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King Kong - Eighth Wonder of the World

Belgarath

Belgarath

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KK81.jpg

KK81.jpg

The Belgarath Masterpiece
Art by ArtisDead

My intention is to give King Kong (2005) a more grainy vintage feel. I want to remove over the top weird and yuck moments. Also, trim as much silliness as possible (no running between dinosaurs' legs, etc.) and tighten the pace as much as I can without losing valuable scenes.

Cut List:

- Retro Universal logo to replace the updated one (thanks @Dwight Fry for planting the idea in my head)

- A new opening: the edit starts with people gathering to see Kong after he's captured and then we flashback to the journey

- The Journey starts a lot sooner now

- Herb doesn't participate in the rescue mission.

- Bruce Baxter doesn't join the rescue mission. He arrives later with the captain to help with the bugs

- No Dinosaurs stampede sequence

- No speeches from Carl about how he will keep shooting the movie for his dead assistants.

- No underwater scenes. The fight with the giant eel is reworked.

- Kong will fight 2 T-Rexes instead of 3 and only one will fall and drag Kong with him

- Those weird swamp creatures that kill Lumpy..... yeah, they're gone.

- No fight with giant bugs. The company get surrounded by them and rescued just in time.

- Kong doesn't rescue Ann on the Empire State Building

- The movie ends on the roof of the Empire State Building


Fanedit running time: 2 hours 21 minutes (before credits)


- Available in Black & White and TECHNICOLOR (as provided and assisted by @"hbenthow" )


I might need assistance with a cover art down the road, if anybody interested :)

Meanwhile, here are some potential color correction screens:

[img=960x540]
https://imgur.com/sIad8jFl

[img=960x540]
https://imgur.com/coly9rVl

[img=960x540]
https://imgur.com/p9bJh0il

[img=960x540]
https://imgur.com/A8Lz4Scl

[img=960x540]
https://imgur.com/vedTYg8l

[img=960x540]
https://imgur.com/iVY0aJTl

[img=960x540]
https://imgur.com/hA8h4iTl

[img=960x540]
https://imgur.com/4bB0Dpzl

[img=960x540]
https://imgur.com/808efE6l

[img=960x540]
https://imgur.com/VudWB0Ll

[img=960x540]https://i.imgur.com/Ea40Fx4l.jpg[/img]

[img=960x540]https://i.imgur.com/dnexh0cl.jpg[/img]

[img=960x540]https://i.imgur.com/w4PFC2Xl.jpg[/img]

[img=960x540]https://i.imgur.com/9hXMoKdl.jpg[/img]

[img=960x540]https://i.imgur.com/oiX6k3Al.jpg[/img]

[img=960x540]https://i.imgur.com/3eDORz0l.jpg[/img]
 
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Out of curiosity, why are you trying to give a 1930s-inspired movie a (to my eyes) roughly 1970s-inspired look? Why not something closer to a Technicolor look (like it would have had if it had actually been made in color in the 1930s)?
 
hbenthow said:
Out of curiosity, why are you trying to give a 1930s-inspired movie a (to my eyes) roughly 1970s-inspired look? Why not something closer to a Technicolor look (like it would have had if it had actually been made in color in the 1930s)?
Click to expand...

Well I'm not trying (at the moment, at least) to associate the grading to a specific era. I'm only trying to achieve a look that I'm satisfied with which is less crisp and clean, but more filthy as to correlate with the filthy experience the characters are going through. That being said, a Technicolor look is an interesting idea - I might explore it and see how it goes.
 
Okay, I've made some adjustments to my color grading. My previous grading was criminally lacking any hint of blue. So, I've added some blue mid-tones and applied a hint of red upper-tone and some shading and contrast adjustment and got a pretty satisfying  result

The inspiration for the grading came from this picture of Maureen O'Hara from The Black Swan (1942)


Edit: CLICK HERE for some more screens for comparison.
 
Belgarath said:
Okay, I've made some adjustments to my color grading. My previous grading was criminally lacking any hint of blue. So, I've added some blue mid-tones and applied a hint of red upper-tone and some shading and contrast adjustment and got a pretty satisfying  result

The inspiration for the grading came from this picture of Maureen O'Hara from The Black Swan (1942)
Click to expand...

Interesting, but too desaturated to resemble Technicolor.

What about something a bit more like this?

vV2GcZiS_o.jpg


GWYlfKeQ_o.jpg


Z2xaoYP0_o.jpg


BWKYwzIX_o.jpg


t9jm6qyM_o.jpg


4vb4P8gt_o.jpg


xafOBYFz_o.jpg
 
hbenthow said:
Interesting, but too desaturated to resemble Technicolor.

What about something a bit more like this?

vV2GcZiS_o.jpg


GWYlfKeQ_o.jpg
Click to expand...

Has a nice flavor to it. What did you do?
 
Belgarath said:
Has a nice flavor to it. What did you do?
Click to expand...

I used a film emulation software called DxO FilmPack 3. It changes image dynamics and adds grain to mimic various film stocks. If you'd like, I could create a LUT that you could use to instantly replicate the same color grade (if your editing software can use LUTs).

If you click on my spoiler tag again, you'll see some new samples (there are now seven altogether).
 
Yeah, I use Premiere so I think I can use LUT. I'm curious to see how it'd look on some other samples and interested to see if I can apply some shading to it like here: I like how half her face is covered in shadow. Maybe I'll apply a bit less, though.
 
I've now made two LUTs. I don't know if either will give you the exact same color grade as the samples posted above (I tried to get it as close as I could, but each one turned out slightly different), but at least one of them should get you very close. Out of the two, I personally prefer the 10 color space one over the 250 color space one. It looks better overall, especially in how it renders blue, in my opinion. Here are the links:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Tfv5ARrqbNHA6y0Yz5lKoe8A8F0NRWjw/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15GpPOWuKmCnP7k4ffskKu-XOqxXhjbkN/view?usp=sharing

Belgarath said:
I'm curious to see how it'd look on some other samples and interested to see if I can apply some shading to it like here: I like how half her face is covered in shadow. Maybe I'll apply a bit less, though.
Click to expand...

Even after applying a LUT, you can still make extra tweaks to contrast, brightness, color, etc for each scene or shot (or the whole project, for that matter).
 
Added"Ongoing Ideas/Cut List"  to original post
 
Belgarath said:
- Carl's motivation for joining the rescue expedition is not shooting the movie - he brings no equipment and Herb does not join them. We learn his true motivation later on.

- No speeches from Carl about how he will keep shooting the movie for his dead assistants.
Click to expand...

Do you intend to try to make Denham more sympathetic? If so, I have some ideas that could help with that.

By the way, have you ever seen Kong by @"TMBTM"? It contains a number of excellent changes. I highly recommend that anyone who intends to tackle an edit of the movie watch his version, as some ideas from it will almost definitely come in handy. For instance, TMBTM trimmed the T-Rex fight in such a way that Kong only fights one of them instead of three. He also managed to enhance the pacing of many scenes using very seamless edits.
 
hbenthow said:
Do you intend to try to make Denham more sympathetic? If so, I have some ideas that could help with that.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. Differently motivated, I would say. In a way, it makes him more sinister and less goofy, I think. You can share your ideas - I won't mind.

hbenthow said:
By the way, have you ever seen Kong by @"TMBTM"? 
Click to expand...

Yes, I saw Kong and the vintage edition about a year ago. I remember both were fun, but not what I intend my edit to be. I might look into either one of these versions again down the road. Kong did have some good trims, I remember that.
 
Belgarath said:
Not necessarily. Differently motivated, I would say. In a way, it makes him more sinister and less goofy, I think. You can share your ideas - I won't mind.
Click to expand...

At one time, I had planned to make an edit of the movie. Part of my idea was to make Denham as sympathetic as possible (to bring him more in line with the original 1933 version of Denham, which was inspired by Merian C. Cooper himself and was a likable character). One of my ideas (which I checked to see if it could be made to work, and it can) is to cut the parts that show Denham setting a trap for Kong behind the wall and keeping the bridge up until the right moment (endangering the lines of Ann Darrow and Jack Driscoll). In my cut, he would have left the bridge down, had no traps set, and Darrow and Driscoll would have ran straight across the bridge without having to wait for it to be lowered. Kong would burst through the wall and everyone would immediately flee for the beach (no fighting Kong at the wall, and no traps set for Kong). Denham throwing the chloroform at Kong would have been a last-minute act of self-defense, not part of any existing plan to capture Kong.

I also had an idea to change the part in which Ann is yelling "No!" at the sailors about to shoot Kong, so that she is instead yelling "No!" at Kong himself as his raises his arms to smash the sailors.
 
I'm not feeling it. Even if I go this route - the whole sympathetic Carl loses its credibility once he brings Kong to NY, chains him and presents him to an audience as part of a freak act. You can argue it for ignorance, but I'd rather have it as part of an agenda.
 
Belgarath said:
I'm not feeling it. Even if I go this route - the whole sympathetic Carl loses its credibility once he brings Kong to NY, chains him and presents him to an audience as part of a freak act. You can argue it for ignorance, but I'd rather have it as part of an agenda.
Click to expand...

There's more to it than just ignorance, though. Kong was a very destructive creature that was terrorizing the Skull Island villagers. He had been killing young women that they sacrificed to him for decades. Once he destroyed the gate in their wall, he could come in and kill all of them whenever he wanted. In the original 1933 version, he was absolutely brutal to the villagers, even picking some of them up and chomping on them. For Denham to leave Kong alive and free on the island would be horribly irresponsible, as it would be a death sentence for the villagers. So he had two choices: kill him or capture him. Capturing him would help Denham recoup his financial losses and probably be more humane in his view (Denham probably saw  killing Kong as being more inhumane than capturing him alive).

In any case, though, it's your fanedit, so I defer to your judgment.
 
Everything you said makes sense for the 1933 version (sorry, I don't remember much from that version - seen it more than a decade ago). I, however, want to keep Kong more likable, as he appears in the Peter Jackson film.
 
I decided to revisit this edit and have another attempt at it. I believe the edit is ready and will be uploaded to IFDB soon with more info on the cutlist. Meanwhile, here's the opening 8 minutes of the movie:
Password: Fanedit.org
 
Belgarath said:
I decided to revisit this edit and have another attempt at it. I believe the edit is ready and will be uploaded to IFDB soon with more info on the cutlist. Meanwhile, here's the opening 8 minutes of the movie:
Password: Fanedit.org
Click to expand...
This is actually pretty cool! You have the right B&W hues for the intended look. Good job!

A few possibilities:

- Maybe adding a little film grain would look good, as long as it doesn't feel overdone and too digital. Without it, it looks kinda waxy.

- I think it would look good to have the 1930s Universal logo at the start instead of the modern one. For a version of that that is widescreen and available on HD, there's the Xanadu recreation (fading it out before the second plane appears, that is):


- The added film damage effects in the opening sequence are a bit overdone and look fake as a result. I'd have them appear more sparingly instead of all through.
 
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That dirt overlay at the beginning looks like quite short loop.

Also, why black & white? Why?
 
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