Ever edited your own version of a movie? (1 Viewer)

[Simon Young]

I haven't tackled the Zion speech and rave bit yet. I want to make it seem as though Trin and Neo were never there, and that they've spent he whole day and night together. Shouldn't be too hard, just omit their scene. I'd like to cut straight into Morpheus, so that he is the first and only speaker - do we really need to hear the long, drawn out prayer? I realised that his conversation with Niobe perfectly sets up their past, and this is the real reason why Lock hates Morpheus. Works better than Trinity's "Niobe was with Morpheus, now she's with Lock" - I always found that heavy handed.

I have done a fade-to-black after the Neo/Trin love scene, which goes straight into the scene in the Matrix where Bane gets infected. I felt you needed it at that point to explain where the Oracle's message comes from. After that scene, you see Neo wake up, hear the banging on the door, and you're straight into Neo being told that it's time to go.

I then cut down the Seraph fight a bit - it's totally seamless, thanks to quite a lot repetitive fight choreography! I actually like the fight, and there's absolutely no good way of getting Neo out of that room without it. Plus it sets up Seraph as a complete bad-ass. I'm now at the half-hour mark (it will be less once I've cut out more of the 'rave'), and I' lost exactly 11m16s. And what's more, in my opinion, none of that stuff is at all vital (or interesting). I like the dialogue between Neo and the Councillor, but it drags on and on and on. So it went.

 

[Brian W.]

Oh, I had that scene cut -- I'd stay with the theatrical from after the party scene till the arrival at Bree. That scene doesn't do much for me, and the scene following it, the "great root in my back" scene, is pointless and is only there as a cushion between the previous scene and the next one, since it would look funny ending the Elven scene with a shot of the black rider looking over the hill.

I agree about the bad shot of Isilduir putting on the ring, but it makes the line "The ring betrayed him" make much more sense. We didn't really know what that line meant before, since he never disappeared.

In fact, aside from the Bilbo/Frodo scene at the party, I think keeping with the theatrical till the arrival at Lorien, after Haldir's "Come, she is waiting," would be a very good cut.

 

[Alex Spindler]

I think you can actually get Neo out of the room rather easily, especially as Seraph bookends the fight with helpful dialogue.
This is my basic problem with the whole scene...it is setup for nothing. This is probably more for the Discussion thread in movies, but I can't justify any of Seraph's screentime. In actuality, he was the catalyst for me thinking about editing this down. His fight with Neo felt so poorly justified and his only other fight was the Club Hel encounter (which I didn't like at all). He feels like a very non-essential character (like the Kid, in many ways), that I was quite happy to cut the dojo fight in its entirety.


You're tacking up much more time than I am I figure, so you're likely to end up with a shorter Reloaded but a longer Revolutions.


I thought I would share a few tricks that I found useful in this whole process. In trying to get a whole view of the film, I started with taking a screenshot of the start and end of every scene. This helped immensely to understand how the whole movie flowed. If you can get ahold of a nice picture arranging program, you can shuffle scenes in and out to try them on for size. It also lets you storyboard (which is what they are, only with finished product images) how the overall pace of the movie will work.

When it comes time to the very hectic stuff (Burly Brawl, rave), it helps to take screens of each transition or nice sequence.

I still haven't figured out how to match the soundtracks. I imagine I'm going to have some give and take on which frames I use based on how agreeable the soundtrack is. I think I need a sound editor with video frame sync.

 

[Ray_R]

I've also wanted to make a special longer cut using the deleted scenes from the Ultimate Edition of The Mummy. Mebbe I'll do some digital cleanup on the deleted scenes...

 

[Steve Tack]

Interesting thread! The ideas for alternate cuts of the Matrix sequels sound great.

I still don't get how you deal with cuts that happen while the score is playing. You'd get really abrupt jumps from one part of the music to another, right? What's the solution?

 

[Patrick McCart]

Here's a quick list of changes being made to make the "ultimate" 1925 reconstruction:

- While the 1925-1929 logo is presumed lost, the 1929-1936 (the "airplane" logo seen on films like The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein) logo will be used since it was probably on the 1929 version anyways (however, it will be silent and with tinting and part of the score).

- The credits will be altered to omit Mary Fabian's credit and replace it with the original Virginia Pearson credit for Carlotta (digital manipulation, source video: Photoplay 1929 version)

- The original 1925 general release contiuity will be restored. This will basically be re-arranging of scenes and shots... sometimes, 16mm footage will be cut into the 1929 footage. Black leader will be used when frames or shots are missing (like used in the Metropolis restoration)

- Intertitles will be from the 1925 version, newly re-created (using a new version of the Pastel font) in the style of the original 1925 intertitles.

- The first scene with Carlotta will be altered to re-instate the original cards referring to Virginia Pearson as Carlotta. This will mainly be from the Photoplay version, but with one short snippet of 16mm to complete a shot.

- All Mary Fabian scenes will be replaced by the original Virginia Pearson scenes... shot-by-shot. (mix of 16mm and 35mm)

- The opening pre-Faust ballet scene (near the start of the film) will feature an additional exterior shot (16mm), an added intertitle before the wide staircase shot, and a large section of added material with John Sainpolis from 16mm. I'm still trying to decide whether or not to use the bulk of the ballet from the 35mm version...

Here's a short list of musical pieces I'm probably going to use for the score:

- Opening exterior of the opera house to before the ballet: Rimsky-Korsakov's "Procession of the Nobles"
- When needed in film: section of "Faust" by Charles Gounod
- First Christine scene: "Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia" by Aram Khatchaturian
- First Carlotta scene: Trombone Concerto by Rimsky-Korsakov
- New managers: Part of "Symphony No. 5 in D major, Movement 3" by Ralph Vaughn Williams
- Phantom theme: Part of Danse Macabre by Saint-Saens
- Christine entering the cellar: Introduction et Rondo capriccioso by Saint-Saens (reccomended by Jack Theakston)

I'm still looking for a lot of stuff... it's possible that I might try to get a hold on the Lee Erwin organ score and possibly make a hybrid of that and orchestral. If anyone has any musical suggestions, please do so...

 

[Simon Young]

That can be a problem. I just try to make cuts where it's the least conspicuous - in the Seraph/Neo fight, for instance, the drums are very repetitive and don't seem to follow a set pattern, so it was relatively easy to time the cuts so that both the picture & sound flow smoothly. In other scenes, I try to cut where there is no music, like the conversation between Morpheus and Lock. When there's music all over the place, it's sometimes better to just leave it be. If you absolutely must cut the audio off mid-music, it's worthwhile experimenting with fades of different lengths, and at different positions. A few frames either way can make the difference between an abrupt end and a smooth end to the music. Also, you can try playing around with audio filters such as echo effects, to make the music fade away more convincingly. Luckily, in Matrix Reloaded, a lot of the scenes start with an action and a bang (like someone knocking on a door, for instance). These loud effects can cunningly disguise the end of the music from the previous scene!

I'd rather have a longer scene that flows perfectly, than a shorter scene that has glaring edit points. Hence why I kept the Seraph/Neo fight. If you cut straight from his line "I can take you to her" to the corridor shot, the audience is totally disorientated, because we haven't seen how Seraph gained access to the corridor in the first place. If you keep the bit where Seraph walks to the door and produces the keys from his sleeve, you get a 'kick', because Neo and Seraph effectively swap positions in the room, and the pacing is all wrong. There is no good way of getting around these facts - so I kept the fight, but found some surprisingly good places to cut shots out entirely. I actually like the fight a whole lot better now!

 

[Steve Tack]

Yeah, not much choice there. It'd be cool if they put isolated music, dialogue, and sound fx audio tracks on DVD's.

Anyway, sounds like a real challenge.

 

[Ray_R]

I'd also like to make a special longer cut of From Hell. With the current running time and all the deleted scene time, how long would it be altogether since I'm atrocious at adding and subtracting screentime mathwise.

 

[DannyS]

ok. Great thread.

I am trying to do a recut of Alien 3, replacing the oX burster with the Dog.

I have a PC, not a mac.. What tools do I need?

 

[Alex Spindler]

I'm assuming that I will be using the soundtrack CDs to gain access to audio that gets problematic. I'm already a slave to the source material, so I'm going to pull from as many (quality) sources as I can.

 

[Ray_R]

Is this thread about mainly wanting to do a rehash of the two Matrix sequels or is this more about what people wanna do to make a super long or something cut? I just don't get it...
Also planning on doing a Special Longer Cut on GLADIATOR. 50/50 chance I'd have enough interest in doing so.

 

[Ray_R]

Here are the extra/deleted scenes as listed by www.imdb.com for Gladiator:
Numerous deleted scenes that were left out of the film were compiled onto the DVD release. All scenes with the exception of the mini-film come with an exclusive Audio Commentoary by Ridley Scott. They are:
A brief scene showing Maximus surveying the cost of the Battle with the Germanians. They are hacked and dying Roman's everywhere.
A brief scene preluding the confrontation of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. It shows Marcus praying to his ancestors for wisdom.
Friends of Proximo try to get him to bet against his own gladiators. We are also introduced to Hagan, the German in this scene.
Proximo tries to reason with Maximus as to not killing his opponents so quickly but to entertain the crowd.
Maximus watches condemmed Christians executed in the arena as they are fed to the lions.
Lucilla, Gracchus and Gaius have an important meeting in Gracchus' house. They discuss the future death of the Roman People as her brother Commodus is selling the grain reserve to pay for the games. They conclude that Commodus must die.
Commodus, dismayed by the re-appearence of Maximus, attacks a bust of his father with a sword.
Two of the Praetorians that knew of Maximus's escape from Germania, are executed by Commodus. Quintus and Commodus have an argument.
Commodus orders his spies to watch senators and Proximo. Proximo notices one of his followers.
Lucilla realizes that Falco is in league with Commodus.
Praetorians attack innocent civilains by setting them on fire.



There are a whole slew of unused shots and sequences compiled into a short film. Some of those sequences are:
A few new shots of Commodus riding to meet his father along with his entourage.
New footage of Maximus riding to flank the Germanians.
A whole Alternate Sequence of the Death of Maximus's Wife and Son. In this version we see him ride through many different scenes and he overlooks the farm seeing his son getting trampled by horses and his wife screaming. He screams and he reaches forward with his open hand. He pulls it back and there is blood. He cries out loud in pain over the death of his family.
New footage of the Arabs and the Gladiator Training Grounds.
Commodus not-so-warm reception in Rome. We see people graffiting his name on walls.
New footage of the first Gladiator Chain-Gang battle. We see an Alternate Take of Hagen impaling the man on a spike protruding from a wall. We also see that after the battle is over, a huge man wearing a mask walks out and kills the wounded.
Hagan in a bath accompained by exotic women.
Germanian Ground Battle footage of Maximus fighting of many Germanians!

Although it's almost literally impossible for me to excise the deleted/extended scenes from the documentary, the seperate deleted scenes with the removable commentary would have to suffice for the moment. I have the Signature Selection DVD in my collection but haven't viewed it in quite some time.
Soon as I'm finished with the near/over three hour cut, I'm gonna put it on a DVD-9 recordable disc and put it in my 'special cuts' section in which numerous films have gotten the 'special longer cut' treatment. Obviously for personal use only and not for profit. Currency obviously only went towards software and media.

 

[AndrewWickliffe]

Just finished editing the deleted scenes into the 1976 King Kong. I'm not sure if it constitutes a recreation of the extended TV version as I've never seen it. It's only a 138 minutes with PAL speedup, so I'm not sure--nope, it's not. just checked IMDB.

Anyway, I encoded the file using 3ivx (I'm on a mac) and got a 1.86 gb file. Instead of using mp4 audio, I just used the uncompressed sound file I had. The total, for the 138 minutes, is 2.68 gb.

I'm thinking of doing the Evil Dead trilogy next (as a present for my sister-in-law) . . .

After that, well, I just thought of something no one has mentioned. Maybe because it gets a certain degree of respect, but it certainly would make a good edit -- Halloween the TV cut and Halloween II edited together. Obviously, the second half of the film would be a tad stinky.

It's too bad Universal didn't wait to do a special edition with deleted scenes . . .

If anyone has any thoughts on either of these ideas (Evil Dead or Halloween) please let me know.

 

[Bill Williams]

Several years back I did a VHS re-edit of Superman II just for the fun of it, using the pan/scan VHS release of the theatrical cut, the ABC telecast, and the Canadian TV broadcast as my sources. All I had were my camcorder and my VCR. I cut out the annoying "cheated" flight sequence from the ABC telecast (only the theatrical and the Canadian versions got it right by removing it), and re-edited in the Donner footage along with the clips from the Canadian broadcast. It came out looking pretty well for a VHS edit. This was before I saw the Salkinds' international extended cut from Danish TV.

 

[Robert Anthony]

Spindler, Simon: Revolutions was released Tuesday--any word on your ideas of an edit?

 

[Simon Young]

Well, I had to give up on my edit because of hard disc space. Also, I had a weird problem with the audio. Because I ripped and converted it seperate from the video (the only way to do it, AFAIK), I had to marry them up on the timeline in Final Cut Pro. Only problem was, while it matched up to the video in parts, it didn't match up in others! At first I thought that there must have been a problem when converting either the audio or video, resulting in dropped frames or something. Eventually I concluded that because the video was running at 23.98fps, not 24fps, the audio was getting ahead ever-so-slightly. This doesn't make much sense to me, because when played back on an ordinary DVD player they stay perfectly in sync. So next time I attempt my edit, I'll have to slow the audio down by the equivalent of 0.02fps to match the video. I tried doing this in Final Cut, but it doesn't give you great control over audio. Next time I'll convert the audio in BIAS PeakDV, a great audio program that comes free with the retail version of Final Cut Pro.

Still haven't got Revolutions on DVD. It's been available for a while in the UK from some import e-tailers, but money's been a bit tight and there's other titles I wanted more (Kill Bill, Master & Commander).

 

[Alex Spindler]

Finally finished my first draft of both the Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions edits.

This was quite a challenge because the edits were very non-linear with Revolutions. In the interest of some better pacing I have the dock fight rearranged to be more tightly integrated with the Hammer run, the APU battle, Zee and Chars mission, and Neo's travels. This portion will be hell to edit but I think it will really turn out well.


I also have a small treat. In cutting the complicated dock sequence, I usually work at it like a storyboard by taking images of each scene and then arranging as they best fit. Here is the final result of it.


I figure a few more tweaks then I'll try a rough cut without correcting the score or audio. It will be rough, but it should give me a rough idea how it all works. I will say that this has been a good bit of fun to be sure. I can't imagine how nice it must be to have a whole batch of scenes to choose from to make the scene the best possible.

 

[Robert Anthony]

WHOOO!

I'm really looking forward to this. You put in some crazy work, man.

Oh, and I like that you're thinking of using the "freedom" idea for the end credits

And good job on the trinity death edits. I would have chopped out an entire chunk, but yours I think will have the same effect but get it done smoother.

I'm wondering, though, why would the bane "flashback" footage be soundless?

 

[Alex Spindler]

That portion, which is really just a bit of the takeover encounter, would play as he is talking. It gives us, as the viewers, a glimpse inside his head while he is deceiving everyone else.

The next flashback would be in full, with sound.