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

[potatowes]

Very interested in this project as well. Happy to contribute if still looking for pledges

[thrasherx]

I'm also interested in contributing to this project. Thanks!

[LucasGodzilla]

I have finally gotten around to making a proper release of the scan, so those of you who are interested, shoot me a PM as I'm not sure how long I'll be able to keep it available.

[LucasGodzilla]

Been looking into some of the criticism I received involving the shadows and highlights handling of this release. Been realizing that there actually has been a bit of crushing involved without my knowledge in some areas. As for the clipping highlights, that is also Resolve color science weirdness where it's technically not clipping anywhere but it was definitely compressed pretty hard.

As such, I spent a fair bit experimenting further with Resolve's color management settings and whatnot and I have this now...

---

V2 | Current Test Grade

---

Not sure what else to really say about it quite frankly other than it no longer quite crushing anymore? I just thought I'd post this and see what people think on that matter?

Frankly though, I'd rather focus on trying to do a regrade of one of the existing masters than re-render a rather scratchy print again that's marginally less dark.

I also wanted to address the fact that I do not really appreciate the fact that this got slapped onto the Spleen without my knowledge. I can't do anything about it now but I'm not a fan of waking up to reading a PM informing me about it as well as reading it being picked up by many on the blu-ray forum. So whoever is doing that, I respectfully ask to refrain from doing so in the further future, please?

[Hitcher]

I also wanted to address the fact that I do not really appreciate the fact that this got slapped onto the Spleen without my knowledge. I can't do anything about it now but I'm not a fan of waking up to reading a PM informing me about it as well as reading it being picked up by many on the blu-ray forum. So whoever is doing that, I respectfully ask to refrain from doing so in the further future, please?

Yeah, that's not cool. Sorry to hear.

[apzlsoxk]

Been looking into some of the criticism I received involving the shadows and highlights handling of this release. Been realizing that there actually has been a bit of crushing involved without my knowledge in some areas. As for the clipping highlights, that is also Resolve color science weirdness where it's technically not clipping anywhere but it was definitely compressed pretty hard.

I figured the crushed blacks was a consequence of watching a relatively raw film scan on a computer monitor rather than a projector, I usually have to boost the gamma level on 'Grindhouse' releases.

There was a bit of light bleeding in on the right side of the film, so I'm wondering if that was responsible for the crushed blacks on the left hand side? I'm not entirely sure how resolve works, but I figure it could be some sort of asymmetric brightness issue. I'm on mobile so I've got no screenshots right now.

I really liked the 4 channel audio track. I've never seen that before, so thanks for including it.

You have such a good eye for how to grade a Dean Cundy movie. Maybe try Jack and Jill next? 

That's kind of wild it's been shared and is getting discussed on forums like that within only a couple days. Seems a bit rude Imo. I've been hoping and praying for a MySpleen account for months, I'll gladly take over that person's account and use it responsibly.

[X5gb]

Yea, LG, was going to let you know someone just chucked it up at the organ, but got sidetracked. The comments mentioned that you might not be happy about whoever shared it there. This is the problem when you share to a public forum though.

All these one hit posters on here asking about where to find something gets on my nerves as well, need to read the rules.

PS, Looks like he has apologised in the comments but won't take it down which defies the logic.

[LucasGodzilla]

Been looking into some of the criticism I received involving the shadows and highlights handling of this release. Been realizing that there actually has been a bit of crushing involved without my knowledge in some areas. As for the clipping highlights, that is also Resolve color science weirdness where it's technically not clipping anywhere but it was definitely compressed pretty hard.

I figured the crushed blacks was a consequence of watching a relatively raw film scan on a computer monitor rather than a projector, I usually have to boost the gamma level on 'Grindhouse' releases.

There was a bit of light bleeding in on the right side of the film, so I'm wondering if that was responsible for the crushed blacks on the left hand side? I'm not entirely sure how resolve works, but I figure it could be some sort of asymmetric brightness issue. I'm on mobile so I've got no screenshots right now.

I really liked the 4 channel audio track. I've never seen that before, so thanks for including it.

You have such a good eye for how to grade a Dean Cundy movie. Maybe try Jack and Jill next? 

That's kind of wild it's been shared and is getting discussed on forums like that within only a couple days. Seems a bit rude Imo. I've been hoping and praying for a MySpleen account for months, I'll gladly take over that person's account and use it responsibly.

Was looking further into the matter and I realized there was a gamma setting in one of the color transformations I used in Resolve that was off which immediately fixed a number of issues that people brought up involving how the highlights and shadows were being handled. Just one of those moments where Resolve's color science was being weird with me being too stupid to actually realize something was wrong despite staring at it in the face.

My sentiment is still the same though that the previous render wasn't super crushed nor clipped, but rather extremely gamma-compressed for the most part.

Anyways, given how drastically different the results are, I'm heavily weighing the option of re-rendering it for a V3 since it not only addresses the issues everyone fussed about before, but it also gives me a moment to re-adjust a few other minor things I noticed in-post (such as tweaking the crop).

Also, on the note real fast of the light leak on the right side, that's just a defect of the old scanning method.

Yea, LG, was going to let you know someone just chucked it up at the organ, but got sidetracked. The comments mentioned that you might not be happy about whoever shared it there. This is the problem when you share to a public forum though.

All these one hit posters on here asking about where to find something gets on my nerves as well, need to read the rules.

PS, Looks like he has apologised in the comments but won't take it down which defies the logic.

Wonder who actually did it though as a non-Spleener. I don't actually even mind people who inquire about it and all that since I'm not the kind of guy to really bar folks from stuff (especially given I'm doing this non-profit), I just don't like the principle of someone just tossing it there without even bothering to ask nor tell me personally.

Guess the irony is it actually did push me to look more into what I did wrong beforehand, so I guess in a weird twist of fate, thanks LOL

[apzlsoxk]

Those new screens look excellent. I also figured out what the issue was on my end, mpv was assuming the incorrect color range and figured I wanted cropped colors. It fixed the issue I had with the command below, anyone else using mpv probably is experiencing the same issue.

mpv BigTroubleInLittleChina.1986.35mm.2160p.Stereo.v2.mkv.mkv --vf=format:colorlevels=full

Usually that command just washes everything out, but it looks like it might actually do something in this case without just boosting the gamma. I included some screenshots as a before & after. I could just be fussing though and the before is the intended picture.

[LucasGodzilla]

Those new screens look excellent. I also figured out what the issue was on my end, mpv was assuming the incorrect color range and figured I wanted cropped colors. It fixed the issue I had with the command below, anyone else using mpv probably is experiencing the same issue.

Unfortunately, those pre-adjusted caps are just how that release looked. Here's what it pretty much looks like now that I tweaked the gamma.



So now the image is nowhere near as shadow-compressed nor crushed. I'll probably see if I can get this re-render out within a week?