[Canceled] Aliens TV Cut and Theatrical Regrade (Fox THX Laserdisc)

[PDB]

Thanks alexpden.

I think I will look at it shot by shot basis but over all 75% looks pretty good. I have done an initial grade up till the dropship crash and going off Andrea and everyone's advice, the 75% looks more natural but still has the colors that make the LD unique.

I think I'm going to try that with some scenes in Alien also.

[alexp2000]

How are things going with this and Alien?

[PDB]

How are things going with this and Alien?

Well for Alien and Blade Runner, I have finished the video and audio for both. The only thing left is to figure out is menus, extras (if any) and have people test it. Having finished Blade Runner's video, I started back on MM2 trying to get that done ASAP. Aliens is on hold for now for a couple of reasons.

When I'm doing these projects I wanted to get as close to a theatrical print as possible. Since I can't get prints, I have been using laserdiscs that skew as close to theatrical prints as I can find. With a lot of pics and other evidence I can deduce that the LDs are somewhat closer to theatrical prints then the BDs. Its never a perfect match and I can never be 100% sure but hopefully they are much closer.  Regardless, I have always called these alternative versions because there is a measure of doubt without a theatrical print.

So I'm pretty set on Alien, BR and MM2. Aliens is the odd-man out. I have 3 LDs, the TV broadcast, 2 DVDs and 3 HDTV broadcasts. They all look different but share a common look. Cool timing, blues, purples, whites, etc. The BD is different, more green. So naturally you would think go with that bluer/cooler look and that's what I did using the 95 LD, (mostly because I used the 95 LD for Alien).

To 100% confirm that the 95 LD was closest to a print I have been trying to track down a 35mm print. In that quest  I found these pics of a LPP print:



I couldn't buy that print (too expensive) so I started looking for a Derann Super 8 print and found this:



I know its a little controversial but I got say that the BD looks closest to both prints. Both prints seem to have a lot of green in them like the BD. Sure you can say they are pics of a print and may not represent the print well and clearly there is more yellow and blue in those prints in some spots, more saturation but that is far more the BD's colors then any of the DVDs, LDs, etc.

So, for right now I'm on holding off and trying to find a copy of the Derann Super 8 (or 35mm) so I can better figure out the colors.

[Stamper]

You just hit the jackpot. Cameron so called Teal Retcons are actually how the original films were, more or less. The home videos versions were the real retcon, doctored to look good tube screens.

[PDB]

You just hit the jackpot. Cameron so called Teal Retcons are actually how the original films were, more or less. The home videos versions were the real retcon, doctored to look good tube screens.

Yeah, not 100% convinced but to me its looking more and more like that is right.

[Stamper]

I did said more or less. Cameron always adjusted his films for home-video. The deep blues really started to creep everywhere on home video. The deep blue was part of the theatrical color thought, only not so much in abundance.

[CSchmidlapp]

The film cells do look like the BD's
Very Interesting. Never got to see Aliens in 35mm, only on Home Video from VHS to BD.
The Terminator never had the teal it has now, so it may not be to true that all of Cameron's work looked like this.

[TServo2049]

The Terminator probably didn't have exactly the kind of teal it has now, but I'm betting that it didn't look exactly like the older home transfers either.

I got my hands on the original German DVD a few months back; it looks to have been transferred from a high-contrast IP or print master element struck for the German theatrical release. It has the German theatrical distributor notice optically superimposed over the Orion logo, and it has the original end credits without the acknowledgment to Harlan Ellison. It has more green/teal than any of the other home releases, and it's the same kind of washed-out, blown-out sort of look as (oddly enough) that Dark Knight screener I sent you.

I have a feeling that it's a closer representation of the theatrical colors, in the same way as the TDK screener - not exactly what a print would look like projected in a theater, but closer than any home transfer that was specifically re-balanced for home video.

[PDB]

The film cells do look like the BD's
Very Interesting. Never got to see Aliens in 35mm, only on Home Video from VHS to BD.
The Terminator never had the teal it has now, so it may not be to true that all of Cameron's work looked like this.

Now its a quest to find what Aliens truly looks like.

The Terminator probably didn't have exactly the kind of teal it has now, but I'm betting that it didn't look exactly like the older home transfers either.

I got my hands on the original German DVD a few months back; it looks to have been transferred from a high-contrast IP or print master element struck for the German theatrical release. It has the German theatrical distributor notice optically superimposed over the Orion logo, and it has the original end credits without the acknowledgment to Harlan Ellison. It has more green/teal than any of the other home releases, and it's the same kind of washed-out, blown-out sort of look as (oddly enough) that Dark Knight screener I sent you.

I have a feeling that it's a closer representation of the theatrical colors, in the same way as the TDK screener - not exactly what a print would look like projected in a theater, but closer than any home transfer that was specifically re-balanced for home video.

Not to derail my own thread but could you post some pics from that DVD, Tservo2049? I'd love to see the differences.

[TServo2049]

Sure I would, though not tonight. Just about to fall asleep.....