We Are The Walking Dead (Mini-Series) FANedit

[jedeitor]

Yes, please, encode it as is.

I don't think there's a problem on seeing Lori and Carl before Rick does, since we don't know who they are yet. They are just campers like the others.

Oh, did you fix the problem with the "glen under the tank" scene. You said it was too zoomed in.

[jerryshadoe]

Like I mentioned earlier, I will encode it as soon as I'm done making those timecode notes for the grain adjustments (there's only two different scenes I need to check, but they need different grain levels from shot to shot)

Actually, the viewer does know that this is Rick's family because we see the picture of the three of them together in Rick's cop car, right before he gets out of it the last time, which is right before the farm with horse scene.

I was not able to fix the glen under tank scene. This shot, apparently, was barely zoomed in by me and when I changed this back to the original source dimensions, it still looked like sh*t. I think this shot was heavily zoomed in on the original footage, which is obvious by the size of the grain which is waaaay bigger than in most other shots throughout the series. In fact, even at full 1080p, watching the source, this one shot still "stands out" as looking like a crappy 240p/360p youtube video. I tried numerous things to fix it, but any "enhancement" just made the larger grain more obvious and made things worse. So I completely cut this shot out in order to keep a consistent image quality.

[jedeitor]

You are right about the photo of Lori and Carl, I didn't remember that. You could also cut that shot.

[jerryshadoe]

Ok, so I got all those timecodes written down and I encoded a rough SD cut of the glen arriving at camp scene. At the end of the sample, you can see where I have to crop lori/carl out from the shot.

https://mega.co.nz/#!gIh3zYSY!Zb_d2uMCRJ...PW0QRNicTU

[jerryshadoe]

after watching that sample, I realized that the second shot of the truck arriving is unnecessary. That shot was there originally because it seemed like too abrupt of a jump from the mustang driving off scene to arriving at the camp, but now that I have re-inserted part of the "glen arriving at camp" scene, I think that shot is too short and I will drop it.

I, now, have all of the grain level adjustments completed and will now start working on all of the audio issues that I still have left. Also, I will cut the shot I just mentioned. Once that's done, as there is a "glitch" in Sony Vegas and sometimes it throws the cropping off by one frame forward/backward I need to re-check all shots that need cropping and make sure they are still in the proper places. Once this is done, I am finally ready to encode the final 1080p "master" video

[jedeitor]

I checked your sample.

I like it, but there were 2 "same shot cuts" when Glen arrives and when the truck arrives.

I found a smooth way to solve the first one.

OK, so in the original we had the shot of the car arriving, a shot of people walking to that side of the camp (Lori at the background, so you had to cut it), and the car parked with Shane walking to it.

What I did was to use the shot just before the one of the car arriving. It's a shot of Dale looking and you didn't use it for your cut, so I placed it instead the "people walking" shot, but just the video, leaving the audio intact. Both shots are ALMOST the same lenght, but I think it's barely noticeable in the audio.

For the second scene (truck arriving) I tried the same but the shot I used was a little too short, I think. I doesn't flow like the other scene. Anyway if you take out the second shot of the truck it is solved anyway.

A quick cut of what I mean (and I go right to the bed): https://mega.co.nz/#!FEgXSBBA!gjOZBzu29t...832mcIdlOs

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Before I go. I wanted to ask you... Did you solve the transition between episode 1 and 2, when the camera goes up and then back down to the tank?

If there isn't a nice way to do it you could cut the "going down" shot. That way we go up, we see the tank surrounded and we see Rick inside the tank. No real need of going down again.

[jerryshadoe]

I really like your idea there for inserting the shot of Dale as it helps resolve the audio issue of the engine of the mustang and this is a great suggestion Thank you!

I now have everything edited together the way I want it, all audio issues resolved, grain levels custom adjusted depending on shot/scene and the only thing left to do is for me to finish editing that "glen arriving at camp" scene and then I can start the encoding of the "master" 1080p video

regarding that scene: first, like I mentioned above, it never occurred to me to insert an earlier shot in place of everybody walking up to the mustang (where we can see lori/carl in background) and I greatly appreciate you helping me realize that. Also, I realized that the first shot of the truck arriving is actually nearly 4 seconds longer than what I used in the film and if I re-insert it, not only does the shot not seemed rushed, but it also makes the second (barely 1.2 seconds) shot completely pointless. Once I re-insert those 4 seconds, the scene flows smoothly: all the stuff with glen, truck arriving, morales telling rick to come meet everybody, etc...

Now it's time to make those couple of minor changes to that scene and then an approximately 30 hour wait for the encoding process BUT since I am extremely tired and it's 3am I will do this with a "fresh mind" when I wake up in the morning. Once this is done, I will encode all the channels of the "master" English audio and I will start working on all the foreign tracks... Can't wait for this to be finished so I can start working on the second film

@ allegedly - thanx for the rep point for this project!!! Please feel free to join the conversation on this thread.
NO PRESSURE!!! If you are just here as an observer, I understand, but I welcome ALL comments and suggestions. The more, the merrier. This is NOT just an "internal" project and I am looking for the opinions of others to try and make this series as enjoyable as possible to ANY viewer and you might have a perspective that hasn't been mentioned yet.
Again, no pressure


@ jedeitor - just saw your extra comment about the issue with transition from episode 1 to episode 2... I will answer this question and then, really, I need to get some sleep as I'm starting to see double again, LOL...
First, I actually like the transition, like I mentioned earlier, because I managed to get the audio (specifically the guitar chord) to sync perfectly with the change from one to the other...
Next, I wanted to keep the music in-tact, which would be nearly impossible if I trim the "pan down onto tank" shot from episode 2.
I have considered doing a "pan" crop of the end of the shot from episode 1 to match the shot from beginning of episode 2 but this has proven to be extremely difficult as they do NOT align properly no matter how I try to adjust it. I have even tried to re-time the two shots by cutting frames from episode 1 or episode 2 to try and make it smoother and it just doesn't want to align right. Granted, the pan back down is kind of pointless, but I thought it matched the atmosphere/mood of the music properly. I can try to do more with it before I render the "master" 1080p video but, most likely, I will leave this transition "as-is." Do you really think that it should be changed?

[jedeitor]

No, forget it. I was just trying to avoid the fade effect, but how you managed the transition given the original source limitations is beyond good.

I'm happy with the "glen arriving at camp" scene, since it was the only scene that really bothered me in your cut. Now it will flow great!

[jerryshadoe]

Thanx for the complement It was an extremely hard transition to work on. This is now the ONLY instance in the film where such an effect is used. ALL other transitions are now either direct-cut or fade to/from black, with the exception of the couple of white flashes which are in the original source. There are also a couple of crossfades, but nearly all (except, I think, one) are also in the original source footage.

The "glen arriving at camp" scene bothered me too and, again, thanx for helping me with that as the suggestion you made before you went to bed really helped me resolve the audio issue and weird transition

OK, now I am going to sleep

[jedeitor]

Well, I will add another thing that doesn't feel right to me. Last one, I promise.

The opening. It fades in to two cops and immediately they hear the radio and leave. It's too sudden.

Maybe you could start in black with indistinct sounds of police radio and then fade in to the cops and to the help requeriment.

Or maybe there's an unused shot of them in silence that you could use to give a little more time to the radio to start speaking.

I was trying to edit an example but this PC just doesn't want to cooperate.

It could start with the shot of the hamburguers, but changing the audio with other shot from that scene, then go to a shot of them eating and then they receive the call.