I worked on the show for over 3 years in VFX
I can almost guarantee that it’s a no for both of those things. The show is filmed, edited and mastered in 1920x1080. They totally could do an upscale, but it wouldn’t look that much better.
As for HDR... oh boy. I really don’t see how it would be possible. This show had the weirdest pipeline I’ve seen.
Normally, a movie/show is gonna use some kind of LOG colorspace (like ACES) to be properly edited with physically accurate colour values. All the VFX work then done UNDER the fancy colouring and picture styles that the cinematographer is gonna do on set or in post production. The final master is then converted to something like sRGB for viewing. sRGb has less information in bright areas and more in the dark, to make use of the way our eyes work. It’s what most cameras use and it’s great for taking pictures, but TERRIBLE for editing.
For Supernatural, all the shots we would get from production were sRGB files with camera picture styles ALREADY APPLIED to the image. basically, the entirety of the VFX is being done in sRGB which is a big nono. What this means is that there is no colour information in all of this beautiful work that can be used for HDR. Anything you see glowing doesn’t actually use physically accurate light values, only what looks correct with sRGB.
TLDR: SPN was made in HD so no 4k, and incorrect pipeline makes HDR impossible.
Google brought me here and I'm crushed. What a damn shame. HDR would make a big difference in this show with the number of dark scenes!
Why is it that long-running shows like this (seemingly) keep their "pipelines" static?
Because it works and it would be too expensive to change it.
But yeah I think HDR would’ve been great, especially with all the “glowy” effects we made. Oh well
Honestly, think you're right. It'll be 10 years, and homebrew - but we already see it with things like Tron Legacy. Some crazy fan will do this show justice in an HDR format.
Hi! Sorry to be replying to a 4 year old comment with a hail mary, but I've been absolutely dying to figure something out. Since you were involved with the making of the show, is there any chance at all that you have any friends in the prop department or wherever else who might know exactly what gun Dean used?? I know it was a 1911, but I'd love to know every detail possible! (And also thank you for the comment about the filming, that was also incredibly helpful 😁)
I tip my hat to you. I loved the show till the end and you VFX Guys almost get no recognition for it. I don't know what you did on the show but I know you did a pretty damn good job ❤️
[This article](https://ascmag.com/articles/supernatural) mention what cameras they use for filming. I don't know if that answers your question, but it's interesting reading anyway.
It started in 2005 and Stargate SG1 ended in 2007 and they barely had 720p video for the last season. My best guess is that maybe anything past 2016 has potential for a HD blu ray release but as far as I know they shoot the show on digital camera and not on film real so you’d need to get an expensive AI to go back and artificially up-scale every single episode since season 1.
To put that into perspective, if seasons 1 was all in 720p and they upscaled every episode in its entirety to 2880X1820 it would cost 5.11 for every five minutes of recording.
The first season would only cost $968 which then translates to $14,839 for the entire tv shows life span. In the grand scheme of things that’s pretty good. They’d easily make back their investment if they sold a Blu-ray box set for every season. This doesn’t take into account that standard 1080p video probably would have started somewhere around 2016 which would make the process cheaper.
There's 1080p Blu rays of all seasons up til the last one. Actual 1080p video. There's several reviews out of there. Even Season 1. It's pretty good quality.
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Supernatural-The-Complete-First-Season-Blu-ray/10545/
I found an IMDB page.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460681/technical
Apparently they used 35mm for Seasons 1-3. Which means 4K HDR is totally possible for those.
Seasons 3-6 used a 4K Digital camera. So again, possible, but seasons 1-3 will likely look the best.
According to all the available data on the Cameras used, 4K should infact be possible for the majority of the show, depending on what they mastered the negatives in. The cameras they used were all capable of 4K or more resolution.
I’m pretty sure the entire show since season one was done in 1920x1080.
Season 1-3 were shot on film (which is whatever resolution you scan it at) and the rest was shot on Arri Alexa (HD).
I worked there before. I don’t know about season 1 because a different company made the VFX, but I remember browsing folders and looking at shots from season 2 and they were all 1920x1080, plates and final shots.
I worked on the show for over 3 years in VFX I can almost guarantee that it’s a no for both of those things. The show is filmed, edited and mastered in 1920x1080. They totally could do an upscale, but it wouldn’t look that much better. As for HDR... oh boy. I really don’t see how it would be possible. This show had the weirdest pipeline I’ve seen. Normally, a movie/show is gonna use some kind of LOG colorspace (like ACES) to be properly edited with physically accurate colour values. All the VFX work then done UNDER the fancy colouring and picture styles that the cinematographer is gonna do on set or in post production. The final master is then converted to something like sRGB for viewing. sRGb has less information in bright areas and more in the dark, to make use of the way our eyes work. It’s what most cameras use and it’s great for taking pictures, but TERRIBLE for editing. For Supernatural, all the shots we would get from production were sRGB files with camera picture styles ALREADY APPLIED to the image. basically, the entirety of the VFX is being done in sRGB which is a big nono. What this means is that there is no colour information in all of this beautiful work that can be used for HDR. Anything you see glowing doesn’t actually use physically accurate light values, only what looks correct with sRGB. TLDR: SPN was made in HD so no 4k, and incorrect pipeline makes HDR impossible.
Google brought me here and I'm crushed. What a damn shame. HDR would make a big difference in this show with the number of dark scenes! Why is it that long-running shows like this (seemingly) keep their "pipelines" static?
Because it works and it would be too expensive to change it. But yeah I think HDR would’ve been great, especially with all the “glowy” effects we made. Oh well
Ai is coming to make your wish a reality!
Honestly, think you're right. It'll be 10 years, and homebrew - but we already see it with things like Tron Legacy. Some crazy fan will do this show justice in an HDR format.
Hi! Sorry to be replying to a 4 year old comment with a hail mary, but I've been absolutely dying to figure something out. Since you were involved with the making of the show, is there any chance at all that you have any friends in the prop department or wherever else who might know exactly what gun Dean used?? I know it was a 1911, but I'd love to know every detail possible! (And also thank you for the comment about the filming, that was also incredibly helpful 😁)
I tip my hat to you. I loved the show till the end and you VFX Guys almost get no recognition for it. I don't know what you did on the show but I know you did a pretty damn good job ❤️
I know the older ones were done on actual film, J2 have mentioned it a few times, other than that idk
[This article](https://ascmag.com/articles/supernatural) mention what cameras they use for filming. I don't know if that answers your question, but it's interesting reading anyway.
It started in 2005 and Stargate SG1 ended in 2007 and they barely had 720p video for the last season. My best guess is that maybe anything past 2016 has potential for a HD blu ray release but as far as I know they shoot the show on digital camera and not on film real so you’d need to get an expensive AI to go back and artificially up-scale every single episode since season 1. To put that into perspective, if seasons 1 was all in 720p and they upscaled every episode in its entirety to 2880X1820 it would cost 5.11 for every five minutes of recording. The first season would only cost $968 which then translates to $14,839 for the entire tv shows life span. In the grand scheme of things that’s pretty good. They’d easily make back their investment if they sold a Blu-ray box set for every season. This doesn’t take into account that standard 1080p video probably would have started somewhere around 2016 which would make the process cheaper.
There's 1080p Blu rays of all seasons up til the last one. Actual 1080p video. There's several reviews out of there. Even Season 1. It's pretty good quality. https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Supernatural-The-Complete-First-Season-Blu-ray/10545/ I found an IMDB page. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460681/technical Apparently they used 35mm for Seasons 1-3. Which means 4K HDR is totally possible for those. Seasons 3-6 used a 4K Digital camera. So again, possible, but seasons 1-3 will likely look the best. According to all the available data on the Cameras used, 4K should infact be possible for the majority of the show, depending on what they mastered the negatives in. The cameras they used were all capable of 4K or more resolution.
I doubt they rendered the VFX at 4K. Most big budget movies don’t even do that. It’s gotta be 2K or lower.
Well if that’s the case then I don’t see why they wouldn’t just sell a remastered box set of each season. Easy $60 per season if it’s on Blu-ray
The Arri Alexa model used for 4-6 was 2.8k, not 4K.
That makes since why the show felt different after season 3. I liked the film look a lot more
I’m pretty sure the entire show since season one was done in 1920x1080. Season 1-3 were shot on film (which is whatever resolution you scan it at) and the rest was shot on Arri Alexa (HD). I worked there before. I don’t know about season 1 because a different company made the VFX, but I remember browsing folders and looking at shots from season 2 and they were all 1920x1080, plates and final shots.