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Scribble 8 - The Golden Voyage of Sinbad

The Scribbling Man

The Scribbling Man

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Brief Synopsis
A frame-accurate recreation of the original Super 8 cuts of Harryhausen’s The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, using a full-screen HD colour source taken from the Indicator release. Featuring multiple audio options, subtitles where relevant, and carefully applied enhancements to stop-motion animation for ‘Sinbad Battles the Monsters’ and ‘Sinbad Duels the Idol with Many Arms’. Black and white ‘purist’ versions with no adjustments to animation will be available where relevant.

Context
Super 8 cuts were jarringly short versions of films, distributed on 8mm film for home use. Four were made for The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, covering some of the highlight sequences. ‘Sinbad and the Oracle’ was the only one presented in colour and with sound, the others were silent and black and white with burned in dialogue cards. These cuts can be viewed on the Indicator blu-ray but in very poor quality. This project recreates them to the frame, even if jarring (there's even a flash frame during one cut that I decided to preserve).

Audio
For 'Sinbad and the Oracle', viewers will have the choice of watching with the original untouched super 8 mono, or an approximate recreation using the restored mono. With the restored audio, I decided to smooth over the transitions for an alternative experience. This is available in both mono and surround. Users also will have the option of an isolated score in mono or surround. For the other 3 silent super 8 cuts, viewers have the option of viewing with a music-only track (more of a silent movie experience) or with the complete film audio including dialogue.

Animation
If you've seen my work with Jason and the Argonauts, you have some idea of what to expect. My technique with this has come a long way I feel, but it is still different to what I would (will) do with a B+ edit. Because I have gone for relative purity, I have had less freedom in terms of manually removing clunky frames or recutting the action to focus less on aspects that lack. I have not been speeding up or slowing down select movements to aid an impression of 'weight' or realistic movement. What I've done here is a straight conversion of each scene of motion using two different methods; I have then blended the best of those results along with the original frames, masked out any non-animation elements, fixed any glitches, and selectively applied motion blur where appropriate. On the whole, it's better than what I acheived with Argonauts (IMO), but it's also more of a practice run/experiment for when I do a full movie edit.

For 'Sinbad and the Oracle', there is only a very small amount of stop motion and I have left it intact. For the rest of the edits, there will be 'purist' versions available. These have the crisper, wider image and all audio options, but they retain the black and white look and have no changes to the animation applied.


Where It's At
'Sinbad and the Oracle' - Complete
'Sinbad Battles the Monsters' - Complete
'Sinbad Duels the Magic Sword' - Complete
'Sinbad Duels the Idol with Many Arms' - Complete

I have been undecided how to release this. I've considered putting one out at a time, like episodes, or releasing it as one big package. Currently I'm leaning towards putting it out in two volumes, so that I can release the two that are more or less done now while I work on the next lot.


Some example images:
Screenshot-2024-02-12-11-53-34.png


Screenshot-2024-02-12-11-55-41.png


Screenshot-2024-02-12-11-56-08.png


image.png
 
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To give some idea of the vibe (and animation), here's a quick comparison sample taken from 'Sinbad Battles the Monsters':


Note: switch quality from 'auto' to 1080p for consistency.
 
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Does this work? Not keen on how the original looks, so tried to add a subtle 'cloaking' effect that doesn't feel too out of place. It's a bit rough atm but it's just a test.

Edit: link seems to have died, but I uploaded it to youtube:
 
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The Scribbling Man said:
Does this work? Not keen on how the original looks, so tried to add a subtle 'cloaking' effect that doesn't feel too out of place. It's a bit rough atm but it's just a test.

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Click to expand...

The original effect is certainly lacking… something. Your version is a definite improvement. Maybe a tad too “bubbly” for my taste. I’d pull the distortion back slightly to make it a more subtle distortion. But as a proof of concept its great!

And I love the poster BTW :love:
 
robulon said:
The original effect is certainly lacking… something. Your version is a definite improvement. Maybe a tad too “bubbly” for my taste. I’d pull the distortion back slightly to make it a more subtle distortion. But as a proof of concept its great!

And I love the poster BTW :love:
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, I'm new to playing around with that effect and I'm struggling to get it quite how I'd like it, but will continue to tweak.

Glad you like the poster :) wasn't feeling inspired but then I saw Harryhausen's concept art and thought it would be a nice way of representing each cut.
 
On-screen dialogue is slightly different, sometimes incorrect, in these cuts. There are also grammatical errors, or text cut off at the edges. The purist version will replicate this, but the main version will make slight tweaks to correct it:

image.png


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Purist versions are complete for 3 of the 4 cuts. Main versions complete for first cut. Nearly complete for 2 and 3. 4 remains untouched at this stage.
 
The 3rd edit is done. The 2nd just needs a few frames fixing. The 4th now has all the cuts in place and the isolated score track ready. It was by far the simplest to piece together in terms of replicating the cuts, but I expect it will be the hardest to work with animation-wise.... a many-armed idol presents a lot of opportunity for AI to get muddled. The hydra's many heads were a pain in the ass for Jason and the Argonauts.
 
A very brief demo on some motion changes for Kahli:


In some instances where there was movement only every other frame, the framerate is increased. In other cases, jittery frames traded for smoother ones. Eventually I'll share something a bit more action packed.
 
Spent quite a lot of time on the Kahli battle. Kinda getting to a point where it might be diminishing returns, so I'm going to call it finished. I'm not 100% happy with where the motion blur is at, but tried to strike a balance and not go too crazy with it, while giving the arms more of a sense of motion and speed. I think it's largely going to be subjective, but definitely a bit less "purist" that my work for Jason.

Next up is revisiting some glitchy frames during the Griffin battle, and then i can render the last episode out and release the project.
 
Here's a short 3-way comparison of the Super 8, the purist preservation, and the full colour recreation with animation changes. The motion blur side of things is chiefly applied to the Griffin's wings, and some occasional fast movements on both creatures.

 
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This has been submitted to IFDB :)

As mentioned previously, while the cut is a frame-accurate recreation of the super-8, I consider the non-purist versions a sort of "practice" for what I do with the animation in the B+ edit. It's an improved technique since Jason IMO, but any feedback is welcome. If something looks bad, I'd rather hear it now before I start work on the larger project.
 
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