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King Kong: The Spence Edit (Released)

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Hi everyone, i just finished my first attempt at re-editing a movie, I did some work on the 2005 King Kong. I always found the film to have a lot of wasted time in it. I have no problem with long movies, but I feel King Kong wandered off on tangents and subplots that never really got resolved (Jimmy and Hayes, the police chasing Denham) I’m also a huge fan of the old 1933 Kong, so I wanted to try and make the new one a little more like that. Here is a list of some of the changes i have made:

  • Jimmy and Hayes are gone. They are just two other crew members, same as Lumpy and Choy.
  • Carl Denham isn’t so villainous anymore. A lot of his more sinister, scheming moments have been removed. He’s a lot more likable and sympathetic in this version.
  • A lot of the New York City scenes have been removed from the beginning of the film. Instead of the long montage of NY, there is a title card that says “New York 1933” and then we go straight to Carl Denham showing the film producers his dailies.
  • Anne Darrow’s scenes at the Vaudeville Theater are removed. The first time we see her, she is talking to Jack Driscoll’s producer about getting the role in the play.
  • It takes a lot less time to get to the island. A lot of the ship scenes have been cut down. The Captain never turns the ship around to take Denham to the police, they just go straight to the island. Also, the sequence of the ship crashing into the rocks is shortened.
  • The Captain doesn’t shoot the native in slow motion for what seemed like ten minutes anymore. One gunshot, native hits the ground, done deal.
  • Kong doesn’t shake Anne around for what seemed like 15 minutes anymore. He roars, shakes her a little, scares her, she stabs him, he picks her up again, scene ends.
  • The bug pit scene has been changed around. It is shorter, and I added some different music to make it feel more like an action scene. The music is from Van Helsing, but I think it fits in well enough.
  • Kong is not deliberately captured anymore. He breaks into the ruins, the crew run away, Denham finds some chloroform and knocks him out, then decides to take him with him. Much like the old film.
  • Most of the end sequence in NY is intact, with little cuts for time’s sake.

I’m not very good at making DVD’s, so I can either post this as an AVI or as a rather crappy DVD. Let me know if anyone’s interested and I’ll post it. Thanks!

I'm always looking to trade my edits, if you don't want to get them from a torrent. PM or e-mail!
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Yes, please post it, don't mind AVI or crappy DVD, lol

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anything to shorten that movie is a good idea. please post away.
1000 Word Migraine
www.1kwordmigraine.com

An off topic site for an off topic world!
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The official running time is 2 hrs. 38 min. with credits. It's almost exactly a half hour shorter. The story is still a rather epic one, so even though the film is still long, this feels like a good length.
I will try and get an AVI seeding by tonight.
I'm always looking to trade my edits, if you don't want to get them from a torrent. PM or e-mail!
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This sounds EXCELLENT! 3 hours for fucking King Kong? Jackson let ROTK's success go to his head. I would argue that a 2 hour version would be best but the way the film was written thats not really possible editorially. I'm very interested in this edit.

(Kong shaking Anne for 30 minutes bugged the hell outta me--uh, okay we got the point twenty seconds ago, lets move on here)
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I'll have it up in some form by tomorrow. Sorry for the delay. Thanks for the enthusiasm everyone, but being my first attempt at this there are a couple of rough spots.
I'm always looking to trade my edits, if you don't want to get them from a torrent. PM or e-mail!
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Are you THE Spence that started the Spence edit of the Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions?

Nothing about fanediting is easy.

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I really wanted to strangle Jimmy and his whole pointless subplot. I'm sure deleting this really helps move things along.
For some reason, the "Hey, That's My Dinner" line has ALWAYS bothered me.
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Yes Boon, I am. I did complete those edits, but they came out so low quality because of the way they were imported that I scrapped them. I would like to finish those up some day, but Kong was a little more personal to me so I decided to work on this first.
I'm always looking to trade my edits, if you don't want to get them from a torrent. PM or e-mail!
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You can search demonoid to find the link. The DVD I have posted is dual layer and full quality and has chapter stops, but sadly there are no menus as I really dont know how to do that. I'm toying with changing bitrate's and stuff like that so i might be able to get a single layer disc and/or divx encode out if there is any interest in that. anyway I'll seed as often as i can, so enjoy!!
I'm always looking to trade my edits, if you don't want to get them from a torrent. PM or e-mail!
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FIRST: no direct links from here!!!! Never!!!

Second: I am glad you haven't given up editing, Spence and I was worried about what happened to you, since you suddenly disappeared from the Matrix forum. Anyway, this is the place to be for fanedits, so I am glad you made it and started with such a promising project like King Kong. The easiest way to create menus is with tmpg dvd author, it is a very self explanatory program and you will find it very easy to create simple but good looking menus to your movies (animated ot not animated, with or without sound, depending on what you want).
If I can be of help with any future project, just contact me, I would be very willing to, since I remember what a perfectionist you are from the Matrix forums.

Nothing about fanediting is easy.

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You might want to remove the link (no direct links to torrents allowed). Just tell people what to search for.

To contact me outside the forum, for trades and such my email address is my OT.com username @gmail.com

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ok it should be seeding now. Thanks for all the help everyone!
I'm always looking to trade my edits, if you don't want to get them from a torrent. PM or e-mail!
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Spence101287, switch on your PM's - I've just grabbed your King Kong DVD and love it. I'll hook you up with some proper menus if you like
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okay, they're on. I never realized you had to do that!
I'm always looking to trade my edits, if you don't want to get them from a torrent. PM or e-mail!
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Spence I am about 1/2 way through the edit now(I used Nero recode and made a SL version just to see how it would look,and it looks and sounds fantastic)I know some of the people at demonoid were complaining about it not being SL,I wouldnt worry about them,because if you upped the SL version,someone would complain it isnt the DL LOL,i am getting these kind of comments myself on the uploading of ADM's edits,now back to Kong,so far it is pretty damn cool,it even keeps my 5 year old sons interest better than the original,but there were a couple of spots where the video just "pauses" like when Denham was filming Ann on the ship(alone,then Jack comes up and Denham nudges him away)and just before Ann is lowered for Kong,but other than that so far GREAT job,i will post the rest tomorrow.
Keep up the great work
DJ
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Thank you very much for your kind words. Those pauses sound odd, the one i burnt for myself does not do that, perhaps its a problem with the one i uploaded or maybe it's your burnt copy? If anyone else has this problem, please let me know!
I'm always looking to trade my edits, if you don't want to get them from a torrent. PM or e-mail!
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I'd really like to have a nice cover for this, if anybody would like to make one.
I'm always looking to trade my edits, if you don't want to get them from a torrent. PM or e-mail!
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Hi,

Is anyone seeding this on demon????

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I'll second the above request - can anyone who grabbed this seed it - I'm at 99.9% with 2MB to go - I'll continue to seed. Thanx
where have i been all this time ?
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Meedermow. Thank you. You rock. My download is complete and I shall now leave seeding for anyone else grabbing it.

Also Meedermow - I'll be getting back to you about trading stuff on our lists. Been a bit busy.
where have i been all this time ?
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I had started to do an edit of this monster of a film as well back at the start of the year using a bootleg video for stratch. Problem is, now I doubt that I can easily replace my footage with the DVD data. However, I also used some of the same methods you listed to trim the movie down including the useless Jimmy subplot, shortened boat sequences, etc.

I was surprised though to hear you only were able to knock it down to 2:40 or so (the exact time escapes me). My first cut, before I had to move and temporarily abandonded the thought of trying to swap footage, I was able to knock down to 2;16. I relentlessly trimmed down all dinosaur sequences (what 3 t-rexes? i only saw one) and Kong and Ann's date in NYC.

So naturally I'm looking forward to seeing your edit to take notes and apply them to my own if I ever get back to it.

And if anyone here knows a way to easily replace footage in Adobe Premiere Pro (footage with different timecodes/starting points, and possibly aspect ratios) lemme know.
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Originally posted by: f1209
Meedermow. Thank you. You rock. My download is complete and I shall now leave seeding for anyone else grabbing it.

Also Meedermow - I'll be getting back to you about trading stuff on our lists. Been a bit busy.


No worries. Anytime.