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Sicario - The Wolf Cut

SIUse

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After lurking and somehow participating in this community, i decided to realize my own little edit, where not much editing skill regarding shuffeling scenes, add effects etc is needed.

I always loved this movie from Denis Villeneuve and watched it numerous times.
There were always little bits and pieces i never grew fond
and thought of how to get rid off.

Movie-Poster-finished.png

Synopsis
The movie is about the united states war on drugs and what does it mean for the ones affected by it, actively and passively. We get to experience it through Kate (as she´s us) and aren´t able to fathom the politics of it.
Additionally Taylor Sheridan incorporated the view of a mexican police officer, named SIlvio. That´s the point where my thoughts and edit comes in. As Sheridans approach and intend is just, i never connected to SIlvio and his fight to provide for his family. Perhaps we shouldn´t. Therefore i got the feeling that the movies grip is loosen on me. So i thought:
What would it be like, if all reference to silvios background is cut and he´s just a corrupt cop who´s merly a tool for both sites? Alejandro certainly doesn´t care much as well as the cartel.
What this war does to mexican people is a little more in-depth with Solimas Sequel.

Editing: So it´ll be rather straight foward as i have not much to change on the storytelling despite Silvio and some color grading (tunnel and villa scene). The sound design doesn´t need any tinkering. Shouldn´t be too hard for me as a first editing attempt.
- Added a slight 35mm grain structure

Video - 3840x1600 SDR at 12,3 Mb/s Bitrate with SVT-AV1 codec
Audio - EAC-3 (DD+) 5.1 track 1472 kb/s from Dolby Surround EX

27.02.22: finished

Cutlist:
  1. - cut Reggie yelling "get down" at the beginning o the raid. As i thought of it as overacting with his facial expression (fully subjective)
  2. - re-arranging the scene where the team is pressing forward, led by Kate. Because as she approaches the corner where she finally holds (back view) the next scene is her approaching again but from the front view. Now it´ll be one fluent motion till she gets the tap on her shoulder to press forward again
  3. - cut "where are the hostages" from the off. I don´t know of any special units team who would approach a situation like that. Asking questions before everything else is cleared and still (controlled) chaos
  4. - cut Reggies expression "whoa" as he takes a look at the whole in the wall and re-arranged his first look to the wall as consecutive scene with his site shot "what the fuck", then close up of his face, Kate and the other collegue going towards him.
  5. - cut approaching officer "Macer, the us attorney wants a statement...." and Kates response "The truth". What else should they say to the attorney? "Oh well, we found nothing...". The house was full of corpses.
  6. - cut Matts hand gesture to Kates questions "what´s our objective?" and his response "to dramaticly overreact" in the meeting after the raid where she is recruited.
  7. Just let Matt smile as Kates reaction of subtle dissatifaction to this fits nicely (so i think). Therefore Matt is more shady for Kate and the viewer as we wonder what comes next.
  8. - cut "everybody hold on" as their convoy gets redirected by the federal mexican police. Why bother saying this line . if they move on immediatly? (i´m a non-native english speaker, so if this expression got any other meaning, let me know, please)
  9. - cut Alejandros line as they arrived at the prison "...it´ll be at the border". We already heard that at the briefing, twice. The viewer gets it. big jump
  10. - lower volume of the knife-draw as delta guy is entering the tunnel. It´s way too loud
  11. - mute "six" remain as Alejandro walks into the villa of Fausto Alarcon
  12. - end the movie as Alejandro is walking away from Kate after forcing her to sign the document
  13. - display movie title as he left the screen + audio adjustment from the theatrical ending.
Some clips will be added in the following days.

I value any constructive feedback, especially regarding silvio. What´s your opinion on that matter?
 
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SIUse

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Clips

Here is the re-arranged raid entry:

Corpses in the wall:

Matt indifferent:

Prison Arriving:

First time mentioning of his name:
 
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Heavisyde

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Very cool edit. I'd thought of doing something similar in my ideas thread although I was going to cut Reggie more. I like the approach you've taken here, Sicario's a great film, it just needs a little shave. While I personally didn't have a problem with Silvio's storyline, it doesn't amount to anything so I can understand cutting it.

If you submit this I'd be happy to give it a review.
 

SIUse

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Totally agree, i never would’ve thought of reworking this movie completely. For me its tone, imagery and storytelling is great.

Some things that aren’t fixable unfortunately, e.g.: that they wear plate carriers without plates in it, some gun handling.

Regarding Silvio: It amounts to something in a subtle way, the ending scene. Nothing changes for the common people (as Silvio is a pipeline for all of them). But as stated, it’s not the focus of this movie, Kate and Alejandro are.

i‘d also thought about cutting Reggie more, but in some instances it disrupts the flow or continuity (regarding which persons are im the frame), e.g.: as the two officers found the hatch on the ground sealed. I did try to cut Reggie throwing up between this scene. But as we are inside the house with kate again, he is present on the outside.
Maybe i‘ll try to work around that, if it’s in my audio skill set.

I‘ll submit it when it’s finished (probably by the end of this week or next thursday if nothing unusual happens). Thank you for your offer, i gladly accept.
 

Heavisyde

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Regarding Silvio: It amounts to something in a subtle way, the ending scene. Nothing changes for the common people (as Silvio is a pipeline for all of them). But as stated, it’s not the focus of this movie, Kate and Alejandro are.
Oh yeah i 100 percent agree, that was my interpretation as well.

Re Reggie, i think i was gonna cut him commenting on Kate's bra, and just him being a little clingy haha.
 

SIUse

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Re Reggie, i think i was gonna cut him commenting on Kate's bra, and just him being a little clingy haha.
i´ll try and play with that, for sure have to tinker with the bar scene also as he is mentioning the bra again. But could work.

Added now some clips in the second post.
 

INIGHTMARES

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I look forward to seeing more of this edit. I too love the film. Looking forward to what you can do with it.
 

Heavisyde

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The clips all look very good editing wise, didn't notice anything. Only issues I spotted are framerate drops in the 2nd clip (4s) and the 4th clip (19s).
 

SIUse

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I look forward to seeing more of this edit. I too love the film. Looking forward to what you can do with it.
Thanks.
It won’t be revolutionary because overall it’s a great movie already.
 
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SIUse

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The clips all look very good editing wise, didn't notice anything. Only issues I spotted are framerate drops in the 2nd clip (4s) and the 4th clip (19s).
Thank you.
Noticed this, too. But i know why. I didn’t bother to check the fps setting while rendering the clips. So they were set at 24 fps, but the movie is 24/1001 - 23,976.

Tinkered a bit with cutting Reggie. It works, but unfortunately there are two scenes of kate lost.
as she‘s wake up and stare out of her window after the first day in action (prison collection and hold of the border transport) and in the bar „i want a cigarette so bad“ as well as the followed conversation. But picks up at „where did you’ve taken me?“.
 

Heavisyde

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Thank you.
Noticed this, too. But i know why. I didn’t bother to check the fps setting while rendering the clips. So they were set at 24 fps, but the movie is 24/1001 - 23,976.

Tinkered a bit with cutting Reggie. It works, but unfortunately there are two scenes of kate lost.
as she‘s wake up and stare out of her window after the first day in action (prison collection and hold of the border transport) and in the bar „i want a cigarette so bad“ as well as the followed conversation. But picks up at „where did you’ve taken me?“.
Yeah I've had that problem before re fps. First thing you've gotta checked (via MediaInfo) is whether your file being used in the project is VFR and not CFR. If it is CFR, then it's an easy fix to change your project settings to 23.976. If it's VFR then you'll have to go back to the original rip and extract from there.

Re the scenes cut, I'll also take a look at those scenes you mentioned, it would be a shame to lose them if they're good scenes. Up to you ultimately though whether the quality of the scenes surpasses the desire to cut Reggie.
 

SIUse

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If it's VFR then you'll have to go back to the original rip and extract from there.
What do you mean by extract it from the original rip?
It is indeed a variable framerate, which i never thought. The original rip is loaded into resolve studio.
 

Heavisyde

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What do you mean by extract it from the original rip?
It is indeed a variable framerate, which i never thought. The original rip is loaded into resolve studio.
Did you rip with makemkv and get an mkv?
 

SIUse

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the mkv should be 23.976 fps CFR. Are you using the mkv in your project or an mp4 extraction?
Ah damn it, i converted it to mp4 and a another codec due to compatibility issues before. But now i purchased the hvec extension for windows 10.
Thank you for asking these easy questions.
Now i‘ll convert my hdr rip to sdr again (because i didn’t kept the sdr mkv).

EDIT: Fortunately my brain reminded me that resolve studio does have color transform plugin. So that saves me a lot of time and i can use he hdr file as it was ripped.
 
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Heavisyde

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Ah damn it, i converted it to mp4 and a another codec due to compatibility issues before. But now i purchased the hvec extension for windows 10.
Thank you for asking these easy questions.
Now i‘ll convert my hdr rip to sdr again (because i didn’t kept the sdr mkv).

EDIT: Fortunately my brain reminded me that resolve studio does have color transform plugin. So that saves me a lot of time and i can use he hdr file as it was ripped.
It's alright to use an mp4 extraction, as mp4s usuallly work better on NLEs than mkvs. it's just that often when converting from mkv to mp4 the framerate is changed from CFR to VFR. Happened to me many times when i started. Two methods to avoid this:
1. Use avidemux. Under mp4 settings it should say move index to beginning. Deselect audio tracks at the top.
2. Use ffmpeg. Off the top of my head:
ffmpeg -i FILE.mkv -c:v copy -an FILE.h264
Then:
ffmpeg -i FILE.h264 -c:v copy FILE.mp4

In both cases, audio is avoided as it's better to convert that separately in audacity in my experience.

I don't know much about hevc but i'd check to make sure your original rip is hevc/h265 and not avc/h264 before using that codec. Might be fine to use regardless.
 

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Little update:
An old problem occured in resolve studio Despite having installed the hvec device manufacturer extensions, resolve shows some frames „media offline“ when the mkv rip (HDR) is loaded into the media pool and timeline.
Deleting the render cache and relinking the clip didn’t helped.

So i switched to avisynth to do the hdr to sdr conversion (AVC encoder). This will take probably about 13 1/2h.

Regarding your tips @Heavisyde:
I always seperate the video stream from the audio with eacto.
ffmpeg isn’t new to me, but simply copying the video stream into a new (here mp4) container causes the variable framerate. ffmpeg doesn’t have a solution for that.
I‘ll take a look at avidemux, though. Never neededed to use it but now it might be come in handy, thanks!

EDIT: Avidemux really did the trick to copy the hdr video into the mp4 container with a constant framerate and no „media offline“ in Resolve Studio. Saved me 13 hours. Many thanks @Heavisyde
 
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SIUse

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EDIT: Decided
 
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