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Post by gothicarchiesfan on Mar 4, 2021 4:29:49 GMT -5
This appears to be a section cut from the scene where Olaf introduces himself to the children, where he twirls in front of the children. I apologise for the quality jump midway through this gif, but the second half of this footage could only be found in one of the film's tv spots.
Thanks to urban-letter-opener 's excellent detective work, we now have an alternate version of this scene that, yes, includes Olaf spinning around. This was part of an Oprah episode that aired on November 24th, 2004.
The fact that this scene was still in the movie just a couple of week before release, and differs greatly to the one on the DVD's deleted scenes section (seen below) shows just how much it was getting test screened and re-edited just a couple of weeks before release.
That it also features a section of Thomas Newman's score that appears on the album but doesn't in the final film, is also further proof of just how much the music was edited in post-production. |
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Post by tsmefford on May 11, 2021 19:52:14 GMT -5
gothicarchiesfan I've actually been in the process of gathering everything I can about the Snicket film myself and stumbled across this fabulous post. Had to join up and give my thanks for putting it together. Besides the deleted scenes present throughout the bonus materials, I had no idea just how much else was removed, even so close to the film's release. Wow! I don't have much to contribute, but I have a better source for something mentioned in your OP a couple times. It's a bit complicated unfortunately, but I very very recently required a copy of the International Trailer on 35mm film stock.  This copy is also open matte for many shots. VFX were finished in 1.85:1 so those are cropped, but everything else is opened up to the frame that was shot. Like this example from a Jurassic Park film scan.I have the ability to get still images from the print at this time, but do not have the budget or means to get it scanned in A/V Format. I am, however, working on that, so I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, I plan on having a set-up to capture stills from the reel later the week. I'll come back and post some samples!
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Post by Dante on May 11, 2021 22:53:42 GMT -5
This is really impressive. Apparently the GAF team has now gained a big reinforcement to unlock the secrets of the ASOUE film. We are looking forward to it.
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Post by tsmefford on May 11, 2021 23:18:49 GMT -5
Looking around more, it looks like I may have some other things to contribute. I have some more concept art and renderings from the graphic artists I've collected over the years, as well as behind the scenes images. I can post those in a separate thread sometime later this week as well.
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Post by urban-letter-opener on May 12, 2021 6:50:48 GMT -5
Wow! Wow, wow, wow. Wow. It's a great pleasure to meet you, tsmefford! Thank you for signing up, and for sharing this with us — it always surprises me that it took this long for this information on the film to come out. |
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Post by tsmefford on May 12, 2021 13:14:27 GMT -5
Wow! Wow, wow, wow. Wow. It's a great pleasure to meet you, tsmefford ! Thank you for signing up, and for sharing this with us — it always surprises me that it took this long for this information on the film to come out. Glad to be here! As far as why it's taken so long for some of this information to come out...honestly, I suspect Paramount really doesn't care much about this film for multiple reasons. It took ages to get a Blu-Ray release and so I imagine there has not been a lot of effort on their part when it comes to preservation of materials and anything that did go out back in 2004 is getting lost to time. Even via the internet. Luckily some things have resurfaced in relatively good condition, but I sure do wish I had the knowledge I do today and could've captured the whole suite of TV Spots and what not in high quality. I didn't start doing that sort of thing until 2007 or so for certain things. Oh well. We'll do what we can! |
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Post by tsmefford on May 14, 2021 17:13:36 GMT -5
Quick update on the 35mm film International Trailer everyone!
I just received the final bits of equipment I need to begin scanning some images from the reel! I will be working on going through it tonight and tomorrow and might start sharing some images from it later tomorrow. Again, I am still working on a way to fully scan it into a digital video file, but for now the images will be nice.
I look forward to sharing them!
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Post by gothicarchiesfan on May 14, 2021 21:54:16 GMT -5
Quick update on the 35mm film International Trailer everyone! I just received the final bits of equipment I need to begin scanning some images from the reel! I will be working on going through it tonight and tomorrow and might start sharing some images from it later tomorrow. Again, I am still working on a way to fully scan it into a digital video file, but for now the images will be nice. I look forward to sharing them! That's fantastic! I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to seeing the fruits of your (very impressive) labour. |
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Post by tsmefford on May 15, 2021 2:07:23 GMT -5
Surprise! I made it through the first half of the trailer tonight. I'll be working on more tomorrow, but in the meantime...the Bad Beginning...  The first thing I want to briefly touch on is "Open Matte". Some may not fully understand what this means so here's a quick explainer: The 2004 film was shot for and released in 1.85:1 (16:9) Widescreen format. However, it was shot on Super35mm film, which has a taller aspect ratio. Meaning they shoot more of a square image that is intentionally cropped down in post aka "Matted". This isn't always how this shape is achieved, but in the case of Lemony Snicket it is. In the early 2000s many film trailer sent to theaters were "Open Matte", this means uncropped. The idea was that the theaters would matte the trailer themselves on their own screens. So, naturally, this trailer is presented, for the most part, in Open Matte. Meaning we get an expanded image on the top and bottom. What does this look like? Behold:  That being said. You'll notice some shots are still matted. All VFX shots from ILM were completed in the final ratio of 1.85:1 so any shots that are matted have been touched by VFX. And now...stills from the 35mm International Trailer! Firstly, this reminds of just how gorgeous this film is. The 35mm film look just suits it so well. Beautiful. Cool little things to note thanks to the open matte: - A couple of extra little details in some of the shots that were previously cropped out
- You can see the cameras matte box in some shots (the blurry bar at the top of certain shots)
- You can also see equipment like dolly tracks and set edges in some shots.
Hope you guys enjoy this! It's a very tedious process so I didn't do every shot, but I tried to do as many as I found interesting. Also, I do apologize for some of the imperfections in the images. I am not a professional, just a hobbyist, but I really like how they came out! As a bonus, here is what these look like with the full film strip width:  More to come tomorrow! |
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Post by urban-letter-opener on May 15, 2021 6:49:08 GMT -5
These are absolutely wonderful! Thank you so much for your hard work, tsmefford — it's great to see these images in their original aspect ratio, and to finally have nice quality footage of some deleted scenes (images 10, 11, and I wanna say 3, but I could be wrong about that last one) Well done! I've put it off for a long while, but I have a contact with Lindsay Gupton, the producer for the PC version of the tie-in video game (she's the CEO of her own company now!) and I think I'm finally going to ask her if she remembers anything from development of the game. If it's half as interesting as the production of the film it should be fascinating stuff. |
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Post by tsmefford on May 15, 2021 16:45:14 GMT -5
These are absolutely wonderful! Thank you so much for your hard work, tsmefford — it's great to see these images in their original aspect ratio, and to finally have nice quality footage of some deleted scenes (images 10, 11, and I wanna say 3, but I could be wrong about that last one) Well done! I've put it off for a long while, but I have a contact with Lindsay Gupton, the producer for the PC version of the tie-in video game (she's the CEO of her own company now!) and I think I'm finally going to ask her if she remembers anything from development of the game. If it's half as interesting as the production of the film it should be fascinating stuff. That would be really cool. Honestly I wonder if they would've seen an early cut of the film to develop the game. Could have some insights into scenes we may not even know about. Plus, the process of putting the game together I'm sure would be very interesting. I'm especially curious about their relationship with the film. Like: Did they ever have to quickly make changes when the film was also undergoing changes? |
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Post by tsmefford on May 15, 2021 17:49:55 GMT -5
Alright everyone. Part 2! Unfortunately, it looks like my trailer is missing the extra shots from the train scene. If you reference my Part 1 post, you'll notice the trailer reel is labeled as "Lemony Snicket V2". Well, I think I have a revised version of the international trailer that removes the following shots: - Olaf tapping the top of the car
- The car locks
- Olaf saying goodbye to the kids
- The deleted railroad shot
- Violet in the car: "There's always something"
- Stephano saying "Then the unthinkable happened"
- Olaf in the car on the tracks
Here's how the ending of this revised trailer goes - Stephano looking around
- Olaf leans on Klaus
- Olaf driving: "Ultimate Dad"
- Olaf twirls
- Logo
- Violet: "We're very concerned"
- Credits & Date
What's also interesting is that it looks like they simply spliced out those scenes. Check it out. There's a weird series of blue lines below the last frame of Stephano's shot and the logo shot. These don't appear anywhere else in the reel. Conveniently right in the places that V1 would've been edited to create this V2:   That being said, here's a look at the rest of this "V2" 35mm International Trailer! My biggest interesting notes about this half are really seeing which shots were touched by VFX and which were not. Some of them I was surprised by. For example, I had always assumed that the three-eyed frog in the Reptile Room was a real frog that had a third eye added to it in post, but it seems this was a completely practical effect with most likely a prop frog. Meanwhile, you've got simple shots, like that shot of Captain Sham, that apparently have some VFX work done on them. Welp! That's it for now! Feel free to ask if you have any questions and discuss of course! I am still looking into finding someone that could get a nice proper scan done of this so it exists as a watchable video file, potentially even in 4K or something. That would be fun. When that happens, I'll make sure to let you guys know. In the meantime, I will be around! |
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Post by urban-letter-opener on May 18, 2021 8:21:59 GMT -5
Dropping this little bit of (probably) deleted footage here — it's a photo autographed by Browning, Aiken, and Connolly. I don't think this shot ever appears in the film, and the way it's framed makes me think that it wasn't just a promotional picture, but I could be wrong. Maybe there were originally some POV shots for the Viper in this scene?  |
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Post by catastrophist on May 18, 2021 8:39:23 GMT -5
These are fascinating, thanks so much for sharing! Seeing the expanded versions of some of these images really drives home the scope of the sets. And I'm always surprised by what was VFX and what was practical. I think the movie really benefited from coming out at a time when digital effects weren't always the go-to solution, so you get gorgeous tactile visuals like the prop frog and the painted streetscape behind the ruins of the Baudelaire mansion.
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Post by gothicarchiesfan on May 18, 2021 16:50:45 GMT -5
These are fascinating, thanks so much for sharing! Seeing the expanded versions of some of these images really drives home the scope of the sets. And I'm always surprised by what was VFX and what was practical. I think the movie really benefited from coming out at a time when digital effects weren't always the go-to solution, so you get gorgeous tactile visuals like the prop frog and the painted streetscape behind the ruins of the Baudelaire mansion. There's a great coffee-table book about Industrial Light and Magic that talks about their work from the mid 90s to the late 2000s and they actually bring up a fascinating example of this. When Brad Silberling did Casper (300-ish VFX shots) it was the most any company had ever done for a movie, and then not even 10 years later, Lemony Snicket (600-ish VFX shots) was the least amount of CGI shots they had worked on for any movie in years. It's crazy just how much time, money, and talent was behind the 2004 film. None of the other children's book adaptations that came out in the wake of Harry Potter come anywhere close, apart from maybe The Golden Compass (and that movie was already a globetrotting action film). Hell, even the first 5 Harry Potter movies had smaller budgets. |
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