Miami Vice Trilogy (TV-to-Movie) by ranger613

Hi guys, just wanted to ask the community-- during my break I made a Miami Vice edit, as TV-to-movie, and was wondering if there was an audience for it? I never posted before because:
1) Quality is DVD-- show has never been released on Blu ray, shockingly
2) Its in its original 4:3 aspect ratio, I myself am not a fan of this

but the show is awesome and I love it, music especially. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about the technical aspects? Are the aspect ratio and DVD quality deal breakers? Should I crop?

The edit is of the entire 'Calderone arc', from Pilot to Calderone's return, and is a little over 2 hours. Also made a separate edit for the 'Golden Triangle' arc.
Any thoughts/ comments appreciated. Are there fans of the show here?
If you'd like to preview a rough cut of either, more than happy to share.

Here's a preview of the rough cut:

PS. Will be releasing Hobbit 2 this week, and thank you very much to everyone for supporting Blade Runner. Cheers guys

Kris

I was a huge, huge fan of the show back when it originally aired (back when I was a preteen-early teenager -- and I think I had a model of that very boat, as well as both of Sonny's Ferraris!). Would love to see what you've come up with!

As far as quality goes, I'm not sure why DVD quality would be a problem; it's not like every edit we've ever had has been Blu-Ray quality -- maybe someday, but not yet.

In terms of aspect ratio, if it really bothers you that much, there are ways of changing it. There are plugins for After Effects like Letterboxer that can help -- they're not entirely automated, but they do make it much simpler. There are also some templates out there that have bars in different aspect ratios, depending on your needs.

The ones I have seen are Photoshop files, which can be imported into After Effects or Premiere as new layers (or you could, theoretically, do the whole thing in Photoshop for Video). Any of the resulting file types should be able to be rendered in Adobe Media Encoder.

If you don't use Adobe for your workflow, I would imagine there are similar workarounds available for Vegas, Final Cut, and others...hope this helps!

Ditto that it being "just" DVD quality shouldn't stop one from releasing an edit. As far as the 4:3 aspect ratio, it is what it is and embrace it, it's not a horrible thing at all. I can't see people feeling let down because a full-frame 480p fanedit was released.

If you tell a good story, SD vs. HD should be of little concern.

I don't get why people don't like 4:3 if that's how it was filmed (videoed?) and released. I generally think OAR is best.

As you can see by my avatar, I'm a big fan of the show

I'm really into all the music videos on youtube that people have made using clips of the show (including my own fan made music videos lol). I would LOVE to see certain story arcs made into a series of small films. Not only as a way to have a sort of "short story series", but it'd be a good way to trim away the fat from certain low points in the series.

Just curious, would you end this story arc with the last episode of season 2? When Tubbs finds out he had a kid with Calderone's daughter? Or would that story arc be saved for the next "movie" of yours using the episode when they brought John Leguizamo back in season 3?

Anyway, yeah I like this idea A LOT. If you wanna do this with better quality versions of the episodes, I would say look up those 720p releases from Hulu or Netflix, I can't remember which stream service did it. The quality is definitely an upgrade from the DVDs.

I would say this could be the first "film" from the extended stories. Next story should be:

Stone's War
The 2 part episode where we lost Zito


But probably the best story arc would of course be the Burnett trilogy. Unfortunately that means shoe-horning in both the season 3 episode with Hackman (so we get his background), and.....the Caitlin's episodes. Obviously Sonny's turn in character needs that background in order to know where he's coming from. Sure, some would argue that we don't need to see Sonny go out for revenge in order to better establish his turn to go bad in the following episodes, but I feel that without seeing his darker side of him, the amnesia angle that changes his character is harder to swallow.

There's nothing wrong with DVD quality, especially if the series hasn't had an HD release yet. Maintaining the original aspect ratio is a good thing. Cropping for artistic purposes is all well and good, but if there's no reason to crop, leave it as-is.

I never really followed the show, but am familiar with it. I'm curious: was this episode part of any sort of story arc?

(Contains strong language, etc.)

http://spoonyexperiment.com/movie-reviews/rebruary-2014-viking-bikers-from-hell/

hebrides said:

I was a huge, huge fan of the show back when it originally aired (back when I was a preteen-early teenager -- and I think I had a model of that very boat, as well as both of Sonny's Ferraris!). Would love to see what you've come up with!

As far as quality goes, I'm not sure why DVD quality would be a problem; it's not like every edit we've ever had has been Blu-Ray quality -- maybe someday, but not yet.

In terms of aspect ratio, if it really bothers you that much, there are ways of changing it. There are plugins for After Effects like Letterboxer that can help -- they're not entirely automated, but they do make it much simpler. There are also some templates out there that have bars in different aspect ratios, depending on your needs.

The ones I have seen are Photoshop files, which can be imported into After Effects or Premiere as new layers (or you could, theoretically, do the whole thing in Photoshop for Video). Any of the resulting file types should be able to be rendered in Adobe Media Encoder.

If you don't use Adobe for your workflow, I would imagine there are similar workarounds available for Vegas, Final Cut, and others...hope this helps!

Click to expand...

Neglify said:

Ditto that it being "just" DVD quality shouldn't stop one from releasing an edit. As far as the 4:3 aspect ratio, it is what it is and embrace it, it's not a horrible thing at all. I can't see people feeling let down because a full-frame 480p fanedit was released.

Click to expand...

ssj said:

If you tell a good story, SD vs. HD should be of little concern.

Click to expand...

TV's Frink said:

I don't get why people don't like 4:3 if that's how it was filmed (videoed?) and released. I generally think OAR is best.

Click to expand...

matrixgrindhouse said:

There's nothing wrong with DVD quality, especially if the series hasn't had an HD release yet. Maintaining the original aspect ratio is a good thing. Cropping for artistic purposes is all well and good, but if there's no reason to crop, leave it as-is.

I never really followed the show, but am familiar with it. I'm curious: was this episode part of any sort of story arc?

(Contains strong language, etc.)

http://spoonyexperiment.com/movie-reviews/rebruary-2014-viking-bikers-from-hell/

Click to expand...

Hi guys thanks so much for the feedback. I think I'll keep the present format then with my own color correction and grading. Cheers!

tylerdurden389 said:

As you can see by my avatar, I'm a big fan of the show

I'm really into all the music videos on youtube that people have made using clips of the show (including my own fan made music videos lol). I would LOVE to see certain story arcs made into a series of small films. Not only as a way to have a sort of "short story series", but it'd be a good way to trim away the fat from certain low points in the series.

Just curious, would you end this story arc with the last episode of season 2? When Tubbs finds out he had a kid with Calderone's daughter? Or would that story arc be saved for the next "movie" of yours using the episode when they brought John Leguizamo back in season 3?

Anyway, yeah I like this idea A LOT. If you wanna do this with better quality versions of the episodes, I would say look up those 720p releases from Hulu or Netflix, I can't remember which stream service did it. The quality is definitely an upgrade from the DVDs.

I would say this could be the first "film" from the extended stories. Next story should be:

Stone's War
The 2 part episode where we lost Zito


But probably the best story arc would of course be the Burnett trilogy. Unfortunately that means shoe-horning in both the season 3 episode with Hackman (so we get his background), and.....the Caitlin's episodes. Obviously Sonny's turn in character needs that background in order to know where he's coming from. Sure, some would argue that we don't need to see Sonny go out for revenge in order to better establish his turn to go bad in the following episodes, but I feel that without seeing his darker side of him, the amnesia angle that changes his character is harder to swallow.

Click to expand...

Hi, thanks for the interest, yes definitely would love feedback on which arcs work best. Personally, I consider the first two seasons to be the best, was not a huge fan of the amnesia angle. So far the two edits are:
1) Calderone arc: starting with pilot, flash forward to calderones return, and concludes with calderones return 2.
2) Golden triangle arc: Golden triangle 1+2, fat trimmed. This focuses and develops Edward James Olmos' character a lot.

The main problem with most episodes from a 'film' standpoint is that the episodes themselves, while great, are mostly standalone, making tt hard to link them together. Outside the two mentioned above, and the ones you mentioned, ant other good arcs in Seasons 1 +2 you think should be developed? I want to focus on the first two seasons before moving into the later Seasons, to maintain some continuity in the film series.

I tried a Dennis Farina arc as Lombardi, but the Season 5 episode just felt so out of tone and did not mesh with S1's One Eyed Jack and Lombardi. Any thoughts on early series arcs?

Also, not ure how to acquire the hulu versions. Had I known I would have found a way to do this before making the edits. [MENTION=9451]matrixgrindhouse[/MENTION], yup thats a season 3 eisode called Viking Bikers From Hell (lol), and no, not part of any arc (thankfully haha)

ranger613 said:

Also, not ure how to acquire the hulu versions. Had I known I would have found a way to do this before making the edits.

Click to expand...

Not sure if I can publicly say where exactly to go to obtain them. But trust me, they're out there

Anyway, since you wanna focus primarily on seasons 1 & 2 (personally I think season 3 has some great episodes, but I understand that seasons 3-5 are "Miami Vice" in name-only, lol), I really can't think of any eps that have any connecting story arc. As you said, they're all very "one-off". I can only really think of certain eps that have similar "themes". In which case, "Evan", and "Buddies" would be my next guess, as both eps deal with people from Crockett's past. Another guess would be "Definitely Miami" and "French Twist", as they both concern with Crockett falling in love with a woman who isn't exactly on the up and up. Then again, you can throw in "By Hooker, By Crook" and "Theresa" from season 3 for that theme to.

Hi [MENTION=4824]tylerdurden389[/MENTION], thanks for the feedback man. Definitely Miami might work, I could use just the Ted nugent half and combine it with another episode. The definitely Miami bit would be the "emotional" half of the episode, I'm just re watching episodes to see what would complement it. I was initially thinking of pairing it with "Evan", but emotional overload you think? Plus, tubbs gets sidelined in this scenario.

Any ideas?
Plus, can you link me to your YouTube videos?[emoji6]

How about the 2 episodes where Crockett gets attached to some young people who end up snuffing it? Milk Run (classic ep) and that episode from season 3 with the kid who plays football who gets shot by a drug dealer at the end. It's the episode where Johnson starts flailing all over the place out of anger lol.

I'd really love for you to maybe do something with "Shadow in the Dark", as it really is one of the best eps from Season 3. As for my videos, I'll PM them to ya as I don't wanna look like I'm hacking this thread

Love Milk Run! Shadow of the Dark is awesome. I'm planning a three movie cycle for the first set: Calderone/ Triangle/ ?, as representative of seasons 1/2, then later on make a Season 3 edit using Shadow. If you'd like to preview them, lemme know, would love to get feedback.

PS Loved your videos man!! Hope you dont mind if I share them on here.
Tylerdurden389's Miami Vice videos:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_873518143&feature=i v&src_vid=1LovzNF5AbU&v=LSxUBh05BP8[/video]

Well, as long as it's you posting my videos, I'm cool with it. Hopefully the mods are to . Thanks for liking them.

Loved them tylerdurden389. So I completed my trilogy. Only thing I'm not happy about is the lack of hd, but this is more of a concern for new viewers who are not from the age of SD. They look as good as I could make them look with my dvds lol, grading all the footage to increase color vibrancy. Personally I love the old tv look, but I guess the only people who'd enjoy these edits are fans of Vice anyway haha.

Plus side, I'm really happy with the edits in terms of story:

Part 1-- Miami Vice:Vendetta (144 min; focuses on Philip Thomas as Tubbs) NY cop Tubbs is on a hunt for his brother's killer with Miami Vice detective Crockett, encountering hitmen and double-crosses in a mission that takes them from Miami beach to the Bahamas.

Part 2: Miami Vice:Score (90 min;. focuses on Edward James Olmos' Castillo). Crockett and Tubbs stumble upon plans to heist their hotel while on a seemingly boring assignment, but soon realize they are part of a much larger scheme that revolves around a former nemesis of Lieutenant Castillo.

Part 3: Miami Vice:Redemption (79 min; centers around Don Johnson's Det Crockett) Crockett and Tubbs investigate an illegal arms trader and run into a former partner of Crockett whom he has bad blood with. This disrupts Crocketts focus, and to make matters worse he gets involved with a mysterious woman who is not who she seems, setting him off down the long road to hell.

I did not compromise on tone and pacing, and only told the story that needed to be told, hence the different lengths.

Part 1 encompasses the Pilot, Hitlist (aka Calderones return p1) and calderone p2. Part 2 is Score (aka Golden Traingle p1) and Traingle p2, as well as one scene from one eyed Jack. Part 3 was maybe the hardest to get right, a combination of Evan and Definitely Miami, thanks to tylerdurdens suggestion. Hope to release these soon, will post sample clips in the mean time.

tylerdurden389 said:

Hopefully the mods are to .

Click to expand...

They're fine.

A preview of test footage from the ending of Part 3 (spoilers--from the episode definitely miami). Rescored and graded. The last two minutes are why, to me, Miami Vice single-handedly made the 80's so cool ;-).

SPOILERS

Dude, you should've saved the ending for later. You show clips from both episodes, but I have no idea how the stories are going to work with each other in terms of plot. Either way, using Crockett's theme to close out the episode is great, seeing as how this is his self contained story. Just don't forget those sound effects to complete it all (beach waves crashing, sand blowing, the helicopter, indistinct dialogue as they're walking towards the helicopter, etc...). Otherwise it just looks like a music video

Well if [MENTION=10544]ranger613[/MENTION] just spoiler tags that ending than those that don't want to see it can just skip it, right [MENTION=4824]tylerdurden389[/MENTION] ?

Kal-El said:

Well if ranger613 just spoiler tags that ending than those that don't want to see it can just skip it, right tylerdurden389 ?

Click to expand...

Well, it is the first video of his edit he posted so obviously we're all curious. He could've shown us anything else he's done so far, but w/e. This show is 30 years old and any fan already knows what happens.