The opening is very different from the workprint to the released film, and there's only part of it that matches between them, but I tried to use the best bits of both without being too repetitious. I used a lot of video effects to meld the two.
Sometimes footage (not by Williams) "sort of matches" and I try to use it. Sometimes I have to decide whether or not to use footage that only appears in the released version (trying to figure out whether it would fit Williams' vision). Having already done an edit of this movie 6 years ago, I already have a good idea of what to use and what not to use.
Here's the thing that's bugging me now, though.
Okay, the workprint is of terrible quality, and a lot of the scenes only appear in pencil test form, or as storyboards, some of which are pretty roughly drawn.
In theory I would want to use EVERYTHING in the workprint and make it match exactly, but the workprint IS a workprint - it's unfinished and slowly-paced, and despite the mediocre quality of what Fred Calvert did to the film for the released versions, he did cut out a lot of stuff that you don't miss. He quickened the pace of the film a lot. He cut out a lot of the best parts, but also a lot of the padding.
And this wouldn't matter if the quality of the workprint didn't suck so much - but the way it is, when you're watching the gorgeous DVD quality footage, you get into a groove, and then you see some awful murky pencil test shot where you really can't tell what's going on, or you see a storyboard that's badly drawn ...
And it does take you out of the film a bit. One of my goals with this edit, since I'm working so long and hard on it, is to make my edit a good and enjoyable film to watch, better than the workprint, and feeling more "finished." Because the film WAS finished ... almost.
The workprint lacks a lot of music, even some sound effects, and is missing some scenes for some reason which are clearly Williams scenes and appear in the released version.
So yeah, I'm actually ADDING music to parts of the workprint. I'm using some of the Princess and the Cobbler score, and some of its sound mix. This makes the film feel more finished and more fun to watch. It's slightly sacrilegious, but not all of the score/sound mix that Calvert's team did is bad - I have a soft spot for the Thief theme, for example ... and I feel it can make this film work even better.
So here's my point .... something that's been on my mind.
It's nice to be reconstructing the complete workprint and all, but sometimes I get the feeling that it would be really nice to do a "short edit" of this film as well, that cuts out a lot of the stuff that only appears in the workprint - the goal being to make the film match what Williams wanted, but feel "finished" - so that you almost never see something of terrible picture quality, but are always watching the gorgeous DVD footage from the released version.
The "finished" version, so to speak - like an official DVD. No storyboards, no nonsense.
And then you'd have the longer version for the complete story.
Hm.
This film is often referred to as unfinished, and it is unfinished really, but I feel that it would be possible to release a "finished version" - of course, if we actually had access to all the scenes that were cut out of the released version, many of which may have actually been finished but never seen, a really great "finished" edit could be done ...
Anyway.
This is a good idea I think but I doubt I'll actually be editing and releasing two versions of this film.
I'll just make the best workprint movie I can ..... occasionally cutting out a shot or two, but basically matching the original.