logo Sign In

Army of Darkness - The Primitive Screwhead Edition (Released) — Page 2

Author
Time
All right, you primitive screw-heads, listen up!

From http://thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents:

"And on the high-def front, Universal will release HD-DVD/DVD combo versions of Army of Darkness and Fast Times at Ridgemont High on 10/3 as well (SRP $34.98 each). We've updated the High-Def Release List accordingly."

Wonder if there will be anything on that disc of use to you...

Can't wait to see this project!
Author
Time
Love the sound of this, can't wait to hear more news. Just to add though, my R1 Director's Cut DVD (can't speak for any other additions) is missing a shot in the scene where Ash chainsaws Bad Ash. You see him rev up the chainsaw, then there should be an intermediary shot of Ash lowering the chainsaw towards Bad Ash (not on my DVD), then the close-up of Bad Ash screaming. I distinctly remember the shot from my old VHS copy (which was the 88-minute European cut). If this is already in your cut then disregard, just thought it might be of help.
Author
Time
Sorry guys - I'm still working on this, but things going on in my personal life have been keeping me away from this project. A close cousin of mine was in a serious automobile accident and it's been difficult.

I'm still going to finish this project - but July just hasn't been a good month to get much work done.
Author
Time
Sorry to hear about that, Ridge. My best wishes to you, your family and your cousin.

Did you happen to catch that SciFi broadcast of AoD a few weeks back?

I used to be very active on this forum. I’m not really anymore. Sometimes, people still want to get in touch with me about something, and that is great! If that describes you, please email me at [my username]ATgmailDOTcom.

Hi everybody. You’re all awesome. Keep up the good work.

Author
Time
I too send my best wishes to you and your cousin. I hope everyone is recovering from the trauma. I also just wanted to say I'm utterly flabberghasted by the work you've done on this project thus far. The quality you've squeezed out of your source material is more than I would have thought possible. You've inspired me.
Author
Time
First off - My cousin is doing much, much better. When she first got to the hospital, the doctors were saying she wasn't going to live - but hey, she's walking around now. I'm still amazed about the whole thing. She's recovering at such a fast rate that it's unreal. I gave her copies of ocpmovie's classic editions, Deleted Magic, and The Thief and the Cobbler - as well as Doctor M's reinventing the wheel editions. As you might guess, she's a big OUT (original unaltered trilogy) fan.
Unfortunately she hasn't gotten to watch much of the videos since she's still seeing double and it gives her a headache to watch tv. We did try to watch Deleted Magic - her boyfriend and I took turns reading the Deleted Magic text out-loud and it was kind of funny. Although initially enthusiastic about Deleted Magic, my cousin fell asleep about halfway through. Anyways - thank you guys for the kind words. It meant a lot to me.

Reverend - unfortunately I read that message about a week after it aired. My DirectTV receiver is set up to tell me whenever Army of Darkness, along with other programs, comes on - but I guess it's not working. Anyways, thank you for the heads up even though I missed it. The good news is that I've been tinkering with my original recording of the SciFi version - and it's not so bad having the full-screen DVD fill in for the 1 min of footage I missed at the end. Ocpmovie sent me his older recording of the SciFi version so I could put to rest any fears I had that the ending was different from the theatrical version (thanks again ocpmovie!). What I discovered was that there is one line in the tv version that isn't in any other versions - it's when the flashing blue light in S-Mart appears - Ash says "So I left her there." After that, it's exactly the same as the theatrical version. My recording stops right before Ash says, "Mam, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave the store" - so my recording has everything that's exclusive to the tv version. I really don't think it's a problem to patch it up with the fullscreen dvd footage.

Anyways - I should have a dvd of the SciFi version out shortly. What I'm doing now is checking for interlacing errors since I did perform an inverse telecine on the whole movie. I'm sure some interlacing problems will escape me, but I've already fixed the major problem areas, as well as a few small ones. As the whole thing stands now, it is a mighty fine progressive presentation of the SciFi cut. Also - I haven't performed any color/brightness/contrast correcting - the reason for this is that I think it looks fine as it is. I'm also hoping that since I didn't tinker with the image (aside from the inverse telecine), this dvd might be considered useful to any others out there who might work on a fan edit of Army of Darkness.

Work on my fan edit is still slowly crawling along. I recently discovered that the Army of Darkness soundtrack contains all of the music that is missing from the Little Ashes sequence on the director's cut. Naturally I restored most of that music just so I could see how it plays - and it's been growing on me. I'm very familiar with the official versions, so it's strange when Army of Darkness suddenly has music in it that I'm not familiar with, but like I said - it's growing on me and I actually like it. I put a few different versions up on youtube so you all could have a look and listen at what I'm talking about.

The Original Director's Cut with No Music

Director's Cut with Restored Music


The SciFi version of this sequence moves a little faster than the director's cut, but it cuts out the shot where you can hear the little Ashes yelling "yeeeaaah baby!" - which is something I love. It is also missing a little music, which some of you might find preferable.

The SciFi Cut

Also - just for fun, here is the crazy Australian cut. If you don't like the Little Ashes sequence, then you will probably appreciate the way the editor butchered this version.

Australian Version
Author
Time
It's lookin' great RidgeShark. I'd never seen that scene with music before either, so was surprised that it was more subtle (in so much as an Evil Dead film can be subtle) than I was expecting - no music, for example, when Ash steps on the nail. (Bruce's reaction is my favourite bit of the whole scene.) I think it plays well with the music, it would fit in great on the film.

I have an old Video Watchdog article from 1998 or so that does a big comparison of all the versions of AOD knocking around at that time. If you PM your email I could scan it for you if you like.
Author
Time
I vote for Director's Cut with music. I quite like the restored cue, personally.
Author
Time
I own the MGM disc that is basically the Director's Cut plus one little scene extension. I also own the Australian disc (sometimes referred to as the European Cut). The version I want to see is the Director's Cut version with the music added. Ever since I tracked down copies of the Evil Dead I-III soundtracks I've loved the music (this was before I'd even seen the films). So for me, that piece has to go back in.

To contact me outside the forum, for trades and such my email address is my OT.com username @gmail.com

Author
Time
I too would like to see the scene with score.
Author
Time
I found out some good news from the scifi channel's website -

The SciFi channel is airing AoD this Friday, September 15th at 11 am and then again on October 22nd at 11 pm eastern time.

I will make a recording this Friday from DirectTV with my digital 8 setup - but if there is anyone out there with a better setup and can capture the digital satelite signal itself, then please do it!


Author
Time
Ridge- glad to hear that your cousin is doing better. I wish her luck to a full recovery. My stepdad wasn't supposed to live after getting cancer, but he's beat it twice now so that whole "Not going to live" doesn't mean a whole lot. ^_^

Can't wait to see your finish product of this. I have the single "Director's Cut" gold disc that Anchor Bay put out, as well as the original dvd (and multiple copies of vhs) so a good combo version would be nice (since the deleted footage on the DC dvd I have is horid, and anchor bay just loves to re-release the exact same dvds over and over as different packages like "Boomstick Edition").

Good luck and when you torrent it or how ever, I'll definitely seed it or start a PIF chain.

I've got better things to do tonight than die! - Springer, Transformers the Movie

Author
Time
I'll be watching this this weekend MAYBE sooner if I can find the time, but I will get back at you after I watch it and if anything comes up I'll send you that info. And THANKS so much for sending me a screener copy!!!!

I WILL BE UPLOADING this Extended Cut ones it's 100% done, I wish that I had time to make a cover for this one!!!!




“My skill are no longer as Mad as the once were” RiK

Author
Time
Okay, I got the SCI FI television version in the mail and have watched it last weekend and will most likley watch it again this weekend

This was a very nice transfer! The only downer of it was having the sat/cable box guide information at the very begining of it otherwise it's GREAT!!

“My skill are no longer as Mad as the once were” RiK

Author
Time
Rikter - I'm glad you enjoyed my transfer of the tv version - and I know it's kind of strange looking to have that DirectTV info pop up during the Universal logo at the beginning, but yeah, no biggie.

trip42 - I bought the HD-DVD/DVD Combo version of Army of Darkness a few days ago and it will prove useful. The standard DVD version is pretty sharp (much sharper than Anchor Bay's 1999 release of the theatrical cut) and has a high bitrate. Unfortunately, this edition's colors are tinted very differently from any version/edition of the film that I have seen.

2006 Standard DVD Version on the HD Combo Edition


There's kind of a brownish tint throughout the whole movie, which makes this scene a little difficult to insert into the MGM Director's Cut edition, which looks quite different on the alternate take with Ash saying - "I'm not that good."

Alternate take from the 2002 MGM Director's Cut

Before too long I'll have the 2006 version of this shot color corrected to match the MGM version. The results so far look pretty good, but there's some more tweaking to be done. I'll be posting pictures very soon.

Maybe I should call this "The Primitive Screwhead Edition" ?

EDIT**

Well the color correction on the "Good, Bad - I'm the guy with the gun" is basically done. It is now a much closer match to the alternate take used on MGM's version.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v326/RidgeShark/Comparison.jpg
Author
Time
I'm getting closer to completion on the "Ash Recruits Henry the Red" deleted scene. As you know - this deleted scene looks like crap and I was attemping to clean it up "by hand" using photo editing software. I did clean up quite a bit of dirt this way, but it was taking forever. A few days ago I discovered an avisynth filter called "RemoveDirt" - and it's been wonderful. It quickly cleaned up the majority of the dirt that I had not yet gotten to. So now the cleanup is basically done. There's still some dirt since I'm using conservative settings on the filter, but I'm thinking it isn't really worth cleaning up what's left. This scene will always have the "VHS copy of a rough workprint" look to it, but it now looks more presentable.

Also - the music I added to this scene is from Evil Dead 2 - I hope you all like it. Feel free to leave any comments/suggestions.

Here is the basically finished version with color correction and both types of cleanup -
Ash Recruits Henry the Red

This is an earlier version of the cleanup before I discovered the RemoveDirt filter -
Earlier Version

I know it's not really easy to evaluate the differences between these versions due to the low-res of youtube video, but I think you can still tell a difference.

As far as the actual finished dvd - it's still far away. I need to evaluate a newer recording of the SciFi version in order to determine if the quality is higher than what I already have - if so then I'm using that recording for the exclusive scenes. Also - I've discovered some more differences between the Director's Cut, Theatrical Cut, and TV cut (mainly spoken lines) and it's going to take some time to incorporate them into my cut. After I have all that done - I need to figure out how to accomplish branching on a dvd. I don't think it will be hard to figure out, but it's still a hurdle. Anyways - looks like that's about it. I can't wait to be done with this monster of a project!
Author
Time
I think the MGM R2 PAL version is the best quality version of Army Of Darkness. I also like the colors. Maybe you can use this dvd for you ultimate edition.

Comparing screenshots.

http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/6647/aodte7.jpg

Fez: I am so excited about Star Whores.
Hyde: Fezzy, man, it's Star Wars.
Author
Time
I believe the MGM R2 DVD has the same cut as the MGM R4 Australian DVD I have. That uses the alternate "I'm not that good" line - which isn't what's going into my cut. The only plus about this dvd is that it is in the PAL resolution and has a little more visual information on the bottom, left, and right. I've resized and converted the framerate on the PAL version and I'm using the PAL version's video when possible as it offers a little more detail even when converted over to NTSC.

Looking at your screenshots - the R2 version looks very bright with higher contrast - a whole lot more than the R4 version, which matches the brightness and contrast of the R3 version. Hmmm....
Author
Time
OK. I didn't know the R4 Australian is the same cut... sorry.
Fez: I am so excited about Star Whores.
Hyde: Fezzy, man, it's Star Wars.
Author
Time
It's all good. The R2 does look quite a bit sharper. I'll take some time later to really compare my R4 PAL version with your R2 screenshots. I just hope I won't feel the need to buy yet another version of this movie on DVD!

Thanks for the info!
Author
Time
Seamless branching is usually a bad idea as it's tricky to get it right, but if you're just using it for the ending, that'd be a good idea and very easy to accomplish.

I know I've said that before.

The best seamless branching is just you asking the DVD to skip or rearrange certain chapters in the film. It'd be very easy to put both versions of the ending there, and set it so that the alternate can be played.

Again, I would edit the film with the "S-Mart" ending, and then place the "Apocalypse" ending after the credits. Selecting the S-Mart ending, the movie will play normally without any weird editing/branching glitches. Selecting the Apocalypse ending, you'll try to make it fit into your edit as seamlessly as possible (cutting the chapter mark on the same frame the "S-Mart" chapter also begins), although there will still be slight differences or glitches depending on what player is playing the edit.

For the rest of the edit, don't fiddle with seamless branching, it'll make a mess of your edit. Just choose your favorite version of each line. Although I suppose you could also do an alternate sound mix, which wouldn't necessitate any weird branching fiddleypoo.

Party on.
Author
Time
Hi Scott,

Brilliant job on that Henry The Red scene! The Evil Dead II score fits it pretty well too, though it sounded a little too high in the mix - maybe that's just YouTube compression, I don't know. And yeah, don't worry too much about branching; you seem to have very good instincts when it comes to what and what not to include. ocpmovie's idea for the ending sounds interesting too.
Author
Time
Going through all the officially released versions of this film and noticing so many differences has got me wondering about the workprint for Army of Darkness. Has anyone here actually seen a copy of the workprint for this film? I read somewhere that it was nearly 2 hours long. Were there any brief scenes or anything like that which didn't appear on any of the dvds? The special edition DVDs feature workprint footage of the original opening, the fight between Ash and Arthur, the original windmill sequence, and Ash recruiting Henry the Red - but was there anything else interesting in the workprint? - even brief trivial shots that aren't in any other version and lasted just for a few seconds?

If anyone has any information, then please post the information here or contact me.