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Zack Snyder's Justice League: Redux Ideas thread — Page 4

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D-A113 said:

Tho while I’m not a fan with cropping the film, if you had too I’d suggest instead cropping it to the IMAX 1.43. I saw the BVS IMAX scenes in that aspect ratio and it’s simply gorgeous. I think an overlay for it should be available in the link I sent to the curious and if not I can happily share mine.

Thanks! This is great. I love having more movie in the fram, but on my home screen it just feels a little wrong. Too much screen bare same with bars at top and bottom of screen.

“It’s over anakin. I have the high ground.” After Darth Maul, Obi Wan should have known better.

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Jamesleaf said:

D-A113 said:

Tho while I’m not a fan with cropping the film, if you had too I’d suggest instead cropping it to the IMAX 1.43. I saw the BVS IMAX scenes in that aspect ratio and it’s simply gorgeous. I think an overlay for it should be available in the link I sent to the curious and if not I can happily share mine.

Thanks! This is great. I love having more movie in the fram, but on my home screen it just feels a little wrong. Too much screen bare same with bars at top and bottom of screen.

No prob!

Drew Bell

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 (Edited)

I think for my own edit of ZSJL, I would have it be both the best version of Zack’s original vision while also having it be the version that probably could’ve been released in theaters back in 2017 by having it, again, be cut down to around three hours.

Apparently Zack Snyder wanted the film to be 2.5 hours, so I guess if I’m able to find the right edits, I could probably try and get it to around that.

Which is why I’m planning on calling the edit the “theatrical cut”

Drew Bell

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OGSpark said:

Maybe a “tilt and scan” 16:9 version? I get that the aspect ratio it’s presented in is part of Snyder’s vision, but the ratio makes no sense for home video consumption (which is at the moment the only way you can see this film). Hell even Christopher Nolan, who actually films on 70mm IMAX and has a reason to use that aspect ratio, converts those sequences to 16:9 for home release in order to retain as much of the “IMAX experience” for home viewing as possible.

I’d go farther and reframe it to 2.35:1 to match with previous movies.

As for the cuts - other than Martha-Manhunter which was completely pointless and everything after shirt rip, I don’t really feel the need to cut anything (that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be interested in watching tighter cut, just not planning to do it myself).

JUSTICE LEAGUE GRINDHOUSED - released

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How feasible do y’all think it would be to pull a LOTR and have the “History Lesson” scene be a prologue for the movie? How I imagine it, you would keep Gal Gadot’s narration and just have the scene play out normally, maybe even tack on the “They say the Age of Heroes is over…” line at the end and then go directly into the opening of the film proper.

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BrotherOfSasquatch said:

How feasible do y’all think it would be to pull a LOTR and have the “History Lesson” scene be a prologue for the movie? How I imagine it, you would keep Gal Gadot’s narration and just have the scene play out normally, maybe even tack on the “They say the Age of Heroes is over…” line at the end and then go directly into the opening of the film proper.

I’ve actually thought about that idea too.

Drew Bell

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Tho an alt idea I had was to have it start with Cyborg’s backstory. Since MOS started with Clark’s origins and BVS for Bruce and since ZSJL is more or less Cyborg’s story, I thought it could make for a good consistent theme to start with Cyborg’s origins, cutting to black as his dad cries over his comatose body.

Drew Bell

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krausfadr said:

The three main formatting options for a ZSJL edit would be to keep it as-is in IMAX format (1.33), crop to 2.39 to match Batman v Superman, or crop to 1.78 to fit a standard widescreen tv. I personally would opt for the 1.78 because this leaves as much of the original picture intact as possible on a standard tv, while not having black bars on the top or sides. It would also not be jarringly different from BVS should someone wish to watch BVS and ZSJL back to back.

For what it’s worth, both Snyder and the Director of Photography have repeatedly gone on the record in pre-production AND production that they storyboarded and framed the movie for 1.85:1, and if you literally do nothing more than hit the zoom button on your TV (thus cropping the frame down to 1.78:1) you’ll see that roughly 95% of the film’s composition works perfectly. There are a handful of shots that seem too tight however, and those shots would be the ones you’d need to manually move within the 1.78 frame (meaning instead of being center-framed, as most of the movie is, the 1.78 is top-edged or bottom-edged.)

Essentially: The film was pre-planned, blocked, and shot to work first and foremost in 1.85:1. The “IMAX” thing is an after-the-fact conceit Snyder applied to the film in the Snyder Cut’s post-production. The movie was meant to be seen in 1.85 when they created and shot it. Cropping it back down to that aspect ratio (or 1.78, in this case) is honestly getting it closer to its “original version” than the Snyder Cut is.

FWIW: I think Diana foiling the terrorist thing could go - I like the idea of her introduction into the movie following the Amazonians firing the beacon arrow. The idea that the death scream leads straight into the Amazonian fight is a very good idea too.

I don’t think the Superman vs the League fight should go - although it’d honestly be so much cleaner if he shot up into the sky, hovered there, and then just left. You could imply Lois saw him, figured it out, and met with him at the farm later, thus sort of inserting SOME agency to her character. But if the fight is staying, I think the Whedon version of it is honestly better, especially with regards to Batman having brought Lois there as opposed to Lois just kind of having her weird ritual with old Jimmy Olsen interrupted with her dead boyfriend’s resurrection.

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I think for my own I’ll look at Josstice as a blueprint of how I could possibly cut the film down but this time retain Snyder’s vision.

Drew Bell

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Question regarding cutting down ZSJL-
What would be the most effective way to shorten Cyborg’s backstory?

Drew Bell

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 (Edited)

D-A113 said:

Question regarding cutting down ZSJL-
What would be the most effective way to shorten Cyborg’s backstory?

I’d definitely cut down the weird vision sequence where his dad voice-overs his powers in excruciating-yet-vague detail. Don’t need to see the dumb bear and bull fighting as a metaphor, for example. Also don’t think we need “the challenge will be not doing these things” because that lesson never once matters in the movie and is eerily reminiscent of Pa Kent’s infamously horrible teachings in Man of Steel.

Vilgefortz said:

Physical releases are finally here…

https://vimeo.com/556927672

😉

lmao

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Well, the most effective way to shorten Cyborg’s backstory would be using his theatrical scenes instead of ZSJL ones 😉

I’ve just cut scene with his mother talking about him helping some girl in college (there is later a better scene with the exact same message), and the Bear & Bull(sh*t) scene 😃. I don’think cutting too much Cyborg is a particualry good idea. That being said, I’ve decided to use theatrical epilogue, which isn’t centered on him.

In my “Stage 2 edit” I’ve cut the whole thing down to 194 minutes (including some theatrical bits here and there). I’m not sure if I will try and cut it down more. It’s also reframed to 2.35:1 (or more like 2.31:1), and uses that as the opening titles:

https://vimeo.com/558961757

JUSTICE LEAGUE GRINDHOUSED - released

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Cameron Samurai said:

Here’s a potential timeline for the opening act to a three hour cut

Reveal message
-Open the movie with Lois in mourning, fetching her coffe, visiting Clark’s memorial, segues into Diana’s mission to thwart the bombing.

-Steppenwolf seizes the first Motherbox, Amazons discussing sending the arrow to Diana, but we don’t need to see it shot and land or Diana discovering the all too convenient shrine to Darksied. She relays all necessary information to Bruce later.

-Bruce dreams of Knightmare Superman only, wakes up, and is visited by Martian Manhunter, who offers to help, this provides better motivation for why he helps Lois out as ‘Martha’ later, doing his own small part, and it also enables Bruce to become more aware that an invasion is immanent rather than the gut feeling he has.

-End the prologue with Diana and Bruce discussing Darksied and Diana asking where the others are

-Begin Chapter One: “Don’t Count on It Batman”

The prologue would be too long I’m afraid.

I did something quite similar - mourning (+ some flashbacks from BvS) -> museum -> scene with Amazons from the prologue, and when one of them say to alert the queen opening credits sequence kicks in - after that, we move to scene where the queen arrives. Then some other scenes - Flash introduction, Steppenwolf sends parademons, Batman on the Roof (TC, which introduces him), janitor’s kidnapping, Arrow sequence, then Diana meets Bruce, history lesson and Arthur/Bruce meeting.

Icecream2448 said:

I felt the music that plays in the theatrical when The Flash realizes Superman can see him out of the corner of his eye was better. It was weirdly silent in the Snyder Cut and kinda sucked the comedy out of the little bit (it should be funny, Flash makes a funny face realizing).
Maybe I’m just used to the music cue selling the little sequence in the theatrical, and it’s not actually that good from an unbiased perspective, but I dunno. I definitely prefer it over the almost no music version that plays in the Snyder Cut.

Agreed. Restored the theatrical version of that fight in my edit. Also, Snyder Cut has some weird image distortion goin’ on there. One more reason to restore theatrical scene.

Also reinstated parademon chasing Wondy when Flash helps her with the sword.

dgraham414 said:

I would think to add-in from the Joss cut is the conversation with Flash and Batman before the first fight with Steppenwulf

Yup. I’ve done it too (shortened though).

Broom Kid said:

and if you literally do nothing more than hit the zoom button on your TV (thus cropping the frame down to 1.78:1) you’ll see that roughly 95% of the film’s composition works perfectly.

Disagree. I’ve reframed whole thing shot by shot, and I’ve seen edits auto-cropped - nowhere near to 90% “works perfectly” when we use that “no effort solution”. The more proper term for it would be “not that bad”. The fact that the movie was shot for 1.78:1 does not mean, that there’s no need for proper framing inside full frame.

Also, there are some shots in Snyder Cut clearly reframed from 1.78:1 of theatrical cut. I’ve replaced at least four of those with theatrical counterparts in my “Stage 2 edit” (three of them in the terrorists confrontation scene).

JUSTICE LEAGUE GRINDHOUSED - released

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How about The Snyder Cut with the black bars removed?

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Neerb said:

D-A113 said:

Question regarding cutting down ZSJL-
What would be the most effective way to shorten Cyborg’s backstory?

I’d definitely cut down the weird vision sequence where his dad voice-overs his powers in excruciating-yet-vague detail. Don’t need to see the dumb bear and bull fighting as a metaphor, for example. Also don’t think we need “the challenge will be not doing these things” because that lesson never once matters in the movie and is eerily reminiscent of Pa Kent’s infamously horrible teachings in Man of Steel.

Vilgefortz said:

Physical releases are finally here…

https://vimeo.com/556927672

😉

lmao

I’ll keep that in mind thanks 😃

Drew Bell

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I think if I ever get too making my own fan edit I’ll have a version that sticks too the 1.33 aspect ratio but also a version reformatted too my preferred aspect ratio of 1.66 for the film. Too me it best widens the image without losing too too much. It also still gives the film more of that old school look Snyder was going for.

Drew Bell

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Frankly, I find the 1.78:1 ZSJL edits the least interesting visually, so I basically skip them. They remind me of that “fill the entire screen philosophy”.

If not 4:3 (which looks fine here), then 2.35:1 for the theatrical feel, but I could give 1.66:1 a try.

JUSTICE LEAGUE GRINDHOUSED - released

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Vilgefortz said:

Frankly, I find the 1.78:1 ZSJL edits the least interesting visually, so I basically skip them. They remind me of that “fill the entire screen philosophy”.

If not 4:3 (which looks fine here), then 2.35:1 for the theatrical feel, but I could give 1.66:1 a try.

The 2.35 for me feels too cropped in and goes against Snyder’s philosophy that I agree with that we often look at heros vertically rather than horizontally.

Drew Bell

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D-A113 said:

The 2.35 for me feels too cropped .

Out of curiosity - have you watched ZSJL in that format? I mean re-framed shot by shot.

I watch it either the way director intended (4:3), or the way I like (2.35:1 or something close to it - which looks pretty good, maybe except couple of shots here and there). All three ZSJL edits I made are 2.31:1.
I’ve reframed also first Avengers - in that kind of movies there’s no place for 1.78:1.

Couldn’t care less for Snyder’s philosophy which he made up suddenly after doing Watchmen, MoS and BvS in 2.35:1.

JUSTICE LEAGUE GRINDHOUSED - released

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On an unrelated note, I was wondering how other people felt about the film’s dedication “For Autumn” with regard to fan edits. On one hand, it might be disrespectful to remove it. But on the other hand, it’s meant to be a message directly from Zack Snyder, so once we as fan editors have altered the movie from what he wanted, one could argue that it would be unethical to leave it in. What are your thoughts?

You’ve got to ask yourself one question: “Am I making Carrie Fisher’s ghost proud?”
Well, are ya, punk?

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In my first ZSJL edit I left it in.
In the second and third - I cut it out.

JUSTICE LEAGUE GRINDHOUSED - released

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I prefer films in their original aspect ratio, and would like help finding an edit that preserves the 1.33:1 ratio.