-=Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets=-
.:Enhanced ABC Cut:.
An RtW Production by Doctor M
Runtime: 2:54
(Theatrical Cut: 2:41)
(ABC Cut: 2:46)
This is a reconstruction/remix of the ABC HDTV extended broadcast of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It is intended to fix many of the flaws found in the ABC cut (and custom extended fan edits) of HP2 while providing the most complete film possible.
Besides the inclusion of the deleted scenes found on the DVD, the ABC edit contains two additional bits.
The first is a shot of Harry exiting the Borgin and Burkes coffin. This links two deleted scenes together.
The second scene is Dumbledore dismissing Harry and Ron from Snape’s office so they can rejoin the feast.
Video Source: SiLU group’s HDTV x264 (theatrical cut) release. (1280x704)
Deleted footage and other bits are from the ABC extended HDTV broadcast. (1280x720) Airing May 7th, 2005 capped in 720p.
18.5gb of raw mpeg2 extended goodness. Both sources were cropped, matted and/or stretched to match the aspect ratios.
Audio Source: Theatrical DVD Audio (DD 5.1)
Deleted audio from ABC’s extended HDTV broadcast. (DD 5.1)
Changes (Differences noted are changes from the ABC extended edit):
General:
National and local station ID logos removed.
Commercial break fade ins, fade outs and missing/added frames corrected.
Most (to all) instances of pixelation at cuts and scene changes fixed by manually swapping the decimation pattern.
In many cases the ABC audio was overdriven. This tended to be worse in the deleted scenes. The volume has been balanced accordingly.
Pudding with the Masons:
Replaced: In several instances the theatrical’s wider shots were used. (Extended cut’s composition does not follow photography’s rule of thirds and crowds the frame.)
Extended footage editing flaw fixed/Deleted: Aunt Petunia laughs without her face or neck moving (was probably a bad overdub).
Extended footage editing flaw fixed/Deleted: Mrs. Mason moves lips without talking (again bad overdub).
Deleted: Duplicated and zoomed clip of floating pudding.
Added/Restored: Dudley noticing floating pudding (from theatrical).
Added/Restored: Dobbie snaps his fingers for the pudding to fall (from theatrical).
Replaced: Theatrical audio used for pudding fall (much stronger splat noise).
Removed/Replaced: Extended mugging of camera by Harry (giving Dobbie dirty looks) at end of scene. Replaced by slightly longer theatrical footage focusing on Dobbie hiding around corner.
Audio: Tightened to match these changes.
Borgin and Burke’s:
Replaced: Theatrical’s wider shot used just before the hand of glory tag close up.
Restored: One second of footage just as Harry steps out of Borgin and Burke’s.
Flying Car Scene:
Replaced: Used theatrical’s wider shot of cabbie watching the flying car.
Colin Creevy Extended Introduction:
Crop/Resize Fix: Corrected a shifting aspect ratio problem.
Group Conversation (before Harry’s Reflection on Being a Parselmouth):
Replaced: More of the original framing used with a hard cut to the ABC version.
Audio: DeSync fixed / Theatrical music cues restored in the process.
Study Hall (following Harry’s Reflection on Being a Parselmouth):
Fix: Color saturation, white levels and gamma adjusted to match theatrical footage (and the rest of the scene) following the dissolve.
Fix: Dissolve reconstructed with the color corrected clip.
Audio: Music cues removed and replaced by shorter theatrical version and the original quiet environmental sounds.
Harry and Hagrid Discuss Dead Rooster:
Removed: Less than 1 second (20 frames) of fade to black (for commercial break). This is a deleted scene so no theatrical replacement footage was available.)
Dueling Club:
Note: 2 second of Lockhart pulling up gauntlets not restored because of theatrical source problem. Not really critical, but it would have been nice.
Fred and George Tease Harry and Harry Starts to Doubt Himself:
Removed: Theatrical dissolve from horse drawn sleighs to Great Hall - no source to restore from.
Added: Created new dissolve from Harry to Great Hall to soften a hard commercial cut.
Added: Restored about 1 second of the Great Hall ceiling.
Hermione Explains the Polyjuice Potion Plan:
Audio: Removed overdub of Hermione telling Ron and Harry to put on Crabbe and Goyle’s robes. It was added to the theatrical cut to explain the Slytherin robes because the later laundry explanation scene was trimmed. ABC failed to remove the dub even though it is redundant and creates a discontinuity.
Hermione has Slytherin Robes from Laundry/Drinking the Polyjuice Potion:
Audio: No change from ABC edit – tone appropriate scoring kept in place of theatrical version (which was just used during an additional scene and could best be described as Crabbe and Goyle’s Theme).
Crabbe and Goyle Meet Themselves:
Audio: Theatrical score used just before the extended clip (it’s more action-y and frantic sounding).
Back In Moaning Myrtle’s Bathroom:
Audio: End of the extended scene’s score fades to the silence of the theatrical audio then the correct timing of musical cues (which started too early in the ABC edit).
Extended Diary Scene with Humming Ghost:
Fix: Continuity error corrected. Harry flipped to the end of the book twice in a row (without going back to the front), then starts flipping back to front only to suddenly be seen flipping to the end again from a different angle. – Close up of flipping blank diary pages removed.
Audio fix: Humming ghost mysteriously silent during close up of diary pages, shot removed (see above).
Note: The cut shot of flipping pages appears in a more extended form, without continuity problems and without the ghost on the theatrical DVD.
Harry and Ron Visit Aragog:
Audio: After added scene with Ford Anglia, removed ABC’s additional score and replaced it with the spooky environmental sounds of the theatrical cut.
Credits:
Restored: Full length credits.
Restored: After credits shot moved to… after the credits of course.
Some notes about the extended scenes (contains spoilers):
Much of the deleted content restored by ABC is partial story lines that are never fully explored. Whether additional footage exists that fleshes them out or not is unknown.
A copy of the complete script is included on this disc, but here are some of the more important points:
-After the dessert incident with Dobbie, the Dursleys aren’t afraid to lock Harry in his room because of a letter they receive from the Ministry of Magic. It is a reminder of the prohibition against the underage use of magic.
The Ministry (incorrectly) assumes the use of magic in the household had to be by Harry.
This is when the Dursleys first become aware that they have nothing to fear from Harry using magic on them at home.
-Lucius Malfoy sells off several dark arts items at Borgin and Burke’s because of raids by the Ministry (and Ron’s father).
A raid of Malfoy’s house later turns up nothing, and you assume it’s because he has gotten rid of the incriminating items.
Also, Ron’s father is being investigated after the flying car incident.
Ron is able to help his father get back in the Ministry’s good graces after using the Polyjuice potion because Draco mentions the location of his father’s hiding space for his remaining dark arts items.
-When Harry find’s Filch’s Kwikspell letter, it is meant to reveal that Filch is a Squib (a child of magical parents who is unable to (or can’t properly) do magic themselves). Kwikspell is a mail-order course for the hopelessly inept at magic.
It is why the Heir of Slitherin would have a grudge against Filch (and by extension his cat): squibs are considered as bad as mudbloods.
-Lockhart’s pop quiz shows Hermione hanging on every word from her new professor. Hermione is very taken with him and has a bit of a blind spot where he’s concerned.
Later when she’s recovering from being a cat, she keeps a Get Well card from Lockhart under her pillow.
-Hagrid carrying around a dead rooster is later explained by Tom Riddle: Ginny, under the influence of Tom has been killing them.
The full book entry for Basilisks includes the line: “…only the crowing of a rooster can kill it.”