Format is .SRT – just do a title search and they’ll come up.

SPICEDIVER

Your edit gave me a much more complete experience, all these little so important details changed my perspective on many important key points of the story-line.

THANK YOU!

Just a note to let eveyone know there’s now an MP4 release of my edit also available.

SPICEDIVER.

I like the first 3 books although it was the original version of Lynch’s movie that actually got me into Dune. When I first saw it I liked a few elements like the creative art direction but I was pretty annoyed and confused and had to read the novel afterwards to understand what the hell was going on! I’ve watched the extended ‘TV’ edition on DVD a few times and I think its intriguing but I agree with Spicediver: what an amateur mess it is.

I really enjoyed the alternative edition. It’s extremely well thought out and technically very nicely edited and mixed. The extra deleted footage is rough, yes but the stuff that was chosen belongs there and there’s not too much of it. Another thing: only after watching this edit did I realize how much of the ‘voiced thoughts’ had been erased from the soundtrack. Then I had flashbacks: god, those voices were annoying weren’t they? So, great call there by the editor: it’s a device that belongs in the novel, not the movie!

You mentioned pacing – interesting. I watched this edit again last month and I sense that removing a lot of the internal dialogue/thoughts from the soundtrack made a big impact on the film’s pacing and rhythm – yet these qualities are normally associated with how shots are cut together. Essential stuff like Herbert’s “Litany Against Fear” was left in, of course. I like John Harrison’s screenplay for the Dune miniseries because he didn’t adapt the characters’ internal dialogue from the book so literally to the screen. He used it sparingly, because he understands that the film/TV medium is just not sympathetic to such a literary device. Lynch as a screenwriter either didn’t undertand this (he was a young and relatively inexperienced, after all) or perhaps he was under pressure from Herbert to write that way.

Re. other edits, my life at present doesn’t allow time for another project but who knows what 2010 will hold?

Re. burning to DVD – suggest you grab the actual DVD version of the film (split over two single layer dics) rather than convert the AVI file to a single layer DVD. A three hour AVI film transcoded to a single layer DVD will compress the hell out of the video and lower quality substantially. You could always try a double-layer blank disc I suppose, but some DVD players don’t like them!

Adios

SPICEDIVER

New to the forum but not new fanedits or Fanedit.org.

I have been a fan of “Dune” (both the books and the various incarnations of the commecrically-released movies) for years. I have seen all the commercially available versions of the movie (even the SciFi channel mini-series) and even an early attempt by a friend of mine to do an “edit” using three connected vcrs.

Not until I downloaded and watched Spicediver’s “Dune” have I been more happy with this movie. A great edit, much better pacing than any version I have ever seen and an outstanding use of source material. I take no issue with Spicediver’s choice in using some of the lower-quality deleted scenes – they definitely progress the plot/pace of the movie. This version absolutely replaces my commercially bought version. I plan on burning this version to DVD and giving several as gifts to my freinds!

SPICEDIVER: You sent the becnhmark for fanedits/extended version not seen since Phantom Editor’s “The Phantom Menance”. My question to you: what’s next?

Sorry it has taken so long to get here. I have spent the last hour navigating this site. Very cool.

I am not a expert on quality of editing or any of the technical nik naks that interest the more techy minded. I do however know what I like to see. The origianal theatrical offering was in my opinion poor.
It left so many unanswered questions and for those people who had not read the book was probably a major turnoff. I always felt as if it was a project that was started and then rushed to completion. The acting in many cases was half hearted and often just downright bad.

It will be impossible for anyone person, I think , to make a definitive version of Dune. The sheer scope and scale of such a project is simply daunting, somewhere on the scale of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. That is the kind of money and Passion that would be required. I wonder if Peter Jackson would be interested? Probably not.

In the meantime we have Spicedivers V2. Quite frankly it is the best version I have seen. Especially considering what he has had to work with. The story is tighter and more fulfilling than either the original theatrical or the extended edition. The soundtrack is more in tune with the action. As far as I am concerned this rates a large 5 stars. If there is more than can be done to this story I don’t know what it is.

Kudos to you Spicediver and many thanks for a giving me something I can watch that matches the Herberts vision.

Excising Irulan’s narration in my edit in favour of Universal/MCA’s male narrator allowed me 3 opportunities:

1) to open the film with the full Fremen prophecy instead of a narration, as per the intention of the shooting script (final 7th draft);
2) to use the Prologue from the Extended Edition, which is quite valuable after substantial correcting, reconfiguring and shortening;
3) to use some of the male narration throughout the film – because I like his additions such as the character introductions and the brief backstory on Baron Harkonnen’s past treachery towards Leto.

It’s interesting that Irulan’s narration – which I enjoy but don’t particularly miss – was not originally scripted. It was created in post-production after the producers viewed the 4 hour 20 min assembly edit and decided they would need a narration in order to try and make a shorter movie comprehensible. It’s also interesting that Irulan’s voiceover role in the film is fundamentally different from the book. In the film it is mostly straightforward narration, whereas in the book she is a brilliant historian interpreting and commenting on events.

My main reservation with the male narrator is that his actual voiceover performance is inferior to Virginia Madsen’s effort. He was clearly given little direction, typical of the general sloppiness that marred the creation of the Extended Edition. It’s as if they put him in the microphone booth and went with his first take. I have excised the mistakes, padding and unnecessary lines in his script but, alas, I couldn’t improve his actual reading.

If you’d like to see Dune with Irulan’s narration and also with the blue eyes sfx completed, you can; just check out some of the other Dune edits here at fanedit.org.

SD.

Thanks, especially, for including the “He gives water to the dead” scene and Thufir’s finale. Both are essential (IMHO).

This Dune edit may not be for purists but I’m thrilled to hear that some people appreicate my handiwork.

It also seems it was well worth doing a revised V.2. I ask myself why didn’t I put the reconstructed Prologue right at the start in V.1? It all seems so obvious now.

Oh, and a special shoutout to Demonoid members who’ve shown such enthisiasm for this project. You guys and gals rock.

Now that this project done, perhaps its time I got my sh*t together and fanedited something else.

Peace,

Spicediver

If the world were to end in 3 hours (or something) after initially abusing my neighbors and taking a heavy hit of psychedelic substances I’d surely (and gladly) dive towards the Eschaton with this baby in my DivX-player rollin’ and my eyes wide gazing.
Having seen a handful of other Dune versions this is definitly the one to enjoy if you have any form of sensibility towards the Dune Universe’s atmosphere.
What a marvelously weird movie this is and how marvelously weirder it got after Spicediver put his alchemical fingers on this thing.
Make no mistake friends this is the philosopher’s stone – it’s gonna turn your mind into gold if you can digest it.

All hail SPICEDIVER, Emperor of the known Dunieverse! 5 Stars

Mati

PS: Yeah it’s a little bit much to say but you deserve it pal for making me enjoy this unyielding leviathan one more time…

I’m chuffed you enjoyed my edit and thanks for taking the time to actually watch the thing from beginning to end.

The Demonoid community seemed to enjoy it too.

“May the Hand Of God be with you”…

SPICEDIVER

ADM’s version is closer to the ideal I’d want to see, but his has seriously problems with the video quality of the deleted scenes and with retaining so much of the Toto Muzak which plays randomly beneath every scene of the TV version. Ever notice that Eno’s name is still in the credits of the TV version but his Prophecy Theme is nowhere to be heard?

A better starting point would be to keep EVERYTHING from the theatrical release, extend it where possible, and do whatever can be done about the Muzak problem with the TV footage.

More Dune fan edits are required. We’re not there yet.

I really appriciate the effort, and for several parts I found this to be a superior version. But in some parts the new scenes were badly acted (even for this movie!), and the integrated deleted scenes are clearly noticiable, the quality just is less good. I could totally understand why you wanted them in though.

One particular scene I would rather have been without was the one about Paul taking a wife in the end. Compared to what had just occured it just feels a little blah-blah to me. So I find the ending slighty less good than the theatrical version, which is a pity since it is a very powerful moment.

I’m ending up on a weak 4 out of 5 stars. For anyone who likes Dune, this will be well worth the time.