UPDATE & ANOTHER DOSCOVERY on FILM 1
Film 2 has had the revised ORIGINAL seldom used dialogue of Michael and Anthony at bedtime restored. This has been rendered and will be submitted this weekend finally.
Film 1 has had the following changes made following an eagle eyed member who previewed this and spotted the problems I missed. This has been rendered and is loading. I will advise when that is ready.
Apologies for a post revision release to all. THANKS for your patience:
But was it worth it?
I'll let you be the judges.
Here are the fixes to Film 1
-Fanucci sync issue in the store fixed (source material was the issue). Subtitles expanded as well.
-Original De Niro speaking Italian dialogue when he is offered food, restored from The Epic cut. Subtitles expanded. This was an Alternate take (see below it proved to be a challenge, proof tomorrow)
-A longer shot of the Train fade from young to old Vito used from The Epic cut (so train no longer slowed down to facilitate the longer fade I wanted.)
-Music glitch in Vegas fixed
-AMC logo removed from one shot of Vito in bed
-Red flag scene completely replaced with new expanded subtitles, clarifying the marchers chanting in italics, as is the norm for ambient subtitles in most films (already replaced for all singing too) thus removing a burnt in subtitle glitch in a poor font and color.
-Fan edit thanks added to end of credit roll.
FINALLY, another video and that discovery.
This shows the two versions of De Niro speaking Italian, and the looped version from the chorological edits. I have also shown the FULL version of the original Vegas shot, compared to the on in common use on all other versions. The original is taken again from The Epic cut.
I'll come back to Vegas in a moment.
TODAYS DISCOVERY
That scene with De Niro speaking in Italian, is also an alternate take. How can I be sure? Well, when I tried to line up the scene extension of Vito walking away down the street, i could not align the crossfade I previously applied! RATS! I tried and tried, and then I notice a lady behind Vito , with brown hair, a white blouse and a shawl round her shoulders. As Vito walks away past the market stalls, I noticed this lady's white blouse disappears and the shawl is over head, covering most of her face and said white blouse. Then I check....many of the extras are in slightly different places, the stall alignment to the stall behind is different, hold moly, another alternate take. This was probably done to facilitate a slightly differing camera set-up to permit the long pan out, probably with a different lens too. I managed, frame by frame, to find the optimal number of frames for the crossfade and when to apply it (10 frames in case you are insane like me). Is it perfect...alas no. Can I live with the trade off....that being a cross fade from the stall to Vito in the passageway of his apartment per The Epic HD source material, OR use the looped version with a near perfect pan crossfade (no-one has complained yet), vs. dropping that wonderful contemplative shot as he walks down the street having lost his job and refused food.....YUP, I can live with it...and I hope you all can too. Have a look at the shots for yourself below..Plus ...the whole scene from the start to Vito walking is 2 secs longer...coz YES, I tried to lift the audio and apply it to the version which visually DOES line up...but that did not work, coz they delivered their lines slightly differently so the dialogue CAN'T be made to sync up... "OOOO", I hear you exclaim! What about the McGurk effect? NOPE, the scene is underscored with music, and the 70s mix does not have a speech central channel...there is no way to clean pull the dialogue to be McGurk chopped....Which is what I did for Superman. I pulled the center channel and rebuilt all the audio....Here it is impossible. Sorry folks. Sometimes you have to accept defeat.
Back to Vegas....
I tried to retain the Desert Inn shot from the Vegas transition and I can now see what the problem was when they made the Chronological version. That shot crossfades in DIRECTLY over Michael's face. By the time he fades out, we are left with 20 frames before the next cross fades begins. If I slow it down it looks crap. So it looks like the Desert Inn did not complain, its just the limitations the filmakers had when they chose to extend the scene with Michael and Vito which faded to black. Their choices were limited by the way the music just starts HARD with no fade in. So the result they chose was the only option unless they went back to the original source Vegas material they used, and for a TV re-edit, I would imagine that that would have cost money they just did not have. So my fix remains. Shame really. Have a look at the new source though...
The mantra was to preserve not fan-edit.
ENJOY
FILM 1 BACK tomorrow.
"We've been here befor"