Transformers: Reformatted (2007) - Blu-ray & DVD (Released)

I started my edit when the DVD came out in 2007, but never did anything with it since I would be watching the HD-DVD/Blu-ray versions instead of any edit on DVD.  In early August of this year I purchased a new computer and added a Blu-Ray burner to it and set out to finish my edit of Transformers using the blu-ray.

I started out by basically copying all of the edits I had done earlier to the new version.  Then I set out to find more things to cut.  Reave’s Resparked version was mentioned to me and I looked it up and found his list of changes.  This was very helpful to me for coming up with some ideas and also forcing me to go back through the film and taking a more critical look at everything.  I looked at a lot more small details rather than looking for big chunks to cut out.  So Reave’s ideas were a great place for me to begin.  Some of his ideas I borrowed, some I ignored, some I expanded on, and others I took the concept and went in different directions with it.  Along the way I added a lot of my own changes to the film.  I wanted to cut out as much of what I thought failed in the movie while still maintaining it’s cohesiveness, and not having anything seem out of place, or to seem obvious that something was missed.  I wanted all of my cuts to be as close to seamless as possible and tried to be pretty strict on this.  If I had to keep something I didn’t really care for to keep the integrity, that’s what I did.

My first cut I had started with originally was probably only 4 minutes shorter than the original.  After going back through and looking at everything and taking Reave’s ideas into consideration I had it shortened by I think 9 or 10 minutes.  Then finally I figured out a better way to use the software I was using (Nero 9 - NeroVision 4) and how to manipulate the audio.  This opened up a new level of options for me, and after a lot of trial and error and testing and retesting I’ve finally produced a finished product (I’ve said this before, so I could be wrong and it may change in the future).  This finished version now runs right around 20 minutes shorter than the theatrical release.  I’m not 100% satisfied with it, but I’d say probably somewhere around 97%.  There are still some things I’d like to trim, but until I figure out a clean way to do it, I won’t.

I’m not sure I’ll make a list of everything I’ve changed, but I may someday.

I used the retail Blu-ray for the source.  I used NeroVision 4 with blu-ray plugin to do all of my editing and processing.  The final version does not have Dolby TrueHD, but does keep AC-3 5.1 audio.  I created menus on NeroVision using wallpapers available at tfw2005.com and music from the Revenge of the Fallen Score Soundtrack.

I’ve also made a DVD version with a basic 3D menu template available on Nerovision with no audio on the menus.

I’m not exactly sure of how to go about getting anybody to see this or anything.  I don’t have access anywhere to upload something of this size.  I suppose I can send it out via mail right now.  Either the DVD or Blu-ray, or just the video file itself.

Congrats! I always said that if somebody created a decent edit of this movie I'd buy the official DVD out of gratitude.

Ditto with the sequel.

Send it out to some trusted folks and get them to upload it... good luck!

Kurgan said:

Congrats! I always said that if somebody created a decent edit of this movie I'd buy the official DVD out of gratitude.

Ditto with the sequel.

 

Send it out to some trusted folks and get them to upload it... good luck!

Working on doing just that.

This is available now I guess by request.  Just the DVD version though, I haven't gotten a high def version uploaded anywhere yet.  I'm still determining which format to use.

Editing on ROTF has begun.

Cool! No hurry, but I'd love to see your list of cuts/changes when you get a chance.

For those wondering what I changed, here is my complete list of edits (I think):

Opening/Base Attack Scene:
    *Trimmed conversation on helicopter
    *Removed conversation between Lennox and his wife
    *Removed threat to kill Blackout's crew if they didn't step out and his utterance of "My God"
    *Trimmed Epps looking up at Blackout some
    *Rearranged footage so that Blackout is shot with grenade PRIOR to Epps escaping.
    *Trimmed Blackout turning arround some before ejecting Scorponok

School Scene:
    *Removed intro by teacher & Sam emptying his bag
    *Removed spitball bit
    *Removed lines during flashback, "The ice is freezing faster than it's metling," and, "Don't worry lads, we'll get there."
    *Removed "Sexton" line and class' reaction
    *Removed shot of Sam's Dad in his car

Dealership Scene:
    *Removed clown's line about his makeup melting
    *Removed line from Bolivia wanting to show Sam his favorite car away from BB

Pentagon Scene:
    *Removed SecDef looking at those in attendance and all comments made there

Witwicky House:
    *Removed Sam going to his room, checking the mirror, ebay, etc.
    *Removed bit about Mojo and his bling.

Desert Scene:
    *Completely removed scene with Lennox and company talking about what happened, the binoculars and Skorponok spying.

Park Scene & Drive Home: 
    *Removed a few of Brent's lines to his friends and his worrying about his wheels being grinded.
    *Removed 2nd half of Sam and Mikaela's talk in the car where she comes off as a total ditz not knowing who he is.

Analyst Scene:
    *Completely remove scene of analysts theorizing about Iran and China.

Air Force One Scene:
    *Cut President's Ding Dong lines.
    *Remove a lot of analysts lines (i.e. "Are you running a diagnostic?" "Should I be?", etc.  Only what was needed remains)
    *Remove several repetetive lines from military personal after signal is detected.
    *Trim Frenzy's escape to the car

Bumblebee signal scene:
    *Cut Sam's call to police and his talk about the neighborhood watch
    *Cut Bumblebee driving circles around Sam and Sam throwing his keys

Pentagon Scene:
    *Completely cut scene where Maggie talks about DNA based computers etc. with SecDef and military

Desert Attack:
    *Completely removed Indian telemarketer and credit card gag.
    *Removed Epps lines "Man, If you could see this ****." and "Bring It"
    *Removed "Bring the Rain" line.
    *Rearranged and trimmed much of the footage so that the action flows better.

Maggie Stealing Signal/Glenn Scene:
    *Cut other analyts lines.
    *Trimmed Maggie removing memory card
    *Cut Maggie getting out of 2nd taxi
    *Cut Glenn playing games with his cousin
    *Cut Maggie asking if Glenn wants to see something classified and Glenn wanting to "work his magic"
    *Cut Glenn's grandmother's interruption.

Bumblebee Chases Sam/Barricade Scene:
    *Trim footage of news
    *Cut out audio of Sam saying "Good Morning Mojo," and "It's too early.." to allow for it to be later in the day.
    *Trim some frames from Sam flipping on his bike.
    *Cut Sam telling Barricade that he's had the worst day - removes uneccessary delay by Barricade
    *Trim Sam's delay in running away
    *Cut Sam's line about dreaming
    *Cut line in car about ditching the Monster - Sam hits the steering wheel and the car starts (Note: Unfortunately I wasn't able to fix the continuity error with the tire spinning, but that's is Bay's error, not mine.)
    *Mirrored the scene of Bumblebee flipping Barricade into a building and them fighting on the ground to make the action flow in the same direction (pretty amateur mistake by Bay & co. here).  Later shot of Barricade is mirrored as well.
    *Trimmed some frames after Sam kicks Frenzy's head.

Autobot Arrival:
    *Removed girl's tooth fairy line.
    *Removed Jazz's first line, "What's crackin' little bitches?"
    *Removed Sam's echo of Prime's "ebay."
    *Removed line during flashback sequence, "The ice is cracking." (DUH!!)

Interrogation Room:
    *Cut entire scene with Donuts and Glenn freaking out.
   
Military Airplane:
    *Cut a few lines at beginning of discussion of Skorponok

Sam's House:
    *Cut first news report Sam's parents are watching
    *Cut entire backyard scene (Sam's talk with his dad, "my bad," and the bit with Mojo.)
    *Cut Mikaela's efforts to help Sam search his room.
    *Cut S7 escorting everyone to the vehicles

Sector 7 vehicle sequence:
    *Cut Sam's martians line
    *Cut Mikeala going on about Sam never sacraficing anything in his perfect little life.
    *Trimmed the chase of Optimus to remove continuity error of Prime's footprints magically vanishing.

Pentagon:
    *Cut conference call and comment about the defining the Presidency.

Hoover Dam/Sectory 7:
    *Cut most of Frenzy's fall.  Spliced a small piece of footage in during Prime's speech at the Observatory.
    *Cut SecDef talking to Lennox
    *Cut SecDef having a hissy fit about the military not knowing about Sectory 7 etc.
    *Cut shot of Barricade after Starscream calls the Decepticons to mobilize
    *Cut Maggie asking what kind of energy the cube had
    *Cut Wolverine/Freddy Joke and Simmons asking for a phone, etc.
    *Cut Maggie correcting Simmons about Finland and the SecDef's comments
    *Cut some of Maggie's reactions to cellphone bot
   
Attack on S7:
    *Cut shot of Barricade with other Decepticons
    *Cut one shot of Frenzy messing with computers
    *Cut SecDef line about the Rangers not losing
    *Cut Sam asking how BB is doing (good call Reave)
    *Cut Lennox reference to "Mission City" - This fixes the error with it being called LA in the sequel
    *Cut shot of Bumblebee and others leaving dam area, Sam asking how the cube is in the backseat and some guys spraying Megs.

Final Battles:
    *Cut some of Frenzy fight and the Airforce receiving the message from Glenn
    *Cut more shots of Barricade
    *Rearrange footage of Optimus and Bonecrusher transformations
    *Cut out boy saying, "Cool Mom!"
    *Cut F22's mobilizing and Glenn saying that they're being sent to the city.
    *Cut wide shot of city
    *Cut Lennox/Epps argument about airstrike, "That's Alien!"
    *Cut and rearranged scene of robots created by the Allspark so that it's only Dewbot that's created, no XBOX or SUV.
    *Cut shot of Mikeala driving out of alley and "I'll drive, you shoot" line.

I think that's it...

Kevinicus said:

For those wondering what I changed, here is my complete list of edits (I think):

 

Opening/Base Attack Scene:
    *Trimmed conversation on helicopter
    *Removed conversation between Lennox and his wife
    *Removed threat to kill Blackout's crew if they didn't step out and his utterance of "My God"
    *Trimmed Epps looking up at Blackout some
    *Rearranged footage so that Blackout is shot with grenade PRIOR to Epps escaping.
    *Trimmed Blackout turning arround some before ejecting Scorponok

School Scene:
    *Removed intro by teacher & Sam emptying his bag
    *Removed spitball bit
    *Removed lines during flashback, "The ice is freezing faster than it's metling," and, "Don't worry lads, we'll get there."
    *Removed "Sexton" line and class' reaction
    *Removed shot of Sam's Dad in his car

Dealership Scene:
    *Removed clown's line about his makeup melting
    *Removed line from Bolivia wanting to show Sam his favorite car away from BB

Pentagon Scene:
    *Removed SecDef looking at those in attendance and all comments made there

Witwicky House:
    *Removed Sam going to his room, checking the mirror, ebay, etc.
    *Removed bit about Mojo and his bling.

Desert Scene:
    *Completely removed scene with Lennox and company talking about what happened, the binoculars and Skorponok spying.

Park Scene & Drive Home: 
    *Removed a few of Brent's lines to his friends and his worrying about his wheels being grinded.
    *Removed 2nd half of Sam and Mikaela's talk in the car where she comes off as a total ditz not knowing who he is.

Analyst Scene:
    *Completely remove scene of analysts theorizing about Iran and China.

Air Force One Scene:
    *Cut President's Ding Dong lines.
    *Remove a lot of analysts lines (i.e. "Are you running a diagnostic?" "Should I be?", etc.  Only what was needed remains)
    *Remove several repetetive lines from military personal after signal is detected.
    *Trim Frenzy's escape to the car

Bumblebee signal scene:
    *Cut Sam's call to police and his talk about the neighborhood watch
    *Cut Bumblebee driving circles around Sam and Sam throwing his keys

Pentagon Scene:
    *Completely cut scene where Maggie talks about DNA based computers etc. with SecDef and military

Desert Attack:
    *Completely removed Indian telemarketer and credit card gag.
    *Removed Epps lines "Man, If you could see this ****." and "Bring It"
    *Removed "Bring the Rain" line.
    *Rearranged and trimmed much of the footage so that the action flows better.

Maggie Stealing Signal/Glenn Scene:
    *Cut other analyts lines.
    *Trimmed Maggie removing memory card
    *Cut Maggie getting out of 2nd taxi
    *Cut Glenn playing games with his cousin
    *Cut Maggie asking if Glenn wants to see something classified and Glenn wanting to "work his magic"
    *Cut Glenn's grandmother's interruption.

Bumblebee Chases Sam/Barricade Scene:
    *Trim footage of news
    *Cut out audio of Sam saying "Good Morning Mojo," and "It's too early.." to allow for it to be later in the day.
    *Trim some frames from Sam flipping on his bike.
    *Cut Sam telling Barricade that he's had the worst day - removes uneccessary delay by Barricade
    *Trim Sam's delay in running away
    *Cut Sam's line about dreaming
    *Cut line in car about ditching the Monster - Sam hits the steering wheel and the car starts (Note: Unfortunately I wasn't able to fix the continuity error with the tire spinning, but that's is Bay's error, not mine.)
    *Mirrored the scene of Bumblebee flipping Barricade into a building and them fighting on the ground to make the action flow in the same direction (pretty amateur mistake by Bay & co. here).  Later shot of Barricade is mirrored as well.
    *Trimmed some frames after Sam kicks Frenzy's head.

Autobot Arrival:
    *Removed girl's tooth fairy line.
    *Removed Jazz's first line, "What's crackin' little bitches?"
    *Removed Sam's echo of Prime's "ebay."
    *Removed line during flashback sequence, "The ice is cracking." (DUH!!)

Interrogation Room:
    *Cut entire scene with Donuts and Glenn freaking out.
   
Military Airplane:
    *Cut a few lines at beginning of discussion of Skorponok

Sam's House:
    *Cut first news report Sam's parents are watching
    *Cut entire backyard scene (Sam's talk with his dad, "my bad," and the bit with Mojo.)
    *Cut Mikaela's efforts to help Sam search his room.
    *Cut S7 escorting everyone to the vehicles

Sector 7 vehicle sequence:
    *Cut Sam's martians line
    *Cut Mikeala going on about Sam never sacraficing anything in his perfect little life.
    *Trimmed the chase of Optimus to remove continuity error of Prime's footprints magically vanishing.

Pentagon:
    *Cut conference call and comment about the defining the Presidency.

Hoover Dam/Sectory 7:
    *Cut most of Frenzy's fall.  Spliced a small piece of footage in during Prime's speech at the Observatory.
    *Cut SecDef talking to Lennox
    *Cut SecDef having a hissy fit about the military not knowing about Sectory 7 etc.
    *Cut shot of Barricade after Starscream calls the Decepticons to mobilize
    *Cut Maggie asking what kind of energy the cube had
    *Cut Wolvering/Freddy Joke and Simmons asking for a phone, etc.
    *Cut Maggie correcting Simmons about Finland and the SecDef's comments
    *Cut some of Maggie's reactions to cellphone bot
   
Attack on S7:
    *Cut shot of Barricade with other Decepticons
    *Cut one shot of Frenzy messing with computers
    *Cut SecDef line about the Rangers not losing
    *Cut Sam asking how BB is doing (good call Reave)
    *Cut Lennox reference to "Mission City" - This fixes the error with it being called LA in the sequel
    *Cut shot of Bumblebee and others leaving dam area, Sam asking how the cube is in the backseat and some guys spraying Megs.

Final Battles:
    *Cut some of Frenzy fight and the Airforce receiving the message from Glenn
    *Cut more shots of Barricade
    *Rearrange footage of Optimus and Bonecrusher transformations
    *Cut out boy saying, "Cool Mom!"
    *Cut F22's mobilizing and Glenn saying that they're being sent to the city.
    *Cut wide shot of city
    *Cut Lennox/Epps argument about airstrike, "That's Alien!"
    *Cut and rearranged scene of robots created by the Allspark so that it's only Dewbot that's created, no XBOX or SUV.
    *Cut shot of Mikeala driving out of alley and "I'll drive, you shoot" line.

I think that's it...

Cool! Tell me again why Barricade was removed?

Because he just disappears in the movie.  Beyond the point of his fight with Bumblebee he doesn't do anything but drive around, so by removing him, it's assumed he's killed by Bumblebee and just not seen again.

vaderios said:

Desert Attack:
    *Completely removed Indian telemarketer and credit card gag.
    *Removed Epps lines "Man, If you could see this ****." and "Bring It"
    *Removed "Bring the Rain" line.
    *Rearranged and trimmed much of the footage so that the action flows better.

* After  the big plane shoots scorpnok, we see a pan to soldiers. Zoom/crop it a bit to cut cameraman's shadow in the left corner

I ll said some more about TF if you want :D

 

When Ironhine yells " Its Starscreaaam" the Lipsync is wrong! fix this too:)

make me happy

 

-Angel

Ah, I never caught that before.  Alas, I'm finished working on this movie for now.  It's all ROTF right now which is being more of a pain in the ass than I thought it would be. 

Maybe someday in the future.

vaderios said:

ROTF? really? :D :D :D

What you will be change/remove/fix/replace?

I beg to remove aaall the repeated footage and footage from TF1.

 

-Angel

Yep, ROTF.  It's not as bad as the first movie, but still plenty of flaws.

Right now I'm up to is the NEST scene with the government guy and Prime.  So far I've cut the intro with prehistoric man and the Fallen and all of Prime's voice over moments to start the Shanghai scene (which required some rearrangement).  I cut a few of Epps' lines and moved the Title.  I trimmed a bit of Sam's parents and the dogs humping and cut Bumblebee crying as well.  

IMAX will be in it.  Where do you want color correction?

vaderios said:

Just messing. maybe remove Michael bay's super tones with more grounded ones.

Ah :D forget what i said! Michael bay is awesome so the colors has to be awesome enhanced :D

 

-Angel

Actually, I think ROTF is far more correct with color than the first one was. 

Great edit. The movies feels a lot nicer than I remember from seeing it in theaters!

I still dislike the "peeing robot" scene and some of the lame jokes, but overall a vast imnprovement.

I can't wait to see some of the TF2 edits (am holding off until the DVDR versions are out).

After completing my ROTF edits I've started to revamp my edit of the first Transformers movie.  I have much better software than what I had when I did the first edit, and so using that edit as a starting point I've gone back to try and accomplish some things I tried before but was unable to do.  I also wanted to polish up a few transitions, and borrowed an idea or 2 from other editors. 

Version 2 changes:

Cleaned up various transitions.

Removed a couple of second during Desert battle.

Removed Barricade's headlight probes.

Cropped footage during Barricade/Sam encounter to make cut more natural looking.

Cut part of Sam/Mikaela after Sam tackled her off moped.

Cut small bit of footage at end of Barricade/BB chase to eliminate obvious continuity error (shot of BB wheel inside warehouse when they should be outside).

HEAVY cutting of scene at Sam's home.  No more "earthquake," no more power outage, no parents in Sam's bedroom, etc.  This is now a very fast paced scene that keeps the flow going. (This is by far the biggest change in this version)

Cut Simmons talking about what he's allowedto communicate with OP.

Small trim to improve handcuff scene further.

Removed Epps line from BB/Giant cube scene.

Rearranged Mission City battle to eliminate delay between Megatron killing Jazz and Optimus' arrival (I was soooo close to being able to do this with previous software, but ultimately had to scrap it). 

Had Megatron come through roof as soon as Sam gets up there (borrowed from Uncanny Antman, though pretty sure the cuts are different - I do keep the reason for Sam going to that building).

Removed "Shoot, shoot!" line. 

Removed, "awww" from "Awww, Jazz" line.  (borrowed from UA also).

Removed BB speaking at the end.  (Tried this before and couldn't even really even get it close to working.  New Software made it possible, but still wasn't too easy.)

One last thing I need to try is to remove the BB pee scene (going to have to use UA's edit as reference).  I don't mind this scene myself, and I think it is in character for BB, but it seems to bug a lot of people, so I'll work on it.

Currently I've removed approximately 7 additional minutes from the previous version, and estimate the BB pee scene will add close to another 2 minutes or so.

New runtime is 154 minutes

I dont think so.

154, 114, same thing.

Sounds great Kevinicius, when is the new SL DVD going up?

It is up.

Cool! Is there a full list of differences between version 1 and version 2 of Reformatted?

The other site lists the changes that were worth mentioning, anything not listed was very minor and wasn't listed because I forgot the exact details.