Deepfake Rendition 2 - Improvements

https://streamable.com/kyxlfr

CamSMurph said:

Take your precious time, man. We, myself included, are more than eager to wait for the final result! 😄

Thank you for that, my friend.

Thank you all for the kind words and feedback. I’ll take a mental rest before I continue tweaking the new deepfake to a finale state, and will continue with the audio mixing and color grading for now.

Continuity Issue - Potential fix

https://streamable.com/rur6by

So I’ve worked my ass off for a couple of days to nail a continuity issue of CoS Tom Riddle and HbP Tom Riddle. They are played by two very different actors, with very different face structures. Therefore - you can’t just simply replace their face fully, although I liked the result (it actually looked really creepy).

However, balancing their main features together did wonders - and after the inital 20 different deepfake renderings with way too much masking work in Premiere Pro thereafter, I’m pleased with what I have. It is NOT finished, but it is - as I look at it now without rest - okay to good in all places. If it works over all however, I leave up to you guys.

Other:

Besides this I’m about 40% finished with the color grading of HbP. The film is so desaturated and dark that it is a nightmare to reinvent it with a color palette that is both flattering as well as wonderous. You can see some of the color grading in the clip above. You’ve all probably forgot how it initially looks in the film, but to put it like this: Dumbledore’s office scenes originally look like they were filmed through 5 inches of brown mud. It doesn’t any longer.

COLOR GRADE SHOWCASE:

https://streamable.com/keaomc

Color Grading this film isn’t as easy as it looks. Every time you increase brightness another area needs darkening. Every time you saturate a color ten different ones need desaturation. Every time you change a tone of a scene or a closeup you have to mask and change the skin tones. In other words; it is a nightmare to color grade this film, but it’s getting there and it’s getting near satisfying to look at. Hopefully it is likewise for you.

FILM TONE:

This will be the only Harry Potter film where I focus on adding a horror nod to the genre. The film explores murder, death and splitting the soul - it is also fitting for a 15+ year old audience. Therefore I have a couple of… horror shots in this film.

I was so underwhelmed by this film. And I really diminished my expectations before watching it because these Hollywood films of late usually bring with them disappointment.

Alien: Romulus felt very thin. The Rook cameo went way overboard and he became like a main character. The characters were paperthin. I felt for the Robot guy and his relationship with the main character, but it quickly came to a stop when they ‘forced conflict’ with his ‘my brain chip is taking over’ story. It felt so predictable and done-before and lost all emotional weight to me, so that when we finally reached the end I couldn’t bother with any of them.

Ah man… such a bummer.

Highlight tho’! The Prometheus/Xeno Combo at the end was truly horrifying in the initial reveal! He should’ve been introduced a good 10 minutes earlier and lurking in the shadows like Michael Myers whilst he tries to get to understand his body and her character.

The only thing that I think could improve this film is removing a lot of Rook and a good bunch of deleted scenes (if there are any) that develop crucial character moments. As for now this film was so thin I have no interest in ever watching it again.

Prometheus was better. A lot better.

PMs sent.

I think all PMs should be sent/answered. If not, PM me (again).

Thank you for your kind words and reviews, and I’ll happily respond throughout the week. Have a great weekend!

The new and improved cut is now finished and released.

In my opinion… the best I can possibly turn this series into, and the only version that my girlfriend actually liked and really enjoyed - so that must count for something (she hated the series, and found my original cut too long and boring because she didn’t like Galadriel).

The restructing is done from scratch, so is all audio and visual work, but some ideas from the original cut were kept.

Sure, I can render two files. 😃

Oh man… I don’t know, guys. I just feel like maybe Rings of Power should just be one big movie. I was almost done with my new recut of the film (which I find more pleasing and with a more intense runtime than the previous) and was getting ready to make Film II but I’m feeling so uninspired after these latest episodes, including “the big battle” of 8 elves and 12 orcs and the characters involved.

In season 1 Galadriel had the death of her brother and the betrayal of a friend to deal with. Elrond had a broken friendship with his Dwarf friend. Sauron had an internal battle with who he was and wanted to be. And Durin had Elrond, his wife and his father to balance the scales with - and Nori had stuff that was important. For all of season 1’s faults; there were emotion and there were stakes.

This season, though… Galadriel is… angry at being deceived… Elrond is… just… running about. Sauron is mvp as f*ck, but there’s no arc or emotional stake to his story, and therefore he has no potential as a captivating main character for the second film. And neither does Durin, only battling with his wife and father inside a cave.

And Arondir… i mean… after Bronwyn’s sudden departure they just have no idea what to give him or use him for.

And as for the Harfoot storyline (which i initially was very hopeful for) is a joke at this point.

My point is; there are no emotional stakes to build Film II upon… which is heartbreaking, but true. And if there are no emotional stakes, no arcs and no story - then what is there? Well. Then it’s just visuals, isn’t it.

So, what I think I’ll do is finish up Film I for a re-release (that is now a proper, full release with subtitles seperate) at a runtime of 2 hours and 44 minutes with credits - opposed to 3 hours and 45 minutes as it was previously. And then, I might go to works on Film II and try to craft a narrative that is captivating enough for a shorter film, and then hopefully season 3 brings some emotional weight to the story that we can kind of “end the film series” on a high somewhere down the line.

Ah man… I’m just so disappointed. I love the Lord of the Rings universe, and the first two episodes of season 2 filled me with hope. But this… oh man. It’s the hope that kills yah’. Anyway, there should be enough from season 1 and 2 to craft a compelling 90 minute sequel film. Get to it, I suppose…

PM sent. 😃

PMs sent.

PMs sent.

What should Disney Star Wars Do Next?

I will tell you. They should hire a group of very talented writers that write an outline for every upcoming in-universe spinoff, movie, tv and animation series for the next 6-10 years and stick to the plan and stick with continuity.

The fact that Star Wars has been like a badly-written fanfiction novel with continuity holes and “fill in the blanks”, by 40 different directors and writers with completely different goals and backgrounds with total disregard for what came before or what is to come, is one of the main reasons i struggle to take anything - especially in this day and age - from Star Wars seriously.

There are about 10-50 retcons a year just in the live action stuff alone, not to mention that they hire people with completely different agendas and lacklusters movie backgrounds; often not focused on the story aspect but more on how they look in the eyes of Hollywood, is a core problem and a core issue in crafting horrible inconsistencies in both the writing and the visual styles. Star Wars just completely lacks the feeling of being a real place somewhere (WHAT? ITS NOT?) where decisions, characters and deaths (!) matter.

Every single year a novel or a comic book is written to explain away bad writing or things that didn’t work. Every single year a big thing is retconned from the main stories. Every single year a show is either cancelled or the people behind it fired. Every single year they switch out a director for someone “fresh and new and exciting” that’s - to be frank - has maybe only helmed a friggin documentary or a children’s movie before.

Disney Star Wars to me, and my friends,- looking outwards and in, looks to us as a nine-year old kid writing a fanfiction for h*r friend - and when the show is somehow picked up by a serious network, the dad tries to fill in the thousand blanks and the confusing dialogue in a very limited timeframe. It’s just… chaos… anarchy.

Simply put; taking modern Star Wars seriously is like trying to hold in a laugh when you’ve already got the giggles.

How to fix? Take what came before seriously and respectfully and treat what you want to write for the future in the same regard. When you helm something as large as this you need to write OUTLINES and focus on the CONTINUITY of not just the writing, characters and the visual style but also in who you hire that can honor what came before and put all of this as an overarching narrative for all upcoming projects (in live-action at least, where the main public’s eyes are resting).

PM sent with some initial thoughts.

All in all, brilliant fanedit and choices you have taken - like the Harfoot storyline and the structure of the opening 50 minutes (apart from some Harfoot choices) are great, and have definitive bits I will have to borrow for the re-structure of my own.

OBS! And as mentioned in PM, this is based on the first 80-90 minutes, as I want to respectfully give priority to the rest rather than have to skim through it for quick thoughts.

Brilliant, as I would suspect. ❤️

Hello, Matt, and thank you for those compliments. Greatly appreciated.

After watching the first two episodes of RoP Season 2 (one to go still), I would most definitely agree with you. I have an idea already on how you could remove literally 60 percent of season 1 whilst still keeping the Sauron twist, and going straight to the Middle-Earth action that we all came here for.

I think that if Galadriel and Halbrand split up very shortly after their encounter on the fleet (and or a very brief visit to Numenor), followed by the Rings either being already-made or being made in the opening hour of the film, would give great urgency to the story and allow it all to unfold rather sharply.

And Numenor should most definitely be a sidelined plot, with parts of it mayhaps used later down the road.

I think I might remake the entire Rings of Power structure when this season is done, and split them up in two films with greater focus.

And! Bronwyn must most definitely die during the first battle in the Southlands, seeing as how i wanted high stakes in season 1 that never really came (now they can) and since the actress didn’t return.

This way you could have five plots going on at the same time:

• Bronwyn and Arondir
• Galadriel
• Elrond and Durin in Khazad-Dûm (Elrond being useless thus far in s2, could be great to keep him away in khazad-dum)
• Halbrand, and then Sauron
• Harfoots (go straight to season 2 storyline after the first two episodes + the last from Season 1).

Dancing between these outlines from both seasons I think will craft two strong movies in the long run.

Update

Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets have been updated. They are sharper and crisper, with a few impovement tweaks here and there.

CamSMurph said:

Hey, bro! If you plan on recolouring Fred and George’s joke shop in HBP, you might want to have a look at this incredible video by GamesDirect!

https://youtu.be/HHxF2PrgzsA (Perhaps not exactly like this, but brighter and more vibrant to contrast the darkness of the rest of the film.)

Thank you for that video, Cam. I’m already done color grading half the movie and agree with almost everything the YouTuber said. But I think he went a little too bright in the midtones.

vranir said:

Thank you so much for continuing this very long project!

One question based on an initial skim though: is the volume range the same for all of these? It sounds to me like Order of the Phoenix is significantly louder at all times than Sorcerer’s Stone (not sure about the others).

I tried to play the two of them right after the other on my home cinema system, and couldn’t hear much difference, except that the dialogue is a little bit lower on SS perhaps.

JEDT: A google search revealed to me that many have complained on Reddit that Sorcerer’s Stone and CoS have worse audio than the rest in the series, and many complain about the dialogue. Now, for me, when I go through my audiomixes I focus a lot on audio and have certain filters applied to make them loud and crisp. However, that’s not to say that the main differences would still be there. So yes, OotP and SS might be a tad different in overall audio level quality. Now that I am aware of this, perhaps I will lower OotP on a re-render in the future with about 5-10% or vice versa. I need to listen to them back to back and see if it’s actually necessary as well. I mean, the volume button is a wonderful thing, but then again - as the perfectionist I’m trying to be, I’d love for it to be as balanced as possible.

Thank you for pointing it out, Vranir ❤️ (By the way, I’m halfway through your Rings of Power edit and loving the cuts and pace thus far).

Thank you, my friend! Greatly appreciated! ❤️

Hmm, interesting thought. I’ll look into it later this week for fun, and if it works it works.

Update

Sorcerer’s Stone has been updated visually to look more clean, like PoA and onward. It should fit even more smoothly along the other films now than what it already did. A lot of the noise and background grain from the original film should now be very smooth.

Thank you, my friend! Greatly appreciated! ❤️

Hmm, interesting thought. I’ll look into it later this week for fun, and if it works it works.

Update

Sorcerer’s Stone has been updated visually to look more clean, like PoA and onward. It should fit even more smoothly along the other films now than what it already did.

honestabe said:

Thank you so much for the hard work in these. Truly much appreciated.

Out of curiosity, does OotP edit have any deleted scenes incorporated into it?

Thank you. For the fans, by a fan.

Yes, there are two.

OotP - Ultimate Edition

is now released, with subtitles.

Alohomora!

Cheers, my friends!

And thank you, Cam! ❤️ Glad you enjoyed.

EDIT: And yes, OotP is a more streamlined edit, but it has a good 4-500 alterations.

PMs sent.

UPDATE

Goblet of Fire Ultimate Edition now has an updated version to compliment OotP Ultimate a little better as well as fix some annoyances / issues either found by me or the community.

These include, but are not limited, to:

• Harry’s nightmare sequences touched up, and are now more smooth.
• The opening is a little bit better paced.
• Removed a brief blink-and-you-miss-it skull in the opening WB Logo from the original opening sequence.
• Harry’s nightmare sequence after the Yule Ball is edited to be more like his nightmare sequences in OotP.
• Color graded some orange-toned scenes to be more yellow, to fit better with the continuity that came before (CoS & PoA Ultimate Edition)
• Tightened up the “Deleted Scene” of Severus, Karkaroff and Harry to give the film more urgency in the middle portion.
• and more…

OotP - Ultimate Edition

will most likely release tomorrow. The edit is more of an achievement in sound editing than anything I’ve done previously, as my main issue with the film is the lack of it feeling like a Harry Potter movie. Now, with the new soundmix - that both allow OotP to have its own musical identity from Nicholas Hooper but also have the continuation of all previous, established themes of the franchise, as well as promote upcoming traces of HbP and DH themes, turns this into the shift in tone that I want it to be.

My other gripe with the film was that certain aspects were too quickly glossed over, like Neville reminiscing about his parents’ death after Bellatrix escaped or the escape from Azkaban (where are we? What’s happening? What is this place?).

Besides from this, OotP is the best edited Harry Potter film by far and I wanted only to enhance it, not change it.

Hopefully this comes across in the upcoming release.

VERsingthegamez said:

Just got done watching it. Great edit overall. I did notice some subtitles missing like at 2:37:10. One thing that has been on my mind is, do you know what the slow piano music is at 59:30. I swear I’ve heard this in your GOT edits before,but couldn’t find it on ytp anywhere.

Cheers, my friend. I’m glad you enjoyed it. I’ll look into the subtitles.

was this HotD film I or II? 😃