logo Sign In

A New Edit/Approach Of LOST In chronological order (a WIP)

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Hey there fellow LOST fans!

There is now a new post for the finished project! Current details and information on how to access are there! šŸ˜„ Check it out: https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Causalogically-LOST-A-new-unique-chronological-re-edit-of-LOST/id/113262

I have just completed editing together an all new version of LOST in chronological order, in full Blu-Ray video quality. My original inspiration was ā€œChronologically Lostā€, which I believe was the first attempt at putting this complicated show in time order, which was a whole new way to watch my absolute favorite show of all time. I loved that someone put all that effort into it, and it was super fun to watch. I enjoyed the hell out of it.

However, there were things about it that bugged me, mainly that the source quality was poor (which was no fault of the editor, there wasnā€™t a lot of options back then - and itā€™s recently been updated to HD by another awesome Lost fan on this forum). But it was more than that. Though it made sense that the idea was to put every scene in itā€™s technically correct place in the timeline, there were many parts of the show that no longer worked as a cohesive story because of this. As an example (not specific), if a character time-travels from 2004 to 1956, rather than following their journey as they experience it, the 1956 scenes were moved to early on in the show, during the 1956 section, which is jarring and nonsensical story wise. And since there are many time jumps like this, there are many confusing scenes early on because they are completely out of context. And then much later there are giant gaps in the characters stories because they were moved way back to the literal point in time. Hopefully that made sense šŸ˜ƒ

So, my new version was completely made from scratch, and I did my very best to make it a cohesive story while also making it chronological. It is edited in the chronology of the characters, rather than being strict/literal with the timeline. This means all instances (and varieties) of time-travel are experienced along with the character(s), since that is what they were experiencing in their present. This includes Desmondā€™s experiences, since they are happening to him in his present as well. Itā€™s been clear to me over the years that many people would prefer seeing it this way, and as far as I know, it is not available currently.

I wanted this edit to be more than just rearranging scenes for fun. I wanted to make it itā€™s own (as close to professional as possible) experience. So, I did my best to take out all commercial break pauses, flashback noises, opening LOST graphics, continuity problems (there were more than I thought there would be), and to change the context of certain scenes to feel more natural when watching it this way. I scoured the episodes repeatedly to achieve all this (in addition to already having watched the entire series dozens of times). The episodes are continuous scenes, with no pauses or breaks, edited together to feel like it was meant to be this way. Watching Lost in this manner is such a different experience, it made sense to me to go all in and make it special. That said, I did my best to not mess with it too much, only enough to make this version of it work best. Thereā€™s only so much you can do with an already finished show (oh how great it would be to have some raw footage!), but I did my best.

There are 80 episodes total. I steered towards roughly an hour per episode, though it varies. I let the story (and timeline) dictate this more than anything. Iā€™m leaving in one batch, rather than trying to separate it into seasons, or anything like that. While there are logical places to do this here and there, overall it didnā€™t feel right. It is one big story after all.

I added in all the Missing Pieces, ā€œThe New Man In Chargeā€, and the season 4 deleted scenes. I REALLY wanted to put in the delete scenes for the entire series, but unfortunately all the rest of them are such low quality it just takes you out of the show, so I took those out. It made it worse, trust me, or I wouldā€™ve kept them in. I always wonder why they only made the deleted scenes 1080p for season 4 and nothing else. Weird. But, if they ever do a 4K set of LOST (oh please oh please!) maybe the deleted scenes will get an upgrade, and then my edit will as well. I will gladly go back in and make the whole edit 4K if that day comes šŸ˜ƒ.

There is no split screen used at all, as they did with ā€œChronologically Lostā€. I wanted every scene to flow naturally, like there were never a bunch of separate scenes from different perspectives of a single moment. Instead, all the parts were edited with extreme detail to combine into a single flowing scene. Those scenes are some of my proudest moments, and I think they work amazingly well this way.

It was edited in Premiere Pro, using the untouched Blu-Ray video files, and exported in the same exact quality to maintain the best possible picture. This means itā€™s huge (884GB) but having the best possible video quality was very important to me. It has 5.1 AAC VBR audio at 640-800bps. Adobe doesnā€™t like DTS audio or I wouldā€™ve maintained the DTS-HD audio tracks from the Blu-Rays as well. However, the audio sounds great to my ears so Iā€™m happy with the outcome.

As of now it is not available anywhere to share. I would love nothing more than to let my fellow LOST lovers watch and enjoy this, and have not set anything up yet because I want to make sure itā€™s safe for me (and you) to do so. Iā€™m also debating adding optional subtitles that display the current time/date of whatever scene, in case anyone watching was confused at all in that regard. It would mostly be for the flashbacks, since some of those episodes traverse a number of years. Anyway, if itā€™s going to happen I want it done right. What that means, I donā€™t know yet. I guess Iā€™ll find out how interested others are in seeing my version of this based on this post, and proceed from there. It would please me greatly for you all to see it, so Iā€™m hoping it can work somehow. I do not have an official name for this edit yet, but Iā€™m open to suggestions!

My brain has been busting at the seams with this whole project, and thereā€™s probably a bunch more details I havenā€™t mentioned here, but this post is already really long. Iā€™ll edit it, and/or answer questions within the forum, with any and all information if itā€™s asked for/thought of. But I want to share my excitement with fellow fans!

Please let me know your thoughts about any of this! I love LOST deeply and know thereā€™s many others out there just like me. Say hello! And thanks for reading my overly long post!

Edit: I should mention that this will only be watchable for those that speak (or at least understand) English. The English subtitles for all other languages spoken in the show are burned-in, but there wonā€™t be any subtitles available otherwise. I doubt that will be a problem, but who knows. At the moment I have no plans of adding any additional subtitles because it would be insanely difficult to implement.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Hi WigJuice,

I canā€™t tell you how excited I am for this project. Well actually, I can, and I have told you twice already on different threads. But here I am, being excited again. And to have you post this on 8/15 is just a wonderful coincidenceā€¦ or should I not mistake it for fate!

I am almost finished watching DragonClawNZā€™s edit of ā€˜Chronologically LOST HDā€™ (reference: https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Chronologically-Lost-HD-Remaster-of-Mike-Maloneys-edit-Released/id/68693) and am thoroughly enjoying it. Full credit to the effort put into it. Having said that, I was preparing myself to go ahead and make an edit of the series with some changes, many of which youā€™ve addressed here yourself.

To me, the time jumps and Desmondā€™s flashes should be watched in the timeline as the characters experience them. (To be precise, Desmondā€™s experience from 4x05 ā€˜The Constantā€™ is actually his 1996 self in control in both times, but it still makes better sense when viewed by us in 2004, once we know about the freighter. Similarly for his jump in 3x08 ā€˜Flashes Before Your Eyesā€™ when his 2004 self is in control during 1996; we would still make more sense of Desmondā€™s confusion when seen right after he turns the failsafe key in the hatch.) Iā€™m happy to hear that youā€™ve put these scenes into an order that should theoretically allow a newcomer to Lost to watch the series for the first time with this project, and have it make sense (and I intend to test this theory by introducing a friend ā€” letā€™s call her Eloise ā€” to the series in this way). For those of us who have seen the original show before, this project would finally put together the mosaic pieces that the original show gives to us out of order.

I also like the idea of having the show title appear at the start of each episode. Since the pacing will be different from the original show (e.g. during the ā€˜flashbackā€™ 1980s and 1990s episodes, there may not be an appropriate dramatic ā€˜teaserā€™ scene to punctuate with the title), this allows the full episode to run uninterrupted. My vote (as youā€™ve heard) is to call this project ā€˜Causalogically Lostā€™ (ā€˜causalā€™, as in, events follow causality including during time travel sequencesā€¦ except for that damned compass!).

Overall, it sounds like you have put substantial time into something that many fans will want to see. You might want to contact DragonClawNZ to find out how they managed to share it while considering safety. Certainly use a VPN, obviously. You may also wish to consider exporting a version in 1080p quality, for those who canā€™t handle such massive file sizes.

Author
Time

Drew Drakofolis said:

This is something Iā€™d very much be interested in.
But without split screens - how are such scenes actually handled?
If thereā€™s multiple things happening at the same time, what do you do?

Hey there! Thanks for the reply and the interest!

Iā€™ve just found a few tiny issues with my exports of a few episodes, so will need to do a little problem solving before itā€™s officially ready, just so you know. Then Iā€™ll figure out how to share it and all that good stuff.

Anywho, to answer your question, I pretty much just tried to edit those scenes together to make it feel like a good single scene from the show. With something like the plane crash (that whole episode, or day really), itā€™s just a matter of cross-cutting between all the different elements in a way that works, dramatically and while making the pace feel good and natural. For instance, after the plane breaks apart in the air, the tail section hits first, so a chunk of that plays out before Jack actually wakes up in the jungle (thereā€™s some Ben and Juliet and ā€˜the othersā€™ stuff mixed in too), then itā€™s just going back and forth between all the different events happening to feel like itā€™s sort of all happening in one big chaotic moment. Thereā€™s way more to it than that, of course, but thatā€™s a simple breakdown. In most cases, the scenes that used split screens arenā€™t different things happening at the same time, but different perspectives of the same scene, so those ones were relatively easy to make into one single flowing scene. But, there are some that just have to jump back and forth between different things happening, and honestly, to me it works far better. It feels more like Lost. The split screens are really cool, and fun to watch, but having it flow in one edited together sequence keeps you more compelled with the show. Thatā€™s how I feel anyway, Iā€™m sure not everyone would agree. But, I did my very best to make it work and feel professional, like it was meant to be that way.

Feel free to ask any other questions! Iā€™m always happy to talk about it.

Author
Time

Looking forward to this release. Thanks for doing this.

Author
Time

Adam905 said:

Looking forward to this release. Thanks for doing this.

Thanks for the interest and support!

Unfortunately there were some technical problems with the exports of some of the episodes, so the final product will be delayed a bit. However, I am actively working on it so it shouldnā€™t be too long.

Author
Time

This sounds great! Iā€™m also looking forward to this, and thanks for all the work.

Author
Time

I am so so so so interested in this! I actually asked a few months ago if something like this exists! I cannot wait to give it a watch.

Author
Time

feronstost said:

I am so so so so interested in this! I actually asked a few months ago if something like this exists! I cannot wait to give it a watch.

Thanks to everyone for the support! I am still actively working on getting this done, and in the process of fixing the technical issues, have also been doing some final touches to make it better. Knowing there are fans out there excited to watch it has inspired me to make sure itā€™s as great as possible.

Iā€™ve also tested higher compression (lower file size) exports and was able to get pretty awesome results at a much smaller file size (roughly 1/3). Being that sharing the full quality 880+GB would be incredibly difficult, this should be a far more realistic situation, while not sacrificing too much quality.

Once the episodes are complete, I will let it be known on here, then figure out a sharing situation, likely through private message.

Author
Time

Think you for working on this project. I am very interested to watch it!

Author
Time

Hey out there to anyone following my thread! I just wanted to check in again and let it be known that this project is still going strong, and Iā€™m actively working on it. Iā€™m trying to be ultra patient with this final pass and doing my best to make it as good as possible. Iā€™m glad I am too, because there have been some spots where the continuity was a bit off and scenes needed to be moved around to accommodate. With how massive this show is, and especially with how crazy complicated it is, Iā€™m not surprised I still found some mistakes, even after so many passes. And there are plenty of places where itā€™s more a creative decision where to place scenes, so Iā€™m paying extra attention to all of that this time around to try and make it flow as well as possible.

Anyway, just wanted to assure anyone who cares that itā€™s moving along quite well. Iā€™ll keep popping in to update from time to time, but hopefully it wonā€™t be too much longer before itā€™s ready! I hope you all love it, because Iā€™m putting a lot of love into it!

Sidenote: If there is anyone out there in the fan-editing community that knows of a good/efficient way of getting rid of on screen credits, please let me know. That is the main big thing that makes this edit not look professional, that credits come on the screen all over episodes, because of them being out of original order. It doesnā€™t bother me too much, and is easy enough to ignore when watching it, but if there were a way to digitally erase them (that didnā€™t take thousands of hours), that would be amazing. Iā€™m not interested in blurring, or covering them, for I feel that is more distracting then just leaving them be.

Thank you everyone!

Author
Time

Iā€™m no pro at editing, but I had a quick search for ways of digitally removing text from video.
Have you considered the ā€˜Content Aware Fillā€™ feature from the 2019 update of Adobe After Effects? I watched a tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvWI0a0Oqi0 and thought it could potentially help for this.

Some more generic and less clear instructions (and they advertise their own product) can be found here: https://filme.imyfone.com/watermark/how-to-remove-watermark-from-video-in-after-effects/.

Author
Time

feronstost said:

How is this project going?

Hello there (I pictured Ethen saying that when I wrote it)

I had some major delays during the holidays but Iā€™m back at it now and should have some good time to really work on it again. Iā€™ve got 61 (of 80 or maybe 81) episodes pretty much done, so not too far to go. There will be some final tasks at the end of this pass just to make sure everything is all good, but that wonā€™t take long.

I appreciate all the interest in my edit and really really hope everyone gets to watch it that wants to. More so, I hope it will be enjoyed thoroughly for the version of Lost that it is! Iā€™ll try to update more often as things progress!

Thank you!

Author
Time

wigjuice4815162342 said:

feronstost said:

How is this project going?

Hello there (I pictured Ethen saying that when I wrote it)

I had some major delays during the holidays but Iā€™m back at it now and should have some good time to really work on it again. Iā€™ve got 61 (of 80 or maybe 81) episodes pretty much done, so not too far to go. There will be some final tasks at the end of this pass just to make sure everything is all good, but that wonā€™t take long.

I appreciate all the interest in my edit and really really hope everyone gets to watch it that wants to. More so, I hope it will be enjoyed thoroughly for the version of Lost that it is! Iā€™ll try to update more often as things progress!

Thank you!

Awesome Iā€™m glad to hear it! I hope you have as much fun making it as we will watching it šŸ˜ƒ

Author
Time

I canā€™t wait for this, forget the rubbish on TV this looks likely to become my next obsession. Thank you for keeping Lost alive and interesting and seen in a new way again.

Author
Time

Hi Wigjuice, just wondering if you might be able to give us any updates on how youā€™re going? Is this project still underway or are you (understandably!) taking a break from it? Iā€™ve sent you a couple DMs over the past couple of months but it appears you havenā€™t seen them. Hope all is well with you!

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Throwing in my support for this version. This is exactly how I hoped the original Chronological Lost would be šŸ˜ƒ to each their own, but this version seems moreā€¦ logical, one might even say ChronLogical Lost xD

I hope you can share your work when you have time!

Author
Time

God, I am so excited for this. This is something Iā€™ve dreamed of forever. Itā€™s how Iā€™d hoped that chronologically lost was going to be. Canā€™t for future updates!

Author
Time

So excited for this! Any updates on the project?

Author
Time

Iā€™d be down for this 100%. I love this show

Author
Time

Namaste Losties!! Iā€™ve been at work on a project with similar aims to this one called LOST: CIRCLE! I just finished season 1 and Iā€™m a quarter done with s2! Iā€™ve been releasing episodes weekly since early June!
I will make a proper post on it as well!

Here is a clip from the season 1 finale! A spiltscreen-less Crash!!
https://vimeo.com/739515438

More info here as well!
https://www.reddit.com/r/lost/comments/xg1m53/lost_circle_season_1_finale/

Feel free to dm me with further questions!

Lost: Circle
COMING SOON
https://vimeo.com/535401297

Author
Time

Drew Drakofolis said:

Out of curiosity, are you giving names to your custom episodes?
I really loved the varied and interesting episode titles in LOST. So it would be very cool if your versions also had new episode titles that fit the style of the show.

Iā€™ve thought about trying that but so far just have times/dates as titles, but that was really to keep things organized for the most part. Iā€™ll put some real thought into it and see what happens. I canā€™t compete with the original titles but if it seems doable, Iā€™ll go for it. I have noticed themes occasionally within the newly edited episodes but in a lot of cases thereā€™s not. We shall see!

Author
Time

enkrypt said:

Throwing in my support for this version. This is exactly how I hoped the original Chronological Lost would be šŸ˜ƒ to each their own, but this version seems moreā€¦ logical, one might even say ChronLogical Lost xD

I hope you can share your work when you have time!

Thanks for the support! Itā€™s exciting that people are hungry for this version (as I was), and I deeply hope itā€™s satisfying for everyone! Thereā€™re so many little choices that itā€™s bound to not work for everyone, but Iā€™m trying to make it as good as possible. Though itā€™ll always bother me that I canā€™t get rid of the on-screen credits! Iā€™ve found the brain tends to ignore that after watching it a while.