In last week’s industry announcement that Warner Bros. Pictures will release its full 2021 film slate live on HBO Max, raising questions about the future of the theatrical experience, he also made it clear to film-lovers that the quality home entertainment setup was more than ever. Required. No Christmas Day Release Wonder Woman 1984 The first 4K HDR on the HBO Max will mark the release of the Dolby Atmos, and will not be the last. Those experimental advances, towards which mainstream audiences are becoming more and more attracted, are encouraging other filmmakers to ensure that their classic “living room cinema” lives up to the standards of the revolution. That’s why Peter Jackson couldn’t sit around his Lord of the Rings trilogy and collect dust.
Just in time for the holidays, Jackson, his creative team, and Warner Bros. renamed the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit trilogy set to 4K UHD and Dolby Atmos. To prepare the audience to hear and think “changes” in the process of updating Star Wars movies, Jackson recorded an introductory video explaining exactly what he did with his fictional epic.
Jackson says in the six-minute video, “It was interesting to go back and revisit these films,” and that’s because of how the Lord of the Rings trilogy was shot. “
Every day on the original trilogy, which carried out major photography between 1999 and 2000, Jackson and the WETA workshop team advanced the envelope of available technology. Which created a unique process, even though each individual film was made together. While Fellowship of the Ring, Two towers, And Return of the King All were shot on mm 35mm film, Jackson completed the first film with “old-fashioned, mechanical” color timing, designed to perfect the colors of labor non-set photography. The second and third films embraced more advanced digital color timing, which gave Jackson more precision to tweak the distinctive color of each frame and sequence – but nothing compared to what he found 10 years later with the Hobbit trilogy.
Jackson captured the story of Bilbo Baggins with a 4K digital camera, and processed images with advanced color timing. Due to the aesthetic distance between the films, the director has to return to the studio, making all the films “feel like they were shot at the same time.” It says that 4K HDR remastering successfully delivers that consistency.
He says, “The thing with 4K is not just for the original physique, it’s all about preserving its cinematic look at the same time it becomes crisp.”
The conversion to 4K HDR sought to upgrade many of the film’s effect shots, which began to show imperfections in high resolution. “Visual effects technology has made a lot of progress over the last 20 years, and while they became ultra-agile and sharp in the 4K process, we realized that some shots didn’t capture very well.” “So we had a chance to go back and paint any imperfections.”
Jackson knows what you’re thinking: Legolas will shoot even better first! But in the video, he insists that he and WET did not “upgrade” or “enhance” the effects shot, and that we are used to seeing it. Except they think they were made today instead of 20 years ago.
The one thing Jackson thinks is not normal because Lucas sees his saga as a huge story. Hobbit films by the director are not considered some fast – they are the prelude to favorite films. Now, for the first time on 4K, they experience “a big long movie telling a big story.”
Going back to Lord of the Rings also helped Jackson reflect on the consistency of his films. In the video, he gives the hive a little voice in describing why he continues to take on Tolkien.
“It’s not a story of heroes or superheroes,” he says. “It’s the story of regular people who set out to save their world.”
The Lord of the Rings Extended Edition trilogy 4K UHD and Hobbit Trilogy 4K UHD are out now.
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