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Giorgio Moroder's Metropolis (Released) — Page 3

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The quality difference between those two versions is amazing.

I was going to say you get what you pay for, but I think the Madacy version was more than 99 cents

You know of the rebellion against the Empire?

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OK, I've started the project officially. I'm 8 minutes into it. It's a bit of a challenge since they are actually almost two different movies. Different takes with different lengths. I'm actually surprised that Moroder has bits of scenes that aren't in the restored version. A few frames here and there. I've had to adapt rather than do frame to frame exact work. It helps that the synching doesn't need to be precise since it's silent and only needs to match some cues. It kind of sucks having to cut material, including my favorite shots in the garden with the nudes. Perhaps I can include them in a longer cut later. Also disappointing is that the CD soundtrack has completely different mixes of the songs. I wanted to use them for the longer version. The soundtrack album is more dance music.

Anyway, here's a sneak preview divx of the original version and the new version of a scene. It's a zip file about 45 MB.

Metropolis
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Much better!

Great work so far, caligulathegod!
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What a gigantic difference! Fantastic work.

Don't be afraid to dump back to the LD source if the old Moroder version has something the new version doesn't. Please keep us posted. I've been wishing for this for ten years, and you are making my dream come true!
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Well that was cool! I just bought the LD already last month, this was the first version of Metropolis I saw 14 years ago in a high school film class and enjoyed it despite what some may say (or perhaps my film teacher just felt we could relate to the 80's soundtrack more than a piano arrangement I later saw the film with in college off 16mm). The only thing I could say though is whether or not would we also get the subtitles during the restored footage, or could that be something that would be a removeable subtitle track itself or just overlayed in the finished video.
Yours truly,
Chris Sobieniak

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Hard or soft subtitles haven't been decided upon yet. I'm leaning towards soft, so that some future person could create subs in other languages.
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Originally posted by: caligulathegod
Hard or soft subtitles haven't been decided upon yet. I'm leaning towards soft, so that some future person could create subs in other languages.


yes please make them soft subs

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Been a few months. How's work progressing?
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I had taken a month or so break to work on my Spring movie marathon (I program about 12 hours worth of movies and inbetween trailers and shorts) and refresh myself but I've started up again. I'm probably between a third and half way through. It's literally frame by frame that I'm doing, so it's very time-consuming. It's moving along quicker now that I've rejoined it. When I'm done with the editing I'm going back through and doing the special effects. I also want to do a fancy menu for it. It will fill a full dual layer disc. I'll do a divx/xvid movie only for those who just want the movie. I've been obsessed by this movie for years, so I want to do it up right.
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Originally posted by: caligulathegod
I had taken a month or so break to work on my Spring movie marathon (I program about 12 hours worth of movies and inbetween trailers and shorts) and refresh myself but I've started up again. I'm probably between a third and half way through. It's literally frame by frame that I'm doing, so it's very time-consuming. It's moving along quicker now that I've rejoined it. When I'm done with the editing I'm going back through and doing the special effects. I also want to do a fancy menu for it. It will fill a full dual layer disc. I'll do a divx/xvid movie only for those who just want the movie. I've been obsessed by this movie for years, so I want to do it up right.

I still haven't gotten around to watching the LD of the film I had to pay good money on!

Yours truly,
Chris Sobieniak

For more mindless entertainment....
My LiveJournal Page
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caligulathegod, would you like to send me the subtitle file for your DVD when you have it ready for having it translated to Spanish? It'd be great to have optional spanish subtitles in your promising project!
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I'd much welcome a Spanish subtitle file. I've sent you a PM. Thanks a lot.
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Just to let the world know, this is still on. It had slowed down for a bit, but has started up again. Only issue is that unlike most fanedits where they just rearrange scenes and insert footage, I'm doing it literally frame by frame. There's a surprising variation between versions in the arrangement of shots to the use of completely different takes with differing lengths. It's almost like doing animation, but I really want to get it right. It's probably going to pick up speed soon and I can see it being done in a few months. Oh, and I also just replaced my laserdisc player that had died on me, so I'm going to attempt to get a digital PCM rip of the soundtrack rather than just the analog capture I had been using. I'm pretty excited about that. It should sound great.
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Good to hear it's still coming.

All movies would be better with Moroder's "The Chase" somewhere in them.
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Excellent news. Please keep up the good work, and keep us abreast of how it's going!

I'm excited...
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Originally posted by: caligulathegod
Just to let the world know, this is still on. It had slowed down for a bit, but has started up again. Only issue is that unlike most fanedits where they just rearrange scenes and insert footage, I'm doing it literally frame by frame. There's a surprising variation between versions in the arrangement of shots to the use of completely different takes with differing lengths. It's almost like doing animation, but I really want to get it right. It's probably going to pick up speed soon and I can see it being done in a few months. Oh, and I also just replaced my laserdisc player that had died on me, so I'm going to attempt to get a digital PCM rip of the soundtrack rather than just the analog capture I had been using. I'm pretty excited about that. It should sound great.
I'm glad someone is finally doing this! I saw the Moroder version of Metropolis in a movie theater in NYC in 1984. There are good aspects about both the Moroder LD and the Kino DVD. The things I like best about the Moroder version is the soundtrack, the color tinting, and the way they used still photos to fill in the missing footage. That's my biggest disappointment about the Kino version- the fact that they stuck all of the still photos they had in the supplement section, rather than insert them into the film. The Kino DVD shows many more stills than were used in the Moroder version (which may have not been available to Moroder at the time) and I think it was a waste for them not to have used them.

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It's been a few months now... Any new updates?
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 (Edited)
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Yeah, this is 1 to look forward too!

I hope you can use seemless branching to present all versions of the film on 1 disc.

E Chu Ta!

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skywalka said:

I hope you can use seemless branching to present all versions of the film on 1 disc.


Yikes, please don't. Seamless branching has never worked right, which is why the studios have all stopped using it (and never released more than a handful of discs that did). Many DVD players don't even follow the spec properly.

Ah well. Maybe once Blu-Ray authoring tools come down in price...
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There's really no way to do that properly on this scale. Short segments, such as credits in other languages, are possible, but these are really two completely different movies. Individual shots and scenes are rearranged and extended, not to mention that most of the restoration version is completely different takes. The best I can hope for is an approximation (although I am doing it at shot and frame level) of the Moroder cut. The longer version incorporating more of the restoration footage with more Moroder music I want to do is still a ways off. I can really sympathize with the X0 guys. Sometimes the demands of real life intrude on our hobbies. I'm nearing a milestone but I want to wait until I get there to announce it.
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caligulathegod said:

There's really no way to do that properly on this scale. Short segments, such as credits in other languages, are possible, but these are really two completely different movies. Individual shots and scenes are rearranged and extended, not to mention that most of the restoration version is completely different takes. The best I can hope for is an approximation (although I am doing it at shot and frame level) of the Moroder cut. The longer version incorporating more of the restoration footage with more Moroder music I want to do is still a ways off. I can really sympathize with the X0 guys. Sometimes the demands of real life intrude on our hobbies. I'm nearing a milestone but I want to wait until I get there to announce it.

 

Love to hear of it if ever.  I bothered buying the LD of this edition sometime ago and it still impresses me since the first time I saw it 14 years ago in a high school film class (had a teacher that felt that version was more effective).

Yours truly,
Chris Sobieniak

For more mindless entertainment....
My LiveJournal Page
The Online Video Depository - For all your daily video needs!
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I know this is off topic but I'm reminded of another movie from 1984 that featured music by Moroder: The Never Ending Story. Klaus Doldinger co-scored it. On the US soundtrack cd, Moroder's music was snyched up and different from the actual US version music. The remix on the soundtrack sounds terrible. The parts by Doldinger are intact and are brilliant. There is a German release cd but I believe that just has the Doldinger music. (Some music by Doldinger was replaced by Moroder in the US version) Are there any isolated tracks of Moroder's music from NES floating around. The biggest example is the Ivory Tower theme. You can hear the Doldinger music here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neXK5BEiXyw

To my knowledge, there is no version of the Moroder Ivory Tower theme as used in the US movie version out there. The one on the US cd was used in the trailer. I actually made one myself by recording the two scenes off the dvd and combining them to minimize dialog/sound effects. But there are a few parts that sound garbled and I don't have the ability to use any effects or filters.

So, again, I know it's not really related by anybody a fan of The Never Ending Story or know more about how the movie was scored?

Take back the trilogy. Execute Order '77

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