We Are The Walking Dead (Mini-Series) FANedit

[jedeitor]

I watched until 1 hour.

The crossfade at 00:35:43:06 couldn't be resolved with just a straight cut?

[jerryshadoe]

That f*ckin transition... damn man, I spent a few hours on it. It's an EXTREMELY tricky one because the theme music starts so soon after the little walker girl gets got and there is lots of foley "bleeding" over from the shot before the second scene (where Rick's cop car in on the highway) that it was impossible to work on. I tried just a straight cut from one to the other, but it seemed WAAAY to abrupt of a scene change and I couldn't get the audio to transition smoothly this way. I also tried to do a fade to black, but due to how soon the theme music starts (which I HAVE to make sure is cut completely) it took away from the "power" of that scene because it faded to black waaay too fast, so it looked sloppy and the next scene (regardless of whether faded in or directly cut in) seemed abrupt and there was an audio issue where there would have been an obvious "drop-out." I tried NUMEROUS different crossfades here, different kinds of "dissolve" fades, white flash, etc. and the only one that seemed to work well with the audio, was this (relatively) quick crossfade from one to the other. Am I happy with it? Not really Is it a bad transition "per-se?" No, it still works. There is nothing better I can do here.


Now it's time for a some sleep... I will answer any other questions/issues/comments after I wake up
Look forward to hearing from you...

[spoRv]

Half walker scene is ok to me.

About Andrea and her sister scene: as the camera is supposed to be "inside" the motorhome, it seems they are on a "open field"... plus, in the next shot, after Andrea points the gun to Rick, the two are almost not visible on the ground... that is why we have thought "what happened to..." that's it!

[jerryshadoe]

Andrea, I know what you mean. When you look at the position (in relation to the rear tire of the motorhome) of Amy's body and Andrea next to her, you can tell they moved and the reason it become so obvious is because this is (technically) "glued" together from two different episodes. When watching one of the earlier workprint copies with my wife, the first thing she had to say about this scene/transition was "wait, it's already morning? what happened?" She thought the scene was too abrupt... Granted, the edit was VERY different and I tried to fix it. Perhaps this transition still needs some work. The problem, on the technical side, that I face with this is that I can NOT extend that first scene, with Andrea screaming Amy's name at night, by even one frame because in that next frame we see Jim and he start's saying "I know why I dug those holes..." which would make NO sense because I cut ALL of that sub-plot out of this film. When dealing with the "morning" footage, I wasn't sure whether to start with that shot of Rick walking up to Andrea OR with that shot of Andrea next to Amy's body (which I posted earlier) OR with the brief conversation the group has about "Andrea's hasn't moved all night" that prompts Rick to walk up to her. Originally, I tried to start the "morning" scene with that brief conversation, but the transition didn't seem to "flow" smoothly (especially the music) So I re-edited the scene (originally to a "rougher" cut of what is present now) because I thought the music creates the "right mood" for the scene and it made most sense to me for the viewer to see that Andrea is STILL in the same spot over Amy's body in the morning. Maybe I was wrong assuming this, but if that's the case then... well, I don't know. I can TRY to re-cut this and see if anything works BUT I can NOT promise that I will be able to do much. I also tried to cut directly from "night" shot, to the scene after Rick walking up to Andrea, where Daryl starts the conversation "you can't be serious?..." but the transition made NO sense because the viewer was NOT aware of the fact that Andrea is STILL sitting with Amy's body in the morning... So, hmmm... yeah, this one was/is a tricky transition...

Will report back, once I have tried to re-adjust this scene... SHOULD I try to re-insert that shot of Andrea & Amy next to the motorhome in the morning (the screenshot I posted earlier) or do you think that would be an awkward transition?

[spoRv]

I think you should fade to black the scene of Andrea over her sister in the night, leaving just the audio flow also when the video is faded to black; then... it's up to you!

[jerryshadoe]

ok, so if I fade it to black,which scene should I fade it into?

[spoRv]

Like I wrote in the previou post, it's up to you...

[jerryshadoe]

I was just asking for your suggestion/opinion as to which one you think would work best. Granted, it's up to me but I was curious what you thought

[jedeitor]

OK, I finished watching it yesterday night. The last ten minutes I was fighting for keeping my eyes open, I was so tired, so I will recheck that last part in case I missed something.

There were a lot of fades in the "distracting car noise and truck rescue" scene. I didn't like them but I didn't check if it is possible to avoid them.

I centered in the Andrea's sister scene and the transition from night to day.

My proposal is basically: 'Who the f*ck is Andrea's sister? Do we care?'

No, we don't care. Since you have let out Andrea killing her zombie sister, there's not much point on showing her still crying in the morning. There have been loses that night, no need to center in that particular one.

Since trying to explain my idea is not easy, I made a quick cut of what I had in mind. I downloaded the first season and used the full clips to see if there was some more scenes to fill the gaps, and then used a very basic editing software to put them together.

Here you have it: https://mega.co.nz/#!QB5WEQSD!8w7K4eb7tV...ZQ0WCnZqK4

Basically what I did was:

-The guys running to the camp
-The people in the camp having dinner
-Andrea drinking (this scene was originally before the one of they having dinner, but I think it works better here)
-A scream and andrea turning back.
-A zombie biting Andrea's sister (I used your cut of the fight from here because I think it works well)
-Andrea crying over her sister (fade to black)
-Fade from black to Daryl walking away from the group (quiet nature sounds, I think it fits right and the transition from night to day flows better)
-Added the "we don't burn them" scene because it was too quick to cut from Daryl walking to Daryl moving a corpse, to Daryl blaming them for his brother. And I think it's a nice scene also.

Thoughts?

[jerryshadoe]

You, sir, are a gentlemen and kind person. I can't believe you watched the film to the end being so tired. AND you took the time to cut together a rough sample to demonstrate your point. THANK YOU! I will include a credit for you on the "official" release of this project because you have already helped me more than you realize. Having "fresh" pairs of eyes, other than mine, to look at this and provide feedback is helping me "produce"/edit together something that will be a pleasure to watch not only for me but others as well.

Now, on to the technical "stuff," LOL:

ok, so that "crazy car alarm and truck rescue" scene "thing:"
the first crossfade here is at 1:09:49.13 and has been different in almost every single workprint that I've had so far. I finally "settled" on this one because it looks "ok" visually and the audio transitions smoothly with the video crossfade. It is NOT optimal, but it's the best I could do with the available source footage, as there is nothing else relating to this scene in between, but there is something in between that I cut out completely. The next crossfade, which is actually a "additive dissolve," is at 1:10:48.03 and, honestly, I am kinda proud of how well that one blends (maybe more accurate word is "morphs") from the truck going one way to going the other and the road blending from one to the other almost "seamlessly,", where I managed (after a couple of hours of trying to find right length and position of transition) to get a nice transition both visually and acoustically. Some people may not like it, I'm aware of that, but it's the best I could do because the scene that is cut in between those is the shot of Merle up on top of building and that's all that is cut. The last crossfade on this scene occurs at 1:11:38.08 and is between the shot of Glen driving off in the mustang and the truck pulling up at the camp. Because I'm presenting the story, mostly for now, from Rick's point-of-view, I cut out the part of Glen arriving at the camp. Originally the shots of the truck arriving at the camp were not in my workprint. I re-edited them back in and did the best I could to try to make it seem "ok." The reason I re-edited it back in is because it seemed waaay to abrupt for them to be driving down the road somewhere-that we can see, while they are talking and the shot of glen in the mustang on the road, to the shot of Rick in the truck at the camp where the guy tells him "...come meet everybody..." It just didn't work... I also tried cutting directly to Rick getting "introduced" to Shane as the "guy that helped them get out of Atlanta," but that also didn't work. tried cutting to the scene that is now at crossfade 1:11:50.22 and that could have work (technically it can be done) but it seemed too abrupt of a scene change. However, as I type this here (funny how that can help) I am realizing that maybe a fade to black from Glen in mustang and then fade from black to that timecode I just mentioned might work better here... hmmmm.... AGAIN, THANX as you're helping me without even realizing how much...

Next point, ha ha ha ha... Thanks for the laugh, but you are right, "Who the f*ck is Andrea's sister?" You're edit, although extremely rough, was very easy to follow. However, the fade to black was EXTREMELY abrupt and seemed out of place. Not only the video, (which maybe could have worked if the fade had been extended by 20-45 frames) but the audio fade was almost like someone just pressed "stop" on a tape player. I understand you were just "presenting" your idea and that it was rough but I'm wondering if the source material (just to be clear, my sources are the official US blu-ray releases for my "master" video and English audio - but the rest are multi-sourced) will allow for the idea you have there to transition everywhere smoothly. Also, the scream that we hear from Amy is too soon to the laughing face that Andrea has on screen and the cut to her turning around should have been a little sooner. But I get the point and appreciate you taking the time to cut that together to show your idea. Kudos! The fade in to Daryl, on the other hand, that you did there, DOES work VERY WELL. Again, kudos. That's the funny thing that I noticed during this project: there are many instances, both video and audio, where the "1st part" will "fade out/over" nicely but the "2nd part" will not "fade in/under" properly and vice-versa. Here, finding the proper "balance" can be tricky at times.

I guess now, that I've had a decent amount of feedback from you and Andrea, (again, thank you both) I will re-watch the workprint again, make the list I mentioned in last post (sorry guys, but it's been a long couple of days and I'm exhausted to the point where my vision is almost double) and combine it with ALL of the suggestions that you have given me and go back to the "cutting-room floor" to see what I can do. Overall, to be honest, you guys have not mentioned many problems which makes me happy because that means that the "idea" I had and tried to present, for the most part, worked. I guess all of the workprint copies I made before I announced this project and re-editing is actually paying off. Can't wait to finish "fixing" this all up and releasing the first film so that I can get started on the second one which IMHO is going to be the HARDEST out of the entire series to-date. There is some amazingly good footage that can be put together to make a decent two-hour story line, but F*** is there a lot of BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORING stuff in that season too. I am going to have a LOT of fun "slicing and dicing" footage for that one. AND, I already have a VERY rough draft written out for what will be used for the third and fourth movies. Honestly, I might have started the acquiring/demuxing video/audio in late October of last year, but I have been working on the project since a few months before that. I am looking forward to working on all of it because it's a fun ride and I want to really enjoy the show, which is great, but has sooooooo many problems with it... I want an intense, horrifying story, NOT a zombie soap-opera LOL

Time for sleep, I will "report" back tomorrow, before I start work on the next workprint. Honestly, I hope it will be the last one as I am starting to get tired of re-watching the footage on this one.

SPECIAL FYI: The video on the "official" release will have a "special" treatment that is NOT visible in the SD workprint due to low resolution and very low bitrate. But I have a surprise there that will make the footage look better than you have EVER seen it before. I won't mention it here yet, but if you or Andrea are curious then you can shoot me a PM

Peace