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Babylon 5 Project - The Film Series

Babylon 5 Project VI: The Fall of Night is done! Just doing the final render now and then it will be ready to upload so it should be available today at some point. This is a pretty important milestone as film 6 brings us to the end of season 2 and the beginning of season 3 (since it includes the season premiere). That means this is the perfect jumping off point to watch the series normally with episodes for the fantastic seasons 3 and 4. As always, PM me if you want a copy.

The final edit of B5 Project X: War Without Worlds is done and I've sorted out the timeline issues for B5 Project XIV: Racing Mars. I've also gone ahead and made sure B5 Project XVIII: A Tragedy of Telepaths and B5 Project XXI: Sleeping in the Light don't have the same issues. That means the big edits I still have to do are still intact from the assembly cuts. All other edits in this film series are just 3 episodes strung together so very little was done in the assembly cuts for those so starting from scratch is not an issue.

I have added Lefcourt meeting Sheridan from In the Beginning into B5 Project XVII: Endgame as a prologue. Seems to work and reintroduces the idea of prologues that take place in other time frames. Not sure it's necessary for the film itself but I think it works for the series as a whole.

To see where I'm at in these edits, I've updated my list in the first post of this thread!
 
Alright! Back with some Babylon 5 updates!

Firstly, I still have to submit Babylon 5 Project 6 to the academy but it is available for anyone who wants it. Life got in the way for a few weeks but I'm back on the bandwagon again.

I've made my way through to film 17 with major edits but it (and film 16) still need the credit scenes cropped. What this means is that I've completed season 4 (more or less) and there are only 4 more movies to go. I was also surprised by some of the edits I made since I thought I'd have to string 3 episodes together but there's actually quite a bit of story overlap than can be removed. Some edits were also made to move scenes around to hide some of the fade to commercial breaks.

So, we're on to season 5 which features one of my most aggressive edits. Taking the telepath arc down to a single film! Currently, it's one of the longest films in the series (at 2:45 [165 minutes]) but it was condensed from 11 episodes so that's not too bad (12 if you count Deconstruction of Falling Stars). I am hopeful there might be more trimming possible but I'm not holding out too much hope.

Going over the footage, I might want to redo the finale from scratch. There's nothing wrong with it, per se, but I think I might put more back into it.

All in all, I'm kind of in the final stretch of the major parts of these edits!
 
We're nearing the finish line on these edits! I know you guys haven't seen any new releases but I'm working on the actual detailed edits and am trying to complete them the edits before I start really rendering everything out... please bare with me on that front!

I've finished my detailed edits for film 18 which is probably one of the more ambitious edits, covering the entire telepath arc from season 5. That also means I'm halfway through season 5 and there's only 3 more films to go. I'm about 1/3rd the way through film 19 and this one (along with film 20) are pretty straightforward edits. Mostly removing the fade to black commercial breaks and cropping out the credits. I've come across issues in the past with these straightforward edits, however, with regards to the commercial breaks, so we'll see if I come across any problems.

I've actually done a bit of work on film 21, the series finale, and this one has been a bit of an interesting beast. Since the film is three episodes bookended with Sleeping in Light, I tried a few possibilities (including interspersing scenes from SiL) but I've settled on pure bookending and where the switch happens. There's also a difficult fade to black commercial break I had to work around in SiL where everyone gets their invitation and then is on Minbar after the break.

I've updated where I'm at with all the edits below and updated this on the first post in this thread. You'll notice a bunch that are listed as Final edit in progress: these need to be rendered and watched still to make sure I got all the technical stuff worked out.

All in all, we're almost there!

SEASON ONE
Babylon 5 Project I: Dawn of the Third Age — COMPLETE
Babylon 5 Project II: Signs and Portents — COMPLETE

SEASON TWO
Babylon 5 Project III: Moments of Revelation — COMPLETE
Babylon 5 Project IV: The Coming of Shadows — COMPLETE
Babylon 5 Project V: The Long, Twilight Struggle — COMPLETE
Babylon 5 Project VI: The Fall of Night — COMPLETE

SEASON THREE
Babylon 5 Project VII: Point of No Return — Final cut complete but still needs to be rendered
Babylon 5 Project VIII: Severed Dreams — Final cut complete but still needs to be rendered
Babylon 5 Project IX: Interludes and Examinations— Final cut complete but still needs to be rendered
Babylon 5 Project X: War Without End — Final cut complete but still needs to be rendered
Babylon 5 Project XI: In the Shadow o f Z'ha'dum — Final edit in progress

SEASON FOUR
Babylon 5 Project XII: The Summoning — Final edit in progress
Babylon 5 Project XIII: Into the Fire — Final edit in progress
Babylon 5 Project XIV: Lines of Communication — Final edit in progress
Babylon 5 Project XV: Moments of Transition — Final edit in progress
Babylon 5 Project XVI: No Surrender, No Retreat — Final edit in progress
Babylon 5 Project XVII: Endgame — Final edit in progress

SEASON FIVE
Babylon 5 Project XVIII: A Tragedy of Telepaths — Final edit in progress
Babylon 5 Project XIX: Darkness Ascending — Detailed edit in progress
Babylon 5 Project XX: The Wheel of Fire — Assembly edit complete
Babylon 5 Project XXI: Sleeping in Light — Assembly edit complete
 
I've completed all of the detailed edits. Just put the finishing touches on Sleeping in Light and am now ready for the next phase of these edits which is the technical edits. That means outputting and watching films 11 to 21—one by one—for everything that I missed. Films 7 to 10 will be coming along very soon!
 
Just finished outputting Babylon 5 Project VII: Point of No Return and it's available for anyone who wants to watch it!

I've also been fine tuning Babylon 5 Project XI and have decided to break it up into 2 separate shorter films of about 82-83 minutes each. It already seemed pretty long at 2 hours and 45 minutes but there was a natural break right smack in the middle of it. I really wanted to keep my movies closer to the 2 hour mark or at least hit 90 minutes, but narratively speaking, I think breaking them up makes sense even if I don't hit those numbers.

That means there will be at least 22 movies in this series rather than 21. There's also the possibility of there being 23 films since the telepath arc in season 5 is also 2:47 but I haven't found a place in the middle that would really work narratively. What I would REALLY like to do is shorten it even more by a good 30 minutes, TBH. We'll see when we get there if there's more I can cut.
 
I have never watched Babylon 5, though always had it kind of on my radar, and this is a REALLY exciting prospect.

I have a couple of questions:
1) SubjectZero, would you recommend this for a first-time viewer? I'd love to see what people love about this show, without the bits which people seem to hate about it, but in a cohesive narrative!
2) People who've seen this so far, would you recommend this to a first time viewer?
3) Is there anything I need to know about B5 before watching? Any spinoff movies to watch first, for example? Or can I just pick up at your movie #1? I'd like to go in as blind as possible and just enjoy the best possible version of B5.
 
EddieDean said:
2) People who've seen this so far, would you recommend this to a first time viewer?
Click to expand...

As a big Babylon 5 fan I am seriously impressed with Subjectzero's film series. The first two of the films, which recap season 1, are fantastic. With that said there is no escaping the fact that they truncate twenty two 45 minute episodes and as such I don't believe they cultivate the same affinity to the characters as simply watching the series.
Another thing to consider is that season one is preceded by the pilot 'The Gathering' a feature length TV movie which is a really solid intro to the franchise. However, due to some aesthetic and casting changes between the pilot and the show none of that content appear in the films. I will certainly be rewatching these edits again as I enjoyed the ones I've watched immensely. They skillfully tell a coherent condensed version of the narrative but to answer your question I do not feel, given the nature of Babylon 5 that I would recommend them for a first time watch. If you haven't already done so grab a copy of the ultimate boxset and work through it from the start then come back and enjoy these masterful edits.
 
1) I think this works for a first time viewer. I did sacrifice some great character moments for brevity (like an infamous elevator scene) but I kept the narrative together. You won't be missing any setup/payoff plot moments. It's a give and take situation.
3) You can just start with this. There is the original backdoor TV pilot called Babylon 5: The Gathering eventually gets referenced later but even I can't watch that one. Plus, there's a recap in the episode itself which I kept in the film so you get a coles notes of it.
 
EddieDean said:
I have never watched Babylon 5, though always had it kind of on my radar, and this is a REALLY exciting prospect.

I have a couple of questions:
1) SubjectZero, would you recommend this for a first-time viewer? I'd love to see what people love about this show, without the bits which people seem to hate about it, but in a cohesive narrative!
2) People who've seen this so far, would you recommend this to a first time viewer?
3) Is there anything I need to know about B5 before watching? Any spinoff movies to watch first, for example? Or can I just pick up at your movie #1? I'd like to go in as blind as possible and just enjoy the best possible version of B5.
Click to expand...
 
And another update! I've finished my technical edits of films 11 and 12 which I've successfully split into two parts. The master list in the first post in this thread has been updated with the new films as well as where I'm at in the series.

I'm going to attempt another stab at shortening the telepath arc from season 5. I'd really love to get that closer to 2 hours or 2.5 hours at the most.
 
Thanks for the info, Malthus and subjectzero. I think, in this case, I'll watch these blind. Seems to be that the pilot movie is skippable, and I don't mind missing good character moments if I never knew they existed! Besides, this way I can always give feedback with the first time viewer's eyes. I'll probably hold off a little on watching them till you're nearer completion and I can run through them in succession, but I'm definitely going to check this out.
 
@"EddieDean" To be fair, I'm not cutting much out of seasons 3 and 4 (which are the most arc heavy) so you could watch the first 7 films and just jump into the series starting with season 3 episode 8. Minus a couple tweaks here and there, season 3 and 4 pretty much play out straight. It's the first 2 seasons and the first half of season 5 that have been reworked.
 
EddieDean said:
Thanks for the info, Malthus and subjectzero. I think, in this case, I'll watch these blind. Seems to be that the pilot movie is skippable, and I don't mind missing good character moments if I never knew they existed! Besides, this way I can always give feedback with the first time viewer's eyes. I'll probably hold off a little on watching them till you're nearer completion and I can run through them in succession, but I'm definitely going to check this out.
Click to expand...
 
Have you put any consideration into jumping straight to season 5 from here? ;-)
 
Actually, I've completed all 22 of the major edits as of this morning including season 5. What I need to do now is finesse these edits which means outputting a viewing copy, fixing those problems in a technical edit, output a final copy, and upload it.

As of right now, I've finished 12 technical edits and should be outputting film 8 tonight overnight.
 
EddieDean said:
Have you put any consideration into jumping straight to season 5 from here? ;-)
Click to expand...
 
As you can probably tell from the frequency of these updates, I've been putting in a lot of work into my Babylon 5 Project series edits. So, here's some updates:

B5Project VI: The Fall of Night has been listed in IFDB but I've finished outputting and uploading up to B5Project VIII: Severed Dreams so I have 8 movies available... PM me if you want links! From Severed Dreams and on, the film series doesn't deviate all that much from the TV series. With any luck, I'll be able to upload 1 or 2 new movies every week.

I'll be working on the technical edit for B5Project XIII: The Summoning hopefully over weekend but I'm actually fairly busy for the next few days so we'll see how that goes.

I did go back and rework B5Project XIX: A Tragedy of Telepaths and found additional things to cut. I was able to take my 2:47 edit and whittle it down to 2:24... quite proud of that! That means you can just slot this in for the first half of season 5 if you want to do a series rewatch but want to skip the bulk of the stuff that happens here. Obviously, I went for a hack and slash edit rather than the more subtle edit @"lapis molari" did for the Phoenix Rising arc edit. Having said all of that, I haven't sat down to watch my cut in one sitting to see if it works narratively... there's actually quite a bit of setup during these episodes for the rest of the season.

And just because I like numbers, I've done some back of the napkin math to figure out how much I've hatcheted out of the series.
  • Season 1: 60% shorter
  • Season 2: 52% shorter
  • Season 3: 29% shorter
  • Season 4: 17% shorter
  • Season 5: 31% shorter
All-in-all, the complete series is roughly 45% shorter and clocks in at about 43.5 hours. It might end up a bit shorter as I complete my technical edits of seasons 4 and 5 but probably not by much.
 
Another quick update! Just completed the technical edits for Babylon 5 Project films 13 and 14 which is a bit of a milestone. These two movies bring us to the end of the Shadow War. From here on out, there are only 8 more movies to complete the technical edits... it feels like I'm almost in the home stretch!

Film 9 will be output soon so I'll let you all know when that is ready in the next couple of days. That one is a bit of a calm before the storm movie that bridges the secession of B5 and the open war of the Shadow War. I still need to update IMFD with films 7 and 8 so hopefully I'll be able to do that in the next few days as well.
 
Technical edits through to film 16 have been completed! The next two movies conclude season 4 which means there will only be season 5 to deal with as far as technical edits go. What this means is that I'm 6 films away from picture lock on the entire film series.

I've just submitted films 7 to 9 to IFDB and those movies are available for whoever wants them. Film 10 is the War Without End two-parter which means there are only 3 more movies to be output to complete season 3. I might get this massive 22 movie undertaking done before the end of the year!

I've updated the first post with my current progress but I'll repost here as well:

SEASON ONE
Babylon 5 Project I: Dawn of the Third Age — COMPLETE
Babylon 5 Project II: Signs and Portents — COMPLETE

SEASON TWO
Babylon 5 Project III: Moments of Revelation — COMPLETE
Babylon 5 Project IV: The Coming of Shadows — COMPLETE
Babylon 5 Project V: The Long, Twilight Struggle — COMPLETE
Babylon 5 Project VI: The Fall of Night — COMPLETE

SEASON THREE
Babylon 5 Project VII: Point of No Return — COMPLETE
Babylon 5 Project VIII: Severed Dreams — COMPLETE
Babylon 5 Project IX: Interludes and Examinations— COMPLETE
Babylon 5 Project X: War Without End — Final cut complete but still needs to be rendered
Babylon 5 Project XI: No Hiding Place — Final cut complete but still needs to be rendered
Babylon 5 Project XII: In the Shadow o f Z'ha'dum — Final cut complete but still needs to be rendered

SEASON FOUR
Babylon 5 Project XIII: The Summoning — Final cut complete but still needs to be rendered
Babylon 5 Project XIV: Into the Fire — Final cut complete but still needs to be rendered
Babylon 5 Project XV: Lines of Communication — Final cut complete but still needs to be rendered
Babylon 5 Project XVI: Moments of Transition — Final cut complete but still needs to be rendered
Babylon 5 Project XVII: No Surrender, No Retreat — Final edit in progress
Babylon 5 Project XVIII: Endgame — Final edit in progress

SEASON FIVE
Babylon 5 Project XIX: A Tragedy of Telepaths — Final edit in progress
Babylon 5 Project XX: Darkness Ascending — Final edit in progress
Babylon 5 Project XXI: The Wheel of Fire — Final edit in progress
Babylon 5 Project XXII: Sleeping in Light — Final edit in progress
 
Inspiring beyond belief!

I guess Xmas will be binging this....

I just might dust off my Fringe project which I dropped after extensive planning and two rough cuts 6 years ago. Lots of other edits got in the way (and were completed though not released).

Is there anything you really liked but left out? You could do a standalone B5 Appendix movie, ie bits left out that are good, self contained and led nowhere else....maybe with a main plot and one or two subplots....
 
I'm pretty sure I'll be putting B5 away for a while after this so probably not... 22 fan edits is a lot! Besides, that's what the series proper is for! There is a possible coda but I doubt I can pull it off.

Glad you're enjoying it and... oooo... Fringe! There's something I haven't watched in a while!

 
Wraith said:
Inspiring beyond belief!

I guess Xmas will be binging this....

I just might dust off my Fringe project which I dropped after extensive planning and two rough cuts 6 years ago. Lots of other edits got in the way (and were completed though not released).

Is there anything you really liked but left out? You could do a standalone B5 Appendix movie, ie bits left out that are good, self contained and led nowhere else....maybe with a main plot and one or two subplots....
Click to expand...
 
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