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TMP Re-Edit Project (v2)

Synnöve

Synnöve

Lieutenant
Red Shirt
Greetings,

As some of you might remember, I initiated a re-edit and restoration project for TMP last winter. After procuring the necessary time and hardware, I've been able to produce a little more work which might be of interest to y'all.

One of the major problems with using the blu-ray as a video source is the heavy amount of revisionist/lazy color-correction and haphazard grain reduction. The lack of care results in most of the black tones being crushed, high-lights blown out, and frozen grain-fields that appear very unnatural.

For scenes where these aspects are not correctable using simple correction methods, I've had to layer the old, dirty, and overly compressed HDTV transfer's highlights and shadow tones on the blu-ray to recover the information. Afterwards I've done some sharpening, added back in the film grain, and preformed some basic color correction.

The scene most in need of this treatment was the Enterprise Reveal in the drydock. While I've not rendered out the proper masking or color correction yet, I think my latest composite is as close as can be made with my skills and time.

Please view in 1080P HD: http://youtu.be/I64atQCpKYU

What do you think?
 
While I share in the unpleasant experience that is the recent news concerning Collins, I'd appreciate if that discussion was kept to its thread and not aired here for 5 sequential posts.

Tosk: I decided to v2 the project because the process I'm using for composition and color grading is very different from the one I originally used.
 
At this point in my 35 years of TMP-watching and -listening experience, I would appreciate (though unable to undertake myself) a version that's dialogue-free, in which no one is shown speaking. Just music, effects shots, and the occasional reaction shot or significant glance, raised eyebrow, etc., from one of the crew to another. (Also, the transporter accident can go; this was judiciously omitted from the color Photostory paperback, too.) The result would be perhaps 45 to 60 minutes in length. Of course, several long sequences could still remain unaltered under these constraints.

For those who see parallels between TMP and 2001, this would have the side benefit of reinforcing the connection; there's no dialogue for about the first 15 minutes and last 20 minutes of 2001, and even between those time points there are many long scenes (e.g., the second stage of the trip to the Moon; HAL's murder of the sleepers) with music or sound effects only.
 
gottacook said:
At this point in my 35 years of TMP-watching and -listening experience, I would appreciate (though unable to undertake myself) a version that's dialogue-free, in which no one is shown speaking. Just music, effects shots, and the occasional reaction shot or significant glance, raised eyebrow, etc., from one of the crew to another. (Also, the transporter accident can go; this was judiciously omitted from the color Photostory paperback, too.) The result would be perhaps 45 to 60 minutes in length. Of course, several long sequences could still remain unaltered under these constraints.

For those who see parallels between TMP and 2001, this would have the side benefit of reinforcing the connection; there's no dialogue for about the first 15 minutes and last 20 minutes of 2001, and even between those time points there are many long scenes (e.g., the second stage of the trip to the Moon; HAL's murder of the sleepers) with music or sound effects only.
Click to expand...

How would cutting all the dialogue help the story? I'm not sure that I see any benefit to a full feature of fx shots with literally nothing else.
 
gottacook said:
(Also, the transporter accident can go; this was judiciously omitted from the color Photostory paperback, too.) .
Click to expand...

Why delete the transporter accident? That's one of the more effective scenes in the movie . . . and adds a welcome degree of drama.

Just curious.
 
gottacook said:
I would appreciate (though unable to undertake myself) a version that's dialogue-free, in which no one is shown speaking. Just music, effects shots, and the occasional reaction shot or significant glance, raised eyebrow, etc., from one of the crew to...
Click to expand...

HSaOOdo.gif
 
Sorry, without dialog the film would be utterly incomprehensible. 2001 was designed as a visual experience with minimal dialog. TMP wasn't.
 
Here is the K'tinga reveal. The Blu-Ray had crushed blacks, a few clipped highlights, and the grading was such that the V'ger cloud was rendered very dark and grainy. I've taken information from the HDTV broadcast to supplement the Blu-Ray, resulting in this composite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCn2RZkfeNc
 
Here are some reasons I don't like the scene and never did:
  • Other transporter accidents, before and since - "The Enemy Within," the episode that introduces Thomas Riker, etc. - involved central characters we cared about (and hence weren't fatal). Instead TMP gives us one involving a character we've never met and see only as a screaming blur, plus Sonak, who'd gotten a few lines of dialogue down on the surface but otherwise made no real impression. This makes the scene (despite the two fatalities) insubstantial as a story element by comparison with the more interesting uses of transporter malfunctions that formed the basis of whole episodes.*
  • Rand is reintroduced for this, to witness an event that will surely traumatize her for the rest of her life, and then isn't heard from again?
  • There's no good reason for the ambiguity surrounding whether Kirk's impetuousness is to blame for the circumstances of the accident. If he is blameless, the scene has no purpose except to wake up the audience after that long, long exterior tour of the ship - although the wormhole scene could have served the same purpose if departure from dock had taken place earlier in the movie. If he is to blame, there are no repercussions whatever, except that a Science Office position filled by a Vulcan (how convenient) becomes vacant.
  • Introducing a character just to kill him is fine for comic effect (for example, the beginning of each episode of Police Squad!) but seems ridiculous in a drama.

    *The deaths of crew members we've never met can be the basis for a dramatic moment, but only in very particular circumstances, such as in "Q Who?"
 
The transporter accident isn't about Kirk or Rand of Sonak or unnamed woman with Sonak. It's there to set up the tension regarding the ship being rushed out before it's ready, which culminates with its near destruction in the wormhole. It's basic first act setup.
 
I'm afraid I can't really judge the new versions without immediate comparison to the original image.

gottacook said:
a version that's dialogue-free, in which no one is shown speaking. Just music, effects shots, and the occasional reaction shot or significant glance, raised eyebrow, etc., from one of the crew to another.
Click to expand...

So shipboard scenes would consist of the cast scowling and waggling their eyebrows at each other?
 
Maurice said:
The transporter accident isn't about Kirk or Rand of Sonak or unnamed woman with Sonak. It's there to set up the tension regarding the ship being rushed out before it's ready, which culminates with its near destruction in the wormhole. It's basic first act setup.
Click to expand...

+1

The scene is right on the tails of Decker saying that him and Scott will tow the Enterprise out with their bare hands if she isn't ready.
 
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