I’m very late to this party but would love to check out your restructuring. I gave up watching - too all over the place and slow for me - but what you’ve done looks amazing. Bravo!
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Hi, can I get a new link please. Loved the first 2 films, not seen what you’ve managed with the rest of the series yet though. Thanks
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Would love a link dude!
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I’ve just watched them, this is truly a very special project.
I’ve thinking of ways to introduce my son to Star Wars in the future and I believe I have found the one.
Many thanks to everyone involved in this project!
Would love to do a rewatch of this show in this new format if I could get a link, that would be lovely.
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I’d like to see this as well. I’ve seen Smudger’s two movie edit. It’s well done but even that is too long for me lol
Thanks!
Same here. Smudger’s edits are beatufully done as always, but this sounds very promosing and exciting.
I would really love to watch your cut as well.
Hey, these edits look really promising. Can I get a link to watch them? Thanks!
PM sent!
I’ve also added the updated version of Stranger Things 3: The Mall Rats I was talking about, with Suzie’s alternative reveal, plus a new version of Stranger Things 2: The Mind Flayer, with an extra scene of Billy almost running over the boys while driving home with Max, in an attempt to reinforce his character through his abusive behaviour.
I’d love to visit stranger things film edit. Would be grateful if someone share me the links
PM sent.
THE NEW VERSION OF ‘THE CURSE OF VECNA’ IS NOW AVAILABLE.
I’ve also added new English subtitles and updated the list in the first comment with all the new changes and additions.
Also, I decided to remove the alternative cut of ‘The Mind Lair (The Trooper’s Cut)’ from my collection to free up some space on my Google drive. However, you can still find ‘The Trooper’ scene on my yt channel:
https://youtu.be/AHtsSjVvBRk?si=3nCssapdmSDYTMX6
Speaking of alternative cuts, I am also considering scrapping ‘The Neverending Story Cut’ of Stranger Things 3 and replacing the ‘canon’ version with a new one that includes this alternative scene of Suzie:
https://youtu.be/tJH1P6lWypE?si=AO8QScs5efHTDI0N
I’m going to sleep on it and come back to it in the future.
EDIT:
A couple of days later and I think I have come up with another way to scrap my alternate cut of Stranger Things 3 and at the same time fix an important problem in the ‘canon’ cut regarding Suzie.
So my problem with the Neverending Story scene was always that it kind of disrupted the pace and momentum of the Season 3 finale. However, the complete removal of that scene raises a serious question about the overall story of the film and Dustin’s character: Is Suzie even real? Has Dustin been lying to his friends all this time?
Hence the need for an alternative cut, which I am trying to remove from my collection.
By including the above alternative scene in the film, Suzie is legitimised as a character and the singing part is no longer a problem, but the aforementioned pacing disruption remains a problem. So I came up with the idea of re-porpusing Dustin and Suzie’s scene from the first episode of Season 4 as the ultimate reveal of Suzie’s character as part of the finale of Stranger Things 3, like this:
https://streamable.com/64qg2h
Does this change solve the problem I mentioned above? I think it does, but it also creates a new one. Dustin looks a little older than the rest of the film, which I suppose is something that can happen with young actors and could be justified by the three month time jump. He is also wearing the same outfit as in Stranger Things 4 beginning (his Hellfire Club t-shirt is mostly hidden), but I think this is just a small continuity error.
Ultimately, fanediting is about trying to solve larger narrative or structural problems while letting the smaller ones go.
bro link please!
PM sent bro
I’m half way through your edits right now, and I have to say that they are amazing. This franchise has always been so important to me growing up - and the show as it sits originally is hard to sell on people due to all the issues you managed to edit out!
My smallest “just being picky” note would be that I wish you leaned a bit more into the idea of them being movies in regards to the credits sequences and title cards. Giving the films a movie style title sequence and repurposing the tv series’ credit scene as the stylized credits many movies have at the end before the text crawl. I think that would have given them the perfect touch. BUT as i said, that is just me being picky
You’ve treated this series with the love and care it deserves and I cannot wait to finish watching
Thank you so so much!
It is always very heartfelt to receive praise from fans of the original material, who grew up with Pullman 's books as I did.
As for your “nitpick”, at one point I considered repurposing the opening credits as the end credits. In fact, I did the exact same thing for my Foundation fan edits and it worked quite well. However, there are some directors, such as Tim Burton, who often use similar opening credits in their films.
If I ever revisit this project in the future, I will seriously consider making that change.
Thanks again for your kind
words!
ANNOUNCEMENT
Hello everyone. Back for some small talk.
So, Stranger Things 5 still seems a long way off, and Stranger Things Day didn’t really give us much to talk about other than those episode titles, which are always a source of inspiration for my edit titles. I admit that some of them have a very interesting ring to them, but “The Rightside Up” seems like a very fitting title for both the final episode of the series and my final edit. Although we still have a long way to go, given that this is going to be the biggest season yet, I would predict that I will end up making three film cuts out of the final season, as I did for Season 4.
Speaking of Season 4, the real reason I am posting here today is to announce yet another updated version of my “The Curse of Vecna” film cut. Come to think of it, this must be the most revised cut of my series, and definitely the most challenging one. But I think I finally got it right.
To be honest, I don’t think there is that much wrong with the current version, but there was always something about the pacing that bothered me. I realised that I was too focused on cutting down the runtime and organising the subplots that I didn’t let the film breathe, especially around the middle.
With this new version, while keeping the main story intact, I let some scenes run a bit longer and allowed some storylines to expand a little further, while making some bold decisions that affected both the overall runtime and the narrative of the film. The end result is a cut with exactly the same length (3 hours and 15 minutes), but with better pacing and a slightly more intriguing narrative.
NEW CHANGELIST
In an attempt to mirror the opening scene of Season 1 (and save some time), I completely removed the Rainbow Room and Ten’s lessons. In this version, the opening scene goes like this:
While the original scene is fine as it is, I find it a little too gruesome for the first minutes of my film and a little too telling for the rest of the plot. In this version, sticking with Chrissy inside her vision the whole time and not cutting back to Eddie’s trailer, makes both her fate a mystery and Eddie a possible suspect for her murder. The reveal of what actually happened inside the trailer comes later in the film through Eddie’s narration.
While I understand that these brief glimpses of the massacre at Hawkins Lab are merely a visual parallel to the Rink-O-Mania incident, it makes no sense for them to be in Eleven’s subconscious, as we later see that she has absolutely no memory of those events.
Firstly, to mirror Max waking up after Chrissy’s death and secondly, to gain further insight into Luca’s relations with his new friends.
I only recently realised how important this scene is to the overall plot, as it provides an essential link between Eleven’s training and the events in Hawkins, and how unwise it was of me to remove it in the first place.
After her meeting with Owens, we next see Eleven waking up in Hawkins Lab with her hair buzzed. This is perhaps the boldest change in this cut, and it affects this and the next instalments as follows:
Over the next few days I will test the updated cut, put together the new subtitles and then announce its release.
Have a nice day!
Could I get a link to these cuts
Could I get a link to your cuts? I’d love to see them, thank you.
PMs sent!
Love the cover art! This looks/sounds like a great project, especially being a fan of 80’s horror
Thank you!
I would really love to watch these. Would someone be able to PM me a link(s)?
Thank you in advance!
PMs sent.
I’d love a link. I never finished the season, or series despite buying all 3 seasons on Blu Ray and trying to get through it multiple times. This edit seems like a much better length.
PM sent.
Amazing colour grading!
To be honest, I never minded the original, I think it fits the overall tone of the film. But this… this is beyond my expectations! It looks stunning!
I also loved the new deepfake! Admittedly, it looks a bit jarring, but it has something really interesting about it. Looking forward to the final result!
Very exciting!
Smudger9, you’re an expert at SW fan edits. When you have a chance, please send me a link!
I would love the link if you still have it.
Did you end up doing a version in 4k or 1080p or just one of the two?
No 4K, just 1080p for all five films.
Very interesting stuff.
I always thought that these movies could use a fan editor’s treatment (I had my own ideas at some point), so I am very excited for this.
I wish you good luck!
I’m glad you’re improving your edits to create the best possible movie experience. I wonder if you come back to them after the grand finale
That depends on the final outcome of the story. But I don’t think there will be any need for a major rework, whatever the outcome. Unless Benny comes back from the dead, which I doubt. But I guess all that remains to be seen.
To be honest, I really enjoy going back to each cut and finding ways to improve it. And I think each version is better than the last. And, as always, I hope you think that as well.
PM please, quite interested!
PM sent.
I recently announced that I would not be messing with my Stranger Things cuts until the final season, but here I am again. Over the past few weeks I have taken the time to experiment a bit more with what I have already done and so:
PS: I am also planning on redoing certain parts of Stranger Things 4: The Curse of Vecna where the added music is sounding a bit low. While editing and watching my cut with headphones, everything was sounding alright, but while watching on TV I noticed that some parts need a bit more work.
Both Alternative Cuts, Stranger Things 3: The Mall Rats (The Nevereding Story Cut) and Stranger Things 4: The Mind Lair (The Trooper’s Cut), have been added to the collection, the latter being a brand new never-before-released version.
Some metalheads may have guessed what this new cut might be about from the title alone, but I will explain.
Whlie the ‘Master of Puppets’ scene is great as it is and has become an iconic moment in the show, I’ve always wished they’d gone a different way with it. Since Eddie is an Iron Maiden fan (as am I) and owns ‘Piece of Mind’ on cassette (although it’s not obvious in my cut) AND shares the name of Iron Maiden’s iconic mascot, I wanted to use one of their songs to honour both the band and the character. And that’s where ‘The Trooper’ came in - one of Iron Maiden’s most iconic tracks, with an amazing guitar solo and lyrics (at least the first two verses I used) that fit perfectly with the mood of the scene. The challenge here was to isolate both dialogue and sounds from the original clip, none of which were entirely clear, and match them to the song, in order for the scene to make sense. However, I will say that I am quite happy with the result and I think it gives a whole new and refreshing life to this fanedit.
This change may only please a small group of fans, but for me at least, ‘The Trooper’s Cut’ is my go-to cut of the final part of ST4 (as is ‘The Neverending Story Cut’ for ST3).
These uploads also complete the rebranding of my collection and will be my last approach to this project. Until Season 5 comes out, of course, and I may have to go back and revisit some things.
I’d be very interested to check this out - I couldn’t really get into the series before but maybe a trimmed up version could be much better.
-JD
PM sent.
I am happy to announce that I’ve finally finished uploading the updated versions of my Stranger Things Film Collection!
I’ve put a lot of time and care into this update/rebranding and I’m really relieved to finally be able to share my work with you all. I really hope you enjoy the results.
Along with these edits, you can find my new custom-made posters and English subtitles for each film.
Once again I would like to thank everyone for their input and patience!
Upcoming Extended/Alternative Cuts:
Stranger Things 3: The Mall Rats (The Nevereding Cut), which I’m currently exporting
Stranger Things 4: The Curse of Vecna (The Creel Cut), which I’m about to start working on
Stranger Things 4: The Mind Lair (The Trooper Cut)… which is something cool I’ve been working on for our metalhead friends. Honestly, I am so excited to share this one.