SMALLVILLE DESTINY by Last Survivor

[LastSurvivor]

Original title: Smallville

Fanedit title: SMALLVILLE DESTINY

Studio: Warner Bros. Television.
Faneditor: Last Survivor
Originally aired: October 2001
Fanedit released: April 2011
Original running time: 880 minutes approx (21 episodes Season 1, & 1 episode from Season 2)
New running time: 263 minutes approx (in 2 parts – Part 1: 132 mins, Part 2: 131 minutes)
Cut time: 617 minutes approx
Started Edit: August 2010
Completed Edit: April 2011


Purpose of Edit:
To present the core themes explored within season 1 of Smallville whilst excising the "freak of the week" element, with 2 feature length parts in the style of a mini-series. Please note this is not intended to be Smallville:The Movie (even if I started out the project with that exact intention!). It is still very much grounded in its television roots and I wanted to maintain a strong sense of character and story telling in the edit which is reminiscent of the TV series.

What I hope to be clearer is that amongst all the meteor freaks tearing up the town, Season 1 did actually begin to shape the destiny of many of the main characters. Indeed, with Smallville: Destiny one of my goals is for it to be more obvious that there is a clear story-arc for all to see.

If you're in the mood to experience an entire season of one of the best comic-book related television series in recent memory, but only want the heart and soul of the story, then Smallville Destiny is for you. So, put on your Superman pyjamas, pour yourself some coffee in your favourite giant Superman mug and settle down for an evening of superhero soul searching.

Cutlist:

- Far too extensive to list everything. I use some footage from nearly every episode of season 1 - in many instances scenes will be moved around quite substantially. For example I would take a scene from say episode 9 and place it just before a scene in episode 13. As long as it helps assist and move the story on, the attitude I had was that anything goes.

- Meteor freaks do not feature in this edit (unless you count Lex and Cassandra Carver as "freaks" as both of them have certainly been affected by the meteor shower!)

- Many scenes had one or two “lines” of dialogue removed because they either referenced the “meteor freak of the week”, or mentioned something or someone which I had already cut from the edit.

- There were 4 key episodes which were used to develop elements and characters which I felt integral to the "destiny" subtitle I placed on the edit - "Pilot", "Hourglass", "Stray" and "Tempest". I also used the majority of the second season's opening episode "Vortex" which helped bring a satisfying conclusion of sorts to the story.

- All references to Lana's kryptonite necklace have been dropped. Nothing wrong with the principal, but I just felt it was unnecessary to this edit and didn't help develop the story or characters at all (well, that and the fact that I hated the way it was used in the "Pilot" episode as a tool for Whitney to childishly get at Clark). Also purposely refrained from mentioning the meteor rocks too much, the intention being for the finale to have more impact and perhaps an element of surprise.

- Completely cut the recurring character of Victoria as played by Kelly Brook, primarily due to her awkwardly wooden performance but also because Lex has far more interesting and important characters he encounters in the season.

- Colour corrected a shot on Clark from the opening scene at the care home from "Hourglass" (it's not perfect, but it still looks more like the rest of the scene than the original shot did).

- Numerous scenes had to have their background sounds rebuilt from the ground up. This was to make scene transitions smoother and also when I wanted to use different music than that within the original version. One prime example of this was the vast majority of the opening meteor storm which hits Smallville. I use a piece of music by Jerry Goldsmith for this title sequence rather than Mark Snow’s original score, which meant taking out a lot of the original source audio track (where the original score could be noticeably heard) and replacing them with sound effects which I found from the Freesound project.

Technical Details:

16:9 Anamorphic. 2 x NTSC Dual Layer DVD. (AVI version coming soon!)

PCM Stereo.

Software used: Sony Vegas Pro 9.0, DVD Architect Pro 5.0, PgC Dmux, VirtualDub, Xara Photo and Graphic Designer 6

 

[emphatic]

Neat-o. Looking forward to the .avi version.

 

[LastSurvivor]

Yeah, shouldn't be too long until the AVI versions are available too.... looks like they will be 1GB for each Part.

 

[BigDamnHero]

Awesome, LastSurvivor, congrats on finishing!! I bet that feels good.

Is this going to be available at FE.info? How long does it usually take to get up there?

 

[LastSurvivor]

Is this going to be available at FE.info? How long does it usually take to get up there?

Hey BigDamnHero...

From what the powers that be tell me, it should be available on FE.info sometime next week

And yeah... it certainly does feel good

 

[Gatos]

And yeah... it certainly does feel good

Congrats! I'm looking forward to watching your edit. I can only imagine how much of a pain it was, watching and rewatching to check for any glitches in the edit but its great that you were able to power through and present the most polished final product you could make. Looks like I will have to buy Quantum of Solace in anticipation of your upcoming Bond edit!

 

[LastSurvivor]

Congrats! I'm looking forward to watching your edit. I can only imagine how much of a pain it was, watching and rewatching to check for any glitches in the edit but its great that you were able to power through and present the most polished final product you could make.

Thanks Gatos.

I can't deny that some of it got a little frustrating, but ultimately these technical glitches which made go back and fix the edit time and time again proved to be a blessing in disguise, as whilst fixing those problems I also ended up changing other things which resulted in a better final edit. So, I think I learnt to embrace problems during the edit on Smallville Destiny

Looks like I will have to buy Quantum of Solace in anticipation of your upcoming Bond edit!

Nice one. It's funny, because when I first saw Quantum I pretty much hated it. However, having seen it a few times now whilst editing I've warmed to it a lot more. Hopefully my edit will improve things a little

 

[bionicbob]

A Review of Smallville Destiny

As anyone who follows the TV Shows Threads knows, I am a HUGE Smallville fan!
But more over, I am a lover of all things Superman.
My comic book collection is overflowing. I grew up watching George Reeves weekday mornings before school in the 70s, I was in theatre seats for all the Chris Reeve movies, I loved the late 80's Superboy series, enjoyed LOIS & CLARK in the 90's and have been a devoted follower of Smallville these past 10 seasons. Thus, when Last Survivor announced his Smallville project, I was very curious.
The timing could not have been better. With Smallville ending it's series run later this year, it felt right to go back to the very beginnings of the series and relive the genesis of this generations' Superman.

First off, I will get the basic technical stuff out of the way. The dvd menu design is simple, functional and to the point. Just the way I prefer it. The editor provides a nice summary of his intentions as a bonus feature, along with his two trailers. All very clean and nice.

I watched this edit on my good old 56inch rear projection tv (yep, still no widescreen tv for me yet) and the images and colours were clear and sharp. I listened to the movie through my stereo system and the quality was very good, never had to adjust the sound while watching.

While watching I did not notice any significant interlacing, flash frames or fluctuating video quality. I did observed the widescreen matte would sometimes change from normal black to a dark grey briefly. Considering the source material and type of edit this is, most the of audio and scene transisitions work very well. There were a couple I thought could be smoothed out slightly more, but for the most part, I was really impressed. There are a few scenes which are obviously cut and/or restructured, but they were not a significant distraction for me.

I really liked the new music choices for this story. The score used for the opening and closings for Parts 1 and 2, pefectly capture the lyrical quality you want for this type of epic edit. The new opening credits and score, was extremely impressive. It paid a nice tribute to the comic book origins of the material, while maintaining a modern dramatic style. Well done.

So on the tech side, I think this is a very well constructed and executed edit. It shows great skills and great promise.
I would give the tech stuff a solid 8 out of 10.

Now we move into the subjective stuff---narrative choices made by the editor, viewer accessibility and overall entertainment value.

As already outlined by Last Survivor, he has taken season one and the season two opener, removed all the Freak of the Week plotlines, and focused solely on the lives of the main characters of Smallville, the Kents, the Luthors and their supporting entourage.

I was skeptical when I first read this, really wondering how well the season long "B" and "C" storylines would hold up. As my memory is stained with the many horrible and repetitive freak villains that ruled through season one. Happily, the subplots of the daily struggles of young Clark and his friends and family work really well. Which is a testament to the strong writing team of the first season and the wonderfully engaging cast of actors.

That said, this edit definitely does not flow like a feature film. It is very, very episodic in nature, filled with teen angst, and soap opera twists. This is particularly evident in Part 1 of the edit, where all the various plot lines seem random and disjointed. However, in Part 2 most of these threads quickly come together, forming a mostly coherant tapestry, and a satisfiying conclusion.

As a long time Smallville watcher, I found the 4 plus hour movie experience to be a fun nostalgia ride. I enjoyed revisiting many of these storylines. But what would someone unfamilar with the Smallville series think?

They may find the edit a bit too long, I think another 20-25 minutes could have been eliminated. There were some story bits I thought could have been cut to keep the story moving faster and more focused. Such as the "adoption' bit from Part 1 and the "nanny" bit from Part 2. But these are minor things.
If there is one potential weakness to Last Survivor's edit removal of the Freaks of the Week, it is we the audience don't get many opportunities to see Clark being heroic. They talk about it alot, but we, the audience, don't get to see too much of it. This started to worry me as I watched, but Last Survivor has smartly closed Parts 1 and 2 with a big action piece, thus finally giving the audience a glimpse at the hero Clark is destined to become.

So I think structurely the narrative works and a non-Smallville fan will be engaged and will understand the storyline. Due to the nature of this type of tv edit, not all the storylines are tied up in a neat bow by the time the final credits roll. There are some unresolved threads and cliffhanger elements. But instead of being a destraction or disappointment, they work well as nice tease of things to come. Make sure you watch the entire end credits for a little surprise!

So again, I would give the creative/entertainment elements of this edit a strong 8/10.

I think this is very good first time edit and I whole heartedly APPROVE IT!

So if you are a long time Smallville fan, or have always been curious about the series but have never watched it, I would recommend checking out Last Survivor's SMALLVILLE DESTINY.

THUMBS UP!


EDIT:

 

[emphatic]

I think I'm going to wait until this last season has finished before watching this, but I look forward to it even more after reading this review.

 

[Gatos]

Congrats LastSurvivor on getting approved!

 

[LastSurvivor]

Thanks Gatos... Even I in my wildest expectations never expected it to be approved so quickly so I am mighty pleased. Thanks to BionicBob for such an honest well balanced review, and of course thanks to L8wrtr for approving it thereafter

Bob's comments about the episodic nature still being very present are totally justified. As stated at the start of this thread, this is not meant to represent Smallville:The Movie. That is perhaps for another edit. Also, it could well have been about 25 minutes shorter, but I felt I trimmed as much as I was happy to trim whilst keeping Alfred Gough's and Miles Millar's original vision for the character driven show as ever present as possible. It is also meant to be tie in with the seasons that come thereafter, so in many ways I didn't intend this to be a stand-alone edit. A sequel perhaps??? Maybe, but I have other edits planned first

Thanks again for all your kind comments

 

[Dwight Fry]

Congrast, LastSurvivor! I told you approval would arrive at the speed of lightning. Or should I say "faster than a speeding bullet"?

 

[LastSurvivor]

Yeah, you weren't wrong huh? Thanks Dwight Fry.

Btw, AVI version is all done and dusted as well. Whether it gets released at the same time as the DVD file remains to be seen. Either way however, it won't be long. I would stress that if at all possible do watch it in the DVD DL format to get the best quality out of the edit; but obviously the AVI will be a much quicker and less bandwith heavy way of viewing the edit.

 

[emphatic]

Congrats LastSurvivor on getting approved!

+1

 

[LastSurvivor]

Thanks emphatic... hopefully you won't be disappointed with the finished result

 

[L8wrtr]

DVD and AVI links are available.

Congratulations LS! I know you put in a lot of hard work, and getting that first approval is fantastic, particularly so quickly. You did a great job generating interest and enlisting the community while you worked on it, which I always highly recommend for first-time editors, so truly great job in how you navigated your freshman effort!

 

[BigDamnHero]

Awesome news!!

*starts downloading*

 

[BigDamnHero]

the "Jump to Forum Discussion" link on the front page is broken, just a heads up ;-)

 

[TMBTM]

the "Jump to Forum Discussion" link on the front page is broken, just a heads up ;-)

Thanks, corrected.

 

[LastSurvivor]

Congratulations LS! I know you put in a lot of hard work, and getting that first approval is fantastic, particularly so quickly. You did a great job generating interest and enlisting the community while you worked on it, which I always highly recommend for first-time editors, so truly great job in how you navigated your freshman effort!

Thanks L8wrtr. Much appreciated. It's been a great experience getting to know more and more of the regulars here, and the edit would seriously never have been as good if it wasn't for the assistance of the community. As with any project, there's been headaches to overcome, but I think the finished project is good enough to mean it was all worthwhile. I mean, when I first started I said to myself... "this is a one-off... I will never touch a TV series edit again." Yet now, I am already playing with ideas about a possible sequel (although this will be a few edits down the line!).

That's all really down to people like yourself, BionicBob, DwightFry, Gatos, emphatic, bigdamnhero and everyone else who has shown an interest in the edit. Thanks to you all