Laserschwert

I've just finished watching "National Treasure 2" again, and I wonder if maybe a few scenes of the finale (the flooding temple) could be included in Skull's finale... the water-wheel sequence was not only lacking tension, it also came somewhere out of the blue.

Johnny5 said:

Can you please delete this forum. 

Apart from the "please" that sounds rather Catholic to me...

Right now unfortunately I'm working like a horse, so no time.

jones1899 said:

Heks,

My edit is in SD.

 

I'm going back through my edit again now, but I'll check the DVD extras for those lines if no one volunteers before then... :)

Here you go:

http://fileload.us/09n7asfxbcf9

Includes "Part time!" and "Not as easy as it used to be." from the trailer and "Part time!" and "I never should've doubted you, my friend." from the extras.

jones1899 said:

I'm still considering what to do once the sled stops. It all gets a bit goofy there too.

I've cut from Indy grabbing his hat (before he falls off the sled) to him putting on the hat after he got up. It contains a lot of continuity problems this way (on the sled -> off the sled and facing right -> facing left), but I think it works. You have to hit the exact frames, and then it flows quite nicely.

Well, maybe I'll try. It's "only" 110 frames... but the car and people getting covered by text? Nightmare to restore those parts!

I guess the title won't be changed that easily anyway, as it's virtually impossible to paint out the original text.

Looking good. It will be a hell of a lot of work to paint out the exisiting title though. If we had a clean version of this shot I'd even have the car go in front of the text, just like Willy in TOD...

I've always liked "Indiana Jones and the City of Gods"...

Great, now it's working. Thanks!

MrBrown said:

Laserschwert, do you need more parts scanned of this images, to puzzle it with photoshop?

 

I own the old 3 US CBS Laserdiscs with this covers, but they are cropped at top and the titles are on different image parts. And they are too big for my scanner (If I got it plugged). But they have somebit more informations at left and right.

 

I also own the 3 VHS Edition from germany.. it has only a different "Das imperium schlägt zurück" Cover..

 

maybe they could help you to puzzle this...

(If someonme could get it alltogether.. you are the man.. I always liked your reconstructions of the LucasArt game Posters at crazycovers..)

I've been expanding on the poster thing, and there's still more in the pipeline.

Regarding SW: Actually I only want to do a clean ROTJ-poster, as all the others already exist as textless versions. Could you post a sample of the LD-cover?

EyeShotFirst said:

ok just uploaded this baby on flickr. whole thing untouched its only 300dpi but thats damn good if you can photoshop it. The dots arent as visible anymore thanks to jonno's advice but 300 dpi was the highest quality my scanner could do. AND ITS NOT A JPEG ITS A PNG.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36050979@N07/3331621194/sizes/l/ just click download the large size. It should give you the png version this one below is a lower resolution jpeg. If any of yall clean it up and make a poster POST PICS. THATS WHY I POSTED IT I WANNA SEE LOL

Obviously I'm too stupid for this, as the largest size there is 572 x 1024, which is the size of the JPEG you've posted. And when I click the download-link, I only get that one, and no PNG. Any ideas?

Nice... any chance for 600dpi-scans of those?

EyeShotFirst said:

I could try. the original scans do look better on my pc Ill upload em

 

{EDIT} I tried but anything bigger than what is on here already is spotted and comic book like. Sadly because I use a 50 dolla scanner and photoshop cs3 couldnt fix em LUKE ended up looking bad when i smoothed everyone out.

That doesn't matter, it's exactly what I need. Please just upload that scan, without any filtering (and no descreening in the scan tool either). I have some professional tools at work to fix those things... at least I'm gonna try.

@EyeShotFirst:

Any chance you could do a 600dpi-scan of your ROTJ-VHS and upload it somewhere? That'd be awesome!

Doctor M said:

I think Spalko's face should melt as a nod to Raiders. :)

Watching the concept painting in the "Making of"-book I was thinking along the Raiders-lines as well, actually making the flesh rip from here face and body and then adding those shreds to the dust going up into the spaceship. Although Spalko doesn't appear bad enough in the movie to deserve such a gruesome death scene...

jones1899 said:

Laser, you mentioned a LONG time ago that you were trying to make the Spalko death scene more gruesome. Any ideas on this?

Well, I thought making it more gory would help, but that would require a completely new CGI-scene... I'm not sure if or when I find enough time to do that.

Jones, it's cool too see that you've got a grip of editing so quickly... told you it'd be fun ;) (and if I didn't, I always believed that :p ). That said, would you mind sharing your edited bits? I might use them as a template to assemble them in hi-definition and surround-sound.

jones1899 said:

1.) A major goal of mine is to use more familiar music from the OT in this film. Will it sound ok if I just pull those from my soundtrack CDs?

2.) What is the best program for color correction? I assume Premiere doesn't have that? Is there a free program that does color correction?

3.) I color correction a frame by frame job? Scene by scene? Or do you just adjust the entire movie at one time and then make tweaks here and there when needed?

4.) Let's say I wanted to borrow the edited version of the opening (without prairie dogs), if my version of the film was a different quality (not hd for example) would it be THAT noticable?

Thanks!

1) That's how I did it, so yeah, that'll work.

2) Premiere does have all the color correction tools you might need, but to me using "adjustment layers" in AfterEffects is (just like in Photoshop) a lot easier. Or does Premiere have them? Not sure...

3) Usually color correction is a shot-by-shot process, to equalize the color in the different shots of the same scene. In this case though you can probably color-correct by complete scene, as the shots have already been equalized during the original editing of the film.

4) You mean the clip I've posted? If I remember correctly it's in HD, so you shouldn't have a problem using it in a DVD-size project, as long as you match the color to the rest of the scene (with the car driving off into the distance). Be sure to blur the material a bit though, as the DVD is a lot softer than a downscaled HD-image.

jones1899 said:

Ok so I'm learning Premiere more and more as we speak. I've been working on the sand/obelisk puzzle to make it seem more like Indy figures it out as opposed to stupid Ox. Anyway, its actually coming along nicely...well the video is at least. 

 

1.) I am still completely lost when it comes to audio. How do you get separate tracks for the dialog and music?

2.) Also, lets say I wanted Indy to look over to one piece of the obelisk (lying horizontal) to size up the puzzle. The only shot of a piece in that position is when the pieces start rising. So my question is if I cut to a still of that piece (before it starts to rise) would it stand out completely? This is not required for this edit, just a question.

 

Thanks for the help.

 

When ripping from the DVD the audio-track should come in form of an AC3-file, which is a 6-Channel-audio file. Premiere doesn't support AC3-files, so you have to use BeSweet to turn the AC3-file into 6 separate mono WAV-files. You can import them into Premiere and add them to 6 audio tracks (which have to be set to mono as well). Select all 6 audio tracks, right-click and choose "link" in the menu. Now these 6 tracks are linked together (duh!), and can be moved and trimmed like a single track.

Regarding the still frame: Yes, a still frame usually stands out, as even a still shot has some minimal camera-movement and even more than that moving film-grain. Of course, you can add some grain with a filter, which will break the giveaway of a still frame a little bit.

Yeah, I thought about changing that moment as well. By the way, I always thought that look of Mutt was actually about seeing his mother "in action" for the first time, but it went on for too long. Since there's no cutaway from Mutt in that shot, I don't think it can be trimmed. I'll check, but don't hold your breath.

Oh, I'm not insulted at all... actually you're criticising the sun for being so bright... damn you, sun!!

@JohnnyRingo:

I AM doing my color correction after the editing, it's only like flipping a switch (an no, not a light switch... before anyone makes that joke).

By the way, this is how those frames looked originally:

See? Just as overblown... only they colored those whites yellow... yay! Anyway, it's understandable that they had difficulties shooting this, as the contrast between filming in the shadow and in the sunlight is huge... and having it all change in a matter of frames? Of course they couldn't adjust the cameras to this.

To have the video and audio stay in sync I always edit both at the same time... further changes to the audio can always be done afterwards.

Johnny Ringo said:

any chance of some screen caps? [for the new jungle chase] - 200+ mb seems a bit excessive for a preview - at least on my connection speed.

The caps I've posted earlier are from my current edit, so there you have it ;)

Regarding the color: Of course I'm exceeding 235 for the whites, as this thing isn't supposed to be watched on a TV yet... I'm surprised that you get overblown whites though, and I think I'll blame your screens for it ;) Okay, okay, I'll shift down the white-point for my next version. But color-wise (i.e. not brightness-wise) the movie looks the way I want now.

Back to the Ox-removal: I really like all of the shots of Spalko around that Ox-shot, especially the camera closing in on her and her holding on to the skull. Just has this "don't dare to touch it!"-look on her face... love it! You can always remove the line in your edit ;)

And no, no vine swinging of Mutt... NO... I might consider moving the POV-shot from out of the jungle around... I'll see what that looks like.

topdawg193 said:

Laser, fantastic stuff! The colour correction was great, and I loved the removal of Indy's-pants-ripping, as well as those damn CG monkeys! There won't be one CG critter left in your finished product at this rate, and that's a very good thing!

Also, I thought the pacing of the 'wows', said by Mutt and Indy after Mutt swings into action, was much better than in your previous cut of the jungle chase, and seemed 100% natural - you wouldn't realise that a cut was involved there, at all. And, did you shorten the interval between Mutt standing on top of Indy's jeep and Mutt getting caught up in the branch? That was brilliant! It seemed really clumsy before, but now the pacing never slows down, and the chase carries along very nicely!

I have only a few suggestions:

1.) Are you going to restore the missing nozzle-flash to Spalko’s gun just after she shoots at Indy, Mutt and Marion in the jeep, in the brief shot where we cut back to Spalko in her jeep afterwards (she continues to fire briefly, but there is no flash at the end of her gun).

2.) Is it possible to cut straight to Mutt grabbing the handle of the sword he finds in the jeep, rather than first trying to grab the blade, which seems plain stupid on his part (especially as it was revealed earlier in the film that he was an accomplished fencer/good with blades - he should know better!).

3.) Also, I completely agree with a previous poster that it would be better to cut out all instances of Mutt doing the splits – this cut could possibly be made, from when Spalko cuts his face straight into him falling down onto the other jeep. Even athough in your edit Mutt doesn't get stupidly hit in the crotch, him still doing the splits continues to seem farfetched and silly, in my opinon.

Finally, with regards to cutting out Ox saying 'Henry Jones...Junior!', I'm neutral either way, but if it had to be dropped, couldn't you remove that whole scene (the close-up of Ox)? Before that scene, there is a close-up of Spalko, and after it, there is another shot up-close at Spalko's face - could these two before-and-after shots of Spalko around Ox's scene not be spliced together, like you have done with other scenes in the jungle chase? That way, you could completely remove Ox's 'Henry Jones Junior' line, and it may actually improve the pacing, with things starting off much faster.

Brilliant stuff though, man!

Actually I didn't change the "Wow"-timing since my last edit, but thanks anyway ;-)

And yes, I DID remove a shot of Mutt standing up on the jeep (which came right before Indy babbling a warning). It looked very clumsy, as he was already looking forward in that shot, and in the next shot (after the warning) he's turning around again. I think now it flows much better.

1. Yes, the muzzle-flash will be added

2. No, I won't change that... after all he just might want to check if the blade is actually sharp... or something like that.

3. I really would like to keep that part... although it'd be better if it felt more dangerous. I'm not sure yet.

Sadly the splicing of the two Spalko shots before and after Ox's "Henry Jones, Jr." doesn't match... it was a huge coincidence that it worked with Mutt's 360°-shot, but this time there'd be a jump (the guys running in the background are further away in the second shot). Plus Ox isn't pausing enough before and after his sentence to just use a short bit of him, so I'll just leave it as it is.