The Adventures Of Captain Jack Sparrow (Pirates Of The Caribbean Fanedit series)

[TM2YC]

I've got AWE down to 2hrs 23mins (26 minutes removed), with an hour still to edit. But I've also added in a couple of brief deleted moments... The Pearl sailing into Shipwreck-Cove and a little dialogue revealing how Jack and Beckett know each other (A plot thread setup in DMC that was never followed up in the original cut of AWE).

I've managed to get the Shipwreck-Cove sequence down to 7 minutes from over a quarter of an hour. This has been done by minimising redundant discussion, removing Davy Jones visiting Calypso and cutting out Keith Richards' cameo.

'The King of the Brethren Court'???

 

[TM2YC]

Here is my recut of Elizabeth's speech before the final battle. I've tried to capture a smaller scale, more realistic and more emotional speech, rather than the overblown sub-Braveheart feel of the original. IMO Keira Knightley lacked the gravitas to deliver the original.

But in my cut I've played her quavering, slightly weak voice as a strength. She now borrows most of the words from Barbossa's speech and exchanges reasuring glances with Will. He now looks back with pride, encouragement and love. This is the kind of speech that a person of Elizabeth Swann's class and station would give, off the cuff and when all seemed lost... well that's the way I see it anyway (I've possible put too much thought into it ;-)).

The original cut just made me laugh, this version gives me goosebumps. Hope it has the same effect for everyone else. It is also recoloured throughout...

(^ Click Vimeo button to watch in HD)

Here is how the original looked and sounded (Not my upload)...

 

[jerick]

All the work you've been doing on these edits seem really awesome.

I would suggest leaving in "and they will know what we can do" and "Gentlemen". The speech is not very inspiring without "and they will know what we can do" so it seems a bit strange that the others would respond so strongly to the speech without it. And the "Gentlemen" line has the quavering weakness feeling to it that you are trying to bring out in Swan's character. Just one man's opinion. Keep up the good work!

 

[dangermouse]

Good job. that speech was lame. Now it's good. Great audio editing - couldn't hear any cuts!

 

[TM2YC]

All the work you've been doing on these edits seem really awesome.

I would suggest leaving in "and they will know what we can do" and "Gentlemen". The speech is not very inspiring without "and they will know what we can do" so it seems a bit strange that the others would respond so strongly to the speech without it. And the "Gentlemen" line has the quavering weakness feeling to it that you are trying to bring out in Swan's character. Just one man's opinion. Keep up the good work!

Good job. that speech was lame. Now it's good. Great audio editing - couldn't hear any cuts!

Thanks peeps! In my cut there is a slow natural build of emotion IMO. The crowd don't actually cheer at the end of Elizabeth's speech...

... first Wil whispers "Hoist the colours", which ripples through her friends. They then only cheer when Gibbs (Who is inspired by Elizabeth's faultering words, because he knows her since childhood) shouts "Ay... the winds at our backs, that's all we need". Then Elizabeth sees that her friends have taken courage and only then turns round and feels confident enough herself to shout ot "Hoist the colours" to the fleet, then the cheer goes from ship to ship in a larger ripple.

Now it's a group of friends taking courage from each other, Elizabeth just sparks it off.

For me "and they will know what we can do" was the least convincing bit in her whole performance... and the "Gentlemen" line just reminded me of this superb 'Inspirational speech' parody by Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon from 'The Trip'...

 

[dangermouse]

The trip. Fantastic.
Agree totally with your feelings about "gentlemen" and "they know what we can do" really weak. She's not Aragorn!
Are you going to cut her sudden amazing swordsmanship? She suddenly *becomes* Aragorn.

 

[TM2YC]

The trip. Fantastic.
Agree totally with your feelings about "gentlemen" and "they know what we can do" really weak. She's not Aragorn!
Are you going to cut her sudden amazing swordsmanship? She suddenly *becomes* Aragorn.

No I won't be cutting Elizabeth knowing how to handle a sword in DMC and AWE for 5 reasons:

1. she's had a (year long?) relationship with a man who makes swords
2. She says that Will has taught her swordsmanship in the dialogue at least once
3. Knowing the character's personality, she'd have demanded that will teach her his skill with a sword (Not a pun, wink)
4. My focus is to make these films fun... and her duel-wielding cutlasses at the end of DMC is a whole ton of fun
5. Logic has nothing to do with these films anyway, it's crazy swashbuckling nonsense*

* For example, Will and Elizabeth getting married in the middle of a swordfight is totally ludicrous and therefore the best bit in AWE

 

[dangermouse]

ok makes sense. Probably by trimming down the speech her sword antics become more believable. In the original she suddenly became Joan of Arc leading all the dumb men. Yawn. (like Maid Marion in Gladiator - I mean - Robin Hood. No reason whatsoever for her to be at the battle. None at all. it was daft.)

 

[TM2YC]

ok makes sense. Probably by trimming down the speech her sword antics become more believable. In the original she suddenly became Joan of Arc leading all the dumb men. Yawn. (like Maid Marion in Gladiator - I mean - Robin Hood. No reason whatsoever for her to be at the battle. None at all. it was daft.)

Ahhhhh ha! 'Robin Hood' another great idea for a fanedit. Will discuss some thoughts on that one in my Ideas-Thread.

I've taken out a bit more of her shouting throughout the battle but I love when she swings over to the Dutchman to save Jack, and goes toe-to-toe with Jones (I've cut that a bit tighter).

Here is a comparison shot from deep into the battle sequence...



(^ Click to enlarge)

 

[TM2YC]

I've finished editing the Workprint of AWE, I just need to render it. At the moment it's coming in at 2hrs18mins which is a whopping 30mins shorter than the theatrical cut. I'm sure there are a few more trims to be had before it's finished (2hrs10mins woud be nice ;-)).

I haven't even watched it myself yet, so I've no idea if it's a great film/edit or not (I only know it's quicker and shorter!) .

To celebrate, here is an extract from a documentary about Pirates...

 

[theslime]

Aside: I just watched a Mythbusters rerun where they tested the plausibility of the bone-cage swing and climb scene from DMC. Surprisingly, the climbing bit is actually possible, while the swing part got well and truly busted. Fun episode. The more you know (etc)!

 

[TM2YC]

Aside: I just watched a Mythbusters rerun where they tested the plausibility of the bone-cage swing and climb scene from DMC. Surprisingly, the climbing bit is actually possible, while the swing part got well and truly busted. Fun episode. The more you know (etc)!

Will look for that on YouTube ^

Here's the workprint of my 'At World's End' edit...

(Password is the usual one)

Again to keep the upload to a reasonable size this is at a lower resolution than the edit will be released at. Compared to DMC this is quite a heavy edit in terms of number of changes and also removes 30 minutes overall. Here are a few of the more noteable ones...

- Recoloured film throughout
- Hundreds(?) of small trims to up the pace throughout
- Removed unpleasant 4 minute 'Pirate Holocaust' opening scene
- Brought 'Dutchman destroying the fleet' scene forward to open movie
- Removed any bitterness beween Will and Elizabeth
- Governor Swann cut from the film (His ghost remains)
- Journey to and from the Locker is now uninterupted
- Will and Elizabeth arguement cut
- The Locker sequence heavily recoloured with less saturation and a glow filter
- Removed entire 'Jack hallucinating' scene (Plus all scenes of him talking to CGI doubles)
- Heavily cut the Brethren meeting
- Jones' visit to Calypso removed
- Keith Richards removed
- Will's betrayal continuity errors fixed (I hope)
- Elizabeth's speech recut
- Bootstraps attack on Jones recut
- Small alteration to the ending

I'd greatly appreciate feedback anyone cares to give. I want to know...

- Are my edits seemless?
- Do my edits make sense from a story/plot side?
- Is anything unclear without the 30 minutes I've removed?
- Most importantly, can you see anything else that can be removed?*

(* I'd love to cut another 10-20 minutes but I doubt that is possible.)

Thanks all!

 

[TM2YC]

I've been assesing more of the deleted material from DMC and I thought I'd found a nugget of extra dialogue from Will's first meeting with Beckett that would have allowed me to go with this suggestion from Radzinsky;201306...

- Cut the entire scene between Elizabeth and Will in the prison. Instead, transition directly from the meeting between Beckett and Will to the search montage for Jack. We can assume from later scenes that he told her of his mission; we don't need to see it. (time cut: approx 1 min 20)

In the deleted scene, Will talks about Elizabeth being in Jail so it let's us know her location and tells us he is worried for her. I got really excited but then quickly realised one word from the jail scene meant it couldn't be removed... "Tortuga". Without that, we the audience would be baffled as to how she knows exactly where in the Carribean he is likely to be. Her novel escape on the ship and lucky finding of the exact tavern at the exact right time stretches belief as it is. Damn!!!!:x

---

I'm also thinking about more radical ways to end AWE. In the original cut and my version (Plus a few minor trims) it goes like this:

1. Will/Elizabeth last farewell on the beach
2. Jack and Gibbs back in Tortuga discovering the Pearl has been stolen by Barbossa
3. Barbossa onboard the pearl realising Jack has stolen the map to the fountain of youth
4. Jack in a small boat reading the map to the fountain of youth
5. Credits roll
6. Post credits = '10 years later' scene of Will, Elizabeth and son

But I was thinking it could go...

1. Will/Elizabeth last farewell on the beach
Removed -> (2. Jack and Gibbs back in Tortuga discovering the Pearl has been stolen by Barbossa)
3. Barbossa onboard the pearl realising Jack has stolen the map to the fountain of youth
4. Jack in a small boat reading the map to the fountain of youth
5. Credits roll
6. Post credits = '10 years later' scene of Will, Elizabeth and son

^ This has the problem of not explaining what happened to Gibbs, but the rest of that scene has nothing useful or needed. Or maybe...

1. Will/Elizabeth last farewell on the beach
Removed -> (2. Jack and Gibbs back in Tortuga discovering the Pearl has been stolen by Barbossa)
3. Barbossa onboard the pearl realising Jack has stolen the map to the fountain of youth
5. Credits roll
Removed -> (6. '10 years later' scene of Will, Elizabeth and son)
4. Post credits = Jack in a small boat reading the map to the fountain of youth

^ Obviously this is the shortest way to end the film. Would everyone miss finding what happened to Will/Elizabeth in ten years time? (Plus also missing seeing Gibbs wonder off with a couple of prostitutes ).

1. Will/Elizabeth last farewell on the beach
Removed -> (2. Jack and Gibbs back in Tortuga discovering the Pearl has been stolen by Barbossa)
3. Barbossa onboard the pearl realising Jack has stole the map to the fountain of youth
4. Jack in a small boat reading the map to the fountain of youth
6. '10 years later' scene of Will, Elizabeth and son
5. Credits roll
7. Post credits = Maybe a teaser scene trimmed from the start of 'On Stranger Tides' / The funy Post credits dog scene from DMC

^ This would be the most radical way to go, but I worry that cutting ten years into the future pre-credits would feel odd.

Thoughts anybody??

 

[Nic]

Just me speaking, but I would not cut the 10 years later. Theoretically speaking, they're the main characters we want to follow, Jack Sparrow is just the guy who butts in and makes the story fun.

 

[hbenthow]

I'm also doing a colour correction to slightly tone down the aggressive turquoise tint that is present throughout the film that the digital graders have added.

How did you do that? I've tried to do something similar on several movies with similar tinting, but wasn't able to achieve results nearly as good.

 

[TM2YC]

How did you do that? I've tried to do something similar on several movies with similar tinting, but wasn't able to achieve results nearly as good.

For those shots from DMC I left the red as is but took a little blue and the same ammount of green out. What are these "several movies with similar tinting" you mentioned. I could have a look.

Additional: I had a go at Captain America in your thread...

 

[hbenthow]

For those shots from DMC I left the red as is but took a little blue and the same ammount of green out. What are these "several movies with similar tinting" you mentioned. I could have a look.

Some scenes from the second two "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies, and some of the tinted night scenes in Peter Jackson's "King Kong" are a few examples.

The movie I'm most interesting in de-tinting at the present is "Captain America: The First Avenger", in which most of the scenes are tinted, a few with a heavy bluish tint. Some examples:

http://caps.katesque.com/capsgallery/albums/movies/cafta/CATFA-75441.png

http://caps.katesque.com/capsgallery/albums/movies/cafta/CATFA-97921.png

http://caps.katesque.com/capsgallery/albums/movies/cafta/CATFA-100921.png

 

[TM2YC]

Just me speaking, but I would not cut the 10 years later. Theoretically speaking, they're the main characters we want to follow, Jack Sparrow is just the guy who butts in and makes the story fun.

Yes you're probably right, I was just being greedy and trying to cut too much. Probably gonna go with this ending to AWE:

1. Will/Elizabeth last farewell on the beach
Removed -> (2. Jack and Gibbs back in Tortuga discovering the Pearl has been stolen by Barbossa)
3. Barbossa onboard the pearl realising Jack has stolen the map to the fountain of youth
4. Jack in a small boat reading the map to the fountain of youth
5. Credits roll
6. Post credits = '10 years later' scene of Will, Elizabeth and son

^ Anybody think it would be weird if we were left wondering what ever happened to Gibbs? (Now's the time to speak up ;-)) Or would that make Jack's rescue of Gibbs in the opening scene of POTC4 more fun? Maybe it would imply that Barbossa chucked him the brig and turned him over to the authorities once they got back to England?

---

I'm making the finishing touches to DMC now that I've got AWE 95% locked down (Again, speak up if you've got any last minute suggestions).

I added back a brief verbal exchange between Elizabeth and her father after he breaks her out of jail and I've trimmed the end of the scene where Beckett gets Gov. Swann's coperation. So now the last we see of him alive (Before we see his ghost in the underworld during AWE) is him in chains with Beckett telling him he's going to kill Elizabeth.

I really wanted to remove this scene completely to keep the pace up, as per Radzinsky's suggestion...

- Remove the scene of Beckett's extortion of Elizabeth's father (time cut approx 30 secs). This will further simplify the plot.

...but after much thinking, I concluded that we need to see Beckett in the middle of the film, to keep him a threat plus it now ends on an darker note for Gov. Swann's character.

 

[TM2YC]

I'm preparing the DVD of 'The Heart Of Davy Jones' as I type . Should be released this weekend and here is the cover...



(^ Click to enlarge)

I'm also working on the cover for AWE...

...all the covers are going to match;-)

 

[Neglify]

Another badass cover!