LONDON: TV-to-FILM Edit of 'Moses Jones' (Shaun Parkes & Matt Smith)

'Moses Jones' was a fantastic 2009 3-part BBC drama about the London Police investigating murder in the Ugandan community. Experienced DI Moses Jones (Shaun Parkes) is taken off an important case and teamed with new partner DS Dan Twentyman (Matt Smith). It was written and created by Joe Penhall the screenwriter of 2009's 'The Road'.



The story/mystery is great, the performances were are first class and the music-soundtrack is electric...


For whatever reason (Despite rave reviews) it never got a second series, which was a real crime IMO. Maybe it simply failed to get enough viewers so didn't get recommisioned, or maybe the fact that the (Then unknown) Matt Smith had signed on for Doctor Who meant that a follow up wasn't possible with his new schedule.


Because the 3 episodes are one contained story and due to there never being any more, I'm going to make it into one film. When I originally tuned in to watch, I was expecting a straight ahead "Sherlock and Holmes" or "Red Heat" style cop drama. But instead, 'Moses Jones' was as much about a large cast of Ugandan characters, as it was about Moses and Dan themselves. This isn't a Fanfix, the TV show was perfect already, it's just gonna be another way to view the story.

This will be my attempt to make that "Odd couple Cop drama" that I initially expected...

- The three 60minute episodes will be trimmed down to around 2 hours
- All other characters apart from Moses and Dan will be trimmed to a minimum
- The mystery will now unfold as Moses and Dan uncover it (And not before or alongside, as in the original TV show)
- Some scenes will be rearranged to tell the story a little differently
- The main villain will not be seen until the very end (But his actions will be felt)
- The villain's two henchmen will not be full characters. They will only appear a few times to intimidate the witnesses and slow down Moses and Dan down from finding the truth
- I may rearrange how the story ends (I'll see how that works out)

I'm struggling to come up with an interesting title, so if anybody can think of one, shoot.

Can any of the musicologists on here recommend any good Afrobeat and/or Ugandan music tracks? I might need one for a new montage ending of this edit and so far, I can't think of anything that really floats my boat or fits with the rest of the music in 'Moses Jones'.

Something in the same vein as the above music video ^ ideally. This is the best I could think of so far, by Femi Kuti,


or I might just go for something I like (Regardless of wether it isn't Afrobeat) like this Mavis Staples track...

Check out "Drums Of Passion" by Babatunde Olatunji.

Vultural said:

Check out "Drums Of Passion" by Babatunde Olatunji.

Click to expand...

Great track thanks... but it's more of an 'opener' than a 'closer' I think.

btw New title card...

Poster for the edit. Think I've got that gritty Cop vibe down (Hopefully)...



(Click image ^ to see fullsize poster)

Also I just remembered that 'Talking Heads' (One of my favourite bands) had a lot of Afrobeat influenced stuff. Might be something...

Finished a first workprint and I'm giving it a watch to see tonight, to see what else needs added, removed or swapped around. I've not touched the ending though because I still can't find the right piece of music. The original ending would play just fine but I can't escape the feeling that I could improve it somehow.

I considered this for the end music...


Because 1: I love Billy Bragg, 2: Musically/Stylistically it fits and 3: The lyrics are totally relevant to the films story. But I think it's a bit too "jaunty" to close out quite a dark film.

Still open to suggestions about the music and for a title to list this "filmized" cut under.

Think I've found the right vibe on a Coldcut 12" of mine...


Sounds stylistically just like the rest of the music in the film and has exactly the mood I was searching for. Just need to recut the footage to synch it up nicely... probably have the ending just as the deep house beat comes in at 4.31 .

Having not seen the show I think the music is pretty good, and based off of what you're describing you want, this seems like a good way to end the film.

I was really struggling to get the ending the way I want it with this. But after a fortnight break I've realised that one of my earlier cuts was actually dmn close to what I wanted .

Finally nailed the ending! Recut, rearranged, rescored and with added SoundFX.

What was becoming 3 of the hardest minutes I've edited so far, turned out relatively easy in the end. There are a lot more edits throughout this movie to tighten the pace, change the story and improve narative flow but with the ending down, I can at last see the light at the end of the tunnel on this one .

I've changed the title of this film to 'LONDON' (Dangit I made that poster too soon :-D) and rearranged most of the opening scenes including adding a new title screen....



I might also introduce a new montage at the end just before the credits but we'll see.

Does the way these titles drop in look:

A: Slick, stylish and professional

or

B: Awkward, cheesy and sh*te

?... I really can't decide so feedback would be helpful .


(Password: fanedit.org)

well, I wouldn't call it shite, but I lean toward choice B. I usually find these types of effects cheap looking. I think a fade (possibly each letter at a time) would look better.

my 2 cents.

I actually like the way you did it. Seems to fit the mood/tone of the music.

Very interested in this edit, sadly I can not seem to find the original series on either Netflix or Amazon Canada....:-(
But I will keep looking, as I really want to watch this project.

Hmmm I quite like the title effect but I'll try to find something better. The ending montage/new-credits are coming along nicely and I've re-edited the various things I wanted to throughout the film. I've cut just over an hour of this originally 3 hour mini-series.

You can't get MJ on Amazon.Canada either so it would be an import job.

These titles look much better yes?


(password: fanedit.org)

Also, think I've finally got the ending exactly how I want it. Had to remix the music and rewrite all the credits frm scratch (Snooze!) but it was worth it.

Yeah, that looks nicely done.

Very impressive. While I liked the first one too, this one is way cooler! Very nice work.

Thanks all.