Blade Runner 2049: Aerodynamik (TM2YC FanFix) Pace of editing improved

[Kal-El]

Also, a little off-topic perhaps, but do the surroundings in the scene with K and Luv looking at Rachel's Voight-Kampff test (the split screen test above) look... off to any else? Like the room is more of a special effect than an actual room. I don't think it's the test TM2YC did, as it's apparent to me on my Blu-Ray as well.

I noticed the exact same thing, especially when looking at Luv's immediate surroundings.

 

[Bad Wardrobe]

I can vouch for it personally with the edit I've done that you'll be able to trim 20-30 minutes without cutting anything major, just long silences etc. If you were being ruthless you could cut even more, as I'm sure other fan editors will. 

It's pretty staggering really, there can't be too many films where you can cut so much out without effecting the story at all? I almost believe that Ryan Gosling had something in his contract that the camera had to linger on his face forever for no good reason lol.

Looking forward to seeing what you can do with this. Trimming the fat from this film definitely improves it I've found, but I think the movie lacks the drive and emotional impact of the original Blade Runner, sadly.

 

[TM2YC]

looking at Rachel's Voight-Kampff test (the split screen test above) look... off to any else? Like the room is more of a special effect than an actual room. I don't think it's the test TM2YC did, as it's apparent to me on my Blu-Ray as well.

I noticed the exact same thing, especially when looking at Luv's immediate surroundings.

I don't think the youtube compression is helping that clip, plus it having a shallow depth of field. From the wider shots with sharper focus I'd swear it was a real set but it's difficult to tell what is practical and what is CGI in some movies these days. I often suspect they like to claim they do loads of stuff practically (as with BR2049) for marketing reasons. For example, scenes like this that had quite large practical sets...

...are replaced 100% by CGI (except the actors of course) in the finished film.

I can vouch for it personally with the edit I've done that you'll be able to trim 20-30 minutes without cutting anything major, just long silences etc. If you were being ruthless you could cut even more, as I'm sure other fan editors will.

It's pretty staggering really, there can't be too many films where you can cut so much out without effecting the story at all?

Yeah, I could hardly believe the pace of editing when I saw the film.

'Heaven's Gate' (The longer cut(s)) is another film that feels like it never got a final polish to tighten up the editing. Takes start and finish way past anything actually happening or being said on screen. I've some experience of editing that film and hopefully one day I'll come back to it.

I think the movie lacks the drive and emotional impact of the original Blade Runner, sadly.

I think it's got some drive, plot wise (maybe slightly more so than the original) but is definitely lacking in the emotion department.

 

[TM2YC]

The first hour of this first phase of editing is done:



So far, 6-minutes removed with no scenes/shots or lines taken out.

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

So you’re looking at around 15 minutes removed in total if that average holds up.

 

[Problem Eliminator]

For example, scenes like this that had quite large practical sets...



...are replaced 100% by CGI (except the actors of course) in the finished film.
[/quote]

Are they really? I've never heard of this. What's the reason?

 

[TM2YC]

For example, scenes like this that had quite large practical sets...



...are replaced 100% by CGI (except the actors of course) in the finished film.
[/quote]

Are they really? I've never heard of this. What's the reason?
[/quote]

The wooden archive can been seen in about 30-seconds into this Rodeo FX-reel:

https://vimeo.com/248179339[/video]

Later there is a big wide shot of a real steel-factory which is then almost entirely replaced with a very similar CGI steel factory.

This UPP reel has another example, the formaldehyde bodies all being on set and then 100% replaced. Imagine the cost of making 8x full-body casts and then not using them for anything more than a lighting reference.

https://vimeo.com/248318780[/video]

This double-negative reel has shots of the much touted miniature city-scapes being covered with so much CGI that the models are almost totally obscured and in some cases the model building themselves have been digitally altered for seemingly no reason.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L_FgTPVE2A[/video]

I don't know why, other than to be able to market a film as having practical FX and real locations? Doing lots of shots twice might explain why they managed to spend so much on the film.

[quote="Moe_Syzlak"]
So you’re looking at around 15 minutes removed in total if that average holds up.
[/quote]

That'd be my guess-timate too. Then I'll watch it back and see what else can come out.

I'm still unsure about how much Wallace there needs to be. The K investigation is a strong narrative and the Wallace scenes interrupt that. I'm also thinking about removing any lines where humans are pleasant, or courteous to K (which isn't many lines anyway).

 

[darthrush]

A suggestion I have that I feel would greatly improve the film is to remove the two instances in the movie where I felt it was talking down to the intelligence of the audience and felt too in our faces. The first is when K is flying away from LAPD after the "You've been getting along fine without one" scene, and it has an audio VO of "You've never seen a miracle". The second time something like this happens is even more blatant and annoying. It's when K is looking at his gun in the rainfall and deciding what to do after seeing a Joi ad and it has to flashback to Morton and his "miracle" line and also has a VO of "Dying for a cause is the most human thing we can do".

I feel that if either of these (especially the second) is removed that it would strongly improve the film.

 

[topdawg193]

A suggestion I have that I feel would greatly improve the film is to remove the two instances in the movie where I felt it was talking down to the intelligence of the audience and felt too in our faces. The first is when K is flying away from LAPD after the "You've been getting along fine without one" scene, and it has an audio VO of "You've never seen a miracle". The second time something like this happens is even more blatant and annoying. It's when K is looking at his gun in the rainfall and deciding what to do after seeing a Joi ad and it has to flashback to Morton and his "miracle" line and also has a VO of "Dying for a cause is the most human thing we can do".

I feel that if either of these (especially the second) is removed that it would strongly improve the film.

^ Agreed; and in that same spirit, I would also remove Lieutenant Joshi's overly expository line "Impossible. She was a replicant: pregnant", as well as Luv's "Find the child" line (spoken immediately after she carries out the missile strike in aid of K). Both instances felt very much like the filmmakers talking down to the audience. 

In Joshi's case, we already know - from the forensic analysis in the immediately prior scene - that a caesarean section was carried out on the female to whom the remains belong, and that this female was artificial. So Joshi's line undoes all the showing which came previously, with needless telling. Cutting from the forensic sequence straight to Joshi's "The world is built on a wall" monologue would be more elegant, and more powerful. 

Likewise with Luv - the audience already knows that Niander Wallace has instructed her to locate the child, and so her motivation in helping K is clear. Arguably, then, "do your fucking job" is also superfluous - but ending the scene on this line would emphasise Luv's urgency (which is an important aspect of her character, fueling the central mystery of Luv; does her violent desire to find the child stem from her subservience to Wallace, or from personal aspirations for replicant kind and perhaps even for herself?).

 

[MovieMan]

This sounds very intriguing!

 

[Make Believe Films]

I'm just arriving to the forum now, and having recently completed my own fan-edit of BR2049, I was curious to see what others were up to in this respect.  

Being more experienced editors, you guys can see a lot of things I never knew were there, and do a lot with editing I haven't even learned about yet!  There is such a variety of ideas about what can stay vs. what needs to go, and different people have different things about the movie that they liked or found that bothered them.  Makes me wonder if a truly definitive version of this film is really possible?  Where there is universal agreement, at least, is in trimming the length!

As for myself, I did go ahead with the Vangelis additions, finding room to insert them at several points in the film, some of these more subtle than others.  I also added more of the Zimmer/Wallfisch music to fill in some of the more vacant silences. 


In terms of feedback to what you've shown here so far:

(1) I like the inclusion of the Nat King Cole track, but it doesn't seem to quite fit with the Zimmer/Wallfisch music playing at the same time;  perhaps adjusting some volumes could fix this, but I do like the 'Rain' track from the original soundtrack as well!

(2) The LUV cut at the archives and idea to cut additional extended silences is okay, but often I don't mind these at all, as it reflects that time and thought was put into what the characters are saying.  I find that nowadays many people just say things and don't think about what they want to say first, so I like that the movie hearkens back to slower-paced times and conversations.  Of course, what the characters say here is not necessarily deep in every case, but I still like that they're taking the time to think about it!

(3) The color changes you made are fine, but I actually prefer the brighter-orangier colors of the theatrical cut.  So this would be more a matter of personal preference, I think (perhaps I'm the odd one out here? :/ )

(4) As mentioned, the part when K raises his arm could just as easily be interpreted as signaling the drone, so I agree this isn't necessarily a movie error, but that's still impressive that you have the ability to alter that scene!

(5) Prologues:  these are good as they are, but they are both past events, and I do not believe would fit well in an edit.  In part to keep consistent with the original film, there should be no flashbacks or jumps in time.  That said, I especially like the "Nowhere to Run" prologue for the same reasons as mentioned that it adds more to Morton's story and also gives us more of the city. 

I strongly agree with you about the Rachel scene (I cut the entire thing out in my own edit), and that at least the flashback part needs to go!
--------

My two cents for now.  Hope that comes across more as help (and not as criticism!)

 

[Make Believe Films]

One further addition . . . while the movie handles the scene okay in that it displays Morton's reaction to what K is saying, I like the idea of putting the focus on the gun during the lines "I much prefer that to the alternative."  I think either way, it's mostly a matter of emphasis, but that is a great idea and edit as Morton's reaction is not necesarily significant enough to warrant emphasizing his reaction.  Good call.

 

[TM2YC]

I'm still undecided if I'm going to make any actual "changes" to the film as of yet but it's interesting reading the ideas.

Here is the Bees scene with the runtime reduced by a quarter:

(Password: fanedit.org)

- No shots removed, only shortened
- Re-timed so the 2nd and 3rd drumbeats of the score also hit on an edit
- Massively toned down the red tint across the scene but I still wanted to keep it very orange to maintain the visual style that I imagine was originally intended.

Reveal message

 

[SkywalkerFan01]

Great work, definitely feels a little more tense as far as the 'exploring the unknown' aspect.
I think I might be alone here, but I personally love how over-the-top and over blown the colors in the movie are, especially in this scene, that's just my personal preference though.

 

[Plissken1138]

Here is the Bees scene with the runtime reduced by a quarter

that went by in a blink of an eye

can't remember why he had to put the hand in the beehive... never seen bees before? maybe that also can go to the cutting floor?

 

[ssj]

can't remember why he had to put the hand in the beehive...

to show the audience that nexus-9s don't need EpiPens.

 

[Make Believe Films]

can't remember why he had to put the hand in the beehive...

to show the audience that nexus-9s don't need EpiPens.

Very possible! 


In any event, really like this latest cut.  Since there's no dialogue to effect on pacing, and the soundtrack is pretty quiet, I think a trim here really works. 

I personally opted for cutting the hand part altogether (was this for K to verify there is 'honey'?)  I also kept the rest at full length as I enjoy the slow, careful pacing through all the orangeness

But for purposes of speeding things along, this is a successful cut.

 

[Bad Wardrobe]

Interesting to see / read a few other interpretations of this scene. I tweaked it quite a bit in my edit.

I get that the bees lead K to Deckard's exact location but I thought this was somewhat unnecessary. K is a Blade Runner, I'm sure he could locate the (seemingly) only man alive in Las Vegas via means that don't really need to be explained. I gather the bees' honey could be a food source for Deckard also but it's not really a question that would've crossed my mind had it not been addressed in the original. Removing the bees, and the long build up of K scanning for them, allowed me to shave off a fair few minutes, along with trimming down how painfully long it takes K to walk into and around the hotel.

These are things in my opinion that the film editors could've left on the cutting room floor. What we were presented with feels more like a "Director's Cut" in my opinion...  and don't get me started on that OTT radiation orange hue lol. If there was enough fallout remaining to generate that sort of colour, I'm sure it wouldn't be safe to live there! I'm glad other fan editors have picked up on this, too.

 

[skyled]

I figured the part where the bee lands on his hand was an allusion to Rachael's dialogue during the Voigt Kampff test where she says if a wasp landed on her arm she would smash it. The line is even played back from the archive when K meets with Luv.

If it's possible to edit the scene so the bee lands on his hand and then he just walks straight through the hives without putting his hand in the box it would be great.

 

[topdawg193]

I figured the part where the bee lands on his hand was an allusion to Rachael's dialogue during the Voigt Kampff test where she says if a wasp landed on her arm she would smash it. The line is even played back from the archive when K meets with Luv.

This was absolutely my interpretation, too. I’d really think twice before cutting the bees entirely - they serve a symbolic purpose, if not a narrative one.