Godzilla 1985 - Red Menace Reconstruction 35mm hybrid v1.5 AVAILABLE NOW

[omgitsgodzilla]

Well, the project is moving right along. I'm currently around the 45-minute mark, meaning I'm now more than halfway through the US version, but I've hit a wall with one shot. It takes place at 44:59 in the Monsters HD recording, and shows Godzilla walking in profile, close-up. It's shown as Godzilla passes the Soviet ship.



I'm trying to find it in the Japanese version, but I can't. I'm guessing it's one of the numerous instances of the editors taking a shot from somewhere else in the film and inserting it into another scene, since it isn't in the Japanese version of the scene I'm working on, but I've watched all of Godzilla's other scenes looking for it and I just haven't seen it. If I didn't know better I'd almost think it wasn't there, but it must be. I'm probably missing it, but I figured I'd ask about it.

Does anyone recognize this shot? If so, do you know where it's originally from?

[JVM]

Pure guesswork on my part, but is it possible the American distributors were supplied with some shots not included in the final Japanese cut?

[omgitsgodzilla]

It's not impossible, but I find it pretty unlikely. Other than specifically US-shot material, there's only one shot I haven't found a match for so far, which is a shot that's altered to display a different image on a video screen. I find it unlikely that there's an actual effects shot in this version that's not seen in the Japanese version, but it's not impossible. I've also messaged Tamura, as he seems pretty knowledgeable about the various versions of these films and has in particular expressed appreciation for the changes made to this one. I'd imagine if anyone would know, he would.

It'd really be a pain if this shot really wasn't in the Japanese version, mainly because of that logo up in the top right corner. I've left in a couple of MHD shots when I had to (there was one where I was trying to mask out some on-screen text and I just couldn't match the colors properly), but this one in particular is one I really don't want to have to do that with.

I'd say the most likely explanation is that I'm just missing it somewhere in the other scenes. I'm going to call it a night for now and have another look tomorrow.

Added in 14 hours 31 minutes 57 seconds:
Well, I've just heard back from Tamura, and JVM, it looks like you were right.

He's also provided me with a little information on the finer points of how the MHD aspect ratio compares to the Japanese version (I know the version I have has been adjusted to some degree, but I don't know exactly how). I probably won't worry about it for this first version, but when I get to the full HD version, I might have another look at it.

[Bigdog]

Well, the project is moving right along. I'm currently around the 45-minute mark, meaning I'm now more than halfway through the US version, but I've hit a wall with one shot. It takes place at 44:59 in the Monsters HD recording, and shows Godzilla walking in profile, close-up. It's shown as Godzilla passes the Soviet ship.



I'm trying to find it in the Japanese version, but I can't. I'm guessing it's one of the numerous instances of the editors taking a shot from somewhere else in the film and inserting it into another scene, since it isn't in the Japanese version of the scene I'm working on, but I've watched all of Godzilla's other scenes looking for it and I just haven't seen it. If I didn't know better I'd almost think it wasn't there, but it must be. I'm probably missing it, but I figured I'd ask about it.

Does anyone recognize this shot? If so, do you know where it's originally from?

I'll find where it is on the version I got.





The closest shot was the top, but it seems that New World Pictures had access to raw footage of the bottom screen before all the static and crap was added to the negative for the shot. I don't know how you'll be able to find the bottom footage in the same quality as the footage I provided to you already. That means unless you can find the cut footage that's on the bottom screen in a decent quality, you might have to do some more editing on that shot.

[Mr_Goji_and_Watch]

I just want to say thank you to all of those working on this project! Hope it works out in the end, this could be great!

[omgitsgodzilla]

I appreciate it!

And yeah, it's apparently not in the Japanese version. I looked at that shot on the rip I have of the American VHS, and it doesn't look like there's enough usable material to mask off the logo. I just downloaded a rip of an Australian tape that Tamura sent me; I'll see if maybe that shot is panned differently in that version.

Added in 4 hours 36 minutes 22 seconds:
Well, I've finally managed to create a fix for that shot that approaches acceptability. I tried to cover the logo up with the appropriate part of the Australian VHS rip, but there was too much noise on the picture to make it blend in properly. I ended up just masking it off as best I could using other portions of the same shot. It's a lot sloppier than I'd like, but it'll have to do for now. Now I can move on to the rest of the movie without it bugging me too much.

[Bigdog]

^I figured I might just give it a second look just in case. I honestly thought it'd be either the Nuclear plant scene or the bay military attack that would have it.

As long as it blends well, no one's really going to notice.

[omgitsgodzilla]

I think as long as you're looking at the part of the screen you're supposed to be looking at (presumably Godzilla's face), you probably won't notice it. It's not necessarily glaring, but it's not nearly as neat and seamless as I'd like it to be.

In other news, Space Hunter M has contributed a visual reference and audio materials for the Godzilla roar that plays over the New World logo in the theatrical version! I'll be adding that in just a second.

[Bigdog]

I think as long as you're looking at the part of the screen you're supposed to be looking at (presumably Godzilla's face), you probably won't notice it. It's not necessarily glaring, but it's not nearly as neat and seamless as I'd like it to be.

In other news, Space Hunter M has contributed a visual reference and audio materials for the Godzilla roar that plays over the New World logo in the theatrical version! I'll be adding that in just a second.

Neat. I'm going to have to watch it again tomorrow night or before you get your 0.5 done.

[JVM]

Well, I've just heard back from Tamura, and JVM, it looks like you were right.

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later

Glad to hear you got past the bit and excited this project is still progressing!

[Pkmatrix]

I took a look at my copy too to see if I could find it, but like everyone else has agreed it's definitely not in the Japanese copy I have. Cool! I had no idea that G'85 had any FX scenes unique to it - ANOTHER reason why this (and now Tamura's project too) is so important.

I'm glad to hear you found a solution! Another option might be to try rotoscoping it out by taking the shot, importing it into Photoshop, and then going through frame-by-frame airbrushing the logo out with the Spot Healing Brush Tool. You could then re-export it back out as video again and then edit it back into the project sequence in Sony Vegas.

[omgitsgodzilla]

I'm glad to hear you found a solution! Another option might be to try rotoscoping it out by taking the shot, importing it into Photoshop, and then going through frame-by-frame airbrushing the logo out with the Spot Healing Brush Tool. You could then re-export it back out as video again and then edit it back into the project sequence in Sony Vegas.

That occurred to me as well - I don't have Photoshop, but I do have paint.net. I think I decided against it mainly because of the amount of time it would take to do that for something like 50-odd individual frames, as well as the fact that convincingly airbrushing a still image is one thing, but having it look right in motion is a good deal more difficult.

[Pkmatrix]

That occurred to me as well - I don't have Photoshop, but I do have paint.net. I think I decided against it mainly because of the amount of time it would take to do that for something like 50-odd individual frames, as well as the fact that convincingly airbrushing a still image is one thing, but having it look right in motion is a good deal more difficult.

Ah, okay.

I might try it myself just to see how it might look but, yeah, it probably will be around 50 frames. With Photoshop it's a pretty simple process to airbrush it out (whether or not it'd be noticeable in motion is what I don't know), but I don't remember Paint.NET having anything like this tool so it'd be a great deal more difficult to do with that program.

[omgitsgodzilla]

You're welcome to have a crack at it; let me know how it turns out!

Added in 12 hours 47 minutes 37 seconds:
Well, I'm calling it a night right now at 1 hour and 13 minutes, which means there's only 14 minutes of the movie left to go! After that it'll just be a matter of appending my own credits listing the sources and such at the end, then rendering it out and putting it up somewhere. I've got a pretty busy weekend ahead of me, but I should be finished well within a week from today, and hopefully I'll have it available to download by then as well. This version will probably just be a fairly high-quality .mp4; I might encode the full HD version in a format more common among fan editors and preservationists on OT, like MKV.

[BioBagan]

Really looking forward to this! A lot of people are going to appreciate the hard work. It's the first solo G movie I seen as a kid so it's always had a place in my heart. Thanks in advance.

[GodzillaFanatic2001]

Thanks in advance, I'm looking forwards to this! Thank you for all the for all the work you've put into this!

[omgitsgodzilla]

All right, well, I just got home and got back to work on this project. I ended up powering through the whole rest of the movie; I've just reached the end credits. It ended on a slightly frustrating note, as the final shot of the volcano erupting is present in the Japanese version, but the end credits start to roll over it before the point where the American version fades out, and between the near-impossibility of creating a mask that moves subtly up the frame to cover those credits and the sheer amount of the frame I'd have to mask off with SD material, I had to end up just leaving that shot sourced from the Monsters HD release. On the plus side, I've now scientifically confirmed that Raymond Burr's closing speech never fails to give me chills, no matter how many times I hear it.

Anyway, now to recreate the end credits in HD. I'll have to take about a million screenshots of the credits in the MHD recording, line them up so I have the whole column of text, then recreate the text. After that I take the finished image, add it to the project, and make sure it scrolls at the same speed as the original credits. I might actually be able to finish this tomorrow, if not tonight, and after that it'll just be a matter of rendering the whole project, watching it to make sure everything came out right, and then uploading and sharing it.

Added in 13 hours 38 minutes 16 seconds:
Well, I've got my base template for the credits!



Now I've just got to match the font and recreate the original text, then add it to the video.

Added in 19 hours 19 minutes 57 seconds:
Recreating the credits took a lot longer than I expected it to. Matching the font that was originally used turned out to be the easy part; I found an online font recognition tool that pointed me to the right font family, and after some searching I found what I think is an exact match. What was harder was lining up all the text - the original credits have unusually wide spaces between words and some minor kerning differences compared to the digital font, which meant individual words and in some cases letters (notably capital As and Is) had to be spaced manually. Once that was done, though, syncing my recreated version of the text up to the original crawl was a breeze by comparison.

But no matter...



I'll update the thread when it's done and uploaded, and I'll probably PM you guys the link. I appreciate all the feedback, advice and support I've gotten from you all, and I'm excited to share this project with you.

Anyone who hasn't posted here yet and would like the link is free to hit me up as well.

[Pkmatrix]

Cool! Great to hear!

[dbmaster514]

Exciting news!

[omgitsgodzilla]

I'm watching the rendered video right now, and the bad news is there are a few spots I need to go back and clean up a bit, which means re-rendering the video. The good news is, the majority of the movie looks great, and these adjustments shouldn't take too long. I appreciate everyone's patience and support.