[Proposal] Nightbreed (1990) [Project: Celluloid]

[crampedmisfit1990]

Nice progress! Soon as I get home Friday I'll make a torrent file if that is ok with you. I ripped directly from the original disc using anydvd iso ripper. No quality loss whatsoever.

[Turisu]

Really glad to hear that a full rip is available to be the basis of this project. I was kicking myself that I deleted the one that I had.

[zoidberg]

I might be able to attend the screening in May, I'll keep you posted. I'd be very surprised if it was printed on anything other than low-fade stock in 1990.

[LucasGodzilla]

So good news, bad news.

The good news is that I got a chance to rip my Blu-Ray of the Director's Cut as well as Crampedmisfit1990's ISO of the Theatrical Cut and converted them both for usage in Da Vinci Resolve. So far, I have been able to make a rough re-grade for the Theatrical Cut and uhhh... this leads into the bad news.

To put it simply: It looks like hot garbage, like, bad Snapchat filter garbage.

Unfortunately, trying to regrade this movie is exceptionally hard in comparison to Hellraiser since unlike that project, the LUTs generated from the trailer work very weirdly. Practically every shot from it are so wildly different from each other that it becomes nearly impossible to regrade many of the shots consistently with any compilation grades (something that wasn't really an issue with Hellraiser since only two stills were very inconsistent with the rest). It's also a scenario where I have tons of bits to color compare from the same scene but nowhere else, meaning, I have no material I can use to effectively bridge the gap for areas the trailer doesn't showcase (which is also unlike Hellraiser). On top of that, the LUTs made are way darker than I expected (causing immediate black crush even), even for shots the LUT directly applies to, which complicates things since I can't brighten either the movie nor the trailer without some weird issues in the colors. There's only a handful of parts (such as the still below) that I'd think are worth showing that look good but I've had to do some tweaking to fix the aforementioned issues, but for the other 75% of the movie, it's just a nightmare.

Honestly? I don't know where to go from here since it seems that all the problems are a result of the trailer and I can't seem to fix it off the top of my head.

---

After some further experimentation, I have figured out how to fix the darkness issue by simply cranking up the brightness and lowering the contrast on the reference stills from the trailer and then further tweaking some settings in Resolve to get a decent look and brightness. However, that can only be said for a handful of scenes since the colors are still whacked in many scenes, so I'll definitely have to do some further experimentation to yield some further desired results.

Side-note: I've interestingly realized just now that the VHS tapes of the movie's workprint actually somewhat showcase the movie's original colors (albeit in the skewed VHS way). I find this interesting since there are a few examples where you can obviously see some drastic color differences between the newer transfer and the VHS, such as in the pics below.

Sourced from Movie-Censorship.com

Interestingly, I was actually able to recreate this look using one of the LUTs made from the trailer, so at least that can be counted upon lmao

[crampedmisfit1990]

Well, That sure was a disappointment. That's just too bad.

[LucasGodzilla]

Well, That sure was a disappointment. That's just too bad.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm still trying to see how to get all of this to work, but there's a lot that just simply isn't working very well (although I did get a chunk of the movie looking better than before). A huge issue I'm seeing in some grades though is that there's a strange color push that I simply just don't understand where it's coming from and needs to be re-adjusted to counter-act it.

A secondary issue is that there is no semblance of consistency between shots sometimes. The biggest offenders of this issue have to be some of the above-ground Midian shots in both day and night.

(Same night-chase sequence, both had references from the trailer, but one is green whilst the other pushes blue)

It really is a mess but it may be possible to get something working right if I constantly re-adjusted the colors or just refrained from using some of the shot-specific LUTs that differ too much.

[crampedmisfit1990]

Oh, I see. Maybe you can still make some progress after all. I like the blueish color grading you've shown. I feel that really is the more accurate color timing. If you make any more progress be sure to keep us updated. I am really interested in this project and your Hellraiser regrades.

PS: I didn't mean to sound like I was dismissing this project entirely. I reread that and thought damn. Haha
I just meant it was disappointing you were having a lot of trouble with the colors.

[zoidberg]

The 35mm screening is tonight. If anyone has a request for the look of a particular scene let me know.

[LucasGodzilla]

The 35mm screening is tonight. If anyone has a  request for the look of a particular scene let me know.

Well, I have several bits and pieces in mind such as the images below.

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However, to avoid a lot of fussing about trying to photographically remember stills such as those, I have two requests instead. The first would be to try to look at the movie with the trailer colors in mind.

I want to know how the night-time scenes are like: Bathed in blue like this?

This includes the chase sequence in exterior Midian between Boone and Peloquin as well as the opening dream sequence: Is it bathed in a similar shade of blue?

I ask since the trailer randomly shows both in shades of green despite some shots being in blue making the source rather inconsistent in grading.

Are the daylight shots cool in temperature?

The trailer suggests all of the daytime shots have a rather cold color scheme but idk how that's reflected in the print.

There's also the weird bit in the trailer that shows footage the Lori - Decker Midian chase which just looks far too dark to the point of it looking like it's at night. I don't know if that's right (and the subsequent grade I made from it looks very wrong as you may have seen previously).

Finally, what is the color scheme for Midian underground? I've seen several segments in the trailer that depicts it almost slightly greenish and other bits blue.

Again, not sure what to lean towards.

If even remotely possible (not gonna press you to since it's a bit of a prickish thing), try to get some recordings of the projection? It wouldn't be perfect but it'd be helpful as a guideline. Also, see if you can get the projectionist to get some pictures of the reels if possible? That too can be greatly beneficial. Hell, it may even be theoretically possible to see if you can get info on who actually even owns it. Maybe one day a proper scan can be done á la Valeyard-styled release. Of course, again, theoreticals, but it’s worth at least asking whilst the opportunity presents itself.

[zoidberg]

I'll see what I can do