2017-08-16, 01:04 AM
(This post was last modified: 2017-08-17, 09:51 PM by CSchmidlapp.)
What began as a cut down of Double Team (more details below) quickly became a ‘Double Feature’ with ‘Knock Off’. The two crazy action films Director Tsui Hark made with Jean Claude Van Damme in the mid 90’s we’re both visually stunning and a confusing mess as East and West film making collide.
Double Team.
![[Image: 5vw.jpg]](https://malzo.com/i/2017/08/16/5vw.jpg)
Originally a script called ‘The Colony’. The plot focused on Ex-Spies being retired to an island colony to fight Terrorism and gather ‘information’ for world government's (All ‘The Prisoner’ fans turn away now!).
We follow protagonist Jack Quinn as he tries to escape to save his wife and unborn child from terrorist ‘Stavros’, who he failed to capture during a botched black Op that got him sent to the colony in the first place.
An interesting Plot to set up some awesome action fair, The Muscles from Brussels, Tsui Hark behind the camera with Sammo Hung providing fight dutys. Sign me up!
While there is little information on the production, one can only surmise that to many cooks got into the kitchen! With heavy script re-wrights in both tone and focus, Colony became Double Team. a cartoon to introduce the world to Dennis Rodman.
The Skeleton of the original concept is still there and this edit tries to reflect that in some form.
Removing as much of Dennis Rodman and the Basket ball humor that plagued the movie, we now have a slick 1hr 20min action flick.
One which bares a little closer resemblance to the version of the film both Tsui Hark and Van Damme signed onto in the first place.
It’s still a cartoon! And looking closely at it there is a definite elevation of this style as the film progresses. At the shorter running time Double Team (re-titled ‘The Colony’ for this fan edit) flies by with lightning pace. Which, by its climax, left me feeling I wanted some more.
Which leads me to……
Knock Off.
![[Image: 5v2.jpg]](https://malzo.com/i/2017/08/16/5v2.jpg)
1997 was the year Hong Kong was handed back to China from British rule. So why not make a movie involving nano bombs being put into knock off designer jeans, with the Kung Fu fighting CEO and fashion designer, kicking his way to the truth.
With the hand over looming in the back ground, Van Damme is aided by his trusty partner (Rob Schneider), who is about to find out being a undercover CIA agent is harder than it looks!
Knock Off is f**king crazy! I don’t think there is anything like it. 'Crank' and 'Shoot em up' are the closest comparisons, and they came much later.
Saying Knock Off was ahead of it’s time is high praise indeed, as at the time it felt somewhat dated!
It’s very ‘Hong Kong Cinema’ of the time, with a visual flair that only Tsui Hark could deliver. And with a script from 'Die Hard' and 'Commando' scribe Steven e De Souza, (which can be called original in every sense of the word!) 'Knock off' should have been a smash!
Alas the final product was a victim of East and West film making not molding.
On my first viewing in the late 90’s I have to admit I didn't like it!
The humor fall’s flat in most cases (although it reminded me of De Souza's 'Street Fighter', so not just the cultural difference’s) and it just felt a mess, both is plot and execution. But it’s a curious mess, and over time Ive gotten quite the soft spot for it.
In a climate of remakes and reboots I just wish we had more ‘Knock Off’s’.
In order to match it to it’s 'Double Bill' counter part, Ive cut the movie down to 1hr 20mins.
While this was my only motivation for this edit, I kept to the rule of keeping things moving and used the opportunity to remove any of my personal gripes that didn’t hinder the plot.
I think I have created a much more slick (and less confusing!) version of Knock Off, that works great as part of Double Bill for a Beer and Pizza cinema night.
Sources, Software, Equipment and Work Done.
Double Team GERMAN BLURAY
Double Team HDTV Rip
- For burnt in English onscreen subtitles
Knock Off R1 DVD
- Upconverted using AVISynth using various filters and scripts.
All assets converted to 1080p UT codec 420 with 5.1 or 2.0 audio wav where applicable, using TMPGENC Video Works 6.
The edit's were cut in Adobe Premiere CC with some additional work done in After Effects CC.
Cut list.
Ive not created a detailed cut list because there are so many to document it’s mainly to do with the fact that I wish people to go in fresh. It helps with feedback also, as to what works and what does not.
(I may update in time)
Final versions we're rendered to 1080p UT Codec with 5.1 wav for final delivery conversion.
Release Specifications.
The Colony (Double Team)
BD - 4. Burnable Blu-Ray image to DVD 5 Discs. (multi 7-Zip files that uncompress to .iso file) PM for Details.
Details - H264 1280 x 720p , Dolby Digital 5.1, Menu.
Media info -
General
ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : BDAV
Format/Info : Blu-ray Video
File size : 3.86 GiB
Duration : 1 h 20 min
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 6 886 kb/s
Maximum Overall bit rate : 10.9 Mb/s
FileExtension_Invalid : m2ts ssif
Video
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 6 frames
Codec ID : 27
Duration : 1 h 20 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 6 044 kb/s
Maximum bit rate : 10 000 kb/s
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Standard : Component
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.274
Stream size : 3.45 GiB (89%)
Writing library : x264 core 148
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=6 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=1 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / slices=4 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / minigop=1 / stitchable=1 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=2 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=1 / weightp=1 / keyint=48 / keyint_min=1 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=6044 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=3 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=10000 / vbv_bufsize=10000 / nal_hrd=vbr / filler=0 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
Audio
ID : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : 129
Duration : 1 h 20 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 448 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 spf)
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 257 MiB (7%)
Screens -
![[Image: yjA.md.jpg]](https://malzo.com/i/2017/08/17/yjA.md.jpg)
Knock Off
BD - 4. Burnable Blu-Ray image to DVD 5 Discs. (multi 7-Zip files that uncompress to .iso file) PM for Details.
Details - H264 1280 x 720p, Dolby Digital 5.1, Menu.
Media info -
General
ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : BDAV
Format/Info : Blu-ray Video
File size : 3.82 GiB
Duration : 1 h 20 min
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 6 837 kb/s
Maximum Overall bit rate : 10.9 Mb/s
FileExtension_Invalid : m2ts ssif
Video
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 6 frames
Codec ID : 27
Duration : 1 h 20 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 5 981 kb/s
Maximum bit rate : 10 000 kb/s
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Standard : Component
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.271
Stream size : 3.41 GiB (89%)
Writing library : x264 core 148
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=6 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=1 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / slices=4 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / minigop=1 / stitchable=1 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=2 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=1 / weightp=1 / keyint=48 / keyint_min=1 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=5981 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=3 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=10000 / vbv_bufsize=10000 / nal_hrd=vbr / filler=0 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
Audio
ID : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : 129
Duration : 1 h 20 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 448 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 spf)
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 256 MiB (7%)
Screens -
![[Image: yjv.md.jpg]](https://malzo.com/i/2017/08/17/yjv.md.jpg)
Double Team.
Originally a script called ‘The Colony’. The plot focused on Ex-Spies being retired to an island colony to fight Terrorism and gather ‘information’ for world government's (All ‘The Prisoner’ fans turn away now!).
We follow protagonist Jack Quinn as he tries to escape to save his wife and unborn child from terrorist ‘Stavros’, who he failed to capture during a botched black Op that got him sent to the colony in the first place.
An interesting Plot to set up some awesome action fair, The Muscles from Brussels, Tsui Hark behind the camera with Sammo Hung providing fight dutys. Sign me up!
While there is little information on the production, one can only surmise that to many cooks got into the kitchen! With heavy script re-wrights in both tone and focus, Colony became Double Team. a cartoon to introduce the world to Dennis Rodman.
The Skeleton of the original concept is still there and this edit tries to reflect that in some form.
Removing as much of Dennis Rodman and the Basket ball humor that plagued the movie, we now have a slick 1hr 20min action flick.
One which bares a little closer resemblance to the version of the film both Tsui Hark and Van Damme signed onto in the first place.
It’s still a cartoon! And looking closely at it there is a definite elevation of this style as the film progresses. At the shorter running time Double Team (re-titled ‘The Colony’ for this fan edit) flies by with lightning pace. Which, by its climax, left me feeling I wanted some more.
Which leads me to……
Knock Off.
1997 was the year Hong Kong was handed back to China from British rule. So why not make a movie involving nano bombs being put into knock off designer jeans, with the Kung Fu fighting CEO and fashion designer, kicking his way to the truth.
With the hand over looming in the back ground, Van Damme is aided by his trusty partner (Rob Schneider), who is about to find out being a undercover CIA agent is harder than it looks!
Knock Off is f**king crazy! I don’t think there is anything like it. 'Crank' and 'Shoot em up' are the closest comparisons, and they came much later.
Saying Knock Off was ahead of it’s time is high praise indeed, as at the time it felt somewhat dated!
It’s very ‘Hong Kong Cinema’ of the time, with a visual flair that only Tsui Hark could deliver. And with a script from 'Die Hard' and 'Commando' scribe Steven e De Souza, (which can be called original in every sense of the word!) 'Knock off' should have been a smash!
Alas the final product was a victim of East and West film making not molding.
On my first viewing in the late 90’s I have to admit I didn't like it!
The humor fall’s flat in most cases (although it reminded me of De Souza's 'Street Fighter', so not just the cultural difference’s) and it just felt a mess, both is plot and execution. But it’s a curious mess, and over time Ive gotten quite the soft spot for it.
In a climate of remakes and reboots I just wish we had more ‘Knock Off’s’.
In order to match it to it’s 'Double Bill' counter part, Ive cut the movie down to 1hr 20mins.
While this was my only motivation for this edit, I kept to the rule of keeping things moving and used the opportunity to remove any of my personal gripes that didn’t hinder the plot.
I think I have created a much more slick (and less confusing!) version of Knock Off, that works great as part of Double Bill for a Beer and Pizza cinema night.
Sources, Software, Equipment and Work Done.
Double Team GERMAN BLURAY
Double Team HDTV Rip
- For burnt in English onscreen subtitles
Knock Off R1 DVD
- Upconverted using AVISynth using various filters and scripts.
All assets converted to 1080p UT codec 420 with 5.1 or 2.0 audio wav where applicable, using TMPGENC Video Works 6.
The edit's were cut in Adobe Premiere CC with some additional work done in After Effects CC.
Cut list.
Ive not created a detailed cut list because there are so many to document it’s mainly to do with the fact that I wish people to go in fresh. It helps with feedback also, as to what works and what does not.
(I may update in time)
Final versions we're rendered to 1080p UT Codec with 5.1 wav for final delivery conversion.
Release Specifications.
The Colony (Double Team)
BD - 4. Burnable Blu-Ray image to DVD 5 Discs. (multi 7-Zip files that uncompress to .iso file) PM for Details.
Details - H264 1280 x 720p , Dolby Digital 5.1, Menu.
Media info -
General
ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : BDAV
Format/Info : Blu-ray Video
File size : 3.86 GiB
Duration : 1 h 20 min
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 6 886 kb/s
Maximum Overall bit rate : 10.9 Mb/s
FileExtension_Invalid : m2ts ssif
Video
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 6 frames
Codec ID : 27
Duration : 1 h 20 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 6 044 kb/s
Maximum bit rate : 10 000 kb/s
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Standard : Component
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.274
Stream size : 3.45 GiB (89%)
Writing library : x264 core 148
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=6 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=1 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / slices=4 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / minigop=1 / stitchable=1 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=2 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=1 / weightp=1 / keyint=48 / keyint_min=1 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=6044 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=3 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=10000 / vbv_bufsize=10000 / nal_hrd=vbr / filler=0 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
Audio
ID : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : 129
Duration : 1 h 20 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 448 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 spf)
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 257 MiB (7%)
Screens -
Knock Off
BD - 4. Burnable Blu-Ray image to DVD 5 Discs. (multi 7-Zip files that uncompress to .iso file) PM for Details.
Details - H264 1280 x 720p, Dolby Digital 5.1, Menu.
Media info -
General
ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : BDAV
Format/Info : Blu-ray Video
File size : 3.82 GiB
Duration : 1 h 20 min
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 6 837 kb/s
Maximum Overall bit rate : 10.9 Mb/s
FileExtension_Invalid : m2ts ssif
Video
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 6 frames
Codec ID : 27
Duration : 1 h 20 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 5 981 kb/s
Maximum bit rate : 10 000 kb/s
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Standard : Component
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.271
Stream size : 3.41 GiB (89%)
Writing library : x264 core 148
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=6 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=1 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / slices=4 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / minigop=1 / stitchable=1 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=2 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=1 / weightp=1 / keyint=48 / keyint_min=1 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=5981 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=3 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=10000 / vbv_bufsize=10000 / nal_hrd=vbr / filler=0 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
Audio
ID : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : 129
Duration : 1 h 20 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 448 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 spf)
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 256 MiB (7%)
Screens -
I did see 'In Hell'. It's a mixed bag, but there's some good stuff there. I would recommend 'Replicant' as well.