jones1899, I'm one of those here that is REALLY looking forward to seeing a better version of this unfortunately flawed entry in the Indy franchise, and by the sound of things your version is coming along nicely in that department. I like the sound of a lot of your choices you're using out of the various ideas mooted here, and the 're-colouring' itself will be a very welcome thing to see, compared to the garish release....
Anyway, just a quick post to say that I'd hoped to add something of interest to this thread a good while ago, if I got a chance to study the DVD, but a busy family life got in the way. But at last, I finally made time to make a start on scrutinising it , and am really pleased to say that I can see a few things that could be slightly snipped and re-arranged in certain ways, that could definately improve the whole 'tone' of the current opening scenes of the movie, up to the point where Indy enters the US warehouse. (It took quite a bit of time to keep replaying certain shots back and forth, and to take notes, so that is as far as I got in the movie last night, lol!)
No-one has covered these possibilities here yet, and although I'm too pushed for time right now, I'm looking forward to setting out these slightly alternative possibilities in detail over the next few days. The footage is there, it's just I can see how a far more 'serious' introduction can be set. I'll be interested to see what others here think.
I'm going to need to study that whole 'alien / ufo' ending hard tonight, before I give my 2 cents on that.
You're doing great with this already though.