Warning: SPOILERS for The Hateful Eight below (duh)
Well, I needed some practice with Davinci Resolve for another, much more complicated project, and I have been wanting to do this for quite some time, so I'm happy to announce this project, Version 1 of which is rendering right now.
The Hateful Eight is one of my favorite Tarantino movies (don't hate). The Blu-ray for The Hateful Eight leaves something to be desired. In particular, the color timing just isn't how I remember it looking in theaters, and it is light on the details. Thankfully, some kind Russian folks leaked a 4K encode of what they claimed to be a DCP copy from Russia. However, the 25fps would suggest otherwise. Either way, this Russian 4K version looks stellar. It's way, way better than the Blu-ray. In general, colors seem more accurate, with less of a magenta push. Snow, in particular, looks great in the 4K. Also, dat detail is awesome.
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/127071
(I'll post more comparisons once my PC is done rendering the project) (Also Frame Compare was giving me an error so I used screenshotcomparison, please don't kill me Rob
)
The only problems were:
1. It was 25 fps.
2. The main title and chapter titles were in Russian
3. Two very brief spots have burned in Russian subtitles.
Thankfully, problem 1 is fixed quite easily. I just slowed it down.
Problem 2 was also easy, I just swapped in the 1080p Blu-ray title footage for the 4K version. It's mostly white text on a black background, so the resolution change shouldn't be very noticeable if at all. The main title and Quentin Tarantino credit are in yellow, but even they are on a black background and the 1080p footage looks fine here. Thankfully, the opening credits that aren't on a black background are in English in the Russian version, so that got to stay as is. Same goes for the end credits.
Problem 3 is the one that I don't have a great solution for. For v1, I simply swapped in the 1080p Blu-ray footage in these spots. The first of these sequences is literally a single shot and, frankly, I'm not too worried about it. The second sequence is a brief dialogue between two characters speaking Spanish. It's only a few shots long. For v2, I want to color match the Blu-ray footage to the 4K footage so it's as minimally obvious as possible, but honestly, it doesn't look bad as is. 99.9% of this thing is just the 4K release slowed down.
As far as audio, I have synced this to the Blu-ray's audio. I don't really have any issues with the track, and a few minor differences in the length of the chapter title cards meant that using the DCP's audio would be super duper annoying. In addition, that audio had to be re-encoded because of PAL speedup anyway, so the 5.1 from the Blu-ray just made sense as the thing to use here.
(Images would not post so here is an album with them all: https://imgur.com/a/RZarDuS)
Here's a report on the work I did:
Next project: Stealing Tarantino's 35mm print of the longer Roadshow Cut that they show at The New Beverly and scanning it so we can have the superior cut of the movie
Well, I needed some practice with Davinci Resolve for another, much more complicated project, and I have been wanting to do this for quite some time, so I'm happy to announce this project, Version 1 of which is rendering right now.
The Hateful Eight is one of my favorite Tarantino movies (don't hate). The Blu-ray for The Hateful Eight leaves something to be desired. In particular, the color timing just isn't how I remember it looking in theaters, and it is light on the details. Thankfully, some kind Russian folks leaked a 4K encode of what they claimed to be a DCP copy from Russia. However, the 25fps would suggest otherwise. Either way, this Russian 4K version looks stellar. It's way, way better than the Blu-ray. In general, colors seem more accurate, with less of a magenta push. Snow, in particular, looks great in the 4K. Also, dat detail is awesome.
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/127071
(I'll post more comparisons once my PC is done rendering the project) (Also Frame Compare was giving me an error so I used screenshotcomparison, please don't kill me Rob
)The only problems were:
1. It was 25 fps.
2. The main title and chapter titles were in Russian
3. Two very brief spots have burned in Russian subtitles.
Thankfully, problem 1 is fixed quite easily. I just slowed it down.
Problem 2 was also easy, I just swapped in the 1080p Blu-ray title footage for the 4K version. It's mostly white text on a black background, so the resolution change shouldn't be very noticeable if at all. The main title and Quentin Tarantino credit are in yellow, but even they are on a black background and the 1080p footage looks fine here. Thankfully, the opening credits that aren't on a black background are in English in the Russian version, so that got to stay as is. Same goes for the end credits.
Problem 3 is the one that I don't have a great solution for. For v1, I simply swapped in the 1080p Blu-ray footage in these spots. The first of these sequences is literally a single shot and, frankly, I'm not too worried about it. The second sequence is a brief dialogue between two characters speaking Spanish. It's only a few shots long. For v2, I want to color match the Blu-ray footage to the 4K footage so it's as minimally obvious as possible, but honestly, it doesn't look bad as is. 99.9% of this thing is just the 4K release slowed down.
As far as audio, I have synced this to the Blu-ray's audio. I don't really have any issues with the track, and a few minor differences in the length of the chapter title cards meant that using the DCP's audio would be super duper annoying. In addition, that audio had to be re-encoded because of PAL speedup anyway, so the 5.1 from the Blu-ray just made sense as the thing to use here.
(Images would not post so here is an album with them all: https://imgur.com/a/RZarDuS)
Here's a report on the work I did:
- Added two frames of black to the end of title to sync with Blu-ray
- There is a missing frame in the Blu-ray during the long shot just after the title, I cut one frame of black from the “Chapter 1” title card in order to compensate for this and remain in sync for dialogue and such
- The last frame before the Chapter 2 title card is missing on the Blu-ray, which contains one extra flame of black and therefore otherwise maintains sync with the 4K in this instance. This frame is unique to the 4K. I left it in because why not: https://imgur.com/MJb8Ltg
- The Chapter 3 title card is one frame shorter on the Blu-ray. I accounted for this.
- The end of Chapter 3 has another unique frame! This time it looks like the following. It’s worth noting that the frames just before this one are perfectly in sync between the two versions, and that this frame is only in the 4K. I left this one in, too: https://imgur.com/uMOEu7i
- During the Chapter 4 title card is where the two versions differ in sync significantly. The Blu-ray version (and therefore this version) is quite a bit longer than the Russian 4K. In addition, the fade in from black after the title card is missing its first frame in the Russian 4K version, so i’ve simply added one more black frame there. In case you’re thinking some awesome frame of Tarantino goodness is now missing, don’t worry, it looks like this: https://imgur.com/w1ID7Ht
- If you look closely at the above frame, you’ll see a tiny little dot toward the center of the screen. That’s a lantern, here’s what a few frames later looks like: https://imgur.com/YJ8vDXe
- The first frame after the Chapter 5 title card was duplicated on the Blu-ray. There was an extra black frame in the 4K. I guessed that the black frame, rather than the duplication, was correct, so I went with that.
- A few select shots in Chapter 5 feature burned in subtitles. I have replaced those shots with the matching shots from the Blu-ray. In the future, I’d like to Color Match these shots to the shots from the 4K version, but for now, they are copied directly. Here are the Russian shots, followed by the English shots. The first is this outdoor shot: https://imgur.com/fgtNGOI https://imgur.com/wnDDSJ1
- The there's this quick dialogue sequence: https://imgur.com/bKBqffj https://imgur.com/nUtIOot
- The Final Chapter title card is significantly longer in the Russian 4K version. I’ve cut it down to match the Blu-ray (by simply replacing it, just like the others).
Next project: Stealing Tarantino's 35mm print of the longer Roadshow Cut that they show at The New Beverly and scanning it so we can have the superior cut of the movie
...but... (there is always a "but"! 
