Smallville Episode I: A New Beginning

(Trailer Updated)

Original title: Smallville

Fanedit title: Smallville Episode I: A New beginning

Studio: Warner Bros. Television.
Faneditor: juice4z0
Originally aired: October 2001
Originaly released: 1910 minutes approx (21 episodes Season 1, & 23 episode from Season 2)
New running time: 198 minutes approx
Cut time: 1712 minutes approx
Started Edit: September 2011
Completed Edit:


Purpose of Edit:
I set out originally to tell the first 4 Season's in one movie. Not surprisingly I found there was too much for me to tell in one movie. So I took from Seasons 1 and 2. This edit focuses on Clark's developing his ability's, and exploring his kryptonian roots while in direct conflict with his desire to be normal. Like "A New Hope" This is very story heavy and action lite, BUT it does set up the story for the following episode. That being said it still keeps all the things we loved about Smallville and trims the fat down.

Cutlist:

Far to many cuts to list, Most of season 2 was cut to the bare bones. Both seasons have had the freak of the weeks removed from the story. Scene's from theses episodes have been used to flesh out story archs and what not.

Where possible any cut that could be make in a scene to make Lex seem darker was. Lex comes across much more sinister and manipulative. He still is very "friendly" around Clark but is hiding much more from him than he was normally in this part of the original time line.

Lana has been cut to next to none. She is still there as more of a guest star and back up role.



Technical Details:

Software used: Sony Vegas Pro 10.0, DVDDecrypter, Photoshop, DVD Architect


Format's Available:

1. DVD-5 in two parts on a two disc special edition with bonus features on disc 2
2. DVD-9 in two parts on a two disc special edition with bonus features on disc 2

The Work-in-Progress thread can be reviewed here.

Juice was kind enough to give me a preview copy of Smallville Episode 1: A New Beginning. So here’s the review.

Audio – 8/10
There are some abrupt audio cuts, but they are pretty minor. Otherwise audio is fine throughout.

Video – 8/10
There is some distortion in the red colors. Thankfully it’s only really noticeable once or twice. The picture is a little grainy, but this is mainly due to the source material.

Editing – 7/10
There are a couple places where the editing could be improved. At times it cuts to the next scene a bit too abruptly and it’s a little jarring in a couple spots. A lot of the cuts are done well and Juice’s ability to condense 2 seasons (over 40 hours) into a 3 hour movie is competently done as a whole.

The audio editing (mentioned above) is something that at times is hard to overcome due to the editing style of the TV itself.

Also wanted to mention that opening credits for the episodes he used remain at some points during the edit. It may take you out of it, but the scenes are important to the plot so after a while I stopped noticing it due to being drawn in to the story.

The greatest thing about the editing is he made Lex way more sinister and now his friendship with Clark has a clear-cut hidden agenda.

Entertainment – 9/10
I had an absolute blast watching this. After about an hour I stopped trying to figure out what was cut and just let the story flow.

“Freak-of-the-weeks”? Goodbye. The annoying aspects of Lana? Gone. The quasi-gay relationship between Clark and Lex? Eliminated.

Juice was able to weave elements from Season 2 into Season 1 pretty much perfectly. I had to look up the episode summaries afterward to really confirm how much was cut and mixed.

Presentation – 10/10
This is a double-disc release with the movie split at a great break in pace. Disc 2 has some really nice extras including a deleted plot line with Lex Luthor.


Overall – 8/10

Episodes credits rolling during the edit?
That should be indeed noticed in the fanedit page.

I had a similar trouble with my first edit, but tried to fix it by zooming the scenes with credits. Luckily for me, the series i used as source has lots of close-ups and intimate shots, so i don't think you can really notice when this happen. Also, don't know if it would work with Smalville, since (at least as i remember the series) they seem to work with lots of panoramic and open shots. My download of this edit shall be finished in the next half hour, so probably today i'll be able to check it

Yea I went to zoom the video in for the on screen credits, however smallville at times likes to use half the screen for the credits. So alot of times it was either cut on screen credits and half of someone's face or leave it. Going to look into what rotoscoping is for my later edits.

Thanks

Congrats on the approval Juice

Just a short note on the rolling credits - obviously I encountered the same issue on my Smallville Destiny edit - but I just zoomed in until the words are cut out. Sure, in some places the amount of grain on the image did kind of give the game away that the image had been zoomed, but it was a small price to pay. I remember there was one instance where the on-screen edit was too big to get rid off and it would have looked stupid if I had tried to zoom in, so instead I just cut the scene entirely. Personally I don't like the idea of a rolling on-screen credit being noticeable as it takes one out of the experience - but then that's just my opinion

Well done anyways Juice and I'll give it a watch soon

Personally, I find that using a properly proportioned zoom is preferable to credits randomly appearing. While both are visual indicators that scream "fanedit", the former is more easily dismissed to me and pull me 'less' out of the viewing experience far less than random credits. An issue like this is right on the boarder of acceptable because you're picking between the lesser of two-evils, the merits of which are subjective.

In the absence of a clear-cut rule prohibiting this, I don't see this by itself as being cause for non-approval, my personal recommendation would be don't toss your working files, and consider removing them. Releasing with this issue also means you have to be prepared for some viewers marking down for this as some will argue it is a big no-no.

Another recommendation which requires a lot of luck is that with the plethora of deleted footage you have, depending on the scene, you may also want to consider looking for footage that has the characters in scene/costume where the camera is to the back of the person speaking.This is obviously a hit-and-miss suggestion as it requires pure luck in having that deleted footage that works, but opening scenes tend to have to have more static scenes with expository dialog, andt with 1700 minutes cut, who knows? Worth consideration.

Anyhow, congrats on the approval and I'm sure this will only build on your suite of skills.

Man who would have guessed leaving a few on screen credits would get people as grumpy as if I slept with their sister lol

To be honest, it would take me right out of the edit as well. They may seem small to you at first, but they can make the difference between a great or faulted edit.

I'm not sure how well this would work, but perhaps a blur over the credits would help?

nightstalkerpoet said:

I'm not sure how well this would work, but perhaps a blur over the credits would help?

Click to expand...

Mmm, I don't know. Adding blur on them would only emphasis the fact the editor did not find a way to remove them and tried to hide them in a lousy way.

To me it's either zooming, cropping, finding alternate "takes" like L8 said, or leaving the random credits all the time.
If you can't find a good way to remove those credits in all the scenes they appear then I guess it's better to leave them instead of letting just one or two of them in the whole edit.
If the credits appears from time to time all along, yeah, sure, it puts you out of the edit, but it's becoming "part" of the way the edit is done.
Like David Bowie said: "if you make a mistake once, it's an error. It you repeat it several times, then it's becoming art!"
Ok, I don't think letting random credit is art! But you know what I mean.

(That said I know there's a way to remove TV channels logo in the corner of a picture. User AvP showed me a process to do that. Can't remember exactely but the difficult part is that you need to make the exact same logo in order to remove it. But maybe it only works with semi transparent logos. Can't remember. Maybe there is a thread about that in the technical topic. Or maybe drop a PM to AvP).

http://www.fanedit.org/forums/showthread.php?4694-Watermark-removel-(After-Effects)

Credits have been removed by request. While doing that I also fixed the issue with bright red being slightly distorted. Also fixed a few other minor issue's that were bugging me. Also redid the final credits.

That being said there is still 2 abrupt audio transitions. They are not horrible but they are noticeable. Perhaps after I learn more I can fix those also.
I will pm updated links and version 2 should hopefully be ready by next week.

Sweet

Nice one Juice... I just finished downloading version 1, but as you've done some corrections I will delete those and wait for this new version to be available... Kudos to you for taking the time and effort to do another version

LastSurvivor said:

Nice one Juice... I just finished downloading version 1, but as you've done some corrections I will delete those and wait for this new version to be available... Kudos to you for taking the time and effort to do another version

Click to expand...

Thanks I didn't have the skill set to remove the credits at the time. As I learn more I apply it as I can.

That being said I still don't like stretching the frames as much as they are but it's a trade off.

I still stand by version 1 as a good edit but it did have flaws.

Making my intro for my fast and furious tv cut taught me alot.

But thanks again LS as I said without your help and guidance I don't think episode I would have been half of what it is, yes I had the story down but you went out of your way and watched 3 different work prints the last with a run time of 3,5 hours. I seriously can't thank you enough.

Cover art by AVP added : http://fanedit.org/smallville-episode-i-a-new-beginning-images/

That's amazing in all its simplicity!

That is some sleek looking cover art design there!

Yea AVP's cover makes the one I made look like trash, but of course thats why he is AVP