This is quite sudden, but
I decided to edit Blade Runner White Dragon Cut from scratch on 4K resolution.
Yes, White Dragon Cut is not on 4K (3840×2160) nor HD (1280×720).
It is on SD(720×480) (lol)
Yes, it’s DVD quality.
When I started editing the first version of White Dragon Cut was about 15 years ago, when 4K was not yet available and HD quality Blu-rays were finally beginning to appear on the market. Since it was such a time, I started to edit White Dragon Cut on DVD quality.
15 years later, the version 5 has been turned out a huge project to recreate Syd Mead’s Ridleyville on CG. However, the footages for editing is still in SD quality, which I prepared 15 years ago. I had always been concerned about upgrading of image resolution, but I’d been putting it off for some reason.
And it was three days ago.
I burned the scene that I had finished editing up to this point to DVD and played it back on my 55 inch 4K TV.
It’s so bad!
It was terrible in my eyes, which have always been seeing HD and 4K quality.
So I decided to edit Blade Runner White Dragon Cut 5 on 4K quality and release it on HD (Blu-ray).
In order to do that, all of the material has to be in 4K.
The Blade Runner Final Cut has been released in 4K, but the other versions, including the workprint, only released in HD. “Dangerous Days – The Making of Blade Runner”, which is full of rejected scenes, only released in SD resolution. So, I need to start to up-convert these low resolution footages to 4K, remove all scratch noise and do color correction. The CG created for the full Ridleyville recreation will have to be re-rendered in 4K quality, although the modeling data can be used as is. It will take a lot of time to re-render.
Unfortunately, the scheduled November 2021 release will be pushed back by about a year.
Blade Runner White Dragon Cut 5 will come out in November 2022.
Instead, I promise to give you the best quality of resolution for all blade runner fans who are waiting for WDC5.
