Synopsis:

Lena is a troubled young woman from a bad part of Berlin. Antisocial and self-destructive, Lena is caught in a dead end life until she meets Louise, Nora,and Charlotte. Beautiful and glamorous, they are everything Lena is not and Lena cannot help but be flattered by the promise of a new life and family. A life of power and excitement. A life that will never, ever end. This edit updates and refines Dennis Gansel's 2010 movie, We Are The Night. The visual effects and sound mix have been enhanced, several deleted scenes have been reinserted, and weak plot points, dialogue, and pacing have been trimmed. The ending has also been changed to provide a more coherent and satisfying conclusion to the story.

Intentions:

I found the original movie to be very engaging and well-made, but it was marred by unexplained plot points, instances of weak action, special effects, or sound effects, some pacing issues towards the end, and most of all by an abrupt and confusing ending. This edit aims to fix as many of these issues as possible by changing the ending, reinserting deleted material, trimming some weak plot points and dialogue, and adding to the visual effects and sound mix in several scenes. It is my hope that these changes will help the movie better live up to its potential and provide a more consistently satisfying viewing experience.

Change List:

- Change the ending to flow better, be less confusing, and provide a satisfying conclusion to the movie. - Reinsert deleted footage in places where it would improve the story or pacing. All of the reinserted deleted scene and alternate ending footage has been cleaned up and color graded to fit with the rest of the movie. In the English audio track, the dialogue in these scenes has also been dubbed into English. - Improve the presentation of one of the movie's rules about vampires. In this movie's world, only a very small portion of the human population can become vampires, but the theatrical cut presents this plot point poorly by showing almost no visual signs of it and only mentioning it in one line (which was changed in the English dub). I attempt to make this plot point more clear by adding a glowing eyes visual effect which is similar to one seen in early trailers for the movie. - Remove all instances of the vampires being invisible in mirrors and cameras. This is inconsistent with other parts of the film, such as the opening montage of historical photographs and countless times when their reflections are visible in glass, car bodies, shiny tables, rainy streets, and so on. It also raises a number of questions which are never addressed, and I feel it doesn't fit with the general style of the movie. - Improve or trim instances of weak special effects or sound effects, such as a painting in the opening montage which looks obviously fake and a shot where it seems like one of the vampires should be retracting her fangs, but nothing actually happens. - Cut occasional instances of weak dialogue or poor pacing. - The English subtitles have been modified in several places for readability, grammar, and/or accuracy, and have been reviewed by a native German speaker to ensure the quality of the translation. Full Cutlist: - Remove Louise's narration over the opening credits. This doesn't tell us anything we don't find out later, and there is no need to know it at the beginning of the movie. - Modify the final painting seen in the opening credits to look more like an actual painting. - Add deleted scene, "The vampires land in water" - Add "Revamped" to title screen. - Stabilize several shots during the foot chase between Tom and Lena to tone down the shakycam. - During the foot chase, remove shot of Tom climbing onto the truck which makes it look like he is within arms reach of Lena. - Add deleted scene, "Lena talks with her probation officer." - Add a pulsing red glow effect to Lena's eyes at several points in the club scene. This is what Louise sees in her eyes that lets her know that Lena can be turned into a vampire, and is based on a similar effect seen in early trailers and an alternate ending. - Edit the scene where Louise talks to and then bites Lena in the club bathroom to remove all instances where Louise is shown to not be reflected in the mirror. Insert a reflection of Louise in the mirror into the background of one shot using visual effects. - Remove the shot where Lena is shown to have a transparent reflection in her bathroom mirror. - Remove the scene where Lena looks in her bathroom mirror again to find that her reflection has disappeared. - In the scene where Lena returns to the club, move the shots of Nora sitting next to Charlotte and Charlotte sitting by herself further apart, to make it more plausible that Nora moved that far offscreen. - Digitally repair damaged frame when Lena slaps the glass of blood away. - Use After Effects Timewarp to slow down Nora's movements in a wide shot, to fix continuity error where her arms suddenly change position in between cuts. - Remove Lena's line "what are you doing to me?" and Louise's response, "I'm teaching you something you don't want to learn." - (English audio track) Redub Louise's line, "Show her no mercy," as "Don't show any sympathy," to make the translation more accurate. - Remove Russian mobster's line, "She told me you're a shy girl. We'll take care of that." - Insert stock footage of a burnt electronic device into the scene where the police are investigating the crime scene at the brothel. Presumably, this is the VCR that the camera was connected to, and it got damaged in the fire. - Add static and distortion to the brothel security camera footage, presumably as a result of the tapes getting damaged in the fire. Insert image of Louise walking past the camera, barely visible under the static, into the footage at one point. While the footage is too badly damaged to see anything useful in in the parts where the vampires are on camera, it is clear enough when the surviving mobster walks by for the police to identify him. - Remove Tom's line, "there's no way they could have manipulated the tapes." - (English audio track) Redub Louise's line, "Of course, after that we swore never to bite a man again," as "And then we swore never to bite a man with the gift again," to make the translation more accurate, and replace a line that makes no sense, since the vampires are shown to regularly bite and kill men. - (English audio track) Redub Lena's mother's dialogue when Lena returns home, so that her voice is the same as it was in in a previous reinserted deleted scene. - Add deleted scene "Conversation in the garage." - Briefly speed up footage of security guard after he sees his dead partner under the water, so Louise doesn't spend quite so much time just sitting there. - Make Nora's fangs actually retract when she opens her mouth and we hear what is almost certainly supposed to be a "retracting fangs" sound. - Color correct the shot of Lena running away from the tropical resort to make it darker, so it doesn't look like she ran all the way back to the hotel at the crack of dawn. - Trim and stabilize some instances of shaky cam during the hotel raid scenes. - Add burning sound effects when the cops shoot at the sunproof car and the vampires inside get burned by beams of sunlight coming in through the bullet holes. Add a puff of steam rising from Lena's head when it is exposed to sunlight in a brief shot. - Remove Lena's line, "I don't know what you're talking about," in response to Louise saying that she saw her with Tom before. Lena spotted her stalking them at the time, so denying it now makes no sense. - Trim Charlotte's suicide scene to improve pacing and shorten the time that Louise spends trying to break the door down. Remove part the shot where Louise appears to hurt her hand after hitting the door. Add crashing metal sound effects to interior shots of Louise pounding on the door. - Insert a shot of Louise looking at a book that was an old present to her from Charlotte, from the deleted scene "Louise Grieves," after Charlotte's suicide. - Remove Lena's line "I can't explain it in words," in response to Tom asking "who are you?" She can explain it just fine; he just wouldn't believe her. - Add deleted scenes "Louise investigates," and "Extended police station attack." - Add approaching police siren sounds to the scene where Lena hotwires a car and drives away from the police station. - Color correct the establishing shots of the Teufelsberg hideout to make them brighter, so it looks like it is the crack of dawn. It would have to be for the sun to rise by the time Lena makes her way up the tower. - Trim Lena's reaction shots in response to Louise's "tell me you love me." - Add bone crunching sound effects when Lena hits Louise with a pipe. Make several cuts to the second half of the Lena-Louise fight, to keep the pace and energy up. Color correct shot of Lena throwing a punch at Louise to make it fit with the rest of the scene. - Add burning sound effects when Lena briefly passes through a beam of sunlight after getting thrown to the upper floor. - Crop shot of Louise jumping up to Lena's level, to make it look like they are closer. Add Louise lines, "It doesn't make sense. Give up." from the deleted scene, "In the cupola". Edit Lena's charge so that she starts running while Louise is still talking, and cut frames from the charge itself to make it seem shorter. Also crop a quick shot where Louise has her arms outstretched, to fix continuity issues. - (English audio track) Redub Louise's line "Now it's just the two of us," so that the voice matches the lines from the deleted scene. - Add a zoom in on Tom's gunshot wound when Lena goes to check on him. Change the music to be more ominous as Lena moves to bite Tom. The intent is to make it clear that Lena is getting overcome by hunger and not, as many people believe when watching the scene in the original movie, thinking about turning him into a vampire (which isn't even possible in this edit). - The ending is extensively changed. A combination of footage from the original movie, alternate ending footage, and visual effects shots shows the following sequence of events: After kissing Tom, Lena gets up and walks away as approaching police sirens are heard in the background. Presumably, they follwed her there from the police station. The police arrive a short time later and enter the building to find Tom still alive. Meanwhile, Lena has escaped through a manhole near the building that is just barely in the shade. Lena is shown running down a subway tunnel. She stops, looks back at the camera, then turns and keeps running. Roll credits. - Insert Fan Edit credits into the ending credits. - Add "Revamped" to the title screen at the end of the credits.

Additional Notes:

Editing Software: Premiere Pro CC, After Effects, Photoshop, Audacity, Sony DVD Architect Pro.

Other Sources:

- Voice acting in English audio track provided by Jordyn Percival, Caitlin Buckley, and Logan Knotts. - Stock footage from http://www.pond5.com/

Special Thanks:

Vultural, That One Guy, Flatscan78, Jordyn Percival, Caitlin Buckley, Logan Knotts, and anyone who followed the "In the Works" thread on this site.