Mizukitron

This is a cool idea I would like to see it done, but my hatchet to bury is with seasons 7 and 8 (especially 8) and I don’t think i’ll have a peaceful nights sleep until I do! So i’m going to focus on that - but best of luck and I would love to see your new finale if you make it!

I had to take a break for a while because my 120gb ssd was woefully ill equipped to do any serious editing. I’ve got a 1tb hdd now and 136gb of raw episodes, extra, histories + lore to utilize and i’ve been learning how to use Davince Resolve for a few months.

I’ve been making a lot of notes and i’m about to do a full rewatch from S1 with a notepad in hand in order to: note down any and all landscapes/locational shots that don’t have context of when they are from as well as which episodes to split the 5.1 audio and get clean versions of spoken dialogue. Because a lot will get cut from an already rushed final season, I want to draw some scenes out if I can too and try to make them feel less rushed.

Instead of being overly precious i’m just going to go for it - if i’m going to spend about a year doing it, I might as well give it everything.

From all my own thoughts and the general impetus of fan ‘fixes’ on the internet I think it makes sense to start by trying to fix or improve from the ‘capture a wight’ point in season 7 and move onward from there - If S7 and 8 had been the quality of 1-4, I think the fans would have forgiven 5 and 6.

I think the Bran as NK has potential, its ambitious and might not work, but i’m going to give it a go because if it works it brings depth to 2 characters who felt chronically underwritten in the show. The fan theory I read had him causing the Mad King to go mad also which is cool and it gives it another layer in the endgame and final episodes - as well as changing where Rhaegal dies, some of who dies in the Long Night, making Jamie ring the bells, removing ‘plot armour’ fake out deaths and christ if I can learn VFX maybe even do some warg eyes on some people and make Arya wear Beric for a shot.

If it sounds like too much, its because it almost definitely is! - but dang it i’m going to try!

I’ll post some updates here if I have any 😃

That’s fair - it’s not used as a device at all really in the earlier seasons, so that can go.

I actually have 2 versions of that scene where you can see dragonstone, the cut is just a bit more jarring when its a few frames further in - but it can be trimmed out.

I’ll mess with them a bit more and put up some new clips later tomorrow.

So as it stands there is only the standalone eps for season 8 that I can find- no blu ray details yet or deleted scenes.

What I am working with is the episodes themselves and then i’ve split out the 5.1 audio and rebounced as two tracks: one with everything except the dialogue and one that is dialogue only - just makes it a bit easier to do more seamless/convincing transitions especially during action sequences.

I like staying close to the source material as well, there are plenty of crazy things you could attempt, but I kind of want to show the show telling the story it had but more convincingly and powerfully.

You are right with regards to The Bells - it should be harrowing to see Dany go over the line, GOT was always great at having that feeling of dread and inevitability when things go bad for someone in a typically good role. Oberyn is a perfect example: it’s unexpected and horrific but you can kind of feel it moving in slow motion. One of the highlights of Danys turn for me, was following Jon as he realizes, like Ned, the horror of what they are doing. We should be with Jon emotionally at this point.

Wherever you land on the episode critically, I think everyone agrees that it just didn’t feel quite as earned and I feel its more a symptom of having the whole season feel so rushed that something like that, that you really want to digest, is swept up among all the other developments - having some audio clips playing at key points would be a really neat way to weave in a bit more development without being too ham-handed.

There are plenty of scenes where she is speaking to one person or her advisers in the non-action portions, in particular scenes where she is dwelling or thinking. Maybe we hear her remembering people from throughout her life, just the odd quote here and there and then she is snapped out of it when Tyrion or Jon or someone enters to speak to her.

In terms of audio I do also have all the Histories and Lore from all the old blu-rays which are a goldmine for getting audio of the cast, in character - but not doing lines from the show. I have a few really good ones earmarked for later use (Bran talking about the history of warging/greenseeing, Jamie talking about being the Kingslayer etc) which I think, if they can be worked in elegantly, could do some real work in bolstering characters we wanted more time with.

I think your right that it shouldn’t be too telegraphed either, which is why I like moving Rhaegals death to this episode - it serves as a catalyzing event that brings you with her and lends more believability to her ignoring the surrender. She has only minutes ago had one of her children killed and NOW they surrender? Was it for nothing? It sells that impulsive loss of control way better for me. Its a two for one as well as it removed a highly criticized point in ep 4.

I thought it would be a massive chore to move that event and edit all the mentions of it successively, but it only took a couple of nights. Rhaegals death is mentioned about five times after it happens, each case was a throw-away line that took no real effort to remove. Beyond that we don’t get any real reaction from Dany either, so having it happen in The Bells covers us not seeing her grieve.

Right now i’m using a free version of some editing software, so there is a large obnoxious banner over clips I export (i’ll just pay the 40 bucks for the software if I get to a final edit I want to export) but here a couple of clips of some scenes i’ve been working on, the pw is ‘fanedit’ for all of these:

Alt Into to The Long Night: https://vimeo.com/341071202

Euron Ambush Without Dany: https://vimeo.com/341068472

Rhaegals Death In The Bells: https://vimeo.com/341070921

These are still a bit rough but i’ll put some more up tomorrow if I can

Poppasketti, I liked your version of that scene in the last ep too, I still think there could be a few changes but it just tightens up the whole flow of that part really well - that kind of approach could do a lot for all of S8 I think.

Some really good discussion and ideas here. I agree as well that you have to be realistic with what can be changed within the realms and limitations of a fanedit.

Game Of Thrones was such an incredible show and deserves to go out on the best note possible, I think a really well done and consistent edit could do a lot of work there. Especially since it is mainly the pacing and some of the writing throwing everything off (acting, visuals, audio all incredible quality)

In terms of S8, i’ve been chipping away at some edits of eps 3 - 6, incorporating a lot of common changes suggested online (Moving when Rhaegal is shot to ep5 for example) as well as a lot of other stuff and small QOL adjustments.

We can’t get 10 episodes or a season of NK and then a season of Kings Landing obviously, but there’s a lot to work with. A really good post I saw made a point that there somewhere between 10 and 13 notable things are happening in each episode in S8, compared to 4 or 5 things in seasons 1-4 and this is a big part of why everything feels so rushed.

I’m experimenting with going for 7 episodes instead of 6, by splitting The Long Night over two episodes. This is a bit of psychological misdirection with the pacing, making it seem like it stretches over two eps instead of being all tied up in one.

To do this i’m currently running with the NK surviving Drogons blast as the dividing point. Alongside roughly 4-5 mins of cuts along the way, this clocks in at a fairly standard 55mins. Next ep picks up from there and also steals the funeral scene from ep 4 as a closer. I really loved that scene and I think it gives a nice bookend to the fight being over, Jons speech closing it out nicely.

I’ll need to flesh that second part out though as it’s only about 31 mins with the funeral scene. It’s also a shame not having Mel walking into the wastes as an ending anymore too as it worked really well, especially with the score. May need to look at this. Going just by the numbers theres ~60mins a piece for 7 episodes if you can cut it right and I have little to no editing experience.

Broadly though, here are things i’ve done with episode 3 so far:

• Did a default brightness/color correction off the bat, then adjusted shots individually (so shots with fire aren’t blown out for example)

• Slightly changed intro to episode to show characters preparing in a slightly different order, also worked in audio of Bran describing his dream of Winterfell being flooded to Osha from way back.

• Removed 4 or 5 times a main character is seemingly covered in the dead/swarmed but then it cuts away.

• Restructured the intro, whilst keeping the eerie silence theme going. Removed about half of the main cast standing on the frontlines. I find it much more believable that they are fighting through and surviving if they show up in the fray later instead of eating the first charge. Tormund, Beric, Jorah and The Hound are still in there though to still have some guys to follow.

• Used audio from old seasons and subtitling to make it seem that when the Dothraki break, they are breaking early and off plan because they got too ginned up from getting a fire bonus on their Arakhs and this causes everyone to join in and sweep up Jorah in the midst.

• Removed almost all shots that show you where the trebuchets are located. Now you still see them fired and their impact, but its not 100% obvious where they are.

• Trimmed some dialogue here (and in 4 + 5) that felt a bit to on-the-nose.

• Have sectioned off the scene where Bran wargs into the crows so that it works without it or can be repurposed later on. I will probably use it later because i’d like it if Bran could be helping other people or doing something other than observing.

• Slightly trimmed Aryas entrance, she still shows up and kills a bunch of wights, but doesn’t pose hollywood style right into shot, also re-scored here to different music.

• Re-cut scene where NK raises his new dead so that Dany saving Jon here happens continuously instead of cutting away when Jon looks swamped. This makes it looks like she is quick with the save, more believable to me anyway.

I’ve done a lot of 4 and 5 too, but I don’t want to make this post even longer, i’ll see if I can try to post a clip later.

Anyone else got any burning issues with e3 from an editing standpoint they think I should work in?