We Are The Walking Dead (Mini-Series) FANedit

[jerryshadoe]

wow, within the last 24 hours, this thread has gone from 350 views to nearly 500;o)

I'm happy that this thread is staring to gain interest, just as the first film is about to be released. I am looking forward to working on the next films, but for now, let's concentrate on this one. Right now, I am in process of finalizing ALL video edits that are necessary (as there is only a few little changes/fixes that are needed) and then will start encoding the "master" 1080p AVC @26mbps video. For this project, as the source files are only between 24-26mbps, any more than that is "overkill," as far as I'm concerned. I have already done a few "test" encodes of minor clips this way and they look AMAZING! ;o)

The reason I'm mentioning this, besides keeping all readers updated, is because this means that for the next 28-36 hours (depending on how things go) I will be unavailable as my computer will be "hard at work" encoding the video. I know that seems kind of long to some, (and it really is) but my dual-core 2.3ghz laptop can't do much better than that, especially with the amount of cuts in this project and the extra "layer" of video that will be used to enhance the final product (there's a couple of you that already know what I'm talking about)

Once this video is encoded, I will work on the final "fixes" on the 5.1 English "master" audio track, plus a little "TLC" that I will be applying to the track which I will mention closer to release. Then, I plan on making the English subtitles. After those are completed and I have an "English Only" version completed, I will work on the 5.1 lossless foreign tracks. I will leave channels 1,2,4,5,6 "as-is" for those mixes (with the exceptions of the couple of instances where the dialog is panned to the front like glen, at first, talking to rick in the tank or the computer talking at the CDC) where I will "custom" pan the dubbed dialog into the appropriate channels when necessary. As far as the center channel (channel 3) this will be a VERY custom build. Here, I will take ONLY the dialog and "cut/paste" it into the center channel (channel 3) from the lossless English "master" (where I "cut" all of the English parts out) Like I stated before, I have already tested this method and the result is pretty decent. This way, everyone can enjoy a lossless track in their native language, not only when watching the English version. Another great thing about me doing it this way, is that the foreign tracks will actually be genuinely lossless (with the exception of the actual dialog, which I intend on "fixing" by giving it some "TLC" in Diamond Cut Audio Laboratory Foresnics8, where I can "simulate" an nearly lossless audio quality after "remastering.")

"Stay tuned," as by the end of the weekend, I intend on having all of the video encoded, the English audio encoded, and the English subtitles finished. Once this is done, I will be posting "rough" cuts of ALL foreign language tracks and I hope there will be people that can check them to let me know where dialog cuts abruptly and I need to fix it. Once this process is finished, I will build all of the custom 5.1 foreign tracks. Hopefully, people can also help with translations of the English subtitles, which I will post in .srt before the final release. Then, it's time to record a commentary track, do all the "art" stuff and get this released... Finally, I see this being done before the end of the month and the work on second film starting as well;o)

[jerryshadoe]

So during the encoding of the first "workprint" that I posted here, there were two problem spots where Vegas would crash during the rendering. The reason the workprint had such low PQ was because it was a re-encode of three different "parts" in order to have a proper encode as trying to join and mux the three resulted in some frames being doubled or dropped around the points where the file merged which would have thrown the audio sync off. This has happened before because Vegas didn't like the frame that I split the source file. The easy "work-around" this was for me to render a "loop-region" of only the "corrupted" clip from the uncut source into a lossless avi and then replace the clips with those lossless re-encodes.

Unfortunately, I forgot about this and at 52 percent, after 16 hours of rendering, Vegas crashed!

Aaaaaahhhhh!!! Well, I replaced the two clips that needed it and am rendering the file again...  I have 60 percent of it done now, with 12 more hours to go.

As far as last minute changes, I corrected almost all the transitions that were "sloppy" crossfades. I had to re-insert the shot of Andrea crying over Amy's body at the camp at night for an easier fade-out as any other way made the fade out seem too abrupt.. During editing of Rick waking up in hospital, trying to start scene with shot of room was the wrong way to do it because it was too short due to having cut out rick yelling "shane, are you in the john?" I did apply a fade from black after the intro but the rest of the scene is "as-is" from last workprint. I fixed the continuity problem that jedeitor discovered in the original mustang and truck scene discussed in an earlier post. I also cut out the 1.2 second shot of the ladies in the truck right after t-dog says that he lost the key, as this shot was unnecessary and cuts off too abruptly because originally I had to cut Andrea asking where glen is. fixed crossfade to direct cuts when truck arrives at camp. Also, I realized that the sh*tty crossfade when rick, daryl, glen and tdog get up on rooftop can be avoided. When I thought about it, the second part is basically showing the same thing as what was at end of previous episode: i.e. handcuffs, saw, and hand; it was just from a different angle and kinda pointless so I removed the entire shot. Now, the scene goes directly from shot of bloody handcuffs to Daryl as he's getting ready to pull back the string on crossbow. This changed the timing of the music to whats onscreen for that second scene, making it a LOT more tense and gave it a much smoother "flow." Other flashes or crossfades were also easily fixed with a little bit of tinkering and the music issue during the jenner and rick scene at end was fixed and now flows smoothly and syncs to whats onscreen very well.

I already have the six individual wav files for the English "master" encoded and ready to be encoded in DTS-HDMA which I'll do as soon as the video is ready. Then its on to the English subtitles. Once this is done, I will start work on the foreign tracks which should be on Monday. Assuming that there won't be any issues putting those together and getting help translating the subtitles, I'm guessing that this first film of the series will be released sometime around the next weekend or beginning of the week after that

[jedeitor]

I think the room shot when rick wakes up is long enough, look:

https://mega.co.nz/#!NMh2ATzK!FeH9TtMCnQ...ErXJ7ougy8

[jerryshadoe]

The facial expression rick has in that first shot is pretty funny, LOL

When I was trying to edit the scene I didn't realize that the shot of room was that long as I was focusing on footage in workprint instead of the source... sorry about that as I guess you were right that there is enough of a shot to use there...

I'm not home right now but pretty sure the 1080p "master" is finished rendering and once I get back I will post sample of how I put together the scene. I'm typing this on my mobile which is why the post is so short...

Will post update and more info after I watch the new episode airing tonite

[jerryshadoe]

Ok, so the first thing I want to mention, without spoiling the new episode that aired tonight, is that I was extremely excited when Rick actually says, "...we are the walking dead..." which means that the title I chose for this project is appropriate

Now, that I got that out of the way... the rendering of the 1080p "master" for this first film took "only" 29 hours and I will have to do it ONE more time! I watched tonight's new episode, then I encoded the English 5.1 DTS-HDMA for this project, muxed it with the video I rendered and then started watching.

The first thing I noticed, which was not noticeable in the SD workprint (due to the low resolution and bitrate) is that the grain setting that I selected works really well for MOST of the film but NOT all of it. There are certain scenes in the source that have a LOT less grain present onscreen and a single setting for the entire film doesn't work. I will have to watch the entire thing on my 52" HDTV and make timecode notes as to which scenes need an adjustment. Once I figure out which scenes need the adjustment, I need to do some test encodes to figure out the percentage that will work there. Interestingly, I am using an already high setting of 36% and some scenes still look like a "scrubbed" itunes rip. This is not really an issue and just a matter of me watching the entire thing which will only take 2 hours. Over 90% of the film will be left "as-is" now, but the rest will need minor adjustments.

Next, as jedeitor pointed out in a recent post, the texture of the lettering in the intro needs work. I did do some work on it, but apparently it was not enough and the difference between what I added and the original lettering is still too obvious.

The shot that I mentioned of Glen from underneath the tank when he's grabbing Rick's gun bag looks like sh*t. The shot before and after look like a proper 1080p video, whereas that shot looks like someone inserted a 240p youtube video... Apparently I zoomed it in waaaay too much and this was something that was not noticeable in the 360p SD workprint but became very obvious in the final 1080p.

Last, there is one more edit that I need to do, which dawned on me while I was encoding the video, but I left it alone so that I can see the quality of the entire film (which made the grain "issue" obvious); right after the scene where we find out that Jim has been bit, Daryl starts talking about the fact that they should put a pickaxe in his head and "the dead girl" (talking about Amy) which makes NO sense because I cut out the entire sub-plot about Andrea not wanting to kill Amy until she wakes up as a walker. This is, literally, the cutting of about 1 second from that scene and I have already tested it and it's a very easy cut.

Also, because I re-cut the transition from one episode to the next when they find Merle's hand on the rooftop, I have to re-adjust the timing of the cropping (as I have to crop the onscreen credits from the beginning of that episode) because it got messed up when I removed some of the footage. Vegas should have auto-adjusted it but it did not

Other than those few, extremely, minor issues, everything else works well and I'm happy with it. Those of "us" that work on projects like this, know all about having to render our projects many times before we have a "final" product.

I will go through everything tonight and, hopefully, start rendering the film one more time unless I fall asleep in front of my computer again, LOL

For those interested, the following are samples cut directly from the 1080p encode that was muxed with the 5.1 DTS-HDMA audio:

[the intro, starting right before the title, and the first few seconds afterwards]-116MB

https://mega.co.nz/#!YchHFYwJ!j-IAP5JxL6...uWy9-Ca77E

[the grain "issue," where in first shot we see how the grain looks "scrubbed," but in next scene it looks fine]-90MB

https://mega.co.nz/#!JcJyDLQA!khVXalJOGB...M9IyDC7N64

[the shot I mentioned from under the tank of Glen]-38MB

https://mega.co.nz/#!BYJAUYpQ!UBb9ofO9Nb...cOUcKKGSts

[the fixed music on the scene of jenner and rick]-106MB

https://mega.co.nz/#!BMZkUIIA!nM-V1rMLOg...vi0axv_DJs

[and, lastly, the entire "rick mercy killing of half-walker" scene]-453MB

https://mega.co.nz/#!QFhX1LJA!cunfA43mSI...W8L2zzSoeo

Actually, now that I think about it, I will make all the edits but wait to start rendering it in case anyone wants to comment first

[jedeitor]

Next, as jedeitor pointed out in a recent post, the texture of the lettering in the intro needs work. I did do some work on it, but apparently it was not enough and the difference between what I added and the original lettering is still too obvious.

Please send me the following:

* 1080p still (without added grain) of THE WALKING DEAD LOGO

* 1080p still (without added grain) of the background just before THE WALKING DEAD LOGO appears.

And tell me the name of the type used for the logo.

I will try something!

[jerryshadoe]

What format would you like the stills?
I can do: jpg, png, or bmp...
Name of font is "Dead Kansas"

[jedeitor]

Hmm... the lossless-er one.

I don't know if PNG or BMP is better, but one of them.

[spoRv]

PNG is lossless, just compressed, so go with it and leave BMP alone!

[jerryshadoe]

So the jpg images come out to 280KB, while the png images are about 1.2MB each, while the bmp images are almost 8MB each so I chose to go with BMP. There are four images included here:
-just the background
-background and only the word "The" onscreen
-background and the words "The" and "Dead" onscreen
-background with the entire "The Walking Dead"

https://mega.co.nz/#!QJgghYJQ!3WwkqYn_zD...cS6stkUobA

And, just to make sure, I verified the name of the font and it is "Dead Kansas." If you have any problems finding it, let me know and I can send you a link

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Sorry Andrea, didn't see your post until I wrote mine

If you want, I can also upload png files