Big Trouble In Little China (John Carpenter, 1986) – 35mm Scan

[Beber]

That opening looks pretty much like the remaster colorwise.

[LucasGodzilla]

That opening looks pretty much like the remaster colorwise.

It really does! It surprised the hell out of me when I watched it seeing how close the Euro master got to the 35mm photochemical colors. There are some notable differences and shot-by-shot color grade nuances missing in the Euro master (such as the frame below), but as far as the overall color tone goes, it's pretty much it.

A damn shame the only way anyone could really see it is by importing a foreign copy of the movie since Shout! Factory seemed to have gotten the shaft and was stuck recycling the old Fox master.

Anyways, I actually managed to raise enough funds today to get the next reel released, so I guess we'll be able to continue checking how consistent the Euro master is to the print. I especially can't wait to get a taste of some of the first optical effects of the movie to see how those look when blended in on print stock and whatnot; Plus I recall it was mentioned in the past how the arrival of the Storms scene highlighted some notable issues the Euro master presented.

[PDB]

Its nice to see that Fox made a real effort to present the movie with its real colors. I wish that happened more often.

Thanks for sharing LG

[LucasGodzilla]

Reel 2 has been paid for!

To see these reel previews and more, please donate to help support the project!

[LucasGodzilla]

Reel 3 preview has been released with Reel 4 impending soon (Donors can check it out in the Mega folder link I provided)!

To check out these previews, please help donate to the project! 

[LucasGodzilla]

Reels 4 and 5 are now up in the Mega folder!


Want to mention that although the wear of the print is definitely coming through with the higher prevalence of scratches, the scan can still serve as a perfect reference for regrading the Fox or Euro master!

So again, if you want to help see this project through and check out the previews now, help donate today!

[LucasGodzilla]

Reel 6 of 6 is up on Mega!

The scan's now fully funded for, however, I still need funding to cover for the hard drive, so do please donate!

[techpress]

Hi, how do you donate?

[LucasGodzilla]

So it's been a while since the last update.

Long story short is I was waiting on some stuff, and that wait time sort of got extended. I was first waiting on an SDU4 mix from the optical, which thankfully has been made available to me not long ago.

I've also been very recently working on a new proper color grade for the scan since the previews were done by someone else from the scanner's end since they have access to the hard drive. And while I am glad those previews were made, I admittedly am not a huge fan of how the colors looked on them (muddy black level and looked too warm overall, resulting in unneutral highlights and tealer blues). Thankfully though I was able to gain access to a handful of raw frames to work with in Resolve and produce a new grade.



Doubt it's perfect (especially since I recall someone mentioned the lightning looked cyan on their screening) but I'm at least more content with how some of it looks. I am asking @zoidberg though about his sixpence since he was able to attend that one 70mm screening and should hopefully be able to shed some light as to how "accurate" this looks. On the upside though, the color grade approach was pretty much the same as The Keep's and thankfully the colors don't look off, confirming to me that it's not @TomArrow 's color chart adjustment but rather the print itself.

However, I still don't have the hard drive with the raw scan files myself still (had to ask to be sent these frames over the web for color testing), so I won't able to produce a proper MKV release for some time until Hellraiser gets funded (since both scans will be sharing the same drive).

[apzlsoxk]

I'm very interested in this project, I love this movie. Is this still open for donations?