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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - The Enhanced ABC Cut (Released)

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 (Edited)

-=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.”

Dr. M

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What was the question? And should we assume this is sourced off the earlier broadcasts/DVDs and not the HD broadcasts last week, or do you have a surprise for us?

Looking forward to it.
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For HP2 I have a set of the original ABC broadcast in HD.

A dual layer version has already been released by Rikter direct from the same source.

I'm attempting to tweak it up.

At least HP1 was floating around as a raw HD of the original broadcast, but it's in the wind now.

Oh and the question was about a scene I recut. Rewatching it I despised it and have completely rebuilt it.
I still have a few decision to make but it's nearly done now.

Dr. M

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Ok, I now have version two of the clip done. The sample is Xvid (apologies for the black borders, it's Womble's xvid encoder).

http://rapidshare.com/files/42185865/v2.zip.html 12.9mb
Zip file includes the original ABC version for comparison.

This is an idea of the sort of tweaks I'm making.

The ABC's version of this clip:
-Before the first dissolve (to outdoors) the music cues are different and start later than theatrically.
-Before the first dissolve a more cropped framing is used as they zoom in on Harry. Ron disappears off the side of the frame and the camera looks like it's struggling to keep the actors in the shot.
-Before the first dissolve (starting with the cut just before it) the audio is 4 frames out of sync.
-The music continues for a good bit into the study hall scene (theatrically it's quiet).
-The study hall shot is more cropped (losing a lot of the scale of the room).
-The study hall's colors are oversaturated. (The room feels small warm and cozy.)

My version:
+Restored theatrical music cues before first dissolve.
+Restored most of the theatrical zooming shot before first dissolve. (Cut added just before final zoom in on Harry).
+Audio now syncs.
+Soft whispering and scratching quills are now predominant in study hall (not music).
+Volume lowered for outdoor shot (it was louder than the clips before and after).
+Color saturation, white levels and gamma corrected to match theatrical footage (and the rest of the scene) of the study hall establishing shot.
+Dissolve reconstructed with above corrected clip.
+Music cues removed and replaced by shorter theatrical version and quiet environmental sounds.
-Couldn't fix overcropping of study hall establishing scene.


A lot of this is nit picks, but much of the added scenes have some problem. I've seen people move their lips while not talking (because of bad overdubs) and aspect ratios shift suddenly.

Dr. M

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Originally posted by: Doctor M
Ok, I now have version two of the clip done. The sample is Xvid (apologies for the black borders, it's Womble's xvid encoder).

http://rapidshare.com/files/42185865/v2.zip.html 12.9mb
Zip file includes the original ABC version for comparison.

This is an idea of the sort of tweaks I'm making.

The ABC's version of this clip:
-Before the first dissolve (to outdoors) the music cues are different and start later than theatrically.
-Before the first dissolve a more cropped framing is used as they zoom in on Harry. Ron disappears off the side of the frame and the camera looks like it's struggling to keep the actors in the shot.
-Before the first dissolve (starting with the cut just before it) the audio is 4 frames out of sync.
-The music continues for a good bit into the study hall scene (theatrically it's quiet).
-The study hall shot is more cropped (losing a lot of the scale of the room).
-The study hall's colors are oversaturated. (The room feels small warm and cozy.)

My version:
+Restored theatrical music cues before first dissolve.
+Restored most of the theatrical zooming shot before first dissolve. (Cut added just before final zoom in on Harry).
+Audio now syncs.
+Soft whispering and scratching quills are now predominant in study hall (not music).
+Volume lowered for outdoor shot (it was louder than the clips before and after).
+Color saturation, white levels and gamma corrected to match theatrical footage (and the rest of the scene) of the study hall establishing shot.
+Dissolve reconstructed with above corrected clip.
+Music cues removed and replaced by shorter theatrical version and quiet environmental sounds.
-Couldn't fix overcropping of study hall establishing scene.


A lot of this is nit picks, but much of the added scenes have some problem. I've seen people move their lips while not talking (because of bad overdubs) and aspect ratios shift suddenly.


now THIS sounds like something I will be downloading... i havent downloaded rikter's ABC cuts, so i'm really interested in seeing this.
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Looks really good--I like everything you did. The cut at 0:18 is a bit jumpy, but I don't think you would notice it if you were just watching the movie. I especially like lowering the music; that's the one thing I noticed about the ABC editions, very loud volume. Terry Jones would be apoplectic (and somewhere, perhaps, he is).
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I've rewatched that cut a bunch of times and agonized whether to keep it or not.

The funny thing is I've seen TV and movies do cuts just like that. In the middle of a camera move/zoom they'll just cut in to almost the same thing just zoomed closer.
But when you do the same thing yourself it seems amateurish.

I tried to cut away just as Ron is about to be lost off the left side of the screen and the focus of the conversation becomes between Hermoine and Harry. That way more of Hermoine is on the screen while she is talking.

[the rest removed... babbling.]

Dr. M

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I think the cut is okay in the flow of the film--if you're looking for changes, you'll always notice something.

Also: Someone posted HD rips of Azkaban and Goblet of fire from the German broadcasts. They're on a.b.hdtv.german for anyone who is interested. Would probably require audio dubbing at the very least--maybe more. As C-3P0 said, "I'm not very knowledgeable about such things."
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They're probably the theatrical cut.
If you're interested in such a thing there are some very well compressed ones (in x264) put out by the SiLU group.
They're usually multilingual (multiple audio tracks), 720p and fit on a single layer DVD.

Dr. M

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I hadn't thought about that--the coincidence of their having been posted after the ABC-Family viewings made me think that they must be from that, but that's obviously not true. My German is pretty bad, but I looked at the NFO and INFO files, and there's nothing in there to suggest it's the extended edition.
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No SiLU tag?
Were they raw or compressed to x264 or something?

Dr. M

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No tags (again, the German may throw me, but I didn't see SiLU anywhere), and compressed via XVID to x264 (good guess!). I should add that the info files indicate they have English as well as German audio, which would support your guess that it's a theatrical release, no?
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Blargh!

The other day I ran into a problem with the SiLU source. There is a run of 6 minutes with a bunch of random pixels around the picture.
I was up until 5 am that night hand fixing and repairing my scripts to bypass the problem. (Unfortunately it meant losing 2 seconds from the theatrical edition I added back. Better that than an ugly picture.).

The technical: The ABC video is a raw transport stream passed via m2v files to avisynth (as mpeg2source), the x264-mkv source is passed as directshowsource.
After more than a week of editing audio in Womble, and generating multiple avisynth scripts that call each other and a bazillion trim commands I finished.

My encoding (OPV at Q18) took 5-6 hours (lots of slow codecs and filters are involved (delogo was worth it)).
And then...

"DirectShowSource is not frame accurate."
Did anyone know this?
Blaraghghghgghgh.
My scripts are garbage, I have nothing.

I have one idea to fix this and it sucks: convert a 720p HD video of 2 hrs 40 minutes to a lossless format. That's about 60gb (estimated)....
Then go back to the lossless video and find all my edit points again to find the REAL frame numbers.

If I want to finish this, it looks like I'm going to need a bigger boat.

Dr. M

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Neuron2 (Donald Graft) is my hero.
The creator of DGIndex/DGMPGDec, DGPulldown, and more, brings us: DGAVCDec Alpha (yup not even beta software).

It frickin' indexs AVC/H.246/x264 content just like DGIndex does mpeg.
Initial tests are looking good.

Edit: ... and it's Alpha for a reason. Keep crashing CCE during encoding.

Dr. M

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I have no idea what you mean, but I think it translates into: "I have technical difficulties, I have software that should solve the problem, but the software has technical difficulties, too."

Good luck working it out!
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FYI: Harry Potter five-movie, five-disc HD/Blue-Ray set due out late this year.

HP HD

More here

No date, no word on bonus features (e.g., deleted scenes).
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Just a quick word of advice: in the ABC cut, after Harry and Ron (as Crabbe and Goyle) begin turning into themselves, there is a short scene of them running away from the common room--except the CGI for their hair wasn't there! Unless you can redo CGI, I'd leave it out.
My Username Pwns All!
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Hmm, I don't see the scene you're referring to.
From the second Ron and Harry start to change back and start to flee the Slytherin common room, their hair appear to be correct, even in the deleted scene.
Can you be more specific?

For all the problems this edit has been having I'm again tempted to shelve it until the official release... just in case.

I'm just not understanding the need for a boxed edition when everyone knows there's 2 more movies coming.

I can't imagine it selling particularly well either (possible new extras or extended running time aside).
Who'd pay a premium for movies in an incomplete box set that you can already buy for half the price?
Odd decision.

Dr. M

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This is the first time however they will be available on HD-DVD and Bluray.
Brian The Demolition Man Little
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If anyone remembers this elderly thread, it is in fact the last true fan edit I have ever done.

Because of technical issues I shelved it in hopes of one day reworking it.  2 years later I've decided this project is well and truly dead,

I've updated the first post with the full details of the project and if there is interest I'm thinking of releasing it.

What is wrong with this?  Loads!

The sources are HDTV.  At the time I started this I didn't realize how many broadcast artifacts were present until I had finished cutting it together.  I thought I removed them all, but it is riddled with sparkles, pixellations and breakups.

The audio is crazy soft.  I'm not sure why since it's largely untouched DVD audio with HDTV audio adjusted to the same volume. Considering Womble changed the dialog normilzation from -27 to -31 it should be louder (assuming I've got that straight in my head).

The aspect ratio, while full 16x9 open matte, I found to be jarring.  The aesthetics and composition of the shots really do seem to suffer.

The HD version got scrapped after hours of labor because of difficulty and lack of interest.

Finally, I just don't care anymore.  The last novel was too dark for my tastes and poisoned all previous ones for me.  The last several movies have been crap collections of the action scenes with none of the story and heart of the books.  I pretty much no longer care about all things Harry Potter.

At the time it was an interesting exercise in seeing what an extended cut should have looked like and if someone else wants to remake it, I will provide advice, avisynth scripts and anything else useful to help.

Maybe finally putting a close to this albatross of a project I can begin to consider editing again.

Dr. M

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 (Edited)

Since there are no takers, I wanted to add one more thing.

A question unasked, and not really obvious in my first post: What is the difference between this and ADM's cut?

There is of course the 16x9 AR and the long list of corrections and tweaks to flaws or problems in the deleted scenes as explained in the first post.

The most important differences:

-Scenes with Hagrid and the dead rooster are together instead of 2 separate instances of Hagrid walking the halls with dead poultry.

-The scene "Fred and George Teasing Harry and Harry Starts to Doubt Himself" is between the outdoor winter establishing shot and Christmas dinner in the Great Hall, rather than before the establishing shot.

-I kept the deleted scene of Harry and Ron finding the Ford Anglia while looking for Aragog.

-ABC edit contains 2 additional bits not available on the DVD: a shot of Harry exiting the Bourgin and Bourkes coffin which links two separate DVD deleted scenes together and Dumbledore dismissing Harry and Ron from Snape's office so they can rejoin the feast.

I love ADM's work (which is much better quality), but he didn't have an ABC cut to use as a guideline for placing scenes.

Dr. M

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 (Edited)

I've decided I'm psychic in a useless way.

According to TheDigitalBits.com:

That same day (12/8), Warner is also releasing a pair of titles we've known about for a while now, but we finally have more details on - new DVD and Blu-ray Ultimate Editions of the first two Harry Potter films, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (SRP $39.92 each on DVD and $49.99 on Blu-ray). Each will include both theatrical and "extended" versions of the films, 48-page photo books, new cast introductions, screen-test footage, all-new featurettes, Digital Copy versions and many (if not all) of the extras from the previous versions as well. You'll also get new In Movie Experience and Maximum Movie Mode options on the Blu-ray versions featuring director Chris Columbus, complete with PIP video, photos and artwork.

I wonder if these are going to be the ABC cuts or something more.  Probably the problematic ABC cuts and not the ones we're REALLY hoping for (you know with Peeves and all the other known footage).

So I put this project on hold again until December.

Edit: "Extended Version with 13 Minutes of Footage Not Shown in Theatres."

Sounds like the ABC cut if you ask me... although the total time of the Deleted Scenes we've seen at this point is only 10 minutes.  MAYBE there is more to this.

Bah, I fixed the subtitles and made another edit yesterday (listed in the first post).  All that's left is the chapters and rebuilding the disc with menus.  I'm going to go ahead and finish this.

 

Dr. M

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I heard about those official extended releases.  I was hoping for more than the same scenes we got with the ABC cut or the deleted scenes on the disc, but whatever.  They sound like cool sets nonetheless.  I would be interested in seeing your disc when your done :)

ThrowgnCpr’s edits on Fanedit.org

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Finished (I think.)  First post updated again and thread retitled finally final name.

Total runtime... 13 minutes longer than the theatrical.

Since it's yet another Potter cut, I've been thinking of doing an xvid for those wanting to sample first.

Dr. M