Berandal: TheRaid 2 de-sequelised (HD Update!), Extended edition coming eventually

Update #2:
Berandal is now available in HD! Available as a 1080p (9GB) and 720p (3.5GB) MKV. DLCs should be on info soon, but in the meantime if you want to see it PM me. Note that the HD update does not include any of the previous extra features, which have not been changed. Aside from the HD upgrade, there are some changes with version 2:

• The "Politician's Son" opening scene is gone, and the edit now opens on the toilet fight.
• The "Gang War" deleted scene has been re-integrated into the wider Gang War sequence; the colour has been corrected to match the scenes around it, and the segment with dialogue has been slightly cropped to remove the burned-in subtitles.
• Subtitles are now muxed SRT files rather than burned-in; English subs are enabled by default, but Castilian Spanish are also available. The SRT files will be shared for anyone who wants to undertake translations into other languages.

New HD version trailer is below:

Previous update:
Berandal is finished, submitted to IFDB and available as both DVD and MP4. DLCs should be on info soon, but in the meantime if you want to see it PM me.

I've put together a trailer showing what sort of material I've cut from the film in this edit and what I've kept:
snip
I'm not quite finished editing The Raid 2 yet, though - I've decided to do an extended edition integrating all the deleted scenes into the film while I have the source files available.

Original post:
I've just ordered my DVD of The Raid 2 (was tempted by the Blu-Ray but my TV only does 720p and I can't install a Blu-Ray drive in my editing machine, so it's a no-go for now) and am already thinking about doing a cut-down edit of it that could pair up with the first film for a double-bill of non-stop action goodness.

Anyone else thinking about this/got any suggestions? As a general thing, I'm aiming to cut down the gangland story as much as possible - it'll still be there but in the background, with the fights brought front-and-centre. I may well remove the scenes with the guy who played Mad Dog entirely.

I'm not aiming for this to replace the final version, I just know that some nights what I'll want is the quality fight scenes from The Raid 2 without the longer story and wider cast.

I rewatched the film yesterday and tried to make some mental notes for what I'd change. Here are a few ideas:

1) The opening is a bit meandering. I'd like a punchy opening - something along the lines of:
open with Rama bringing the corrupt lieutenant into the hut;
follow this up with the funeral for Rama's brother Andi, and overlay the explanation of who was responsible onto a much shorter (possibly b&w/sepia tone) version of Bejo executing Andi,
end with Rama being told he needs to get in with Uco's gang
2) Some of the gangster intrigue is ultimately irrelevant. I'd like to cut down the stuff about how Rama ends up in prison, etc - ideally, I'd cut the prison scenes so that it's basically "Rama impresses Uco with his fighting skills, saves his life in the riot, gets invited to join the gang". I'd also like to get rid of some of the stuff about Bungan like the scene with Rama talking to him while they get rid of the body, because it felt like it slowed things down without really adding much.
3) Rama's feeling of disconnection from his family doesn't come up often enough to be a worthwhile plot thread in a shorter cut. I'd remove it entirely.
4) While Prakoso's nightclub fight scene is a thing of beauty, it's also kind of pointless in terms of the narrative. I'm leaning towards dropping it, since a fair amount of the gang stuff is going to prove tricky to shorten.
5) Given the wide cast, I'm considering adding a title sequence near the start and adding stylised stills to remind the audience of who the returning main players from the previous film are. The first time around I couldn't remember who Reza was, and couldn't remember who Andi was until after he'd been executed.

I'm also idly considering some rescoring - this will depend entirely on whether the music is easily isolated or not, but the last two songs in the film are by NIN (from the Ghosts I-IV album) and fit very well. This has me wondering whether I could use other tracks from the same album if they fit well.

That One Guy said:

5) Given the wide cast, I'm considering adding a title sequence near the start and adding stylised stills to remind the audience of who the returning main players from the previous film are. The first time around I couldn't remember who Reza was, and couldn't remember who Andi was until after he'd been executed.

I'm also idly considering some rescoring - this will depend entirely on whether the music is easily isolated or not, but the last two songs in the film are by NIN (from the Ghosts I-IV album) and fit very well. This has me wondering whether I could use other tracks from the same album if they fit well.

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I'm a big fan of the above quoted changes. I have to agree with you, The Raid 2 felt overly long and maybe I'm slow but I forgot who certain people were and got names confused. Also, by the time I had finished there were still a couple plot points I was unclear on (and had to read the Wikipedia entry to get answers).

I'm a big fan of NIN and I think it could potentially work quite well. Also, I'm not sure if you are aware but IIRC there is a website where Trent Reznor has some (or possibly the entire) NIN catalogue, including instrumentals and remixes - I think so that fans could make their own remixes.

I'll have to watch the movie again before I can comment on your other proposed changes (but I'm sure they'll all probably work).

So you'll definitely have at least one viewer for this edit!

Just got R2 on Blu-Ray so if I have any thoughts I'll share them. Hopefully I don't and it's perfect anyway :lol:

TM2YC said:

Just got R2 on Blu-Ray so if I have any thoughts I'll share them. Hopefully I don't and it's perfect anyway :lol:

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Oh, it's a great film in its own right, but very much in a different mold to the first film. If the audio allows I think the first thing you'll want to do is reinsert the gang war deleted scene in its right location (as far as I can tell, this is , but I could be wrong).

The only thing I might do to the original cut is add in the intro titles to re-establish the returning characters, as I think that's the only thin which doesn't quite work.

Okay watched it last night, generally loved it.

Without listening to Gareth Evans' commentary or knowing anything about it's inception, I think it would still be clear to viewers that 'Berandal' was not originally 'The Raid 2'. The retrofitting of Evans' earlier gangster epic script into a sequel to 'The Raid' was quite clear to me. So I feel a great/interesting fanedit of this movie would just forget that 'The Raid' existed and instead tell one complete story in 'Berandal'. We don't need to see Rama's past, Rama's wife, Rama's brother's fate or any of his setup, all that material is about transitioning between the two movies. Just drop us more or less straight into the prison.

The other thing that I'd like to see changed is the pacing of the first 60 minutes. While I really enjoyed the new slowly building plot in the first half it didn't have the same furious and gleeful action of the first movie. Evans states this was intentional in the very first sentence of his commentary. The second half of 'Berandal' felt exactly like the first movie, I got that same smile throughout, that same edge-of-the-seat excitement and that same "Ow!" flinching experince when some of the more visceral flashes of violence happened. So a heavy edit of the first half, followed by a mostly unchanged 2nd half would be the best option IMO.

Lastly I know the Yayan subplot/sequence has little about it that's essential to the overall plot but it is emotionally engaging, interesting and one of the most badass fights in the whole deal. If your intention is to create a 'Lean 'n' mean' cut then I say screw streamlining the narrative by cutting scenes like this for plot reasons and just go with making it a breathless ride and keeping all the action regardless of wether it is 100% needed for the story.

I really don't want to cut Yayan's fight if possible, it's a great scene.

As for the cutting the setup stuff to a minimum...hmmm, that might work quite well, actually. That would fit very nicely with my notion for a new cold open - start with Rama in the prison toilet while the noise builds around him, drop in short flashbacks of him talking to Bunawar (just enough to establish that he's working with Bunawar's undercover unit, and that he's being sent to prison undercover - maybe 10-15 seconds max), and feed from there straight into the fight scene. Let that feed to the chat between Rama and Uco, segue from there to the prison yard fight, and when Rama gets knocked out, cut to black, followed by the title screen, then open back onto the "2 Years Later" scene and carry on.

I still need to work out how to pare down the gangster intrigue stuff so that the rest of the first hour is better-paced, but this sounds like a promising start.

That One Guy said:

I still need to work out how to pare down the gangster intrigue stuff so that the rest of the first hour is better-paced, but this sounds like a promising start.

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A thing that was amazing about the first movie was how little dialogue there was, almost like an insanely violent silent movie. This was easy due to the plot being so simple. This isn't the case with the sequel, so more dialogue is needed to tell the more complicated story. But any scene involving characters talking should be considered for trimming, is it needed plot wise? is it dramatic enough? Does it stop the film for too long etc. Even if you keep scenes but trim certain lines to get in and out of them quicker, then it would help.

btw opening on the rattling lock in the toilet is a great idea .

P.S. I'll just throw this crazy idea out there...

If you go with removing the linking material to the first film, does Rama even need to be a cop? I was thinking if it would be possible to just make him a criminal. He helps the son of the gangster simply to strengthen his position within the prison and gets the job 2 years later out of that. His motivation to do anything he does after that is simply out of loyalty to his new "family". I'm not 100% that this would be possible but I thought I'd mention it.

I think we need something for Rama's background - otherwise he's a bit too much of a blank slate. I like the idea of having something that's as simply set up as the first film's "Oh look it's a drug bust, let's get on with the ass-kicking and gunplay" approach.

As for the dialogue, I agree - if at all possible, I'd like to make it less talky because there's a lot of stuff in it that works really well without dialogue, just on body language and scene-setting.

That One Guy said:

I may well remove the scenes with the guy who played Mad Dog entirely.

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^ This. I found his whole subplot superfluous, bloated, and confusing ("Wait, didn't that guy die in the first one? Oh, he's a different person. Weird. So he's still a super badass fighter? What the hell?")

I would also try and work in the deleted gangland battle as it's just completely awesome. Don't worry about reintroducing the characters from the first one. If your intention remains to turn this into the second part of a double bill with the first one, people won't need the refresher. If you decide to make it a standalone movie, it won't be necessary either.

I spent a bit of time tinkering with this today and am exporting a first draft of what I'd want the opening 30 minutes to be like. I've already got 20-odd minutes out of the runtime, but if at all possible I'd like to get it down to 100 minutes or so as with the first film. If I can incorporate the gang war deleted scene along the way, excellent - but that would be a bonus rather than a primary goal.

Still undecided on the nightclub fight scene, although if I do keep it I think it's just going to be the fight itself, none of Prakoso's setup scenes are particularly worth keeping. I figure just showing the scene itself with Uco turning up at the end should be enough.

I'll post up a vimeo embed once I have it ready.

Edi: Video removed due to technical issues as pointed out by TM2YC. Will replace it with a proper version when I have time to put it together.

Edit 2: OK, this version should be ok, although I notice that if watching it in embedded form the aspect ratio is wrong until you pause it. After unpausing it should correct itself.

I've taken TM2YC's advice in this clip and trimmed the opening further - now there are no flashbacks, just straight in with the toilet fight.

Firstly the aspect ratio is all wrong, it's horizontally squashed and there are massive interlacing issues too. It's barely watchable. You need to get those two problems sorted out before you cut a single further frame because I suspect you need to start again from scratch.

- What is your source? NTSC DVD right? Shame as I wanted to see an HD edit of this movie .
- What program did you use to extract the source?
- What format did you extract the source to?
- What program are you editing in?
- What method did you use to render the final video final we are seeing?
- etc etc

That aside, you were dead on about opening with the toilet fight. It's got tension and drama. However I'm not keen on the intercutting with the briefing, it deadens the impact of the toilet fight buildup. Also I suggest starting with several frames of black with the rumbling sound before you show the first image. This would extend the buildup and tension.

Sorry, I didn't watch beyond that, the crazy combing on the image was too hard on my eyes.

That'll teach me to embed a video without watching it first - not sure what's happened with it but the file I exported doesn't have the combing issues. Having said that, by trying to throw together a rough cut in a hurry I've skipped some steps I'd normally follow, so that's probably not helped...

I ripped the full DVD with DVDFab, then used Handbrake to rip an MP4 with the subtitles burned in. (Normally I'd rip the m2v using DVD Decrypter, then use VirtualDub to convert to Lagarith). I rendered the file in Sony Movie Studio (also where all the editing happened) then had to run it through Handbrake again to get the file size down to something that Vimeo would accept. Given that Handbrake is the only part of this process that I wouldn't normally use I'm guessing I screwed the pooch with the video settings there. I'm not going to have time to look at this for the next few weeks anyway, so it's probably best to just start over when I can do it properly.

As for cutting the briefing - if Rama's release from prison is kept intact (ie we see him taking off the bug, and his phone call with Bunawar after Eka drops him off) then that should do enough to set up the whole "he's undercover" thing without wasting time on extra exposition. And yes, I agree that starting on black frames with the noise building up would help - I'm not sure how well the audio around that scene will allow this but I don't imagine it would be too hard.

I just checked the properties of the MP4 I made with Handbrake and according to GSpot I somehow ended up with an aspect ratio of 31:12 instead of 16:9. No idea how that happened, but I've created a new MP4 with the right AR and have replaced the faulty file in Movie Studio with this. I'm exporting the opening 25 minutes again; assuming this clip doesn't have the same issues as the previous one upon uploading to Vimeo, I'll replace the embed in my previous post.

That One Guy said:

Reveal message

Password is fanedit.org

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Works a treat now without the intercut flashbacks.

02.22 - Not in love with the fade. Make it longer, smooth out the audio? Flip one of the shots so they pan in the same direction? Add some music? or don't do a fade at all or even make this the point for the cop setup flashback? Although I love the idea that we the audience don't suspect he's an undercover cop until we see the wire on the ground much later.
04.36 - This cut doesn't feel quite right. As you cut back to Rama for a reaction shot but then cutaway before he gives any real reaction. Perhaps cut to the prison yard establishing shot just as the "..fighting on our side" line is said and let it play over the next scene.
11.52 - Like the title card placement but I don't care for the font that they wrote the title in (Just personal taste), something bigger and bolder like the "Two years later" title would be more how I'd imagine it. Also is this fanedit a sequel to the Raid? If not, perhaps go with the original Indonesian title "Berandal" (= "Thug" in English).
13.31 - You might have mentioned it, but huge flash-frame here

Goddamn that prison courtyard battle is epic. It's great that in this cut we get to it almost right away.

One more thing. There is a scene of the two main guys on visiting day. I can't quite remember what it's about but I was wondering why you cut it entirely. Doesn't it setup how powerful the son's father is and how beneficial protecting him would be to Rama? I'm not sure if the gap between the toilet and courtyard fights now feels too fast?

p.s. Let me know if you want to upgrade this thread to 'In The Works'.

p.p.s. You can add hard-encoded subtitles with Handbrake? Groovey.

TM2YC said:

Works a treat now without the intercut flashbacks.

02.22 - Not in love with the fade. Make it longer, smooth out the audio? Flip one of the shots so they pan in the same direction? Add some music? or don't do a fade at all or even make this the point for the cop setup flashback? Although I love the idea that we the audience don't suspect he's an undercover cop until we see the wire on the ground much later.

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I think your suggestion of cutting the flashbacks completely works really well, so I'd like to keep it this way if possible. In the original cut there's a shot of Yuda walking through the canteen that would be a better fit for the fade as it moves in the right direction - I'll change it to fade on that, should make the transition easier. (I have a feeling I forgot to crossfade the audio there as well, which won't have helped...)

TM2YC said:

04.36 - This cut doesn't feel quite right. As you cut back to Rama for a reaction shot but then cutaway before he gives any real reaction. Perhaps cut to the prison yard establishing shot just as the "..fighting on our side" line is said and let it play over the next scene.

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Yeah, you're right - I'd wanted to try and get a sense of Yuda nodding to agree with Uco's proposal, but just cutting to the prison yard fight with Yuda in Uco's group should make his decision abundantly clear.

TM2YC said:

11.52 - Like the title card placement but I don't care for the font that they wrote the title in (Just personal taste), something bigger and bolder like the "Two years later" title would be more how I'd imagine it. Also is this fanedit a sequel to the Raid? If not, perhaps go with the original Indonesian title "Berandal" (= "Thug" in English).

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I haven't really decided yet - for the time being I just moved around the original title card, but if I change the title I'll definitely create a new one.

TM2YC said:

Goddamn that prison courtyard battle is epic. It's great that in this cut we get to it almost right away.

One more thing. There is a scene of the two main guys on visiting day. I can't quite remember what it's about but I was wondering why you cut it entirely. Doesn't it setup how powerful the son's father is and how beneficial protecting him would be to Rama? I'm not sure if the gap between the toilet and courtyard fights now feels too fast?

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I'd left it in at first - there's a chat between Eka and Uco about how Uco shouldn't be causing trouble, then Uco asks about Yuda and hears how Yuda got put in prison, then we move to Yuda talking to another guy whose association is what helps sell Yuda as being on the level. I cut it completely because it seemed unnecessary - I think we can work with the idea of Uco seeing Yuda as useful muscle, then Yuda saves Uco's life in the prison yard and they become friends.

I might experiment with reintroducing the Uco/Eka conversation, if only to establish that Uco is at least smart enough to find out about Yuda's background before taking him into his circle.

TM2YC said:

p.s. Let me know if you want to upgrade this thread to 'In The Works'.

p.p.s. You can add hard-encoded subtitles with Handbrake? Groovey.

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Will do - it's possible I'll have more free time for editing in a week or to but I'll have to see how I go.

As for the subtitles, yep - there's a tickbox labelled "Burn in". I wouldn't often go for it, but in this case it seemed much easier than having to learn how to rip subtitles properly (DVD Decrypter recognises the subtitle track as something it can rip, but the output is gibberish) and then import them into Movie Studio.

Thank you as always for the thoughtful and considered advice - it's much appreciated

Any progress on this idea? I was excited about this one but it's gone a bit quiet.

TM2YC said:

Any progress on this idea? I was excited about this one but it's gone a bit quiet.

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Funny thing, I was just thinking about getting back to this yesterday. The last 2 months have been pretty busy IRL so I've not had much time for editing, but things have settled down a bit now so I can get stuck in again. Thus far this is a nice straightforward project and a good palate cleanser between other more involved projects.

Eagerly anticipated [emoji4]