Review Detail
7.3 3 10
Enjoyment
9.0
Reviewed by Gatos on July 15,2011
REVIEW
(MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!)
(None of these comments are meant as a personal attack on the editor. These simply my opinions on the edit and are meant as feedback and constructive criticism.)
The Sopranos is one of my favorite TV series of all time. Even when it got a little out there with the episodes that were 90% dreams. It was always entertaining. Don’t get me started on the ending of the final episode though. But the writing and acting on this show are incredible. You could take out all the mafia stuff and be left with a great family drama. And there is so much comedy as well. When I rewatched the first season a while back, I realized how much of a black comedy it is in many parts. I am always interested in fanedits of TV series.
Anyway, on to Horace’s fanedit:
For this edit I did not follow my usual practice of avoiding reading the cutlist before viewing the edit.
Video Quality: The video quality was excellent. I watched Part 1 in the DVD format. Part 2 I watched in avi. There were no real jarring cuts. Maybe one or two of the fadeouts to black, the black screen could have maybe been a second or two longer. But i feel that everyone’s opinion differs on the length of a fadeout and it really depends on the two scenes it is between. So that is small potatoes and it never “took me out” of the viewing experience. The DVD menu design was simple enough with a nice motion menu, very nice menu!
Audio Quality: I found no jarring audio, no audio dropouts. Every faneditor talks about the need for cross-fades and I definitely agree. But I feel that they don’t always need to be super long and have the audio from the previous scene bleed into the the next scene for too long. So again, no glitches or pops, and if cross-fades were used they were very shorts ones, which is fine, cause all you really need to achieve is smooth audio (and this was achieved with this edit).
The Edit:
The edit flows very well. It is hard to remove the episodic feel of any TV series when turning it into a movie. But really for me, I felt that the episodic feeling was barely there. Which was a good thing IMO. I was sad that “College” was not in here (save for the Carmella and Father Intantolla scenes), as it is one of my favorite episodes (along with “Pine Barrens” and “Whitecaps”) but I agree with Horace’s choice as it is a stand alone episode and doesn’t fit with what his intentions were with the edit. And initially I wasn’t sure if the inclusion of Carmela and the priest was necessary. But it definitely serves a purpose. It shows Carmella’s feelings about Tony and his work. It also fills in potential plot holes in other key scenes that were in the edit. The decision to end part 1 with the ending of “Pax Soprano” was perfect IMO. And i love the instrumental from Xzibit’s “Papparazzi” in that end scene. The ending of the fanedit (part 2), is essentially the same as the end of Season 1 so I have no complaints there.
Constructive Critique: So I have two small gripes. Not really a big deal in the scheme of the edit. But there is one fade to black scene (and the scene as it relates to the series is the end of an episode), for a split second and very faintly, you can see a bit of the end credits. This is really nitpicking, I know, and its not a big deal. The only other thing which is not a critique so much as just an editing decision I didn’t agree with is the inclusion of the end scene from the episode “Nobody Knows Anything” where Tony is standing by the water and i believe the bridge where Casian commited suicide and the song “Manifold de Amour” is playing (i love this song). Its just a very brief scene and didn’t think it was necessary to include. Alternately you could say it was good to include as maybe Tony is reflecting on the cop’s death.
Anyway. Overall this is a great fanedit. A good way to watch the meat and potatoes of Season 1.
I rate this fanedit 9/10! Great work Horace!
REVIEW
(MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!)
(None of these comments are meant as a personal attack on the editor. These simply my opinions on the edit and are meant as feedback and constructive criticism.)
The Sopranos is one of my favorite TV series of all time. Even when it got a little out there with the episodes that were 90% dreams. It was always entertaining. Don’t get me started on the ending of the final episode though. But the writing and acting on this show are incredible. You could take out all the mafia stuff and be left with a great family drama. And there is so much comedy as well. When I rewatched the first season a while back, I realized how much of a black comedy it is in many parts. I am always interested in fanedits of TV series.
Anyway, on to Horace’s fanedit:
For this edit I did not follow my usual practice of avoiding reading the cutlist before viewing the edit.
Video Quality: The video quality was excellent. I watched Part 1 in the DVD format. Part 2 I watched in avi. There were no real jarring cuts. Maybe one or two of the fadeouts to black, the black screen could have maybe been a second or two longer. But i feel that everyone’s opinion differs on the length of a fadeout and it really depends on the two scenes it is between. So that is small potatoes and it never “took me out” of the viewing experience. The DVD menu design was simple enough with a nice motion menu, very nice menu!
Audio Quality: I found no jarring audio, no audio dropouts. Every faneditor talks about the need for cross-fades and I definitely agree. But I feel that they don’t always need to be super long and have the audio from the previous scene bleed into the the next scene for too long. So again, no glitches or pops, and if cross-fades were used they were very shorts ones, which is fine, cause all you really need to achieve is smooth audio (and this was achieved with this edit).
The Edit:
The edit flows very well. It is hard to remove the episodic feel of any TV series when turning it into a movie. But really for me, I felt that the episodic feeling was barely there. Which was a good thing IMO. I was sad that “College” was not in here (save for the Carmella and Father Intantolla scenes), as it is one of my favorite episodes (along with “Pine Barrens” and “Whitecaps”) but I agree with Horace’s choice as it is a stand alone episode and doesn’t fit with what his intentions were with the edit. And initially I wasn’t sure if the inclusion of Carmela and the priest was necessary. But it definitely serves a purpose. It shows Carmella’s feelings about Tony and his work. It also fills in potential plot holes in other key scenes that were in the edit. The decision to end part 1 with the ending of “Pax Soprano” was perfect IMO. And i love the instrumental from Xzibit’s “Papparazzi” in that end scene. The ending of the fanedit (part 2), is essentially the same as the end of Season 1 so I have no complaints there.
Constructive Critique: So I have two small gripes. Not really a big deal in the scheme of the edit. But there is one fade to black scene (and the scene as it relates to the series is the end of an episode), for a split second and very faintly, you can see a bit of the end credits. This is really nitpicking, I know, and its not a big deal. The only other thing which is not a critique so much as just an editing decision I didn’t agree with is the inclusion of the end scene from the episode “Nobody Knows Anything” where Tony is standing by the water and i believe the bridge where Casian commited suicide and the song “Manifold de Amour” is playing (i love this song). Its just a very brief scene and didn’t think it was necessary to include. Alternately you could say it was good to include as maybe Tony is reflecting on the cop’s death.
Anyway. Overall this is a great fanedit. A good way to watch the meat and potatoes of Season 1.
I rate this fanedit 9/10! Great work Horace!
G