ChainsawAsh said:I don't think there's enough material available to make it into a decent miniseries, but I could look into doing 20- or 30-minute segments. They wouldn't be the exact same chapters as the graphic novel (obviously, since that would be 5 and a half hours long if each chapter was 20 to 30 minutes), but it might work.Hello CSA, hope you don't mind my two cents here...
Being something more akin to the actual comic book, it might be at least interesting to try and structure it like the CB (or even the moving comic blu-ray). Regardless of whether it is watchable at 5+ hours non-stop, the 5 part breaks would allow for the same rhythm as the CB.
I'll look into less Nixon. No promises there (it's generally unavoidable).
Maybe you could replace the DR STRANGELOVE war room scenes with actual clips of Nixon. One way you could get around having Nixon say the lines in the movies is have the focus on Kissinger while Nixon speaks and vice versa. You could take footage and whiten the hair of both characters (or not).
Or you could just excise him. I would have to watch the movie again to get a better feel as to how necessary the scenes were. I would DEFINITELY see if you could work some Adywan magic on those Nixon posters and replace the bad make-uped actor with an actual Nixon image.
Definitely more Philip Glass, I'd like to use more Dylan (I'm going to try to find a new spot for The Times They Are A-Changin' since I'm removing the credits). In re-reading the graphic novel, I've discovered that Desolation Row is quoted in the first chapter, so I'll look into placing it in that section of the film if possible. If not, so be it. It'll likely go in the credits, mainly since I can't find that John Cale song (Sanities) fucking anywhere.
I agree, or at least play around and have some fun with the music - maybe use 1940s to 50s music during the earlier years footage and take music from the 60s, 70s and 80s to play with what is happening according to the time that said event is happening. One idea I always wanted to play with was to take songs like ELEANOR RIGBY or any number of GENESIS songs in Phil Collin's early days and take out the vocals and just use the background instrumentals as a form of a soundtrack.
Here are the Rorschach's-death-scene shots I'll likely have trouble with, and they all involve removing Dan from the image:
The motion is what will make this hard (duh!), BUUUT the good thing I guess is that Nite-Owl is standing within a fairly plain tunnel. You will probably have to start with erasing Nite-Owl and then recreate the blue glow around Doc M. When Rorcharch blows up, maybe you could create a "blood cloud" similar to what happens to Willam Defoe in WILD AT HEART when he blows his face off with a shotgun. You would still have the chunks, but some added chunks and blood mist/cloud effects may be enough to obscure what Nite-Owl elements you can't erase.
Other than that, I would LOVE it if you could:
(1) play with all of the ludicrous "slo-mo" and speed some of it up to normal speed. Granted, you are cutting out a lot of the scenes that pretty much involve the slo-mo stuff at its silliest, but something to consider. I do love the idea of the Comedian attack being interwoven with the cops at the crime scene.
(2) is there any way to recreate the MAD MAX ending to the child molester (as opposed to the hatchet to the head)?
(3) I don't want to start a tennis match back-and-forth on this, since it's been done to death at AINT IT COOL alone, but is there any way to bring back the Squid? I know, short of taking a HD DISCOVERY channel doc and doing some heavy editing and FX work, it would probably be impossible, but again, just a suggestion (one idea to bring the squid back is that said squid is inside the spherical container Doc M creates - that way you can still keep the stuff that is in the movie. That would only leave the climax to alter).
Regardless, sounds pretty ambitious. Good luck and take your time!