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Finest Hour. A Dunkirk/Darkest Hour supercut, from Maple Films

eldusto84

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Gaith said:
Question: are you removing the scene of the soldiers in the trawler, which to my mind is both absurd from a rational standpoint and arguably insulting to the French? :)

I have cut down the trawler scene. It was too drawn out and had issues that are brought up in the post you shared. So Gibson (the French soldier) is never actually revealed to be French...he's just a scared kid who never talks. There's no arguing over who should jump out of the trawler to lower the weight either.
 

Last Impressions

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I have just finished watching this edit and it really does work as a whole, whether or not it will be my go to version i am still undecided. I do like Dunkirk as a stand alone piece and would love to see someone tackle a chronological edit as that aspect really worked in this Maple Films edit. A true test of its success would be for someone who hasn't seen both of the films to give it a viewing - i think i am just to familiar with both films.

The ending is absolutely stunning and very powerful the way you cut Churchill's speech with Fionn Whitehead's character reciting the newspaper article was masterful and very emotional ...well done

I also loved the overlap in Zimmer's score and the scene when Lily James talking to Churchill about the death of her brother. That really worked and was very emotive - much more so than the theatrical version.

From a technical stand point  - I did notice a couple of audio transitions that could have been left a few seconds longer, the main being Churchill's peace sign into the beach at around the 42 minute mark. When the Frenchman and Whitehead's characters are looking for a soldier to stretcher.

i also noticed the sound was a bit off at the 52.23 min mark - soldiers abandoning boat to Churchill's Monday lunch with the King. I would have hard cut the sound but that is easy for me to say as i don't know what audio you were dealing with...It maybe impossible to do.

The opening and closing credits are very professional , however, the opening credits are very silent and i would personally raise the volume a tad.
Another personal choice and in no way does it take away from the edit is i would have opened the Dunkirk scene with Fionn Whitehead running from the French soldiers barricade onto the beach..i would have cut the scene's of the soldiers coming under fire in the street by the Sniper.

All in all this is a highly recommended edit and a thoroughly enjoyable and alternate experience.

I watched a 4gb download on a 120" projector screen and it looked impressive - however i did miss the experience of 5.1 surround soundtrack but we can't have everything in life :)
I'm looking forward to a high bitrate bluray :)
 

eldusto84

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Thanks so much for watching the edit, and more importantly for the specific feedback! I am going to fix as many of those points you've brought up as possible.

Churchill's peace sign into the beach probably can't be fixed...in Darkest Hour the scene after that was equally abrupt so there's not much to fade away from. I can work on the 52-minute transition into lunch with the King.

The opening credits volume was in fact the level that Darkest Hour was set at...it's just a gradual ramp up but I agree that it's a bit quiet. 

I also just realized that I gave Kristin Scott Thomas a hyphen in the credits, when she doesn't have one. Oops. Speaking of her, did you feel that her cameo felt odd? Would it be useful to see her even briefly earlier in the edit?

I absolutely intend to make a Chronological Cut of Dunkirk after this, along with a high bitrate Bluray ISO of both edits.
 

Solemn.Philosopher

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eldusto84 said:
I absolutely intend to make a Chronological Cut of Dunkirk after this, along with a high bitrate Bluray ISO of both edits.

I am curious to check out the supercut, but even more so the chronological cut of Dunkirk. I thought Dunkirk was excellent, but the non-chronological scenes really didn't work for me.
 

stferguson78

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Just watched this last night. Absolutely superb job. By mid point I was completely immersed & forgot I was watching an edit. No notable technical issues that I noticed, though I thought the colour correction didn't match up during the finale when we were cutting between churchills speech, the boats docking & tom hardy on the beach- the colouring in the Westminster scenes just seemed a little flat in comparison. Regardless, this will be my preferred means of viewing the two movies going forward & the blu rays will remain on the shelf.
 

eldusto84

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Here is a YouTube clip of the final scene in my edit. It's a combination of both films' endings. Enjoy!

 

TM2YC

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^ Gave me chills :). Audio wise it's perfection, video-editing wise it's perfection too, the only thing that lets it down is the dramatic and obvious visual difference between the grading of the two sources. It would probably be easier to grade DH, to match Dunkirk. Or making the whole edit black & white would instantly solve the problem and make it look more period.

I probably wouldn't give myself the biggest credit at the end. We might put a lot of time and effort in to making these edits but it's nothing to the what the actual film-crews put in. It's a matter of personal taste, and a small issue though.
 

Kal-El

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I've thought it would be a great idea combining these two as well. Can't wait to see what you've made of it!
That clip looks great btw! Gave me chills as well!
 

greatnoggini

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I definitely got a reaction out of that ending that neither of the individual movies gave me on their own. Outstanding!
 

Zamros

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TM2YC said:
Or making the whole edit black & white would instantly solve the problem and make it look more period.

YEEEEES
 

eldusto84

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TM2YC said:
^ Gave me chills :). Audio wise it's perfection, video-editing wise it's perfection too, the only thing that lets it down is the dramatic and obvious visual difference between the grading of the two sources. It would probably be easier to grade DH, to match Dunkirk. Or making the whole edit black & white would instantly solve the problem and make it look more period.

I actually did color the Darkest Hour footage a bit for this scene...the shadows are bluer to match Dunkirk a bit more. The real trouble is the dramatic difference in lighting that can’t really be fixed by color correction. Dunkirk has a very natural look to it, while Darkest Hour is much more stylized. The parliament scene looks like a painting instead of how it should actually look in real life! 

Black and white huh? That’s a good idea, I will test that on a scene or two!
 

TM2YC

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eldusto84 said:
Black and white huh? That’s a good idea, I will test that on a scene or two!

Please try it with that end montage, I'd like to see that.

I had a go at trying to make a shot from the Churchil speech look Dunkirk-ish. Not at all easy to do. This was the best I could come up with after lots of tinkering (hmmm, not sure though):

44199889411_65844c5372_c.jpg
 

eldusto84

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TM2YC said:
eldusto84 said:
Black and white huh? That’s a good idea, I will test that on a scene or two!

Please try it with that end montage, I'd like to see that.

I had a go at trying to make a shot from the Churchil speech look Dunkirk-ish. Not at all easy to do. This was the best I could come up with after lots of tinkering (hmmm, not sure though):

Ok so I added a black and white filter and it looks realllly good. It does help merge the two films visually, and makes everything look and feel like a historical documentary. 

Now I need to decide whether I'd like to offer the color or B+W version to viewers, or both lol. Either way, thank you for the suggestion TM2YC!
 

Moe_Syzlak

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I enjoyed that. I liked Darkest Hour quite a bit more than Dunkirk, but didn’t think I’d ever revisit either. That clip is causing me to consider purchasing them so I can watch this.
 

hbenthow

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eldusto84 said:
I actually did color the Darkest Hour footage a bit for this scene...the shadows are bluer to match Dunkirk a bit more.

Wouldn't it be better to try to alter the "Dunkirk" footage to match the "Darkest Hour" footage, rather than the other way around?

Fan-regrader KingKong650 regraded "Dunkirk", and to my eyes, his version looks significantly better than the Blu-ray. Maybe you could alter the color of the "Dunkirk" footage similarly to how he did (and maybe add some more contrast or some other such adjustment so as to more closely match the more stylized lighting of "Darkest Hour").

Here are some before and after comparisons of his version (the first of each pair of screenshots is from the Blu-ray, the second is from the regrade).

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P1ozisX.jpg
 

SkywalkerFan01

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eldusto84 said:
Now I need to decide whether I'd like to offer the color or B+W version to viewers, or both lol. Either way, thank you for the suggestion TM2YC!

If I had to choose between one or the other, then I would choose color, but both would be ideal. ;)

hbenthow said:
Fan-regrader KingKong650 regraded "Dunkirk", and to my eyes, his version looks significantly better than the Blu-ray. Maybe you could alter the color of the "Dunkirk" footage similarly to how he did (and maybe add some more contrast or some other such adjustment so as to more closely match the more stylized lighting of "Darkest Hour").

KK's regrade of this movie has been my go-to way to watch the movie since he released it, I actually plan on burning it to a BD-25 and replacing the official BD on my shelf. So something like this would definitely be ideal as well.
 

TM2YC

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That grade is less green but also too pink. A 50-50 mix of the two, with slight saturation boost would be good.

@"eldusto84" please say if we are all getting off topic, with this grade discussion.
 

MovieMan

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I’d prefer a color version my self. I also really like KKs regrade
 

eldusto84

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I have to agree with TM2YC on that grade...it's a little too pinkish/purple. I suppose I can make a monochrome version available as an alternative to the "official" color version.
 

ThrowgnCpr

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I agree with hbenthow, that it's probably better to re-grade Dunkirk. That said, oof, some of KingKong650's regrades are absolutely terrible. Those images are incredibly pink. It shouldn't be too difficult to dial Dunkirk down to a more natural color with just some light adjustments. You might do that as a first step before converting to monochrome anyway.

At any rate, when you do re-grade something, make sure that things that are supposed to be neutral are actually neutral (not pink)... Even just a quick tweak of the color balance sliders would go along way. Example:

XABDu1d.jpg


MN184mv.jpg


oMYdEPT.jpg
 
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