2020-09-18, 05:49 PM
(This post was last modified: 2020-09-18, 05:49 PM by see_everything.)
Inspired by Steven Soderbergh's Raiders project, this is a black and white (and silent!) version of the darkest GoT episode ever. When the episode first aired, viewers had complained about the picture being too dark. However, thanks to the higher dynamic range of the UHD Blu-ray, I was able to bring out a huge amount of detail by working with the 8-bit "bed". I regraded every single shot by hand, in glorious black and white. With this project, I aimed to not only showcase Miguel Sapochnik's excellent directing, but also the impeccable amount of talent and effort by, well, everyone in the cast and crew. Also, the grain was accentuated, which I feel works wonders with black and white (plus, I think it looks a bit scarier now). I had to reduce the grain in a few extreme close-ups, though.
This is still a work in progress, and I have made a lot of mistakes, especially in the beginning (I would learn new things as I went along, as the process took me at least two months). The flames in particular were extremely hard to pull off. I apologize for the ugly artifacts that pop up here and there. There are a lot of reasons for this: the source material, the conversion to Cineform (as my weak little laptop could not handle H.265, not to mention that I'm using the free version of DaVinci Resolve), and, of course, my constant tinkering with shadow and highlight levels. I do plan to make a full-color version with a similar level of brightness, but only after I switch to an HDR-capable rig with the Studio version of Resolve. I could also make an HDR black and white version in the future.
![[Image: ggoTElY.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/ggoTElY.jpg)
I would like some feedback on my grading, especially on continuity between shots (like the sky, where I'm sure I also made some mistakes). Also, please tell me if more shots need less (or more!) grain. Also, some help with the audio would be appreciated; as I am unable to work with Dolby Atmos, I settled on making a very crude downmix of the 7.1 bed with the center and LFE channels muted. Of course, there is the occasional vocal bleed, so it's not completely silent (plus, I need to use a better limiter, as there are a few instances of the audio clipping). If anyone here owns Dolby Media Production Suite or other software that can decode Atmos metadata, I will gladly send you the .thd file so you can take a crack at it!
If you'd like to see this WIP project, please, send me a PM. Thank you!
Oh, and since this is a test render, there are no opening or end credits for the time being. The CGI opening looks terrible in B&W, so I'm considering making a simple opening title sequence that resembles that at the end of the episode (just white letters on black background), maybe with a snippet of Ramin Djawadi's soundtrack for this episode. All suggestions are welcome!
This is still a work in progress, and I have made a lot of mistakes, especially in the beginning (I would learn new things as I went along, as the process took me at least two months). The flames in particular were extremely hard to pull off. I apologize for the ugly artifacts that pop up here and there. There are a lot of reasons for this: the source material, the conversion to Cineform (as my weak little laptop could not handle H.265, not to mention that I'm using the free version of DaVinci Resolve), and, of course, my constant tinkering with shadow and highlight levels. I do plan to make a full-color version with a similar level of brightness, but only after I switch to an HDR-capable rig with the Studio version of Resolve. I could also make an HDR black and white version in the future.
I would like some feedback on my grading, especially on continuity between shots (like the sky, where I'm sure I also made some mistakes). Also, please tell me if more shots need less (or more!) grain. Also, some help with the audio would be appreciated; as I am unable to work with Dolby Atmos, I settled on making a very crude downmix of the 7.1 bed with the center and LFE channels muted. Of course, there is the occasional vocal bleed, so it's not completely silent (plus, I need to use a better limiter, as there are a few instances of the audio clipping). If anyone here owns Dolby Media Production Suite or other software that can decode Atmos metadata, I will gladly send you the .thd file so you can take a crack at it!
If you'd like to see this WIP project, please, send me a PM. Thank you!
Oh, and since this is a test render, there are no opening or end credits for the time being. The CGI opening looks terrible in B&W, so I'm considering making a simple opening title sequence that resembles that at the end of the episode (just white letters on black background), maybe with a snippet of Ramin Djawadi's soundtrack for this episode. All suggestions are welcome!