The DVD ripping/editing thread.

My guess: You can't make fun of Craig's films, but it's totally cool to rip on Brosnan's.

I hate iMovie. I can't figure out how to only save audio from a clip.

I've gotten a hold of Final Cut and I aim to try my hand at editing. The target? A flick that has always been inticing to me in terms of doing an edit: SUPERMAN II.

Considering I have bought this film three times (original silver DVD set, which I still have; plus both versions that were released in 2006), I don't feel guilty ripping them to my MAC and having my way with them. It's not like I'm gonna sell this stuff. I see it as chance to practice editing without having to buy a camera, write a script, hire actors, and shoot a movie.

One problem I have, the program I am using won't let me rip the deleted scenes from the Donner Cut DVD. I'm using Handbrake, any suggestions? I may use a couple of those scenes, and I'd like to have them at my disposal.

I've been reviewing the two versions, and I'm thinking of doing roughly this with the first 25/30 minutes of the film.

-Pre-titles
-----Sentencing (Donner)
-----Blast off, Superman chases missile.
-----Missile flies into space, frees Zod. "Free!" (maybe using much of the effects from the Lester cut as I don't like the CGI)
-Titles (Donner)
-Daily Planet (Donner)
-Lex in prison (Donner)
-Moon sequence (Lester) (Has a few more shots and violence, and I prefer the "curl" exchange to the hairdryer line, and the Donner one is too blue)
-Prison escape (Donner) (Why'd Lester cut so much of that? Probably spite, the bastard)

Lester, the bastard. He filmed lame comedy and cut out much of Donner's better comedy.

Certainly the delight of the Donner cut was having all those scenes flesh out more, some nice touches that were cut out. Though the toilet gag is kind of goofy. Also, "would you care to step outside" is one of the few Lester additions I prefer over Donner's original shot scenes. "Freedom of the press" is fun and goofy in the Mankiewicz touch, but the Lester bit definitely adds that "SHIT GON GIT REAL". Well, at least you believe that until it becomes a comedy act.

SUPERMAN II: THE DISCO VEST CUT

A real shame about the screen test. It's so much better written than "Oops, I trip and burnt my hand!", but I can't use it in my cut.

With the Donner material, I really like Kidder. She's about a thousand times less appealing in the Daily Planet scenes in the Lester version, with her heinous office set and her chain smoking. Hardly a romantic lead there.

So I'm looking at using the Honeymoon Suite scene from the Lester Cut, but cutting it off midway. Either after Lios says, "Honey," or, and this is what I'm likely to do, cut it after the bellboy says, "And have a happy... whatever." Punctuate the scene with Clark's brief look. The stuff after that, I think, can be tossed out, and it inclues a line of Clark just repeating something Mr. White would have said earlier if the Donner footage is used.

Mind you, I'm not even starting the editing yet, I'm just going through and deciding what I might do.

But I is hassing fun.

One thing I'm looking at is making my cut have a fast pace overall. So I'm not planning to just put every scene possible in there. I even considered if it were possible to completely ditch the East Houston sequence. Or at least shorten it.

I think this might be what I'll try... There will be tweaks and such, but these are the broad strokes.

-Pre-titles.
-----Sentencing. (Donner)
-----Blast off, Superman chases missile.
-----Missile flies into space, frees Zod. "Free!"
-Titles. (Donner)
-Daily Planet. (Donner)
-Lex in prison. (Donner)
-Moon sequence. (Lester)
-Prison escape. (Donner)
-Honeymoon suite. (Lester) (Until "Have a happy... whatever.")
-Lex heads north, finds the Fortress. (Donner) (Until the shared chuckle.)
-Niagara Falls rescue. (Lester)
-Lex in the Fortress. (Donner)
-Zod lands on Earth. (Lester)
-Lex heads south. (Deleted scene.)
-Clark reveals himself to Lois. (Lester) (From, "If Perry White could see me now.")
-Zod and the cops (Donner until "Duane, you take care of it", then Lester.)
-Lois and Clark fly to the Fortress. (Donner)
-Battle in East Houston. (Donner)
-Lois and Clark have dinner. (Lester) (Until they hold hands.)
-Zod declares New Order. (Lester)
-Clark gives up his powers. (Donner)
-Zod on the rampage. (Donner)
-Lois and Clark in bed. (?)
-Zod attacks White House. (Donner)
-Lois and Clark drive south. (Donner)
-Diner scene. (Donner)
-Lex meets Zod. (Donner)
-Clark travels to the Fortress, Jor-El's sacrifice. (Donner)
-Zod invades the Daily Planet. (Donner)
-Battle of Metropolis. (Donner)
-Zod in White's office. (Donner)
-Zod flies to the Fortress. (Donner)
-Battle in the Fortress. (Donner)
-Arctic Police take Lex away. (Deleted scene, trimmed.)
-Superman destroys the Fortress. (Donner)
-Superman drops off Lois. (Donner)
-Lex's escape. (Deleted scene, trimmed.)
-Diner scene. (Donner)
-Fly off. (Donner)

What this version would mean is that the Fortress is destroyed, and, more importantly, Lois doesn't forget. I've always thought having Lois forget a great romance, even if it ended in heartbreak, is actually a pretty dickish thing to do. Even if it's easier on Lois for her to forget I don't think it's right. Plus, I hate using the turning back time trick twice. And the memory kiss would involve the different set. I'll see what my options are.

I agree about the ending. Actually, I might have cut the diner scene, making the last line of the movie be Kidder looking up saying "there he goes kid. Up up and away..." then cut to Superman flying off, but without the final shot of him smiling at the camera, rather ending it with Superman flying into the sunset.

Makeshift Python wrote:

I agree about the ending. Actually, I might have cut the diner scene, making the last line of the movie be Kidder looking up saying "there he goes kid. Up up and away..." then cut to Superman flying off, but without the final shot of him smiling at the camera, rather ending it with Superman flying into the sunset.

The diner scene doesn't make sense if he turns back time first anyway, as it's implied to be a rematch. And you could say Superman is kinda being an asshole as it's not a fair fight by any stretch.

But I don't think ending it on Lois would work. It's a bit of a downer, and then we'd see Superman flying and smiling. Wouldn't fit together, so I think the diner scene works best. I plan to include the second prison escape because I enjoy it, think it adds a bit of levity, reintroduces Otis and Miss Tessmacher (who otherwise vanish from the movie), and I think it'd be a good buffer for "Goodbye Lois" and the diner scene.

That's why I said cut the final shot of him smiling at the camera, thus the final thing we see is him flying towards the sunset. It's somber, but as long as it's effective it might leave a good impression for audiences and already look forward to what happens with Lois and Clark in the next film. Plus I think it would be spectacular to have a viewer walk out and say "wow, I was really moved by a superhero flick, unreal".

Anyway, it's an ending I'd like that sets up the story for the next film. With Lois and Clark starting off uneasy at work, through the new adventure they learn to become comfortable with eachother that by the end they're the finally the "same old Clark and same old Lois" as said in the ending of II, although "not quite" as she noted. Basically, it would not be SUPERMAN RETURNS.

So, I've been doing a rough cut of SUPERMAN II. I've reached a point where I need a deleted scene, but I still haven't found a way to rip it from the Donner Cut DVD. :|

The actual rough cut of the film (which will pretty much be the actual cut anyway, I'm just calling it rough) seems like it won't be too difficult to get together. A lot of it is just splicing and reordering scenes, but only trouble comes in a few transitions because of overlapping music. The pre-titles I'm gonna do pretty much from scratch. That'll be the biggest challenge, and I'm saving it for the end. Well, not the end of the film.

I might post something on YouTube under a private link. Maybe the title "Cabal of Rogue Nuns", or "Rory's First Kiss". If anyone hasn't seen SUPES II in a while and would want to see what a hash I make of it.

I finally figured out how to rip the specific titles, and it was so easy. It was just something on the menu that I overlooked.