Spiderman 3: No Sandman edition

[eldiablosuizo]

What's the fade to black in the first 10 minutes? I'll take it out if distracting, but I honestly can't remember putting it in - could be in the original? Could you give me the timestamp and I'll check it out.
When you speak of the "re-edited first 10 minutes" - do you mean the first 10 minutes of the fight, or first 10 minutes of the movie?

Because I didn't touch the first 10 minutes at all. :smile: My first cut comes exactly at 10 minutes.
Also re crossfades. Yup - I tried to minimize this, but sometimes the hard cuts were just way too hard. The movie also has a fair number of crossfades, which tells me that they were also struggling with editing a lumpy and spotty story.

Okay, maybe you didn't touch the last ten minutes, but the fade to black occurs at minute 10 when Peter goes to Aunt May. Well, maybe it's not a fade to black, but fade through black. But, whatever, still a fantastic edit.

Also, the crossfade of defeating Venom at the end to Peter descending to cry at the feet of dying Harry is kind of cumbersome. There needs to be a couple more seconds of breathing space, but, if it doesn't exist, then whatever. Again, still a fantastic edit.

Did I say it was a fantastic edit?

 

[AvP]

the zip file will not extract.

 

[dangermouse]

To extract the zipfile you have to use 7zip, as it zips split archives in what appears to be a proporietary way, and no other archive utility can unzip them. DOH!
7zip is free, though...

When I've got a better quality AVI I'll upload it without using 7zip!
I've been playing around with "SUPER" but haven't got anything particularly good yet (video still very noisy during action).

 

[dangermouse]

What's the fade to black in the first 10 minutes? I'll take it out if distracting, but I honestly can't remember putting it in - could be in the original? Could you give me the timestamp and I'll check it out.
When you speak of the "re-edited first 10 minutes" - do you mean the first 10 minutes of the fight, or first 10 minutes of the movie?

Because I didn't touch the first 10 minutes at all. :smile: My first cut comes exactly at 10 minutes.
Also re crossfades. Yup - I tried to minimize this, but sometimes the hard cuts were just way too hard. The movie also has a fair number of crossfades, which tells me that they were also struggling with editing a lumpy and spotty story.

Okay, maybe you didn't touch the last ten minutes, but the fade to black occurs at minute 10 when Peter goes to Aunt May. Well, maybe it's not a fade to black, but fade through black. But, whatever, still a fantastic edit.

Also, the crossfade of defeating Venom at the end to Peter descending to cry at the feet of dying Harry is kind of cumbersome. There needs to be a couple more seconds of breathing space, but, if it doesn't exist, then whatever. Again, still a fantastic edit.

Did I say it was a fantastic edit?

Thanks for the encouragement. Yes, the fade through black to Aunt May is mine. I struggled a fair bit with that transition, but I'll take another look....
Yes, I also wanted a few more "beats" after venom. Problem I have is the music....
But I also think he wouldn't wait for too long to find out what happened to Harry. I always hated in the original that he sat around for ages talking to Sandman while his BEST FRIEND WAS DYING AFTER SAVING HIS LIFE!! :lol:

 

[AvP]

Please dont do this on the DVD it looks ugly and amateurish. on another note i think you need to use better encoders it does get patchy in areas,this really needs to go back into the works.

 

[Ziz]

While I can't say it makes for interesting viewing by enduring an hour of poor filmmaking to get to an incredible last 30 minutes, I implore people to seek out this edit just to see how superfluous Sandman really is. While I'm not entirely sure I agree with cutting the fight between black suit Spidey and Sandman, this is the no Sandman edition, and it works for the most part. Also, I was sad to see black suit Spidey be in what seemed to amount to ten minutes, but, since nothing else served the story, it was gone.

I know you're trying to make this the "No Sandman Edition", but what about doing it as the "Less Sandman Edition"?

Lose the "Sandman actually killed your uncle" angle but keep the rest up until Black Suit Spidey kills him in the subway sewer. Call that Sandman's death and lose him from the rest of the film. That way, the first half of the film has Spidey fighting Sandman while the other characters are getting up to speed, then once Sandy is dead, Spidey can deal with Harry and Venom.

 

[dangermouse]

Hey AvP - agreed on both points!
I whacked in the copyright text as an afterthought (fear of the authorities!!) - I'll put a proper thing in on the DVD - in fact, that's the last thing I need to do, apart from tweaking the bitrate.

DVD is 99% complete.
Just need to encode it, package it, and upload it. DVD is a DVD9 (DL) and in PAL format. If you're in NTSC territory - hopefully your DVD player can play them (mine plays NTSC quite happily)!

There are a few changes I made to the DVD, as follows:
Moved fight with Harry back to straight after black suit (cut Dr Connors - phone call has enough exposition)
And date with Gwen after Brock (steals his girl as well!)
Reinserted "i need your help" with Harry
Cut straight from "you came" "Just in time" to MJ scream
Fixed 2 music jumps in flight after MJ
Bigger scream from Venom to make Spidey turn round after convo with MJ and video zoomed in on turn to avoid Spidey standing on his own (the amazing disappearing MJ :grin: )
Made Harry's jump to save Peter a little less telegraphed (just one edit makes all the difference)
Removed unnecessary crossfade after Venom's death

These cuts improve the film greatly.

This is the FINAL CUT. I watched it this evening, and thoroughly enjoyed it. This is the cut of Spiderman 3 that will be on my DVD shelf, which was my motivation for this fanedit!

@ziz: It's no sandman not because I don't like him or his execution (which I do), but because he adds NOTHING to the storyline. Nothing. at. all. And editing is all about driving the story forward. So he goes. Otherwise he's just some random bad guy - and I think sandman deserves better than just "random bad guy".
But watch it and make up your own mind! - but I'd recommend waiting for the DVD (or an MP4 where I've figured out how to get the encoder to play ball!)

 

[eldiablosuizo]

Ziz does raise the point of the extremely blocky video. I'm assuming this will be repaired for the DVD release, yes?

 

[zeppelinrox]

For really good quality, don't use Super.
Yes, it's easy to use, but you can't really tweak any settings at all.

If you try MediaCoder, which is free and fantastic (with forum support as well), copy the code below into notepad and save as an .xml file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<MediaCoderPrefs><node key="overall.ui.mode" value="Advanced"/><node key="overall.ui.optionTab" value="1"/><node key="overall.ui.param" value="1288,1000,-4,-4"/><node key="overall.audio.encoder" value="FFmpeg"/><node key="overall.video.mode" value="Two-Pass"/><node key="overall.video.bitrate" value="1900"/><node key="overall.video.format" value="XviD"/><node key="overall.video.source" value="MPlayer"/><node key="overall.video.autoEncoder" value="false"/><node key="overall.video.encoder" value="FFmpeg"/><node key="overall.container.format" value="AVI"/><node key="overall.playback.render" value="false"/><node key="audioenc.lame.quality" value="2"/><node key="audioenc.lame.mode" value="VBR"/><node key="audioenc.faac.quality" value="128"/><node key="audioenc.ffmpeg.codec" value="AC3"/><node key="audioenc.ffmpeg.bitrate" value="160"/><node key="videoenc.xvid.profile" value="Simple Profile Level 3"/><node key="videofilter.scale.width" value="320"/><node key="videofilter.scale.height" value="240"/><node key="videofilter.frame.fps" value="15"/></MediaCoderPrefs

Then in MediaCoder, click on the File menu, click Load Preset and find the xml file that you just created.
Those settings will give you a 2-pass xvid/avi file with a 1900 kbps bitrate for video and Dolby AC3 48000Hz stereo 160Kbps for audio
You can tweak or change those settings as you like, but the resulting file with those settings play just fine in VLC or Media Player Classic.

I decided to post the settings here instead of PM because somebody else may find the info useful as well.

 

[dangermouse]

@zepplinrox you're a legend. I'll try that tomorrow!

@eldiablosuizo yes, no big blockiness in DVD release

 

[Ziz]

@ziz: It's no sandman not because I don't like him or his execution (which I do), but because he adds NOTHING to the storyline. Nothing. at. all. And editing is all about driving the story forward. So he goes. Otherwise he's just some random bad guy - and I think sandman deserves better than just "random bad guy".
But watch it and make up your own mind! - but I'd recommend waiting for the DVD (or an MP4 where I've figured out how to get the encoder to play ball!)

Granted, it's your edit to do with as you wish. I just noted that eldiablo mentioned about the lack of Black Suit Spidey and figured that restoring Sandman up to the point of his death in the sewer (minus the Uncle Ben connection) would also restore more of the black suit to the film, thereby giving Venom's emergence more substance.

 

[dangermouse]

@ziz: It's no sandman not because I don't like him or his execution (which I do), but because he adds NOTHING to the storyline. Nothing. at. all. And editing is all about driving the story forward. So he goes. Otherwise he's just some random bad guy - and I think sandman deserves better than just "random bad guy".
But watch it and make up your own mind! - but I'd recommend waiting for the DVD (or an MP4 where I've figured out how to get the encoder to play ball!)

Granted, it's your edit to do with as you wish. I just noted that eldiablo mentioned about the lack of Black Suit Spidey and figured that restoring Sandman up to the point of his death in the sewer (minus the Uncle Ben connection) would also restore more of the black suit to the film, thereby giving Venom's emergence more substance.

I think in "Act 2" Venom's real punch is Pete's slide into darkness rather than the black suit Spidey. But there's nothing stopping you from editing him back in, using my edit as a basis!

 

[dangermouse]

MP4 files removed due to poor quality.
DVD5 files being uploaded as I type.... should be finished sometime tomorrow....!

Here's a teaser - the final fight (without sandman!)
[youtube:17u2gk5y]

 

[eldiablosuizo]

Okay, so the links are up for the DVD, but it's in PAL. Is an NTSC possible at all?

 

[AvP]

Okay, so the links are up for the DVD, but it's in PAL. Is an NTSC possible at all?

Im working on a NTSC conversion

 

[eldiablosuizo]

Thank you very much, then.

 

[Gieferg]

About the fight - Well done, there is almost no sign that something's missing (only Spidey's mask but it's no big deal), but, on the other hand, now it looks like really weak final fight. I think that sandman was completely unnecessary in this movie, but I dont think that fanedit can fix it unfortunately. Without him movie lacks good action and...Spidey (in costume i mean), of course there are still Harry Vs Peter fights but they are...Harry Vs Peter, not Spider-Man. So what we have now is Gwen falling scene, and final fight and...that's it? No more spider-man action?

Nice try anyway.

 

[Hymie]

Having watched the ending fight clip, it looks like you did a great job. I didn't even see a problem with Spidey's mask, so I think you did a pretty good job. As for the edit as a whole, good luck but I have no real interest in it. As I said earlier, I think the only way to keep this feel tolerable is to keep the Sandman stuff prior to the him being killed. Having black-suited Spidey kill him was the only evil thing Peter really did besides hitting MJ (not that I can really argue with that, as she needed a good smacking ) and it also helped to actually have action in the action movie. Without these prior action scenes with the Sandman, it just becomes a boring drama that's poorly acted and that has some atrocious CGI (whoever approved all the midair fighting scenes needs his/her eyes checked).

Good luck with your edit, but I won't be checking it out beyond the preview you just posted.

 

[Gaith]

Impressive! One would never have known there was a Sandman or anyone else from that clip.

 

[dangermouse]

Okay, so the links are up for the DVD, but it's in PAL. Is an NTSC possible at all?

Im working on a NTSC conversion

Cool bananas...
But can't NTSC players automatically play PAL? My 6-year-old PAL DVD plays NTSC flawlessly - or is it because NTSC to PAL is more info to less, whereas PAL to NTSC is trying to create more "info" (4 extra frames) out of less?