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

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Bigdog
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Re: Godzilla 1985 - Reconstruction Project

Post by Bigdog »

omgitsgodzilla wrote: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.
Nice job. :)

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Re: Godzilla 1985 - Reconstruction Project

Post by littlebase631 »

I appreciate your time and effort into this and cant wait to see it!

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omgitsgodzilla
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Re: Godzilla 1985 - Reconstruction Project

Post by omgitsgodzilla »

Thanks for bearing with me. The fixed version is rendering now.

To elaborate on what needed to be fixed, I hadn't gone back and looked at a lot of the earlier masking work in a while. It turned out that most of the masking in the first half of the movie, which I'd done while more or less still figuring out how the color correction process worked, looked pretty awful by the standards I'd managed to reach by the end. Thankfully, most of them were easy enough to fix, and while there are one or two instances that aren't quite perfect, they're all vastly improved. Besides that, there were a couple of instances where a mask would end a frame too soon and leave the Japanese text briefly visible, or where a stray frame of a shot would be left between two shots that were supposed to be there. These issues have been fixed as well.

I'm glad I decided to watch the rendered video before uploading and sharing it; I'd have been mortified if I'd released it with some of the issues I came across.

Anyway, Vegas says it should be done rendering in about 7 hours, so I'll give the finished product another look in the morning and hopefully it'll be up and available by tomorrow afternoon sometime.

Added in 9 hours 12 minutes 43 seconds:
It's uploading right now. There are still one or two problem frames, but other than that it looks fine. I'll be more of a stickler about the full HD version; this is more or less a test run.

MEGA estimates it'll be finished uploading in something like two hours; I don't know if there'll be extra time for processing, but with any luck you'll all have your links by noon my time.
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Re: Godzilla 1985 - Red Menace Reconstruction v0.5 AVAILABLE NOW

Post by Tyrant_Lizard_King »

Look forward to the final cut version. Keep up the good work.
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Re: Godzilla 1985 - Red Menace Reconstruction v0.5 AVAILABLE NOW

Post by omgitsgodzilla »

Thanks! I've actually gone through and fixed a couple of the remaining issues with v0.5 already; I'm currently downloading a Blu-ray rip of Creepshow 2 to get my hands on a complete, HD version of the New World logo. I think I'm going to fix what issues I can between now and September, just so there's less work to do then. I guess that'll mean a v0.6 will be out probably in the next week or so.

I don't think I've hooked you up with the current version, by the way - would you like the link, or would you rather wait for the next version?
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GFAN198423
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Re: Godzilla 1985 - Red Menace Reconstruction v0.5 AVAILABLE NOW

Post by GFAN198423 »

Thank you very much for doing this, it's so nice to have a quality copy of this movie to hold onto, the best I've had before were like 480p digital copies that were just ok, this came out very nice and is definitely appreciated.

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Re: Godzilla 1985 - Red Menace Reconstruction v0.5 AVAILABLE NOW

Post by Breakdown »

Just finished watching this, and I loved it. Glad to have a copy of the film, as it's one of my all time favorites. Good work!
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Bigdog
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Re: Godzilla 1985 - Red Menace Reconstruction v0.5 AVAILABLE NOW

Post by Bigdog »

I was skeptical about the quality for the Monsters HD encode, but it really worked. It's only a tad softer, but that's not really an issue anybody will notice unless they are seriously looking for relatively minor details like that.

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Re: Godzilla 1985 - Red Menace Reconstruction v0.5 AVAILABLE NOW

Post by omgitsgodzilla »

I'm kind of surprised how well the sources go together too. I guess it doesn't hurt that the Toho transfer isn't exactly eye-searingly sharp either; if you were trying to blend a 480 source with a Criterion-quality transfer it would probably be a lot more jarring.
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Re: Godzilla 1985 - Red Menace Reconstruction v0.5 AVAILABLE NOW

Post by Bigdog »

omgitsgodzilla wrote:I'm kind of surprised how well the sources go together too. I guess it doesn't hurt that the Toho transfer isn't exactly eye-searingly sharp either; if you were trying to blend a 480 source with a Criterion-quality transfer it would probably be a lot more jarring.
For sure. I have the recommendation for the stock footage of Gojira that's featured in 1985? Wonder how well it would look if the Criterion source was used for those few seconds of footage? Or would it be basically just on the verge of pointless for to do that?

Hopefully one of these days ,the full HD source is dropped somewhere for 1985 for the picking.

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Re: Godzilla 1985 - Red Menace Reconstruction v0.5 AVAILABLE NOW

Post by omgitsgodzilla »

I've thought about using it; haven't really made up my mind.
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Re: Godzilla 1985 - Red Menace Reconstruction v0.5 AVAILABLE NOW

Post by Bigdog »

^I'm not sure how the footage would pair.

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Re: Godzilla 1985 - Red Menace Reconstruction v0.5 AVAILABLE NOW

Post by omgitsgodzilla »

Well, v0.6 is done. The MEGA upload is in the home stretch; after that's done I'll upload it to MediaFire, update the OP and then send the links around.

Added in 20 hours 24 minutes 59 seconds:
Re: Godzilla 1985 - Red Menace Reconstruction v0.6 AVAILABLE NOW
I'm going to copy over an exchange from the OT thread that brings up a few points that bear repeating here:
God Save Pop Punk (omgitsgodzilla) wrote:
Video Collector wrote:I sat down to watch version 0.5 yesterday and was again awed by the seamlessness of the presentation. Having never seen the US version in its entirety before I found it a fresh take on the original film, and the editing tightened up the narrative quite a bit. I enjoyed it immensely, and a welcome change to the *Return of Godzilla* international version I've been accustomed to until now.

On the tech side, these are the things I noticed:
  • The wobble on the opening credits. Would be nice to have that stabilised.
  • Was there an on-screen caption when the sub first appears? Looks like there was a square patch on the bottom part of the screen. (There was one more instance of a noticeable patch, but I can't remember where I saw it.)
  • The upscaling of the US footage was very good, but I wonder if it couldn't do with a grain layer overlay to make it appear sharper and better match the surrounding footage. I can only imagine the difference becoming even more pronounced when you start using the Kraken Blu as source material.
Still, a stellar presentation and if it wasn't for the station bug this would be just fine as it is. I can only imagine what the final full HD version will be like.
I might try stabilizing the credits a bit for the full HD version. Normally I don't mind a bit of wobble, but there is a bit much for my taste. Ordinarily I'd worry about losing information on the edges, but in this case I think it's what George C. Scott would call modest and acceptable casualties.

And there was a caption on the wide shot of the sub; that shot's been frustrating me too. I think the white from the caption sort of bleeds a little and illuminates the rest of the image slightly, which is why there's a hiccup in the brightness when it appears that makes the masking really obvious. I might just replace that shot entirely with the MHD, since I can't seem to get around that. I had to do the same for one shot during the montage of military ships and aircraft. Thankfully, both of these shots are low enough in fine details anyway (the latter being stock footage) that it shouldn't be too noticeable.

If you do remember where that other patch was, do let me know. I adjusted some of them for v0.6 after watching a test render on my TV and noticing that a few of them were far more obvious on that screen than they were on my laptop. I think the main ones I had to touch up were the one covering the caption when the Soviet ambassador arrives, the one when the Soviet sailor asks the colonel what he's doing when he's using the satellite control panel, and the one over the first establishing shot at Mt. Mihara when Ken goes to see the geologist Minami.

The grain overlay is a good idea; I'll have to look into that. I don't think the 720p to 1080p upgrade is going to be a revelation as far as image detail goes, considering that it's a Toho transfer, but there might be some more visible grain, so it would make sense to try and adjust the image on the MHD footage to match.

And finally, I have to agree on the editing job. New World's editing does really help the pace, and the work done on the initial test of the frequency generator is especially brilliant. Thanks to some quicker cuts and a shot taken from Godzilla's second fight with the Super X, Godzilla goes from a lethargic, vaguely dangerous large animal who happens to get distracted by a maser tank to an aggressive, menacing creature who would've completely obliterated the lab if the tank had fired a moment later. This project has really given me a strong appreciation for what New World did with the original version.
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omgitsgodzilla
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Re: Godzilla 1985 - Red Menace Reconstruction v0.6 AVAILABLE NOW

Post by omgitsgodzilla »

Video Collector over on OriginalTrilogy.com has made some really terrific custom Blu-ray covers and disc art for this project!

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I've collected the printable versions of these in a .zip folder and uploaded it to the usual couple of hosts:

MEGA - https://mega.nz/#!pVUGzayK!4NQsymfF_U7E ... qX2Bg3O5Ms

MediaFire - https://www.mediafire.com/?d05b3yu1jjc0sy1

These will also be included with v1.0 and any other future versions of the project. Enjoy!
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dbmaster514
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Re: Godzilla 1985 - Red Menace Reconstruction v0.6 AVAILABLE NOW

Post by dbmaster514 »

Thanks for making these awesome covers available!

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Re: Godzilla 1985 - Red Menace Reconstruction v0.6 AVAILABLE NOW

Post by omgitsgodzilla »

I'm honestly amazed with the quality VC has achieved with these. Professional quality, right down to the (rather ironic) copyright notices. If you showed me one of these and told me it was an official release, and I didn't know any better, I could believe it.
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Re: Godzilla 1985 - Red Menace Reconstruction v0.6 AVAILABLE NOW

Post by JVM »

omgitsgodzilla wrote:I'm honestly amazed with the quality VC has achieved with these. Professional quality, right down to the (rather ironic) copyright notices. If you showed me one of these and told me it was an official release, and I didn't know any better, I could believe it.
Any tips for actually using the custom covers? I would totally replace the Kraken cover with one of them.... but I could also use the advice for a few other films I own disc only.
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Re: Godzilla 1985 - Red Menace Reconstruction v0.6 AVAILABLE NOW

Post by omgitsgodzilla »

I think it's just a matter of printing them with the right dimensions. I've seen other people post their custom covers in PDFs so that the dimensions on a piece of paper are already set, but if you print these with the height set to 148mm/5.83in (maintaining the same aspect ratio of course), you should be able to just cut them out and slip them into a Blu-ray case. You might want to do this at a copy shop or something if you haven't got a good inkjet printer/photo paper.
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Re: Godzilla 1985 - Red Menace Reconstruction v0.6 AVAILABLE NOW

Post by JVM »

omgitsgodzilla wrote:I think it's just a matter of printing them with the right dimensions. I've seen other people post their custom covers in PDFs so that the dimensions on a piece of paper are already set, but if you print these with the height set to 148mm/5.83in (maintaining the same aspect ratio of course), you should be able to just cut them out and slip them into a Blu-ray case. You might want to do this at a copy shop or something if you haven't got a good inkjet printer/photo paper.
Yeah, that's a good idea. I tried a couple print jobs before but they usually end up coming out dull. Thank you.
I used to be a lot more optimistic and outgoing, believe it or not. I used to actually be passionate about this stuff.

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Re: Godzilla 1985 - Red Menace Reconstruction v0.6 AVAILABLE NOW

Post by omgitsgodzilla »

No problem. It's a lesson I learned the hard way; once when I was a kid I made these awful custom covers for all of my DVDs in PowerPoint. Thankfully I had the foresight to keep most of the original covers, but to this day there are one or two movies in my collection that are now sporting mediocre-quality printer paper versions of the official cover art.
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