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RidgeShark

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8-Apr-2006
Last activity
28-Mar-2023
Posts
138

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Post
#331787
Topic
Army of Darkness - The Primitive Screwhead Edition (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/331787/action/topic#331787
Time
Doctor M said:

So it looks like a v2 is going to happen then.  I guess there's no point in burning a disc of the current version now.

I have one request for your future release: have better explanations for the different versions.

While the current Overdose, Doctor's Orders, etc. is cute, I find it hard to remember the differences when getting ready to watch it.

 

Back in February, I did say that if enough people disliked the multiple aspect ratio presentation, then I wouldn't mind going the overcropping route for version 2.0.  However, there has been next to no real criticism of the film's presentation and so there's no real need for V2.0.  Of course, that doesn't mean I haven't thought about working on V2.0.  As you know from all of your fine work, nothing is ever really perfect for us fan editors and preservationists, especially when we aren't given an entire movie or its deleted footage on a silver platter.  Naturally there's a small list of improvements I'd like to make to the Primitive Screwhead Edition, but they're so minor that only me and maybe three other people would notice them. 

Now if the SciFi channel were to somehow get a HD transfer of the tv cut, then I would be all over it.  I think it's possible given that the tv cut of Ace Ventura was recently given a new HD transfer.  I mean, who saw that coming?  Hopefully all the studios will see the benefit of creating new HD transfers of old tv cuts like this one in order to maximize their profits from advertisers - after all, a longer movie means more commercial breaks.  So if this was to happen, then I would definitely create a V2.0 and I would probably add some flashier, more descriptive menus, and possibly create some special features.  But until then, I'm content to just help out with other Army of Darkness projects and spend most of my time finishing school.

Post
#328085
Topic
Batman Forever - Dark Knight Edition (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/328085/action/topic#328085
Time

There do seem to be some similarities between the description of Paulisdead's The Dark Knight, and the DVD listed on eBay - such as the change in the film's colouring/lighting.  However, from the description on fanedit.org, Paulisdead's edit opens at Wayne Enterprises, whereas the edit on eBay claims to have a "new opening" - which is Two-Face's escape from Arkham Asylum - along with other deleted scenes reinserted.  I haven't seen Paulisdead's edit, so I can't comment for certain on whether or not it has any deleted scenes reinserted, but from it's description on fanedit.org, there doesn't seem to be any.

Post
#326366
Topic
Restoration of Deleted Scenes of Star Wars
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/326366/action/topic#326366
Time

It's best to manually fix the damaged frames and to do a little bit of manual dirt cleanup first because once you've done that, you'll have a "pristine" reference video that you can then try all sorts of video filters on.  So lets say that you apply a filter on your manually cleaned reference video and it smooths over too much image detail - well, not to worry, because you can just start over again and try different settings or other filters on the reference file.  The major plus of this is that you won't have to keep going back and having to fix those badly damaged frames every time you want to try using different video filters/settings.  This will save you time and allow you to do more experimentation, which will hopefully get the video image to look as good as it possibly could.

Post
#311478
Topic
Army of Darkness - The Primitive Screwhead Edition (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/311478/action/topic#311478
Time
I believe the scene you're talking about occurs after Ash unknowingly flattens the "I'll cut your gizzard out!" deadite. He then jumps into the scene you're talking about and says "Come to papa!" - in the beginning of this shot, in the background, you see a deadite holding a severed head. After Ash's "papa" line, it cuts to Evil Ash who says "Get him!" - then it cuts to a closer shot of the deadite holding the severed head.
Post
#311210
Topic
After Effects CS3 help needed
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/311210/action/topic#311210
Time
Hey dark_jedi,

Glad to see that another fan edit of this film is coming along the way. I wanted to make a recommendation to you about which source will give you the best results when it comes to processing the deleted Henry the Red scene. From the looks of the picture you put up, you are using the Anchor Bay disc as your source for the scene. What you need to know about that disc is that Anchor Bay did a bad inverse telecine on the video, and then further deteriorated the video when they enhanced it for 16:9. That's why there's a strange, interlaced appearance to it. Meanwhile, the Region 3 MGM DVD just uses a straight 4:3, interlaced transfer of the workprint footage provided to them. Although most of the workprint footage on the Region 3 disc has a strange interlace pattern(along with strange light blurs), the Henry the Red scene comes from a better source and has the normal 2:3 pulldown pattern - thus allowing you to inverse telecine the footage and get a higher quality result when compared to the Anchor Bay presentation.

Basically what I'm getting at, is that if you're going to go to all the work cleaning up the video like I did for the Primitive Screwhead Edition, then it makes sense for you to use the best source. Since pictures speak louder than words, I give you this comparison:

1st - the image you provided (presumably Region 1 Anchor Bay). 2nd - Region 3 Footage with Inverse Telecine and then resized to 16x9
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/678/aod3527tp5.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v326/RidgeShark/henrythered1-1.png

Look at the wrinkles around his eyes, the hair by his ear, and basically just anywhere else in the picture to see the improvement.

I hope this information helps you and your project out. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with. If you would like any high quality copies of my materials, then let me know.

-RS
Post
#310432
Topic
Army of Darkness - The Primitive Screwhead Edition (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/310432/action/topic#310432
Time
It's been a while...

First, I would like to apologize to those I never got around to sending discs to. My life, for the last few months - well it's been a long story. If those I promised discs to have not yet downloaded the torrent, please message me again with your address and I will quickly send you out copies. Again, sorry for the delay and being so damned irresponsible.

Anyways, it appears that my test disc has become the official Primitive Screwhead release. You guys! I might have known that something like this was going to happen after I disappeared. I have to admit that I really get a kick out of how it all worked out - and having it released by none other than the world-infamous Garrett Gilchrist; I have to sincerely say - it's an honor. The guy has done some amazing work, and his encouragement along the way has meant a lot to me. Anyways, yes, I do consider the version released to be a test disc, though I never expressed these feelings to Garrett. I felt confident with the disc I had come up with and doubted that any of the testers would come up with anything major. So for all intents and purposes, the test disc was essentially the final single-layer version, though I did not want to call it final in case anyone spotted some serious problems that I had missed.

So far, looks like the critiques are minimal. I'm not surprised that the multiple aspect ratio presentation is not popular with everyone. My decision to go with this format came about due to the fact that the tv version is not entirely open-matte - the first tv only sequence is open-matte for the most part, while the 2nd tv only sequence goes back and forth from a bit zoomed-in to open-matte. The way I presented it reduced the overcropping that would've occurred if I tried to fill the entire 16:9 frame, but I can see that it's a bit too distracting for some folks. On a side note, I originally tried marrying the zoomed-in shots from the tv version to the wider workprint footage. The outcome was very disgusting and much more distracting than my multiple aspect ratio solution. From the visual distortion to the dirt and screwy colour, the available workprint footage is one hell of a beast. The only shot that came out looking decent was the shot of Ash looking over his shoulder - and so it got left in as a curiosity. Anyways, if enough people dislike the multiple aspect ratio, I don't mind going the overcropping route for version 2.0.

As for the audio - it does sound a bit strange when it's coming through tv speakers, though it sounds fine to me when playing on my 5.1 surround setup. My audio editing and processing skills are a bit limited, especially when it comes to 5.1 mixes, so it's hard for me to know exactly where I went wrong in the mix. I would prefer to create a version that sounds fine on any equipment it's played on. Hopefully it wasn't too detrimental to anyone's viewing experience.

It seems like there's only a few reviews out there - If anyone else has viewed my cut, please respond here and let me know what you did or didn't like about it.

And now to clarify a few things -

1) I did not use an HD version for my cut. The majority of the footage comes from the MGM PAL Region 4 Australian release, which is visually superior to the Region 3 NTSC Director's Cut. Not only is there more detail in the R4 image, but there is also a little more picture on the left, right, and bottom sides of the video. Although PAL has more resolution than NTSC, the resulting Army of Darkness video produced when resizing the PAL footage to NTSC was still superior in detail when compared to the Region 3 video transfer, which was likely softened a tad by MGM in order to reduce compression-artifacting. Although this is unnoticeable on smaller displays, I figured it only made sense to include higher quality footage in my cut.

2) The single layer Primitive Screwhead Edition was not shrunken from a dual layer version. In order to keep the quality as high as possible, the single layer MPEG-2 video encode was made directly off of my 68gb Huffy Lossless Compressed video master. Despite the relatively low bitrate, the majority of the MPEG-2 Compression artifacts you see in the video actually come from the original sources and not my encode.

3) I do intend to create a Dual Layer version featuring a high bitrate video transfer. Although a higher bitrate won't necessarily improve the soft, lower quality tv and workprint footage, it will better present and preserve the higher detail from the PAL conversion I mentioned eariler.

Before I end this message, I just want to give a big thank you to everyone who has helped out with the project - Ocpmovie for the suggestions, encouragement, for releasing the disc for me, and also for making a copy for Henry the Red himself! Djsmokingjam, for the cover and disc art which are just fantastic. JHammondC and Molly, your comments had a big impact on the message that jump starts my cut . I probably have some more thanks to give, but I'm dead tired at the moment and can't recall everyone - so I just want to give a big thank you to everyone for their interest and the help they offered.

Also - Dark Jedi, I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with the movie. If I can help in any way, let me know.
Post
#299540
Topic
Army of Darkness - The Primitive Screwhead Edition (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/299540/action/topic#299540
Time
The Italian poster would be a great choice, but if you're able to do something with the 3rd comic book cover, then go for it - because that's some great artwork.

I've been toying with the idea of calling this the "Primitive Screwhead Cut" or "Edition." So I'd like to see that on whatever artwork gets released with this.

I'm extremely close to having this thing finished. I hate giving estimates on when this will be done, but I feel confident enough now to say it will be done within the next few days.
Post
#295561
Topic
Army of Darkness - The Primitive Screwhead Edition (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/295561/action/topic#295561
Time
The project is still alive and well. I've undergone a huge move recently, and I've been very busy working - so this project has taken something of a backseat to everything else going on in my life.

The good news is that I did get a preliminary/test version up and running with branching for the alternate beginnings and endings - and it works very well on most dvd players. It seems to only have a real problem with dvd players that have slower drives. The project is very close to being finished - I just need to fix a few problems with the video and 5.1 audio and it should all be set. I've decided to drop any "extra" content due to it being a bit more extra work than I'm willing to do right now.

Anyways, I don't have an internet connection right now, so updates will be few and far in between. I'm hoping to have this truly, and finally finished by October. Wish me luck.
Post
#284196
Topic
Army of Darkness - The Primitive Screwhead Edition (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/284196/action/topic#284196
Time
There's not much in the way of updates since finals are coming up. However, about a week ago I managed to create a high quality version of the original Army of Darkness opening by incorporating high quality footage from Evil Dead 2 and AOD itself. It looks pretty spiffy, but at times the ugly VHS quality rears its ugly head since there is no high quality footage available for some shots (mainly Ash's eyes as he tells his story). I'll be incorporating this alternate opening somehow. I still haven't messed around with the dvd authoring software, so I still don't really know how to make a branching DVD - I swear I'll figure it out though!

Sushicide - I am using some video from the standard definition side on the HD-DVD/DVD combo edition. I wish I had a way to use the high-def footage since the standard def side on the combo disc has a few problems - such as some artificial sharpening *gag* - but it will have to do since it's the best video available to me for things like the theatrical-only line - "Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun."

mcfly89 - Awesome work on the Waterworld composite edit. Earlier tonight I had some friends asking me if I knew anything about the extended television version of Waterworld and I started telling them about your project. Needless to say, we're all excited and can't wait to see it.

Before I disappear again - I just wanted to say that my entire AoD edit is basically done - including the color correction. Now I'm left with doing a lot of testing on the 5.1 audio mix to make sure it sounds alright. I'm mixing together so many different sources for the audio mix, so there's bound to be some problems. I'm definitely no pro at 5.1 audio, and it would be way easier to just do this in 2.0 stereo - but then I wouldn't be happy with it. Anyways, the audio testing will begin after my finals are over. Should be fun.

Post
#275628
Topic
Army of Darkness - The Primitive Screwhead Edition (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/275628/action/topic#275628
Time
Thank you for the information, Reverend. Looks like we're limited to the available Army of Darkness dvds.

I got my Dino De Laurentiis Communications image from the trailer on the R3 disc - unfortunately, the movie itself on the R3 disc doesn't begin with the logo. While the image quality of the logo from the R3 trailer is higher than what's shown on the Anchor Bay director's cut/bootleg edition, it still has it's own problems. If this is the best source for it though - I'm sure I could make it look better.

Insanity, thank you for the suggestion - and JHammondC, I'm sure you'll love that R3 disc. I remember when I first got it in the mail - oh what a day that was!
Post
#275077
Topic
Army of Darkness - The Primitive Screwhead Edition (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/275077/action/topic#275077
Time
I'm glad to see that there's still interest in this project - I can't wait to be finished with it and show you all the finished product. School has been taking up a lot of my time, but I still find some time to work on it every now and then.

Lately I've just been working on cleaning up the other SciFi exclusive scene - Ash and Arthur's first confrontation. It now looks just about as good as I can get it - and I am now 98% happy with it, like I am the Windmill scene. I tell ya - cleaning up those compression artifacts is extremely tricky. Video filters can certainly clean up the video, but it comes at the destruction of detail. Since the SciFi footage is merely standard definition, there's very little fine detail and most of it is easily smudged and smoothed away by your average video filter. Luckily, I've been using the avisynth filter, FFTD3D, by Fizick - FFTD3D Info . It nicely cleaned up a lot of the video noise and compression artifacts in the Windmill footage that I uploaded a few months ago - and now it's done a nice job with the Ash and Arthur scene. When used right, it can preserve most of a video's detail while suppressing video noise and compression artifacts.

Today I watched both of the filtered SciFi scenes on a 100" screen, being projected onto by a 720p projector - which was connected to an upconverting OPPO DVD player - and the results were very good. That isn't to say that the footage looks like it was mastered from HD or anything like that - but considering that the footage is originally from a highly compressed, standard defintion DirectTV source, it looks damned good and holds up nicely!

And mcfly89, thank you for showing what your recording of AoD looked like. I think it's fascinating to compare different recordings of this movie (yeah, I'm a nerd). Anyways, the corresponding images on my first post were from an earlier period when I had decided to kind of redesign the color scheme in the movie. I thought the movie would look better if it were more colorful and technicolor-ish - sounds crazy right? I just think of the movie as being more in-line with an earlier period of fantasy filmmaking - I honestly could see it has a fantasy film from the 50's or 60's. So I did kind of pretty-up the footage by altering the colors. I've long since abandoned that idea and I'm going to remain true to the original color scheme. The only problem is that each dvd has a different look.

The Anchor Bay Theatrical DVD and MGM Director's and European DVD's usually have a bluer/cooler look - while the Universal DVDs (original non-anamorphic, and new HD-DVD/DVD combo) usually have a warmer/orangish look to the footage. The TV version sometimes has a warmer look, but not always - the night scenes look more like the MGM DVD footage. So it's a bit of a toss up as to what the movie should actually look like. It's not a big deal - just gives a few options as how to present the movie.

Anyways, I don't have time to write a guide as to how I've done it all, but definitely look at that link in this post about FFTD3D - learn about it and avisynth. Also - as for how I'm getting the vobs into vegas - I open the dvd files in DGMPGDec (lots of options in this program, use it wisely) and then save the project as a d2v file, and then I convert that d2v file with VFAPI Reader into a usable, dummy AVI file than can then be used in Vegas. You can find DGMPGDec and VFAPI Reader at Video Help's Tools Section So that takes care of the video - dealing with the audio is one whole other headache.

Also - the Time Warp shot of Ash - as far as I know - isn't in any official version of Army of Darkness. It was just a nice little addition that OCP threw into his version. As far as I know, the version shown on WGN is exactly the same as the SciFi version.
Post
#273328
Topic
Song Of The South - many projects, much info & discussion thread (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/273328/action/topic#273328
Time
The clip is very, very impressive! I noticed a little blending of frames/fields when I examined the video frame by frame, but that's just a minor issue that's barely worth mentioning. When the video is playing, the motion looks very natural. I never thought that a bad NTSC to PAL conversion job could be converted back to NTSC with such good results.

Great job, Doctor M!