ChainsawAsh

There's already going to be a prequel video game, "Watchmen: The End is Nigh," a six-chapter downloadable game on Xbox 360 and PS3.  You play as both Nite Owl and Rorschach, and the game takes place in 1975, IIRC after Rorschach's kidnapping case but before the Keene Act.

It looks like shit to me.

Off-topic:

Is anyone planning on undertaking a similar project for the "Star Wars" scores?  There are many, many problems with each release of the soundtracks.  All I want is a decent-sounding complete score for each film (the OT anyway), but that seems to be far too much to ask of Lucasfilm.

Back on-topic, I'm still very much looking forward to this release.  I even got rid of my old "Blade Runner" soundtrack in anticipation of having a decent representation of the film's music for once, but now I don't have a BR soundtrack to listen to!  I can't wait to listen to what you've done with the music, focuspuller!

It's The Fly!

.... as a Wampa!

Yeah, but the only difference between "extended" and "extendeder" will be the addition of "Tales of the Black Freighter," which I'm not sure is necessary for a movie at all and might just bog down the pacing.

The fight scenes in the motion comic would need to be adjusted a bit.  They're a bit awkward as is.

I have a 3200 kbps H.264 mp4 ripped from the NTSC DVD-9 that I watch in my PS3, and (to me) it's indistinguishable from the DVD.  Granted, 3200 kbps is a bit high of a bitrate for standard-def H.264 (most of my TV shows are 2000-2500 kbps and they look just as good), but I didn't want to take the chance with SW:R.

It could also be the media you burned it with.  I recommend Verbatim - never had a problem with those, and they're the only DL media I've ever had that works.

After using Warner Bros./Lucasfilm/Fox/Universal/BBC's various sound libraries for my editing classes, I can't tell you how many times I watch a movie or TV show and hear sounds I've used in my student projects.  It took me out of it at first, but I'm so used to it now I think it's kind of cool, like "Hey!  They used the same bone-crunching sound in 'Watchmen' that I used in my arrest scene for my Production 2 final!  That's kind of bad-ass!"

Things like that are just a fact of life when you get more involved in the process.

Good to know.  I'm really looking forward to this one!

Out of curiosity (and sorry to go even further off topic) - Siliconmaster and JediMasterFisher, what film school(s) are you/will you be attending?  I'm an editing student at Columbia College Chicago, I was just wondering if either of you might be going here as well.

Siliconmaster482 said:

Ziz said:

Bingowings said:

I haven't the means to burn the DVD-9 version so I've had to content myself with the DVD-5 version.

The only difference between -5 and -9 is a couple of bonus features and the better video quality on the 9 for super-size TV's.  If your set is under 50", the video quality difference is negligble.

Or if you're a film major, like myself. ;) I can spot quality differences from a mile away. Everyone else should be fine though.

 

Seconded.  I tend to buy TV show DVDs, rip them to mp4 files on my external hard drive, then sell the DVDs back to Reckless Records or FYE.  I started using the iPod preset, but could always notice compression errors.  So now, to avoid that, I use an insanely high bitrate that ends up making an 44-minute episode around 1.5 gigs.  That's a lot of HD space for 4 seasons of BSG and Lost, 9 seasons of The X Files, 2 seasons of Dexter, 3 of It's Always Sunny, 5 of Futurama, 7 of The Simpsons ... the list goes on (and my free space shrinks).  It's worth it to me, though.  Which is why it really bugs me that most fan edits are only available in overly-compressed DVD-5 copies, and why I'm very happy that Ady takes us sharp-eyed folk into account.

Probably usenet and Demonoid, but I don't think FF has made any announcement on the matter.

It's not available yet, as has been said in FanFiltration's quote in the post right above yours.

Bingowings - if you need an NTSC DVD-9, send me a PM.

I didn't have a problem with Manhattan's dong.  The only reason it was distracting compared to the book is because in the book, it's just an outline to suggest "Hey, it's there."  In the movie, it has to, by necessity, be more realistic.  Plus, most viewers aren't used to seeing so much penis in a movie.  It was fine for me.

The sex scene was too long, though.  And too slow-motioney.

And at first in the Rorschach/kidnapper scene, I thought "aw, that sucks, I liked the book a lot better."  Then he repeatedly cleaved him in the head ... I thought it worked well and had a similar effect.  I like both, but not one more than the other, to be honest.

I thought it was pretty damn fantastic.  Not perfect, but damn close.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Problems I had:

- The old age makeup for Sally Jupiter and Nixon
- The restructuring of the ending.  I had no problem with the squid-to-Manhattan change, but the way everything happened in the room with the TVs instead of happening there, then in the pool room, then outside, then in Veidt's orrery took a lot of the gravity out of the situation.  It was like the whole movie took its time to breathe, and then oh shit, we've only got 15 minutes to wrap this up, better condense things!  Nite Owl never should have witnessed Rorschach's death, and Laurie should NOT have gotten Manhattan's "Nothing ever ends" line.
- Some of the non-original music (Ride of the Valkyries, Sounds of Silence and Halelujah mainly) just didn't work for me.  Oh, and My Chemical Romance's "Desolation Row" was TERRIBLE, but thankfully confined to the end credits.
- The condensing of Rorschach's history into one psychiatric session.
- Making the Comedian's death into a drawn-out action sequence just didn't fit with his character at that point in the story.
- Carla Gugino's old-lady performance.

Things I loved:

- Rorschach's arrest sequence
- Anything with Rorschach in the prison
- Anything with Rorschach in general, really
- Dr. Manhattan's Mars scenes
- The Comedian's entire performance
- Patrick Wilson's Nite Owl pleasantly surprised me
- The title credit montage
- Billy Crudup as Dr. Manhattan
- The general streamlining of the story.  While it did feel a little rushed, I'm sure the 3hr 10min director's cut will flesh things out
- The fact that 'Tales of the Black Freighter's' loss didn't detract from the movie

Overall, it gets an 7.5 or 8/10 from me, and that's the truncated theatrical cut.  Can't wait to see the director's cut!

At least we know they haven't forgotten about it now.

I believe it was taken from a German broadcast.  There's a person working on an "ultimate edition" preservation of the 97 SE, and that's one of the sources.  (I was wrong earlier about the LD to DVD preservation, I was thinking about this one)

Anyone else wish they would've been able to inspect that statue a little more closely before Locke turned that wheel?

Someone's working on an LD preservation of the 1997 SE if I'm not mistaken.

Wow.  No offense, but that would be ... terrible.  That would strip all of the depth out of the movie.

I think any 'Watchmen' fan edit should take the future Director's Cut and cut it to match the book a little better, while cutting out some of the cheesy uses of songs (Ride of the Valkyries and Sounds of Silence especially).

And cut out as much Nixon as can be cut out.

Pacing-wise, the only thing that was a problem IMO was the Mars scenes.  I know they were their own chapters in the book, but they could have used some more inter-cutting with the main story to make it flow a little better.

I like the idea of darkening it, but I don't know about the whole Mon Calamari in suspended seats thing.  Just seems a little ... odd to me.

That's the exact same transfer that's on the 2006 DVD release (aka the GOUT).  And there are many, many LD to DVD transfers of that and the Definitie Collection (also same transfer) LD available, most of which were made before the GOUT came out.  The only difference is that in ANH's LD release, it has the "Episode IV" crawl, while Lucasfilm spliced in a new transfer of the original pre-Episode IV crawl for the DVD.

That explains that.

Interestingly, this whole project of mine started when I wanted to make DVD covers in the same style as the VHS tapes I grew up with.  But after looking at these scans and starting on the CBS/FOX style covers, I think all 3 of my VHS tapes were in the style of your FOX ROTJ box!

I'm continuing work on the CBS/FOX style, but if anyone has scans of the ANH/ESB FOX style (like EyeShotFirst's ROTJ scan), that would be fantastic to have as well.

Wow, ask once, I get nothing, ask a year or so later and multiple people are posting scans for me!  Thanks very much, EyeShotFirst, but I've already got scans that AxiaEuxine sent me.  Interestingly, your ROTJ is an alternate one, with a different (non-matching) back and FOX logo on the spine instead of CBS FOX.

About the covers themselves that I'm making, I've decided to make less of an exact duplicate and more of an homage based on the layout.  The credit boxes will be basically the same, the synopsis texts will be the same, but (mainly because it's very difficult to find good high-res images of those back photos) the pictures on the back will be different (though similar), and various logos throughout will be updated in accordance with the way they have been released now (i.e., I'll be using a red FOX logo instead of the CBS FOX on the spine, and DVD logos instead of VHS logos).

I think it's simple enough to give him Anakin's eye scar, since he got that long before he was scarred anyway.

Though that begs the question - why wouldn't he have the OTHER scars?  (Note that I'm NOT suggesting we add burn scars to Anakin's ghost, either)