ThanosM.

TTR said:

I am more excited for your edits than the finale itself actually.

That’s an ouch for the Duffers and a big responsibility for me.

Jokes aside, I am reading all the complaints about this season so far, and while I might agree with a lot of them, I’m actually enjoying watching (I’m currently on episode 7), and I’m looking forward to the finale. After that, I’ll collect my thoughts and come back here to share them.

submachina said:

ThanosM. said:

I have a lot of thoughts and ideas about approaching Season 5, but excising Lucas and Max is definitely not one of them.

Actually the problem isn’t Lucas and Max individually, it’s those scenes with Lucas and Max together. Their relationship is at best, fluff and, at worst, cringe. Zero chemistry from a forced subplot that only distracts and thus detracts from the main story. The Nancy/Steve/Jonathan love triangle too, even Mike and Eleven, it’s all dragged out Netflix filler (for the teenage audience?) and it doesn’t fit the ethos.

Stranger Things draws heavily from 1980s films like E.T., The Goonies, Stand By Me, Poltergeist, A Nightmare on Elm Street, etc. None of them have teenage romantic subplots. The emphasis is on friendships and childhood bonds. Cringy corny crushes are entirely absent, and this allows the themes of friendship, camaraderie and loyalty to shine. Even in A Nightmare on Elm Street, Nancy and Glen’s relationship is a basic horror trope to raise stakes, not a dragged-out romantic subplot. These films deliberately prioritize innocent, collective friendships over teenage romance, reflecting 1980s genre trends that idealized wonder and group resilience. Stranger Things does the opposite, wedging in excessive romantic entanglements where they just don’t belong. They don’t enhance the story, so it’s questionable why Netflix even added them. Maybe they just needed filler, to fill x number of episodes, which is exactly what fanedits can fix. Or maybe think it’s what today’s teenagers want, which is debatable, and since this is a fanedit, irrelevant. Is it what you want? It’s not what I want.

Contrast this to the ADULT romantic subplot with Joyce and Jim. The Duffer Brothers have said the kid’s narrative draws from Spielberg’s family-friendly, wonder-filled adventures featuring platonic friendships, but the adult’s narrative draw from Spielberg’s more mature films like Jaws and Close Encounters. So while the teen romances are a modern addition that deviates from the genre, the Joyce/Hopper arc aligns more closely with the show’s inspirational roots; two lonely, traumatized adults slowly rediscovering connection amid chaos. Their relationship enhances the ‘skeptical adults encountering the supernatural’ theme, a fitting homage to Spielberg. By contrast, the teen romance forces soap-opera drama onto the kids platonic adventure, betraying the '80s inspirations. Excising the romantic subplots while preserving the friendships would recapture the original spirit of both the 1980s inspirations and what made Season 1 of Stranger Things itself so universally loved. Season 1 stands out as the show’s emotional high-water mark for most fans and critics precisely because its heart is almost entirely platonic. That’s why, to me, eliminating the teen romance elements seems like the most faithful approach to an edit.

Look, I completely understand your point of view, and I agree with almost everything you said. Romance is certainly not one of the show’s key elements. And I have already tried to tone it down significantly in my edits. I reduced Steve and Nancy’s flirtation in Season 1, and I completely removed their relationship in Season 2, not having them get back together after the previous year’s events. I also did the same with Jonathan and Nancy’s flirtation in Season 2 and I trimmed the Lucas/Dustin/Max love triangle down to a minimum, too. Going into Season 3, I removed all hints of romance between Robin and Steve and reduced the whole boys vs girls teen drama. However, I strongly believe that Lucas and Max relationship in Season 4 is a major plot device that elevates both characters’ arcs. That’s why I don’t plan on “excising” them in my Season 5 edits. This doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m going to keep every scene of Lucas visiting Max in hospital. And rest assured that I will definitely tone down the Nancy/Steve/Jonathan love triangle too.

My main focus with these film cuts is, and always will be, the supernatural aspect of the plot and the main characters’ arcs that tie with the overall story.

And one last thing:
As a teacher working predominantly with young adolescents, I can assure you that while they enjoy the supernatural and horror elements of the show, it is the romance that they mainly focus on. So I guess Netflix knows its audience, even if some viewers (like us) might not enjoy certain aspects as much. While it is evident that Stranger Things draws inspiration from the horror classics of the 80s, it is crucial to acknowledge that every show is a product of its era and reflects its own particular characteristics.

Ponds124 said:

Hello! I, like many others, was preparing for the latest season and realized just how much fluff and inconsistencies there has been throughout this show. The Duffers truly did not think in the long term for so much of this series. I was intrigued by the cuts you described for your edit of the series. I love the idea of more solidly making the story about Will and El and allowing that “kids on bikes” horror theme to really shine with the added context from the recent seasons.

Hi there!
While I enjoy finding ways to present the series with tighter, faster-paced storytelling, I also appreciate the extensive fluff throughout the series. While they may not contribute significantly to the overall narrative, they are well-suited to the original episodic format. However, when adapted for a film, many of these elements unfortunately have to be removed.

Ponds124 said:

I am curious to know what you plan to do with s5 and how that will recontextualize the first season especially. They have already (kinda) retconned quite a bit and have added a lot to the Will story in connection with the Upside Down. I hope you will give us updates once this season is done in regards to what steps you are taking. Also I disagree with another poster, I think Lucas and Max have the potential to be a deeply compelling part of the story and inhabit a lot of the heart that the 1st season had.
Hope to eventually watch through all of your edits and see the whole series as a more cohesive whole! Thank you for your work!

Oh, I have lots of thoughts and ideas about Season 5! In fact, I have already started working on my current vision for the season, although I don’t know if that’s wise not knowing how the series will conclude. However, I’ll have to wait before sharing any details of my process. Rest assured, though, that I’ll be posting regular updates whenever everything is on track. I quite enjoy it, actually — I see this thread as my personal journal for this project.

submachina said:

Any way dull Lucas and insufferable Max gets excised from S5? Please?

I have a lot of thoughts and ideas about approaching Season 5, but excising Lucas and Max is definitely not one of them.

TheStudioPro said:

Thanos, thanks for all of your hard work!!! Once I can DM this collection is going to be my first request.

What software do you use to make your video edits?

Do you use different softwaee for audio edits?

Whats your final export software for your final renders?

(Sorry for all the questions, I’m just new here and excited for this community in general.)

I may be in a very small minority of faneditors who use Shotcut for their edits. It’s a free, open-source software that’s very lightweight, which is perfect for my old shitty laptop. It certainly has its limitations, but I feel comfortable editing with it and have developed a workflow that allows me to work faster.
When it comes to audio, Audacity has become a good friend of mine over the years, and more recently so have VocalRemover and ElevenLabs.

Hi everyone! I hope you’re all well.

With November just around the corner and the final season about to begin, I’d like to share some thoughts and predictions. Not about how the show is going to end — there are already plenty of fan theories around — but about how I am going to tackle the monumental task of concluding this project.

Let’s start with some facts:

We know that Volume 1 will be released on November 26 with Episodes 1–4, followed by Volume 2 on Christmas Day with Episodes 5–7, and the finale on New Year’s Eve. We also know the runtime of the first four episodes:

Episode 1: 1 hour and 8 minutes
Episode 2: 54 minutes
Episode 3: 1 hour and 6 minutes
Episode 4: 1 hour and 23 minutes.

Total runtime of Volume 1: 4 hours 31 minutes

Although the lengths of the remaining episodes have not yet been released, I estimate that they will be around 1 hour each, with the final episode being between 2 and 2.5 hours long, as it has been confirmed that it will also be released in cinemas. So, in total:

Volume 2 + finale = ~5 hours 30 minutes

This means that the total runtime of Season 5 will be around 10 hours.

Now, let’s compare these facts with the lengths of previous seasons and my process behind these fanedits:

With Season 3 having a total runtime of 7 hours and 24 minutes, I managed to put together a roughly 3-hour film cut, trimming and cutting several plotlines, of course.

Furthermore, Season 4 had a total runtime of around 13 hours, resulting in three film cuts totalling approximately 7 hours and 30 minutes, without actually removing much footage.

The key difference when comparing Season 4 with both Season 3 and, I would guess, Season 5, is the multiple plotlines spread across various locations. While this enabled me to split the season into three parts — with ‘The Monster and the Superhero’ allowing both ‘The Curse of Vecna’ and ‘The Piggyback’ to have a more concise runtime — I don’t think this will be the case for Season 5 also, as all the events appear to take place in one location: Hawkins. Another guess would be that there won’t be many filler plotlines to cut or present in as ‘standalone chapters’. This is the final season. Every second counts.

So, to summarise:

Assuming the final season’s total runtime ends up being around 10 hours, I’d be happy to complete my film collection with two 3-plus-hour film cuts, cοvering Episodes 1-4 and 5-8 respectively. I still don’t know if that’s a realistic approach, but I know I’d hate to have to split this season into three parts as well, especially if the first two end on a cliff-hanger. I guess time will tell.

But to be clear, it will be a long time before I get to this point. As soon as the finale hits, my first action will be to review every previous film cut for any inconsistencies or mishandlings, given the full story. This will determine how much work I might have to do before moving on to Season 5. In fact, I am already working on a new treatment for ‘The Vanishing of Will Byers’ after having an interesting conversation with a viewer. But even if everything works out fine and nothing needs to be changed in my current film collection, I still won’t rush things. Those of you who have followed this project from the beginning (for whom I am very grateful) will know that each film cut has had multiple versions over the years. Frankly, I don’t want that to be the case with the final instalments. I want to be completely satisfied with my final work before sharing it — or at least as satisfied as a faneditor can be. This includes coming up with the titles, as well as putting together the posters and subtitles.

Having said all that, I’m very excited for the last season and looking forward to working on these new episodes. Although balancing family life and work commitments is going to be extremely challenging over the next months…

That’s all for now. See you in the Rightside Up!

EddieDean said:

Movie #4 was a capable restructuring of a medium story. The original plotline wasn’t super interesting and suffered from too many epilogues, but you did a good job of putting it together and made the right call in shifting the Salvor/Gaal epilogue to movie #5. A perfectly decent step towards what comes next.

Movie #5 was excellent - really exciting, well polished, and well paced. I’ve not seen the original season two but this felt perfect in its subjects and execution. I can feel the show getting better and deserving the improved critical recognition, and I’m really glad I had your season one movies to get me to this point. Really good job, please keep at it!

Thanks again!

Yes, I also believe that my decision to remove Gaal’s return on Synnax from Film 4 and place it as the opening sequence of Film 5 significantly benefits both film cuts.

To be honest, going into Season 2, I wasn’t as confident about how I was structuring my film cuts as I was with Season 1. In my not so humble opinion, every film in Season 1 works perfectly both narratively and as a chapter in a greater story, and I truly love each film equally. However, I can’t say the same for the following instalments. There is definitely a variation in tone, pace and length between the films, but looking back, I think I did the best I could. That said, I always believe there is room for improvement.

I need to take some time to gather my thoughts about Season 3 now that it’s finished, and provide updates on my thought process on how I’m going to continue this project. The truth is that I have already started working on Films 9 and 10, but — spoiler alert — they won’t be ready any time soon. In fact, I am considering waiting until Season 4 arrives to start working on Volume 3 again.

EddieDean said:

I’ve just watched your movie #3, and it was my favourite one yet. Three very strong plotlines, very well paced internally and around each other, that keep the thrust of the whole show moving. Technically excellent too. Very very good work!

Thank you once again! I must admit that Film III is my favourite in Volume I, too. I had so much fun putting it together, and it was great to see how well the plotlines worked together.

EddieDean said:

You mentioned making some trims for season 2’s content- without spoilers, how heavy are they?

Off the top of my head, I’d say most cuts had to do with the pacing of certain storylines and cutting down on the ‘silliness’ of new characters.

EddieDean said:

I’m not sure whether to watch your movies or the original episodic format first.

Due to the nature of these films, I honestly don’t know how to advise you on that. If you asked me the same question about my Stranger Things films, or any other traditional TV-to-film fanedit, I’d say to watch the film version first, and then the episodic format, to see if the plot was summarised successfully. However, as the purpose of these Foundation films is to regroup the plotlines of the original material rather than summarise them, I honestly don’t know which approach would be more engaging.
Either way, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.

EddieDean said:

This edit desperately deserves a glowing review! I’m finally picking this up and only two movies in, but absolutely loving it so far. Common consensus of the show, especially through season three, seems to be that the decision to deviate from the source books has borne out. And I certainly enjoyed season one in its original form for what it was, though found it extremely disjointed, with a lot of character revelations (especially their motivations) often being revealed after their actions. For me, the two movies I’ve seen so far completely remedy this, allowing the available content to be enjoyed in the most digestible manner. It’s a great effort and really well executed, and definitely the way I’d propose a first-time viewer watch this show.

Thank you so much for this! Your praise means a lot, especially coming from someone as skilled and experienced at fanediting as you are. Thanks, buddy!

EddieDean said:

One minor nitpick is that in the first two movies at least, some of the on-screen text (‘X years ago’ and planet names) is inconsistently sized/positioned relative to each other, and in one instance in the first movie some of that text is actually cut off by the new black bars at the bottom of the screen. This didn’t hamper my enjoyment of the content, though.

Yup, I’ve spotted those errors as well. I’ve always thought about revisiting and refining minor details like these, as well as resolving some audio issues, but I’ve never had the chance. I hope they will be fixed in time for the release of Volume III, which I am currently working on.

EddieDean said:

And one other question: Does season two jump around in time in the same way as season one, or is the original content told in chronological order?

The narrative of the next seasons is definitely less disjointed than that of the first, and the timeline is fairly linear. There are some flashbacks throughout the episodes, but they do not disrupt the main narrative.

I guess my process for Season 2 and 3 was to regroup the several plotlines, rather than restructure the whole story as I did for the first season.

hausofdoobie said:

Hi! I just created my account im not sure how this website works, but is there any chance anyone has a “California & Hawkins Only” cut of Season 4, with the whole hopper & joyce russia subplot cut? i wanna rewatch the season but that subplot is so boring

Hi there! I will spend you a PM with instructions.

Gaberaltar said:

I am excited about the upcoming new season and wanted to prepare by re-watching the series. But I’m dreading to go through the official edit. So I love seeing that you did this amazing work of structuring the whole series!
I’d love to see your work if possible. Thanks so much 😃

Thanks for the kind words!

PM sent.

Congratulations, Andreas! What an amazing journey it must have been that led you to this point. It certainly was for us faithful fans of your work. I bet it’s bittersweet to have reached the end of this massive project, but you deserve all the credit for your hard work.
Thank you once again, and keep up the good work!

Now, I guess I have to find some free time to sit down and enjoy this final epic piece, and give you my honest feedback as I used to!

Anjohan said:
This project has been a massive undertaking. Am I happy with it? Absolutely.

Always remember that’s all that matters. As fan editors, we pour our hearts and souls into what we love. What really matters in the end is whether we are happy and satisfied with what we choose to share with the world.
Congratulations again on all your accomplishments!

LukasSkiwalter said:

What a cool project. With the announcement of the Season 5 dates (November/December this year) I was looking for some shortened version to rewatch and found this. Would really like to check it out!

Thanks, mate!

rabbitscooter said:

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!

PM sent!

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!

potty meister said:

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.

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.

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.

triciaorgana said:

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

• Shorter flashback opening

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:

1. EXTERIOR of Hawkins Lab, accompanied by children’s unnerving screams.
2. CUT to the bloody corridor right after the massacre, then CUT TO BLACK.
3. CUT to Dr Brenner waking up and finding young Eleven.

• Alternative Chrissy’s death scene

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.

• Removed Elevens’s “1979 visions”

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.

• Added back Lucas joining Jason in his hunt for Eddie right after Fred’s death scene

Firstly, to mirror Max waking up after Chrissy’s death and secondly, to gain further insight into Luca’s relations with his new friends.

• Added back Eleven and Owens at the diner

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.

• Removed Eleven arriving at the bunker

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:

1. Eleven discovers what is actually happening to her alongside the viewer.
2. Dr Brenner’s return is revealed in a more creative way.
3. NINA’s actual location remains a mystery throughout the film, which ties in perfectly with the plot of “The Monster and the Superhero” and the ultimate reveal of the bunker’s location in “The Mind Lair”.

• Spread Eleven’s journey more evenly throughout the film + Added back Eleven trying to escape + Removed ‘Buried Mermories’ montage

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!

ziggystudebaker said:

Love the cover art! This looks/sounds like a great project, especially being a fan of 80’s horror

Thank you!

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!

ccateni said:

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!