DestronTC

Ooh, fun. 2:55:00 did you say?? Jeepers creepers how in the world? I only ever got it to 2:31:51! 20 more minutes I didn’t know about, I can’t fathom. I never used anything from Giger’s Alien, so that’s probably it? shrug

Those shots of Parker are from some old teaser trailer that’s actually in 16x9. Good stuff. I put it right before the shot where he goes to refuel the flamethrower. There’s also some shots of the landing in that trailer. It’s on one of the DVDs, not sure which. Haven’t thought about this shit in ages lol.

That Alien: Cocoon of Love video is from the Enhancement Pods that were included when they did the Blu Ray version of Beast Within. Not on the DVD.

Also, are your chestburster and cocoon videos my versions from YouTube that you added to? You should sort out your aspect ratios, I noticed the new footage from the chestburster video was still in 4x3.

If you need any information, hit me up! Can’t wait to see what you put out!

HEY, so story is, like I said in my previous post from two hecking years ago(!!!) I totally finished the Alien Uncut edit.

I just always hated it because the framerate is a not very consistent 30, the quality isn’t what it should be, and it’s a ridiculous 20 gigabyte file. I made the damn thing when I was just starting to get into video editing and I had no idea about anything.

That being said, from what I remember I was always happy with the way it was cut. I got all the shots just where and how I wanted them.

So I was skimming through some old hard drives randomly and decided “what the hell?” I’ll upload that Alien edit I did so many moons ago. When I rewatched it, all the problems I mentioned above really didn’t bother me as much as they once did. I also re-encoded it to a much nicer file size for you guys.

If anyone is still interested in this ridiculous behemoth, I hit up a 'spleen mod yesterday, so hopefully I’ll be putting it there.

I still maintain that I might go back and redo it from the ground up one day, but I thought everybody should at least see it as it is now.

I’ve always felt bad about not releasing this edit or going back to give it another shot. It makes me so sad - the amount of fan projects I see on this site that just drop off and never get finished with no closure at all, and I didn’t want mine to be one of those.

So I’ve got a copy of the workprint for Apocalypse now. It’s so interesting, but the quality is really low, as VHS workprints tend to be.

Point is, I was thinking about trying to clean it up. The Complete Dossier DVDs have a lot of deleted scenes which seem to be straight chunks of the workprint, and some footage of it cut with special features that look and sound much better than the bootleg.

So, the idea is to swap in the higher quality footage from the DVD, any footage I can from the Blu Rays of the film, and maybe replace The Doors songs with The Doors HD Tracks releases of their music. For a better viewing experience? For preservation? For shits and giggles? I dunno, man.

The problem is that the workprint, and the DVD scenes are encoded dreadfully. They all have this timecode that shows they’re hardcoded to 30fps, and interlaced on top of that. It’s easy enough to deinterlace it and get it back to a smooth 30, but at that point, the source is a solid 30. I can’t really get it to 24, because it’s a 30fps video with the timecode.

So, I’m asking if anyone can help me get that mess of fields and frames back to 24fps for editing, and if anyone knows any other places I can get better quality workprint footage.

Why is restoring the international cut the first priority here? That version is already immediately accessible in HD right now. Shouldn’t releasing the print as-is be the most important thing from a preservation point of view? Are you planning to do that after the international cut?

Okay

Basically, I stopped working on it again. I made the entire thing in a 30fps timeline in vegas because I didn’t know when I started how framerates and interlacing and stuff works, but now I do. And it began to bug me so much I put it down. I have to start over.

I do have a version mostly done on my desktop. Its just the fps.

I’ll finish it one day. Probably with the BD as the main source.

benduwan said:

DestronTC said:

Puny update: all the previously interlaced footage (including the majority of the chestburster scene I showed before) is now non-interlaced because I figured out how. So that’s good.

what do you do?

I ripped my alien dvds to a folder with WinX DVD ripper, and then ripped the scenes from there with handbrake with the deinterlace filter on.

Puny update: all the previously interlaced footage (including the majority of the chestburster scene I showed before) is now non-interlaced because I figured out how. So that’s good.

That’s awesome you got it all scanned! A grindhouse release of such a cool and complete print would be an amazing thing.

Reply duplicated~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sorry for the late reply.

I tried to see what I could do in terms of rearranging shots in Brett’s death, but any alterations I made only served to make the scene more awkward.

And while I agree getting rid of those short closeups of the alien’s face, the object of this cut in my mind has been to keep all the footage I can, above all else.

For an update, not much. Things have been progressing steadily. But it’s just obsessive little polishes I keep making.

So anything new at all? Just found this thread and it sounds absolutely incredible!

Could you give me an example of something you think would work better in a different order? I’m not cutting any footage out, but if you think things could be reordered, I’d love suggestions.

And yeah, it’s 100% not Goldsmith, clearly some temp. But if I could find out what it was and find its source (because it’s covered with on set audio). I may restore it because i think its kinda interesting.

To cosmicjazz: 2:14 is from the enhancement pods only included on the blu ray, and 2:25 plays on a little behind the scenes reel next to the credits of the alien saga documentary. It was cropped to all hell and squashed so it took a bit of doing to get it the way it is.

To benduwan: The most recent cut I rendered for myself to review is two hours, 31 minutes and 32 seconds. This is possibly subject to change, but that’s pretty close to what it’s gonna be.

Does anyone know anything about the odd little music cue that plays on the alternate audio track from the 1999 DVD when Dallas opens the mother door after the breakfast scene?

Also, this just cause I felt like putting it on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFiLVrux4V8

Though you all might be interested in a complete changelog I wrote up.

• Jerry Goldsmith’s original Main Title theme is restored

• Four shots of the Nostromo and it’s refinery are added to the opening scene

• The original version of the Hyper Sleep theme has been restored

• The crew waking up has been extended with a shot of Lambert getting up, dippy birds bobbing on the mess table,
  and the Kane in the morning deleted scene

• Three shots of the Nostromo and refinery are added after Dallas’s first meeting with mother

• A shot of the refinery is added when Ripley is calling out to traffic control

• Three shots of the Nostromo and refinery are added after the traffic control scene

• Two shots of the Nostromo and refinery are inserted before the alien transmission scene

• Alien transmission deleted scene is reinstated, based mostly off of the version in the director’s cut but
  augmented with several extra shots and an extra line of dialogue, and the transmission sound is different

• The landing scene is extended with nine shots of the Nostromo and refinery, two shots of the planet
  Acheron, two new shots of Dallas and Lambert, and three shots of the crew being thrown around after the
  impact of landing

• The song The Landing is restored in its entirety

• Two shots are added of the astronauts walking outside around the landing leg

• Ash’s line “Turn on your finder.” is added back

• A shot of the astronauts looking back on the Nostromo is added

• A small ammount of score is restored to a shot of Acheron

• A shot of Acheron showing it’s landscape is added

• The lines “What’re you seeing?”, “I dunno, but it looks like some sort of craft”, and “Well whatever it
  is it’s weird.” from Dallas, Kane, and Lambert respectively are added

• Dallas’s line “We’ll keep looking for enhancement. We’re moving on.” is added

• The Terrain theme, and it’s rescored version are reinstated

• Dallas’s lines “Well, there are no lights. No sign of life.” and “We’re moving closer. No life signs. Can
  you see anything, Ash?” are added

• Two shots of the austronauts approaching the derelict and an exterior shot of it precede them standing
  outside the entrance

• Deleted scene of the austronauts entering the derelict is added, with two extra shots of them climbing in

• An exterior of the derelict is added before the exploration of the inside

• A shot of the alien mural is added before finding the space jocky

• Deleted scene of Kane’s winch being set up and him being lowered is added

• Score is added to Ripley and Ash’s conversation about going out after the astronauts

• Three shots of Dallas and Lambert by the winch are intercut with Kane’s exploration of the egg silo

• The song A New Face is added to Kane’s inspection of the egg, and to Ripley refusing to let the astronauts into
  the ship

• Kane draws his laser pistol while inspecting the egg

• A shot of Kane looking into the egg is added before the facehugger jumps out

• A shot of Dallas and Lambert bringing Kane into the ship is added

• Establishing shot of Kane in the infirmary added before his mask is cut off

• Some dialogue between Ash and Dallas before taking Kane’s mask off is reinstated

• Most of the song Hanging On is added during the inspection of the facehugger

• Lambert confronts Ripley deleted scene added during Kane’s attempted surgery

• Extended Kane’s condition deleted scene added after acid burns through the ship

• Exterior shot of the Nostromo after that

• Repairs interrupted deleted scene added after that

• An exterior shot of Dallas in the shuttle is added after he’s called down to the infirmary

• The song Drop Out is added when Ash, Dallas, and Ripley are looking for the facehugger

• The taking off scene is extended with two shots of the Nostromo, and more of The Landing theme is heard

• Dallas’s line “Alright, set a course for earth.” and Ripley’s “With pleasure.” are added back after takeoff.

• The chestburster scene is greatly extended with many new shots and alternate takes.

• Three new shots of the Nostromo and refinery are added after Kane’s funeral, and the original shot that followed
  is moved later

• The regrouping deleted scene is reinstated, augmented with two alternate angles, and two shots of the dippy birds
  before and after

• The shot of the Nostromo that followed Kane’s funeral is moved here

• Added song Cat Nip when Parker, Brett, and Ripley are searching for the chestburster

• Brett’s death is extended with two new establishing shots, two overhead shots, two shots of the alien hanging above
  him, two close ups of its head, alternate takes of it standing up, the alien approaching him and squeezing his head,
  two shots of it snaking its tail between his legs and up his back, alternate takes of the alien punching his brain
  out, an alternate take of it dragging him into the cooling ducts, and a scene of Parker and Ripley running in
  after him

• During Brett’s death, the song Here Kitty is played in it’s entirety

• The shot of the alien’s tail snaking between “Lambert’s” legs is moved to Brett’s death, as it was filmed for
  this scene

• A shot of “Dallas” climbing down a ladder during his death scene has been removed and moved to a scene later.

• Extended Ripley reassures Lambert deleted scene added back after the remaining crew discusses what to do following
  Dallas’s death

• The first half of the airlock deleted scene is inserted next

• Three additional shots of Parker going to refuel the flamethrower are added to that scene

• The second half of the airlock deleted scene is inserted here

• The song It’s A Droid replaces the music Ridley Scott used to score Ash’s attack scene

• The shot of Ripley pulling Ash’s plug is replaced by an alternate take

• An exterior shot of Ripley getting the shuttle ready is added

• A shot of Lambert running over and checking air canisters is added

• Parker and Lambert’s deaths are extended with many new shots of the alien crabwalking and standing up, a behind the
  back shot of Lambert, more reaction shots from her, a shot of it looming over her, a new shot of Parker running to
  save her, a new shot of the alien turning, an extended take of him hitting the ground, a new shot of the alien
  squeezing his head, a new shot of the alien’s face, a reaction shot from lambert reordered, and the shot of the
  alien’s tail snaking up “her” leg removed and moved to an earlier scene, and footage reordered to accommodate

• Extended cocoon scene is placed directly after Ripley finds Lambert and Parker’s bodies, and the removed shot from
  Dallas’s death is used here

• A shot of the alien crouched in the hallway has been added, and the shot of it standing up has been flipped
  for continuity

• A shot of the alien crouching back down after Ripley runs away has been added

• A shot of the alien swatting at Jonsey’s box has been added

• The song Sleepy Alien now plays in its entirety during the hallway scene

• A shot of the Narcissus has been inserted after Ripley puts Jonsey into the hypersleep pod, and the music
  is edited to match

• The rescore of The Cupboard now plays in its entirety after the alien scares Ripley

• The song Out The Door now plays after Ripley blasts the alien with gas

• An alternate shot of the alien looking into Ripley’s helmet is used, and the original shot if moved to after
  Ripley opens the airlock

• A shot of the alien banging on the Narcissus window from Ripley’s point of view is inserted, and a shot of
  it climbing into the shuttle is extended

• Restored Jerry Goldsmith’s original End Title theme

cosmicjazz said:

I’m up for it

Awesome. How should I send it to you?

Alrighty, so I finally have a cut I’m pretty happy with, but I kinda want someone to look at the whole thing before I release it to get a second opinion. Just make sure there’s nothing glaringly wrong with it I forgot to fix. Anyone up for that?

Also, I gave up on trying to figure out a title (something I’ve been trying to do from the start) and just decided to call it “ALIEN UNCUT”. So there.

This is now the ALIEN UNCUT development thread or whatever

cosmicjazz said:

Are you going to somehow included the partial airlock sequence?

And there is a ton of exterior footage to draw from. The Aline Makers DVD series has stuff not seen anywhere else.

Yep. I have it ordered like this: Ripley calms down Lambert deleted scene - Airlock part 1 - Shots of Parker going to refuel the flamethrower - Airlock part 2 - Ripley opening the door to mother. That’s about the best I could do it being as it was only partially filmed.

And thank you, I will look into that. All the Alien Makers documentaries seem to be up on youtube, so that should make it easy to download and get the footage if I want.

Update: Milestone, I suppose. I finished the first rough cut of the entire film. So far it is only very partially colour corrected. Alien transmission, landing, chestburster scene, Brett’s death, Parker&Lambert’s death’s, and the cocoon scene are all fully colour corrected, as well as a few miscellaneous shots here and there are all that’s done. Audio is mostly completed.

benduwan said:

DestronTC said:
I probably want to work on some kind of extended or alternate cut of star wars after I finish this alien cut.

that would be very cool. do you restore the deleted scenes?
i´ve done this myself,but i have no skills in videoediting.i´ve only bring back the scenes in the movie.
don´t look so good…😦

Well I’m not really sure what I want to do with Star Wars, if anything yet. Probably just a straight extended version with all the deleted scenes inserted based on their placement in the script and scenes reordered to match the script more closely. But I don’t know yet. Might do something alien 3 related next or possibly an hd version of this alien extended cut? That is, if I can find any deleted footage or scenes that have been released in hd.

Quick thing: Can anyone tell me if there is any deleted footage for alien released on any of the other films’ or Prometheus’ documentaries? Or anything in like a blade runner doc or something?

Also, I still don’t have a title for this project and it’s nearing completion. “Alien: Complete” Sumthin? I dunno.

And short little update: I did reedit the chestburster going in and out. I cut quite a bit out and am far happier with it because the amount of footage compliments the sound better. And I added a few new shots to the end of the landing scene.

benduwan said:

on myspleen you find many alien stuff.
i have upload the alien 3 workprint.

The alien 3 workprint is on myspleen? That’s pretty awesome, but I don’t have an invite or whatever. As for aliens I admittedly haven’t even seen the behind the scenes doc yet, so I’m probably wrong, and an extended version could be cool. I don’t know yet. I probably want to work on some kind of extended or alternate cut of star wars after I finish this alien cut.

To benduwan,
Firstly, thank you 😃
2, Yes I did, and I think the scenes match a heck of a lot better than they did raw. I personally don’t see too many horrible colour discrepancies in the footage as it is. I don’t mean to be pompous, I just don’t see where to adjust the footage too much further.
3, Probably not.
4, That’s how it’s gonna look finally. I’m using the 1999 alien legacy dvd as the main source which isn’t the best quality, because of the low quality of most of the behind the scenes footage.
5, My plan is to bring back every frame of the film that I can.
6, I don’t know how much aliens footage exsists that would be worth putting back in. But alien 3 I find very interesting, and there’s a lot of cool shots in the making of documentary. I love alien 3, but I don’t know it like the back of my hand like I do alien, so maybe in the future.
7, Yep. One of the reasons is that most of the behind the scenes footage only exsists in English. I’d be happy to make foreign subs if A, I knew how, or B, I knew any other language but English.

To cosmicjazz,
You’re probably right. But in editing this I got kinda obsessed with using every single usable frame in the movie. I’ve had this idea for the longest time of “the longest version of alien humanly possible, no exceptions”.That being said, I might take it out or shorten in, but it really wouldn’t sit right with me if I did. I don’t know if I could bring myself to take it out based purely on my philosophy for this edit. But you are probably correct. I doesn’t work as well as it could.

Finally, I will be uploading brett’s death for all to see shortly. I just have a bit more colouring left to do on it. The cocoon scene is also very very nearly completed, and will differ from the version I posted on youtube in my very first post on this thread. It now has a different colour grade, and has a bunch more footage, with ripley firing at dallas at the end completely reedited.

So, I finished the chestburster scene, and I’m pretty happy with it. Tell me what y’all think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bqTsbK8tI8

Thank you very much, benduwan, but vfx (alterations to the picture save for colour correction, resizing, and cropping) is something I want to avoid for this edit. It’s just something I’m a bit anal about when it comes to this particular project.

Now for an update: All additions/alterations have been mostly completed up to the chestburster scene which I’m working on right now. Only thing that hasn’t begun is colour correction which I want to save for last.

But I didn’t want to post an update without giving you all something to look at, so here’s a rough cut of the extended “Kane’s Health State” deleted scene, which is now based mostly on the version released on the 2003 dvd, but has shots from the version on the 1999 dvd added.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x46d7pr

Ryan McAvoy said:

Nope, no updates on this sadly. It’s always churning away somewhere at the back of my mind, with all kinds of new ideas and changes. If I could just solve the sound/music problems, it’d be easy.

Anything specifically you’re struggling with? Ever since reading this thread and messing around with the idea myself on Vegas a bit I’ve been thinking about it a lot too. If you want any ideas or help on editing I’ll be more than happy to lend a hand.

Listen carefully on the very first shot off Oola, which is the 3rd shot in the scene. After Sy Snoodles kinda makes this “Oooh, Uggh!” sound, which is after her 2nd line of lyrics. From then on a few of the lyrics are messed around.