Dawn Of The Dead Composite Edit

[See No Evil]

Hi all,

I'm working on DOTD composite edit with the Argento, Extended & Theatrical cuts & Document Of The Dead DVD's as source material. I've been working on it since friday (25th May) and am about 32mins in. Has anyone else on this forum tried/done this? is there anywhere else I should be looking for extra footage?

[fartpants]

lets hope you post it here when your done, sounds good...

[acealive1]

Brilliant!

[EvilNed]

Brilliant!


I just can't stop thinking of that beer commercial whenever someone says that...

[DjfunkmasterG]

There is a bootleg german release that has footage I have never seen, but I dunno if it is in 16:9 WS.

Please whatever you do please make sure when you export this it is 16:9 enhanced. Nothing more annoying that watching a 4:3 letterboxed film on a 16:9 TV.

[See No Evil]

Yes it will be in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen.

Has anyone here got the dutch filmworks 2 disc DVD (with the argento & extended versions)? I really liked the DVD menu look on that & wanted to use the same look for my composite edit DVD menu but i only have the 3 DVD ultimate box set. if anyone has & can capture pictures of the main menus & such from both DVDs and e-mail them to me as BMP files, please PM me.

Also a quick poll, the audio track untouched is quite jarring cutting from one version to another, especially if theres music in the background. I'll be re-mixing the audio, but would anyone really like to get the original untouched audio as a 2nd audio track?

[Philly_SWAT]

but would anyone really like to get the original untouched audio as a 2nd audio track?
Most sane people would not want such a track. Insane people however, such as myself and most HPOTD members, would likely enjoy and and all tidbits, and and all new/different ideas related to Dawn. If such an original audio track existed, I know for a fact that I would watch it like that, even if only once.

[acealive1]

I just can't stop thinking of that beer commercial whenever someone says that...


LOL thats why i said it. i love the one where the idiot has limberger on his head.......standing in front of my hometown l.a. coliseum. BRILLIANT!

[panic]

What DVD creation/editing package are you using?


Yes it will be in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen.

Has anyone here got the dutch filmworks 2 disc DVD (with the argento & extended versions)? I really liked the DVD menu look on that & wanted to use the same look for my composite edit DVD menu but i only have the 3 DVD ultimate box set. if anyone has & can capture pictures of the main menus & such from both DVDs and e-mail them to me as BMP files, please PM me.

Also a quick poll, the audio track untouched is quite jarring cutting from one version to another, especially if theres music in the background. I'll be re-mixing the audio, but would anyone really like to get the original untouched audio as a 2nd audio track?

[Cody]

damn DJ you just straight layed out whats up

[See No Evil]

What DVD creation/editing package are you using?

Adobe Premiere to edit & Either Sonic Sonarist or DVD maestro for the DVD layout/menus

[Griff]

is there anywhere else I should be looking for extra footage?

One of the trailers, the German one perhaps, has an additional shot of the smouldering car in the field (from within the helicopter, I believe) that's not present in any version. Other than that, the extended and European versions should be all you need.

Good luck with the project and good luck for when you get to the biker sequence. This is proabably where things are gonna get most intense for you.

And be sure to let these (http://www.originaltrilogy.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=11&threadid=6221&STARTPAGE=1) guys know about your efforts!

[darth los]

LOL thats why i said it. i love the one where the idiot has limberger on his head.......standing in front of my hometown l.a. coliseum. BRILLIANT!




Brilliant!!


http://theomelet.com/media/1/20051005-guinness.png

[acealive1]

Brilliant!!


http://theomelet.com/media/1/20051005-guinness.png


how about some hot wings *catches on fire*

[Cody]

BRILLIANT. doesnt someone from day do that beer commercial?

[darth los]

I have no idea and don't really care. I do know that Guinness commercial is pure gold.

[darth los]

You'd think that with the rabid following this film has worldwide that some fans would get together and make this thing a reality. You think that they'd get sued though? :confused:

[See No Evil]

Just to keep you all updated, I've finished the video editing, and now just need to
work through cleaning up the audio. As it stands, my version comes in about 40 or
so seconds longer than the german 'Ultimate Final Cut' DVD. Below you can see the
(probably) finished DVD cover I designed.


http://img29.picoodle.com/img/img29/8/6/23/f_DOTDDVDCovem_662e830.jpg

[MinionZombie]

Cor blimey, ultimate-ultimate cut then eh? Sounds good, Sir.

Speaking of Dawn, I'm currently in the midst of watching the Extended Cut again. :)

[darth los]

Great stuff. Okay let's get down to business, stop playing games. How much!?! :D

[acealive1]

HOW MUCH?!?! how bout we send him $3 and a blank dvd :D

[darth los]

That sounds about right. :)

[acealive1]

only seems fair cuz we're not really paying for the movie :sneaky:

[darth los]

He must be rewarded for the gruntwork though. " if there's no reward then there's just no use for it, there's just no use for it at all."

[acealive1]

im thinkin of the legal possibilities....... we'd all be crapcanned

[See No Evil]

I'll be releasing this & sharing over bittorrent, the cover will be included in that. I wouldn't; but I'd be on very shakey ground if I was to start selling these.

[acealive1]

bit torrent?!?! oh the pixelations!!! :(

[sandrock74]

This sounds cool! I have never seen any of these other cuts, only read about them! I can't wait to see this.

[capncnut]

This will be interesting to see as I have the Krekel German cut and the recent dvd quality, English language mastercut which is 156 mins approximately.

[darth los]

This will be interesting to see as I have the Krekel German cut and the recent dvd quality, English language mastercut which is 156 mins approximately.

Be sure to post a review please. :)

[CapnRhodes]

Could you please put it on rapidshare or megaupload or something?

[capncnut]

As it stands, my version comes in about 40 or so seconds longer than the german 'Ultimate Final Cut' DVD.
Okay, so what exactly does this bring to the table that differs from the Krekel Ultimate Cut or any one of the 'fan cuts'? I have an English language version that comes in at 156 mins, 34 seconds. What is the exact running time of your version? What scenes don't I have and what have you done with it audiowise? For example, have you stuck to a single piece of music to play over an extended scene or have you just carefully morphed in the audio from each version?

[See No Evil]

The Krekel Ultimate Cut comes in at 155mins 17secs 5frames (when you take off the ending company ident) My version is 156mins 2secs 14frames.

I havent compared both versions side by side yet, i havent even finished editing the audio for that matter, so i wouldnt know if i have anything extra or it could even just be down to a slight speed discrepancy between the two versions from the film to DVD transfer process (or three versions if you have one running slightly longer). Equally i wouldn't know what scenes you did/didn't have. If you have a different version it would be handy if i could trade you for a copy?

With regards to the audio, I'm staying with complete tracks as opposed to blending between them at edits. I'm using some tracks from the extended version and some from the argento version, it just depends on what i have to work with, what would be easiest to edit and what tracks i like.

[capncnut]

The Krekel Ultimate Cut comes in at 155mins 17secs 5frames (when you take off the ending company ident) My version is 156mins 2secs 14frames.
The 156 minute running time on Krekel Ultimate Cut was down to it being originally released on VHS. For some reason, it just came in at a bit longer.


With regards to the audio, I'm staying with complete tracks as opposed to blending between them at edits. I'm using some tracks from the extended version and some from the argento version, it just depends on what i have to work with, what would be easiest to edit and what tracks i like.
Now that's what I call interesting, I have a couple of 'fan cuts', one comes in at 155 mins and the other at 156. On the latter, there's a 'company' logo at the beginning of the movie and at the end (when the clock strikes one) it cuts to a small moving animation of the Dawn logo which was used in one of the trailers. Maybe that's why it makes up a slightly longer running time. The version that the BBC use for television screenings also has this animation at the end, which is strange because it's not a part of the three versions commercially released.

But I think this 156 min version has everything included but unlike yours, it has a slightly awkward soundtrack because it (very professionally) cuts back and forth between the versions. It's well done but I would love to see a version where it sticks to one musical piece as opposed to the two. I also said elsewhere that there are one or two sequences in this version that are reprised because of some quick cutting in Argento's version: a quick shot of Franny on the stairs, some TV dialogue and a few zombie shots during the biker raid. It all adds up to about 4 seconds in total (I know, how pathetic am I?) but I would like to see these removed so it's a perfect cut as opposed to ultimate.

Somebody else mentioned about a shot in one of the European trailers that wasn't available on any version of the film. It would be interesting to see this small piece added too. But yeah, you have me intrigued, let me know how the audio process works for you. I would be happy to trade/pay for a DVD of the finished result.

[twistbud]

Where can one find a couple of "fan cuts"? Until this one is released. :)

[MikePizzoff]

I've never seen any cut other than the official three. I'm pretty excited on seeing this one.

[MinionZombie]

The version that the BBC use for television screenings also has this animation at the end, which is strange because it's not a part of the three versions commercially released.

Aye I noticed this a few years ago when BBC2 played Dawn of the Dead. I already had the video at that stage, but I recorded it just because I couldn't believe Dawn of the Dead was on BBC2. :lol:

But I saw that logo at the end and was like "wtf? where did that come from?!"

I also recorded it at the time to have a quick squizz and see what they cut out - evidently (at the time I saw it on TV anyway) - quite a lot.

Not that long ago (last year I think), Dawn of the Dead was shown on BBC1, now that I was surprised at. I thought BBC1 was too poncy for such a film, evidently not. :) By which I mean, I thought they would have been too scared of showing it, all the gore is quite hard for BBC1, which is usually a channel for tamer and more mainstream fare.

Dawn of the Dead ROCKS! :cool:

[capncnut]

But I saw that logo at the end and was like "wtf? where did that come from?!"
Yeah, freaked the hell out of me also. I think maybe the BBC took it from the trailer directly and put it on the end as the cut to black with the clock chime is pretty lengthy (maybe 10 seconds), so viewers don;t have to look at a black screen. Or something.


Not that long ago (last year I think), Dawn of the Dead was shown on BBC1, now that I was surprised at. I thought BBC1 was too poncy for such a film, evidently not. :)
Yeah, the last time BBC1 showed it, it was completely uncut. And it started at 10.45pm, which surprised me immensely.


Where can one find a couple of "fan cuts"? Until this one is released.
It's all who you know. ;)

[Phildogger]

Well, is it ready yet? LOL!

Eagerly awaiting the BT link...

[DeadMikey]

Hello,

First time here and am glad I found this topic. I just recently purchased the Dario Argento version and was so psyched! I tried making my own cut on VHS a few years back, but it just wasn't working out. I hope you can provide a list of the changes made when this is ready... Just as an FYI, here is what I WAS looking for in this version and found dissapointing.

Love the origonal Romero beginning as is, with his creepy music, up until they get the helicopter.

(Glad they removed the dopey cop. Not glad that they removed the Hillbilly hunting scene music. Also VERY dissapointed in the removal of the helicopter cutting the head off the zombie).

After that, I think the Argento version rocks and doesn't need really any messing with as far as I can tell. Glad that he got rid of the goofiness at this point and the terrible music. Like I said, the origonal music, at the beginning of the film, is fine and creepy as it was, but the ending needed to get rid of that really bad heroic music and mall muzak. Also, I feel that the extended edition just spends WAY too much time "hanging around in the mall."

My 2 cents, and would be very interested in knowing what you have planned compared to my concept, as well as any other comments from others. Sorry if this has been gone over before, just curious.

Thanks!

DM

[Yojimbo]

Also a quick poll, the audio track untouched is quite jarring cutting from one version to another, especially if theres music in the background. I'll be re-mixing the audio, but would anyone really like to get the original untouched audio as a 2nd audio track?

Yes, I think this would be worth a listen as a secondary track for reference. Die hards would love this feature.

[Phildogger]

is it ready yet?

[empirefilm]

I have the 156 min German version, which unless I am mistaken, is the longest studio cut available,

[aga]

In my opinion that cut is no more than a fan edit, and they had the help of dubbed audio.

Can't wait for your and CWs edits, the amount of times I've heard of someone giving this a go and giving up is crazy.

[Neil]

Has anyone here got the dutch filmworks 2 disc DVD (with the argento & extended versions)? I really liked the DVD menu look on that & wanted to use the same look for my composite edit DVD menu but i only have the 3 DVD ultimate box set. if anyone has & can capture pictures of the main menus & such from both DVDs and e-mail them to me as BMP files, please PM me.

I might have this, can't remember... Shall I go and look?

[Yojimbo]

Does anyone know the legalities of this project. I know that fair use would allow a person to make their own edit, but distributing it in any way, including for free...does anyone know if this is ok from a legal standpoint.

Not that finding out would stop me from wanting this one, and I want it bad!

[Neil]

Does anyone know the legalities of this project. I know that fair use would allow a person to make their own edit, but distributing it in any way, including for free...does anyone know if this is ok from a legal standpoint.

Not that finding out would stop me from wanting this one, and I want it bad!

I suspect there's various ifs/buts & whens involved with this... But I suspect the upshot is something daft like it's legal to download if you already own a copy....

[MinionZombie]

Well I own it twice, so I'm double-bagged...ready to thrust forth into this huge cut, I'm looking forward to checking it out.

[C5NOTLD]

Does anyone know the legalities of this project. I know that fair use would allow a person to make their own edit, but distributing it in any way, including for free...does anyone know if this is ok from a legal standpoint.

Not that finding out would stop me from wanting this one, and I want it bad!

FYI - It would still be called Copyright Infringement. You don't have to make money off the footage to still be under the copyright infringement laws.
Any type of unauthorized reproduction or distribution is fair game for the attorneys and rights holders.

You could do this with your own footage in your own house. But once you started uploading or selling it or distributing to others that's where the infringement would come in.

[Yojimbo]

FYI - It would still be called Copyright Infringement. You don't have to make money off the footage to still be under the copyright infringement laws.
Any type of unauthorized reproduction or distribution is fair game for the attorneys and rights holders.

You could do this with your own footage in your own house. But once you started uploading or selling it or distributing to others that's where the infringement would come in.

Figured as much, but thanks for the clarification. Still want a copy though, just don't tell anybody.

[See No Evil]

Just thought I'd better put in a new post, at the last one was about 8 months ago. The last work i did on the DOTD composite edit was around the 1st of July. Around that time I got really busy with other things and it got put to one side (that then became quite a long way to one side!) then I had other pet projects that came & went and I didn't come back to it.

So here we are! When I'd left it I had all the video edited and I was going through the audio trying to make that work, I got as far as around 13mins in. The most difficult bit so far was the section from wooley going nuts up to the start of the talk between peter & roger after the swat guy shoots himself. In that section each of the 3 versions has a different backing music and I was switching between them almost shot to shot. In the end i had to rubber band out all the audio, overlay one backing track from the score CD across the whole sequence, then rubber band back in any speech or sound effects i could seperate out enough from their backing tracks so that you wouldn't
notice. Then using a pile of sound effects CDs i had to add in some more of the missing sound effects, copy and paste in some sound effects and bits of background speech from elsewhere in the audio tracks and then add ambience noise to fill it all out. I even had to record myself making zombie noises (!) to use for the sequence when the footless and the female zombie attack in the appartment as it was too quiet to seperate any of the existing
noises from their music backing track. After all that it still needs more work to smooth it out.

And all that after only 13 mins! having done that I think it is do-able, not an impossible task. It'll just take a whole stack of time. At the moment its sitting on my hard drive so I can re-start it whenever I want. I dont mind doing short sections like the one above with longer simpler sections inbetween but if i have to painstakingly work though the the entire 2-1/2 hours doing that I'm not sure it won't go back off to one side again... for a couple of months... very quickly!

[MinionZombie]

Surely the action sequences will be the hardest parts, whereas the slower paced conversational stuff, or the passage of time stuff, will be fine.

Also I guess it depends on how much cutting between different sources of footage there is to do, no doubt there'd be some sections where you'd have not much to do?

Good luck with the edit! :)

[Yojimbo]

Just thought I'd better put in a new post, at the last one was about 8 months ago. The last work i did on the DOTD composite edit was around the 1st of July. Around that time I got really busy with other things and it got put to one side (that then became quite a long way to one side!) then I had other pet projects that came & went and I didn't come back to it.

So here we are! When I'd left it I had all the video edited and I was going through the audio trying to make that work, I got as far as around 13mins in. The most difficult bit so far was the section from wooley going nuts up to the start of the talk between peter & roger after the swat guy shoots himself. In that section each of the 3 versions has a different backing music and I was switching between them almost shot to shot. In the end i had to rubber band out all the audio, overlay one backing track from the score CD across the whole sequence, then rubber band back in any speech or sound effects i could seperate out enough from their backing tracks so that you wouldn't
notice. Then using a pile of sound effects CDs i had to add in some more of the missing sound effects, copy and paste in some sound effects and bits of background speech from elsewhere in the audio tracks and then add ambience noise to fill it all out. I even had to record myself making zombie noises (!) to use for the sequence when the footless and the female zombie attack in the appartment as it was too quiet to seperate any of the existing
noises from their music backing track. After all that it still needs more work to smooth it out.

And all that after only 13 mins! having done that I think it is do-able, not an impossible task. It'll just take a whole stack of time. At the moment its sitting on my hard drive so I can re-start it whenever I want. I dont mind doing short sections like the one above with longer simpler sections inbetween but if i have to painstakingly work though the the entire 2-1/2 hours doing that I'm not sure it won't go back off to one side again... for a couple of months... very quickly!

Dude, you are a rockstar! A lot of folks really want to see this, legal or not, me included.

[Neil]

Dude, you are a rockstar! A lot of folks really want to see this, legal or not, me included.

Agreed :evil:

[thegooddoctor]

is there a German version in fact? i am sure it is out of print and would not work for USA DVD players, right? is it a different version than the "European" cut?

another thing: how will the composite version be available?

AND-this is the 30th anniversary of the film. No Anchor Bay plans to release the definitive (everything) version or some special version of this film? I have the four disc set and recently watched the extended version. I may be slighty off-center, but i am sure some would agree that when I start watching this film two things happen: i want to see more unseen footage added to the film even if it weighs it down artistically and i don't want the film to end.

[capncnut]

is there a German version in fact? i am sure it is out of print and would not work for USA DVD players, right? is it a different version than the "European" cut?
Yup, the Euro cut is 118 mins and the German Krekel cut is 156 mins (38 mins longer than the Euro and 17 mins longer than the extended cut). Essentially, it contains every known shred of footage from all three versions moulded into one very long film.


another thing: how will the composite version be available?
Not in the stores, that's for sure...

[Phildogger]

There is already an excellent version available with all 3 spliced together.

link removed by moderator

Pretty good, I dug it!

Seeing as how I have purchased no less than 11 copies of this movie already, I see no issues with getting this composite print.

[capncnut]

Removed the link for the following reason.


Topics relating to violating copyright law and providing or asking for information on how to obtain material protected by copyright law is strictly forbidden. Topics which infringe this include, but are not limited to:

- Links to, or any information on, sites offering Torrent files, or direct links to torrent files (or similar).
- Links to, or any information on, P2P (Peer to Peer) sharing software. We are aware that many legal files are transferred via P2P software, but we also know that it is mainly used for illegal files; therefore there is a complete carpet ban on these systems.
Just a reminder to say that things like this are probably better off shared by PM or e-mail. ;)

[Bub666]

another thing: how will the composite version be available?

I wish it was available.If it was,I would differently get it.

[sandrock74]

I want to see this thing but the link is always removed or edited before I can see it.

Drat!

[Bub666]

I want to see this thing but the link is always removed or edited before I can see it.

Drat!

I know,it sucks.But rules are rules.:(