Pietro Scalia Talks Editing Alien: Covenant

Started by Corporal Hicks, Jun 28, 2017, 09:42:47 PM

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Pietro Scalia Talks Editing Alien: Covenant (Read 29,604 times)

SM

QuoteThe many shots of Shaw, preferably in her undies or naked, trying to catch David as made the only towel on the ship wet again.

:laugh:

With Benny Hill music.

Jonesy1974

Quote from: Hemi on Jun 29, 2017, 08:57:36 AM
Quote from: SM on Jun 29, 2017, 08:40:40 AM
Quote from: DorkiDori on Jun 29, 2017, 07:59:01 AM
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Jun 29, 2017, 07:30:03 AMCan we conduct ourselves with a little more decorum please, Dorki?

kay... how bout, the editor under Scotts direction did a terrible job in omitting key plot elements that should have been left in the film. he deserves a slap on the wrist (and possibly boot in the rear) for ever thinking cutting out something so crucial to the storyline was ever a good idea! due to the Shaw and David elements being cut from the film, it really added the most to the bitter taste in my mouth that Alien Covenant left me with as I left the theaters feeling angry and utterly betrayed hoping for 5 years we would get the same deep and profound presentation we were given with Prometheus.

It seems as more and more comes out about Alien Covenant, it gets more and more disappointing... almost to the point where the film is more of a blunder than the rocky road (to Dublin 1 2 3 4 5) Alien 3 traveled down during its development hell. The only saving grace to this film was amount of amazing artwork that came out of it from so many talented creature designers.

What key plot elements?

The many shots of Shaw, preferably in her undies or naked, trying to catch David as made the only towel on the ship wet again.

-_-

The adoration for this character is beyond me. She was annoying in Prometheus and deserved the offscreen death. (search "offscreen death" in google...funny what you find in images haha. )

Totally agree, she wasn't relevant to the plot of Covenant any further than what we saw and I was glad to see the back of her.

Petr Švancara

Petr Švancara

#77
When I go to watch a movie, I want to watch it no matter how long that actual movie is. Hell, I can survive even 3,5 hour movie just like nothing. I just totally dont understand why they cut already existed scenes, if they dont want these scenes. . than, why they created them? They wanted to remove the entire David's intro? They wanted to remove the whole flashback sequence? What a huge dissapointment. Both scenes are very good and they help to provide some attention. . not to mention that without flashback sequence we will never know how exactly David killed the Engineers in their colony. . It show us how arogant someone behind this movie must be. . and maybe this is the reason why many things in Covenant stay unexpleined. You know, how can someone even think about removing (maybe) one of the most important scenes from the entire movie? Is that even normal? Hey, how was these Engineers killed? What happened to them? Ahh. . we wanted to cut this scene. . they just die, dont think about it, it's not important. . ohh, alright I forgot there are a lot of this in Covenant.

juxtapose

the bombing scene was essential. .can't imagine covenant without it. .and cutting the crossing was a mistake. .i mean what was it. .like 2 minutes?. .poor noomi, her only scene and snip . .gone!

0321recon

Quote from: juxtapose on Jun 29, 2017, 12:08:38 PM
the bombing scene was essential. .can't imagine covenant without it. .and cutting the crossing was a mistake. .i mean what was it. .like 2 minutes?. .poor noomi, her only scene and snip . .gone!
Perhaps she was in it for 8 to 10 minutes, then cut to two, then entirely cut out. Shame.

juxtapose

. .and then they had that distortion effect with her during the rogue transmission. . . I wonder how noomi feals about all this?

TWJones

Quote from: Protozoid on Jun 29, 2017, 03:53:30 AM
Scalia claims to be all about story and character. I'm sure he thinks he did a good job given the constraints. But keeping the prologue because the compositions are nice and he's proud of the editing when the movie desperately needed more Shaw? Sorry, that was a miscalculation. Cutting Shaw scenes before cutting that was clearly based on Scalia's emotional attachments, not good storytelling.

Speaking of editing mistakes, that interview has the most typos I've ever seen in a professional article. They even misspelled Kurosawa twice!

Those typos were driving me bonkers. I've noticed that more and more with internet articles and journalism. It's almost as if the writer is breathlessly typing everything to get it online first!

Also, I agree with your assessment regarding the opening scene with David and Weyland. It is a beautiful scene, and I'm glad it's in the film, but not at the cost of losing 12 minutes of David and Shaw. That's the story I wanted. I know Weyland made David, and I know their relationship was complicated. So in reality, the opening scene does not tell us anything we don't already know.

What I don't know, and what I wanted to know, is more about David and Shaw.

Predaker

Quote from: juxtapose on Jun 29, 2017, 06:37:36 AM
i get the impression that most of what was cut from covenant did not involve the last 20 minutes. .apart from the shower scene. .wich will amount to a few seconds. .

I agree.

While it would have been nice, adding a few more seconds here and there for some lingering shots wouldn't address the real issue towards the end, which I believe to be the way the final alien was dealt with. More specifically, the scenes where Daniels and T corral the alien through the ship by choosing which hatches are open or closed until it was flushed out into space. It was a golden opportunity to really ratchet up the tension, suspense, and horror to 11 by fully leveraging the alien. This alone could have made the ending damn near perfect, because everything before and after that event were fine.

CainsSon

CainsSon

#83
Quote from: bleau on Jun 29, 2017, 03:40:58 AM
QuoteSorry, Pietro, but your editing ruined another Ridley movie. He's a damn butcher. He needs to stop trying to fix stories in the editing room. He did the same to Prometheus, thinking that the structure needed fixing when it didn't. Having flawless pacing and a balanced structure is secondary to tracking the story in the way that allows the audience the deepest experience.

Well I'm sorry to tell you, that regardless of who is editing the film, it had to be just under 2 hours per Fox's Contractual Order. It was in contract to be under 2 hours. Besides it sounds to me like he fought to have more themes kept in the story. It's a hard job given the restrictions and restraints of director , studio and all of the above. If you have problems with either film he is not to blame.

THIS!!! THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS.

It's like NO ONE understands that ^^^^^THIS^^^^^^ is the reason the movie is the way it is. Stop bickering and wasting your time. You aren't understanding that this is an industry issue. Its about runtime. Almost everything that wasn't good in this AND Prometheus were because of a contractual obligation to limit the length of the film. All of this bickering and finger pointing - its just because an R-RATED 100mil$ film cannot be 2.5 hours long and risk not making its money back. The editor was just doing his job. If anything the problem is that they need to write a 1.5 hour script so Ridley and his editors can keep the pace fleshed out.

Also there is nothing Scalia's interview that says there are 12 additional minutes of SHAW footage specifically. He says more stuff that bridges the gap, totaling 12 minutes. This includes what is already IN the film and the Prologue. You are assuming that means more scenes with Shaw. It doesn't. It may be slightly extended Prologue or etc but we also know that the opening Prologue with David was initially longer, for instance.
So a longer Prologue, possibly a slightly longer version of The Crossing, and the scene with David bombing the Engineers all included in that 12 minutes. He didn't say "12 additional minutes of Shaw and David on Paradise doing a bunch of stuff youve never seen." At best, there may be an additional scene or a viral that never got released.

TWJones

You're right, but he does mention another flashback when he talks about how Shaw died. That is the specific scene I'm curious about. Pietro suggests that the scene contradicts David's "lie."

sliderockmpc

This was the most revealing part of the interview for me...

"The middle part of the film was more challenging after the reveal of David.  Once the Covenant Story merges with the Prometheus storyline finding the proper structural order of the scenes proofed to be difficult because of the distinctive dynamics of the two story lines in addition to the separation of the two locations of the action. In one sense the action, the tension and unfolding drama going from one group to the other had to be balanced and spaced properly as not to loose the connective tissue of the film."

I personally never felt like the film recovered the sense of chaos generated during the Med Bay and Grass Attack scenes. I didn't have an issue with the idea of David as Frankenstein, but the first time I saw the film, it didn't fit with everything we'd seen up to that point and it threw me out of the film for several minutes.

Hemi

Hm.. Just thinking out loud. But the movie doesn't have a clear image of the actress present. Could it simply be that not having her act in the movie was cheaper? Kinda like hicks in A3?

SM

SM

#87
QuoteI just totally dont understand why they cut already existed scenes, if they dont want these scenes. . than, why they created them?

Because you shoot as much as you'll think you'll need, but then find that you have more than you'll need.  If you put in absolutely everything you shot - it gets boring.

QuoteTHIS!!! THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS.

It's like NO ONE understands that ^^^^^THIS^^^^^^ is the reason the movie is the way it is.

Perhaps because bleau made it up...?

BishopShouldGo

Quote from: SM on Jun 29, 2017, 08:27:59 PM
QuoteI just totally dont understand why they cut already existed scenes, if they dont want these scenes. . than, why they created them?

Because you shoot as much as you'll think you'll need, but then find that you have more than you'll need.  If you put in absolutely everything you shot - it's gets boring.

QuoteTHIS!!! THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS.

It's like NO ONE understands that ^^^^^THIS^^^^^^ is the reason the movie is the way it is.

Perhaps because bleau made it up...?

And because the movie is made three times. Once at the script stage, once during principal photography, and once in the editing bay.

𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Jun 28, 2017, 09:42:47 PM
Alien vs. Predator Galaxy had previously heard that the film's prologue had nearly been released as a viral video before being inserted back into the film.

Was that originally supposed to have been released at San Diego Comic Con last year? Refer to old quote below:


Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Jul 24, 2016, 02:43:42 PM
Expect. f**king autocorrect. There's a scene that's been cut from the movie that is apparently going to be recycled for viral campaign. It's supposed to go up this weekend during SDCC. Not much longer left for that to appear.

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