The Adventures Of Captain Jack Sparrow (Pirates Of The Caribbean Fanedit series)

[TM2YC]

I've been planning and experimenting with the idea of doing fanedits of the 'Pirates Of The Caribbean' film series, starting with 'Dead Man's Chest'. I and others have been discussing it over on my ideas thread from post#70 onwards. Here are some of the 'highlights' of my own posts...

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I noticed that there seems to be a lack of 'Pirates Of The Carribean' FanFixes out there. nOmArch has done a 10 minute trim of 'Dead Mans Chest' but that appears to be it. I'm not really a fan of these movies as they can be a bit bloated, self-indulgent, incoherant, rambling and ultimately boring. Those who are fans, clearly have more patience/tolerance than I. However such is the brilliance of those swashbuckling moments, the charm of Johnny Depp and Hans Zimmer's thundering musical theme that I often find myself tempted into rewatching them to relive those bits. The films are all excessively long, going way over 2 hours ...

The Curse of the Black Pearl (Was at least 24 minutes too long)
Dead Man's Chest (Was at least 31 minutes too long)
At World's End (Was at least 48 minutes too long)
On Stranger Tides (Was at least 17 minutes too long)

For a suposedly fun family adventure like 'At World's End' to be nearly 3 hours long is f*ckin' madness. It's only 15 minutes shorter than the 60s epic 'Spartacus'! I would be looking to make these edits short, sweet, fun-packed and focused on the franchise's biggest asset Johnny Depp (Oh and the plots should be understandable!). So in that vein I'd retitle them in honor of Indiana Jones to...

Captain Jack Sparrow and...

The Curse of the Black Pearl
The Heart of Davy Jones
The Pirate King's Return*
The Fountain of Youth

*The plot of POTC 3 is so incomprehensible that I'm struggling to think of a title. Some of the alternate suggested titles have been:

The Hoisting of the Colors
The Heir of Sao Feng
The Pirate Lords
The Lords of Shipwreck Island

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In the original version of DMC the first 15-20 minutes is just all the characters standing around trying to explain the very complicated plot to each other. So I think I'll start it 'Rambo style' with a heavy edit of Will and Elizabeth's capture and the setup of Will's quest to find Jack. Then we wouldn't see Jack until Will finds him installed as the Chief/God of the tribe. Then it's straight into a rescue/escape and on with the adventure. I'd delay Elizabeth's escape from Jail as long as possible as in the original version it robs Will's quest of the drama even before he begins it. All the seemingly random plot elements such as the key, Bootstrap Bill, Davy Jones, the pearl, the chest, The flying Dutchman and the compass can be picked up along the way (Christ there's alot of McGuffins in the film).

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The actions scenes in DMC are superb with the threeway swordfight atop the rolling mill wheel with jack on the bottom being the highlight! I'll be keeping all those thrilling moments and trying to shorten the gaps between them. The CGI is outstanding especially Bill Nighy and his tentacles and Tom Hollander is a great scenery chewing villian. Also bags of humour and fun along the way, Pintel and Ragetti are hilarious (Their introduction is a bit random and abrupt but there's no fixing that). I didn't like that the whole underlying story is about Will and Elizabeth's undying love but then they fall out at the end... that's fixable.

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I've started on a test edit of the first 1/2 hour of DMC and it's surprisingly easy (Touch wood) to streamline the narrative and keep it focused (Instead of it spewing off in 5 directions at the same time). I'm also doing a colour correction to slightly tone down the aggressive turquoise tint that is present throughout the film that the digital graders have added.

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Skiping ahead and looking at the start of 'At World's End', I'd remove the hanging opening. An extended scene of hundreds of men, women and children being executed with visual refrences to Auschwitz is a horribly misjudged beginning to a fun action-adventure. Instead I'd begin with The Flying Dutchmen destroying the Pirate fleet and Beckett being briefed on the plot of the film. This will setup the tension, the threat and all the information needed. Then I'd cut to the Singapore rescue (Which is actually referenced nicely in the earlier/later scene). The other excessively violent moments like the two Chinese twins being 'shot in the head/executed while helpless on the ground' and rotting corpses. I think the overlong trippy-underworld sequence needs trimmed (Or even removed). I might cut to Jack talking to himself (The frame just after talking to his clones) after Calypso's line "He's closer than you think". Also the post credits sequence might make a nice ending proper.

I made a rough poster concept with more than a little Indiana Jones...



(^ Click to see larger image)

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Here is a test of the first 30 minutes of my proposed POTC-DMC edit...

(^ Click Vimeo button to watch in HD)

We now do not get re-acquainted with Jack until Will does 10 minutes in. But these 10 minutes are still all about Jack, talking about him, setting up Will's quest to find him, then looking for him... all the while building our anticipation of seeing Mr Sparrow. Of course, as soon as Will gets within 30 seconds of Jack all hell breaks loose and the crazy fun begins. We now feel Jacks impact on the movie, he as a character has arrived in our consciousness with a bang! But now we are also more engaged with Will's story, since we've gone on a mini adventure with him. Apart from re-arranging scenes, two big exposition sequences from this opeing act have been cut (Which totalled 12.5 minutes alone).

Here are a few of the more specific changes in this early test cut...

- Recoloured film to subtely tone down blue/green tint present throughout
- Added TM2YC Ident
- Removed original titles and used audio to dub over Bruckheimer logo
- Removed wedding exposition line (We've got eyes)
- Removed reference to Norrington (To early to be reminding the audience about an old character we don't meet again for about an hour)
- Removed 6 minute 'key capture' exposition sequence. Again the key-drawing information isn't important for another 30 minutes
- Added new title over map shot
- Removed Will's line about him not being friends with Jack (Stop the movie there shall we! If our heroes don't even care about each other, why should we?)
- Removed 6.5 minute 'Bootstrap visitation' exposition scene. Once again we don't need this information for about the first half hour
- Trimmed Jack's line about Elizabeth, so his last words are "How much do you know about Davy Jones?" leading into the narrative thrust of the 2nd act
- Moved Elizabeth's escape to after Will and Jack have escaped on the Pearl (As that is a natural place for the 2nd act to begin)

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I'm thinking these might turn out to be a lot lighter edits than I'd envisioned. Admitedly this only based on the test of the 2nd film. But I was surprised that by chopping out a couple of bloated scenes wholesale and reordering a few scenes that the film really flys. I think these are actually very well edited films from a character, tension, drama, action (In particular), emotion and humour angle. It's just the incoherance of the plot that needs sorting. Some projects I've worked on needed an average of 2 edits every minute to sort them out. But I can see 10 minute stretches flying by in DMC that don't require a single touch from my hand.

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I've made the final descision on the 'Black Spot' subplot and am cutting it. It adds nothing, goes nowhere, is too quickly resolved and being just a visual manifestation of Davey Jones' unleashing of the Kraken, makes it redundant. As we see him shouting to his crew to unleash said beastie anyway. I think the writers just wanted to shoehorn in a reference to 'Treasure Island'.

Also I'm cutting out the 'love-triangle' as for me it destroys the whole narrative thrust of the first 3 films. How are we gonna care about Elizabeth and Will fighting to get back together and married by the end, if Liz and Jack have got a thing going on and Will is irritated by them both? It's obvious that the writers were borrowing heavily from Star Wars and trying to match the love-triangle from ANH. But they seem to have forgotten that once Leia pledges her undying love for Han in ESB she doesn't then suddenly start a thing with Luke a day later. Elizabeth of course has that moment at the end of the first movie, so you can't spend movies 2 and 3 ignoring it.

I was briefly considering cutting the scene where Will escapes the Dutchman, immediately has his ship destroyed by the Kraken and so ends up back on the Dutchman in the next scene. It's a redundant move that only exists so the writers could have an emotional goodbye moment where Will pledges to return and save Bootstrap. But that moment is key and the Kraken attack is very exciting, so it will stay. I only mention it as an example of the poor plotting of these films at times.

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I going to start full work on this project quite soon, I just want to get my 'From Hell' edit finished first. Remember when Spielberg said 'Jurassic Park' was the fun project he did to lift his spirits from working on 'Schindler's List'? Well POTC is gonna be my 'Jurassic Park' as my 'From Hell' edit is so dark, twisted and bleak, that I need a bit of Swashbuckling seafaring adventure fun! (Both Johnny Depp edits btw).

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Just realised, if I recut the sequence of events at the end of DMD I can have the very last-line/cliffhanger before the credits/music as Norrington saying "The Heart of Davey Jones!".

This is some kismet sh*t right here. I swear I didn't plan it

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Here is my first recut test of the last 10 minutes of POTC 'Dead Man's Chest'...

(^ Click Vimeo button to watch it in HD)

- Film recoloured (As before)
- Love triangle removed so Elizabeth no longer has a 5 minute snog with Jack right infront of Will ;-)
- So all footage of Elizabeth and Will hating each other removed too
- Rare lacklustre CGI shot of the Kraken roaring shortened
- Jack now defiantly stands his ground against the Kraken (He does not run into it's mouth as in the original cut)
- Norrington/Beckett scene moved to just before the credits and additional music mixed in

So now DMC ends exactly where I will start the next film... with Beckett exploiting The Heart. Plus as I said above it has the added bonus that this edit will convieniently end with Norrington saying my new title "The Heart Of Davy Jones"!

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And that's where this thread begins...

 

[TM2YC]

I've been trying to make sense of AWE and struggling, it's just an giant mess. I think DMC is gonna be a faultess piece of epic adventure when I'm done but I can barely see where to start with AWE. It just seems to be characters jumping from ship to ship, from place to place talking about the plot. Very boring and incoherant.

I think it would help to streamline the ammount of cutting between the plot strands so it doesn't seem so schizoid. But so far I can't see any obvious large scale trims (Beyond the already mentioned removal of the fort scene) like I could see with DMC. The early Chow Yun Fat battle could easily be removed but that's the best scene in the first hour and a half! (In fact the only good scene). It serves no purpose other than to get hold of the map, and we don't really need to know how Barbossa got hold of it anyway.

It's the writers blindly trying to ape Star Wars again. "Let's do the Jabba Palace rescue scene from ROTJ!" Difference is that it ends with something actually being accomplished, namely killing Jabba and rescuing Han. Another thing that annoys me about the first half of AWE is that the Kraken is just dead, no how, no when, no why... just dead. Why didn't the writers have it die at the end of DMC then ffs!

 

[Radzinsky]

I know you're pretty set on your Captain Jack title (and I like it too), but nevertheless I came up with a set of free-standing titles and thought I'd share them. They don't have any prefix (like "The Adventures of" or "Pirates of the Caribbean") They'd just be called by these four names:

The Curse of the Black Pearl
The Legend of the Flying Dutchman
The Song of the Brethren Court
The Quest for the Fountain of Youth

Each one has a different "theme" (curse, legend, song, quest), which differentiates them, but gives them all a similar lexicon. I know you won't use these titles by themselves (and nor should you), but I wanted to share them anyway.

I do think that the title for the third film (The Song of the Brethren Court) might be another alternative for you to use for At World's End.

Anyway, good luck on your edit. I might get around to watching the third film again soon, to see if I can help you distill the plot. I feel like I'm pretty good at that from my LOST edits. Cutting out so much story but still keeping it coherent (and in fact enhancing the coherence) is definitely an acquired skill.

By the way, I actually liked the way the Kraken just turned up dead in the third film. It represents the corners of the map being filled in. The East India Trading Company is now King, and the world of myth and magic is receding into the past. Nothing brought that home better than the rotting corpse of so mighty a foe as the Kraken.

 

[TM2YC]

I do think that the title for the third film (The Song of the Brethren Court) might be another alternative for you to use for At World's End.

I might get around to watching the third film again soon, to see if I can help you distill the plot. I feel like I'm pretty good at that from my LOST edits. Cutting out so much story but still keeping it coherent (and in fact enhancing the coherence) is definitely an acquired skill.

By the way, I actually liked the way the Kraken just turned up dead in the third film. It represents the corners of the map being filled in. The East India Trading Company is now King, and the world of myth and magic is receding into the past. Nothing brought that home better than the rotting corpse of so mighty a foe as the Kraken.

"The Song of the Brethren Court" is a great title and I'll be adding it to the list fo sho.

However the whole song thing is one of the things I'm considering removing (The hanging/singing scene is gone for certain). Also the pieces-of-eight might be trimmed (May not be possible, plus it's quite funny) as like the song it's a representation of something that doesn't need representing in an overcomplicated way. The pirate Lords need to fight Beckett, they don't need a song and 9 pieces of brick-o-brack to reinforce that.

If you can help by giving the film a watch then great!

I agree the melancholic air of the Kraken on the beach is nice. It was the daft way it was handled and not explained I objected to. It's a bit like if the Death Star had been left intact at the end of A New Hope. Then bits of it are floating in the garbage dump in Empire Strikes Back. Leia goes "What's that?", Han goes "Ooooh, that's that Death Star" - end of scene.

btw I noticed something the other day that has forever ruined my appreciation of Tom Hollander's deliciously evil performance as Beckett. Click spoiler button to read, but you won't be able to unsee it if you do..

Reveal message

The hair&makeup department on POTC 2 &3 were obviously incompetent as I noticed that Tom Hollander is wearing a wig... and Beckett isn't!!! It's supposed to be a powdered wig FFS! Has Beckett got the magic ability to grow immaculately combed, looped, styled and perfectly white hair from his own follicles? A major goof that means I now spend any time he's on screen staring at his hair line and laughing.:-D

Lastly I'm getting a workprint of DMC together, so if anybody wants to review it let me know. It's currently 18 minutes shorter/faster-paced than the theatrical cut.

 

[TM2YC]

Here is the full workprint to stream of 'Captain Jack Sparrow and the Heart of Davy Jones'...

(Video removed as the edit is now finished and released)

Bare in mind that the upload is not at the full resolution this edit will be released at (1280x720) just to keep the upload from being too large but other than that it's as is.

Feedback, comments, criticisms and suggestions would be great. In particular if anyone thinks there is any other footage than can be removed. I said I wanted to get these edits down to about a trim 2 hours but at 2hrs and 12 mins it's slightly over. Myself, I can't see anything else that I can remove, or if I can, I don't want to remove it. However I can't escape the nagging feeling that the fast pace I've established flags a tad while Will is aboard the Dutchman. Let me know if you agree. Briefly, here are the biggest changes...

- Recoloured film throughout to tone down blue/green-ish hue
- Removed 6 minute 'key capture' exposition sequence
- Removed Will's line about him not being friends with Jack
- Removed 6.5 minute 'Bootstrap visitation' exposition scene
- We now do not see Jack until Will finds him on the island 10 minutes in
- Re-arranged the order that many scenes play out to keep the narrative focused and smooth
- Moved Elizabeth's escape to after Will and Jack have escaped on the Pearl
- 'Black spot' subplot eliminated
- We now meet Bootstrap when Will meets him
- We now do not see Will climb backonto the Dutchman until the last shot
- Removed Elizabeth's love for Jack but retained him lusting after her (Which she comically spurns, staying true to will)
- Redited the kiss scene heavily so Elizabeth only kisses Jack just long enough to trap him
- We now do not see Norrington take the heart
- Jack now no longer appears to try and kill Will and he also doesn't run into the Kraken's mouth
- Will and Elizabeth don't hate each other at the end (He doesn't see the brief kiss)
- Final two scenes swapped

 

[TM2YC]

Initially I was quite pessimistic about how 'At Woeld's End' could be improved. But I've been working on the first act and with most of the scenes swapped round into a logical order it comes together surprisingly easily. For an example...

Originally one sequence went:
1. Beckett talking about Governor Swann having misgivings and that Jones is a loose cannon... so he calls for The Chest
2. Governor rowing past wreckage of Jones' attacks looking on in despair
3. Jones in a volatile mood post battle
4. Beckett threatens Jones with the chest (While Swann stands in the background)

Now that sequence goes:
1. Governor rowing past wreckage of Jones' attacks looking on in despair
2. Jones in a volatile mood post battle
3. Beckett talking about Governor Swann having misgivings and that Jones is a loose cannon... so he calls for The Chest
4. Beckett threatens Jones with the chest (With Swann cut out)

So now we have = Events, then a conversation about those events and finally the outcome of that conversation. As it should be.

I'm re-colouring the 'Davey Jones' Locker' sequence as I felt it didn't look different enough from the rest of the film. I'm adding a glow filter and further desaturating the image by 20%. Here's a comparison...



(^ Click to enlarge)

 

[TM2YC]

Here is a first pass at the opening act of 'At World's End'. I'm going with Radzinsky's 'The Song of the Brethren Court' title at the moment, though this may change (Maybe a simpler 'The Song of the Pirate Court'???)...

(^ Clik Vimeo button to watch in HD)

- Recoloured film throughout
- Added TM2YC Ident
- Removed unpleasant 4 minute 'Pirate Holocaust' opening scene
- Brought 'Dutchman destroying the fleet' scene forward to open movie
- Trimmed Beckett's "Brethern Court" line
- Trimmed Singapore opening and added new title (Misspelled... dangit!)
- Removed all shots of Beckett's magic teleporting henchman from Singapore sequence
- Removed any uncomfortable silences between Will and Elizabeth
- Brought second Beckett scene forward to form a natural break between Singapore and the underworld (The locker will lay out uninterupted)
- Events in second Beckett sequence re-ordered
- Governor Swann cut from Dutchman deck scene
- Ice scene heavily recoloured to appear more natural
- Rescored new transition from Ice scene to first Underworld scene
- Removed 1 minute scene of Will and Elizabeth argueing
- The Locker sequence heavily recoloured with 20% less saturation and a feint glow
- Brought first half of beach scene forward so our heroes reach the Locker before we the audience are re-united with Jack
- Cropped the pearl out of Calypso's shot
- Removed 3 minutes from the start of the 'Jack hallucinating' scene, right up 'til he's testing the wind
- Rescored new transition from Jack running to the second half of the beach scene
- Cropped Calypso out of shot of The Pearl
- Trimmed shot of Elizabeth having mixed feelings about Jack's return

Hopefully this now all flows in a more natural way from sequence to sequence. But apart from removing the shots of Beckett's right-hand-man, the 15 minute Singapore sequence is pretty much uncut. I'd be interested to know if anybody thinks it drags and needs tightening up?

(FYI The misspelled title and abrupt transition at 21.09 have already been corrected in the timeline)

 

[Radzinsky]

I've watched the rough cut now, and (as expected) I loved it. I have included some notes for your consideration; feel free to use as much or as little as you want.

• Cut the entire scene between Elizabeth and Will in the prison. Instead, transition directly from the meeting between Beckett and Will to the search montage for Jack. We can assume from later scenes that he told her of his mission; we don't need to see it. (time cut: approx 1 min 20)
  
• Insert a couple of seconds of darkness between Will being shot with the dart and the aerial shots of the island. This gives us a bit of a breather and enhances the sense that he was knocked unconscious.
  
• Insert a piece of audio with Will screaming "Jack!" in order to smooth the otherwise slightly jarring transition between the natives taking Will away and the scene with Pintel and Ragetti.
  
• Cut the entire scene of Jack asking for more wood (as well as the Paprika scene). Instead, transition directly from Gibbs' explanation of the situation to the natives putting Jack on the fire to roast. (time cut: approx 1 min 40)
• Remove all scenes of Jack escaping from his bindings after he gets away from the fire. We don't need to know how he cuts the ropes (time cut: approx 1 min)
• If possible, move the scene of Gibbs' explanation of Davey Jones and the Kraken closer to Jack asking Will what he knows of Davey Jones. This makes the plot less convoluted, as it removes some of the question in the viewer's mind of who (or what) Davey Jones is.
• Remove all scenes of Elizabeth's journey to Tortuga. We don't need to know how she gets there, and since Will already mentioned that would be where he would look for Jack, we can assume that Elizabeth would have come to the same conclusion (time cut: approximately 4 mins).
• Consider artificially deepening Elizabeth's voice when she's pretending to be a man.
• Remove the brief shot of either (or both) of the Turners when the First Officer tells them to "secure the mast tackle." This will enhance the surprise when we find out that the two are related.
• Remove the scene of Beckett's extortion of Elizabeth's father (time cut approx 30 secs). This will further simplify the plot.
• Remove the scene of Elizabeth telling Jack of her deal with Beckett deal (time cut approx 2 mins 30). Again, this will streamline the plot.
• Remove Will accidentally causing Davey Jones to hit the organ. It strains credulity that he would not hear that and wake up.
• If you remove Elizabeth's ghost voyage, you would need to remove the short scene of Will discovering her dress on the ship. Cut directly from him saying "put as many leagues behind us as you can" to Davey Jones hunting him down (time cut approximately 30 secs). Also remove the shot of the sailor begging the kraken to take the dress, and all subsequent shots of the dress.
• The scene between Jack and Elizabeth ("I love those moments. I like to wave at them as they pass by") is probably not strictly necessary, and you could remove it if you were crazy about minimizing running time. It's probably one of the best scenes in the film though, and it makes his decision to come back much more meaningful. But I thought I'd suggest it anyway. Time cut approx 2 min.
• If possible, remove the shot of Will saying "by your leave, Mr. Norrington." It's cool when Norrington says it, but it just seems goofy and cliche when Will says it - but perhaps just my utter disdain for Orlando Bloom showing through.
• Consider moving the scene with Tia Dalma to after the credits. It places the two scenes depicting the discovery of the missing heart closer together (thus further enhancing the awesomeness of Norrington's final line).

Some of what I've suggested may not be possible (let alone desirable), but hopefully some of my notes might have some use to you.

By the way, for the third film perhaps you could use something like Jack Sparrow and the Pirates of the Seven Seas instead of the Song of the Brethren Court. I like that title for many reasons, not least because it's reminiscent of the series' actual title (Pirates of the Caribbean).

Another possible title would be Captain Sparrow and the Gathering of the Seven Seas. It refers not only to the pirate court, but to Calypso and the crazy-big fleet of English ships. You could also use Captain Sparrow and the Gathering of the Pirate / Brethren Court

By the way, ending the movie with the line "The heart of Davey Jones" is probably in the top 3 most badass things in the history of ever, so good job on that one.

Cheers,
Radzinsky

 

[TM2YC]

Thanks for the detailed feedback Radzinsky but... BIG SIGH:sad:... I was writing a detailed response to all your bullet points with reasons why I was or wasn't going to act upon them... then my computer crashed and I lost it all. I couldn't face typing it all again, so here is the very short version with just the bits I used (Sorry):

Insert a piece of audio with Will screaming "Jack!" in order to smooth the otherwise slightly jarring transition between the natives taking Will away and the scene with Pintel and Ragetti.

Already had Will screaming "Jack", maybe it was too low in the mix. So recut and remixed, thanks!

Cut the entire scene of Jack asking for more wood (as well as the Paprika scene). Instead, transition directly from Gibbs' explanation of the situation to the natives putting Jack on the fire to roast. (time cut: approx 1 min 40)

Removed! Now it goes: Will saying to rescue jack, cut to 10 seconds of Jack about to be eaten, cut back to Will escaping... perfecto, thanks for that amazing suggestion! Paprika gag was mildly funny but not worth the 1 min 40 setup.

Remove the brief shot of either (or both) of the Turners when the First Officer tells them to "secure the mast tackle." This will enhance the surprise when we find out that the two are related.

I almost cut that originally, so since you also had an issue with it... it's gone!

Remove Will accidentally causing Davey Jones to hit the organ. It strains credulity that he would not hear that and wake up.

You're right it was just too damn loud in the mix. So I've cut the 7 seconds were the organ makes a sound. Thanks again.

If you feel strongly about some of the stuff I'm not implementing or would be interested in a reason why, then ask away. As I said I just can't face typing it all again right now. Film is now 2 minutes shorter... was 2.12.05 now 2.10.12 to e exact!

By the way, for the third film perhaps you could use something like Jack Sparrow and the Pirates of the Seven Seas instead of the Song of the Brethren Court. I like that title for many reasons, not least because it's reminiscent of the series' actual title (Pirates of the Caribbean).

Another possible title would be Captain Sparrow and the Gathering of the Seven Seas. It refers not only to the pirate court, but to Calypso and the crazy-big fleet of English ships. You could also use Captain Sparrow and the Gathering of the Pirate / Brethren Court

Some good title suggestions there, 'Gathering of the Seven Seas' is very nice! I hadn't thought about using Calypso's name in the title. I'm thinking of the possibilities that raises now.

By the way, ending the movie with the line "The heart of Davey Jones" is probably in the top 3 most badass things in the history of ever, so good job on that one.

That quote made my day. I loved it so much I've added it to my teaser poster (Out of context naturally, as is film poster tradition), for a bit of fun!



(^ Click to enlarge)

Thanks again for the feedback. Anybody else got anything they think 'should be removed/isn't working' before I move towards finishing this one?

 

[MusicEd921]

First, I just want to say how excited I am for this project. I've often wondered why there aren't more edits of these movies.

While I love the first movie, as it goes in my top 10 favorite movies of all time list, I was wondering if you've given some thoughts to how you're going to be editing it? I know your focus has been on parts 2& 3, but was wondering what you had planned for the first movie of this quadrilogy?

 

[TM2YC]

First, I just want to say how excited I am for this project. I've often wondered why there aren't more edits of these movies.

While I love the first movie, as it goes in my top 10 favorite movies of all time list, I was wondering if you've given some thoughts to how you're going to be editing it? I know your focus has been on parts 2& 3, but was wondering what you had planned for the first movie of this quadrilogy?

I think POTC1 had the least problems but still has an over convoluted plot. I was watching a bit of it the other day and the opening act is damn near perfect already. I'd probably tackle it after 2 and 3 but before 4. Although I am perversely tempted to wait and release all 4 edits simultaneously :-D. I remember the going to the island, coming back from the island and then going back again bit from POTC1 was rather tiresome. But that probably can't be fixed.

 

[TM2YC]

Phew...:| forced myself to sit through AWE and make a map of the different plot strands to try and make sense of it. But still I can't see any plot elements that can be removed. It's like a tightly knotted ball of string... you can see it's a big confused mess but it's still impossible to unpick. It's also so terribly dull and drab.

Now, all I'm hoping to do in the 2nd and 3rd acts is to edit it as tight as possible so there is a bare minimum of standing round talking so it doesn't feel like there is a half hour gap between every joke or piece of action. I think what will also help is ramping up the saturation and doing a colour correction so the film doesn't feel like a depressing blue/green monochrome rainy day.

Here's a couple of concepts with some life added back to the image...





(^ Click to expand)

 

[TM2YC]

Has anybody got the deluxe Blu-Rays of POTC?

I've picked up the basic releases but was wondering if the 2-disc versions have useful deleted material. I checked out a couple of clips on YouTube but you can't really tell what the quality is like and most lack potential. Plus some of them are half-finished green-screen affairs.

This deleted/extended Tango scene from POTC4 with Penelope Cruz looks fun...

and this alternate ending of DMC is close to how I've ended my edit. This might make a good post-credits sequence...

^ Or even as the opening scene of AWE

 

[TM2YC]

Had a thought. I may be able to remove Governor Swann from the start of AWE. It would just be assumed that Beckett has him killed sometime during DMC or before AWE. As we don't see how or why he dies anyway, this would be a nice cleanup of a redundant character. Plus the revelation of seeing him in the underworld would be as much a shock to us the audience as to Elizabeth.

I could trim his capture, imprisonment and release from DMC entirely. We'd just see his ambush at the docks and end the scne on the knife being suggestively brandished. Or it might even be possible to have him live. But this would rob Elizabeth and Norrington of several emotional scenes later on in AWE.

 

[TM2YC]

I've decided to scrap the work I'd done on the first 30-40 mins of AWE and start again (JRR Tolkien style ;-)). This time with a full colour correction and alot more trims.

Before I was just broadly toning down the murky and depressing greenish-brown hue of the film accross the board. But now I think it needs a scene-by-scene correction with a focus on broadening the spectrum of colours and upping the saturation. I'm aiming to more closely match the vibrant look of DMC. Giving our eyes some variety to look at, should reduce some of the boredom on an unconscious level (That's the theory anyway ).

Here is a comparison of the first 5 minutes recoloured in this way. I have also made other changes including removing Governer Swann...

^ Click Vimeo button to view in HD

 

[Radzinsky]

Had a thought. I could trim Governer Swann's capture, imprisonment and release from DMC entirely. We'd just see his ambush at the docks and end the scne on the knife being suggestively brandished.

Huh. What a good idea. I never would have thought to suggest that!

Remove the scene of Beckett's extortion of Elizabeth's father (time cut approx 30 secs). This will further simplify the plot.

But I love the colour correction you've applied. It will definitely improve the overall feel of AWE (no, not the word - the movie).

 

[TM2YC]

Huh. What a good idea. I never would have thought to suggest that! But I love the colour correction you've applied. It will definitely improve the overall feel of AWE (no, not the word - the movie).

As I said, I wrote a full response to all your suggestions the other day but I lost it all. Part of it read something like...

"Yes that scene could go on a redundancy level but for several reasons I already ruled out the idea of cutting it a while ago. The big reason being that it would be weird when he shows up in AWE with no explanation of the pact he has made with Beckett."

So that idea (In isolation) would not work...

...however late yesterday I viewed a small deleted scene from DMC that could be used to paper over the removal of that scene and to imply that Beckett has him killed. But it would still screw up AWE.

But earler today I realised if I cut Swann from the start of AWE, it would allow the removal of that scene without creating that continuity/logic problem.

Hope that's clear.

Awe yes ! Glad you like the new colours.

 

[theslime]

Sweet merciful Rao, the colouring of the original is terrible. The new colours make it look like a real movie with real props on a real set. Well done!

 

[Sunarep]

Has anybody got the deluxe Blu-Rays of POTC?

I've picked up the basic releases but was wondering if the 2-disc versions have useful deleted material. I checked out a couple of clips on YouTube but you can't really tell what the quality is like and most lack potential. Plus some of them are half-finished green-screen affairs.

This deleted/extended Tango scene from POTC4 with Penelope Cruz looks fun...

and this alternate ending of DMC is close to how I've ended my edit. This might make a good post-credits sequence...

^ Or even as the opening scene of AWE

wow never saw that... that is really a bummer ending!

 

[TM2YC]

I'm about a third into AWE and so far it's 16 minutes shorter, so if the other 2 thirds go the same I should end up with a trim 2 hour film. I've entirely removed Jack halucinating, but I may decide to put some of it back, we'll see. I've also made the Locker sequence look alot more dream like.

Here's a teaser poster...



(^ Click to enlarge)