projects sandbox

[deleted user]

It's not officially a project, so I hope it still fits in this thread, as a random random thought. The random thought is to create an extended cut of The Mask with Jim Carrey. I just started watching a workprint and since it's about 30 minutes longer or so, I was thinking maybe all those deleted scenes exist somewhere in salvageable quality and could be used to create an extended cut of the movie. For example there's a prologue about the mask being buried centuries ago or whatever. It's a bit corny, but hey, I think it would be fun to have a movie with all of those. I didn't watch further than the intro yet, but I checked on Youtube and this prologue seems to exist as a deleted scene, although it looks like it's the good old 4:3 letterbox scope DVD treatment ... but hey, it exists. Maybe there's some hope that the other scenes are available as well and maybe even in better quality than that Youtube video.

Random thought end.

[Stamper]

So I just go this idea...

I realised that many censored TV cuts have actually the original actors coming back to redub their lines with family language. One example is Aliens where it's obvious all Bill Paxton lines were redubbed with clean words by Bill Paxton.

I also read that the TV version of The Godfather had James Caan redubbing his own lines.

Maybe we should start a thread where we reference TV cuts audio, and where we also make available TV audio versions synced to current Blu-rays. Shouldn't be too hard as obviously you can patch missing segments with actual audio where you need it.

Waddaya guys think?

[Beber]

Actually, sometimes, voice actors are employed to do so. They "imitate" the actor's voice.

[Stamper]

Yes most dubtracks are voice actors, but I think we should keep a resource list of TV cuts audio where the actual actors did it.
Funnily, for Avatar, the Region A disc has the TV audio offered as "family track" or something so you don't need to rip, sync and share since it's already included.

[Chewtobacca]

I'd be interested in a "family tracks" resource of some kind.

[spoRv]

Working on a new project (another? enuff! )

Earth Girls Are Easy UAR

Why?

1. I like the movie! Yes, faaar from a masterpiece, but it has some interesting actors, story is funny, and it's sci-fi at the end
   
2. it has no proper HD release; not only there is not a blu-ray, but the only HD versions, web downloads, are cropped, with dull colors and lowered contrast
   
3. the HD has some missing frames; only a second in total, but "because every frame counts"...
   
4. it has only an English 2.0 track (AFAIK there is no English 5.1 one), so I tried to give it a chance, and recreated the 5.1, taking the Italian track and replacing its center channel with one derived from the English 2.0, with isolated vocals; far from perfect, but the original untouched 2.0 will be included as well. Now, if someone has the PCM 2.0 from laserdisc...
   
5. I wanted to make a project which blends SD letterbox with HD cropped... and it seems to work pretty well!
   

Luckily, the missing frames are only on two shots, and without dialog, so it will be *pretty easy* to add these part from the upmixed 2.0 track from DVD; at least, these should pass unnoticed, as they are less than half second each.
To be fair, HD has ONE frame more, uninteresting by the way.

I plan to do the same for the French, and two Spanish tracks (one Mexican, and a new one from Venezuela).

Firstly I tried to stay closer to DVD grading, but I think that its neon-like colors is a bit too much, even for an 80s comedy-sci-fi like this...

You know, even if it's a side project, about a movie that was not a blockbuster, I'm pretty happy with it; it will be "saved", at least until some official release will be presented, but I'll not hold my breath about this.

Comparison: top WEB (cropped), middle DVD, bottom UAR:





http://ultimateaspectratio.ga/Earth_Girl...52350.html
http://ultimateaspectratio.ga/Earth_Girl...52350.html

When it will be ready? At 0.50fps, not so soon...

P.S. Before the usual comments, I've chosen this frame to better illustrate the neon colors, like the Pink flamingo and bikini.

[deleted user]

Started out doing a project I wanted to do for a long time ... Equilibrium VAR. Basically splicing the Open Matte shots together with the Scoped VFX shots that were zoomed in. But now I'm kinda wondering if I should abandon the project because even the VFX shots, despite being zoomed, show a liiiittle bit more headroom in the Open Matte, so that would get lost if I used the scoped frame there ... any ideas? I haven't gotten through the entire movie yet, but so far this has been a consistent pattern.

Should I just sacrifice that little bit of headroom in favor of getting a much fuller shot sideways and keep the "real" open matte shots? Or is that kinda pointless?

Edit: I think the best would be if I was able to find a scoped version that has a tiny bit more headroom so as to include the full height VFX sequences. But from what I've seen so far the scoped versions seem to be all identical in framing.

[spoRv]

I thought Equilibrium was full open matte, with cropped VFX shots... now, I guess an UAR version is a must!

Tom, go for it!

[deleted user]

UAR is not something I'm that excited about when it comes to this movie, but in an attempt to make this project a thing after all, I decided to replace all shots that are mostly cropped/zoomed in with the scope version. I lose a liiiittle bit of headroom, but I gain much more on the sides and my main complaint with the Open Matte was always that the resolution in the VFX shots seemed to suffer, so hopefully that will alleviate it.

Also interesting: The Open Matte version syncs 100% with the scope version except for a shot around the middle of the movie where Preston exits his car. In the scope version, the shot of him reaching down to the car keys inside the car is slightly longer and there's an additional shot of the car keys actualy getting turned around/pulled out, where the Open Matte cuts straight to the outside and the door opening. No idea why they chose to do that, nor which version is the "proper" one.

[random.next]

UAR is not something I'm that excited about when it comes to this movie, but in an attempt to make this project a thing after all, I decided to replace all shots that are mostly cropped/zoomed in with the scope version. I lose a liiiittle bit of headroom, but I gain much more on the sides and my main complaint with the Open Matte was always that the resolution in the VFX shots seemed to suffer, so hopefully that will alleviate it.

Also interesting: The Open Matte version syncs 100% with the scope version except for a shot around the middle of the movie where Preston exits his car. In the scope version, the shot of him reaching down to the car keys inside the car is slightly longer and there's an additional shot of the car keys actualy getting turned around/pulled out, where the Open Matte cuts straight to the outside and the door opening. No idea why they chose to do that, nor which version is the "proper" one.

VAR could be easy made with AutoOverlay in automatic mode. You need to use StaticOverlayRender which choose widescreen or open matte depends on auto-align values. Auto-align could be performed in low resolution to save time.