JAWS 2 - Extended Integral Edition (Released) — Page 2

After a long hiatus (long story), I’m back and last month I finally got the tape from Brazil. It’s a very soft, low quality image of a grainy print (not VHS grain, but actually a grainy film print - maybe 16mm?). There’s a brief preview of Cat People before the movie which looks like a much better film to tape transfer than JAWS 2 received.

The tape itself is very difficult to transfer - I believe the tape is sticky on the inside of the cassette and my Panasonic AG-1980 has nothing but difficulty playing it - I’ve never encountered anything like it. After a few minutes the tape starts squealing and the picture becomes unstable - but I pop in a different tape and everything plays fine. After many short bursts - I finally managed one full capture of the film that I stitched back together.

I did a test of averaging/merging 7 captures on the unique footage since it was so short - however, no capture is perfectly lined with the others due to tape instability, so it may not be the best method. I’ll do more tests but not planning on doing multiple captures of the full film due to the playback problems. The tape is fine otherwise, but I don’t want to push it! A different VCR deck may tolerate the tape better, but that will likely be difficult to coordinate and I have no money to spend on this project.

Question though - does anyone have an actual VHS of a JAWS 2 tv airing? My VHS is incomplete, the DVD-R is highly compressed, and then there’s the issues with this tape. I’m almost satisfied, but not quite.

Very close to finishing. Unless a revelatory VHS of the tv cut appears, I think this will be quite sufficient. I’ve given all the deleted footage a pass through the new Topaz AI Video desktop app. Required tons of experimentation - not a silver bullet, but it helps to retain or refine some detail in the upscale. One particular deleted scene from my VHS recording responded very well due to there being a lot of sharp close-ups. The added detail in hair and skin was very nice but too artificial-looking so I went to refining those edges via avisynth. Looks a lot more natural now.

Getting the sound-mix right is a pain, but that’s getting there too.

thank you Moiisty! Means a lot to know people are excited. I actually just found another deleted shot in the Brazil tape this past hour. I was trying to match the english soundtrack to offer a separate audio option for when that is released - but also used it as an opportunity to be meticulous and make sure I wasn’t missing anything. Then there it is, after Brody wakes up and checks his son’s room, there’s a shot of him walking in the house before he comes to the mirror and sticks out his tongue. Nothing major, but not in the tv cut or theatrical. I’ll keep scrubbing to make sure I’ve got everything. Some shots are cut shorter on the Brazil tape and it throws everything off.

Moiisty said:
Does Jaws 1 have a similar extended edition like this one?

Yes. There’s a television version from (November) 1979, that’s about six minutes longer than the original 1975 theatrical release. As this was screened for network television, it’s been edited for language & violence.

Almost all the extra footage has been released (in widescreen) on Laserdisc, DVD and Blu-ray disc.

*Near the beginning of the shark hunt, there’re two quick insert shots of Quint’s fishing tackle box. The two shots are exclusive to this television cut, and haven’t (to my knowledge) been released on home video.

I have been hoping for a long time now, that this television cut will get a home video release one day.

I did put together an extended edit. It has ALL the additional footage found in the television version but without the edits to language & violence.

My extended edit is in fullscreen. Having to crop the (widescreen 4:3) deleted scenes (from the DVD release) and reframe (and sometimes zoom in) each individual shot, has resulted in a great loss in resolution. My extended edit has a very soft image. I’ve never shared it as the picture quality isn’t very good.

I don’t know if there’s an edit out there that has EVERYTHING back in. It wouldn’t surprise me, JAWS is a VERY popular film.

Slavicuss, that sounds like a great effort even with pic quality not being good. Its a shame Universal still sticks with old laserdisc masters for the bulk of their extras. I mean, I get it from a financial perspective, but as a fan of course I would love to have new HD/2k/4k transfers of this alternate material.

Are there any other deleted scenes from JAWS 1 not available in widescreen and exclusive to the tv version other than Quint’s tackle box?

RidgeShark said:

Slavicuss, that sounds like a great effort even with pic quality not being good. Its a shame Universal still sticks with old laserdisc masters for the bulk of their extras. I mean, I get it from a financial perspective, but as a fan of course I would love to have new HD/2k/4k transfers of this alternate material.

Are there any other deleted scenes from JAWS 1 not available in widescreen and exclusive to the tv version other than Quint’s tackle box?

Thanks.

No. The “tackle box” shots are it. If this footage was ever released, It would be nice to see it in widescreen and unbroken, as ONE continuous shot - not split in two - as edited for the TV cut.

I believe there’s more JAWS footage in the film vaults, that for whatever reason, isn’t being released. Curious how the same collection of deleted scenes/outtakes have been reissued over and over again, since 1995. I suspect the film is so popular, UNIVERSAL can get away with reusing the same material.

I would love to see the deleted scenes in 2K/4K and completely colour corrected. NEVER going to happen though. A pity, it would save us a lot of work!

Unfortunately, I found out last week that my employer will be closing down my department sometime in the 3rd quarter. The Bots are officially taking over. Skynet is here…okay maybe not that bad yet. Stressful and delaying the project a bit. “That’s life” am I right?

Slavicuss + Moisty, talking about JAWS 1 has me itching to see a new extended edition similar to what I’m doing with J2. Running the scenes, properly IVTC’d, through Topaz definitely helps a bit when cutting from blu-ray to standard def letterboxed laserdisc masters. Inserting the tackle box will switch the aspect ratios, but it’s so brief I feel it doesn’t matter since it’s for completeness sake. Unfortunately, I gave away my copies of the 25th and 30th Anniversary DVD editions of J1. Never thought I’d do a J1 extended so I’ve only kept the Blu-ray. I’m sure the J1 Blu-ray has slaughtered the deleted scenes the same way the J2 Blu-ray did with abysmal deinterlacing. Any chance you still have your copy of the DVD? I may be able to get mine back. If not, they’re cheap enough online, but I’d like to avoid buying anything given my job situation. Also - It would be good to find out which DVD release - 25th or 30th - has the highest bitrate for the deleted scenes. I’m guessing the 30th does, but you never know.

And while we’re on the topic of the JAWS franchise - digging into my collection, I found my own recording of JAWS the Revenge from AMC that I recorded directly from the satellite box via S-Video to Digital 8. So it’s essentially a MPEG-2 satellite stream converted to MiniDV format. Might look better than the Workprint Collection DVD. Also - I found my old early 90s recording of Jaws the Revenge recorded over the air from Fox TV. Not nearly as good looking as the AMC, but no channel logo and that could be used to remove the AMC logo if they’re the same pan and scanned master. Unfortunately, my VCR is in need of servicing - getting a lot of white streaks/comets. Sometimes they go away though. Anyway, that’s a lot of potential projects and I still need to finish J2. I’m willing to collaborate of course.

And thanks Moiisty - glad you enjoyed the Primitive Screwhead Edition - that was such a fun time in my life. With the new tech, I bet those deleted scenes could look even better these days. I intended to recreate the tv edit in widescreen, but ran into problems with the Koch DVD of the Tv Version. Best looking release of the TV Version that I know of, but the framerate is all jacked up - massive headache just like trying to get these J2 scenes from the spedup TBS broadcast running at the right speed.

RidgeShark, I would stick with using the 30th anniversary R1 2-disc DVD set from 2005, (should be easy to get) instead of the Blu-ray. The deleted scenes - with upscaled resolution - should seamlessly (or almost) match the 720p (or whatever) video quality of the main feature.

Don’t bother with the original 25th anniversary DVD release from 2000, as it’s missing content: no original mono audio and - most importantly - the deleted scenes package is truncated. Quint’s black pick-up truck, Cassidy’s reaction to Chrissie’s offscreen remains and Salvatore’s (Quint’s first mate) scenes are missing. Definitely get the 30th anniversary 2-disc R1 NTSC release (no PAL speed-up).

The reason I went to the trouble of putting my edit together in fullscreen, rather than the more attractive widescreen, was solely for the “tackle box” footage being (frustratingly) available only in fullscreen. I wanted all the footage to seamlessly fit within the surrounding material. I didn’t want to be taken out of the film by changing aspect ratios.

I colour corrected the shots as best I could (the bounty hunters killing the shark was a bastard to do - the turquoise Atlantic Ocean water is tough to match to the film). The softness of the picture quality helps mask the difference in resolution between film and deleted material.

I didn’t have a fullscreen copy of the film, (having ditched my old fullscreen VHS copies long ago.) so had to painstakingly crop and reframe every shot from the two hour widescreen film. Only later, did I discover JAWS was made available in fullscreen (R1) alongside the widescreen version in 2000, for less discerning viewers.

Moiisty - I doubt the PAL releases had native PAL transfers for the deleted scenes. Most likely converted from the NTSC laserdisc masters to PAL - and I don’t trust Universal to do that properly. Though maybe someone with a PAL 30th Anniversary could check.

Also - my miniDV recording of an AMC broadcast of JAWS the Revenge is superior to the workprint collection DVD that’s made the rounds over the years. Just has one section that’s a little damaged on what I believe is theatrical version footage. Plus lots of bumpers and on-screen AMC ads that pop up on the bottom after a commercial break. But I believe all the extra footage is fine without obstruction. Also, comparing to the blu-ray - it’s very open matte for the most part - just missing a bit on the left side. Most shots of the shark are properly cropped for 4:3 and you don’t see machinery. Not sure how cropped-in the ending is. The tv-version only shot of the shark near the surface before it encounters Jake does show machinery so that can presumably be cropped accurately. So overall, one can easily crop out the AMC logo and have it remain fairly true to what was intended. Did a test on the AI software and it looks fairly nice upscaled. Crap movie, but its tempting me. Obviously I made the recording back in the early 2000s because I have some misplaced fondness for it, lol

RidgeShark said:

Moiisty - I doubt the PAL releases had native PAL transfers for the deleted scenes. Most likely converted from the NTSC laserdisc masters to PAL - and I don’t trust Universal to do that properly. Though maybe someone with a PAL 30th Anniversary could check.

The DVD PAL deleted scenes look okay, but the frame rate for one particular deleted scene (AMITY TOWN HALL/Quint’s truck - not originally included for the first DVD release) does look choppy - as it does on the 2012 Blu-ray.

Thank you Slavicuss - it sounds like the 30th Anniv NTSC edition is the one to get then. Hopefully I can get it back from my buddy

RidgeShark said:

Thank you Slavicuss - it sounds like the 30th Anniv NTSC edition is the one to get then. Hopefully I can get it back from my buddy

The thing is, the R4 PAL DVD version appears to have a slightly better looking image for the deleted scenes than the R1 NTSC DVD. I think the PAL image has a bit more resolution and sharpness to it?

Wanted to show you guys a comparison with the AI Enlargement. First I want to temper expectations for what this tech can currently do - medium to closeup shots of people can benefit greatly - especially if the image takes up the full 480i image. Wide shots and 480i Letterboxed sources still benefit, but the neural network enlarger has less to work with.

Also - before feeding the video to the AI enlarger, I had already performed countless hours of work cleaning and selecting the correct frames from my recording of the sped-up TBS broadcast. Then I aligned the images of my recording and the VHStoDVDR copy, sewed the expanded left side and tried my best to merge any fine edge detail to the image of my recording. Then there’s several different ways to feed the footage to the AI enlarger and it took several run-throughs before I got the thing latching onto the available detail and then doing something with it. It’s definitely not something you can just feed any type of VHS footage into at any resolution. Then it comes out looking too unnaturally, artificially sharp and it requires more processing in Avisynth. So with that out of the way:

https://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/853

https://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/854

RidgeShark said:

Wanted to show you guys a comparison with the AI Enlargement. First I want to temper expectations for what this tech can currently do - medium to closeup shots of people can benefit greatly - especially if the image takes up the full 480i image. Wide shots and 480i Letterboxed sources still benefit, but the neural network enlarger has less to work with.

Also - before feeding the video to the AI enlarger, I had already performed countless hours of work cleaning and selecting the correct frames from my recording of the sped-up TBS broadcast. Then I aligned the images of my recording and the VHStoDVDR copy, sewed the expanded left side and tried my best to merge any fine edge detail to the image of my recording. Then there’s several different ways to feed the footage to the AI enlarger and it took several run-throughs before I got the thing latching onto the available detail and then doing something with it. It’s definitely not something you can just feed any type of VHS footage into at any resolution. Then it comes out looking too unnaturally, artificially sharp and it requires more processing in Avisynth. So with that out of the way:

https://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/853

https://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/854

It looks really great with the second comparison

RidgeShark said:

Moiisty - I doubt the PAL releases had native PAL transfers for the deleted scenes. Most likely converted from the NTSC laserdisc masters to PAL - and I don’t trust Universal to do that properly. Though maybe someone with a PAL 30th Anniversary could check.

Also - my miniDV recording of an AMC broadcast of JAWS the Revenge is superior to the workprint collection DVD that’s made the rounds over the years. Just has one section that’s a little damaged on what I believe is theatrical version footage. Plus lots of bumpers and on-screen AMC ads that pop up on the bottom after a commercial break. But I believe all the extra footage is fine without obstruction. Also, comparing to the blu-ray - it’s very open matte for the most part - just missing a bit on the left side. Most shots of the shark are properly cropped for 4:3 and you don’t see machinery. Not sure how cropped-in the ending is. The tv-version only shot of the shark near the surface before it encounters Jake does show machinery so that can presumably be cropped accurately. So overall, one can easily crop out the AMC logo and have it remain fairly true to what was intended. Did a test on the AI software and it looks fairly nice upscaled. Crap movie, but its tempting me. Obviously I made the recording back in the early 2000s because I have some misplaced fondness for it, lol

It would be nice to see a higher quality version of the AMC airing of Jaws The Revenge being upscaled

Waiting to hear back from some testers. In the meantime, I finally cracked open my JAWS 1 blu-ray and it is as I suspected: the deleted scenes have been deinterlaced poorly. So I’ll need to eventually check out the PAL version.