blade runner - the deep cut

i've completed my addi-compliant edit of blade runner. given that it shortens the film to 1 hour and 8 minutes (without credits), that my moniker is 'deepstructure,' and that we've already had the 'director's cut' and the 'final cut,' i'm calling it the 'deep cut'. tricksy, i know.

for quite some time now i've been coming out of watching a film thinking to myself, "that could have been at least 1/2 hour shorter and i wouldn't have noticed," as so many films seem to have a lot of padding. i've long wanted to take one of these feature films and re-edit it to remove the scenes or shots i felt were superfluous.

since being laid off in june, i've had some time on my hands so i began looking around for a good candidate. once i decided to do this i suddenly couldn't remember any of the films i'd thought that about. but then it hit me - blade runner. my biggest complaint with the film has always been it's pacing. i've always thought the director, ridley scott, seemed far more focused on the background and the environment than the story or the characters. and given that's it's a futuristic version of the 40's noir films, i felt it should be a bit tighter and more story driven (then again i think that about most films).

i don't believe im the only one who feels this. many folks i've talked to about the film have tried to watch it more than once, only to fall asleep during it. and according to it's wikipedia entry:

"Blade Runner initially polarized critics. some were displeased with the pacing, while others enjoyed its thematic complexity. The film performed poorly in North American theaters."

this isn't a simple chopping out of a few scenes (the 'final cut' version which i used clocks in at 1 hour and 50 minutes without credits). i rearranged scenes to make more narrative sense, replaced and added score material and did some rebuild sound-design. however, aside from one brief cross-dissolve i didn't alter the shots visually or do any color or vfx work on the film. i tried as much as possible to only use the source material of the 'final cut' version.

obviously maintaining continuity with the sound is much more difficult than with picture. if i remove a shot or two, you've no reference other than your memory if the new sequence works. but the associated audio may not line up at all. the soundtrack is syncronized with the current sequence of images and it can be hard to separate out the sound elements associated with the visuals you've eliminated. but fortunately the ear can be more easily fooled than the eye most of the time. i had two allies here: the score and the cross-fade audio function in final cut. it's amazing how powerful a simple cross-fade is in bridging two shots and the blade runner score is more atmospheric and abstract than melodic, making for seamless cross-fade merging when i lift out a shot or scene.

unfortunately i had no way of ripping a blu-ray dvd of the film, so i worked with standard def material. however, having made a dvd of my edit and played it back on my 50" hd plamsa tv, i can assure you it still looks amazing. the encoding on the 'final cut' dvd is very good.

i'm planning on having a screening or two of the film. if you live in the los angeles area and are interested in seeing it, drop me an email or leave a comment here. if you're not in the area and interested in seeing it, let me know and i can either send you a dvd or a link to a quicktime download. at 1 hour and 8 minutes what do you have to lose? it's not a huge time investment. anymore. :)

check out a clip of the new beginning of the film below or watch the full-sized version on youtube:



some changes you may notice:
1) removed "main titles" score and replaced it with "end titles" score.
2) removed opening credits (they've been moved to the end of the film)
3) removed opening scrawl and date card
4) shortened city-scape sequence
5) quicker intro into the leon VK sequence.

**update: i've created a torrent for the full film. it's 1.7gb.

**update 2: you can read reviews by the fanedit community here:
fanedit.org/7880