Alright, just finished my viewing and here are my thoughts:
Overall, it’s a promising edit. Most of what was cut out was not missed and what was left in kept the storylines held together rather well. But I have a few suggestions. First being that maybe the orphan Nicky subplot could be cut out entirely? Since it doesn’t amount to anything in the end, even in the original version, it might be best to leave it out. I realize this means cutting Andy, Lucy and Dick down practically to cameo appearances only, but if their plot doesn’t really contribute to anything at all and doesn’t feature the most of the comic-relief shenanigans that Andy and Dick get into, then it might be best to axe it entirely.
In terms of Ben’s subplot, I would suggest reintroducing the scene featuring Dr. Jacobi’s explanation of Ben’s condition of “trying to change his own circumstances by changing the outcome of the Civil War” so we have a better understanding of why he’s acting the way he is in his scenes.
For James, it may be best to reinsert one or two scenes in between James fleeing the police and returning to confront Evelyn. I think it may be necessary to bring back the scene Eveline talking to the police (if just for consistencies’ sake, given the closeups of Evelyn wearing the mourning veil in the confrontation scenes) and maybe the scene where Donna confronts Evelyn and Malcolm at the bar. As it stands now, it just feels like there’s a bit too much missing for the truncation of this plot to come off as completely seamless.
Some other things I’d like to address/suggest would be the credits that wound up included at various points in the edit. During Briggs’ questioning at the Sheriff’s station, the credits, I would imagine, could be removed with a simple cropping of the shots in which they are featured. The framing may come off as oddly close, but in my opinion, it would be less distracting than credits randomly appearing here. As for the scene of the examination of Windom’s victim, unfortunately cropping is not an option here as the credits are center-focused in the shots. However, and you may disagree, but I feel as though this particular scene could be cut entirely, as most if not all of the important information relayed here is found in other scenes featured later in this edit.
Also, some minor editing suggestions would be to extend the thunderclouds shot after Major Briggs’ reappearance by perhaps slowing down the footage. You won’t be able to get much more out of it, but it would be something. And I would also suggest that the commercial-break cut during the hostage situation at Dead Dog Farm could be edited to a more traditional kind of transition? As in, edit it to pretend there was no commercial break there at all and make it a time-passing transition, going from Sheriff Truman aiming his shotgun to the shot of the moon, maybe using a little audio layering and crossfades. I suggest this only because there was a fade-to-black/fade-in transition in the previous scene just before going from Nadine and Ed to Dead Dog Farm.
And finally, some lingering frames! For ease of editing, here are the frames you missed that I found during my viewing of the workprint:
53m & 57s - frame left in transition from Dead Dog Farm to sheriff’s station
1h, 6m & 59s - frame left in transition between Audrey, Cooper & Denise hotel scene and Denise confronting Ernie Niles
1h, 9m & 36s - frame left in transition between Ernie Niles interrogation and Brigg’s reappearance
1h, 28m & 52s - frame left in transition between wiring Ernie Niles scene and Donna asking Ed about James
1h, 43m & 12s - frame left in transition between the examination of Windom’s crime at the sheriff’s station and Leo terrorizing Shelly
1h, 49m & 26s - frame left in transition between Truman giving Cooper the Windom Earle case and James’ conversation with Mr. Marsh
1h, 51m & 13s - frame left in transition between Mr. Marsh driving off and Cooper contemplating the chess game
Again, very promising workprint here. Just needs some shaping up and it’s good to go V1 as far as I’m concerned. Looking forward to the final edit!
EDIT: One last thing! I’d really like to look at a cutlist if you have one to see if there was anything that you cut that maybe I’d wanna suggest adding back in. And thanks for the work you put in here!