The 1080p version is available now! Message me for info on where to download it if you don’t already know where to look! As of now there’s only an MP4 version but I’ll be creating and uploading a higher-quality MKV version that can easily be remuxed and burned to Blu-ray in the next couple days.
I’ve tried that, but for whatever reason, Vegas will only let me apply it to the entire video file, meaning the stabilization and cropping will also affect all of the patches, undoing some rather precise work. I could try and figure out a work-around, though.
Come to think of it, since I’ve more recently found out how to add portions of one Vegas project into another, this should actually be pretty easy. Let me go try this.
The first pass is done! Now it’s on to adjusting the patches, adding the subtitles and applying a grain layer.
Hey all, I’ve just completed a new render of the reconstruction, which I’ve contained in an MKV. It features a 25mbps AVC video stream with AC3 audio and chapter stops, making it ideal for remuxing and burning to Blu-ray. I’ve uploaded it in a zip file with Video Collectors excellent Blu-ray cover art.
Message me for the details on where to download it if you don’t already know where to look!
I had a thought about the “patches” for location text etc. In those instances where it is very difficult to get a seamless match (the submarine establishing shot for instance), maybe you could do a split across the entire frame, which would be less noticeable than a “blob” in the middle? Failing that, substituting the entire shot with one from the MonstersHD source may be the least distracting option.
These are both strategies I’ve been considering. I’ve gone ahead and replaced the entire submarine shot, since that one’s got no fine detail to speak of and wouldn’t really suffer for the lower resolution.
The “split across the frame” method is something I’ve been considering for the establishing shot of the bridge on the fishing boat at the beginning - The problem with that shot is that I can reasonably match the grey of the boat, or the red painted stripe that passes through the patched area, but seemingly not both at once.
If there are any other egregious patches, I’d love the feedback. I’m going to be re-doing all of them anyway, since I’m actually color-correcting the Japanese source a little bit this time, so it would be nice to know which ones to really look out for.
Glad you’re liking the reviews! I’ll most likely rip/remux the Blu-ray as soon as I get it (tomorrow or the day after, according to Amazon), but I probably won’t start work in earnest until after Shin Godzilla comes out - I’ve got a lot on my plate until then between classes, my new job and the binge/reviews.
I’ve actually got a VHS rip that I used as a reference for the timing of the subtitles; I don’t know which release it’s taken from but it’s one of the US releases. I’ve also got a rip of the Australian VHS that Tamura over on TK sent me; turns out that has the theatrical subtitles, so those will be in the 1080p version!
How might one acquire such a masterpiece?
Shoot me a message; I’ll hook you up!
You know, it would be great to see a basic tut on how to do this kind of thing for those of us interested in it but inexperienced in all but enjoying these kind of things once they come our way.
😃
I might write one up at some point! It’s actually surprisingly easy; I started the Godzilla 1985 project with only pretty basic-to-intermediate video editing knowledge, and most of what I actually learned was technical stuff related to frame rates, bit rates, digital media formats, etc.
I can only echo what Jetrell just said!
I just got to watch this and I can’t thank you enough! You deserve to be a known name in the Kaiju fandom!
Thanks man, that means a lot! I’ve been in touch with Tumblr user astoundingbeyondbelief regarding these projects, and he’s been helping to promote this one in particular a little more over on blue hell. He’s one of the more prominent kaiju bloggers on that site as far as I’m aware, so it’s great to have something of a larger platform and audience thanks to him. I suppose it would be nice to be known to some extent in kaiju fandom, but the greatest benefit would be having more people know about and have access to my work. I think these versions ought to be available in high quality and as widely as possible; anything else that comes of that is icing on the cake. This is for the benefit of my comrades 😉
I noticed the red/orange tint thing - that’s actually because the US version of that scene uses several shots from other parts of the original movie. I’ll probably correct that in the 1080p version using a VHS rip for reference.
I’m really glad you’re enjoying these so much! I’m always surprised by responses like those, and I think it’s at least partially because of my age. I have my personal reasons for wanting to do these projects (getting versions of these films out there that studios seemingly don’t want us to see, preserving notable and unique versions for future audiences in the best possible quality), but I often forget that while to me they’re interesting and sometimes more enjoyable alternate versions of some of my favorite movies, to a lot of other people they’re the versions they’ve grown up with. I don’t always realize the amount of nostalgic value these versions hold for some people, but it’s always great to hear that what I’m doing is of some value to someone.
The project is completed and uploaded! PM for details.
Just a status update: I’ve synced the movie up, recreated the opening AIP logo and title card as well as the “The End” card, and now all that’s left to do is the background for the logo/title and the end credits. A few videos I made to show my progress:
An editing problem and the solution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDH8Un5euDk
The AIP logo and title without the background: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcNWsxP2Q2M
The ending with the AIP “The End” card: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9Ds0Q-7SIU
I’m working on a couple of fan edits and it’s been suggested to me that I might want to add grain to some of my lower-resolution and digitally-generated elements to help them blend in better with HD material sourced from Blu-rays that retain some degree of grain. So far I’ve been working with Sony Vegas using only the tools and effects available by default as part of the software, and neither of the included effects that simulate grain (Sony Film Effects and Sony Film Grain) are particularly convincing - they’re not especially subtle and they’re very obviously digital.
If anyone here has had to do something similar for a project before, how did you do it? What plugins/stock media or effects would you suggest to simulate realistic film grain?
EDIT: I found a pack of free grain assets from HolyGrain online. The better one had a watermark, but I patched over it with other sections of the frame to get a clean plate. If anyone’s got anything to add though, please do!
I’ve collected the printable versions of these and their respective covers in a .zip folder and uploaded it to the usual couple of hosts:
MEGA - https://mega.nz/#!pVUGzayK!4NQsymfF_U7E5xQAgXNAnTvMWiPAsVNQfqX2Bg3O5Ms
MediaFire - https://www.mediafire.com/?d05b3yu1jjc0sy1
These will also be included with v1.0 and any other future versions of the project. Enjoy!
Version 2.0 of the AIP Destroy All Monsters reconstruction is available now!
The improved 1080p HD reconstruction of the original US version of Destroy All Monsters, dubbed at Titan Studios and released by AIP, is completed and available to download! Look spleenward or send a private message for details.
Notes on this release:
Original post:
Now that a decently polished 720p version of Godzilla 1985 is out and available, and another TK member is working on recreating the Walter Reade-Sterling version of Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster (which I was originally planning as a follow-up), I’ve decided to undertake another, less labor-intensive project while we wait for the Kraken Blu-ray of The Return of Godzilla. I’m going to attempt a widescreen, HD reconstruction of the AIP version of Destroy All Monsters.
While I know that the AIP dub was included on the OOP version of the Media Blasters Blu-ray, that track was altered to account for minor edits made to the original US release of the movie so it would sync properly to the Japanese print used for Toho’s transfer. What I’m talking about making is a complete recreation of the AIP version as originally released, cuts, credits and all.
I’ll be using the current Media Blasters Blu-ray (which I have) as my main source, but at the moment I don’t have an audio source/visual reference on hand for the AIP version. I do have an old DVD bootleg back home that’s got the AIP version on it, and I could have my family mail it to me, but I could get started sooner if someone could either direct me to a non-torrent download option or send it to me via Google Drive, MEGA, MediaFire or some other file storage/transfer service.
Basically what I’m predicting this will entail is remaking the credits and such in widescreen (I already downloaded the font AIP seemed to generally use for titles/credits a while ago just because I liked it), then syncing the MB footage to the AIP version and replicating whatever edits there are. This should be a much simpler and easier job than Godzilla 1985, and I already have access to a 1080p source, so this should be completed in far less time than my last project was/will be.
TL;DR: Anyone have/know where to find a copy of the AIP version?
v1.0 announcement:
The AIP Destroy All Monsters reconstruction is available now!
The 1080p HD reconstruction of the original US version of Destroy All Monsters, dubbed at Titan Studios and released by AIP, is completed and available to download! Send a private message for details.
UPDATE 10/30/2016: I’ve just made an MKV of the reconstruction that features higher quality, chapter stops and is encoded for easy remuxing and burning to Blu-ray! Hit me up for the details, or check the usual spot if you know where to look.
Notes on this release:
- The bulk of film was sourced from the Media Blasters Blu-ray. The aspect ratio was corrected to the original 2.35:1 from something like 2.41:1 and the contrast was increased to alleviate some of the weaknesses of the Toho transfer.
- The AIP logo, main title card, “the end” title card and end credits have all been carefully digitally recreated.
- There are a several splices in the print of the AIP version that I used as a guide and audio source for this version, which result in a few missing frames each. These have been duplicated in this version to maintain proper synchronization with the original source.
- One such splice occurs in a spot which interrupts an optical wipe present in the widescreen Japanese print; in that case, a digital wipe was employed to hide the problem and mimic the editing of the Japanese version while maintaining proper synchronization with the AIP version. This is the only such embellishment made in this edit; it is otherwise wholly faithful to the editing of the AIP version.
For those interested, here’s a more comprehensive list of the edits made in the AIP version:
- The Toho logo and the accompanying section of Ifukube’s score are cut. The AIP logo and title card appear over the background originally used for the Japanese title card, and the score picks up at the appropriate spot as well.
- The opening credits are removed. There is a straight cut from the shot of the Moonlight SY-3 cockpit to the overhead shot of Ogasawara Island that comes after the credits in the Japanese version.
- The scene transition from Dr. Otani aboard the SY-3 leaving Monsterland to him riding in the back of a car with Katsuo and Dr. Yoshida is altered; where the Japanese version used an optical wipe to transition from a close-up on Dr. Otani to a close-up of Katsuo that pans over to Otani and Yoshida, the AIP version cuts directly from Otani aboard the rocket to Otani in the car, keeping his face framed in almost the same spot. (This was the edit noted above that was changed to a digital wipe.)
- The pan across the aftermath of Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra and Manda’s rampage through Tokyo ends sooner in the AIP version. The Japanese version ends by zooming in on a sign in Japanese bearing the name of some sort of emergency bunker or headquarters, then cuts to Katsuo inside. The AIP version cuts the sign and goes straight from the wreckage to Katsuo.
- There is one shot of the SY-3 landing in the Kilaak base on the moon that seems to be longer in the AIP version; this was matched by slowing down the shot that appears in the Japanese version - It’s a brief shot but it is notable.
- Not one, but two shots of Minilla are cut from the battle with King Ghidorah: One as Mothra and Kumonga spray Ghidorah with silk and webbing, and one as Angilas loses his grip on Ghidorah’s neck and falls to the ground.
- The final shot of Ogasawara Island, there the “The End” title appears, is longer in the AIP version, and the title appears much later.
- Finally, the film’s credits are displayed at the end over a black background, using the music cue that played under the opening credits in the Japanese version. Notably, Ishiro Honda’s name is spelled correctly, as opposed to the commonly-used incorrect Romanization “Inoshiro.”
Wow! I like the black cover! Reminds me of the VHS I used to rent back in the late 80’s!
I got the 0.5 version and I guess I’ll stick with that until the Kraken footage is added. Unless the change to 0.6 is drastic.
Is it?
I don’t know about drastic, but there are a few minor changes that make a considerable difference to me. If you look at the first post it should summarize it pretty well.
And Video Collector, I know I gushed to you about these covers already via PM but it bears repeating publicly: I love these covers (the black one especially) and it’s really flattering to me that you took the time to make them. The positive response to this project means a lot, but this is really something else. Thank you.
EDIT: Also, I imagine some of you have already seen this thread, but I’m working on a similar project to recreate the AIP version of Destroy All Monsters, so feel free to check that out if you like.
I sat down to watch version 0.5 yesterday and was again awed by the seamlessness of the presentation. Having never seen the US version in its entirety before I found it a fresh take on the original film, and the editing tightened up the narrative quite a bit. I enjoyed it immensely, and a welcome change to the Return of Godzilla international version I’ve been accustomed to until now.
On the tech side, these are the things I noticed:
- The wobble on the opening credits. Would be nice to have that stabilised.
- Was there an on-screen caption when the sub first appears? Looks like there was a square patch on the bottom part of the screen. (There was one more instance of a noticeable patch, but I can’t remember where I saw it.)
- The upscaling of the US footage was very good, but I wonder if it couldn’t do with a grain layer overlay to make it appear sharper and better match the surrounding footage. I can only imagine the difference becoming even more pronounced when you start using the Kraken Blu as source material.
Still, a stellar presentation and if it wasn’t for the station bug this would be just fine as it is. I can only imagine what the final full HD version will be like.
I might try stabilizing the credits a bit for the full HD version. Normally I don’t mind a bit of wobble, but there is a bit much for my taste. Ordinarily I’d worry about losing information on the edges, but in this case I think it’s what George C. Scott would call modest and acceptable casualties.
And there was a caption on the wide shot of the sub; that shot’s been frustrating me too. I think the white from the caption sort of bleeds a little and illuminates the rest of the image slightly, which is why there’s a hiccup in the brightness when it appears that makes the masking really obvious. I might just replace that shot entirely with the MHD, since I can’t seem to get around that. I had to do the same for one shot during the montage of military ships and aircraft. Thankfully, both of these shots are low enough in fine details anyway (the latter being stock footage) that it shouldn’t be too noticeable.
If you do remember where that other patch was, do let me know. I adjusted some of them for v0.6 after watching a test render on my TV and noticing that a few of them were far more obvious on that screen than they were on my laptop. I think the main ones I had to touch up were the one covering the caption when the Soviet ambassador arrives, the one when the Soviet sailor asks the colonel what he’s doing when he’s using the satellite control panel, and the one over the first establishing shot at Mt. Mihara when Ken goes to see the geologist Minami.
The grain overlay is a good idea; I’ll have to look into that. I don’t think the 720p to 1080p upgrade is going to be a revelation as far as image detail goes, considering that it’s a Toho transfer, but there might be some more visible grain, so it would make sense to try and adjust the image on the MHD footage to match.
And finally, I have to agree on the editing job. New World’s editing does really help the pace, and the work done on the initial test of the frequency generator is especially brilliant. Thanks to some quicker cuts and a shot taken from Godzilla’s second fight with the Super X, Godzilla goes from a lethargic, vaguely dangerous large animal who happens to get distracted by a maser tank to an aggressive, menacing creature who would’ve completely obliterated the lab if the tank had fired a moment later. This project has really given me a strong appreciation for what New World did with the original version.
Well, v0.6 is done. The MEGA upload is in the home stretch; after that’s done I’ll upload it to MediaFire, update the OP and then send the links around.
I have to say, I really enjoyed what you did with this. I have a custom 25GB Bluray of the Japan release as well so it’s nice to have these 2 to watch til the Bluray shows up in September.
I also had a hard time noticing the issues with the subtitle replacements. And I totally agree with Video Collector on the end credits, very nice indeed.
Thanks for the work and the share with us G fans.
😃
I’m glad you’re enjoying it! And I’m glad I thought to give it a test viewing once I’d rendered it the first time, because the original subtitle/other masking work looked pretty awful. Thankfully redoing it was fairly easy.
I’m still reading the thread (at work so I’ve only skimmed it) so apologies if this is answered somewhere. But is there a reason you went with a 720p tv broadcast copy of the Japanese version instead of a straight rip of the Japanese bluray? The bluray is already 1080p and it doesn’t have any burned in logos and such. I cant check for a couple of days, but it’s even possible the subtitles you had to erase were video generated and not burned in too, which could’ve saved a lot of trouble. The bluray is easy to find and has come way down in price (when I got it it was about $70 but now can be found pretty easily for around $40).
Echo3, who provided me with the copy of the MHD recording that I used for this project, asked me the same thing, so I’ll copy over that exchange:
i noticed you used the 720p HDTV broadcast for the japanese scenes. is there a reason you didnt us the higher quality bluray source? its on myspleen.
My university more or less suspends your wifi access if they see torrent activity, so even if I had a spleen account, I couldn’t download or seed anything.
Also, the current version is more or less a test run. I’m waiting for the Kraken Blu-ray to come out so I have as high-quality a source as possible to work directly from for the 1080p version.
(It also gives me a good reason to take a break from this movie and maybe work on a couple other similar but less involved projects.)
As to what those projects might be, I’ve been considering recreating some of the other US versions that’ve been neglected on recent home video releases, like Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster or Destroy All Monsters, for instance. I’ll make sure and put a thread up whenever I start actively working on those.
(EDIT: I noticed you mentioned the possibility that the subs aren’t burned in on the Blu-ray. I’m fairly confident the TV broadcast was from the same master, and not only did the subtitles look potentially handwritten, I’m pretty sure I noticed some telecine wobble on them too. I don’t think they were generated digitally; I think those are the original optically-added subtitles.)
I’m really looking forward seeing to this release! Looks good!
Any chance of a PM? And are there .rar links or torrent only?
SKREEEEEEEOOOONNNNKK!
I actually haven’t got this up on any torrent trackers or more paradoxical forms of distribution for the moment; right now I’ve just got MEGA and MediaFire links. Like I said above, my university keeps an eye out for torrent activity on their wifi network, and I haven’t bothered learning how to make multiple-.rar copies of large files yet. I’ll probably make the effort to get this project out on those platforms once I’ve made the 1080p final version.
And yeah, I’ll PM those of you I haven’t yet with the link in just a second.
Thank you so much! The response this has gotten from both the folks here and on TK has meant quite a lot to me; I’m glad people are enjoying this project so much.
It’s also been something of an eye-opening experience for me. I’ve long wished certain versions of these movies would get the sort of treatment Harmy’s given Star Wars, and this has shown me that it’s really not such a difficult thing to do. I’ve been fruitlessly looking for a job lately, and I think the frustration and the urge to be occupied with something productive really motivated me to do this, combined with resenting Kraken Releasing’s approach to their release of The Return of Godzilla. Spite and boredom will change your life, folks!
In the meantime, while we’re waiting for the Kraken Blu-ray to come out in September, I intend to keep busy with a few less complicated preservations of these films’ US versions (Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster and Destroy All Monsters come to mind), as well as the minor fixes still left to do on v0.5, which will most likely mean a v0.6 being released in the next week or two.
The upload is complete. Should have PMs with the link sent to folks in the next hour or two.
I had to go back and fix a good deal of the masking work early in the movie. I hadn’t actually looked at it in a while and most of what I’d done in the first half of the movie wasn’t up to the standards I’d reached by the end. I attribute this to the fact that I was still figuring out the color correction process; most of it turned out to be a pretty easy fix. I also had to fix a couple of points where a mask would disappear a frame or so early, leaving Japanese text briefly visible, and a couple where a stray frame of a shot would be left in between two others.
In any case, the movie is re-rendered, and while there are still one or two problem frames, I’m going ahead and uploading it. I’m not going to be too much of a stickler about this version, seeing as it’s a test run, but I’ll be sure to fix the remaining problems for the final, full HD version.
Recreating the credits took a lot longer than I expected it to. Matching the font that was originally used turned out to be the easy part; I found an online font recognition tool that pointed me to the right font family, and after some searching I found what I think is an exact match. What was harder was lining up all the text - the original credits have unusually wide spaces between words and some minor kerning differences compared to the digital font, which meant individual words and in some cases letters (notably capital As and Is) had to be spaced manually. Once that was done, though, syncing my recreated version of the text up to the original crawl was a breeze by comparison.
But no matter…
I’ll update the thread when it’s done and uploaded, and I’ll probably PM you guys the link. I appreciate all the feedback, advice and support I’ve gotten from you all, and I’m excited to share this project with you.
Anyone who hasn’t posted here yet and would like the link is free to hit me up as well.
All right, well, I just got home and got back to work on this project. I ended up powering through the whole rest of the movie; I’ve just reached the end credits. It ended on a slightly frustrating note, as the final shot of the volcano erupting is present in the Japanese version, but the end credits start to roll over it before the point where the American version fades out, and between the near-impossibility of creating a mask that moves subtly up the frame to cover those credits and the sheer amount of the frame I’d have to mask off with SD material, I had to end up just leaving that shot sourced from the Monsters HD release. On the plus side, I’ve now scientifically confirmed that Raymond Burr’s closing speech never fails to give me chills, no matter how many times I hear it.
Anyway, now to recreate the end credits in HD. I’ll have to take about a million screenshots of the credits in the MHD recording, line them up so I have the whole column of text, then recreate the text. After that I take the finished image, add it to the project, and make sure it scrolls at the same speed as the original credits. I might actually be able to finish this tomorrow, if not tonight, and after that it’ll just be a matter of rendering the whole project, watching it to make sure everything came out right, and then uploading and sharing it.
Well, I’m calling it a night with something like 14 minutes left in the movie. Should be finished and available to download within a week or so from today.