reave said:
focuspuller said:
Ok so I've watched your complete edit of the film. My opinion: almost perfect. Your cutting was good. There's a lot of fast cutting in the film of course (official release), some of it not great, so to edit around some of those scenes is a bit tricky. I think you pulled it off very well. The bumblebee "pissing scene" was a tricky scene to edit but it still worked, you did the best you could with it.
The only thing for me that makes this a one or two percent less then a perfect edit are a very few teeny tiny cuts that I don't think you needed to make. The "perfect day" scene for example, only lasts a few seconds but shows characters actually being characters. I don't think the "bring the rain" line needed to be cut. In discussing the film with my uncle (a former Marine who served in Lebanon) he claims that it's not uncommon for "hyped up phrases" to be included in comm traffic in the heat of combat. In any case, I think we can all agree that Bay films in general are very firm in the realm of disbelief, this film very much included. Having said that, It's a hero saying his hero line having his hero moment, and this is of course a hero film. I also don't mind the "back cheek" moment, I think the humor works.
These are all of course personal preferences. And other then these small things I think the cutting was perfect. I always thought the end battle scene was a bit of a mess in the editing and you improved it A LOT. So bottom line, much rather watch this over the other.
So if you're serious about that focuspuller edition you let me know. ;)
Thank you, I take that as quite the compliment.
I'm trying to talk one of the better graphics editors on the forums to help me really fix the bumblebee pissing scene, by covering up the fact that the agents are wet. Again, at this point I chalk it to them sweating.
Sometimes all the fast cutting helped, sometimes it was a motherf*#ker to get around. I'm most proud of my tiny cuts, that no one will notice, like tightening up the shot where the red haired soldier (scut farkus from A Christmas Story, btw) gets spiked by Scorponok, and when Scorponoks tail pops up on the table. It was weird having to make Michael Bay cuts shorter, to make the action a little faster (confused smiley face). If you go through the cuts list with the movie, you'll see a ton of little things that you probably wouldn't notice otherwise. I would almost recommend watching the theatrical version right before watching my edit.
I understand your thoughts on the "perfect day speech, it just seemed a little too cheesy, IMO. It's not a horrible scene, just not my favorite. To be honest, it was the first cut on my first fanedit, so maybe I was just excited to be cutting anything!
"Bring the rain". I don't know. I'm sure that there is some chatter, but it is discouraged in general according to my younger military sources. It just seemed a little overacted. Not an unusual thing in a Bay movie, but I didn't feel it was needed either way. I fought with that decision for a long time, cutting and reinstating it several times. Maybe in the end I just felt I had to cut it, since I had so much time into getting it right! ;)
"Left cheek, left check, left cheek!" With this one, it seemed that it was a bit unrealistic (yeah, even in a movie with giant alien robots) for him to repeat it three times. I mean, he's fighting an enemy like he's never seen before, and he has time to say that three times, rather than just unloading his gun on a giant killing machine? Nah. So I tried to cut it down to 1 "left cheek", but it just wasn't smooth. That would have gone against my main point of the first cut, which was keep all the cuts as seamless as possible. I've seen too many edits where people get cut-happy, and it ruins an otherwise decent fanedit.
When I start the second cut, I'll make a quick focuspuller edit, but I can't put it out, because I'm really against the "left cheek" scene. When my wife found out I was editing Transformers, it was the first thing she asked about!
Again, thank you for the honest review, I'm floored that people seem to be liking my edit.