Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Edit Suggestions — Page 8

Try THIS link for some "HowTo"s.

I guess you'll be especially interested in THIS one.

I really think some of Marion's lines should be cut. Her dialogue is often really poorly written and performed. I really don't like how she says "Trust me!"; it sounds really annoying. Can something be done here?

Here's the current state of my so far edited sequences (no CGI-changes or color-correction yet, just plain editing):

Jungle Chase
Waterfall

Video is in DivX (crappy), audio in AC3 (5.1 surround, not so crappy)

jones1899 said:

That's funny, that line from Marion also bothers me every time i see these awesome edits from Laser and others. Not my biggest issue, but still irks me.

 Something's gotta be done with that line...

Laserschwert said:

Here's the current state of my so far edited sequences (no CGI-changes or color-correction yet, just plain editing):

Jungle Chase
Waterfall

Video is in DivX (crappy), audio in AC3 (5.1 surround, not so crappy)

I have no sound when I watch these videos.

Great edits there man! Taking away those few offensive moments in each really does improve the sequences a lot.

Really, they're practically perfect, but if I had to be a nit-picky pain in the ass :) ...

- Now that the trouser-ripping is cut, could we cut Mutt's 'oh, shit...' in the truck? And just go from Mutt tossing Indy the knife, to the knife landing on Indy's soulder, then straight to Indy dropping the knife behind him?

- Are you planning on adding the missing nozzel-flash to Spalko's gun at 0.04.56 (of your clip)?

- Is there any way of making Mutt go straight for the hilt of the sword, and not the blade first? This is at 0.05.51/53 ; is there any way to cut straght into this scene here so that he reaches straight for the handle? Lol, this always irked me - why the hell does he go for the sharp blade? Seems like a stupid thing to do, especally for someone so skilled at fencing/with switch blades.

- Although for like a nano-second, you can still see a couple of CG monkeys attacking a Russian soldier in Spalko's jeep just as Mutt jumps across to Indy's; could Mutt getting into Indy's jeep with the skull be handled in another way, perhaps, to eleminate this? Can these pesky CG monkeys be totally removed? I remember jedi jira's edit of this not having the CG monkeys in Spalko's jeep - did that edit not remove the wide-perspective shot of Mutt jumping or something?

Anal-retentiveness aside though, I can't wait for this edit; top stuff!

The Golden Idol said:

Laserschwert said:

Here's the current state of my so far edited sequences (no CGI-changes or color-correction yet, just plain editing):

Jungle Chase
Waterfall

Video is in DivX (crappy), audio in AC3 (5.1 surround, not so crappy)

I have no sound when I watch these videos.

 

That's why I've linked to AC3filter... you need it installed.

Regarding the changes:

I wasn't sure about how to handle the pants-rip-gag...I've shown my edit to a friend and he thought that Mutt's "Oh shit..." wasn't necessary, since he threw the knife onto Indy's shoulder on purpose. And that's where I'm unsure, as I thought that maybe he didn't do it on purpose, and he almost threw it too far and out of the truck, so that's why his heart skipped a beat ("Oh shit..."). I even thought of making the "shock" a little longer, and affecting both Mutt and Indy by intercutting his reaction shot (or reaction-"shit"), and then going back to Indy dropping the knife behind him. This makes the pause a little longer, making it look like both freeze for a second, out of shock. So, what do you guys think: Did Mutt hit Indy's shoulder on purpose, or not?

I must say, Mutt going for the blade of the sword first never bothered me... it made me think that he wanted to test if the blade is sharp, and that the thing is not just decoration (since it came in such a nice box ;) ). I'll have a look into the shot to see if it could be changed. By they way, complimenting myself I must say that I like the way we now cut from Spalko drawing her sword directly to Mutt finding the other sword. Nice analogy there.

The monkeys... ah, those damn monkeys. I think we definitely need the shot of Mutt jumping from Spalko's jeep onto Indy's, otherwise the logical gap is too big. We've already lost him grabbing the skull-bag, so I think at least this part needs to be there. I'll try to either paint out the remaining monkey(s), or crop the image to lose them.

Other digital changes (like adding missing muzzle-flashes) will be done later.

Ha, I never even noticed the cut from Spalko drawing her sword to Mutt finding his one- I thought that had always been in the film! Lol, I'll compliment you on that cut as well then!

Awesome edit, Laser! I think you should remove the "oh shit" line.

As I said before, when Spalko lands on the back of the duck while Marion's driving, they just stare at each other for a good 3 seconds. It just looks weird. Maybe a shorter cut is in order?

For the Waterfall edit, I urge you to consider this:

Marion's "Trust me!" line sounds really annoying, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. Maybe her being silent while pushing Indy away would make her seem as a bit of a stronger character? You could mask her moving mouth with a closed mouth in your editing program, maybe? Anything to remove that line.

Here's the scene written out so it's clear:

Indy: Honey, slow down, you're gonna go off the cliff.

Marion: That's the idea!

Indy: Bad idea, give me the wheel!

[Marion silently pushes Indy back, and her foot hits the pedal. Everyone screams as they go off the cliff.]

Laserschwert said:

Here's the current state of my so far edited sequences (no CGI-changes or color-correction yet, just plain editing):

Jungle Chase
Waterfall

Video is in DivX (crappy), audio in AC3 (5.1 surround, not so crappy)

Been busy with reallife... anyhoo.

Holy shit, yeah!

I'd remove the Oh shit line, but apart from that, that's what the chase should have been. Blistering. Fantastic job!

The Golden Idol said:

Awesome edit, Laser! I think you should remove the "oh shit" line.

As I said before, when Spalko lands on the back of the duck while Marion's driving, they just stare at each other for a good 3 seconds. It just looks weird. Maybe a shorter cut is in order?

 

For the Waterfall edit, I urge you to consider this:

Marion's "Trust me!" line sounds really annoying, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. Maybe her being silent while pushing Indy away would make her seem as a bit of a stronger character? You could mask her moving mouth with a closed mouth in your editing program, maybe? Anything to remove that line.

Here's the scene written out so it's clear:

Indy: Honey, slow down, you're gonna go off the cliff.

Marion: That's the idea!

Indy: Bad idea, give me the wheel!

[Marion silently pushes Indy back, and her foot hits the pedal. Everyone screams as they go off the cliff.]

What do you think, Laser?

The Golden Idol said:

Awesome edit, Laser! I think you should remove the "oh shit" line.

As I said before, when Spalko lands on the back of the duck while Marion's driving, they just stare at each other for a good 3 seconds. It just looks weird. Maybe a shorter cut is in order?

 

For the Waterfall edit, I urge you to consider this:

Marion's "Trust me!" line sounds really annoying, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. Maybe her being silent while pushing Indy away would make her seem as a bit of a stronger character? You could mask her moving mouth with a closed mouth in your editing program, maybe? Anything to remove that line.

Here's the scene written out so it's clear:

Indy: Honey, slow down, you're gonna go off the cliff.

Marion: That's the idea!

Indy: Bad idea, give me the wheel!

[Marion silently pushes Indy back, and her foot hits the pedal. Everyone screams as they go off the cliff.]

I don't see a way of shortening the Spalko/Marion staring, as it's one continuous shot. I'm afraid that cutting it would affect continuity too much. Maybe there's a way of speeding it up while masking out the background, so that only the foreground gets a speed change.

Although Marion's "Trust me" never bothered my, I'll see what I can do to remove it.

is it possible to axe indy getting sacked and reintroduced as vice-dean? i think it was a bit unneccesary, and i dont know why he would get his job back after his adventure as there wasnt much to show for it.

Yeah, Marion's 'Trust me!' never irked me too much either - it explains that her driving off the cliff wasn't just some weird spontaneous move, but a thought-out manouvre (there's a shot earlier where we see Marion peer over the cliff from the jeep). Also, it was a nice role-reversal as well; usually, Indy's the brash one, telling people to just trust him as he blunders through, but here it's switched.

About cuttng Indy being fired and then made vice dean at the end, it would be hard to cut Indy being fired (with this being how he is wanting to leave the country on the train, and how he runs into Mutt, and takes up the quest for the Skull), but perhaps cutting Indy being made vice-dean at the end could be done more easily - there's only one brief shot of Charlie walking past the door with the lettering being put on it, explaining that Indy's been promoted, so this could be cut quite easily I'd imagine. I guess it doesn't really make sense for Indy to be promoted; it's never explained exactly how this promomtion came about, what with the Crystal Skull adventure having no bearing on the university whatsoever.

Laserschwert said:

Maybe there's a way of speeding it up while masking out the background, so that only the foreground gets a speed change.

That would be a good idea. My reason for wanting this change to happen is because Marion just stares at Spalko and doesn't do anything for like 3 seconds, which weakens her character. If this scene is sped up, her not doing anything would be understandable because then she wouldn't have time to do anything before Spalko takes control of the gun.

Laserschwert said:

Although Marion's "Trust me" never bothered me, I'll see what I can do to remove it.

Thank you. I hate the way Marion says it, it just sounds annoying. Maybe if she just pushed Indy back without saying anything, it would strengthen her character without her being annoying.

topdawg193 said:

Yeah, Marion's 'Trust me!' never irked me too much either - it explains that her driving off the cliff wasn't just some weird spontaneous move, but a thought-out manouvre.

 Yeah, but you'd still understand that it's her plan because she says "That's the idea" like a second earlier.

The Golden Idol said:

Yeah, but you'd still understand that it's her plan because she says "That's the idea" like a second earlier.

Hmm, lol, good point, I suppose you would.

By the by Laser, did you ever get a clean plate of the start of the film from the BluRay documentary? To make this film completely CG-Critter-Free!

jones1899 said:

Yeah. The "Thats the idea" line suffices. If losing "trust me" wouldn't be too difficult, I'd vote doing it.

Still not my biggest issue, but it's an improvement.

 So, Laser, will you consider doing this?

Not sure yet... I don't have any free time right now anyway.

Any progress guys? Can't wait for the edit(s) to be released!

Doctor M said:

Love the blooming fixes.

I've been avoiding this thread because I didn't get to see this until a few days ago.

I also like all the ideas in the first post.

My suggestions:

In the jungle chase the tree cutting machine: When it blows up, it's almost unclear what happened. Unfortunately this is one case where MORE footage is needed. I was actually asked by one person what happened and where that spinning blade came from.

In the jungle car chase, Spalko shoots at Indy but shoots her own men: It's very fast, and difficult to see happen. Enhanced gun fire, hits, yells, and muzzle flashes might make the scene work better.

Again the jungle chase, at one point Mutt jumps from his original vehicle to the one with Spalko. It's done in a long shot with lots of CG vegetation in front of it obscuring the shot. (I had to back up while watching to figure out how Mutt changed vehicles.)

Ants hill: Cut the ands forming a tower trying to reach Spalko. It looks REALLY bad.

CG work: Marion has a stupid smirk on her face for 90% of the movie. What the HECK was that about? Was she just happy to be acting again?

Area51: When Indy breaks through the wall of boxes, it's all box material.  It LOOKS like he drove through a single thin wall of empty crates.  More debris, packing material, and odd artifacts need to be added.

Definitely cut 'Trust me'. It was a good line, but she didn't deliver it well.

I definitely agree with everything you said here. Laser, where art thou?