The Hidden (1987) - B+ Movie Edition

[The Scribbling Man]

I think it was you who mentioned previously that you often don't have enough hard drive space and often delete old project files/source material when you start a new edit. A good cheap solution for you as you are in the UK is to buy a hard drive caddy , you can pick them up these days relatively cheap and then look for old Sky TV boxes - they can be picked up at boot sales and e-bay. I often pick them up at bootsales for around £2 - £3.. Rip out the hard drives - reformat them , place them in your caddy and viola more storage space ...just an idea

Not sure if that was me, since I retain all my project files. I do typically delete the ripped/demuxed files after an edit is complete though, and it's simple enough to re-do that process if I decide to revisit the project later down the line. 

I have accidentally deleted my source files in the past though... But that's just down to a moment of stupidity. I'm not always very good at organising all the files I'm using in one place! (trying to get tidyer though) 

I'm just about managing with space atm - enough to have a few HD projects on the go, and recently was given another external which is  just being used as a back up for now - but I'll keep what you've suggested in mind for the future!

Thanks - it sounds like you have the same approach as me - totally rebuilding the sound effects from scratch - thank god for the freesound website.

 

Amen to that! Right now though most of my rebuilding of sfx is for my LOTR edit - as great a resource as freesound and others has been, I wish there was a LOTR sfx pack I could download somewhere... 

I often think about rescoring lots of films but always give up when the task because almost impossible. I fantasise about some software nerd providing us with a way to play with clean channels.

Yeah, it can be a real slog, and so now I'm being more selective with what ideas I commit to - you've got to really love the source material to put the work in and motivate yourself to finish it I think. 

The Hidden has been tough, because I don't even like the soundtrack and am having to listen to it constantly. On the other hand, my LOTR edit is using Led Zep - and I never get tired of hearing them

Some films do have clean centre channels though, and i hope that one day I actually edit a film that has one! Next rescoring project for me will likely be for The Thing - fingers crossed for that....

If it helps any, there is a thread for listing films with clean centre channels.

 

[The Scribbling Man]

Well, this wasn't awkward to edit at all...

Cutlist:

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• Heavily trimmed sex death
• Cut alien checking out his/her boobs
• Cut starting car (an unfortunate necessity for the sake of the previous cut)
• Added car sfx
• Ended scene on more appropriate music cue

You can see the original at 2:29 on this youtube clip:

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Here is the rooftop scene, finally done:

Cutlist-ish:

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• Removed lots of orchestra hits.

OK - I think the edit is done, so I'm gonna render it out in full and give it a watch through. The above clips were pretty tricky audio editing-wise though, so any feedback on them would be appreciated.

 

[The Scribbling Man]

Well, I watched through draft 1 this evening and surprise suprise... I have a nice long list of things to fix (thankfully, all relatively small). 

Tiny bit more rescoring on the rooftop scene, couple of flash frames I missed, bad dialogue from an extra that should have gone the first time etc.

Almost there though.... Almost there....

 

[The Scribbling Man]

Sorry for the delay on this. Re-scoring that rooftop is horrible. I've improved on it, but I think I've done all I can. Fixed all the other small things, and also eliminated a credit for a song I realised I'd cut. 

Draft 2 is now rendering. Hopefully not long now!

 

[The Scribbling Man]

Anyone got any ideas for a tagline for this?

I've had "Man is the funnest place to hide" suggested. It's apt and a nice play on The Thing, but "funnest" is clunky.

Edit: Or, this just in: "For one of them, it's personal. For the other, it's a parasitic body-hopping alien with a penchant for loud music and fast cars."

 

[jswert123456]

" one of these things are not like the other"

 

[addiesin]

Edit: Or, this just in: "For one of them, it's personal. For the other, it's a parasitic body-hopping alien."

I'd cut it off there. Or even: "For one of them, it's personal. For the other, it's a parasite."

 

[The Scribbling Man]

 

[The Scribbling Man]

Trailer v2:

 

[The Scribbling Man]

Submitted to IFDB

Cover art by therayney:

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"The gist" cutlist:

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- Re-scored scenes that are meant to be suspenseful, but have obnoxious 80's synth hits killing the tone. 
- Removed potty humour (such as the farts and burps during the cafe)
- Light trims for pacing
- Delaying alien reveal (so as to mask dated FX shots, and improve impact later on.)
- Toned down some of Beck's cursing (cut two instances)
- General tweaks to visual and audio elements that seemed out of place. 

Full(ish) cutlist:

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(There were lots of tiny little adjustments/trims throughout, but here are as many as I remembered to take note of)

• 0:00:00 – Added Own-the-source warning
• 0:00:09 – Added FE.org logo
• 0:00:14 – Added Scribbling logo
• 0:00:50 – Added Custom title
• 0:04:57 - Cut alien running over man in wheelchair
• Some minor trims to car chase
• 0:06:59 - Removed cheesy zoom-in’s as cops cock their guns
• 0:09:14 - Cut awkward pause on doctor’s bad acting face after “if anyone deserved to go that way it sure as hell was him!”
• 0:09:20 – Trimmed establishing shot of office
• 0:12:11 - Trimmed hospital transfer scene:
- Trimmed man opening eyes
- cut weird eye darts (and added birds eye shot to cover gap)
- trimmed man sitting up
- trimmed alien coming out of mouth (for subtlety, and to strengthen reveal during climax of film)
- Cut actual Alien transference (no awkward fake face effect)
- improved timing of cut to defibrillator

• 0:13:14 - trimmed exchange between nurse and doctor (they can't act)
• 0:13:19 - swapped out bad audio of nurse saying "doctor" for a better take
• 0:13:40 Cut “What do you mean he just got up and left?” – that guy can’t act.
• 0:13:38-40 - Replaced SFX to aid above cut
• 0:20:51 - 0:22:05 - Diner scene:
– Trimmed several bars of rock music so as to fit with other cuts made.
– Trimmed man eating.
– Trimmed customers giving man funny looks
– Cut potty humour
– Approx. 35 seconds cut in total

• 0:26:58 - Changed song that plays after alien shoots car salesman and drives away, and:
- 0:27:02 - Re-ordered scenes that follow so that this flows straight into alien driving down the street
- 0:27:57 - We then cut to the cops at the scene of the crime
- 0:28:43 - We then cut to the 2nd scene with the alien driving down the street

• 0:40:04 -Trimmed strip club scene
• 0:45:34 - Trimmed sex-death scene
• 0:46:02 - Cut stripper/alien playing with new-found breasts (re-edited music and added new sfx to accommodate)
• 0:48:03 - Smoothed scene transition after “I just wanted to know if you knew that”
• Following the above scene there are some very minor trims for pacing during the lead up to the car chase (eg. @ 48:17, the scene now transitions right after the car door is closed, whereas previously it held for a few seconds and we saw the reverse lights)
• 0:51:48 - Cut Bennet cursing
• 0:52:07 - Mannequin scene:
- Removed all orchestra hits.
– Rescored and replaced sound effects on gaps where hits had been removed.
– Cut a couple of shots that felt repetitive and to help with pacing of the scene.
– Music now cuts out as soon as guns start firing and doesn't linger. (Replaced gun sounds for the first part)

• 0:54:12 Removed excessive orchestra hits from rooftop scene (up until they are attacked)
• 1:03:14 - Trimmed dog attack scene (Small things like cutting shots of the dog licking it’s lips. It looks more ominous when it just stares unmoving)
• 1:03:33 - Toned down music after dog attacks dude
• 1:09:16 - Trimmed man using laser gun (before he just gawped for ages)
• 1:09:23 - Cut flash frame with absent fx during the above
• 1:09:29 - Reduced synth hits after explosion
• 1:09:33 - Trimmed police captain striding down the hallway
• 1:09:39 - Cut man poking his head out and then ducking back in his room again awkwardly
• 1:09:41 - Cut bad actor saying “Can we get a fire extinguisher in here?”
• 1:13:29 - During holding cell confrontation: Cut "before I kill you I'm curious..."/"left a dead partner on altair" exchange – it’s a bit cheesy and the delivery is cringey. 
• 1:13:29 - Replaced cut dialogue with "how do you like being human?"
• 1:13:42 - "Die Mother-" now occurs after this^^^
• 1:13:56 - Kept "Al Hog" (or whatever his name is) - cut straight to "we could take over this place…”
• 1:17:33 – Cut Bennet cursing
• 1:18:49 – Altered audio to reduce synth hits
• 1:19:30-1:19:47 - Rescored/replaced SFX during when Willis walks through kitchen
• 1:24:53 - Cut woman saying “look!” during senator burning
• 1:25:03 - Fixed shaky frame on shot of alien pre-exploding. 
• 1:29:26 - Swapped out credit song for “Not One of Us” by Peter Gabriel. 
• Edited above song to be a little less trippy and so it would fit the length of credits. 
• 1:32:33 - Altered credits to reflect music change and song that had been replaced.

 

[lapis molari]

@"The Scribbling Man", this looks a real improvement. I never thought I'd buy this mediocre 80s movie on DVD, but I am now so I can watch your edit.

And perhaps a little bit for Lt. Cmdr. Claudia Christian.

 

[The Scribbling Man]

Thanks, Lapis!

I wouldn't go as far as to say the original cut is mediocre though It's still a good movie in my book, it just needed some tweaks.

I didn't really expect there to be much interest, so it's nice to see that there are a couple of peeps looking to watch it.

I look forward to hearing what you think

 

[TM2YC]

This is now on ifdb. Thread moved to completed.

 

[The Scribbling Man]

As per @"lapis molari"'s suggestion, I have created an English subtitle track for this. If you already have the edit, then the file should now be accessible from the same place (both as SUB and SRT). If anyone is having trouble, let me know.

 

[lapis molari]

I have created an English subtitle track for this.

Admins,  I want to double "like" this post! Can we do that?

@"The Scribbling Man", thank you! Subtitles are often not bothered with, or simply forgotten about. Compared to other parts of fanediting though, subs are a great bang-for-your-buck. They increase the enjoyment of a fanedit, for less effort than some audio edits.

The Hidden B+ is now even more enjoyable! I've updated my review accordingly.

 

[The Scribbling Man]

I always like the option of subtitles as well, as dialogue isn't always clear even in modern movies. I've avoided doing them in the past because I assumed it would take forever, and it's frustrating not being able to chop them simultaneously as one does with the video and audio. However, although it took a reasonable amount of time for "The Hidden", the process was quite enjoyably zen.

Thanks for the suggestion, Lapis. Also very kind of you to update your review.

 

[The Scribbling Man]

I'm glad I held out on getting the current bluray for this, because The Hidden is apparently getting a Premium Collection release which will be out later this month....

Looks like its being released in DTS HD mono and surround, whereas the DVD has just the surround track.

Here's hoping for a clean centre channel!

Edit: I didn't realise this was a port from the Warner release. Will be nice to have it available in the UK, but chances of a different sound mix are virtually nonexistent.

 

[The Scribbling Man]

A while back I put together a DVD for this; complete with menu, scene selection, subtitles and some basic special features (cutlist, trailers etc.). It was mainly to make it easy to watch for a family member, but I got carried away and made it fancy. Others may also enjoy having it in this format.

I don't know how well I've done with it... my hope is that it functions fine on both European and US players. It works fine on mine, but it would be good to test if it works ok for people on other parts of the globe as well. 

If anyone is interested then let me know.