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A small but hopefully effective fix, to the previous respective edit projects I’ve done, rather than a whole new edit in itself. [https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/The-Astonishing-Ant-Man/id/116776] -&- [https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/The-Astonishing-Ant-Man-Ghosts-of-The-Past/id/116849].
I found on rewatching these two films myself this week that when it came to scenes where the theatrical footage and audio goes into the extra/deleted scenes and vice versa, the audio itself is quite jarring and that isn’t good.
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This was especially noticeable in scenes where the theatrical and deleted goes back and forth throughout an entire scene, like Darren Cross’ presentation in his “Futures Lab” or Hank Pym explaining the real history of the Ant-Man and Mitch Carson in the old days of SHIELD in his basement – both in the first film.
I also found across both films that the deleted scenes’ audio not only had some background music or ambient noise that wasn’t in the theatrical footage, but the volume itself was also louder, sometimes very noticeably. I got around this by using audio blends and fades at the borders of each segment of footage where it went from theatrical to deleted and vice versa – hopefully softening the blow as the sound transitions between one and the other in the background throughout the whole scene. Lastly, I used a ‘gain/volume’ filter on the deleted footage to bring it down enough DB to match the theatrical footage by ear as best I could, so hopefully the level of sound itself is more consistent in that way too.
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I did also make some minor story changes with both, but only very small ones.
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In Ant-Man 2015, I added to the version I already did with the deleted scene in the Pym Residence’s basement when Hank and Hope are discussing Scott learning to use the suit, how he managed to break into the house and how maybe he’s an idiot savant (or just an idiot). This is around 47/48 minutes in.
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They discuss how Scott broke past a security system that refreshes it’s passcode every 1.5 seconds and how Scott was able to read the pattern and predict the code that would come next. I realised this is a bit of an empty statement, because it’s not referring to anything clearly specific, so I added a change to lend context to it and hopefully make it deeper with more meaning. Between Hank stating what Scott did and Hope’s immediate reaction questioning how, I put the footage from his break-in earlier in the film where he disables the alarm box outside the house near the roof – in my usual style for things being a flashback/forward. Now you have the line in the deleted scene showing Scott’s capability and prowess, and an example of that prowess from him in action to back it up – whether that’s what was being specifically referred to in that line of dialogue or not. (I think it was probably related to a different deleted scene I didn’t include because I didn’t like it as much).
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Aside from that, the only thing I changed is new title graphics reflecting this is the second version of the project – with the exact same growing and shrinking effects through use of size filters and footage keyframes.
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For the second film – speaking for both versions with and without the school sequence – on top of the same audio blending and volume fixes with the deleted scenes like the first film, I made more changes this time. Firstly, there was a portion of the extended deleted opening in Argentina that I did not mirror properly the first time around, so now it’s the right way round like it should be.
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Secondly, between the Buenos Aires flashback and the ‘present day’ parts in 2018, when Hank is talking to Hope about that mission and the plans to build the Quantum Tunnel in the meantime, I added another timestamp. It takes place in Aug ’15 about a month after Ant-Man 1 ends, so I clarified that, and in the same font and text placement as my timestamp card for that film too with Scott’s goodbye ritual from San Quentin Penitentiary – for consistency.
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Thirdly, the deleted scene I added with Burch and Uzman slowly closing the net on the lab and the Pyms and Scott in the bookstore. This time I added a proper visual transition to make going in and out of the scene better and easier. I do still think that deleted scene is a good one to include because it sets up their visit to Luis’ office with the “truth serum” later, making it less jarring, and it conveys the passage of time better with the Ant Gang in the meantime I think.
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What I mean by that is: in the theatrical film itself, it goes from Scott, Hope and Hank escaping Ava Starr and Bill Foster in that creepy mansion right to the Quantum Lab at full scale. In other words: first they only just escape from a place in the dark in the woods – then they’re suddenly inside of the now fully-grown lab, also in the dark in the woods – so how far away did they go exactly to escape and get set up again, but this time undisturbed and unseen? It does feel like having this segue into a different sequence – which in turn helps to set up ‘another’ sequence ‘much better’ – sort of covers their escape from Ghost and Foster much better, and makes it more excusable for them to get away farther and stealthier in the time NOT seen.
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Lastly, with the film’s final titles at the end of the plastic toy-like credits. Initially, I overlaid the custom title over a shot from the Quantum Realm that seemed to match the background and overall shape of the original shot very well, but was blurred to obscure the photorealism after a whole sequence of waxy action figure visuals.
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I changed it this time because there was a shot from the credits sequence that did this better – same kind of environment and shapes, but with the same look as the rest of the credits so it fits in a lot better. The new title card is the same as the old, save for the new V2 notice, and follows the same growing and shrinking movements again.
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While watching ‘GoTP’ this week, I did finally figure out why this film never clicked in my head as well as the first: there’s a lot of false starts throughout the film that keeps delaying the main goal or objective – usually with the lab being taken (or RE-taken) or someone being captured or arrested.
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But truthfully, I don’t have it in me to put a lot of thought and time into seeing what I can do with fixing or restructuring that if I can, because it sounds like a big thing. The last two months or so, I really just haven’t had the headspace to do a lot of work outside of job and family and such, so a small patchy fix to my old version feels like all I can manage right now. There’s still the project pipeline I’ve mentioned before with ~10 things on it, but I’ve only been tackling a handful, and only a little bit at a time, and only on a day where I feel like I actually have the bandwidth for it mentally. So, maybe things will pick up again, hopefully soonish, maybe not – I think a lot of it depends on how some things shake out for me personally in some areas, so we’ll see.
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Sidenote - is there any update on me tackling ‘Quantumania’? Sort of, but mostly no. In my first attempt at it right after I did and published the first two in April, I did do some basics like timestamping, some scene restructuring to hopefully improve pacing and throwing a few project names around.
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But the main thing was having some clear ideas on what I wanted to accomplish with changing the story and hopefully improving some characters, but not being sure HOW to make those ideas come to life with the actual changes to make. Like what scenes to restructure, or what dialogue to cut, or anything else – and it being much easier to throw myself into other projects and do those, sometimes start to finish, instead of actually sitting down and mentally tackling this for the last 5 months.
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Also, after watching ‘GoTP’ this week and thinking about where things could have gone from there but didn’t, ‘Quantumania’ feels much more like a ‘Kang Dynasty’ film than an actual Ant-Man film in a big sense. A lot of Scott’s world from the first two films we’re used to (San Fran, the Wombats, Maggie & Paxton, Ghost and Bill Foster & the Quantum ‘healing particles’ business etc) are suddenly only there for 15 minutes in SF’s case (yes, I counted), or just not there at all with no explanation for the rest (not even a quick cameo from any of them at Cassie’s birthday party at the end or something - which would have been better than nothing!).
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I think this isn’t really a good thing because we’re used to Scott’s world and his little corner of the universe, we like it, we’re familiar with it, so to have it so hollow so suddenly feels very jarring (at least to me). So, if I do end up tackling the film in the end and publishing it like the first two, would I actually publish it as an Ant-Man film or a Kang film? I’m honestly not sure at the moment.
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I’ve uploaded the new versions to the same ‘Ant-Man’ folder as before, and left the V1’s there - as usual, so you can pick and choose which one is right for you and your collection. If you like the new idea and think it’s better, great - if you thought the first draft was perfectly good on its own then also great - I’m leaving it in your hands.
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Footnote: I am merely a self-taught editor and VFX artist here, as such, some areas might be visibly mostly good – as I have to be realistic with the footage in front of me and what I can do with it, of course. If you do have any particular notes and feedback, feel free to give me your thoughts, but please be constructive and don’t be an ass about it.