Hi, everybody. We wanted to quickly thank everyone for their support of our video, as well as make a few important points regarding its reception.
When we watched our colorized shots from the film with Hans Zimmer's powerful score, it gave us chills. Our intention was to share that love with maybe 10,000 like-minded Superman fans. Instead, the video went viral.
When a video goes viral, we tend to assume some maliciousness on part of the creator, as if it was a perfectly executed social networking master plan of self-promotion. The truth is that viral videos only happen one way -- by accident. There's no formula or everyone would do it. A perfect storm of 7-8 unlikely things propelled this video way beyond its intended sphere of influence.
Man of Steel is a very dark movie and the footage you see is actually 90% genuine but, at the end of the day, this is a comedy video and no one should be taking it so seriously. If the title didn't give it away, the fact we stop our comparisons every 5 seconds for a dumb joke should have. It's not a lesson on color grading. It's not a hit piece against DC. It's not, 'Look at us, we 'fixed' the movie." It's not an insider expose on the inner workings of corporate filmmaking.
It's a 3 minute youtube video intended to get a few laughs and maybe shed some light on the importance of color grading for those outside of film & video production. We also think it makes some important points about Superman and Man of Steel.
We're video editors and motion graphics designers, not professional film colorists. We stand by the editing, graphics, & points we make as being pretty solid for something that largely came together in a couple days. However, we won't defend the color grading because we know it isn't good. We're amateur colorists and it's impossible to put back color once it's gone. It's just an approximation. Plus, a film isn't just a collection of pretty shots, it's is a 2-hour experience and decisions like tone & color grading should only be considered in that context.
Given the widespread distribution of the video, we have some regrets. Using the term "restoration" implies there was something wrong with the film, which is unfair. We also deeply regret if the video offended anyone involved in the production of these films because we love DC movies and will be first in line for every single one of their upcoming films. We just hope they have more color.
The video received exponentially more attention than it probably deserved and was not designed to stand up to the level of scrutiny it is receiving. When you put a video on the internet, that is your choice. We both deserve and invite the criticism along with the goodwill. However, no one in their right mind would ever anticipate their fist youtube video getting a million views in one day.
Don't mistake a goofy entertainment video for something more. It's a silly and slightly misleading opinion piece that's being analyzed through a lens of legitimacy it does not deserve or warrant. The fact that this video is so popular should serve as a testament to Man of Steel, not to us.
It's a great time to be alive for comic fans. No one wants these movies to be great more than us and DC has some incredible things in store for us over the next few years.
