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JAWS 2 - Extended Integral Edition - 1080p Presentation

RidgeShark

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3YspQm8.jpg

Jaws-2-Fanedit.png

Artwork Courtesy of Ryantology

June 19, 2020 - Submitted to the Academy
Update - Accepted: https://ifdb.fanedit.org/jaws-2-extended-integral-edition/

Original Post:
I’ve been chiseling away at an extended version of JAWS 2 that we can all watch on our modern 16:9 monitors. Currently I have these sources:
 
  1. Personal Recording - an LP speed VHS recorded off TBS circa 1991. Looks decent, except for some wavy frequency noise in the image. I can filter this out and still retain a fair amount of detail. A bit handicapped by the LP speed - didn’t quite max out the potential resolution a VHS can offer, but still not bad. Inferior to a SP recording but superior to EP.
  2. Homemade DVD-R (3.94GB) - This is the one that was shared on myspleen and demonoid. A later recording off TBS. Decent quality. MPEG-2 Artifacts and a lot of detail has been filtered away. The plan is to stick with my personal recording and use this to mask out the reoccurring TBS logo.
  3. Brazil TV Cut - Over the Air VHS Recording - Low quality mp4 from a marketplace trader in Brazil. Has unique footage not in the US-TV cut. **UPDATE - Obtained first generation copy of rare CIC Brazil VHS.  Performing my own digitization and cleanup
  4. Official Blu-ray and DVD - has a few deleted scenes in 2.35:1 widescreen (ancient, non-anamorphic 4:3 source)
My plan is for the presentation to all take place inside the standard 16:9 frame at 1080p. The 2.35:1 and 1.33:1 footage will remain as-is - no cropping of the actual image. I’m firm on this. Yes, not a perfect solution, but preferable to further cropping IMHO. Here’s a proof of concept using the deleted underwater helicopter attack sequence:

How you can help -
 
  1. I would like additional VHS recordings of the US TV Cut. My 2 sources are adequate, but I would prefer a higher-quality SP recording. If nothing turns up, I’ll use what I have.
  2. (EDIT: FOUND! ;) )Same with the Brazil version - I would prefer to get a high quality transfer off the first VHS release by CIC in Brazil that unknowingly featured this longer version. It’s very rare and has yet to turn up on eBay since I first started looking out for it.
  3. I need a translator for the few exclusive scenes in the Brazil version. We’ll include those with English subtitles.
Thanks for looking!  :D
 

TM2YC

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You're right that further cropping of the VHS to make it match the scope aspect-ratio would be a terrible idea but switching between 4:3 VHS and 2.35:1 1080p is incredibly jarring visually (from that clip). Wouldn't presenting the whole thing in 4:3 720p be a lot smoother. It would take a lot more time to "pan & scan" all the blu-ray footage but it would be worth it.
 

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I totally get what you're saying and have considered  that that among other options - pan and scanned to 1.78:1, with 1.33:1 inserts is one I considered the most.  The aspect ratio question is one of the main reasons why I didn't start on this nearly 10 years ago when I first started kicking around the idea.  Honestly, I kept hoping someone else would go to the trouble :D  --Maybe they did?  I've seen other threads, but those projects appear to be abandoned.  Any of those turn up anywhere? Anyway, my old JAWS 2 VHS recording kept calling out to me from storage and it became too much to ignore.

Pan and Scanning the theatrical cut would make the transitions smoother, but the 4:3 footage amounts to such a small percentage of the film that it's very hard for me to justify.  That's especially true since the majority of the deleted scenes are available in 2.35:1.  I think with a proper note at the beginning of the presentation about the switching aspect ratios from multiple sources, most people who would seek this out would understand and be prepared for it.  Overall, I think there's more benefits to this style of presentation.

Of course, anyone is welcome to make their own version from this once I'm finished - in fact I encourage it.  I'll probably make a few myself - that hypothetical pan-and-scanned 1.78:1 version mentioned above is still a tad tempting.
 

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Small Update - My personal recording appears to have been a sped-up broadcast by TBS.  Still visually superior to the DVD-R, but very frustrating trying to extract the correct frames out of the signal.  Interlace patterns are all over the place.  I performed a QTGMC 60p extraction of the footage, but I don't know if I can find an automated decimate filter that can lock onto the randomness.
 

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I've tried working through the speedup issues on my copy and have something fairly presentable now.  The DVD-R doesn't have such issues.  I've applied similar cleanup to both.  Wanted to get some opinions on the footage.  I'm a bit split
 

TM2YC

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@"RidgeShark" Do not post download links in the forum (Link deleted). Please read the site rules at the top of the page.

If this is your first time here please read our FAQ and Rules pages. They have some useful information that will get us all off on the right foot. More details on our policies, especially our Own the Source rule are available here. If you do not understand any of these rules send a private message to one of our staff for further details.
 

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Finally found a method I'm pleased with regarding motion.  In the words of Spielberg "I could still see the jerk".  

Involves QTGMC to produce a 60p copy, finding a decent setting on MultiDecimate and then go through each shot frame by frame to remove remaining duplicates.  I compare it to a IVTC'd copy of the lower quality DVD-R to make sure the frame match is dead-on.  Thankfully these tv-only deleted scenes are short, so I don't have to go insane doing manual removal.  

I will hopefully have a test copy of the whole thing in a week or so.  Any interest?
 

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JAWS 2 / Tiburon 2 -Deleted Scene - Divers Recover Camera (Portuguese)

As things stand now, this will be the most unusual addition to the presentation.  Rare deleted scene from the Brazil version.  Anyone here speak Portuguese?  I'm thinking of including it with subtitles.  I haven't been able to confirm, but some people remember this scene from an english broadcast.  Hopefully a copy will turn up!

Believe it or not, the appearance of this is an improvement over the original mp4 source - low quality over-the-air recording circa late 80's/early 90's, compressed with low bitrate.  This footage can be improved if we can find first CIC VHS release from Brazil.
 

Horrifyingly Hillarous

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This is awesome, Jaws 2 is a movie I always wanted to get a special blu ray release with all the deleted scenes cleaned up and included as bonuses, hell not to mention the hours upon hours of footage filmed before they switched directors
 

RidgeShark

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I'm with you 100%.  Maybe Shout! will be allowed to take a crack at the JAWS sequels one day.  I'd love to see a release of the JAWS 3 Director's Cut with the original effects work by Private Stock Effects.  You can see a small bit of their version of the now infamous "shark through the window" sequence here at the 25 sec mark: 
  Supposedly their work was very impressive - nearly 2K digital compositing from what I read - but the producer worried it didn't have enough 3-D pop, so he scrapped all the work and hired an old-school compositing company ran by one of his friends.  At least that's what I've read.

--Anyway, good news!  A kind collector is going to allow me to transfer his rare copy of the first Brazilian CIC VHS release of JAWS 2 :)
 

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While we wait on the Brazil VHS (it may be a while), here is my work on all the scenes known from the US TV cut of the film:

password: fanedit.org


For my personal recording: Baked-in video frequency noise has been largely reduced and appropriate 24p has been extracted and correctly timed from the sped-up TBS broadcast.

For the widescreen deleted scenes: Sharpening halos and dot crawl have been largely reduced.

Please let me know if you spot any errors or things you think I can improve on.  :)
 

TM2YC

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^ Those clips look pretty good quality wise (apart from the aggressively green tinted shot in the middle), what is the source for those?
 

RidgeShark

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TM2YC said:
^ Those clips look pretty good quality wise (apart from the aggressively green tinted shot in the middle), what is the source for those?

Thank you TM2YC!

The widescreen scenes are all from the 2001 DVD, which presents the deleted scenes with the proper 3:2 interlace pattern.  The Blu-ray has these scenes as well, but they've been improperly deinterlaced.  The master source shows all the signs of a laserdisc era creation - composite (full of dot-crawl and rainbows) and non-anamorphic.  This is purely speculation, but this master was possibly created by Laurent Bouzereau and his team while they were compiling deleted footage for the JAWS Special Edition laserdisc from 1995.

The 1.33:1 scenes are from my personal VHS.  Those have been aggressively DNR'd - I've tried to strike a good balance, but that VHS has a very noisy image.  Hopefully the Brazil VHS will offer something better.
 

dustymetal01

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How is your project going? I saw the deleted diver/camera footage and it should have remained in the film!!
 

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After a long hiatus (long story), I’m back and last month I finally got the tape from Brazil. It’s a very soft, low quality image of a grainy print (not VHS grain, but actually a grainy film print - maybe 16mm?). There’s a brief preview of Cat People before the movie which looks like a much better film to tape transfer than JAWS 2 received.
 
The tape itself is very difficult to transfer - I believe the tape is sticky on the inside of the cassette and my Panasonic AG-1980 has nothing but difficulty playing it - I’ve never encountered anything like it. After a few minutes the tape starts squealing and the picture becomes unstable - but I pop in a different tape and everything plays fine. After many short bursts - I finally managed one full capture of the film that I stitched back together.
 
I did a test of averaging/merging 7 captures on the unique footage since it was so short - however, no capture is perfectly lined with the others due to tape instability, so it may not be the best method. I’ll do more tests but not planning on doing multiple captures of the full film due to the playback problems. The tape is fine otherwise, but I don’t want to push it! A different VCR deck may tolerate the tape better, but that will likely be difficult to coordinate and I have no money to spend on this project.

Question though - does anyone have an actual VHS of a JAWS 2 tv airing? My VHS is incomplete, the DVD-R is highly compressed, and then there’s the issues with this tape. I’m almost satisfied, but not quite.
 

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Getting there.  I just put some additional finishing touches (I need to stop at some point) to the added scenes and the master copy is rendering - which I will need to check for errors.  Then I need to add some kind of "fan edit" advisory intro at the beginning.  Any templates I can find for those?

Also - made some art for the release from a rare poster
jaws-2-extended-artwork.jpg
 

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Extra finishing touches afoot! Experimenting with the new Topaz AI Video app and have found ways to improve the footage.  It's nothing revelatory, but does help the low-res footage hold up a little better.  Requires a lot of finessing both before and after - definitely not a silver bullet solution.
 

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Looking forward to seeing this...Thank you in advance for your efforts
 

RidgeShark

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password: fanedit.org

All of the VHS footage has been extraordinarily difficult due to framerate issues and noise, but the Brazil tape really takes the cake.  The interlacing has a strange lag - seems an old telecine image sensor - with fields blending into each other.  At one moment, the tape shifts light levels in the shot of the divers swimming right on the wreckage which I have adjusted.  After a ton of experimentation, I finally got a respectable 24p version.  Then came the cleanup which has been near impossible to get to a satisfactory state.  The image is already incredibly soft and lacking detail - then add to that dark underwater footage.  I think I've taken it about as far as I can without totally breaking the image.

EDIT - Was going through the Brazil footage and found a deleted shot of Brody walking through his house.  Nothing major but not in the us tv cut.  Should be easy to drop in.
 
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