LEGO Ninjago fans are a passionate bunch. Sometimes for the better, and sometimes not.
After enjoying the big two-plus season arc that bid farewell to the show’s original writers Dan Hageman and Kevin Hageman, fan anticipation for what comes next from new writer Bragi Schut (Escape Room), the LEGO Group and Wifilm Productions is boiling toward the pot’s rim.
This past week that built up energy boiled over when a Canadian television network released a short 15-second teaser for what we presume to be Ninjago Season 11.
Rather than embrace and celebrate the new footage, fans tore it apart on social media.
I won’t link the leaked Ninjago Season 11 footage here but in short it was never meant to be seen by the public, hence its washed out look compared to the excellence of Season 8 through March of the Oni.
We know this as unbiased fact because executive producer Tommy Andreasen took to Twitter to defend the footage in a series of tweets, starting by sharing the highly detailed image of Master Wu above and continuing with this series of tweets below:
Here we ninja-go again ….
Maybe don't make presumptions conclusions and dismiss Ninjago because of 15 seconds (!) of poorly edited and ungraded leaked footage? Feels like 2016 all over again.
LEGO will announce what they want to announce when they are ready.— Dream chaser (@TommyAndreasen) May 1, 2019
As the talk about the leaked Ninjago footage starts to get technical, here is a bit of info:
Networks are frequently supplied with unfinished footage during the production, so they have an idea of what they will eventually receive. But that footage is not meant for the public.— Dream chaser (@TommyAndreasen) May 3, 2019
Images are rendered in the mid-spectrum, so darks don't 'close' and lights don't burn out. During the grading process, the contrasts are adjusted and the details thus get enhanced.
Here is an ungraded and a graded pic. of Zane. pic.twitter.com/IHur7ulpHe— Dream chaser (@TommyAndreasen) May 3, 2019
Grading is tricky business:
You have to account for the TVs it will be shown on. But that's a guessing game! Most people use factory settings, enhanced sharpness and dynamic range on their TVs … others have a carefully calibrated setup. What to aim for?
But we do our best…— Dream chaser (@TommyAndreasen) May 3, 2019
So if you’re one of the Ninjago fans up in arms about the leaked footage, don’t be. What you saw was incomplete and should have remained out of view. End of story.
We’ll pass along the official LEGO trailer for Ninjago Season 11 — or whatever it will be called — when available.
