Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Edit Suggestions — Page 7

skyjedi2005 said:

The real question should be whether or not the 1080i bonus features are upscaled or true high definition.

Often these companies upscale the dvd resolution, you know if it is really 480i.

Probably not upscaled, as people are already gushing about how awesome the (HD-)clips from the old Indy movies look in the BluRay-versions of the documentaries.

I think something should be done when Spalko lands on the back of the duck while Marion's driving and they just stare at each other for a good 3 seconds. It just looks weird. Maybe a shorter cut?

Is this one official edit, or is this just a bunch of suggestions for a theoretical edit?

If this is one official edit, is there an approximate release date set?

No replies? Where is everyone?

The Golden Idol said:

No replies? Where is everyone?

So far it looks like two individual edits.

GoldStone9 said:

The Golden Idol said:

No replies? Where is everyone?

 

So far it looks like two individual edits.

What are their names/editors?

Is there an approx. release date for either one?

I'm gonna make an edit, but as my work-times are pretty unpredictable, I'm not gonna set a deadline for it.

Yeah, the thread itself isn't centred on one specific edit. Rather, it's just an area where ideas and suggestions for an edit of the film can be gathered and presented in a list, to help potential fan editors out there who are wanting to tackle an edit of KOTCS. As new suggestions are put forward, I update the list on Page 1 to keep things in order (have included your suggestion about trimming Marion and Spalko staring each other out for a few seconds, TheGoldenIdol).

Aside from Laserschwert, I also know that InfoDroid and UncannyAntman are planning on doing edits (read this over on the faneditforums; also, the fanedit homepage mentions that there are a number of edits of Crystal Skull on the go, and should start appearing relatively soon).

Laser, I remember you talking about adding FX to Indy's fight with Dovchenko to make it more gritty, and it got me thinking - should the same be done for the dead Area 51 guards? Could more blood/gore be added in the shot where they are being dragged off by the Russians, before Indy says 'drop dead'? They were shot by four Russian soldiers emptying their clips on them after all!

Laserschwert said:

I'm gonna make an edit, but as my work-times are pretty unpredictable, I'm not gonna set a deadline for it.

And nor should you, we wouldn't want to see this rushed or you to feel you are being "pushed" to do this.

Should be amazing once its all done.

I've tried a couple of things from the list, and some probably won't be possible. Taking "Not as easy as it used to be" and "Part time" from the trailers probably won't work, because the sound-quality differs considerably from the movie-versions (I assume it was on-set audio), plus there's parts of the "Raiders March" playing under the first one. On the other hand, I'm not at all familiar with sound-engineering, so I don't know how clean those can be made with some filtering.

I've almost finished editing the waterfall-scene (minus the CG-additions) with audio being in 5.1 ... but as I've never edited in surround before, I'm not sure how well that worked.

Ach well, it's not like swapping those lines is a very important change.

It's great to hear that your waterfall edit is nearly done - really looking forward to your final product, I'm sure it'll be great.

So, the jungle chase is about 95% complete as well. Except for the one real monkey all other monkey and all the vine swinging is gone (except for Mutt swinging back into Spalko's jeep). Furthermore I've swapped some Mutt/Indy-shots around, so that they don't get intercut as much and each of them receives more continuous screen-time. While doing this I've noticed that two of Mutt's shots (his 180° after picking up the sword, and him observing Spalko's jeep going by) are a split that perfectly merges into one longer shot (and I mean perfect down to the frame).

The next step will be the fight scene with the ants (not sure if anything needs to be trimmed or re-arranged there), inlcuding the digital changes I'm making, plus the shot of the jeep going down the cliff for the waterfall-sequence.

As soon as all those three sequences are done, I'm gonna combine them and try my color correction on them.

Awesome, we are in for a real treat.

Was it just me, by I remember from my first and only viewing of the film that during the jungle car chase, when Mutt is dueling with Spalko, a plant hits his privates and he reacts to it. Is this going to removed?

Maybe you could add a shaky-cam effect to the scene as I recall many critics commenting that for a jungle environment it was pretty far fetched to have such a long strip of incredibly flat and smooth ground. - not that big of a deal but would be interesting to see what you could do with it.

Sadly in the movie it's not just one plant hitting his private parts but like twenty... they really went overboard with that gag. But yeah, it's gone. There's just one plant nearly hitting him, and that's it.

Adding camera shake would only compromise image quality (at least on the 1080p-version of the edit) and framing, and no, I'm not gonna add that.

jones1899 said:

Sounds great Laser. Looking forward to it. 

As for the line switch, I'm going to ask the audio guy here if he could clean up the two bits of dialog from the trailer ("not as easy..." and "part time"). I'll post it if I have any luck with this. 

 

"Part time!" seems to be a lot cleaner in the "Making of" documentary (and I think it's the same take used in the trailer).

By the way, the user SandiegoJones on the TheRaider.net-forums corrected me on my assumption that gunpowder isn't magenetic, and thus Indy's way of finding the Alien in the warehouse wouldn't work. But: After World War I graphite was added to gunpowder (to avoid random ignition by electrostatic charge), which is highly magnetic. So, I thought that bit of the movie was plainly wrong (and so I wanted to cut it), but in fact I was.

I'm actually reassured by Laser's point about there actually being metal in the gunpowder. It's good that this is the case, as I can't imagine how the gunpowder segment could be effectively cut out - doing so would seem to create either a jarring, clunkiness here, or else create a continuity error with regards to how Indy actually found the box. It might be more neat, then, if the gunpowder set-piece was left intact.

I originally thought that cutting straight from asking for a compass to the shotgun shells would work, but thinking about it, doing this cut would mean that it is never explained that the box/skull is magnetised (unless we cut after Indy talks to Spalko here about the contents of the box being magnetised, but we can't leave in this speech as Indy mentions gunpowder). Would it not perhaps look strange if Indy asks for a compass, then is seen to be receiving shotgun shells, climbing on top of boxes, dropping them, having the shotgun shells whizz into a box - if the audience wasn't aware that the box was magnetised, all this would seem confusing possibly.

Still, there may be a neat, continuity-respecting cut that is possible here which could avoid this problem. One cut I could imagine maybe working is cutting from Indy saying 'the contents of that box are highly magnetised' straight to him saying 'do you want my help, or not?', omitting the line about gunpowder. But as this speech happens right in front of the camera, without the perspective changing in any way, it may have to involve morphs, or other such tricky techniques to make this cut work.

But after the revelation of metal being in gunpowder since WWI, I can finally enjoy the gunpowder sequence as it is in the theatrical cut! Well, at least know that it makes some sort of sense!

topdawg193 said:

Still, there may be a neat, continuity-respecting cut that is possible here which could avoid this problem. One cut I could imagine maybe working is cutting from Indy saying 'the contents of that box are highly magnetised' straight to him saying 'do you want my help, or not?', omitting the line about gunpowder. But as this speech happens right in front of the camera, without the perspective changing in any way, it may have to involve morphs, or other such tricky techniques to make this cut work.

But after the revelation of metal being in gunpowder since WWI, I can finally enjoy the gunpowder sequence as it is in the theatrical cut! Well, at least know that it makes some sort of sense!

Instead of a morph, just put in a reaction shot of Spalko or a wide static shot or something.  Should be easy.

jones1899 said:

Despite the fact that a bit of graphite was added to gunpowder after WW1 still doesn't account for the "swarm of bees" it creates through the warehouse.

Well, according to Wikipedia, it's not entirely far fetched:

"It is also highly diamagnetic, thus it will float in mid-air above a strong magnet." (This refers to graphite, not gunpowder)

Of course, the "swarm"-effect is just a stylized and exaggerated version of this effect, and I agree that the whole magnetism-idea was actually too complex to be realized in the movie without compromises (sometimes the box is more magnetic than some other times), but it would've been impossible to include all effects the magnetism would have.

Having the junk roll on the floor, the gun-straps and dog-tags attracted to the crate and those other things that WERE in the movie and showed the magnetism were enough to sell the idea. It's Hollywood-logic, but it's enough.... just like the "leap of faith" in LC, which worked in its own realm.

topdawg193 said:

I also know that InfoDroid and UncannyAntman are planning on doing edits 

Mine probably won't be the kind of thing anyone will look forward to.  Not only is it a long way off, but I think it will be a much gentler cut than what most people would like.

It looks like Info may be going the less-conventional route again with Crystal Skull.  (A non-linear cut, like his Temple edit)   Sounds like it could be really interesting.

I favor of a better flow I'd definitely vote against the removal of the gunpowder-bit... removing it just brings up other questions.