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Stargate 1994 Roland Emmerich (Fan Edit) (Released) — Page 2

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Ronster said:

RayRogers said:

Why not use the most current Blu-ray release for this edit? Why use the inferior DVD?

Because to get some of the deleted footage in the film it can only be found in either 480p or 240p. Be glad that the 240p footage is going to be comparable to the 720 x 576 footage.

I also don’t have a very powerful computer and don’t want to spend money on a new one to do this. I want to extend the film with the deleted scenes and I can not do that in HD so I am not doing it in HD and going to make a SD extended cut.

It’s probably possible to do but I do not know how to upscale something over 4 times the resolution to make it comparable. It’s not about pixels put it that way. And also the sound mix on pioneer dvd is better than Blu Ray, the Blu ray sounds heavily subdued compared to the OLD Pioneer mix because it gradually get’s watered down as it goes through successive releases when additional mixing is done on it especially to create 7.1 mix.

In a nutshell the new Blu-ray does not sound as good as it should and it also don’t look like I remember it. So I am making a new Special edition.

Something that has also become of interest to myself personally is when deleted footage from films ends up in other media or TV series or even other films. And Stargate happens to be one of those.

https://giant.gfycat.com/ForkedFineBelugawhale.gif

^ This is how I remember the wormhole and it’s exactly this color I want it to be.

Why not have it look as it should have as per original cinematic release? Too bad the deleted scenes are in such poor resolution.

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That is the plan as far as the look goes. Yeah even though I said I will get away with the deleted scenes from that documentary in 240p super rezzed I do really need it in 480p if possible it would make it match and not be just comparable. But I don’t have the laserdisc so still calling.

It will look good still… been ripping the sources so I am trying to gather it all together.

Also been studying the pioneer dvd some more some shots are slightly more un-cropped.

The Japan Laserdisc documentary…

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Alderaan said:

After seeing Independence Day: Resurgence, this weekend, I just watched Stargate again. Really like it, and only Emmerich film that I think is any good. I don’t think the editing is the cause of any of the weaknesses in Stargate, so I doubt a fan edit would do any good, but good luck.

Biggest problems to me:

  1. The film intimates that Catherine’s team had already decoded the first six ciphers on Stargate combination, and they only needed to figure out the seventh and final one. This is really, really stupid, because they could have just tried every cipher for the last symbol until the combination worked. I think in reality what happened is that they thought only six symbols were needed, and it was Daniel who made the discovery that the combination was seven symbols long. But the film messes this up, big time.

  2. The soldiers who go through the Stargate with Colonel O’Neill and Jackson, those guys are really not believable as elite soldiers. Pretty much worst special ops team I’ve ever seen on film.

  3. Daniel’s character doesn’t exhibit any vulnerabilities in the film, and I think this is really a mistake on the part of the director. Colonel O’Neill has the whole subplot of his son’s death, and there’s some real weakness for him there, but Daniel doesn’t have anything. People walk out of his speech and he just laughs at himself. The soldiers punch him and he just shrugs it off. They throw his belongings out into the open desert and he sits down and eats a candy bar. Really messed up on his character I think.

Finally, the story is not bold enough to embrace some horror elements and until the ending it doesn’t really have many moments of joy either. Emotional rollercoasters are necessary and lacking.

Not sure if you can fix any of these things with a post production edit and no new footage. But I still love the film regardless of it’s flaws, don’t understand how anyone can hate it at all.

Ok I have been doing some research and reading the novel and the draft script which has thrown some answers up regarding your second point. And some alternative scene orders potentially which is what really I am all about. Putting things back in the correct order and within context. It seems that there were a few alternate versions of scenes filmed.

This I believe is quite evident come the finale which is a bit of a mess but there is more to this film than we see on the screen. The film has been toned down slightly for the PG rating which it would not have got if the changes were not made. So we ARE talking censorship and we ARE talking about things being changed to make it softer, when quite evidently it has quite a hard edge and can feel quite grim which I admire about it. It’s not all happy but is elated and it also has this dark tone but believe me it was weakened slightly.

The first evidence I have noticed of “Tinkering” or re-shuffling (I honestly hate this technique of changing films to have a weaker impact). Is when the pyramid lands and the troops are attacked.

The first 2 soldiers that are attacked are in fact killed. The other (last) two survive to see the watery pit. Basically I am going to do my best on this to make it feel adult and joined up. The obvious cut is with the second soldier who witnesses his dead mate being dragged behind the pillar. I plan to add Blood to the sand under his body to give that a harder edge. And screams of pain. But this guy that is scared and backs off. There is an important part missing where he spins and shoots the Bullpup at the camera. You can see it right at the start of the ultimate edition documentary. So it was definitely filmed. It was a scene extension. But it was censored. I am going to try and fix it but I don’t know but I will try. The next point is the guy with the hand gun I think it’s a P90 or a Beretta obviously offloads the clip in his gun and then goes for the MP5 back in the center of the room. So I am also going to try and fix this somehow.

Next up on the list is the scene of the guy who get’s bashed at the end of that sequence get’s dragged along the floor in front of “Ra” this scene come’s later as when O’neil (Kurt Russell) is dropped in the watery pit this dude is clenching his face with fresh wounds so that scene happens before Kurt get’s thrown in the watery pit but probably in that order.

The end of the film is also going to be put in a better order that “Makes Sense” as it is bullshit although likeable bullshit it’s so obviously shuffled to tame it down and break the flow so I am definitely going to improve the action in this film if I can. Let me know your thoughts on the action and how it has been tamed or censored.

I have also ordered a dvd version of the 2008 DVD release if this documentary footage is not on that disc then it’s on the rare Japanese Laserdisc only perhaps which would be bad. Hopefully it’s on the 2008 optimum DVD release. Fingers crossed!

So far I have only placed the very first special edition scene on a tmeline and looked at it. I am not going any further until the 2008 version arrives.

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Ra’s severed hand from Pioneer DVD but it is in all versions of the film. The close up shot was cut though

Good news and bad news I have the documentary with the extra deleted scenes in 720 x 576 it’s on the french collectors edition version of the film. So I have it in DVD Quality and it will be a perfect match quality wise. And the extra or alternate bit’s of sound mix from it too.

But I am probably not going to start this project until the winter time as I just spent ages on a project recently and I don’t want to get back in to doing another one just yet as It takes up too much time.

More info on the guy who has the handgun. The timeline is swapped in that when the soldier is taken before RA he is thrown on the ground then smashed in the face. THEN he is dragged across the floor with the blood on his head after he has been hit very hard and not before. The Blood on his head is not present when he is thrown in front of RA’s sarcophagus.

Before the age of digital removal This is a normal way to soften a sequence by taking the Context of cause and effect of violence and swapping them in time so as the violence remains but the act and the after effect are removed in context so that we can see the injury and then we see the actual moment the violence occurs but they are without any context to one another as we are time travelling and the 2 appear to be unconnected events.

This happens in quite a few points in the film where cause and effect are swapped pertaining to perceived violence. Or worst of all there is a gap and we get a jump cut where the violence is simply hard cut out and we skip quite literally over it.

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Ok I a ploughing full steam ahead in to this.

I am using the French DVD as my main Video source.

I am trying to restore everything and anything I can to it. I’m just trying to do Color correction for the whole film at this time and recreate the original look or close to it.

It looks good. I’ll post a video clip soon probably without audio as I am not too concerned about this at the moment.

Pink at the top and yellow in the midtones eugh what a horrible choice of color tints that are being undone. I am using the deleted clips and old pioneer DVD as color references. The deleted clips are the best color reference. Somewhere there is a very nice looking version of Stargate. There will be another one soon…

The blue curtains are correct. Just the pink mid tones are not.

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Not the 15th Anniversary BD as the video source or would it be too jarring with the SD video?

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I think it’s just nice to keep it all of a similar quality. Add all the extra missing sound add the extra footage where I can. Get the colors right or as close as I can. Mix sources where needed.

So far I am about 1 hour 10 minutes through a first Color pass after 3 days. If this had been Enter the Dragon which I put on hold for the moment although I could finish that in a day or 2 probably you could add 12 months on and off to that from start point on that film I love it but I am sick of it.

It is actually a sigh of relief to work on something that is not a complete nightmare. It’s a very gorgeous looking film too.

I am going to steer quite clear of adding any personal revisionist strokes but I might add a simple few things. I plan to replace the dodgy looking planet when the pyramid ship is leaving Abydos orbit. There will be a lot of revisionist edits but all we be done in good taste and nothing too radical. The deleted footage is radical enough. Re-arrangements and simple edits. No fancy CGI at all.

A few interesting discoveries I have made whilst making my way through the footage.

When they are in Nagada city at night and they look up again at the Eye of Ra gong thing it is the same shot as in the day shown previously and not at night.

When Kurt Russell is knocked un-concious when we cut to him out for the count he is lying on a sandy floor not the marble type floor in the pyramid hall chamber.

When one of the Guards shoots at Kurt Russell and James Spader escaping when rescued from outside the pyramid by the people of Abydos. One shot is of a Guard shooting inside the pyramid entrance hall which is meant to appear much later in the film. There also happens to be a deleted scene of the correct guard shooting outside the pyramid in the desert so how they got mixed up I don’t know?

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Upscaling from low SD quality to 1080p would be very jarring. So doing a full SD quality with high variable bitrate would be fine.
I’ve forgotten if the 15th Anniversary STARGATE BD is from a 2K scan or 4K scan. It looks great with all the film grain. Just as it appeared in 1994 when I viewed it over 14 times in cinemas.

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Yeah I have the blu ray for it but it is still got issues. Some shots are going to be like you never seen it before just because a hand full of shots are way off.

I will probably replace the wormhole sequence with an updated version. So it will have some CGI actually. And fixes.

It is going to be good… I have a good feeling about it.

And I have wanted to do it for ages

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Well a quick update I have done color correction on all but the last 2 chapters of the film. I won’t say it is final yet but close and have done second pass on many parts that needed it in a hope I can go straight to final for the last 2 chapters… I am pleased with the results and really I want to make it look the best I can. But after I have corrected the final 2 chapters. The main concentration at this point will shift to the deleted material and integrating it into the timeline.

This could be fairly slow going but I am sure some shots will fall in quick and easily. It is the sheer amount of small snippets and extended sequences so it will be fairly time consuming I feel and may I also add a re-arranged timeline back in to a correct chronological order of events.

But I am also quite excited by the prospect of an edit that is felt throughout and spread throughout many of the films sequences hopefully providing a nice alternative and extended cut whilst trying to also restore the color to normal neutralizing the yellow tint totally and restoring some small snippets of missing audio.

Very little has changed about what I plan to do, I hope to give the film a slightly more mature or bit of a slightly darker tone whilst retaining the uplifting moments also unchanged. I hope to install a small amount of gore to it also but not anything too much.

Barring the final 2 chapters of the film if you want to see what any particular shot or small sequence currently looks like then I will happily post where I am at with it.

I have quite a busy week this week so I won’t be working on it too much. But I would be eager to start any sort of discussion at this time about what the film should look like… I’d like to know what anyone here thinks it should look like?

Basically this week is a good week for discussion on the original look of stargate if anyone is interested.

My sources for reference were.

Pioneer DVD (original theatrical)
Documentary “Making of Stargate” French DVD
Secrets of Stargate CD-rom
Stargate theatrical trailer
Stargate promo reel

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It would be great if you can post some before-after color correction comparison screenshots!

About upscaling PAL DVD footage to 1080p; it depends by the source quality; if it is good, it can be upscaled quite nicely - not as real HD, or course, but enough to be acceptable… if there are some shots present in both the documentary AND the movie, a comparison would be really appreciated as well!

Sadly my projects are lost due to an HDD crash… 😦 | [Fundamental Collection] thread | blog.spoRv.com | fan preservation forum: fanres.com

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It would be great if you can post some before-after color correction comparison screenshots!

About upscaling PAL DVD footage to 1080p; it depends by the source quality; if it is good, it can be upscaled quite nicely - not as real HD, or course, but enough to be acceptable… if there are some shots present in both the documentary AND the movie, a comparison would be really appreciated as well!

Sadly my projects are lost due to an HDD crash… 😦 | [Fundamental Collection] thread | blog.spoRv.com | fan preservation forum: fanres.com

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Before

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCLQRZmD1EE

After

https://vimeo.com/204321012

Sorry about different video speed but you can in this instance take your pick of a shot a see how it is differing. It does need a bit more work as a few shots have a bit of blue contrast bleed and I will rectify that. Like I said close to final not quite 100% yet.

I chose to use the promo reel as the dominant reference for this part as I believe the promo reel is the most accurate color reference for the film.

Promo Reel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3rbSkWvyhQ

It has very much been a case of too much red not enough blue as a rule throughout the film. But some shots particularly shots that feature special effects have needed separate color settings possibly as the special effects shots were probably filmed with different cameras or the computer / digital enhancement.

I have tried to really balance the brightness and contrast and saturation and working with sand and sky’s has been really interesting on how to tackle shots with sand and sky. It’s been a learning experience.

Quite a few shots are too bright whilst others are not bright enough so although one of the goals is to sort any contrast issues out in terms of colors bleeding into the image I also have to go back through and lift the contrast to bring back detail after I have removed some of these issues. But that won’t take too long.

Edit.
Noticed the caption “Giza 1928” popping in and out not sure why that is? Actually looks like DNR is making the Super or caption pop in and out it’s not anything I did it’s in the video source so I may have to replace that shot.

Another thing I just noticed… The scenes at the start are in the wrong order. It should have the caption “Gizah 1928” and then the shot of the car driving past the camels with the pyramids in the background. As it currently stands in the film the car drives past the camels and then we cut to the car approaching the camels going back in time… I don’t think this is one of those time travel scenes is it? 😃

I’ll write a change list for this section.

  1. Rearrange scenes in correct order at the start and replace shot from another source with caption “Giza 1928”
  2. Replace sound of modern car horn honking with old fashioned car horn honking
  3. Add extra shot of Stargate being lifted from Promo reel & Stargate only lifts in to upright position once
  4. Add extended pan in on Annubis Guard Fossil
  5. Further Color work.

That is probably all for this part.

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I see that your color grading is colder than the original one, right?
A split screen would be very welcome… 😄

Second youtube links (promo reel) doesn’t work.

Sadly my projects are lost due to an HDD crash… 😦 | [Fundamental Collection] thread | blog.spoRv.com | fan preservation forum: fanres.com

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I have been a bit over zealous with the blue and I have taken it back a bit and let more yellow basically the warm sunlight back in just not a huge yellow tint across everything.

It’s already out of date now. Wait a bit I’ll get a bit more done on it this week. Until I add the deleted scenes at that point a decision will be made on exactly what it’s going to look like but what you are seeing in the clip I posted is a pretty decent representation although it will be a bit less cool and a little more warm on desert scenes. (I actually changed the video 4 times because I chose this part as a demo then realized I had not looked into it enough). I sorted out the problem with the guys over yellow cap / hat too.

Also bear in mind I can oly render it in 720p MP4 with compression whilst in free demo mode for the software so the render will improve come final also.

The interior scenes will all be graded cool like they were originally and also the night scenes will be cool blue like they were originally.

I have had a really busy week last week so I have done a small bit whilst being really tired but not on the edit so much. I have constructed a edit of the total deleted scenes and although it does feature some footage that is in the film. At a rough estimate the total amount of deleted footage comes to around just over 7 minutes. I will post it once I have completed this but it is only for time purposes as I wanted to quantify how much deleted material there was. I won’t be able to use all of it but I hope I will be able to use around 95% of it. I think you can probably expect an extra 8 minutes on top of the special edition version of Stargate which added about the same amount of time… Or I don’t know perhaps an extra 5 minutes in change still deciding things.

I want to push on and grade the whole film.

Promo Reel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MknjU_pxrHc

^ This one is blocked for me… But the link definitely works that I posted.

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Probably you made the right decision to step back a bit on the blue.

Hope to see as much deleted footage as possible, I love extra extended editions! 😄

Sadly my projects are lost due to an HDD crash… 😦 | [Fundamental Collection] thread | blog.spoRv.com | fan preservation forum: fanres.com

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Like I said I’ll post it when I am done with just assembling all the footage as I still have shots to add. There is also going to be some extra shots added that are not deleted scenes or deleted scene recreations.

I have put a lot of thought into what I am trying to do. But I will be quite interested in what people will think when they see all the actual deleted footage. Like I said a lot of small snippets or extended sequences. Sci-fi, environment and action.

A decision I made today is that when Ra tortures the guard for not finding James Spader and Kurt Russell (after they escape) with the eye of Ra hand weapon, when he is done electrifying his brain I plan to make the dead guards pupils white as a side effect to the Eye of Ra weapon. I think it will be a subtle nice touch and also a bit of mild horror. It’s simple things like this I plan to do as sort of special effects or extra edits…

Perhaps it will be like a subtle hint as to why Ra’s eyes glow in anger or something as a warning to what will happen if you do not obey.

If you have any ideas let me know especially after I post the deleted material.

But I know I have my work cut out for me on this.

The reason I said either 5 or 8 minutes is because I might delete the abduction of Ra from the start but include the full uncut sequence when Daniel Jackson tells the story of Ra when reading the hieroglyphs with all the scenes and music… But I am undecided about this but I think it is perhaps a good way to handle it rather than see the same sequence twice.

This way the story is more mysterious. Tell me if it is a good call or not? More similar to the theatrical cut but different…

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Stargate Deleted scenes.

https://vimeo.com/205399595

Pretty much every deleted piece of material I can find from the film barring the making of stargate CD-rom as the quality is very bad and unusable. There are a couple of small snippets missing here but nothing major this video pretty much covers almost all the footage but a few seconds.

This was for running time purposes not for quality purposes I have all the deleted material in DVD quality

Any thoughts?

Just to add to this quickly the reason it would seem that the film got re-cut is because Carolco (Mario Kassar’s film company) got sold whilst the film was in production. It would seem to explain a lot of the deleted footage perhaps and also changing the tone of the film slightly.

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I have found even more deleted scenes in Stargate Sg-1 Season 2 and Season 3!

it’s not much but it is deleted death glider footage cut from the final battle or attack on Nagada. It’s great to find still more footage though that probably add’s up to around 20 seconds.

My thoughts on this edit are in Flux a bit. Part of Me wants to upgrade the effects and Part of me does not. I am now Leaning towards Not upgrading the effects like the wormhole (restore from Pioneer DVD release) but having some shots with improved or new effects and putting FX where they are missing.

The whole wormhole sequence has me scratching my head. On the secrets of Stargate CD-rom there is an Extended wormhole sequence (original animation) but it is running at 20fps with frame drops. Some small missing segments appear in the trailer but I don’t have all of it in good quality. This would potentially restore the music cue for the wormhole sequence.

Been too busy to do anything on it for months but am getting back to this now.

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Ronster said:
The whole wormhole sequence has me scratching my head. On the secrets of Stargate CD-rom there is an Extended wormhole sequence (original animation) but it is running at 20fps with frame drops.

It’s always possible to create missing frames using interpolation - sometimes it works really well… you can give it a try!

Sadly my projects are lost due to an HDD crash… 😦 | [Fundamental Collection] thread | blog.spoRv.com | fan preservation forum: fanres.com

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i like long versions too.
will it have german tracks?

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I don’t know anything about authoring and It would be impossible to to do an alternate language track as it will have a few small snippets of extra dialogue in it. Will Probably have to be in English with burnt in subtitles for foreign languages in the film. I am just kinda doing this for fun not looking to make a huge international release.

I would need help with that…

I am still doing the color what do you think?

https://vimeo.com/225118804

Comparison

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4vQbzdjQW8

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While original is too hot, with that teal sky and orange sand, your version is still too cold - we are in the desert, after all!

Try something in between - can’t say exactly 50/50, but certainly it need to be warmer. IMHO of course!

Sadly my projects are lost due to an HDD crash… 😦 | [Fundamental Collection] thread | blog.spoRv.com | fan preservation forum: fanres.com

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Basically it won’t go in between because it is not just Teal and Orange but it’s like a pink orange or bright yellow. I can not stand that color filter and it looks awful but perhaps I don’t really know how to get rid of it without it being too cool as you put it but also if you look at the deleted scenes I posted… They don’t look like very warm or red at all and I am trying to copy the way the deleted scenes look from the promo reel because I am pretty sure that is what the film was meant to look like.

The documentary footage and the trailers also reflect this look and not really red or yellow. I can’t get rid of the tint without it looking cooler.

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Try to increase saturation and/or red channel, or also add an orange blanket.

Sadly my projects are lost due to an HDD crash… 😦 | [Fundamental Collection] thread | blog.spoRv.com | fan preservation forum: fanres.com