Army of Darkness: Primitive screwhead edition

a fan edit by Ridgeshark

The amount of work that must have went into this would give anyone a run for their money. A super nice job was done in putting roughly all known versions together on one disc via seamless branch (not true seamless, read on)

VIDEO: For the most part the picture is pristine. You can see some video issues with the footage used from whatever source it was taken from. This is not the editors fault, and he did the best he could with what he had to work with.

RESTORATION: this is where things really come into play regarding picture quality. For a lot of the scenes a massive digital cleanup was exercised. Scratches or other film debris were digitally removed. A phenomenal job was performed on this.

AUDIO
audio was great though I do not have a 5.1 setup. Sounded fine on 2.0. However one scene from the TV version literally sounded like it was recorded from the television speaker itself. This is when Ash tries to persuade Henry the Red to join him and fight the deadites. Not distracting, but just odd. Other than that, the audio mixed well with all the versions and no volume issues from the various sources arose

TECH:
OK the goal of this was to use a seamless branch to put three versions of the film on one dvd. This is somewhat successful. However dvd lab pro (and like the older DVD Maestro) cannot do a true seamless branch. This is more of pgc jumping in the same vts title. This means the disc stops for less than a micro of a second (like a DL layer break) before it switches to whatever version you are watching. You would think this would be distracting after a while but I found that it did not hamper the viewing experience in the slightest, which is funny considering I am pretty picky with things like that. Perhaps playing this off your PC hard drive it would actually work seamlessly?

MENU: generic kind of menu that lets you choose which version you want. Sadly they are not given real details, so you kind of have to guess (ex: one is called "overdose with original ending") which version you are getting and what footage is linked to it.

each version of the film starts off with a short info piece on what dvds/sources were used and some of the work that went into this. This short is actually part of each movie.

All in all I am giving this dvd a 4 out of 5 stars. Mainly because it is not a true seamless branch. Still a really good job was done and I highly recommend this edit.

Army of Darkness - Primitive Screwhead Edition
by Ridgeshark

What is it about? This features 3!!! extended versions of ARMY OF DARKNESS, available via seamless branching, featuring both alternate endings and the alternate beginning.
member ratings:[ratings]


original film name: Army Of Darkness
new film name : Army of Darkness - Primitive Screwhead Edition
film studio name : Universal Pictures
edit crew name : Ridgeshark
Date Original Film Was Released : 1992
Date Edit Was Released : January 21st, 2008
Original Runtime : 81/96 Minutes

Fanedit details:
This version includes both the alternate endings and alternate openings. It includes scenes seen only in the Sci-Fi channel version of the film, and scenes only seen as deleted scenes on the official discs, such as Ash fighting Arthur, Ash recruiting Henry the Red, the extended windmill scene, etc.

It also includes a new sound mix which includes some musical surprises from the great soundtrack by Joe Lo Duca (and Danny Elfman). Most notably the opening logos are different. You'll have to see.

The deleted scenes which appear in workprint quality have been cleaned up frame by frame as much as possible. They will never be perfect, but this is about as good as they're going to look and sound until better quality material is made available.

Your intention for this fanedit: To provide people with the longest ever version of ARMY OF DARKNESS in highest possible quality.



http://fanedit.org/443/

Maybe downloadable from Fanedit.info

So, I'm watching this right now and it's freezing A LOT. I knew there would be some freezing so that the disc could switch versions but I thought it would happen once or twice. It's happening every 5 to 10 minutes, sometimes every couple of minutes, sometimes right in the middle of a scene. I thought the only difference between the three versions was which beginning or ending it had. So, I assumed the pauses would only happen after the beginning and before the ending. Did anyone else have this issue or is it just a bad burn? I don't want to waste another LightScribe disc if this is just a problem inherent to the "seamless" branching. Thanks.

sounds like a bad burn, kolpitz. Or like your DVD player not liking the brand of DVD.

boon23 said:

sounds like a bad burn, kolpitz. Or like your DVD player not liking the brand of DVD.

Click to expand...

It's the same discs I always use and the same player. I'll try re-downloading / re-burning. Thanks.

I'm sorry you're having trouble with the disc. I had a problem like this when playing the disc back on a friend's dvd player. The DVD froze up briefly around every chapter mark. My friend's DVD player had a multidisc tray and I believe it was a Sony. I tried the same disc on many other dvd players and it never once had that problem. The problem must be related to the branching system used by DVDLab Pro, which sees every new chapter as a possible new point to jump to. Unfortunately, some dvd players choke on it. I would definitely try the disc on another dvd player before burning anymore copies.

Kolpitz,

You should check the review I wrote on the front end of the site for this very nice edit as it covers some of your problems. Though the work is amazing, I have never come across a true seamless branching disc made on custom media (In other words something not factory pressed) that plays seamlessly

you will get slight pauses every time the disc changes a path to another pgc in the title set. This is normal.

Yes there are quite a number of alternate scenes throughout the whole film depending on what version you are watching. It is way more than just the beginning and end. I found it more comforting to play this off the pc's hard drive than playing it on my dvd player for the same issues you are having

a true seamless branching disc also takes advantage of a dvd players limited ram memory (commands for buffering) and this is also another reason why it appears seamless.. Unfortunately no home/pro software out there really can do this properly with addressing the players ram and why no custom branching disc truly plays seamlessly. However the slight pause from one scene to another can be next to nothing, (though still present) depending on what dvd player you are using

this is coming out on BLURAY...no release date yet thou.

http://www.amazon.com/Army-Darkness-Scr ... 897&sr=8-2

Wait.. that's not the fanedit though, is it?

well no....thats why its in the "extended edition" forum.

hey AVP,
I think Amok was referring to the amazon link you gave, which I assume is another anchor bay Se re-release now on bluray

I absolutely love this! It is my favorite movie right now and I love the PSE, but after watching it a few times I was wondering if it would be ok if I edited it, what I would like to do is basically remove the alternate opening, because for some reason this plays no mater which option on the menu I pick, and then it will play the theatrical opening. I would also like to take out the alternate ending as well so that it will play without me having to sit through the deleted opening, which I don't like, or the credits which play before the actual end of the movie...

Does anybody know who I can ask about this? Or who would be the one to get in touch with ? I don't plan on distributing it, nor do I plan to gain anything by it except my own enjoyment and maybe share it with a friend or two if we have a movie night.

if you have no intention to release it, you can do whatever you want to anyway. No permission needed.

i loved these cuts and the whole DVD edition. great work !!! this is my definitive ARMY OF DARKNES-DVD
(standing right next to the US-NTSC-DVD, which allowes me to call this great edition my own, of course :-D )

A great edit of one of my favorite movies. I can't wait to watch it again, and to introduce this edit to friends.