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ocpmovie

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Post
#202815
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/202815/action/topic#202815
Time
Thanks Cassius! I turn 25 tomorrow, April 20th. Same as Hitler and Marge Simpson.



>> Ok, looks like we're doing a proposal presentation that involves the audience taking action to get Disney to release The Thief and the Cobbler. The great thing is that I'll be giving out copies of the Recobbled Cut to everyone on Wednesday.

Hahahaha! That's great! Wish I could be there, that's awesome.


I'm a Mac guy, so my suggestions on what to use will be useless to you. Maybe ask someone else ...

Obviously to copy a DVD, you just copy it to your hard drive, and burn it using Nero or Toast.

I think that Easy CD and DVD creator is the standard DVD creator for PC ... isn't it? Obviously on Mac we have DVD Studio Pro.





EDIT: Yeah, this cut is going to be a lot closer to the workprint.

I'm realizing more and more that the editing in the workprint was really quite nice .... It was kind of hard to tell when I was cutting with a low-quality version. =)

I'm including more black screen, and shots that I cut out before because I didn't see the point of them. I get the point now.


The opening credits are different .... We see a logo for "Richard Williams Animation" in Richard's own handwriting, and "A Richard Williams film" is now written in Richard's decorative style, similar to "The Thief and the Cobbler." "Once ..." is now illustrated with a slightly simplified version of the real "Once ..." logo. All this gives the film more of a Williams studio feel.

Transitions between workprint and DVD version are handled with dissolves and look really smooth.

There are extra two finished shots of One Eye, from the Calvert WIP.

I'm experimenting with using the new shots of Yumyum in the bath from the Calvert WIP. These shots are pencil tests, reanimated from what you see in the workprint. The old designs of Yumyum and Meemee have been chucked - we see Yumyum alone, with her hair long and down, as we know her in the film. It's not as well animated as the early workprint stuff though, it's not that good. Probably would have looked good if finished.

Because of this, I'm going to try to use them BOTH .... start with the workprint material, and then use the CWIP version of "Where is my backscratcher?" for Yumyum saying "What's happening to me?" See if that works.

I finished pretty much all of the visual editing for the first half of the film in a few hours last night. It was very quick.

But the sound is gonna take more work. I have to redo that from scratch too, and I'm attempting to remove a lot of Robert Folk's music and replace it with classical music, which is a real creative challenge.

At the moment, Folk's score is still present at the beginning of the film to introduce Tack and The Thief ... but after the Nurse beats up The Thief, we dissolve to a Verdi tune, and then to silence. In the throne room, we hear "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis" and "Dance of the Boys."

I also have to create some new original animation and FX to cover the introduction of Yumyum and a pipe appearing outside the window as Tack cobbles.


RANDOM:

I always thought the Maiden From Mombassa scene was nice, but that it could be cut without damaging the story hugely. But looking at it closely, it really introduces the characters very well - there's a black hole of character without it. It sets up how Zigzag distracts the king from what's really going on, and how Yumyum is the smart one who knows what's going on but isn't in charge to stop it. And it's funny. In just a few seconds!
Post
#202794
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/202794/action/topic#202794
Time
Hey Chris! Can you send your restored workprint then, and quick? Maybe I can still use it for part 2 of the film.

I'll go ahead and write you.



Note that the Animator's Survival Kit version of The Witch running is redrawn with a different design - to avoid copyright troubles! Preston Blair did the same thing with Mickey Mouse in his animation books, turned him into an elf or something.
Post
#202755
Topic
FAN EDIT REQUEST THREAD - Post your dream Fan Edits Here!
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/202755/action/topic#202755
Time
Hey Ben! Do you have a decent copy of that longer version of The Muppet Movie?

My copy is CRAP.



I see someone replied to my idea of dubbing Gerard Butler in The Phantom of the Opera movie with Michael Crawford ... editing the film to the original cast soundtrack.

This strikes me as a damn good idea. I wouldn't do it myself, but SOMEONE ought.

If you search Youtube for Michael Crawford Phantom you can find a lot of video of Michael Crawford as The Phantom. Including some promo videos, at least one of which is really professionally shot, like a proper film. These would be nice to include on a release as well ... see Crawford as the Phantom!

I wonder if good copies of Crawford Phantom material can be gotten ..... should perhaps ask the people at, say, phantommovie.com, or phantomoftheopera.com.

Y'know .... at Youtube there's also some kind of poor quality but fairly well shot material of the rest of the show with Crawford and an alternate for Christine. So, it's all there, it exists.

Why doesn't someone track down the best quality copies of this and edit THAT into a film? With the proper videos Crawford shot for Music of the Night and Phantom of the Opera?


Cut it to the CD quality version of the soundtrack, and you've got something!
Post
#202638
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/202638/action/topic#202638
Time
The opening with the hands poses the same problem as the flyover. They screwed it up with dissolves, so I have to do a very different edit. I wish I could recreate the original, as it's quite logical.


I'm not fond of The Thief coming into Yumyum's bathroom because she should have soap on her back and there should be a mirror there ... but oh well.


I've heard from many sources that all the good material in the Calvert version, the stuff that looks like Dick's work, like the ending shot, was done by a team of real Thief animators in London, who were fired pretty quickly. Many of the key Thief animators were among them, still trying to bang out quality material for Calvert. Dick was not involved at this point of course.


Editing.


What a difference this better quality workprint makes. I can finally do "match dissolves" from the DVD to the workprint and have it look good .... I did this in my Return of the Jedi edit to good effect, and I'm doing it here.

It reminds me how much material I actually cut out because it was low quality pencil tests that you couldn't see. Much of that material is being reinstated. Although, again because of a dissolve, I'm still doing something else with Tack's introduction. I've prepared a version of the first Tack shot which puts the pencil test material on a background. It has a more magical feel to it. I'm currently using it as the second Tack shot.


I've started from scratch but I should be able to bang out part 1 in good time as that's the easier of the two. I'm amazed how good the new workprint looks, particularly the pencil tests.

I can see that in the bath scene, Yumyum and Meemee are drawn more like the early "Persian Miniature" designs ... kind of halfway to where Yumyum is in the final film. A pencil shot I originally cut out of Yumyum handing her shoe to Tack shows a roughed-in Tack, and less good Yumyum animation.




I'm going to do some new effects (and opening titles) for this cut ... I still don't know what to do with the introduction of Yumyum. It's clear that SOMETHING needs to be there, but what's in the workprint is just a concept, and is very poor. If it was finished animation it would be great. I think I need to create something here myself which approximates the storyboards.


EDIT: It would be nice to do this for the Hands of Fate as well, but that would require actual animation. Oh well.


Besides the material not being there on the DVD, another reason why I'm kind of ignoring the workprint's notes to fade in and out is because I'm aware that this cut needs to be faster and punchier than the workprint. A workprint by nature is a work in progress and has a pretty slow pace. Out of desire to do this version justice, and since I'm not Richard Williams, I'm not really cutting anything out, even though a few things probably should be ... anything I cut out would be very minor. But to give the appearance that this is a faster, more finished, more entertaining cut, I have to add music, sound effects, things that make it feel faster ... and cut out, say, the black screen between scenes which fade in and out. And the actual fade ins and outs if they don't feel necessary.

Post
#202605
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/202605/action/topic#202605
Time
>>The "V" editor marks are fade-to/from-black (V = fade to black, inverted V = fade from black), while the diagonal lines are for dissolves.

I know what those editor's marks mean ... =) I've had to cut film myself at times.

I've chosen to ignore them - I rather prefer having hard cuts, when the material available is limited. I probably should follow them, but I do my own thing.

EDIT: Bowing to peer pressure ... =) I've added a fade into "Open for the Royal Polo Ponies."


>> Also, I know it's a compromise due to what's available, but would it be possible to fill in the dissolves during the flyover with the pencils-only footage?

Nope.

<< The dissolves to the One-Eyes really harm the impact of the march and battle later.

Yep.




I'm working on the final cut. The processing that's being done to the workprint material is causing it to render at excruciatingly slow speed this time round. This is gonna take a while.
Post
#202286
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/202286/action/topic#202286
Time
Here is Clapperboard, part 1!

http://rapidshare.de/files/18285366/Clapperboard_1.mov.html

1972 - Dick Williams shows us the making of the Nasrudin film. We watch Dick, Ken Harris and Roy Naisbitt work ...

The sound on this was terrible - I've done my best to make it easier to understand ... even if it now sounds kind of electronic.
Post
#202223
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/202223/action/topic#202223
Time
Clapperboard 2 is up at Rapidshare!

http://rapidshare.de/files/18276830/Clapperboard_2.mov.html

In part 2 of a 1972 documentary, Richard Williams discusses The Little Island and his early work, and shows us some cels from the Oscar-winning A Christmas Carol. Nasrudin has already been discussed in part 1 .... which I'm attempting to upload now.
Post
#202197
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/202197/action/topic#202197
Time
Nasrudin is in the final cut of The Thief!

Man ... what a great inside joke. I just noticed him.

It was a gag put in most likely by Alex Williams.

It's hard to see in the widescreen version, more visible in the pan & scan. In a wide side shot of Zigzag entering town on his little rug, at the top of the screen you see a man on a brown donkey. It's obviously Nasrudin!

http://orangecow.org/thief/nasrudininthief2.jpg


The colors are slightly changed - Nasrudin's skin is lighter than it's been elsewhere and the donkey should really be light colored or orange ... but it's clearly him.

My my.

I'm attempting to put the making of Nasrudin docs up at Megaupload or something. I'll let you know if I succeed.

EDIT: I've twice failed to upload Clapperboard 2. Crap. This isn't gonna work.
Post
#202061
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/202061/action/topic#202061
Time
Yikes!

LOL.

OCR's a bitch sometimes ...

When I get OCR crap like that, I usually enlarge the thing in Photoshop, and spend more time getting the fields right so the computer knows what's what.

But I defer to you. =D




NEW STUFF!

John Loter has sent me the final articles in his megaset of Xeroxed Richard Williams material.

http://orangecow.org/thief/articlesforOCR

Drawings from the old witch examining Bubba ... the simpler Grim Natwick version of her.
http://orangecow.org/thief/articlesforOCR/pg63.jpg

Richard in his element.
http://orangecow.org/thief/articlesforOCR/pg70.jpg

An early logo for the film, and an early look at the Hands of Fate.
http://orangecow.org/thief/articlesforOCR/pg73.jpg


Oh, and you may have already noticed, but while I was away for Easter, I left the computer on and uploaded the complete sequences of The Thief on the tree and bouncing around (by Ken Harris) and Art Babbit's take on the lackeys: "Get those balls!" (I'd love to see the latter frames actually matched to the soundtrack ...)

The collection is complete ...

http://orangecow.org/thief/thieffromtherhorn
Post
#202043
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/202043/action/topic#202043
Time
Thanks Patrick!



John -- don't stress! If you have a lot of stuff to do this week, do it! There's no rush on anything, and you don't have to do anything you don't want to. This is hobby type stuff, do whatever you like in a relaxed manner when you can.


I am converting the three Making of Nasrudin specials into Quicktime MPEG4s for online viewing. =D
Post
#202036
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/202036/action/topic#202036
Time
Latest news!


Including BIG NEWS that a new DVD has already been added to our lineup, and it's a doozy ...

Animator Holger Leihe has sent me a DVD with several things he got from Roy Naisbitt on it. Included on the disc are a few things Roy didn't send me ... so this is remarkable to see.

First on the disc is a documentary which is marked 1966 (!) ... when I interviewed Roy on the phone, I talked about the "bread" scene from Nasrudin, which seems to appear in the One Pair of Eyes documentary (which Tahir Shah has sent but I still haven't seen). He thought I was talking about the documentary "A Creative Man," which definitely has most of the "bread" scene in it ... I've just seen it.

Yep, I've just seen moving footage from the Nasrudin film.

The documentary is in black and white follows a very young Richard Williams as he's animating an operatic commercial for Peter Evans Eating House. A very young Errol Lecain animates The Soldier and The Devil, which we see a clip from. We also see a different clip from The Little Island. Someone is working on the titles for I. Vor Pittfalks, a film which won't be finished but we see the titles. Roy Jackson animates a scene for the feature Nasrudin, and Richard hangs out with producer Omar Shah in the screening room watching it. (Omar Shah sits around wearing dark glasses - this mysterious figure was called a "black sorcerer" by some of the animators, and they thought he inspired the character of Anwar/Zigzag. Later he was fired for embezzling money from the production.) Interestingly, even at this crude and early stage (1966!), Richard is having animators redo scenes until they meet his approval - we see a line about bread as animated by an unnamed American animator ... Richard calls it vulgar, and asks Roy to do it with more dignity. This cut of the scene does not show Nasrudin himself strangely - I BELIEVE a more complete version of this scene is in One Pair of Eyes. It's all in pencil test, and shows various pompous wise men answering Nasrudin's question "What is bread?" The final wise man is the character who later became Goblet, the purple lackey. Here he is an older, wisened figure (who can be seen in the Nasrudin books) ... he is very clearly voiced by Kenneth Williams, with the same voice Kenneth Williams used as the narrator for "Squidgy Bod" (Love Me, Love Me, Love ME). Goblet is still voiced by Kenneth Williams in the final film but barely talks. I assume Kenneth actually used the same voice?

Late at night, Williams is shown animating a realistic woman for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. After seeing his simple 60s style this is a bit of a shock.


Nextly, we've got Clapperboard parts 1 and 2. I had guessed this was from 1969, but a careful watch suggests it's from 1972. Holger Leihe believes he might have a third one with much worse picture quality.

Part 1 has better picture but atrocious sound. The picture is good, considering. Part 2 has good sound, but the picture is a bit washed out by comparison (though still decent). I'm attempting to restore the sound for part 1, but it's a difficult battle.

Richard talks with the host at length, it's an extended, barely edited interview in true Clapperboard style. This is the Nasrudin film at its most refined stage, just before it became The Thief instead. The characters are all pretty much in place. He takes us through the introduction of the brigands, with some very familiar looking storyboards, and animates before our eyes a shot of a brigand laughing - a very similar shot is in the final film. We see color drawings of Nasrudin and other characters ... I can barely make out the Mogul of India (early One Eye) and what might be King Nod on the board. Ken Harris animates an early take on the laughing camel. Roy Naisbitt shows us a 3D model he's built of the buddha ruby and the guards around it, which he's attempting to animate in 3D. Of course this is in the final film. Dick shows a cel layout for A Christmas Carol, which has already won an Oscar. Clips from The Little Island, some of which we haven't seen before, are shown. Dick discusses his early work at length. Credits are shown over color art from the Nasrudin film. Sadly they don't show this art without credits over it, but it's lovely, and very un-Thief.

Also on the disc, Holger has included Errol LeCain's lovely titles from The Liquidator. Shirley Bassey sings as a simple animated gangster goes about his action-packed business.

Holger has also included some of the commercials Roy sent him - for some reason, he's only included the Pink Panther ones from the 80s, and a Harlem Globetrotter one (which is excellent and seen in The Animator's Survival Kit). Not sure why, since it's clearly taken from the same long reel Roy also sent me, which hasn't been converted yet. But hey.

The Thief licensing trailer Roy sent me is absent here.


So, this is a magnificent disc. It's all in DVD quality MPEG format, so I'm attempting to convert it directly to DVD. I could really use transcripts of these, and I might convert them to little online videos for the watchin' ...


MORE NEWS!


As I said, we're trying to acquire The Dermis Probe and The Little Island from a source in Australia. He just ran a film festival showing The Dermis Probe. To get the Little Island, he said he'd need at least $50-$60 Australian to cover fees in the transfer. Sadly he's lost his shirt doing this festival, and says it'll be a while before he can afford to afford this. An anonymous donor has pledged $100 to the cause, which was pretty shocking and which I'm very grateful for. Thank you so much. I don't know if this will get this Australian guy moving within the month ... but I'll keep talking to him, see what I can see.

I got the Princess and the Cobbler poster in the mail today. It cost a good bit of money and I was hoping it would be worth it to have a print-quality version of the "and the Cobbler" part of the Thief logo.

No such luck - the version here is a crudely-drawn imitation. It does have the same outline and shape, but might as well have been drawn with crayon. Oh well. I can scan this, keep its outline, and paint the actual gold part of the letters I guess ... but that will be difficult to get right.

Tweaker take note: Sean Murphy has OCRed the Grim Natwick article. Thanks Sean!

As for the rest of the articles, yeah, John, could definitely use your help OCRing those - OCRing is an important job too, and should be done with skill.

I wonder if I'll ever get someone willing to really do the editing work on the articles for this manuscript, though!

Any news on all the transcripts, guys?

Nice cleanups, Patrick ... gonna post the big versions? (Also nice egg pic.)

Nice bunny, Chris. =D
Post
#201833
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/201833/action/topic#201833
Time
Actually, that Tack & Yumyum shot isn't an error, that's something I created. It isn't very good. See, I didn't have that shot in widescreen, except that they reused the same animation in "Beem Bom." But it turned out the "Beem Bom" version was heavily cropped. So I used the sides of the "Beem Bom" version, but they only gave me parts of Tack/Yum Yum. Hmmm ...
Post
#201400
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/201400/action/topic#201400
Time
Thanks Chris!


You should scan that drawing if you've still got a copy .... to stay on time for easter.



http://orangecow.org/thief/thieffromtherhorn/phidohungrysm.jpg

http://orangecow.org/thief/thieffromtherhorn/phidohungrybig.jpg

http://orangecow.org/thief/thieffromtherhorn/nevergaveupsm.jpg

Screwed up my scan of the Thief's legs in this image. I'll scan that part again.

http://orangecow.org/thief/thieffromtherhorn/nevergaveupbig.jpg

http://orangecow.org/thief/thieffromtherhorn/phidohopsm.jpg

http://orangecow.org/thief/thieffromtherhorn/phidohop.jpg

http://orangecow.org/thief/thieffromtherhorn/zigzagcleanup.jpg
Post
#201387
Topic
The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Director's Cut (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/201387/action/topic#201387
Time
Hey everyone! So I've been uploading most of the huge, 1GB collection of scans of artwork from the collection of Andreas Wessel-Therhorn. This is because I'm leaving for the weekend and I wanted to give you all something big to chew on. =)


http://orangecow.org/thief/thieffromtherhorn


There you are. Mostly pencil drawings. They've mostly been scanned in two or more parts because they wouldn't fit on the scanner, so anyone wanting to patch them together in Photoshop, that kind of thing. To do anything with them you'll have to do that.

All are quite large.


This isn't the whole collection, but it is most of it. Maybe I'll upload the Ken Harris "Thief in tree/awning" and Art Babbit "Get those balls" sequences some other time ...

These would be a good basis to trace as fanart, or to play with in Photoshop.


There have been no takers for OCRing that collection of articles. Anyone?





EDIT:

Fellow in Australia believes he can get a 16mm copy of The Little Island converted, for the tune of $50 Australian for miniDV, $60 for a DVD. He can also get The Dermis Probe, probably for free.


Sounds like another excuse to spend money! I'm tapped out to negative levels right now though. Maybe I can ask a few of the regulars here to throw $5 apiece into the tygerbug at yahoo paypal?