On Her Majesty's Secret Service: Piz Gloria Edition (actually WIP now!)

After far too long, and a couple false starts, I’m finally going to get cracking on a fanedit of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

NOTE: The final edit will end up being either in SD or 720p, due to the sources I have available. (I do have a Blu-Ray copy, but I am out of free BD rips on MakeMKV, so 😕 )

Tentative Changes (* = Held over from original pitch):

• *New color grade
• *Replace out-of-place music (i.e, We Have All The Time In The World cue playing during Gumbold safe scene)
• Replace re-used Dr. No Bond Theme in the attack on Piz Gloria
• New end credits music (inspired by The LS Cut)
• *Shift shorter scenes around (especially near the end of the movie.)
• *Fix flat/robotic sound of Irma Bunt’s line, “Not ground, ice.”
• *Trimming awkwardly long shots throughout
• *Fix “blue fade” in the transition to the titles
• *Remove useless flash cuts
• *New mattes for obvious rear-projection/bluescreen shots
• *Touch-up work and continuity fixes throughout
• Possible correction of “treadmill” effect in gunbarrel
• Other ideas will be pitched in future posts and added as they are implemented

Sources:

2006 Ultimate Edition DVD

Various publicity photos and stills

Soundtrack CD

Other Bond soundtracks as needed (will be included in update posts)

As the man says, this never happened to the other fella.

BIG UPDATE: 3/16/2025

I almost forgot about this entirely. After deliberating, I have decided to restart this project! I will go ahead and say that updates may be a bit sparse, as I have a bunch of other projects going on, but I am finally going to buckle down and at least get something started up in DaVinci for this project.

A sample approaches…

PM and you shall receive (a sample because I’m not all the way done).

It’s a bit rough around the edges, but it’s from the rough cut of the edit, so it’ll get better as time passes.

Don’t forget to add your email so I can send the sample to you.

4throck said:

“Removed awkwardly long shots throughout”
» Can you explain a bit what was removed?

“New mattes for obvious rear-projection/blue screen shots”
» I’m curious about this. Can you post a link to some before/after pictures?

I trimmed some shots that go on longer than they need to, and I can’t figure out how to make my pictures work despite using the right syntax.

I now have a recomp showcase video showing some before and after stuff on a few select shots in the film. I used the AI green-screen tool in Runway ML, and it came out really good. If you PM me with your email, I can send it to you,

So far, the color grade looks pretty good, everything is much more consistent and vibrant now.

Crap, lost the files.

There’s not a single trace of my work left except the poster and samples. 😦

You likely know about/tried such, but did you try a scan with un-delete software such as Recuva? If not, remember you need to do so immediately, before you start overwriting things.

Thanks for the tip!

BIG UPDATE: 3/16/2025

I almost forgot about this entirely. After deliberating, I have decided to restart this project! I will go ahead and say that updates may be a bit sparse, as I have a bunch of other projects going on, but I am finally going to buckle down and at least get something started up in DaVinci for this project.

UPDATE: 3/17/2025

Hoo boy, the color grading is probably going to be the longest part of what I have on my list right now. Especially in the UE transfer, I’ve noticed how inconsistent the film in from a color standpoint, so my usual “just slap an adjustment clip over the whole thing and grade the whole movie at once” tactic isn’t going to work here.

Currently, I am working to mitigate and re-do the day-for-night effect in the pre-credits.

An example

Another, more subtle example

Minor Update: 3/27/2025
Still working on color grading, especially in matching the colors up in scenes where the process shots take on a different color palette from the surrounding footage. A good example of this is when Bond escapes from Piz Gloria at night and there’s the ensuing ski chase. The day-for-night is also redone there, though to a slightly less drastic extent than the pre-credits.