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Transformers The Movie: Resparked (Released) — Page 3

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I'm about 33% of the way through my do-over cut, and I gotta say, I'm very glad that the first one screwed up. I've found much better ways to cut this without screwing up the audio. I've made a few extra cuts that really increase the overall tension and move the story along that much faster. Some of the more complicated cuts are turning into quite the pain to reproduce, but I'm really thinking it's going to turn out well. I gotta thank Steve Jablonsky for making a score that is very rythmic and repetitive in parts, it makes some of the cuts quite easy, especially when the music changes on cue with the scene changes.

This is really an addictive hobby. It's definitely not helping me with my insomnia. I gotta say once again, big ups to ADigitalMan for the guide on how to do this stuff.

FE<3OT

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I think it's fantastic that you're doing a cut of Transformers. I had pondered with the idea myself but seeing how you're in agreement of things that I would have cut I can just sit back and wait for your results.

I might add however that it might benefit the movie in terms of structure and plot if you perhaps recut the movie to the whole theme that Steven Spielberg *or was that Bay...* constantly said during pre production and that is "About a boy and his car".

I felt the movie kinda lost that when you had the other plots *military, hacker, etc* thrown in.

One idea I had in mind when cutting was trimming out most of the Blackout attack on the base. Where I would have cut was after the shockwave after his inital transformation, black and cut back to Sam at school. I reasoned if I did that, I pretty much cut out most of the military stuff because we wouldn't have to see Scorponok detached from Blackout and therefore cut out Scorponok attack on those troops later on. I imagine it might have been difficult to cut out the credit card stuff so with this you get rid of the scene altogether. Also this way keeps the attack mostly a mystery. We wouldn't really know what the Decepticons were after until later on.

You could also cut out most of the Bernic Mac stuff. An example would be when Sam or his dad *I forget which* ask how much the car is you can go straight into Mac saying "4000".

But yes, these are my two cent. I'll post more suggestions if I think of any.
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It seems like you have pretty different idea on how to cut it. They seem like pretty cool ideas, I would be interested to see what you came up with.

I've tried to cut up the Bernie Mac scene, but so far, all I've been able to cut is the clown guy complaining about his makeup. I can't seem to cut it without the background making obvious sound changes. I'll probably try a little harder when I do my next cut, this one is just meant to take out the most obvious silly crap, while retaining the natural flow in the soundtrack.

I've been able to cut a lot of the hacker stuff, and make them look less like bumbling idiots. I would cut them entirely, but it would make for some weird plot holes, in the sense that there are some scenes with them that I wouldn't want to cut, at least in this first edit.

Again, I'm not really cutting out massive chunks of the film, just lots of little ones. It should have the same basic overall feel, just less cheesy. This is my first (and a half) edit, and I'm not quite ready to mess with having to rebuild the 5.1 mix, which I would have to do with some of the more drastic edits I want to do. I'm going to see if I can do it in Cakewalk-Sonar (for the Hard Cut), since I'm a lot more familiar with that program. Otherwise, I'm going to look into using Vegas.

I should be done with this first cut in a week, and then I'm going to watch it all the way through on my home theatre, to see if it works well.

FE<3OT

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I'm rendering my second attempt of my "soft" cut right now. I need to figure out vegas soon, so I can make the "hard" cut. Must remove Linkin Bizkit from end sequence. I'm going to watch it on my big screen tomorrow, and if it looks OK, I would like to send it out to a couple of people to check it out. Any takers?

FE<3OT

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If you can upload it to ADrive then I'll do it!
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I'm willing, can even write up a review of it for FE.org so long as you're willing to mail it to me.

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PM me addresses, and I'll get it sent out.

FE<3OT

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So how did it come out? Are you still accepting people to watch it for you?
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Yup. As soon as I get the first cut done, I will send some out. I will post in here when I'm done with it.

FE<3OT

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Awesome.

I'm thinking of making my own cut of TF, but it may be you have the same ideas I do. And it may not be.
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Please do so! Maybe I'll like yours better and I can just sit back and enjoy it!

FE<3OT

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Well, mine won't be out for a long while, I think. I don't yet have the resources to make it happen (no computer of my own right now). I have been doing a lot of preproduction and planning, though. I was definately planning to add in more Starscream (not! enough!), and maybe use Frank Welker's G1 voice (possibly processed in some fashion) for Megatron (I really like some of the lines from the 1986 movie: "Such heroic nonsense." ). I definately want to redub Ratchet, though whether I'll use a voice from the cartoon or make my own, I'm not sure. Just cutting lines wouldn't cut it there. I was thinking of making Bumblebee's lack of normal audible communication part of some Cybertronian vow of silence instead of robotic vocal chords that magically kick in two days after Ratchet fixes them (makes! no! sense!). Not to mention that if he has speakers that the radio can play through, he should be able to route his vocal processors through that radio.

I really like that the Autobots have such a sense of the dramatic, in the film. Like when Sam and Mikaela first meet Prime and he makes all the introductions, they all put on a show, Ratchet spins around and has his emergency lights going and everything (not to mention Prime taking something like a minute to transform!). I also liked the mountain dew robot (I know a lot of people didn't) because he/it shoots cans of soda at people as his weapon, and that, to me, is the perfect expression of how Transformers (the concept) is a (imho) near-perfect synthesis of awesome sci-fi and goofy fun.

What do you think about using alternate dialogue from the Transformers video game? Have you played the game? I wanted to, but I kept putting it off, and now every store I find is saying that the PC version (only game system I have, and that's mooching off of other people) is sold out/nonexistant anymore.

What programs do you use for editing?
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I'm about 98% done, I just have to fix a couple of glitches that should be (hopefully) easy to fix.

Here is a list of all the changes I can remember. There are a couple of minor SPOILERS. Not really plot spoilers, more like suprise cuts than anything.



Trimmed end of soldiers talking. no more "what's your favorite day or whatever.

Cut Lennox talking to his wife and kid (fart joke).

Cut first time Epps looks at Blackout with binoculars, it's a little ludicrous to think that he would sit there so long and look at him twice.

Cut out spitwad scene. Tightened up classroom scene.

Cut out second naval tool innuendo "joke/laughing/"stop sign".

Cut "the compass makes a great gift for columbus day".

Cut "the man in the green car".

Cut Sam from "alright Mojo, i've got the car, now I need the girl" all the way to parents introduction. No more mirror/zit scene, ebay scene, mojo crack addict scene, etc.

Cut Mikaela's boyfriend saying "allright guys, I know of a party, let's head"

Cut Mikaela's boyfriend saying "this is not a toy, these 22's, i don't want you grinding them"

Cut Mikaela's boyfriend saying "you'll call me."

Cut large part of Mikaela and Sam talking in the car (big arms, etc.)

Cut Sam saying "I like to go fast" (creepy!).

Cut the President saying "yeah, could you wrangle me up some ding-dongs?". Bush is dumb jokes are so 2004.

Cut some of Frenzy's goofiness in elevator.

Cut "join the air force, bring the president ding dongs"....etc.

Cut Frenzy saying "uh-oh."

Cut "should I be? Yes you should! etc...." These people are supposed to be "the top of their class".

Cut some more Frenzy "wackiness, and Frenzy saying "Witwicky!"

Cut frenzy's slapstick walk through tons of govt. agents.

Cut lots of Frenzy "wackiness" inside Barricade. Shortened Barricade sitting next to air force one.....waiting.....for....?

Cut Maggie saying "there is nothing on earth that complex (obvious).

Cut Maggie saying "what about an organism?..............dna based computer, and I-I-I-I-I know that sounds crazy..."

cut Sams dad saying "you know, little chihuaha".

Cut some of the indian phone guy (trimmed pause at start, cut "i'm going to ask you to speak....). True story, but a little bit stretched out.

Cut "you got 10 back pockets! left check, left check left cheek!"

Cut second phone guy/"no i don't want a premium package!"

Cut Epps saying "bring the rain" , shifted audio to cut mouth movement. I've talked to several people I know from the military, and they all told me the would never talk like that on the radio.

Trimmed (panasonic) memory card commercial. Made Maggie stealing the card a little less freaking obvious.

Cut Maggie saying "there's only one hacker in the world who can decode this signal". rearranged video to cut this scene.

Cut dance-dance revolution scene. More useless filler.

Cut Glen saying "let me work my magic."

Cut Glen's grandma saying "are you playin them video games again, making moment of door being kicked in more dramatic.

Cut news report in Sam's room. too much info for the network news to have on the base attack.

Cut Sam calling Miles and telling him that "satan's camaro is stalking him". Ha-ha.

Cut out a few frames of Sam flipping his bike over. The editing was poor, and if you looked at it, they were repeating footage, making it seem like he was in the air too long.

Cut several seconds of Sam making small talk with Mikaela after falling off bike (while being chased by his car... that was driving itself...and had turned into a robot the previous night).

Cut several seconds of Sam's hesitation to get the f#*k away from a car that just turned into a giant f@%king evil robot....

Trimmed "this must be a bad dream" along with a few frames of transition from Sam on roof of car to Barricade slamming his fist down.

Trimmed a few frames of Barricade's two swings at Sam (he's a lightning fast ninja when fighting Bumblebee, but a lumbering hulk when trying to swat a human?). I also trimmed it to again make Sam look as if he is trying to get away from a GIANT F#@*ING ROBOT!

Cut "the car won't start. at least we ditched the monster, right?" keeps the tension in the car higher.

Trimmed Bumblebee's "engine trouble". He starts himself up and punches it at the right moment. Sam is surprised.

Trimmed Mikaela lingering and staring at the sawzall (there is a freaked out robot attacking her boyfriend after all).

Cut out Frenzy's Looney Tunes running in place/some silly noises during fight with Sam.

Cut Sam saying "not so tough without a head, are you?", trimmed transition.

Left Wilhelm scream!

Cut frenzy shaking his head and saying 'ooooh" to Mikaela's purse.

Cut "it's probablyJapanese, yeah, definitely Japanese"

Trimmed Sam and Mikaela drooling over Bumblebee's interior/Bumblebee taking his time sitting in traffic inside a tunnel (while in "disguise").

Cut "excuse me? are you the tooth fairy (barf)?

Cut "what's crackin little bitches?"

Cut the second (Sam's) Ebay plug.

Slightly trimmed "Scorponoks tail" scene, making it a little more of a suprise.

Cut "the donut scene".

Cut kid cutting in on female reporter.

Cut Sam and his parents being dragged outside (you touch my dog....don't talk to anyone until we have a lawyer...etc.).

Cut Sam saying "what you mean like ET? pfffft" I know it's a reference to Spielberg, and it's real cute, but Shia's acting at that point is a little iffy.

Cut "criminals are hot!"

Trimmed Optimus slamming into Sector7 SUV for effect (to make it more of a suprise/shock).

Cut Bumblebee pissing scene. I know that the agents are wet in the scene after that, but I'm going to chalk that up to sweat. If anyone can teach me how to clean that up digitally (or do it for me. Adigitalman? Adywan? Darth Editous? Anyone?), I'd be glad to, but for now, I just had to get rid of that ridiculous scene.

Cut "where's Sector 7? Wouldn't you like to know?"

Cut Frenzy's landing/more goofy noises from his fall off dam ledge.

Cut Simmons saying "they know the way of the samurai."

Cut Maggie saying"that thing is freaky! he's like the little bitty Energizer bunny from hell, eh?

Trimmed end of phone-bots rampage and Simmons saying "aww, he's breakin the box...."

Cut Frenzy saying "beeta, beeta, beeta!!"

Cut "ok, you want to leave the fate of the world on a kid's Camaro?"

Cut Sam asking Bumblebee, "they didn't hurt you, right?" (Awww, poor wittle robot).

Merged footage of bumblebee looking around and then slamming face shield down. (it was a pain in the dick to line up video/sound spent 4 hours alone on that one 10 second scene. Eat your heart out ILM!). Cut out Sam talking in between shots.

Cut Frenzy saying "duh/uh" when he tries breaking into the room with the crew. Trimmed scene slightly.

Trimmed 4 frames of Secretary of Defense Keller breaking glass to make the timing more realistic.

Cut Simmons "get out of the way..." trying to blowtorch frenzy.....frenzy shooting discs into room, Goodburger screaming about it, Keller sending message, Air Force responding.

Cut smiley, dipshit kid saying" COOOL MOM!" I worked on this longer than any other shot, and should have given up quite frankly, but god I hated it. I'm pretty proud that I got it to work.

Cut FRENZY "OH SHIT!" (I know it's a G1 reference, but it's gay here.)

Cut Epps saying "that ain't friendly".

Cut "I'll drive, you shoot!". It's a weird little mix-up of cuts, that mostly works, but being my most hated line in the whole movie, it just had to be removed. I had to steal sound effects from a different battle to get this one to work. I'm pretty happy with it, considering I got to remove one of the worst lines from the movie.

Cut Lennox saying "uh this isn't going well."

Cut Mikaela saying "SHOOT! SHOOT!"

Cut the "advertisement-bots". I kind of like Mountain Dew bot, but it was impossible to cut the scene up (without rebuilding the audio track from scratch, fuck that.) to remove the other bots. I'm happy with it, and it keeps things rolling. Besides, there was some awful acting in the whole scene.

Trimmed a couple of seconds in the Allspark hand-off to try and trim the hang time, and increase the urgency. It seemed as if Sam was taking his time to get rid of this thing that giant fucking robots were chasing him for.

Left in michael bay getting flicked into a car by megatron.

Cut "bring the rain" #2

And finally, I cried about not being able to cut Linkin Park song from the end (yet...).



As I've mentioned before, this is the first of three progessively different cuts, so if it seems like I left something silly in, it's because I wanted to. Some people like the humor in this film, and I wanted to leave some of that in, and some of the human character development. There were also a couple of scenes that my meager skills couldn't take care of. I'm hoping to cut a lot more of that stuff for the "hard cut", and may remove entire scenes and/or subplots to achieve it.

I'm getting together my ideas for the "Hard Cut" and the "G1 Cut", so if anyone has any suggestions or ideas, please post them here.

Also, if anyone has any ideas for the names of these cuts, please feel free to suggest them.

"Until all are one."

FE<3OT

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http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t196/jenkinsjoinery/imantf-1.jpg

I'm 98% done at this point. I just have a couple of tiny video issues, and one editing decision to make, and then the DVD menus.

Do you guys use DVDlab to make your menus? Does anyone enjoy making menus for other peoples projects?

I would also like to add a thank you list to the credits. What programs would guys suggest for doing this?

FE<3OT

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That cover looks most excellent. I really like the sound of your edit. Were you able to cut the "were you masturbating?" lines and/or scene? That line and a lot of scenes in that area (transformers "hiding" as cars on the freaking lawn!) were, in my mind, just completely unnecessary. I'm sorry, but I don't think the autobots are stupid enough to transform in the middle of the freaking lawn as a way to "hide".
F Scale score - 3.3333333333333335

You are disciplined but tolerant; a true American.

Pissing off Rob since August 2007.
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Well, you may want to wait until I make my second cut then. I made this cut to eliminate or at least minimize the MAJORLY annoying parts that could be done so relatively easily. This is my first edit, and I didn't really want to get involved in rebuilding the soundtrack on this to make some of the cuts (if only this movie had the same soundtrack as No Country for Old Men ). I plan on majorly trimming or eliminating that scene (parents/masturbating), the car lot scene and a few others in my next cut. They were just too jumbled to trim, and had some important plot points in them (though I think I can eliminate the car lot scene, and just leave the purchase to your imagination). It's hard enough as it stands to make cuts without losing plot details, due to all the tiny cuts that Bay has made in the film. That and the audio mix made me leave in more than a couple scenes that I would have otherwise cut.

I made this first cut for the viewer that enjoyed the movie overall, but thought it could be a little tighter, and could lose some of the over the top moments. I also wanted to make it so that I wasn't sacrificing the continuity, sound mix, story or making a hard cut for the sake of eliminating a minor annoyance. I was originally only planning on one cut, but I was so torn on various aspects of the movie that I decided to make three (see the rest of this thread for details on the others).

Thanks for the compliments on the cover. I've become pretty handy with Photoshop, and it's good to actually be able to use it for something other than pasting my friends heads on half-naked clown bodies.

Just a wee bit closer to the end. I'll contact those who requested copies at that time.

FE<3OT

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it's good to actually be able to use it for something other than pasting my friends heads on half-naked clown bodies.

You can never get tired of that. The cover looks amazing. Any chance of getting a better view of the the back?

Please please please try and remove the LP end song. I know it's only a first pass edit but i'd love to see it removed / replaced. One suggestion would be the Black lab cover of the original movie theme from the 80's. although the vocals aren't that much better than LP.


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If I can figure out how to make a 5.1 mix of it real soon, I'll change it. Otherwise, I'll put it on the second cut and probably make a 2.0 version of the first cut. Not sure sure that I'll use the Black Lab cover though. I thinking more of making the end of the LP song "crash" and then fading it into a big orchestral outro. I need to tear that end apart and see if I can get the Linkin Puke song eliminated or at least minimized.

Here is a better shot of the back.

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t196/jenkinsjoinery/backonlycopy.jpg

FE<3OT

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Anyone who has posted in this thread up until now, or who helped me in other threads/PMs will be in my thank you list. If you object being on this list, let me know now.

FE<3OT

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Very cool Reave. Any sort of ETA on when we'll be able to view it?

Next to Ady's ANH edit, yours is the one I've been checking almost daily for updates/news

Again, I'll be happy to PIF when it drops.

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness - Chinese proverb

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Originally posted by: OBtwosy
Very cool Reave. Any sort of ETA on when we'll be able to view it?.

I'm working on the menus now, and getting ready to do a test burn. I hope to god it works.

Originally posted by: OBtwosy
Next to Ady's ANH edit, yours is the one I've been checking almost daily for updates/news .


Jeez, no pressure there.

FE<3OT

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This looks great, Reave! I fall into the category of people who enjoyed the movie overall, but definitely think it needed to be a little tighter. So this edit looks like it'll be perfect for me. Excellent work on the cover too! I hope this'll be available soon.

--ID

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Do you guys/gals without surround sound capabilities use/prefer the option of a 2.0 audio mix? I've got both loaded onto the DVD, it just (obviously) takes up more space. It obviously won't matter on the DL disc, but when made into DVD5 it shrinks the movie down to maybe 56% when both tracks are on there.

FE<3OT

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I would just leave the 5.1 sound,but that is me.
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So having both seems like too much? I played the 5.1 mix on my little 2.0 TV and my giant 5.1 home theater, and seemed to be OK on both. Transformers only came with a 5.1 mix, so I assume that they set it up to be OK with a crappy little 2.0 TV. I'm just going to call it done, and move on.

I'm 99.9% done, and should start sending out a couple discs this weekend.

Thank you to one and all who helped me along the way. It would have taken me months longer, and probably cost me my marriage if I had to go this alone. Cheers!

FE<3OT