Roger Deakins -- the king of UHD to this point.

[TheSweetieMan]

Just wanted to make this post to show appreciation for Roger Deakins' work has been translated to the 4K format to this point.

I'm not sure there's another cinematographer whose creative intent has been honored and realized on this format more than him to this point.

He rescued the 'Sicario' HDR pass -- which resulted in a disc that still ranks among the best the format has to offer.

'Fargo' looks unbelievably gorgeous. From its restoration, its HDR pass and color grading, to its efficient compression and all around encode. This transfer isn't being talked about enough, IMO.

'The Big Lebowski', even though he didn't personally get to oversee the entirety of it -- was done incredibly well by the studio, even going as far as to send him the transfer with the HDR grade and all, to get his personal approval. Which he did. And it's small things like that that can really make this format special. Just to get his approval was enough to show the studio's respect toward his work on that film.

'Blade Runner 2049', I know when this was originally released a lot of people came across disappointed that it wasn't a 'reference' disc -- at least in the superficial sense. However, despite sme slight filtering done by Warner Bros, the disc still retains Deakins' all around creative intent of wanting the film to look every bit as similar to its SDR grade, so there would be an all around visual uniformity to this film. I think in hindsight, that was a smart thing to do. It's an impeccably shot film. It's nicely compressed. And has a pretty good amount of sharpness that even if the HDR doesn't sear your eyes, it still shows what a good combination of pixel count and pixel quality can equate to.

'1917' -- a beautifully photographed films -- that similar to 'Fargo' and BR2049, has a subdued HDR approach, but is still gorgeously represented on this format. The nighttime sequence, with the light sources coming from flares, fires, and gunshots, is an incredible rendering of how great lighting and shadow work can look on this format even outside of the resolution numbers and HDR nits.

'Skyfall' -- the only UHD release of his that does have some issues. But nothing major IMO. It still retains his recognizable visual style -- reserved HDR approach and all -- but still looks very sharp despite some image tinkering (likely by the studio) as well as some weird darker posterization effect going on in the darker background of the interior of the church at the end of the film -- but again, nothing egregious. It's still my preferred way of watching this film. The Shanghai sequence comes across beautifully on this format.

'The Shawshank Redemption' -- The best this film has ever looked. This movie will always have incredible nostalgic importance to me as it was one of the very first movies I ever watched as kid with my Uncle, who is the reason why I love movies so much. Similar to all of other Deakins' UHD releases, reserved HDR grade, but faithfully reproduced in all aspects of his visual style, with a terrific encode to boot, this film has never looked better.

IMO, I think any UHD disc featuring Deakins' photography, is going to be destined to be a 'must own' on this format. I know some people like UHD most when HDR is pushed and advertised at the forefront -- and I will admit I do like HDR when it suits the intended look the film needs -- but Deakins' work and involvement on this format, proves that above all else, whether it's a high number or nits, saturated colors, or resolution numbers within the camera(s) being used, or the type of digital intermediate it is -- as long as a content creator's original vision is being faithfully recreated, it's an absolute treat for us that love this format.

I'm hopeful we can soon get UHDs for 'The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford' (the train sequence could look amazing) and 'Prisoners' pretty soon.

I obviously want his entire filmography represented on this format over the years going forward, but those two would be really cool to get within the immediate future!