Doctor M

If you check out the change list from my edit of Chamber of Secrets you'll find the official extended cut introduces a lot of flaws that should have been fixed.

Also, the Malfoy crap in HBP: if you check out the original script you can see they recycled some footage (Malfoy pulls an extremely dusty cloth off of the vanishing cabinet more than once) and split up the Malfoy scene to try and extend it suspense or something.

In most cases I've found the scripts to be better than the final cuts and they reveal many of the flaws.  They make great guides to help you edit around those flaws.

And Scream Factory has revealed that their forthcoming Army of Darkness: Collector’s Edition Blu-ray (due on 10/27) will now be a 3-disc set (and not the 2-disc set previously expected). All-new extras will include the 96-minute Medieval Times: The Making of Army of Darkness featurette, offering new interviews (with star/co-producer Bruce Campbell, actors Marcus Gilbert, Ted Raimi, Timothy Quill, Richard Grove, Bill Moseley, Patricia Tallman and Angela Featherstone, director of photography Bill Pope, editor Bob Murawski, production designer Anthony Tremblay, composer Joseph Lo Duca, costume designer Ida Gearon, special make-up effects artists Howard Berger, Tony Gardner, Robert Kurtzman and Greg Nicotero, “Pit Bitch” performer and effects artist William Bryan, mechanical effects artist Gary Jones, first assistant director John Cameron, visual effects supervisor William Mesa, and stunt coordinator Christopher Doyle). You’ll also get 55 minutes of new Behind-the-Scenes Footage From KNB Effects, new still galleries of behind-the-scenes photos and props, and storyboards for deleted and alternate scenes. In terms of other material, Disc One will include the 81-minute Theatrical Version with DTS-HD 5.1 audio, the original ending, the original opening, and deleted scenes (with Raimi and Campbell commentary), plus the trailer, TV spots, and the home video promo. Disc Two will include the 96-minute Director’s Cut with DTS-HD 5.1 and 2.0 audio, with audio commentary by Sam Raimi, Campbell, and Ivan Raimi, 2 vintage featurettes (Creating the Deadites and Making of) and extended interview clips with Raimi, Campbell, and Robert Tapert. And Disc Three will include a new 4K scan of the 88-minute International Cut interpositive with DTS-HD 5.1 and 2.0 audio, the 90-minute Television Version (1.33:1 in SD) with DTS-HD 2.0 audio, and the vintage The Men Behind the Army featurette.

Sez thedigitalbits.com

Wow.

I'd recommend running your Deathly Hallows discs through DVD Rebuilder with the added AVISynth script lines:

loadplugin("agc.dll")
HDR=HDRAGC(coef_gain=.25, max_sat=3)
temp=mergeluma(last,HDR,.33)
mergechroma(temp,HDR,.5)

The AVISynth plugin can be found here: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=93571

It's what I did with my own copies.  Makes them very watchable.

If you're going to color correct the later films, please boost the brightness too.  I did this for my Deathly Hallows discs, and wish I did it for HBP.  Some scenes are near impossible to see.

The invisibility cloak: In the books it's made clear that invisibility cloaks in general aren't completely RARE, they are just expensive and eventually wear out.  Harry's does not because it is THE invisibility cloak.

From the Harry Potter Wiki:

It was the only known invisibility cloak that would not fade with age and would provide everlasting protection to the wearer, something no normal invisibility cloak could provide.

Mad Eye seeing through it sucks.  But that is in the books.  It's important because there is a fun bit where Harry is stuck hip deep in a trick step under the cloak with Snape and Filch wandering nearby and Mad Eye sees through the cloak and saves his bacon.

There are a LOT of important plot bits that just don't exist.  They may have been shot, but we don't have them to make things make more sense.

The worst of it is some stuff was added that wasn't in the books filling up time that could have been given over to real moments.

I'm on board with this and suggest you do this in HD.  I can tell you that a lot of the deleted scenes on DVD are in terrible condition and hard to work with.

I edited HBP in SD, but had to use Blu-ray deleted scenes because of over compression and banding.

My other recommendation is to dig up the scripts.  They are online and show some of the butchering that took place in the editing stages.  There are a lot of times that single scenes are cut apart or re-ordered to hide a deleted scene.  You will find life easier using it as a guide.

satanika said:

Oh, I understood Doctor M's post to be about Roger Rabbit. Never mind then, yes I've heard the story about The Rescuers.

Yes, my question was about WFRR?, how did we get onto the Rescuers?

I appreciate the desire for having the original untouched, I was just wondering if small single frame detail is actually visible.

I do want to ask.  Without freeze framing, does anyone really see these things while watching the film?

Word is, those 'censored' frames were inserted by a disgruntled employee and not added intentionally to the film.

I wouldn't call the laserdisc version uncensored, so much as altered.

It's not a torrent, so it's pretty easy for anyone to grab.  He is using Uploaded and Share-Online.

I'd like to mention that a few weeks back someone shared a 1080p and 720p version of the HDTV version with English 2.0 audio.

Might be worth a look for those interested.  Can be found on the pair of ducks site.

Any progress on this by anyone or is everyone waiting for someone else?

That's a new one to me, bjwanlund.

I don't have an old source to check on that.

Videolan Player maybe?

TheSkeletonMan939 said:

Doctor M said:

I maintain the first two movies are the best and most faithful to the books.

 Ditto. But moreover I feel that they're better films than the rest. Films 4, 5, 7, and 8 are extremely unfocused and are barely understandable without having read the books beforehand.

The first two films remain my favorite in terms of atmosphere, pacing, coloring, editing, and story.

You nailed it completely.  I rewatched the whole series recently and it's been a really long time since I've read the books (8 years?).

I realized I've forgotten some of the important plot points from the books that make the movies make sense.

I'm currently re-reading the books, but about done with ever seeing the movies again.  (And I've fan-edited 4 of them.)

What troubles me the most is if you've seen the scripts and heard the interviews, you know there is a LOT more footage out there that fills in the plot holes.

If the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit movies have taught us anything, it's that there is a bottomless desire for people to see every scrap of film cut into a movie and re-buy.  I don't know why WB would leave that money on the table.

I'll wait for those cuts... or the reboot.

(Sorry, I now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.)

If you want the first 2 Harry Potters to be more like the later ones, just desaturate the color, darken the picture until noon day sun looks like a day for night shot, cut anything plot related out and just string the action scenes together.
Done.

I maintain the first two movies are the best and most faithful to the books.

My $.02.  You are of course free to edit away.

The problem is the color and levels are already destroyed.  There's only so much you can do without the pre-color-corrected shots.

Thanks, TServo2049.

Quick question to you guys, was the VHS tape originally uncensored as well?

My research suggests it has all of what has been restored here except Betty Boop's Boops.  (And the 'For A Good Time' graffiti has never been found anywhere(?))

@Spaced Ranger- I haven't watched a physical laserdisc myself in years.  Most of what I know is from discussions here and on other forums.

I have tried to include laserdisc info when I know it, and lddb.com is a good place just to find out about different versions that were released.

@SilverWook - Was Darby cropped to widescreen or was there actually more image?

This is the first I've heard of the dubbed soundtrack.  Was it used on the DVD?

Edit: Wikipedia says the 'easier to understand' dub was used for DVD releases.  I'm thinking the TV version is some fluke.

DouglasJ said:

Feallan said:

Myspleen?

 I've never managed to get an invite. One day I'll get this.

 3 posts here in 2 years?  I'm not surprised.

You know, I'm starting to wondering if a project I'm working on is in this format.

I assumed it was a standard blended fields PAL video, but the run time is still shortened.

How do you identify this type of video?  It still has blended fields, doesn't it?

Edit: Never mind, figured it out.  For others who want to know the difference, apply bob to your video:

2:2:2:...:3 (aka 12:1 and 24:1) will show 11 clean fields in duplicates and then a field in triplicate.  No blending.

Blended fields have slightly more than half of its fields blended (double image).  Srestore is your best bet for this.

As far as the project I'm working on?  I think Imdb has the runtime wrong.

Space Hunter M said:

Has anybody ever dealt with 2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:3 pulldown PAL transfers before? I've tried several basic ChangeFPS settings to decimate the redundant frames back to 23.976/film speed, but I always end up with skipped/duplicated frames. Any suggestions would be helpful.

I'm not completely familiar with it, but is all you're looking for is a way to drop one duplicate frame out of 25?  Is the source interlaced?

They may wisely be waiting to see what Disney does.  Force Awakens is in 9 months, it wouldn't be unreasonable to hear about a new DVD release in 6 months.

Still, I can't argue with the variety of preserved audio tracks here that Disney will never do.

Bumpin' some oldness, but has anyone tried to take on recoloring the new Top Gun transfer to match the old colors (doesn't even need to be 3D)... or is everyone just sticking with the 3 time released 2D-BD version.

Disney has preserved it.  I'm aware that they did a digital transfer to keep the film from being lost.  They just have no plans to release it to home video.

Of course that sounds like the sort of thing ripe to be leaked.