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"The Thing" from 1951

Phase 1 of titles complete: Spend an hour or two recreating a clean version of the 1950s Universal logo text in 4K down to a level of pixel accuracy that I'm happy with :D . Time well spent.

50280141657_ad63980d59_h.jpg
 
Wow! That's a lot of work for one layer. Looks great though.
 
Just bumping this. Anyone have any thoughts? 

After sitting on it I'm thinking of trying to:
  • Crop the shot of the thing squirting goo after being shot, so that the squirting/bleeding isn't seen
  • see if I can loop part of the first flamethrower shot, so as to extend it and keep it from being so quickfire. 
  • re-score the end panning shot (unfortunately I think it sounds too noticeably polished compared to what's come before)
Then moving on to other parts for the time being. Let me know if anything else could do with tweaking.
 
The Scribbling Man said:
Just bumping this. Anyone have any thoughts?
Click to expand...

It all looks/sounds good to me. Love the added alien vision.
 
Ok, so I'm just looking at THAT scene... yeah, you know. That scene - man, is it grim, and the black and white robs The Thing of its otherworldy coloured flesh, so actually makes it look even more horrifying! This kills off two characters, so the scene has to stay (its iconic anyway, so would be a huge shame to cut entirely), but I'm not 100% on how to tone it down enough.

So far I:
  • Cut away so you don't see the jaws sever the doctors arms.
  • Cut the wide shot showing the armless doctor wriggling around
  • Show the head/neck stretching, but cut away before the flesh starts tearing.
  • Now here's where I'm stuck:

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So the main thing I'm really uncertain of here, is how to communicate that the head has come off... without showing the head coming off. I think the head stretching is fine as long as I cut away before the skin splits, and the spider head is disturbing, but not gory. But inbetween that, when the severed head is dropping to the ground and dragging itself around.... I just don't know. Any tips?

My first thought was trying to adjust the lighting to make it more silhouetted, but I've been playing around with that and I'm not convinced I can make it look good.
 
The Scribbling Man said:
So the main thing I'm really uncertain of here, is how to communicate that the head has come off... without showing the head coming off. I think the head stretching is fine as long as I cut away before the skin splits, and the spider head is disturbing, but not gory. But inbetween that, when the severed head is dropping to the ground and dragging itself around.... I just don't know. Any tips?

My first thought was trying to adjust the lighting to make it more silhouetted, but I've been playing around with that and I'm not convinced I can make it look good.
Click to expand...

In an ideal 1950's film, it could be (not) shown by cutting to an actor, but preferably an actress, who eyes slowly widen and then lets out a scream as a wet rag type sound effect is heard plopping on the ground. But I'm not sure that you have any reaction footage that works like that in the original film.

Another way would be making a blurry silhouette of a foreground element (that is obviously but not explicitly in the shape of the head) and then show a wide shot in the background from a low angle - again I am not sure what you have to work with.
 
iridium_ionizer said:
I am not sure what you have to work with.
Click to expand...

Not a lot! No women in the film, no convenient reaction shots. One guy present in this particular moment, and focused on another part of "The Thing" and unaware that the head is creeping away...

This is the original scene:

 
Been super tired and super busy lately, and when I've had time to edit I've just had zero brainpower. Managed to take a crack this evening though. 

Here's one of the less "fun" scenes. Main changes:
 
  • Reframed in 4:3 
  • Black and White
  • Mono
  • All "cursing" cut.
  • "freeze-frame" fade changed to normal fade

I took an experimental approach to cutting one word of dialogue, so I'm interested to see if it works for people.
 
Works well for me. I didn't notice any cuts.
 
The first 40 or so minutes of this have been re-framed, along with a few other odd scenes here and there. Spent some time today also reworking SFX for the opening of the film so as to dodge the synth. Uncertain whether to replace the music currently or leave it unscored. Will try and upload an example in the near future.
 
Is it possible to re-use the score from The Thing From Another World?
 
asterixsmeagol said:
Is it possible to re-use the score from The Thing From Another World?
Click to expand...

I am using some of it for the edit, but I was speaking more in reference to this scene specifically (timecode 2:55 - 
)

This is coming off the back of the opening credits, where I've used the same theme as TTFAW. 

Not sure what would be a fitting "50's-esque" replacement for intermittent synth bass. I wouldn't want anything too dramatic I don't think, especially having just had the theme.
 
Maybe some therein as a more time-appropriate synth?
 
femur design online theremin. Not sure if it has a record function, but you could record it with a mic + audacity or something, try recording a spooky bass tone and add another theremin sound ontop by multi tracking, use reverb and or echo to make it more spacey if needed. Maybe add an am radio effect, or cut the highs and lows back, if it seems too crisp sounding.

ETA: also vibrato and or tremolo effects will give it the 50s sci fi sound.
 
Thanks for the tips. Theremin is a good shout, and there's plenty of it around in soundtracks from that era! I'm going to avoid creating my own music where possible though, as it'll be harder to sell as genuine. Whereas picking from older scores comes with a lot of the work already done - no need to degrade the audio or anything. 

I've literally just finished rebuilding the audio for the entire opening sequence, so I will upload that shortly so people can see how it works with no music (following on from the credits). In the meantime I will have a snoop around some of the old scores I've acquired for something apt.
 
Okey, here is the opening credits (minus TM2YC's pending titles) which moves into the opening scene, with sound effects completely rebuilt. It is a bit of a patchwork. I was able to pull some of the helicopter sounds from later on when there is no score, but I still had to mix out some synth and merge it with other similar samples. Similar with the gunshots, although the only shot I could salvage was one that was immediately followed by the Norwegian shouting, so I merged that with some other samples to complete the sound. I made a couple of versions to vary it. Everything else, such as dog panting, footsteps, wind etc. are new FX. 


This is the scoreless version, so there is no music once the opening theme subsides. However, I will be uploading an alternate version which indeed features a bit of theremin.
 
...and here is the alt. version with some scoring. It's very subtle, but I think it works. 

I also tweaked some of the framing. Watching it back a million times made me second guess some choices. 

 
After watching the first draft I thought it didn't need music. Then I watched the second and you nailed it. Great work!
 
The Scribbling Man said:
Okey, here is the opening credits (minus TM2YC's pending titles)
Click to expand...

If you are getting anywhere near finished and I need to hurry up, then please tell me to hurry up.
 
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