UHD version came from negative so colors had to be recreated (and calling back the director of photography doesn't really guarantee much). Shout release was from interpositive so in theory more faithful in colors, but it was a little overexposed and had its problems. It remains the least cropped.
Unfortunately nobody can tell for sure what is close to theatrical print because we've never seen a full scan. The closest I've got to theatrical is a pirate telecine on VHS from the 80's, hardly a reference. So about the colors there isn't much we can tell although I'm glad someone who saw it in theaters confirms that Shout was pretty darn close. Shame that UHD version is slightly cropped, can't they get EVERYTHING right altogether with this film?

About overblown whites: we haven't seen the infamous map on the Air Force One, nor the "David 14" flashing on the monitor but from the brightest areas of the laboratory looks like the UHD version is a tad less bright compared to Shout release, on quick glance looks like the same difference that I applied to the map room on the Air Force One. Hopefully we will see comparisons soon enough.

[X5gb]

Springfield, the Mgm is way to dark in certain scenes and the framing is off-center, the same as the UHD. Overall outside of the framing issues the 4k is much better.

Evit, both the map and David 14 graphic are fine on both the UHD and remastered bluray and the aliasing behind Plisken in the office is gone as well. Some scenes are slightly less bright but also a couple are actually brighter but nothing appears overblown like the Scream. Just needs the framing fixed using auto-overlay with either Divisa / Scream (which isn't the easiest) and maybe some color-timing tweaks and we should have the ultimate version.

Remastered Bluray:

[Evit]

I'm glad to hear and to see!

About expanding the frame with previous releases it seems... impossible? I've been impressed by some of the work people have done but the idea of matching colors for the whole film, upscaling and adding grain to make it all "invisible"... mmmh! I'll be happy to be proven wrong

[X5gb]

Both SpoRv and Random.next I think are our only hope. Both have done some amazing work using auto-overlay with two sources for the entire length of films. Doesn't have to be 4k, 1080p would be fine.

[Evit]

On a completely different note: this whole thread is a personal reminder NOT to spend months to fix some home video release

[X5gb]

On a completely different note: this whole thread is a personal reminder NOT to spend months to fix some home video release

If your referring to your Restoration of the Scream, it has given me much pleasure in watching it numerous times since you released it and in some ways prefer it to the Studio Canal, so in my opinion your efforts were definitely worth it and much appreciated.

[Evit]

Thank you X5gb, funny enough I never rewatched it since it was screened at a film festival, more than one year ago. I'm letting some time pass before I could watch it again but I'm glad that others have been enjoying it. I might revisit my work one day and improve some of the fixes with the new material. Might.

[spoRv]

Thought to create a new thread to talk about this idea, leaving Evit's one unclattered.

By the way, can anyone post the same frame from UHD-BD (2160p) and BD (1080p)?
I'd like to make some tests...

[Plissken1138]

From comparisons I've seen at certain HD tracker, UHD-BD is a tad darker and warmer than HDTV but the grain is well preserved. Some screens from remastered BD look waxed out though.

[X5gb]

Having watched the remastered bluray in full I don't think anything is waxed over, anything soft looking is down to original filming techniques or the difference in resolution. Maybe to get the best picture possible it may be a better choice to use the downconverted UHD as the overlay, although saying that, the color timing of the bluray may be the preferred choice over a hdr / sdr down conversion of the UHD.

SpoRv, I'll take a screenshot of the bluray to compare to the gadget table screenshot I posted before which is taken from the uHD.

Remastered Bluray:
[Image: ZXybagR.jpg]

UHD (from Caps):
[Image: 5uK83gr.jpg]

Remastered Bluray:
[Image: 5O01m8q.jpg]

UHD (from Caps):
[Image: 84i0ZD4.jpg]