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The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released) — Page 35

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The torrent client "BitLord" has a torrent creating wizard.

But then, I haven't actually tried it yet, so don't quote me on that.

http://i.imgur.com/7N84TM8.jpg

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Don't use Bitlord. It's believed to be adware, and it's just a ripoff of Bitcomet.

As far as making torrents Bitcomet has a built-in torrent file creator, or you can use a program called Maketorrent.

A while back in one of the LOTR book-cut threads, I posted a really long and in-depth guide to creating a torrent file with Bitcomet, but that thread has been deleted. So here's a couple sites with some guides for creating torrents with a few different programs:

http://torrentfreak.com/how-to-create-a-torrent/ (This gives brief explanations for a bunch of torrent clients)
http://forums.torrentbox.com/viewtopic.php?t=11407&sid=f41b255368f0dcbcc6449eeb667e5e21 (Uses Bitcomet, lots of screenshots)
http://wiki.theppn.org/index.php/BitTorrent_Tutorial (search for "making a torrent", covers Azureus and Bitcomet).

Next time I write a guide, I'll actually save the damn thing.
Good luck.
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Maketorrent is Windows only as far as I know. I'd like specifically Mac related help.




Well, once again I've kicked the quality of this edit up a notch.


A major bugabear for me with this edit is that the pan & scan image on the Princess and the Cobbler DVD is a really cheap transfer which goes dark on the sides - the right and bottom sides of the image in particular are much darker than the center, like a bad telecine.

Thus no matter how much time I spent placing the pan & scan image just so on the widescreen workprint and color correcting both to match exactly, the dark sides of the pan & scan insert always gave it away, and made all my best efforts look like junk.


I've solved that now.


I went into my pan & scan video files and looked for frames which were mostly just one flat color with nothing in it. I found one quickly for the main film, though for the end credits which are in widescreen, I had to hunt and create one in Photoshop from bits and pieces of frames.

Both were flat blue skies, darker on the right and bottom.

In Photoshop, I created a matte from this .... white for the light areas, black for the dark ones.


I applied this matte to the pan & scan image in Final Cut Pro. Using the matte, I lightened up the dark areas separately using color correction on a different layer, leaving the light areas unchanged.

The result? No more dark edges! The image looks like a clean transfer, transferred the same on all sides.



I replaced the files on my hard drive, and voila -- shots which looked merely good before are now seamless. Damn straight.



This has emboldened me ... I might even take on the "tree" shot in the Polo game, which I'd previously given up on as impossible to get right.
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You know, if only they released the widescreen version in the first place, this wouldn't be as big of a deal!
"I was a perfect idiot to listen to you!"
"Listen here, there ain't nothing in this world that's perfect!"

- from The Bank Dick
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Ogg--It was released in widescreen. Problem is, it was one of the bastardized cut, and there are scenes released in full-frame that aren't in the WS version (if I remember correctly).

And OCP, I forgot about the mac thing. Try Tomato Torrent:
http://sarwat.net/bittorrent/

Also, Azureus has been released for OSX:

http://www.afterdawn.com/software/p2p_software/p2p_applications/azureus_bittorrent_client_for_mac.cfm
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LOL. He's aware of that, John. We're all aware of that. Sorry, you just put your foot in the proverbial mouth.

LOL
http://www.gallifreyone.com/images/series/2006-03-11.jpg


Thanks for the links! Tomato Torrent seems simple enough. I'll have a go at uploading something of interest, probably this week.
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Yeah yeah. I'm tired. Sue me.

But I have to say, I like the Dr. Who cap. I actually have the site it came from bookmarked. I'm in the process of trying to collect all the eps of the old series (in the hopes that the old series lives up to the new version).
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Two different animals. Worthy of respect.


The ENTIRE old series? Do you have several lifetimes to spend on 26 series?


Anyway.



Even with Sopranos et al. back, I look forward to new Doctor Who more than any show on TV.
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Ok, my presentation was a success! Best of all, when I put up my site URL with links to the YouTube clips, a lot of people were jotting it down (even my professor).

The class was really impressed by the clips and laughed at all the right moments...

Besides the trailer, I showed:

Example of bootleg: The shot of the thief behind the signs from my 3rd gen tape DivX AVI from the torrent was used. Complete with the tape warp at the beginning. It lasted until the 3-D shift (with the overhead shot of the Buddah). Then I cut in the Miramax DVD version of that shot.

Example of pencils-only: The staircase pullback

Storyboard example: Oh ffffff-Phido!

Deleted material: The war machine destruction from Zig-Zag's horse going backwards to the rock falling on the huge billow.

Best of all, I didn't demonize Disney and only mentioned that it was made before Aladdin, but released afterward.
"I was a perfect idiot to listen to you!"
"Listen here, there ain't nothing in this world that's perfect!"

- from The Bank Dick
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Are the Japanese widescreen DVD and the U.S. letterboxed Laserdisc the same cut then?
Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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Originally posted by: SilverWook
Are the Japanese widescreen DVD and the U.S. letterboxed Laserdisc the same cut then?


Yes. However, the laserdisc has the "The Thief and the Cobbler" title and vastly better color/contrast. However, both are very dirty prints (The Miramax cut likely did the cuttiing on an interpositive and made a duplicate negative from that, which would explain the softness). Both are 2.35:1, but only the DVD is 16x9 enhanced (obviously).
"I was a perfect idiot to listen to you!"
"Listen here, there ain't nothing in this world that's perfect!"

- from The Bank Dick
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Nice work on the presentation! Knocked 'em dead, I'm sure.




Princess Meemee has been cut out of the film.

In my new cut, there was only one shot where you could still see two Princesses. I used a quick matte to paint Meemee out of the frame - quick and dirty and not that well. It's less confusing this way, but I will miss her and her angular features.

As promised, I have restored the Thief "tree" shot in the polo sequence. It's not seamless, but it is pretty good. It has taken a lot of work to do ... almost akin to the "One Eye's Eye" shot which I was never happy with ... and still am not happy with.



Working on the sound. The Emule workprint's soundtrack is full of nasty pops, clicks and errors all over the place, so I'm switching to the sound from the Stanch workprint pretty constantly. It's missing the first Tack/Yumyum "love scene" (and Thief material afterward), and Yumyum and the brigands after the witch ("Gentlemen, we must return at once!") up to the beginning of the war machine scene ("Ready the positions!") ...

All this has to be gotten from the Stanch workprint. This is actually all storyboards apart from The Thief putting his cloak back on and "Ready the Positions," so no great loss.



That said, the sound is of a much much higher quality. The difference is remarkable.
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Very excited about this final cut, and I'm glad to hear about the improvement in sound quality. Once concern I had about the Rough Cut was that while the sound was good, there was also some sort of electronic distortion sort of below the sound for much the film. Was this a problem with the source, or was it a biproduct of trying to clean it up?
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The electronic distortion was due to noise reducing the hissy sound of the Gomez workprint. It made everything sound very electronic and weird.

None of the sound from the Gomez workprint has made it to this version. The Emule workprint and the Stanch workprint have both been noise reduced, and you can hear some electronic crud in the Stanch workprint, but in the Emule workprint you can hardly hear any ... there was very little noise to reduce.

Gonna sound much better. =D



I'm gradually taking out more of the Robert Folk Arabian Knight score and replacing it with classical selections. I've used some suggestions by Justin and Patrick ... and am following my ear, trying to match a certain sound with the right scene. Different music certainly gives the material a different feel. A lot of it is from Scheherezade as usual.

I'll be leaving in some Folk music (folk music - heh) but by the time I'm done, probably not a large amount. If I'm using audio from Princess and the Cobbler you'll hear Folk, but otherwise you won't hear him as much.
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Attempted the first scene with classical music (Verdi) rather than Folk. Didn't like it as much. Folk stays.



My first instincts are usually right with the music, which is nice.



Factoid of the day - An early storyboard for the Thief stealing the Golden Balls showed an aloof, distant, confused king, unaware that they might be stolen. He is shown smoking a hookah, walking out of the Maiden from Mombassa's tent. He calmly calls Zigzag, who answers "Yes, oh steed?" King Nod says "I've been thinking ... we should beef up security."


Over the years Richard realized the scene would be more dramatic if the king was worried the balls would be stolen, as they were being stolen, to set up how vital the balls were, once again.


Another fun fact - just as there were two Princesses early on, so there were two Grand Viziers .... India in the Nasruddin film also had a kingdom with a grand Vizier so devious "he outwits himself."

It is possible that Kenneth Williams (Goblet) originally played the Vincent Price role. POSSIBLE. I've seen one reference to this in print which could be wrong.





I'd like to thank people in this thread for kinda giving a crap about this little minutiae. When you're doing this kind of edit, most of what there is to talk about is the weird little minutiae, which is also what I like talking about most. So it's nice to know that people care about this film, and will sit through some of my blabbering.

Rock on, thread.
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The psychological effect of "ones" ...




Some of the worst crimes Fred Calvert committed against this film were done on "twos." Richard animated most of this film on ones, and Calvert cheaped out, creating shots intended to be done on ones, on twos.


For my rough cut, I was able to make a Calvert shot of the war machine on fire, which was done on threes and looked terrible, look good, merely by superimposing two other versions of the shot over itself at 1/3 opacity, one and two frames forward respectively.

Meaning: each frame, instead of being on threes, gradually dissolves into the next one. Since this is a fire effect which should look smooth, it suddenly was on "ones" and looked great.


But that's just an effect shot, a static shot. It wouldn't be possible to fake inbetweens on real animated shots.


But ...


For the rough cut, I tried it anyway, superimposing the shot over itself, 50% opacity, one frame forward .... to make "twos" dissolve into each other.


It looked awful.




For the final cut, I tried something different. Instead of putting it over itself at 50% opacity ... I thought, what if it was just at 12% opacity? Or some low number like that?

Just a shadow of another frame, just subliminally there.



I've tried it, and it does look better. It's subtle enough that it doesn't draw attention to itself and look cruddy, but the brain does see the action as looking smoother. This takes some of the "edge" off the worst Calvert shots.


It's kind of a dumb trick, but I'm gonna keep doing it. I think it works. We'll see.
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In my school, I'm co-president of the Anime Club, which isn't doing so well right now. Well, I always carry around a copy of the Rough Re-cobbled version (seriously.) and I put it in the dvd player - and we could only watch the first half-hour (time restrictions) but it got a very warm reception! The other co-president, Jeremy, personally congratulated you, Garret! He was very impressed on how seamless it all looked. The others in the club were almost speechless, simply watching in awe. (At least, that's what I take their silence and absolute attention for)
Well, I'm taking a sick day today, but tomorrow we should continue it. Is it alright if I could possibly burn copies for some club members?
Also - after watching the Rough Copy again, I noticed several things (such as the pipe outside the window next to Tack repairing the shoe). Cool stuff! Also - just one thing - everything's cool with adding music (especially Sheherazade!) - but are you keeping the love theme? I hope so.
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Okay... what can we do about the stuff I have?

Again: we need someone in the UK with a hard drive or DVD Recorder that can get to Elstree Studios and sit for a day transferring files. I don't mind paying towards costs to make this happen, as I have a good amount of stuff that would bolster the overall set.

I just can't justify buying a DVD Rec right now what with so many other bills and things that need seeing to (I know this pales in comparison to what Garrett is going through at the moment, but still)...

If anyone really is unable to help out, I'll just have to go VHS on y'all, but I'll continue to ask around and see what I might be able to do.


Time is running out tho...next Tuesday a new Bob Hoskins movie starts shooting which I'm doing the EPK for, and then I'm straight on to my own project in mid-June, so I am worried that I may not even be around for a few weeks.

HELP!
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Good idea to cut out MeeMee. Even in the first workprint, you can kind of tell it was a placeholder. I'm guessing the final version would have just had Yum-Yum being shocked about the smell (as seen in the Calvert WIP).

ANYTHING is better than another feminist rant, though.



BTW, would you be interested in your original programming (Gods of L.A., etc.) to show up on GBStv? We're getting requests for more original non-mainstream stuff, so I'd like to see how your films go. I'll be honest in saying that I totally forgot you sent them along with the "Thief" stuff! Once I'm done with finals, I'm going to sit through the films (along with a couple dozen others I've been waiting to watch due to being busy). I can't wait to see how your original work looks!

I actually re-edited (hastily... in time for a Film Production I entry) a short film from 2001 that I made with my cousins: http://www.ctufilms.com/tromboninator.avi
I shot and edited all of it. Remember that Folk track I asked for? I needed cheesy music for a scene... you'll notice it. It's not exactly good (I literally got the camera the day we shot it), but I think it's funny.
"I was a perfect idiot to listen to you!"
"Listen here, there ain't nothing in this world that's perfect!"

- from The Bank Dick
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Originally posted by: Tequila Mockingbird

Again: we need someone in the UK with a hard drive or DVD Recorder that can get to Elstree Studios and sit for a day transferring files. I don't mind paying towards costs to make this happen, as I have a good amount of stuff that would bolster the overall set.
... <snip> ...
HELP!


Tequila, I seem to be the only UK'er thats posting. I have an external harddrive (300gb, USB & Firewire connectors, currently NTFS formatted). I could get the data from you then "we" can figure out what to do with it after that. I have a PC dvd writer (Philips DVDR1660/K).

I'd come up by train (I can't drive and even if I did it would be faster by train) It would take me about 1h45mins to get to Elstree & Borehamwood station, so I could easily get there for say 9am or 10am. (probably wanting to arrive for 10, depending on train costs, not sure when the "cheaper" return tickets would be).

I could do this either Friday this week of Monday next week. The only "hinderance" is I'd be bringing a 11month old kid with me I do the child care in the mornings. I have a wrap which I tend to carry him in, rather than using a pushchair so even with him I can travel fairly light.

Anyway I'd be happy to do this and my wife has said she is okay with it too.

I'll PM you this response to make sure you get it.
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Many thanks Tarasis. You're going way beyond the call of duty here, and I really appreciate it.

Sangokyu - Great that you showed it at the anime club! Very cool. Burn all the copies you like. You "always" carry around the rough Recobbled? My god ... it's gonna get scratched. =)

>> everything's cool with adding music (especially Sheherazade!) - but are you keeping the love theme? I hope so.

I am adding music, not subtracting it.



Patrick - Watch Gods and the shorts, lemme know what you think. I can give you the 7-part TV cut of Gods also. You'll find clips at Youtube (under tygerbug) or at orangecow.org of course.

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Originally posted by: OgOggilby
Good idea to cut out MeeMee. Even in the first workprint, you can kind of tell it was a placeholder. I'm guessing the final version would have just had Yum-Yum being shocked about the smell (as seen in the Calvert WIP). `

I sometimes wonder if the final line "Maybe something died!" should be kept given that I assume MeeMee said that originally.
Yours truly,
Chris Sobieniak

For more mindless entertainment....
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It's clearly been redubbed by Yumyum though. So it's Yumyum now.


According to Michael Sporn the Yumyum/Meemee bath was animated by Tissa David, who did Raggedy Ann, in 1977.



Subtle joke of the day: "Get those balls" sequence ... A small dog can be seen about to pee on the revolving wall before the henchmen revolve through it.



I think I'm finished editing pt. 1. I'll leave it open to do subtle alterations, but I've restored the entire soundtrack.



It's still annoying to go to the "Princess" soundtrack for Vincent Price's lines, and Clinton Sundberg's, etc ... (and in part 2, Joan Sims, Windsor Davies etc.) ... because there's always music under it, wind noises, snoring noises, ten billion things cluttering up the soundtrack that shouldn't be there. With the higher quality Emule workprint sound, I've actually gone to the Princess soundtrack less this time round ... but I'm still doing it, for the clearer sound it enables.
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This may be a long shot, but if you have a bit of dialogue with only the score underneath is... I wonder if it would be possible to filter it out by using the score CD as the "noise profile" and making sure it's synched with the Princess audio mix. Instead of filtering out noise, you're filtering out the music.

Basically, you'd edit the music back to match what's in the clip of dialogue you want to use and set is as the noise profile. Maybe when you apply noise reduction using that as the noise profile, it'll filter out the music.
"I was a perfect idiot to listen to you!"
"Listen here, there ain't nothing in this world that's perfect!"

- from The Bank Dick
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Wouldn't work in the least. Noise reduction is a crapshoot as is.

Even if we lived in an alternate universe where that did work, that would take away all the quality that's the reason I'm using the Princess sound in the first place.


A lot of the material I'm using has minimal score actually ... but the FX-heavy soundtrack gives it away every time. =(