[Released] The Godfather A Novel For Television

[alleycat]

So this one is a passion project that has taken a lot of work. It's easy to write this off as a cash grab, as famously Coppola did it when he ran out of money while working on Apocalypse Now. However, the idea of a chronological extended version using deleted scenes had been around since 1971, way before Apocalypse Now. In fact, the original cut of Godfather Part 2 was chronological and the flashback narrative was an afterthought. If anyone is interested there is a lot of detailed information about the history of this version on The Godfather Museum.

Anyway the television event in 1977 was the TV debut of The Godfather Part 2, combined in chronological order with the first movie, plus a load of new footage, to run for roughly 7 hours in 4 parts/episodes. Over the years there has been several different versions of this chronological edit, there was an LD set, VHS, HDTV broadcasts and fan edits, some including part 3 as well. This project is an attempt to recreate the original broadcast version using only HD 16:9 footage.

In order to create this I used the following:

• The blu ray from 2008. I used this version because I prefer the colour grading, the colour grading is a very close match to the extra TV footage and the aspect ratio is 1:78:1 like the extra TV footage.
  
• The HD Broadcast shown on AMC. It has an AMC logo throughout, massive on screen adverts in places and also TV14 logos. It is structured as four episodes with opening/closing credits. This is 1080i and there are two different recordings. There was a release put out by NTB with 5.1 audio and another release from someone on OT with 2.0 audio. The NTB release was favoured for the video, as I found that the other release had pixelation and video breakup in parts. The non NTB release was favoured for the audio as it was 2.0 (it wasn't true mono so has been remixed to mono in Izotope). I did find some very slight unique differences between these two so at times I had to use what I could.
  
• A different 720P version, which is one long movie without episodes and does not have a logo or on screen adverts. The audio is 5.1.
  
• A VHS rip of an older SD airing. I do not know the exact date of this, it was not the original broadcast as that would have been betamax, but it is the earliest version I have.
  

So in order to create this edit I used as much of the blu ray footage and audio as possible. Then where possible I used the 720p version due to the lack of logos and finally only where I had to, I used the 1080i version. The VHS rip was used as a guide, for example the episodes are different lengths in the 1080i version so I cut the footage to match the structure of the VHS rip. Some scenes I needed were only in the 1080i version, some were only in the 720P, some were in both but were longer/shorter. It took some time to work out what I had to use from each version, especially during the first few hours where most of the new footage occurs. I really would have liked to use the original 1977 broadcast as a reference but unfortunately I do not have it. There were small differences as well, such as in the Novel version there is no opening text about young Vito's father during the funeral and the order of scenes during the communion celebration is different - these all honoured in my version.

Once I had worked out what footage I needed from each version I started to process it. The blu ray was used untouched. The 720p version was processed in avisynth using cleaning, upscaling and sharpening etc. The 1080i version was also processed in avisynth but that needed the logo removing using the Mediahead technique. I then did some manual cleanup in PFClean where necessary to remove dirt and dust. The opening and closing credits from the 1080i version were extremely dirty, they seem to have come from a different source to the rest of the movie and resembled a 35mm print. I spent a good few weeks cleaning these frame by frame in PFClean. Both the 720p and 1080i versions were then further cleaned in After Effects using Neat and then regrained. For regraining I matched the grain to a sample of the blu ray and spent a lot of time working out the settings so it looked as close to the blu ray as possible, reducing the grain in shadows/highlights by different amounts etc.

In terms of quality, the 720p version was the best with the 1080i version next, however the opening/closing credits on the 1080i version stood out as being considerably lower quality than the rest of the footage so you are likely to notice inconsistencies at times. Again I find with lower quality footage that over processing makes it look worse, so I was careful not to push it too far. The colour grading was also different between the 1080i and 720p versions.

In some instances, if the extra footage was an extension of a scene, it needed Dr Dre colour matching, but sometimes I got away with slightly changing the levels. Sometimes I had a reference shot from the same scene that I could use, sometimes I had to use a completely different shot from a scene that takes place in the same room or with the same characters wearing the same clothes etc.

A big challenge when assembling all the footage was the scene transitions. The most common transition is a fade from one scene into another, but on the blu ray the fade might be between the two different timelines, whereas in the Novel version it's fading to a different scene, and in the two different novel HD versions it's fading to two different scenes. Each fade was tackled differently, sometimes I could get away with blu ray footage, sometimes I had to use logo footage and cut a hole in it with other footage behind. I had to recreate a lot of the fades in Premiere, sometimes I had to match a fade to black on three different pieces of footage and patch them all together.

Another huge problem was the on screen adverts on the 1080i version. The logo removal worked quite well on the small logo but it could not tackle large on screen adverts, which appeared on several shots that were unique to the 1080i version. I managed to get around this by taking different parts of the image, copying them and pasting them over the logo footage, changing levels so they matched and repeating the process many times until it looked ok. These shots are not perfect but I'm happy with them given what they looked like originally. As you can see below I had to chop off the guard's legs for a moment:





Another example, the first time we see Robert De Niro, there is a fade but the blu ray footage shows “Vito Corleone 1917” on the screen whereas the broadcast version does not. To make matters worse the 1080i version (the only version that features the same scene transition) has a big on screen advert and TV14 logo. So the blu ray footage was used, with cut outs and another looped part of the blu ray behind it, with a matched fade.

I also noticed that during the closing credits of each episode (except episode 4), the 1080i version had the words "Co-starring in tonight's episode" but the VHS rip (which I was using as a guide) did not - so I used a tracking matte to blank the words out (that was not possible with Episode 4 . I also replaced the Paramount intros with a higher quality source.

I had to make a few decisions along the way, certain scenes from the blu ray had to be cut in places to ensure that they synced with the alternate score used in parts of the Novel version. I also excluded the Anthony communion scene as that does not appear in any of the extended versions - I believe that was shot specifically to give the theatrical version an opening.

The subtitles were also a nightmare. Both the 720p and 1080i versions have burned in subtitles for the Italian language sections, but the blu ray footage does not. If you know The Godfather you will know that it uses a very unique looking subtitle font. There was no way I could remove the burned in subs, so I felt the only option was to burn subtitles in myself for all the blu ray footage during non English dialogue, so everything matched. The next problem was, as there was a mix of crisp new subtitles, 720p subtitles and 1080i subtitles, nothing matched. As well when I changed the colour grading on certain scenes it changed the colour of burned in subtitles. So I decided to re-ink all of the burned in subtitles for the 720p and 1080i footage. I used a font identifier to get the right font, used photoshop to identify the exact colour code of the blu ray subtitles, then through trial and error worked out the right size and positioning. I then typed on top of the existing subtitles, so everything looked new and crisp. That took a very long time! I then wanted selectable SDH subtitles for the English dialogue, so through trial and error I used easySUP to get them as close as possible to the style of the burned in subtitles. EasySUP has far less positioning controls than Premiere does, but it looks ok.

Before / After:



The overall running time including the opening/closing credits of each episode is 7 hours and 8 minutes.

Anyway whilst this was an immense challenge, it was been an enjoyable one and I am pleased with the final product, warts and all. I started working on this at the start of 2022 so it has taken a little over 18 months. Thanks to @PDB and @The Aluminum Falcon for proofing and giving feedback. Thanks to those who captured the original HD broadcast and also The Godfather Museum.

• 2 x BD50 with animated menus, background video, pop up menus and resume function
  
• 4 x Episodes, complete with opening and closing credits. 1080P AVC Video.
  
• English Dual Mono 2.0 Wav Audio
  
• English SDH Subtitles
  

PM me for the links, contributing/long term members only please. Contributing means active members of the forum who post and/or make their own projects - i.e. not newbies or those who have never posted a single thread.

High Resolution cover and disc art available from @Pineapples101 Here.

Blu Ray Footage:

















TV Footage:

[alexpeden2000]

Wow! This sounds like a absolute labour of love - if only studios could show this kind of dedication to releases! I’ve not heard of Mediahead logo removal but I take it it works well?

[alleycat]

Wow! This sounds like a absolute labour of love - if only studios could show this kind of dedication to releases! I’ve not heard of Mediahead logo removal but I take it it works well?

Thanks Alex. This is the mediahead method https://fanrestore.com/thread-4322.html. It's essentially what I've always done in Avisynth but with some added steps afterwards.

[zoidberg]

Congratulations on another completed project Alleycat. This one must have been a monster

[alleycat]

Congratulations on another completed project Alleycat. This one must have been a monster

Thanks Zoidberg. Yes this was the biggest one I've taken on so far for sure.

[PDB]

Very excited to see the final results.

I know from talking to AC that he really put his soul into this project. Months and months of work and its well worth it. Congrats on finishing it AC.

[The Aluminum Falcon]

WOOHOO!!! Congrats @alleycat I knew this was in the works and am very excited to see the final project. Having seen an earlier version of your Episode 1, I can def assure everyone this is the definitive presentation of this

Congrats on getting through this.

[alleycat]

Very excited to see the final results.

I know from talking to AC that he really put his soul into this project. Months and months of work and its well worth it. Congrats on finishing it AC.

WOOHOO!!! Congrats @alleycat I knew this was in the works and am very excited to see the final project. Having seen an earlier version of your Episode 1, I can def assure everyone this is the definitive presentation of this

Congrats on getting through this.

Thanks both, your help was much appreciated.

[stwd4nder2]

Looks like a lot of work went in to this. Never watched anything but the theatrical cuts of Godfather, looks like it's time to change that.

[Hitcher]

Outstanding work alleycat.