Renegade Folk Hero

Remember how I said there was a problem with the soundtrack for the original cut of ReDeath? I must have made it up. After hearing Misato’s dialogue in the OC just fine on my comp, I checked the DVD to see if the issue was really there. Lo, her lines are all present with all the fidelity of the audio cassette tape that they were recorded on. I can imagine why I really thought there was a problem. Much of her dialogue only comes out of one speaker (I opted not to fix this for the DVD in order to truly preserve the orignal cut of ReDeath), so when I couldn’t hear her lines, it must’ve been because whatever room I was in at the time wasn’t rigged for stereo. Can’t complain, less work for me is always a good thing.

So after I test the DVD encode of Nesca 1.7, my next project is to recap the deleted scenes for Fanboy Bebop. The audio is way overblown. Then I will consider the subtitle options for all three. Doing ReDeath was such a tedious chore, I’m not looking forward to doing subs for the longer FBBB and the even longer Nesca. I’d ditch subs altogether had I not seen how well they worked at Fanime last year. Reminds me, “songs only” for ReDux…

Though I’m still ironing out a few things, it looks like version 1.7 of Nescaflowné is locked at a runtime of 60:13, about 10 seconds longer than version 1.0. MPEG-2 encoding of the new stuff should be done by tomorrow night.

So I’ve been hand a stuffed up nose and constant sneeze for about 6 weeks now. It’s really starting to get me down. Today my dripping nose spontaneously dripped while I was making out with Judy. Needless to say, that was the end of that. (And I’m pretty sure I lost a whole hell of a lot of points)

I really don’t remember my allergies every being this bad. I don’t know if it’s because my ionic filter stopped working or what, but it’s pretty fucking bad. I’ve got to find time to go out and get some claritin or something.

As Nesca inches closer and closer to “completion” (if the stars are in alignment, it should happen by tonight), I thought I’d take a moment to go over its revision history. The “final” cut I’m working on is the seventh eighth version of Nesca (a version being defined as something that got shown to the public), which means I errored previously in referring it as version 1.7. With only hard copies of 1.3, 1.5 and 1.6, some of my recollections may be a little fuzzy.

EDIT: Oh man, I just remembered. Can’t believe I forgot the real 1.4. So yes, 1.7 is the correct number for the “final” cut.

1.0: debuted FanimeCon 2003, runtime 60:01(?)
Only one VHS copy was made, which was mailed to CONvergence immediately after FanimeCon. I believe this copy is still in CONvergence’s rotation.

1.1: debuted Otakon 2003, runtime 60:01(?)
This version fixed many visual glitches in 1.0, mostly interlaced frames I forgot to remove during lip-sync.

1.2: debuted ?, runtime 60:01(?)
Same as 1.1, but made a correction at request to the end credits.

1.3: debuted Otakon 2004, runtime 59:46
1st DVD version. The entire soundtrack was scrubbed line for line to remove hiss and other flaws as best as possible. Somewhere between 1.1 and 1.3, around 15 seconds are trimmed for pacing. All VHS copies after this point through the present are of version 1.3.

1.4: debuted Anime Central 2005, runtime 59:02(?)
Between 1.4 and 1.5, around 45 seconds more are removed.

1.5: debuted FanimeCon 2005, runtime 59:02
1.4 was only screened once due to a major sound error in a recut scene. A 30 second or more chunk (the arrival at Atlanta) had no audio whatsoever, which led to me screaming the missing dialogue at the ACen screening. 1.5 restored the missing audio…

1.6: debuted FanimeCon 2006, runtime 58:40
…but now the section right next to it it was screwed up. In restoring the audio, I accidentally double tracked parts of the ”helium” scenes, and since the original and recut versions had different pitches, the result was a bizarre demonic character to the dialogue. 1.6 fixed that problem and also removed over 20 seconds more footage.

1.7: will debut at ?, runtime ?
Approximately two minutes and fifteen seconds of new footage added in. Around 45 more seconds of existing footage is trimmed. End credits revised to reflect new footage/music. Will be first version to get DVD menus.

This week. Nescaflowné should be done this week. Feels great.

As mentioned previously, one of the new scenes for the final cut is something meant to give resolution to the Head and Miwanna subplot. In the script, this scene occurs just before the final confrontation with Khan. But having watched the climax in its current truncated form for nearly four years now (holy crap I’m lazy), it’s clear that putting that scene in its intended place would slow things down. But since I still want to tie up that plot thread, I decided to move the scene to just before when Hitmi returns to Japan. The problem is that the recorded dialogue explicitly mentions its orignal context, in which Miwanna had a role (also cut) in Head’s rescue. So it’s a matter of trimming some of her lines and redoing a couple of Head’s.

After I finish the new stuff, there’s some touching up to existing scenes I might do. There’s one shot in particular I’d like to add to enhance a joke and I’m also considering a couple more pacing trims. And then it’s on to the DVD authoring, starting with ReDeath since most of the work is already done.