Friday, April 10, 2015

VCD Update

We're happy to report that we found some unique material in our Japanese VCD of The Epic. Nothing earth shattering, but some good lifts and extensions that aren't in any other source we know of.

Probably the biggest thing in this set is an alternate take of Genco in the hospital, begging Vito to help him stave off his impending death. Unfortunately, the dialogue is in Japanese. We have no reference for what the dialogue is in this scene, and the translation from Japanese into English is bizarre, to say the least, which precludes any attempt at redubbing the dialogue into something that makes any sense. Also, most of this dialogue can be found in the alternate take of this same scene that is already in our edit.

We decided to place this alternate take in the opening credit montage where we also put the other alternate take that we couldn't fit into the main storyline. If you'll recall the scene from Part II where Vito's boss Abbandando is trying to give him a box of groceries as a small consolation for having to fire him, there exists two different, but nearly identical, takes.

In the theatrical version, the dialogue is faster and Vito exits the sidewalk onto the street, where the scene fades out. In the Saga version, the scene plays out a little slower, and the shot of Vito walking into the street runs about 10 seconds longer.

Unlike the other alternate takes that we edited into the core storyline, these two scenes are so similar to their counterparts that we could not fit them into the main narrative. Therefore we put the shorter, theatrical take into the opening credit montage where we're also going to place the Genco scene. This is the only way we can place all existing footage for the Trilogy into the project.

While we're at it, we're also going to replace some of the footage that we took from the Betamax edition of The Complete Trilogy with this VCD cut, since it is of noticeably better quality than what we had. (Yes, we used the Betamax version when possible since it had a slightly higher resolution than VHS. The picture quality is pretty much the same, but the blacks and browns look way better on Beta than VHS does.) Then we can get to the finalizing stage and put this out for download.




On to some comments:




My my my, after all these years, can't wait to see it!!!!! Finally!!!


We can't wait to finally get this thing off of our hard drives! Honestly though, I'll be really happy when we get this last bit of footage done. I know you've all waited a long time.



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Could you also upload this to mega.co.nz? You could each make a free 50GB account and split the discs between them. I think Mediafire and Mega offer the most free space and fastest downloads, and Mega seems least susceptible to takedowns. I prefer direct downloads because torrents receive much more unwanted attention. Those who do torrent should use anonymizers (VPNs).


Just as a test, we uploaded some files to share between the three of us on Megaupload and Uploaded. Megaupload was relatively painless, but we will DEFINITELY NOT be putting anything up on Uploaded. It will probably be some time before we attempt to put the whole thing up on Mega since it took forever just to load about 800 mb. I shudder to think how long it would take for 6 gigs to go up. But anyone who downloads the finished project should feel free to upload it anywhere you want to, whether it be a torrent or on a staggered download site. You can even feel free to post it to a streaming video service if you think it's worth doing.

I only mention that because apparently some uploaders are screwy when it comes to other people uploading the torrent they "created." Isn't the whole point of file sharing to um, share? As long as you're not charging money for it, you have our blessing to spread this over the whole world if you see fit. 

You bring up a point that we wanted to address before, but never really had the chance to bring up. About  the legality of torrenting, and fan edits, and perceived unwanted attention, we really don't have any opinion either way. We feel that fanedits are legally protected expressions of artistic merit and they need to be shared to be appreciated, and torrenting is the best means of sharing that information with the public at large. I'm also not aware of anyone being busted for "piracy" because they downloaded or shared a fanedit. Even though we're delving in to the murky waters of "copyright protection" and "creative freedom", at the end of the day, downloading the Despecialized Editions of the original Star Wars Trilogy is NOT the same as downloading an illegal, commercially available copy of the legitimate Blu-Ray set.  

I use the Star Wars Despecialized cuts as an example simply because they're damned good edits. We're also on the eve of the official release of the six Star Wars films as a digital download. When they're released tomorrow, you should purchase them (if you don't own them already) and then turn around and download Harmy's Despecialized editions. That's the way we feel about this set: buy the GF Trilogy on DVD or BD (one) so that you can support the filmmakers and the studios that put this out and (two) so you have the legal impetus for downloading this historical preservation of material that is out of print or simply doesn't even exist anymore. If Paramount were to release a chronological cut that contains all of the material that we have in our edit, then we would pull our version down in a heartbeat. 

My last thought on the subject: if you feel wrong about downloading something because it may contain protected material, then you shouldn't download it. If you feel fanedits are not bootlegged, pirated works meant to infringe on the earnings of the rights holders, then go nuts!




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[About a full-frame edition of the CET]: I'm glad to hear it! I can wait (hopefully not three years, though, lol). What percentage of footage do you estimate is available in fullscreen?

Variable aspect presentation can be significantly less jarring if the blurred pillarbox effect I mentioned is employed. Instead of black pillarboxes, the edges of the image are repeated and blurred, tricking the peripheral vision into thinking the 4:3 image is 16:9. I don't know what software is used to accomplish it, but you've probably seen it before on television and can discover how to do it.




I'd say probably 99% of the footage used to make The CET is available in a full-frame ratio. The problem is the quality of the reference material. Probably the best source to use would be the THX laserdiscs of 1997 (including the Trilogy edition) but when I think of all that blue and red that needs to be color corrected, I get a migraine...

I've seen the technique you're talking about used before on some television documentaries. It's a nifty idea, but it's a little weird to me. 









It reminds me somewhat of those old "color" magic sheets that you could put on black and white tv sets. (I know it's a completely different barrel of monkeys, but the principle is the same. I think.) For anyone that grew up in the 70's you might remember that gimmick if your parents were too cheap to buy a color set and happened to do all their shopping at K-Mart. The Magic Screens were sheets of thin plastic that looked like brightly colored deposits of mud. You cut it to fit the screen of your b&w set and it was held in place by static electricity. Suddenly everything was in color. Except it was horrible. Skin was green, the sun was purple, grass was blue, etc. 




Instant color for only two bucks? Sold!




Son of a bitch!




My aunt and uncle were too cheap to buy a color set, so they figured that they could buy one of those sheets for a couple of dollars and have a "new" color TV. I think they tried to watch a football game or something and when the yellow football field started giving my uncle nausea, he threw it out immediately. (I used to put it on just for fun and pretend that Phil Donahue was a martian and he was hosting his show from another dimension.)

I get an instant wave of nostalgia whenever I see that blurred pillarboxing effect. It just makes me want the black bars on the side instead. 





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You will make longest saga in SD.

But what do you say about this offer? :] Maybe you can't refuse? :)

Godfather Saga AMC in HD is released 3 long years ago,
and looks like no one have intention to make uncensored version.

Use AMC and import scenes from Blu-Ray, or opposite.
And maybe 5.1 track (DTS)
Without GFIII
Release as Blu-Ray.

That can be best chronological version in best quality (HD) for a long long time.




I think this was best answered by the following poster:



They've answered this question in previous posts. They used the AMC cut when it was the best option, but it's not a true HD transfer, and has the station logo and bumpers, which force them to crop the image. They've painstakingly selected the best-looking sources on a per-scene basis.



I just really can't find the appeal in something like this. Why would you want to use the AMC broadcast as the core source for an edit, complete with bumpers, commercial break fades, and chunks and chunks of missing footage? Just to "say" that it's in HD? I mean, if it's all about HD for you, why wouldn't you just use the Blu-Rays as the core footage and then fly in the additional scenes from the Saga? 

Don't get me wrong, I love HD. We put this project together in HD and we were going to release it in HD before we realized how large the files were. But even if the HD files were the same size as a high quality DVD file, I would never delude myself into thinking that this cut was "true" hi-def. It's all about the source footage. You can add as many pixels as you like, but a blurry VHS rip is going to look as bad in HD (if not worse) than it will in SD. The same goes for the AMC Saga: a fourth generation 16mm print is going to look just as bad in an HD broadcast as it does in its native form unless it gets a from-the-ground-up digital restoration. 

It's kind of like when TV stations started broadcasting in stereo. All of the source material was recorded in mono and even though it was now being broadcasted in two channels, it was just mono being broadcast in two channels. I remember when TBS started airing monaural classics like Casablanca and Citizen Kane, people were saying "it sounds so great in stereo!"  I shook my head then, and I shake my head now when people swoon over old-generation SD masters that are broadcast in HD. 




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Hi, I'm not sure if I read it correctly on any of the posts, but how will you be presenting the ending credits? Will you be doing it as all three played in a row? Sections of it edited together?
Or creating your own?

I own the DVD collection and will have no problem creating a customized ending credits from scratch in the same format and font as the films.

I really feel that what would also make this a true complete version would be with all ending credits merged into one incorporating all cast and crew.




For the end credits, we used all three original films, the four separate credits from the Saga, The Complete Epic, The Trilogy, the Restoration project credits, and then our own quick credits. We did not use the credits from The Epic since it was virtually identical (in font) to The Complete Epic and (in content) to The Trilogy. When we said "complete", we meant complete- even down to the end credits.

We also didn't use anything that was basically a dupe of other credit sequences, like The Novellete or the "new" credits for the AMC broadcast, since they were just variations of the original NBC broadcast credits with certain actors added or deleted depending on how that particular segment aired. Also, the ending montages from the first three nights of The Saga are on the bonus disc. These were just previews of the scenes from the next night's broadcast and didn't contain any non-theatrical footage and so didn't need to be part of the CET. But we did add them as a supplement just for curiosity's sake.

That's also another plug for the bonus disc. It's almost three hours long and the only material that overlaps with the bonus features on the box set are the three original theatrical trailers. There's a lot of neat stuff on there like the original intros to The Saga and Part I broadcasts. We've (along with other awesome GF fans) put a lot of this stuff up on youtube in the last few years  but this is a chance to have it all in one place.



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Good idea. Also, what's the runtime without credits? 634 minutes, or less?



I'll have to get back to you on that one. I know the end credits run about 12 minutes total but I have no idea what the total runtime for this project is now with the new stuff we're putting in to it.





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Who else plans to splice all five parts into one for seamless viewing off hard drive or dual-layer Blu-ray? :D  



I know at least two of the guys that helped put this together have the same idea!





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You don't need to know anything. I learned how to do simple splices and cuts with SolveigMM Video Splitter in about ten minutes (after using Handbrake to effortlessly convert DVDs to editable files). Also, Final Cut Pro and Sony Vegas are among several popular basic video editors. You could complete the edit you want within a week or two.

Here's a guide:

http://lifehacker.com/5785558/the-basics-of-video-editing-the-complete-guide




I think this was in response to the guy that wanted to do the AMC edit. It's a good tutorial.

We started this in Cyberlink Power Director and ended up in Sony Vega. Power Director is a good program for beginners but Vega has a lot more potential and is far less buggy.

Also I'm reposting this for anyone that might be having trouble working around bumpers and subtitles:

 How to extract/remove subtitles/logo from a video

http://www.videohelp.com/guides/category/how-to-extract-remove-subtitles-logo-from-a-video-5;66





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Hey, today is Francis Ford Coppola's birthday... Just sayin'... ;)



It should be a national holiday in my opinion!

Also, next month it will be a year since Gordon Willis died. I was going to post something when he passed away but it was during our "hibernation" period. I'm going to try to have a memorial piece written up. I may not agree with the way he guided the Restoration, but his original cinematography is without equal.



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Either way, we should know and have the release in our hands by the end of the month - not long at all compared to the years some of us have waited, although if it isn't out by month's end, then I'll start to worry! 


Don't worry, we should have it up by the end of the month. As long as we don't find something weird, like a Nicaraguan workprint of Part II with two hours of missing footage. (One could only hope!)

It's really hard to believe that we've been working on this for almost five years. My wife walked in the other day while I was doing something and said "Are you still working on that damn Godfather thing? I thought you were finished with it!"





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In searching on eBay today, I came across this release:

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=141613098704


Appears to be an Indian/Sri Lankan VCD edition of the Trilogy. I didn't notice it listed within your sources.
 


When we found out that most of the VCDs on the market were bootlegs, we stopped screening them.

What's interesting is that this one is on the Sare Gama label, which is a legitmate Viacom license. But the Restoration was never released to VCD, which means this is probably a DVD rip. If anyone has anymore information about it, we'd love to hear it.









That's all till next time. Remember if you ever want to contact us apart from the comment section, our email is godfathermuseum@gmail.com. I don't check it every day so there may be a lag in response time. Take care, and may your foist child be a masculine child!








51 comments:

  1. Thanks for the progress update! One further item pursuant to the whole fileshare upload thing: the other major site for free uploads of large files would be WeTransfer. Fast speeds and uploads up to 2GB in size for free accounts. Might also be worth a looksee... :)

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  2. Also came across this Australian VHS release of Godfather: Part 1 on eBay:

    http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=221277542824

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  3. I would gladly download and seed the highest quality that you can post... 90gb+
    A restoration of this magnitude should be seen in the highest quality possible!!!
    Thanks for all of your hard work, looking forward to viewing the result!

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  4. When Will It Be Up

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  5. I was really crushed when I read that the scene of Michael killing Fabrezio in the pizza parlor was officially lost for good, as this one was a better and more crucial scene for the film compared to the obscure car bomb death. I was also reading about a long sequence of scenes taking place in the 1930's after Vito has killed Carlo Rizzi, where De Niro puts on 40 pounds to more resemble the Marlon Brando Vito and many others that bridge the gap between the young vito corleone segment and the 1945 segment, Are those all officially lost for good ?

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  6. I just discovered a technique that could significantly increase the visual quality of this fanedit: superresolution.

    http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/132950-csi-style-super-resolution-image-enlargment-yeeaaaah

    Someone's doing it with Star Wars:

    http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Star-Wars-GOUT-in-HD-using-super-resolution-algorithm/topic/17552/

    ReplyDelete
  7. Where can I get that?
    Is there a site where i could try a free trial?
    Thats something I could also use

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  8. I'd never heard of superresolution until I saw that Star Wars thread, but I found a program called Infognition. Apparently, superresolution has been available for many years but hasn't attracted much attention despite the significant improvements it can enable (nowhere near native HD, of course, but LD and SD video can be made to look much better nonetheless). The Star Wars editor appears to be using Avisynth and possibly other programs; I'ven't yet read through the thread.

    http://forum.infognition.com/index.php?topic=174.0

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  9. Excellent! More upgrading scenes with better quality from VCD :] That's the spirit!

    Will be nice to get some updates before releasing......

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  10. 5.1 will be mixed down to 2.0 Dolby Digital
    Nobody talks about audio.....

    It will be AC3 (lossy) 256 or 448 kbps? But why not PCM, FLAC, DTS 768 or 1536 kbps (lossless)?
    Bigger files, but for this EPIC I don't care. :]

    Some samples will be nice to hear...

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  11. Up-date Us! Up-date Us! Up-date Us! Up-date Us! Up-date Us! Up-date Us! Up-date Us!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rNr2pBexMU

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  12. looks like my masculine child will still be waiting for this to be released!!!

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  13. Put few screenshots from VCD in update ;]

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  14. "Blood On Their Hands"
    The Special Effects Of The "GODFATHER" Saga
    http://www.wideanglecloseup.com/bloodontheirhands.html

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  15. 13 days without a word... what's going on.... write a comment...

    For these who contacted him, is there anything what we need to know?

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  16. It's never coming out

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  17. May be exchanging scenes with better ones, color correcting & re-syncing audio need extensive work.

    But still they can write something....

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  18. It's never coming out

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  19. never coming out (((((:- never coming out (((((:- never coming out (((((:-

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  20. i think it will never come out, same thing in 2012 , this blog has been around since 2011-2012 and we are in 2015 now , they promised allot and delivered nothing !!

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  21. Assuming the possibility these gentlemen work full time jobs, & possibly have families, or other responsibilities, one shouldn't expect this project to produce immediate results.

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  22. @ stephen

    Is hard to write one comment............

    for all of us who was waiting for a long... very long time........

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  23. I have nothing against even if they need more time to finish it.

    Capisci ;-)

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  24. I really think we need to give these guys a break. This must be a seriously time consuming enterprise, never mind the fact they are enthusiastic amateurs. Am i keen to see it? hell yeah, but let's wait like grateful adults rather then terribly impatient toddlers.

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  25. I vote the next negative Nellie gets a nighttime visit from Luca Brasi...

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  26. Hey guys if you want an extended version of the two films with all hd footage, this guy made an edit of that: http://www.fanedit.org/forums/showthread.php?14167-The-Godfather-Extended-Edition-HD/

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  27. Unique edit, not chronological, but It's not yet finished.

    Looks like AMC Saga have only 35 min of additional scenes.
    Without opening & closing credits.
    GF1 Time Added: 22 minutes
    GF2 Time Added: 15 Minutes

    Godfather Museum say: shortened by 5 min.

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  28. WTF!?
    Paramount confirmed shooting GF4 (prequel) based on book “The Family Corleone”. (2012)

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  29. It's never coming out

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  30. yes it is never coming out, they been saying it will come out for 3 or 4 years now !!!, i mean why would i believe they will release it now!!, they could at least release what they have ,and re -release a better edit each time they do it, also editing dose not take that much of time , i've been editing for years , i edited a godfather 1 an 2 films in one huge 7 hours and 32 minutes edit and it took me 2 days to do, so spare me the it takes time crap, if they wanted to release it they would have done it 4 years ago!!!

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    Replies
    1. where does your enormous sense of entitlement come from? you sound like you think they owe you a release. get a grip fella

      Delete
    2. ^^^ Seriously. If you can do what they're doing faster, then why don't you just do it and fuck off already?
      You don't seem to get that they're not just making an edit of The Godfather, they're making THE edit of The Godfather. They've worked with over a hundred sources from Betamax to Blu-Ray and pieced together every millisecond of footage they've found for a trilogy that's over 10 hours long in total. If you can't appreciate their years of work on this project, then you clearly don't deserve to see it once it's released.

      Delete
    3. Where can I download this 7 hour 32 minute masterpiece of yours? I'd love to see what can be done in two days. Thank you!

      Delete
    4. The Godfather Chronological Epic 1901-1980 by modernknife
      Time needed for the edition: 3 days

      (all of the extra footage was presented in full-frame while the core footage was presented in widescreen. That meant that the aspect ratio jumped back and forth, which made for a harrowing viewing experience in my mind.)

      Delete
  31. although if it isn't out by month's end, then I'll start to worry!

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  32. http://media.digititles.com/title-gossip/c10a3940454c25bbf5c55f05d4ed60ca/19.jpeg

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  33. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcFlp6kl508

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  34. http://d2vo5twcnd9mdi.cloudfront.net/uploads/0b87c1bb-ad1c-4f75-a4fc-dc00666a9b57-jack%20nicholson%20smile.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  35. http://th07.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2012/344/5/c/marlon_brando_as_the_joker___why_so_serious___by_thesaygi-d5nm0mx.jpg

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  36. am going to create you an edit you cannot refuse !!!

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    Replies
    1. Let's wait one more year and probability "something" will appear!!!

      Delete
  37. DID ANYONE GET REPLY FROM THEM?

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  38. The Godfather Extended Edition HD Fanedit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS4ZXM-W3HE

    All deleted scenes back in the movie in full 1080p hd.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!

      Cheers! ;-)

      Delete
  39. Were Can I Get The Godfather: Extended Edition HD From

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  40. I think the Godfather Museum sleeps with the fishes.

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    Replies
    1. Were Can I Get The Godfather: Extended Edition HD From

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    2. It's not yet finished.

      Delete
  41. This comment has been removed by the author.

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