Apr 23, 2022, 20:43 pm
The MST-HD Project Vol. 001:
Episode 213 – Godzilla vs The Sea Monster
Pretty straightforward idea here: put the MST3K silhouettes in front of the best HD version of the movie being riffed. The host segments remain, but when we move into the theater the film is playing in the best possible quality / original aspect ratio. I've had this idea in the works for a while and this first episode will hopefully be done in the next month or so. Since conceiving of it, I stumbled on Riffling's great work on 'Zombie Nightmare' on this forum. I don't want to step on anyone's toes, just want to see this project realized. I plan on doing three MST episodes before stepping back, but I'd love to offer up my project files and experience to guide anyone who wants to take a stab at another episode. I’ve chosen Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster to begin the series since it’s one of my favorite episodes, and the one that that got me hooked on the show as a kid in the 90's. And since it's one of the few MST3K episodes that hasn’t had an official release - and since there's such a gorgeous print of the film in the Criterion Collection - I though it'd be the perfect candidate to bump up to HD.
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I'm editing down Criterion’s version of Ebirah, Horror of the Deep from the Godzilla Showa Era box set so it matches whatever cuts were made by the distributor or Best Brains in the episode. Next the silhouettes from the episode are isolated (no easy task nailing this 100% of the time, as anyone who's attempted this will tell you) and more theater seats are added to fill out both sides of the screen. For the countdown doors I’ve composited out the hole in the last door so it will open on the new HD theater.
The only other big issue besides clean silhouettes is working around the fact that Joel and the bots walk in and out of the theater through an invisible door in the middle of my new, wider frame:
![[Image: XIzYTTDl.png]](https://i.imgur.com/XIzYTTDl.png)
The only other big issue besides clean silhouettes is working around the fact that Joel and the bots walk in and out of the theater through an invisible door in the middle of my new, wider frame:
I’ve employed a few workarounds without actually animating an extended walk-in. First is to let the last countdown door cover them up until they’re all through the "invisible door”. When there’s no countdown door as they enter/exit I’ve added a greenscreen red curtain effect that opens/closes to start/end the segment. See the video below for an example, but note that the curtains have since been updated to something more real-looking.
The biggest holdup to completion of this project has been nailing down stable, clean footage of Joel and the bots. There are stray artifacts that pop up occasionally depending on the lighting/color of the scene and because this is a VHS rip the image will jump sometimes as tracking dips. Right now I’d say the footage looks good about 95% of the time, though what's left will be a bit time-consuming.
I have two other episodes in the works as well (a Mike and a Joel) but I don’t want to reveal them yet since I want the focus to be on Vol. 001 and celebrating this episode.
(Note: much of this post was copied from similar posts I made on fanedit.org and originaltrilogy.com)
I have two other episodes in the works as well (a Mike and a Joel) but I don’t want to reveal them yet since I want the focus to be on Vol. 001 and celebrating this episode.
(Note: much of this post was copied from similar posts I made on fanedit.org and originaltrilogy.com)
