Robocop Cable TV Edit HD Restoration Project

[Bad Wardrobe]

This is an awesome idea. This dubbed version was actually the first time I saw Robocop as a young lad on UK tv, so that makes it bizarrely special to me!

 

[kchrules]

The results when looking for this look kind of cheap... I mean, softonic and other pages, for video plugins? Or is this a fully standalone program, as in render the image where you want to use it separately, go to town on it, and then reimport the finished product back into your timeline?

I messed around with Remove Logo Now last night a little. It does a good enough job removing the station logo that I'll probably use it for those shots. But yes I'll have to remove the logo separately from the blu-ray footage then insert those edited shots. While it does a good enough job on vhs/480i footage it does leave a noticeable mark on the blu-ray footage.

 

[TM2YC]

Rather than sending all the TV footage through 'Remove Logo Now', leading to an overall drop in quality across the frame. The best result might be achieved by processing the TV clips, then dropping them into your timeline above the same unprocessed TV clips. Then matte out the corner section, so only the small area where the logo was would have the quality drop.

 

[kchrules]

Rather than sending all the TV footage through 'Remove Logo Now', leading to an overall drop in quality across the frame. The best result might be achieved by processing the TV clips, then dropping them into your timeline above the same unprocessed TV clips. Then matte out the corner section, so only the small area where the logo was would have the quality drop.

I might be able to do that with a few of the clips, but some of these shots are from a different angle or another take entirely. So they might not match up exactly.

 

[TM2YC]

Rather than sending all the TV footage through 'Remove Logo Now', leading to an overall drop in quality across the frame. The best result might be achieved by processing the TV clips, then dropping them into your timeline above the same unprocessed TV clips. Then matte out the corner section, so only the small area where the logo was would have the quality drop.

I might be able to do that with a few of the clips, but some of these shots are from a different angle or another take entirely. So they might not match up exactly.

I might not have explained it very well. I'm saying use the same clip/take, like this:

 

[kchrules]

I might not have explained it very well. I'm saying use the same clip/take, like this:

Ah ok, I see what you're saying

 

[kchrules]

btw, I saw this ABC edited-for-TV intro on youtube. You could remake that in HD too and have it at the start.

I still want to clean up the audio, but this will play right before the movie.

 

[TM2YC]

^ Awesome job.

 

[kchrules]

^ Awesome job.

Thank you! I'm working on putting the higher quality samples from the movie together in there as well. I recreated the song in the background and am also gonna record the announcer lines myself and see how that sounds. I'll post both here when I'm done, if it doesn't sound as good. I'll go with the original.

By the way, I got a new HDMI capture card in the mail today. I'm gonna record the "thistv" robocop again with it. The one I've been using was recorded onto a DVD and then ripped. Don't know how much better it will look.

 

[kchrules]

Here's a comparison screenshot of the DVD rip vs HDMI capture. These are unedited and are not sharpened. I resized the left picture since it was only 640x480.
The actual recording is 480p, but the HDMI rip shows slightly more detail. The DVD photo was less than half of the size of the HDMI screencap:

 

[kchrules]

I re-recorded the voice over and recreated the trailer music as well as mixing in the actual movie sounds. I'm a little over 2/3 done with the audio. I still need to mix in the isolated soundtrack in some spots to make some of the dubs/cuts less sloppy. Particularly when someone snorts coke. I have two (potentially) new TV versions coming my way so I'll see if they have higher quality dubs or alternate footage.

 

[kchrules]

I posted an updated trailer a few hours ago but I deleted it because I still had some work to do on it. Here is a clip from the edit. It's Bob's death through the factory scene and Clarence getting arrested. I did a lot of line dubbing from multiple sources and inserted a lot of alternate footage. Haven't removed the logo from some of the TV insert shots yet, been focusing mainly on audio. But the alternate footage was color corrected to match the film more. Also now that I'm editing in 4:3 I'm able to do a few more things like covering up blood and gore by panning left or right.

password: fanedit

I'm about 2/3 done with the whole thing. There's still a lot to be done though. A lot of audio clean up (inserting the isolated score in some places to cover choppy tv dubs) and I need to trim some shots early in the film (with the way my scatterbrained process is going and the fact that I'm editing the audio and video separately, it's easier said than done).

Here's a list of what has been censored (in order):

Bob's death:
-Beginning of the scene (bob fooling with the girls/snorting coke) is cut. Alternate shot of one of the girls covers it.
-"Bitches leave" is now "ladies leave"
-"What the f*ck are you doing" is now "what the hell..."
-First bullet impact is shortened
-"God damnit" is now "ah damnit"
-Bob is shot one less time and alternate footage covers the bullet impact
-"Please don't kill me" is an alternate angle obscuring the holes in Bob's legs
-Clarence snorting coke is muted
-"Every game has a winner.." Frame is panned left and zoomed to hide Bob's legs bleeding out.

Factory:
-"I don't give a shit..." now "I don't give a damn..."
-"I don't want to f*ck with you" now "I don't want to play..."
-"...shove this factory so far up your stupid, wop ass that you'll shit snow for a year" is changed to "...shove this factory so far up your stupid fat nose that you'll blow snow..."
-"cocksucker" now "bloodsucker"
-" Come quietly or there will be trouble!" "Aw f*ck you!" is now "...trouble!" "Yeah, for you!"
-Many shots of people dying cut. Some people's deaths are from alternate angles. Some are shortened. Some are just cut.
-First guy shot is replaced with a further away angle
-Guy up in the corner with uzi's death is less graphic, alternate shot of him getting shot
-Alternate footage when the guy is shot by robo, screams, then accidentally shoots Sal.
-Joe grunts instead of saying "shit" when he falls
-When clarence spits in Robo's face, there is no more blood (alternate shot) and he says "get lost!" as opposed to "f*ck you"
-"What is this shiiiiiiiiiiit!" is now "What is thiiiiiiiiiiiiis!"
-"God damnit, god damnit!" replaced with "leave me alone, listen to me!"
-"Listen to me you f*ck!" now "Listen to me you fool!"
-"cocksucker" now "bloodsucker"

Police Station:
-"Listen to me you asshole!" now "Listen to me you animal!"
-When clarence spits on the table there is no blood (there is alternate footage for this but it is identical, they just matted out the blood, so instead of using the alternate footage, I just matted part of the desk over the blood).
-"Shit!" now "geez!"
-"Give me my f*cking phone call" is now "give me my friggin phone call"
-Dick Jones says "you really screwed up" instead of "jesus, you really screwed up.

 

[TM2YC]

Nice work. A few things that stood out:

- Is the framing correct on Jones at 01.13? Seems like his TV screen should be centered.

- The picture gets darker suddenly at 05.32. Is this a glitch, or part of the movie?

- Sudden jump in audio volume at 05.38.

 

[kchrules]

Nice work. A few things that stood out:

- Is the framing correct on Jones at 01.13? Seems like his TV screen should be centered.

- The picture gets darker suddenly at 05.32. Is this a glitch, or part of the movie?

- Sudden jump in audio volume at 05.38.

The framing isn't correct on that TV shot, no. I still need to go through some of the pan and scan and fix little shots like that. The majority of the green text (Robo's HUD) for example is on the far left of the frame, so the screen is panned to the left for those. As for the picture getting darker in the middle of the factory scene, it's part of the movie, yes, and I don't know why. It's in every home video/tv edit I've seen.

And yes, a problem with these violence cuts during action scenes is it chops the score up. It gets worse near the end of the movie with the showdown scene at the steel mill. I have to be creative isolating the sound effects and cutting the background score so it flows. (The network tv VHS version does this, but the audio quality is so bad it's not even worth trying to splice the whole scene in) For example, many of the gunshot sounds in the factory scene were jumpy because of the cuts I made. I took the isolated sound effect of Robo's pistol from earlier in the film (specifically in the police shooting range around 35ish mins in) and lined them up. So when I have all the preliminary dubs in place, I'm gonna go back and fix that, cause there are several spots where that is an issue.

 

[kchrules]

Will be receiving a new copy of the TV edit of Robocop from ABC sometime in the next 2 weeks. Will see what alternate footage/dialogue is on it and if I can add it to the project.

 

[kchrules]

The TV Version I got is identical to the network version I already have. But the audio is much cleaner. Gonna go back and plug those bits in wherever I can.

 

[kchrules]

So, there is an out of print, unreleased Blu-Ray of the theatrical version. It's been floating around the internet for years. It was pulled by Sony days before it would hit shelves but some reviewers and others got their hands on it. It's extremely rare. The only commercially available Blu-Rays are the Director's cut. Is this unreleased bluray footage fair game to use in this restoration? I do own the theatrical version on VHS, Laserdisc, and 3 separate DVDs, so it's not like I don't own a copy of the theatrical version, but a physical copy of the unreleased blu-ray is damn near (if not) impossible to find. I'd only be using about 10 seconds total (Bobby getting shot in the leg, Murphy getting shot up in the steel mill) for consistent quality.

 

[kchrules]

password: fanedit

This is the showdown near the end of the movie. About 75% done with the whole project. 90% done with the audio. This clip is still in rough form. Many sound effects from the tv footage are missing ( like the alternate angle of "don't touch me man"), but I inserted the isolated score and voices. Some of the TV footage is also still interlaced. I've been very busy lately, but I wanted to show some progress. I'll add more details of what I did in this clip when I get off work.

 

[TM2YC]

^ Lookin' good apart from a few moments:

00.05 - Line stands out. Not sure you can improve it but if you can, do. I think it's the soundFX like the cguns being cocked that sound more obvious than the dialogue.
02.23 - The picture gets brighter suddenly mid shot.
02.35 - This section looks very out of place. The colours are way off those of the blu-ray and would benefit from from being adjusted. As you say, it's heavily interlaced and that needs fixed too.
02.57 - Ditto
04.58 - Ditto
05.16 - I know the music changes here from loud to quiet but even so it sounds off, or maybe I'm imagining it?

 

[kchrules]

^ Lookin' good apart from a few moments:

00.05 - Line stands out. Not sure you can improve it but if you can, do. I think it's the soundFX like the cguns being cocked that sound more obvious than the dialogue.
02.23 - The picture gets brighter suddenly mid shot.
02.35 - This section looks very out of place. The colours are way off those of the blu-ray and would benefit from from being adjusted. As you say, it's heavily interlaced and that needs fixed too.
02.57 - Ditto
04.58 - Ditto
05.16 - I know the music changes here from loud to quiet but even so it sounds off, or maybe I'm imagining it?

Yes, once I get the tv footage de-interlaced and color corrected it should look much better. Yeah, the music near the end is louder. I re-edited it separately so that it was timed to the tv version. I forgot about the volume of it. Also near the beginning, the off line is an easy fix. The only word that was actually censored is the last one (mutha, changed to sucka) so I can just splice in that word only. Also with the picture suddenly getting brighter, I think it's like the coke factory where that's just part of the movie.