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THE NEW WORLD by Terrence Malick is a fictionalised telling of the founding of Jamestown and covers the lives of Pocahontas, John Smith, and John Rolfe. It has been released in three different forms, all available on the 2016 Criterion blu-ray release:
The Extended Cut is by far the best of the three. Entirely new sequences are added and several scenes edited differently, as well as additional voice-overs included and some small changes in the score. The Extended Cut also fills more of the frame filled (EC: 1920 x 816, FC & TC: 1920 x 804, but with vertical letterboxing meaning they're effectively 1916 x 804). However, interestingly enough, the Extended Cut also cut some of the footage and dialogue available in the First Cut and Theatrical Cut. All in all, just under 11 minutes of footage is scattered throughout the First Cut (mostly) and Theatrical Cut (a small amount) that is not present in the Extended Cut. Mostly extended shots, but also a few sequences that were deleted entirely. There are also a couple of instances of alternate footage for the same scenes.
A big issue is that the Extended Cut features a green tinted grade rather than the original grade of the First & Theatrical Cuts. Some screenshots showing this:
(left is Extended Cut, right is First Cut, bottom is Theatrical Cut)
To me, the Extended grade looks quite unnatural compared to the FC/TC.
The First Cut also has, weirdly enough, a ton of single shots at the beginning and end of scenes - which has made syncing the three cuts together very difficult, but is mostly done. The number of differences in cuts between the three cuts is surprisingly high.
So far, virtually all the cuts are done, and about 3/4 of the footage has been synced. The real challenge will be merging the audio tracks. Additionally, I'll have to decide how to best merge the three pieces of footage together (for duplicate footage). Should the First/Theatrical footage be favoured, due to its better colour scheme? Or should Extended footage be regraded to match the FC/TC due to it having more picture? Another issue is that if I use the Extended footage (when FC/TC footage is available), the image will slightly change in dimension between cuts. Although this shouldn't be too much of a problem. You can see the slight difference in dimensions in the screenshots. I'll try out several combinations to see which works best.
- FC: December 2005 - 150 minute cut shown to critics. Called The First Cut on the blu-ray (also called "The Italian Cut" elsewhere).
- TC: January 2006 - 135 minute cut released in most cinemas. Called The Theatrical Cut on the blu-ray.
- EC: October 2008 - 172 minute cut released on DVD. Called The Extended Cut on the blu-ray.
The Extended Cut is by far the best of the three. Entirely new sequences are added and several scenes edited differently, as well as additional voice-overs included and some small changes in the score. The Extended Cut also fills more of the frame filled (EC: 1920 x 816, FC & TC: 1920 x 804, but with vertical letterboxing meaning they're effectively 1916 x 804). However, interestingly enough, the Extended Cut also cut some of the footage and dialogue available in the First Cut and Theatrical Cut. All in all, just under 11 minutes of footage is scattered throughout the First Cut (mostly) and Theatrical Cut (a small amount) that is not present in the Extended Cut. Mostly extended shots, but also a few sequences that were deleted entirely. There are also a couple of instances of alternate footage for the same scenes.
A big issue is that the Extended Cut features a green tinted grade rather than the original grade of the First & Theatrical Cuts. Some screenshots showing this:
To me, the Extended grade looks quite unnatural compared to the FC/TC.
The First Cut also has, weirdly enough, a ton of single shots at the beginning and end of scenes - which has made syncing the three cuts together very difficult, but is mostly done. The number of differences in cuts between the three cuts is surprisingly high.
So far, virtually all the cuts are done, and about 3/4 of the footage has been synced. The real challenge will be merging the audio tracks. Additionally, I'll have to decide how to best merge the three pieces of footage together (for duplicate footage). Should the First/Theatrical footage be favoured, due to its better colour scheme? Or should Extended footage be regraded to match the FC/TC due to it having more picture? Another issue is that if I use the Extended footage (when FC/TC footage is available), the image will slightly change in dimension between cuts. Although this shouldn't be too much of a problem. You can see the slight difference in dimensions in the screenshots. I'll try out several combinations to see which works best.