The Hateful Eight: the "When you have to shoot, don't talk" fanedit

[Plissken1138]

Here's my first swing at fanedits, non other than Tarantino's The Hateful Eight. Whole idea started with "god damn it, Quentin, no talking in the movies" thought, when I first heard the narration. There are five major edit points:

- no Quentin's narration
- no chapters
- no flashback
- no Jack White, David Hess and Roy Orbison
- as less as possible of Channing


Other than re-edited opening titles, there are many small nips and tucks (to up the pace), and I also fixed blue-ish snow .

Final running time is 122 minutes.


Changes:

Reveal message

-    Added fanedit intro
-    Story is told in chronological order, new opening incorporated with arrival of the Domingre gang;
-    Little cuts to up the pace leading into first haberdashery massacre;
-    Cut out David Hess song; Mike is killed by Bob through the door, not by Gage afterwards
-    Removed (what was second) narration, new montage shortening lead into the introduction of Major Warren;
-    Shortened Warren’s horse answer, some trims in dialogue
-    Cut out Jack White, added music cue and some re-edits into letter reading and Ruth’s and Domergue’s falling out of the coach;
-    Small cuts and re-edits in dialogue and action to up the pace until the arrival of Mannix;
-    Small cuts and re-edits in dialogue and action to up the pace until arrival to Minnie’s;
-    Less door shenanigans;
-    Mobray justice story shortened
-    Gage’s mother story shortened
-    Warren/Bob barn dialogue shortened
-    Trimmed Mannix overacting recognizing General Smithers and their dialogue
-    Less door shenanigans upon arrival of Warren and Bob from the barn
-    No hat story, but Warren is suspicious;
-    Shortened Mobray suggestion to divide the bar
-    Some cuts to up the pace of Ruth’s presenting Domergue and disarming Gage;
-    Some cuts to up the pace into dinner table conversation
-    Lot of cuts and trims to up the pace of Warren’s baiting story and killing General;
-    Removed narration, shorten montage and dialogues leading into Domergue’s song
-    Removed (most of) Jennifer Jason Leigh’s real reaction to guitar destruction;
-    Cuts and trims of Warren’s dialogue after Ruth’s killing all the way through to wounding of Warren.
-    Some cuts of slo-mo showdown (removed most of slo-mo dilalogue)
-    Shorten Warren/Mannix dialogue before dropping Jody;  
-    Cut Domergue dilaogue adding corpses / horses; paced up shooting of Gage and Mobray;
-    Cut second Mannix daddy story; now we go straight from Warren having no more bullets into Mannix blacking out;
-    Shorten Warren/Mannix dialogue before hanging Domergue;
-    Shorten Mannix reading Lincoln letter, fades after first sentence into new end credits;

Right now it's 720p and barebone BD25, but I might do a second edition with commentary and whatnot somewhere down the line...


Alternate opening:

pass - fanedit.org

 

[Hubunkey]

Sounds interesting, This was easily my least favorite Tarantino film I have seen and tightening it up is a great idea because that sucker is sloooooow

 

[MrBadcrumble]

I'm intrigued and concur wholeheartedly with JJE-187. The narration might just be Tarantino's worst thing yet.

Good luck with the edit. It sounds promising!

 

[maniac]

Great, that "Don't Talk" is also a great idea to begin with in this movie
Keep it more to the action because with all that dialogue this movie was way too long
Good luck with this edit

 

[Plissken1138]

Appreciate the comments.

I'm a fan of Quentin's work, which relies on dialogues heavily, so I want to be cautious and not cut too much out. Still considering how much of structure I'd like to and can change. So far, it's just throwing out overly repetitive bits of dialogue and chapter title cards and narration. And although I like the use of modern rock music in period piece like Peaky Blinders, Jack White and Roy O. were completely out of place here. Right now, it's couple minutes under 2,5 hrs, opening and closing titles included.

 

[revel911]

I feel spaghetti western themes should be used .... Just less popular ones.

 

[Plissken1138]

Original     >>>    CC










Here I tried simple white balance with slight desaturation using Magic Bullet Colorista III, based on one daylight scene with snow.
The same setting goes throughout the movie.

 

[TM2YC]

^ Good work. I know H8 was supposed to have not been digitally graded but it still looked off to me, with an unnatural looking blue tint (It could have been photo-chemically tinted though). Your shots look more natural IMO.

 

[Hubunkey]

If you could get this down to 2hours or a little over then I think it would be more enjoyable. I think at even 2 1/2 hours it would  be a chore

 

[Neglify]

I think this sounds great. I loved TH8 in theaters, but watching it again at home I could agree it was too long. 

I request that you cut out Sam Jackson's slow motion dialogue in the third act. It's only a couple lines and I believe they're reaction shots that can be easily cut.

 

[Plissken1138]

It's now cut down to 2 hrs 15 min. Big obstacle is that center channel in not clean (I'm trying to keep real 5.1) so I have to cut around music cues or cut sections of cues on beat. Oddly enough, first part of narration was only center channel but the second part spilled onto left and right.
Other than five things mentioned in first post I haven't quite precisely decided beforehand what to cut and I'm kind of winging it as I go. And there are long ass takes where I intercut with dropped footage so I have to watch out for  continuity. Triming one of earlier scenes  even solved a continuity error that was left in the movie.
And yes, most of slo-mo talk is cut

Also, I realised quite late that I haven't kept complete cut list...
Or that list may have been too long

 

[Plissken1138]

2hrs 10 min. Faster paced, overall. In the meantime  I started considering a chronological cut... At least gotta try it and see how it works.

 

[Plissken1138]

Soooo... It's new/alternate opening for chronological cut, seems more... retro, if you like.

Got to work out a few details and it'll be ready to render. It's 122 min overall.
What's the Academy's preferred format for submitting? Any hints?

pass - fanedit.org

 

[TM2YC]

What's the Academy's preferred format for submitting? Any hints?

The same format as you intend to release it in (I like 720p mp4s personally but that's just my preference).

 

[Plissken1138]

updated first post.

 

[jswert123456]

Overall Excellent quality: 10/10
color correction is beautiful
and the pacing keeps the movie moving along without missing anything.

 

[Plissken1138]

Overall Excellent quality: 10/10
color correction is beautiful
and the pacing keeps the movie moving along without missing anything.

thanks for the feedback!

 

[revel911]

I won the movie, but not have watched. First time I am going to try watching a Fan edit first followed by the orginal version as almost a "Director's CUt" and see from that point of view, which I prefer,

 

[Plissken1138]

here's a variation of poster.

 

[MrBadcrumble]

Took a gander and liked it. A lot! It works well chronologically, though I'd argue you should restore the seconds with the poisoning. The cut is a tad abrupt, what with the can in focus and all (and I'm curious as to why you cut it). As for the rest of it, you've managed, in my eyes, to improve the movie. My fervor for Tarantino has cooled over the years and H8 & Django I consider to be his lesser works. With this edit H8 became considerably better. And as jswert123456 said, the pace is good throughout.https://fanedit.org/forums/member.php?action=profile&uid=1557

Otherwise the editing is exquisite, visually and aurally. I did notice some "artifacts" as the picture fades up from black at the first (~00.25.59) and third (~01.47.21) instance. On the far right hand side a red and green line appear momentarily. Regarding the first instance: Perhaps the sound fading up does so a bit too fast (at least compared to the other instances).

The only thing I didn't like was the very end. The new music is all good, but Mannix reading the letter works quite well in the original. I'd end it after his delivery instead of fading it out with end titles on picture. But that's just me.

Great job!