Synopsis:

My main problem with 'Blade Runner 2049' was the insanely slow pace of the editing/cutting. Every line had a vast gap after it and every shot lingered for too long, even if nothing whatsoever was happening in the shot and the camera was motionless. I love long movies but when a film is nearly 3-hours, careless and lax editing is a crime. It's like they assembled all the footage and forgot to go through and tighten everything up like a good editor should. So I was interested in making a cut of this film that focused (almost) entirely on improving the pace of the cuts. The same film/experience but edited properly. An experiment in doing a fanedit that doesn't actually remove anything!

Intentions:

My intention was to present the same film, with no scenes removed, no shots removed and no lines removed but with the excessively slow pace of the editing fixed. Great pains have been taken to make sure every shot is as long as it needs to be and no longer, even if this is a matter of a few frames. That does not mean I wanted the film to feel fast, I still wanted it to feel slow and considered, but not to the ludicrous extremes of the original cut. So when dramatic pauses are appropriate, they are still there. No new music or additional soundFX have been added. I also felt Roger Deakins' Cinematography (for which he won an Oscar) was particularly ugly and flat in comparison to Jordan Cronenweth's majestic Cinematography for the '82 original (for which he did not win an Oscar). No amount of re-grading is ever going to make this look as good as the original because the same care, talent and artistry just isn't there. However, I've done my best to maximise contrast, deepen shadows, lighten highlights, tone down some of the hideously aggressive tinting and generally make things more dynamic and varied.

Change List:

I've made 429 tiny cuts to the length of shots which are far too numerous and small to list but here is a list of other more significant changes: 00.00.00 - TM2YC and FE.org titlecards added. 00.02.18 - Opening sequence rearranged and shortened to more closely approximate the faster pace and intercutting style of the '82 opening e.g. the eye is now in two shots in the middle and we open on a slow fade up timed to the music. 00.02.36 - Removed part of shot that had the opening location title. 00.03.47 - FX tweak to time the spinner door closing with K clicking the thing in his hand. 00.04.59 - Added slow zoom in on the kitchen to make it more of a Sapper POV and to smooth in the cut to Sapper already in motion in the next shot. 00.07.05 - Reordered shots to increase pace and to make the timing of the gun being placed on the table more menacing. 00.10.24 - Tweaked yellow flower in long shot so it's more prominent. Also added slow zoom in on tree and animated spinner window to match new camera move. 00.11.46 - Shortened flying sequence and timed the cuts to the drum beats on the soundtrack. 00.11.52 - Matted the window to adjust the grade separately in order to maintain a consistently grey sky. 00.12.34 - Matted the window to adjust the grade separately in order to maintain a consistently grey sky. 00.13.02 - FX tweak to remove the baseline onscreen title. 00.22.32 - FX tweak to fix continuity error by adding Madam's elbow to the edge of the autopsy table. 00.23.18 - Rearranged a couple of lines to aid the removal of some dead time and to make the conversation flow better. 00.23.45 - Added slow zoom in on K's face to make the shot more impactful. 00.25.12 - FX tweak to combine two halves of this shot so K reacts to Madam quicker. 00.26.09 - Adjusted grade of two shots to fix mis-match of neon lighting colour across the cut. 00.26.29 - FX tweak to remove Wallace onscreen title. 00.27.42 - FX tweak to re-time Luv and what is on her computer screen. 00.31.57 - FX tweak to combine two halves of this shot so Luv reacts quicker to K's comment. 00.43.54 - Added slow zoom onto the carving to make the shot more focused. 00.46.56 - FX tweak to combine three parts of this shot so Madam and K's conversation occurs quicker. 00.48.27 - FX tweak to make the gap between Madam's lines shorter. 00.48.43 - Added slow zoom out to the first 2 seconds of this shot to increase the menace in Madam's stare. 00.49.19 - FX tweak to re-time computer screen readout. 00.49.54 - Added slow zoom to shot of screen to make it feel more like a natural POV from K. 00.53.31 - Several shots in this sequence had to have the windows matted and colour timed differently to maintain a properly graded cockpit but keep the skies grey and overcast. 00.54.36 - Did my best to correct what I believe to be an FX error. Joy's head was partially transparent, so I've made the black of her hair black again to look more solid. It's improved but not fixed. 00.56.18 - Sped up pace of K waking up, this meant I had to carefully re-time each of the heavy bass beats of the music, so the gaps between them were all consistent to the new pace. 01.03.00 - Added slow zoom to make the shot more focused on what K is looking at. 01.04.46 - Added slow zoom to make the shot more focused on what K is looking at. 01.07.11 - Added slow zoom in on horse to make the shot a little more intense. 01.09.12 - FX tweak to combine two halves of this shot to decrease the gap between lines. 01.12.47 - Added slow zooms in on K and Ana's faces to make them a little more intense. 01.13.13 - Cropped shot of K's face tighter to be more focused on his reaction and to maintain consistency with the new earlier zoomed shot. 01.13.37 - Added slow zoom and camera tracking move to focus in much more on K flipping out. 01.18.26 - FX tweak to combine two halves of this shot to decrease the gap between lines. 01.35.26 - Added slow zoom to draw more focus to the dog. 01.42.36 - Added slow zoom in on K's face to make the shot more interesting and intense. 02.16.20 - Brought forward shot of Deckard looking down at the horse to increase pace and drama. FX tweak to re-time movement of K's arm. 02.16.35 - FX tweak to combine two halves of this shot to improve pacing. 02.18.18 - Reordered ending shots to intercut K and the snow, with Ana and the snow, timed to the existing Vangelis music. 02.19.17 - Added slow zoom out and upwards from K's body to give his last shot more finality.

Additional Notes:

General plan of changes: - Regraded the film scene-by-scene and shot-by-shot (if needed) to tone down excessive tinting, make blacks black (not grey), make whites white (not grey), lighten up scenes that were impenetrably dark, increase saturation in some scenes, decrease saturation in other places and generally make things look more varied and contrasty. - Removed overlayed location titles because the '82 film had none and the information isn't really important. - Made some (hopefully invisible) VisFX tweaks to fix continuity mistakes and combine multiple takes into single shots. - Reordered some lines and shots, mostly to facilitate removals of dead time but these changes are rare.

Other Sources:

Special Thanks:

Thanks to everyone who gave feedback in the project thread.