Blade Runner: The Version You've Never Seen Before (Update: Beta Released) — Page 2

Sooo, in case anyone remembers this project, little sidenote. I got distracted with other things which pushed this into summer of 2008, then my harddrive crashed and took everything with it. So, I sorta gave up on this.

Spur of the moment, I decided to do this again today. I'm getting close to finishing a rough cut, and hopefully can have it out by end of next week. Luckily, my original post was a good guide for me to quickly reconstruct the original. This is just being done in Womble, so the quality will not be amazing or anything, but seeing the first pass at this for the first time, I'm amazed at how different the film plays out.

To do still:

-Add the workprint footage. I've tossed aside the idea of using workprint audio where possible--too much work. I'll probably use it for the piano scene though, because it sounds really cool. Where possible, I'll also be cutting the theatrical picture to match the workprint editing, rather than using the workprint itself unless it has unique shots (don't know why I didn't think of this earlier). It will mainly be the opening scene and climax sequence that is comprised of workprint footage. Because it is self-contained sequences, I may not crop it and leave it as 2.20 or whatever it is.

-Add the dailies footage. I don't think I am going to go quite as extreme as I originally wanted, just out of laziness. Def having the replicant dog, Batty electrocuting himself, tub girl (hehe), Pris with rats, and a couple neat shots I remember from Deckard's apartment. I need to go through some of the docs and see if there is any other footage that really sticks out.

-Sound work. Need to make the audio smooth, also having some sync issues that seems to plague Womble. You can't really do audio effects in Womble can you?  Anyway, there isn't much sound editing to do other than fading the levels on the transitions, which I haven't figured out how to do just yet and aren't sure if it's possible in Womble.

I'm also taking the slightest of liberties with my own cuts. This is because, with all the extra footage, some sections become bloated and dragging, and the pacing changes too, so I am taking a couple trims to some scenes (for instance, the Zhora chase sequence now needs to be trimmer and quicker). I'm also not sticking totally faithfully to the deleted and alternate scenes, so even if you've seen them this will be new. This was because the alternate versions ended up basically narrating the entire film in voiceover and skipping huge sections, so it sounded like a narrated version of the real film. For instance, the Zhora chase is skipped in the alternate scene--I've kept the abbreviated intro with all the voiceover, but instead of cutting to Zhora being shot, I cut to the fight in the dressing room, so this exciting scene can remain intact. The film needs some action at this point and I don't want it to become boring to watch, but I've also done some subtle tightening of the hunt scene. So some of the narrated alternate scenes are broken up with dramatic footage. I think this makes it more like a hard-boiled detective film, which had this kind of structure rather than relying on narration to move whole sections of the film (it's surprising how much narration there is in the alt scenes).

I also am for the moment including both alternate endings, edited into each other (with one brief, redundant moment snipped out, since we see this happen in the first version--"This is the happiest day of my life". Seemed dumb to have her say it, and then Deckard tell us that she said it).

One thing I have noticed is that deleted scenes are timed more neutral and with more midrange, while the actual film is more blue and with more contrast. Sometimes this looks a bit noticeable while cutting back and forth but oh well.

So yeah. I think Blade Runner fans will find this interesting to watch, even if it's not going to be spectacularly polished in the technical sense. Hope to have this available soonish.

After playing around with the workprint footage, I am definitely scaling it back. The aspect ratio change is a bit of a problem, but the difference is not extreme so it's not a deal breaker; the problem is that the contrast and just general murkiness makes it uncuttable most of the time, it just won't cut in with the regular footage without jumping out at the audience, and it's hard on the eyes too. The alternate opening sequence works very well and will stay. The alternate climax is in for now, but certain parts of it are quite murky and hard to see, so I might axe it in favour of the theatrical version (it also makes cutting in dailies footage all the more difficult, both because of the clarity and low contrast and also because of the different aspect ratio).

Finally, there is an alternate opening credits, but I think I am just going to stick with the workprint credits. I could make it work to have them both in, but the music transition isn't very smooth and I don't think the alternate credits really adds anything.

Otherwise it's all coming along rather well. The running time is about 2 hrs 1 minute right now, and I expect it will stay that way even with a few added shots since there are a few more trims I would like to make. I don't know exactly how much of the total film is comprised of theatrical version footage but I would say about 35% so this is quite a radical re-interpretation of the film. Few films have this much alternate and cut footage available to the public.