[proposal] The Complete Dollars Trilogy

[Lil Brutto]

For FOD the RHV bluray has the best image quality.

What a crazy project. So we'll hear back from you in 2027? Lol. Good luck!

[Koopa Luath]

As we speak, I'm already preparing the first set of subtitles as translated from the original Italian, in English, and I'm starting to look at good deals on the RHV Blu-ray.

Speaking of languages, would it be a good idea to source the Spanish audio from the American Blu-ray from Fox? (The only other reason I'm looking at it, by the way, is because it would probably be a better idea to source the network prologue from there than from the DVD, but then, I need to compare before making a judgment on that.) Or would I do better grabbing the Spanish audio from someplace else?

[Evit]

As we speak, I'm already preparing the first set of subtitles as translated from the original Italian, in English, and I'm starting to look at good deals on the RHV Blu-ray.

Is that gonna be the correct/direct translation that all the English-speaking world has been wanting since... forever?

[Koopa Luath]

That's what I'm trying to do, anyway. There will also be a dubtitle track in the same language, for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.

Regarding the issue of film grain, I have come to the conclusion that the best film grain to use for material added to these films comes from Eastman 50T 5251 stock. Problem is, I can't seem to find it anywhere online. I mean, I can try cropping the 2-second sample that is up, but other than that? Not much I can do there.

As for logos to be recreated or restored for this project, I'm having a fairly easy time with the Hexagon, but the Transamerica T prototype will take a lot of work, to the point where I'd think it best if someone else had a go at it. Whoever volunteers, I'll send them a copy of the one I captured from my Magnetic Video VHS of The Thomas Crown Affair, in open matte and converted to 60 FPS using FFMPEG to make things a whole lot easier. And the regular Transamerica T, anyone who purchased a Blu-ray of Equus from Twilight Time before it sold out, and wants in on this project, has my eternal gratitude.

In addition, I'm planning to involve tsmuxer due to all the seamless branching I suspect will be involved in making all of the cuts. Sometime later this week, I'll capture both my 20th Century-Fox Video rental cassette and my later MGM/UA cassette of Fistful of Dollars so I can compare the pan-and-scan thing for the P&S versions that will be made available along with the OAR versions. The P&S versions will basically serve as a stark reminder of why us videophiles preferred the letterbox format and maybe even laser videodiscs back in the late '80s/early '90s, but they will be done on a professional-looking level, so no one can accuse me of not trying. P&S versions are also necessary so that the network prologue for Fistful can be enjoyed in its original aspect ratio and look like it blends in at the same time when attached to Fistful. One other thing: gathering materials will be tough, especially with so much foreign stuff involved, but Stamper might be of some assistance in getting Fistful's French track. I don't know where to get the Spanish mono track for For a Few Dollars More yet, unfortunately; all the Blu-ray releases I know of have it in 5.1 surround, and I haven't yet seen a DVD with a Spanish track, period. Even more frustrating is that unlike with Fistful's French track, FAFDM's Spanish track doesn't seem to have been held up by legal issues. At least that one's French mono track appears on an earlier DVD release...

[Evit]

I had to stop reading at tsMuxer and seamless branching... have you ever done all this before? You will find some dead ends if you're expecting to create seamless branching disks with tsMuxer, unless you know something that we don't!

[Koopa Luath]

From a VideoHelp thread on the matter:

1st choice
eac3to----Can generate in text form the main movie MPLS file (playlist file)and all the m2ts files that make up the movie only and their proper sequence. Just load the one MPLS file into tsmuxer

2nd choice BD edit ---Can show the sequence of the m2ts files used for the main movie only. Use tssplitter to join all the m2ts files together as one and load into tsmuxer.

Course, I gotta make the MPLS file and figure out how to use the M2TS files that will be the different cut segments to make the MPLS file. The reason why I'm going to try the art of seamless branching is for maximum efficiency.

Say, for example, I got M2TS files making up three different cuts of Fistful, all in the English language, and the M2TS files for the film proper are numbered beginning "00000.m2ts". Cut 1 would consist of the following:

- 00003.m2ts (the default English opening credits sequence without any logos preceding, with credits for "Johnny Wels", "Dan Savio", and Sergio Leone)
- 00009.m2ts (the main feature, from the first scene to when Ramon finds Joe out, right before Joe is tortured)
- 00010.m2ts (the uncut torture scene, up to the shot of Joe emerging from the room where it happens)
- 00012.m2ts (some more of the feature, until right before one of the Rojos comes down the stairs of the tavern)
- 00013.m2ts (uncut shot of Ramon rifle whipping Silvanito in the gut, and Joe's reaction shot)
- 00015.m2ts (some more of the feature, until Joe stops Piripero so he can watch the Rojos slaughter the Baxters)
- 00016.m2ts (wholesale slaughter)
- 00017.m2ts (from the group shot of the Rojos right before John Baxter and his son try to surrender up until the scene where Piripero gives Joe some of the stuff he'll need to take on the Rojos)
- 00018.m2ts (uncut version of the scene where Ramon tortures Silvanito outside)
- 00020.m2ts (the finale, from the first visible explosion as Joe makes his presence known up to the final shot of Silvanito)
- 00023.m2ts (the closing shot, which shows THE END zooming in in a plain font, with RELEASED THROUGH UNITED ARTISTS wiping in afterwards)

Cut 2 (where the onscreen title is "FISTFULL OF DOLLARS") would consist of:

- 00004.m2ts (English opening credits sequence with the UA Hexagon preceding and with credits for "John Wells", "Dan Savio", and "Bob Robertson", minus the dialogue credit for Mark Lowell)
- 00009.m2ts (the main feature, from the first scene to when Ramon finds Joe out, right before Joe is tortured)
- 00011.m2ts (the censored torture scene, up to the shot of Joe emerging from the room where it happens)
- 00012.m2ts (some more of the feature, until right before one of the Rojos comes down the stairs of the tavern)
- 00014.m2ts (censored shot of Ramon rifle whipping Silvanito in the gut, and Joe's reaction shot)
- 00015.m2ts (some more of the feature, until Joe stops Piripero so he can watch the Rojos slaughter the Baxters)
- 00017.m2ts (from the group shot of the Rojos right before John Baxter and his son try to surrender up until the scene where Piripero gives Joe some of the stuff he'll need to take on the Rojos)
- 00019.m2ts (censored version of the scene where Ramon tortures Silvanito outside)
- 00020.m2ts (the finale, from the first visible explosion as Joe makes his presence known up to the final shot of Silvanito)
- 00024.m2ts (the closing shot, which shows THE END zooming in in a fancy font)

And last, but not least, Cut 3 would consist of:

- 00000.m2ts (the regular animated Transamerica T followed by the network prologue)
- 00005.m2ts (English opening credits sequence with credits for "John Wells", "Leo Nichols", and "Bob Robertson")
- 00009.m2ts (the main feature, from the first scene to when Ramon finds Joe out, right before Joe is tortured)
- 00010.m2ts (the uncut torture scene, up to the shot of Joe emerging from the room where it happens)
- 00012.m2ts (some more of the feature, until right before one of the Rojos comes down the stairs of the tavern)
- 00013.m2ts (uncut shot of Ramon rifle whipping Silvanito in the gut, and Joe's reaction shot)
- 00015.m2ts (some more of the feature, until Joe stops Piripero so he can watch the Rojos slaughter the Baxters)
- 00016.m2ts (wholesale slaughter)
- 00017.m2ts (from the group shot of the Rojos right before John Baxter and his son try to surrender up until the scene where Piripero gives Joe some of the stuff he'll need to take on the Rojos)
- 00018.m2ts (uncut version of the scene where Ramon tortures Silvanito outside)
- 00020.m2ts (the finale, from the first visible explosion as Joe makes his presence known up to the final shot of Silvanito)
- 00025.m2ts (the closing shot, which shows THE END zooming in in a plain font, with no mention of United Artists)

That's the idea, anyway. And that's not even counting the variants of Cut 1 with all the different languages taken into account.

[Evit]

Do a small test with 1 minute clips (not necessarily from these films) and see if it works. Let us know how it goes

[PDB]

I got to agree with Evit. I love your ambition and as fan of these movies I'm excited to see your work. But if this is your first project, I'd follow Evit's advice and start with small experiments. I've abandoned as many projects as I've finished due to the project being unfeasable. I always have a test phase to see if what I want to do will work.

[spoRv]

This project seems really interesting, even if I must admit a bit ambitious... I don't know if all you would like to obtain is possible - in particular seamless branching. But, of course, I wish you could be able to do that!

"quality level": the Kush Gauge, even if useful, gives just an idea of what bitrate you should use to obtain good quality - or to check if a given video is encoded at a right bitrate. I mean, a 5.19x or 5.77x are similar, but it is not sure that the latter is better than the former - it would be if, for example, one is 1.5x and the other 4.7x...

First of all, take a look at the bitrate itself using the Bitrate Viewer - a wondeful tool - then use your eyes! make a comparison between the two bitrates spectrums, and you would be able to spot eventual differences.

EDIT: read now what PDB posted when I was writing my post. Agree with him 100%. TEST, TEST and... have I forgot something? Uhm, yes... TEST!!! After years of project making, I can say I am sure a certain filter/plugin/technique should work in a certain way, but sometimes it's not the case... plus, new ones should imply even more time to test.

Said that, keep going! Do not have fear to experiment, test, ask for help, write down ideas - even the dumbest ones could have some practical use, I'm the first to do that...

[Koopa Luath]

All I know is, I hope to do the test this weekend. I'm still thinking about which clips to use for my seamless branching test involving tsMuxer.