Found another bit of music I wanted to remove as a result of my changes. My free trial with LyRuno expired, so I switched over to AudioStrip for this one. Here’s hoping it works well enough.
Found another area where the music needed to be taken care of. Here’s a test of what I’ve done.
After much trial and error, I decided to throw five of the six channels through AI to remove the music from the scene. The results were a dramatic improvement over my original troubles. So much so, that I decided to just upload an audio test to see how others feel about it.
Some things to note: First, most of the AI work is in the shots where the ship is leaving. The shots of Groot watching Rocket were mostly worked over by me. Second, the video I’ve uploaded is in stereo. The final edit will (hopefully) be in 5.1 surround unless certain elements come into play to mess things up.
I’ve run into a bit of an audio editing snag. The problem is with Rainbow’s “Since You Been Gone.” This song was placed in between the scene when Quill and friends begin their quest to save Rocket, and the flashback when little Rocket is playing with the other animals. I’m okay with it during the latter scene, but not the former, so I have to come up with a way to get rid of the first part of the song. I tried using AI to get rid of the song like I did to keep Strickland’s dialogue intact for my Paradox edit, but this time around, going AI wasn’t as helpful as I hoped it would be. When I selected vocals, I would still get to hear the voice of Graham Bonnet during the second half of audio. And if I selected instrumentals, well, you can figure out 2 and 2 on that one.
I did get some help from a fanedit.org user named ronin428, who referred me to an AI known as LyRuno. This did bring about a huge improvement. I finally got rid of Graham Bonnet, and I now have a good enough soundbyte for Starlord when he says “let’s go save our friend.” But there are still traces of the song playing in the SFX while the ship is warping its way to Orgocorp. I tried using another AI to see if I could get rid of the traces even further, but the results I got showed little to no improvement.
So now, I’m kind of in a rut. It seems like I may have to resort to throwing in my own sound effects in order to solve this problem, but it’s something I only want to do as a last resort because I don’t know if I have enough sounds in my library to compensate for the sound effects of the ship leaving for Orgocorp.
If anyone has any alternative ideas, I could use them.
I don’t know what everyone else’s thoughts on the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy were, but for me, I personally liked Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 the best. I liked the darker, more serious tone, and thought it balanced out the goofiness that was relied on way too much in the previous two. I thought Rocket’s character arc and tragic backstory was some of the best stuff in the entire trilogy. And as a send-off for James Gunn’s work on the franchise, it ended on a true high note.
However, there is one issue that I had with it, along with pretty much everyone else. The issue was in how the flashback scenes were scattered about in a back-and-forth kind of way. I felt like it muddied up the structure of the film. I have decided to create this edit to correct that mistake. Rather than throw the flashback scenes all over the film, I felt that it would be better to just send all of the flashbacks to the beginning of the film. This fixes a lot of the film’s structural issues, and it also places greater emphasis on Rocket’s importance to the film. It also allows us more time to get acquainted with the other Guardians in the second act. Particularly Quill, and his learning to accept that the new Gamora is not the old Gamora he loved.
The edit will be roughly the same running time as the original, as the only changes that have been made are in the rearrangement of certain scenes. But I believe this rearrangement solves the film’s biggest weakness and gives an already great entry in the MCU an even greater resonance than it did originally.
Changes list
/=Altered
/Moved Rocket’s surgery and first meeting with his animal friends to scene 3
/Moved Rocket’s playtime with his animal friends to scene 4
/Moved Rocket’s discussion with the High Evolutionary on perfection and imperfection to scene 5
/Moved Rocket and friends’ discussion on their names to scene 6
/Moved the High Evolutionary’s interrogation on Rocket’s intelligence to scene 7
/Moved the deaths of Rocket’s friends and his escape to scenes 8 and 9
After the work I did on Batman Forever (and before I forget, R.I.P. Val Kilmer), it was only a matter of time before I tackled another sequel in the original Batman lineup. This time around, I decided to work on the 1992 Tim Burton-directed sequel, Batman Returns.
Now, I like Batman Returns a lot more than Batman Forever. For that reason, this edit is gonna be a much more lightly cut endeavor than my previous work. However, there are certain things I did to try and improve it a little more.
As I gave the film a rewatch, it seemed to me like the crucial make-or-break element in the film was the Penguin. Whether you like the film or not depends on how you feel about his fate at the end. He’s like the rug in The Big Lebowski. He really ties the room together, man. And because of that, I decided to base a lot of my editing decisions on trying to improve Mr. Cobblepot, and to bring his tale to its most tragic effect. This meant cutting things out that were irrelevant to him, or placing certain scenes elsewhere to structure the film around him better, and finally, cutting out a scene or two that affected his character arc and/or storyline negatively.
Most of the changes I’ve made occur at the beginning of the film, but there are a few changes I’ve made in the middle that I feel make the more villainous aspects of the Penguin more gradual than sudden. For example, I wasn’t a huge fan of the scene where the Penguin bites off the nose of one of his mayoral staff members. I felt like that affected the goodwill that he had built up in the first half of the film, and it would make more sense if his character gradually turned evil instead of just “Oh, I was evil all along! Mwahaha!” I trimmed out the second half of that scene for that reason. I also cut out a couple exposition heavy scenes (after the lessons I learned from my Paradox edit), especially near the end, as we don’t need a thorough explanation about his plan to kidnap the firstborn. It’s more effective if he reveals it to the public after his attack on the ballroom instead of dumbing it down for the masses.
But the question I’m sure most people who saw my Batman Forever edit are asking is this: Did I play around with the color grading on this edit too?
And the answer to that question is: Yes I did. Yes I did.
This time around, I decided not to go with the yellow-cyan-magenta color palette of Forever because the look and aesthetic are completely different. This time around, I decided to keep the blues saturated with a slight desaturation on cyan and purple to give the color grading a little more personality. Otherwise, all of the warmer colors are designed to be as desaturated as possible, leaving mostly cold colors to be the most colorful moments of the edit, which is perfect. As Alfred himself says in this film, “It’s supposed to be cold.”
Anyway, that’s all I want to say about the edit for now. Time to go to work.
Changes List
– = Deleted
/ = Altered
++ = Added
–Cut out Alfred’s criticism of newspapers
–Removed Selina’s Corn Dog line
/Moved Selina realizing she forgot Shreck’s speech notes to before Shreck meets the crowd
++SFX: Added more applause sound effects during Shreck’s conversation with his son
++SFX: Added more applause sound effects during Shreck’s realization that Selina forgot his speech notes
–Taken out Bruce Wayne seeing the bat-signal
–Trimmed out Max Shreck’s reaction to the demon clown and running away
/Moved Shreck’s first meeting with the Penguin towards the middle of the battle instead of after for greater emphasis on the Penguin’s importance to the plot
–Trimmed out some of Batman’s disarming of the Red Triangle gang, including setting the demon guy on fire
–Removed Gordon’s congratulations towards Batman and the realization that they don’t know where Max Shreck is
–Cut out the “I am Catwoman, hear me roar” scene
–Trimmed out the second half of Penguin finding out he’s running for mayor. Includes his introduction to his associates, biting the associate’s nose, inappropriate comments towards a female, and discussion with Max Shreck
/Moved Catwoman’s vandalising of the Shreck store and meeting with the cops to the beginning of the Red Triangle attack sequence instead of the middle
–Cut Penguin’s creepy sexual innuendo to one of his female supporters
++SFX: Added applause sound effects in the transition between Penguin’s “Thank you” and his climbing up the stairs
–Trimmed out Penguin telling his gang how he’s going to kidnap the children and his killing of the dissenting clown
–Deleted Penguin telling Shreck his plan to kill the firstborn and him
Edit is released.
Just showed off the new changes to my roommate. He liked what he saw, so I think the edit is about ready. Gonna try to work on the cover art when I have the time.
Recently Wraith did an extended Chronological fanedit of T.H.8. What do you think of also doing yours in chronological order? (alternate version)
I have no plans to do a chronological version for two reasons: 1. Wraith already did it, and 2. I prefer Tarantino’s non-linear storytelling over the linear stuff he did in his later years. Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction are my two favorites from Tarantino, and I just don’t have any enthusiasm for trying to go chronological with this.
Anyway, it took me longer than I expected to take a look at the edit, but I finally looked for any exporting issues. I found some compression artifacts on the coffee pot during the Domergue’s Got a Secret flashback. I’m proceeding to correct it at once. I also felt like the full-color Chester Charles Smithers flashback scenes looked off compared to the rest of the film since I had already messed with the color grading on The Four Passengers and the Domergue’s Got a Secret flashback. So I decided to once again mess around with the color grading on that scene. I thinking, this time, of throwing in a magenta-ish cast to give it the look of a bad '70s film print where the color is fading. To give you an idea of what faded film looks like, here’s a video:
https://youtu.be/WMjEW1W9rpU?si=fs1m-VppxEgYo4bw
Just to reiterate, I haven’t decided whether to stick with this aesthetic or not. It’s just the first one that popped into my head. Let me know your thoughts.
It’s been a while since I last updated everyone, so here goes.
I’m currently working on the finishing touches and gonna try to give my edit a look soon for any exporting issues I may have missed. In a nutshell, the edit is almost complete. I don’t know when I’ll start releasing it, but I’m confident it will be soon.
Back from vacation. Edit is released now. You are free to send PMs.
I’m gonna be on vacation with my roommate and friends until Tuesday, so I will not be working on the edit until I get back. Rest assured that things are going well with the edit so far, and if things stay on their projected course, we could have a finished edit sometime in the next couple of weeks. Until then, I’ll see you guys later!
Okay, my apologies. I am about to go on vacation now, and I forgot to work on releasing the edit. Rest assured that I will be getting to work on releasing the edit as soon as I get back. Until then, I’ll see you guys later!
Just checked up to make sure everything is looking fine with the edit. I think everything checks out except for the subtitled commentary track. For some reason, it won’t work when I watch the edit via my blu-ray player. However, the track works perfectly with VLC, so I guess that will have to suffice.
I will be going on vacation with my roommate for a week, so I’m anxious to get this uploaded before I leave. Be on the lookout for a change in the WIP status this week.
I’m gonna do some testing on the subtitles, but I think I’ve gotten the technical difficulties sorted out. Once I’ve gotten all the kinks sorted out, the edit should be ready for release.
Got some technical difficulties going on with exporting the commentary subtitle track. My apologies. I’ll let everyone know when I’ve gotten it sorted out.
Paradox changes subtitle track is just about complete. Gonna work on polishing things up, and I think the edit will be close to ready.
Got another change to report. I decided to change the flashback of Domergue’s Got a Secret to from color to black-and-white. Since I already gave The Four Passengers the sepia tone treatment, I felt that it wouldn’t hurt to take it further by doing something similar to the Domergue flashback. The main reason I don’t just go for sepia like The Four Passengers is because Tarantino is notorious for being inconsistent with the visuals, and thus, it felt more stylistically appropriate to go with B&W this time around.
I’ve just come up with another change. In the edit I’ve made so far, I didn’t know what to do about John and Daisy’s entrance into Minnie’s haberdashery. There are two versions of the scene. The first is the one where we don’t know who the bad guys are, and then there’s the extended scene where the bad guys give Daisy the signal over what’s going on.
Originally, both scenes were in my edit. We would start off with the extended scene at the end of The Four Passengers, just like the theatrical release, and then, when Minnie’s Haberdashery begins, we would show the same scene without the inner workings going on. I thought both scenes would provide information the viewer might need to know. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt that having both was more repetitive, as we’re mostly just going through the same scene twice, just from different points of view.
So here’s what I’ve decided to change. I decided to get rid of the original first scene entirely, and I replaced it with the extended scene at the beginning of Minnie’s Haberdashery. Meanwhile, The Four Passengers ends with John Ruth kicking the door open, much like the theatrical version.
I will be updating my changes list shortly.
Paradox script comparison subtitle track is mostly done. Gonna look it over and check for any grammatical errors in the future, but it should be pretty close to done now.
Just made a late change and trimmed the beginning of the breakup scene. The Paradox script did in fact go for a shortened version of the scene where Clara breaks up with Doc (It originally began with Clara saying “Goodbye? But Emmett, I don’t understand…”), but I felt like I shouldn’t do it for fear that the pacing might be affected. And besides, I felt like the change wasn’t that big of a deal in comparison to a lot of the other cuts I’ve made. However, looking back at the edit as a whole, I feel that the shortened version of the breakup is far more impactful than keeping it in full, so I decided to, well, follow the script again. My apologies for those who prefer pacing, but hey, I said I would try to get this edit as close to the Paradox script as best as I could, so I might well keep my promise.
Just sharing a quick update. The changes subtitle track is about two-thirds done. Currently on 1885.
In an unexpected first, I have decided to use AI to fix a technical issue in the Part II section of the edit.
One of the peskier things about fanediting is what to do when you plan to add a new scene to an area with a transition. I added in the burned down high school deleted scene (restored by Bobson Dugnutt, and I owe him my thanks for the work he put into it) right between the 1985-A Strickland scene and the introduction to Biff’s pleasure paradise. But if you have a strong ear, you might have noticed that Sammy Hagar’s “I Can’t Drive 55” begins right on Strickland’s line, “Eat lead, slackers!”
This made the transition extremely hard.
Not surprisingly, I had to get rid of the music from that scene in order to transition to the next scene. So, I decided to jump on board and use voice isolation AI to fix the issue via Elevenlabs. I was introduced to that program while working with the Red Apple Crew. I don’t remember who assisted me with voice isolation on the ending to my Death Squad edit, so instead, I’m just gonna leave a special thanks credit to the entire crew unless the person who introduced me to Elevenlabs would like to have all the credit himself. If it wasn’t for the crew, I probably would’ve had a rather odd sound issue going on in the final edit.
Hopefully, that tiny little transition is the only time where I will need AI for this edit.
Below is a sepia tone test of the Four Passengers section of the edit. I decided to do this in reference to the B&W chapter in Kill Bill, Vol. 2. Nothing about this is final, and the reason I’ve selected this particular scene is because it was the most G-rated scene in the chapter. Feel free to chime in if you wish.
When I first saw The Hateful Eight, I watched it in a theatre (the digital kind, not the 70mm kind, mind you). And like most of Tarantino’s filmography, I loved it. A lot. I had a good time with The Hateful Eight and I had no regrets going in.
However, a lot of other folks didn’t feel the same way, and after giving it a few rewatches (as well as a watch for both of Wraith’s edits of the film), I started to see a few cracks that needed mending. I didn’t feel like going around to try and fanfix a movie that I loved, especially since most people on fanedit.org seemed to enjoy Wraith’s edit of the film enough. However, after playing around and seeing what I could do to make The Hateful Eight a better film, I found that my approach was different enough and have decided to tackle on another fanfix for Tarantino’s 8th time in the director’s chair.
Because I live in the US, no copy of the extended roadshow edition is available, so I decided to resort to Wraith’s extended cut for the extra footage in my edit. I don’t think Wraith will mind if I used it. The rest of the edit will stem from my trusty blu-ray disc of the theatrical cut, and I believe that will suffice.
So, with that out of the way, let’s talk about the stuff I’ve changed.
Wraith’s edit was a very light cut, and the only major change he made was the removal of Tarantino’s voiceover at the beginning of Domergue’s Got a Secret. For him, the voiceover was at the heart of what was wrong with The Hateful Eight. For me, however, my thoughts are more in the vein as Hannibal Lecter. “No, that is incidental.” A lot of that voiceover is classic Tarantino in the style that he goes for. The deeper issue, like in most cases, is in the structure and the way that it’s told.
I have made three major alterations from the norm with this edit to fix the structure and put it back on track. The first thing that I have done is cut out the opening scene in Last Stage to Red Rock. The problem with opening the film with that scene is that it didn’t set up anything for us. At least, anything of importance beyond introducing Russell, Jackson and Leigh. Instead, my edit begins with the close-up shots of the horses set to the Exorcist II music followed by Kurt Russell’s character asking Samuel L. Jackson about how his horse died. It really isn’t important to know how these three ended up together. They’re there, and they’re heading for a fateful encounter at Minnie’s Haberdashery. I found that this was a better way to start the film, and I also decided to move the opening credits to a later point turning what remains of the opening into a prologue of sorts. This gives the exposition more weight, including foreshadowing elements such as the Lincoln letter, “When the hangman catches you, you hang,” etc.
The second major change I’ve made is that I have moved The Four Passengers to the beginning of the film, not the end. In fact, it’s Chapter 1 now. This is the biggest alteration, and changes the film from Agatha Christie mystery into Hitchcockian thriller. Knowing who the villains are almost immediately fixes the longest and most tedious chapter, Minnie’s Haberdashery, because there is tension from the very beginning about what’s going to happen. It also simplifies the ending, as there is no “whodunnit” going on, meaning that everything now hinges on the choices that Chris Mannix has to make at the end of the film.
Another thing that should be noted is that I’ve also changed the color of The Four Passengers section from color to sepia tone, taking a reference from Kill Bill, Vol. 2, and giving it a western flavor. It also gives off a non-linear vibe at the beginning, perfect for a Tarantino film.
The third and final major change I have made is that I have added in as many of the extended roadshow scenes into the edit as I can given the changes that I have made above. The only extended roadshow scenes that didn’t make it into the cut are the ones that focus on O.B. and Warren’s financial negotiation, since the opening scene has been cut. Everything else, however, has been kept. And yes, this does mean that my edit is gonna be long at 3 hours. I’ve even kept the intermission and overture cards from Wraith’s edit, and thrown in some music from the soundtrack during the intermission for good measure too.
It is my hope that these changes create the most complete version of the film, and that they give this film the electrifying experience I had when I first saw this film in theaters back in 2015.
Current restructure
Overture
Prologue: Last Stage to Red Rock, Part II (No title)
Opening Credits
Chapter 1: The Four Passengers
Chapter 2: Last Stage to Red Rock, Part III, Son of a Gun (Titled the latter)
Chapter 3: Minnie’s Haberdashery
Intermission
Chapter 4: Domergue’s Got a Secret
Last Chapter: Black Man, White Hell
Overture/Exit Music
Changes list
– = Deleted
++ = Added
/ = Altered
– Deleted the opening panoramic shots of Wyoming that start the opening credits
– Removed the first scene in Last Stage to Red Rock
/ Opening credit music begins at the point Daisy and John Ruth are punched out of the carriage
/ Opening credits moved to the point when John Ruth tells Daisy “I’m gonna sit back on that wagon wheel, watch, and laugh.”
/ Added “Eyepainter Fanedits presents” over an orange graded still shot of John and Daisy to the start of the opening credits
/ Customized and randomized the fonts and effects for all the chapter cards for a more Tarantino-esque flavor
/ The Four Passengers is now Chapter 1
/ Changed The Four Passengers color scheme from full color to sepia tone
– Deleted the first few shots of The Four Passengers carriage, including the “Earlier that morning” shot due to the change in timeline
++ Added Roadshow extension where Oswaldo and Joe give Daisy the signal that’s she’s in the presence of friends
/ The remainder of Last Stage to Red Rock moved to the beginning of Son of a Gun
++ Added the Roadshow scene where John Ruth speculates on what surprise Daisy has for him
++ Added Roadshow extension where John Ruth forces Marquis to wear handcuffs
– Removed the first version of John and Daisy’s entrance into Minnie’s Haberdashery
/ Substituted the first entrance with the Roadshow extension where Oswaldo and Joe give Daisy the signal that’s she’s in the presence of friends
– Deleted Marquis, O.B., Chris, and Bob taking the horses back and nailing the stakes for the path
++ Added Roadshow extension where John Ruth asks about Joe Gage for the first time
++ Added Roadshow scene where Chris makes a toast to Chester Charles Smithers and the state of Georgia
++ Added Roadshow scene where John Ruth gets mad at Senor Bob over the half plucked chicken
++ Added Roadshow scene where John Ruth sees the shotgun hanging on the wall
++ Added Roadshow audio argument between Mannix and Smithers over the politics of sitting with Marquis
++ Added Roadshow Intermission
/ Added “Apple Blossom” and “Sei Cavalli” to Intermission
/ Changed “Domergue’s Got a Secret” flashback from color to black and white
++ Added Roadshow extension where Marquis asks about why John Ruth made the coffee
++ Added Roadshow extension where Joe Gage attempts to get Mannix to make a deal
++ Added Overture after the end credits as exit music
/ Added “Neve - #3” and “Now You’re All Alone” to exit music