User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Owner's reply
February 19, 2023
Wow, thank you so much for this detailed review. I appreciate the time you put into it, not to mention the 2hrs 28mins to watch the movie again with renewed interest. :)
I'll comment on a few of your points...
"Though I still wander what became of him in the end..."
I've wondered about this too, to the point where I wasn't sure if should include his final scene on Earth. Ultimately, I felt he deserved at least one scene were we see him trying to live up to his father's wish: "Take care of our farm". Sort of gut wrenching that we never see him again, and without the conflict he does come across more sympathetic. I'm happy you saw it that way too.
"Visually and narratively I liked the crossfade to the burning corn scene"
Something interesting about this: It's literally the only cross fade in the entire movie, and it's not mine! But it's really the only way to cut back to Earth in a way that isn't jarring, I think, so I can understand why they did that. Amelia's broadcast (turning off the monitor) is a convenient way to cut, but after that they needed a more cinematic device...
"...with the only misplaced example for me being Dr Brand’s Did you notice anything strange line due to his mouth"
I was concerned about this. I was trying to sell it as a continuation of the dialogue from the conference room. I've seen this done in other movies, but maybe I didn't sell it properly. If I do another version, I could keep the audience in the conference room a bit longer, just for that line, then cut out to the hanger, but it's actually a really plodding scene when you revisit it time and again and there's no dialogue at the beginning. My aim was to speed it up.
"The song that plays before there preparation for hibernation veers a bit to close to the left ear rather than the sound being balanced out so that it plays throughout both sides of the headphone simultaneously with a similar issue occurring during what I dub the winters day song where the sound veers to the left than shoots to the right"
Yeah, that's in the Simon and Garfunkel source material. Turns out they like to do that. I should see about mixing it down myself so it's more even. If I do a version 2.0, I'll try that.
"...when the security guard yells out to Murphy to not be afraid and than it cuts to her immediately being afraid it comes across as unintentionally comedic due to her scream"
This part wasn't me. It cuts from Zimmer's score to her scream, and yeah, I think Nolan was definitely going for comedy there. But for me it works! The damn robot doesn't understand how scary it is! DON'T BE AFRAID :)
"Amelia Brands love stuff theory and while a good majority of that has been trimmed I feel that most of or all if possible could have been cut out all together"
Honestly, I hadn't considered removing the scene entirely, but perhaps it could work. They need a reason to visit Mann's next, and a reason that they can't visit Edmunds...I'll think on it. I do still like that Amelia is drawn to Edmunds' even though it's been a decade, and I actually really like her delivery on that part of the line ("...I'm drawn across...even though").
"and finally the gear shifting scene in the car is a little on the jumpy side"
Gosh, I tried so many things to sell that better to the point where I realized they must have added that stupid gear grinding (which makes no sense!) just to swamp the audience's brain so the flat tire happens somewhat subconsciously. Without all that noise it does feel a little off. I tried layering in some additional sounds, but could quite make it work. Open to suggestions!
"I think it’s a great edit and certainly a huge improvement over the theatrical version and my go to version for Interstellar from this point onwards."
This means a lot to me. It's literally my first attempt at editing, and I did this entire project on a 10 year old Lenovo laptop running Linux. It was...hard. :)
"...have you thought about doing an alternate black and white version of this edit that matches the cover art"
This is a fascinating idea. If I make a version 2.0, maybe I'll do one in B&W after I learn about all the nuance involved in balancing that correctly (instead of just adding a greyscale filter and calling it done).
Thank you for all your words!