Synopsis:

Seven children find each other as an ancient evil awakens to feed off their fear. They discover that only together can they hope to defeat it.

Intentions:

So I set out to update the existing miniseries and turn it into a single feature without a segmented narrative. Minimize the downtime, and trim back wherever possible. I believe I have succeeded at tightening up the content, masking the special effects that did not hold up very well, and presenting the best possible version of the original content.

Change List:

- New opening credits. - Many new musical cues and sound effects throughout. - Colour-graded the entire film. - Cropped to 16:9 (and lovingly pan-and-scanned throughout) - Removed Mike Hanlon's voiceover wherever it occurs. - New establishing plates for all cities outside Derry. - Bill & Audra's establishing scene is shortened. - "Georgie & Pennywise" tightened up. - Ben's awkward dialog with his date is removed. - Ben's first encounter with IT tightened. - Bev & Tom meeting the Japenese businessmen removed. - Bev's "Call" removed. - Tom's endless search for champaign is VERY tightened. - Moved Eddie's 'revelation' from Mr. Keene to immediately after his adult character is established. This makes the payoff later more satisfying. - Theater (I Was A Teenage Werewolf) scene tightened. - Removed awkward "men or mice" line. - Eddie's shower scene re-cut to heighten tension, add franticness, and hide poor visual effects. - Removed Eddie's chaufer from the train scene. I mean… ugh. - Adult Richie's establishing shot scaled WAY back because it adds nothing. - Removed Richie's entire conversation with his agent. It was awful. - Werewolf scene re-paced. - Removed intervention of shop owner from the Hanlon/Bowers scene. Doesn't make sense that he would step in when it is later established that adults don't get involved. - Rock fight scene got new foley, and dialog cuts. - The daylight-is-fading-and-we-need-to-get-this-in-one-shot super-pan of the now complete Loser's Club changed to standard cuts. - Bill's "Help Me" speech now 40% more inspirational! - Adult Stan's "sex maniac" dialog and lingering shots of Perfect Strangers are cut. - Stan's Mummy encouter added during the phone call with Mike. - Vic Criss' encounter with the Deadlights tightened - Deadlights have a custom lighting effect - Henr*y whitehair is cut - Eddie's "Battery Acid" is re-timed to make his intervention for Stan seem more "last-minute" - The "Drain Incident" has been quick-cut to mask the poor effects somewhat without losing the sense of place or understanding what is happening. - "Stan Found" has been recut for gradual discovery and to remove the total lack of blood in the opening shot. - "Audra/Greco" moved to right after "Stan Found", but Greco is removed completely, it doesn't set up or pay off anything, so it's cut. - The various "[Character] Arrives in Derry" scenes have been reordered. - The "Bill & Mike Ride Silver" montage was cut because, honestly, it feels like filler. - "Ben Helps Fellow Fat Kid" is cut because it was too convenient, and the new fat kid cannot act. At all. - "Bev Returns Home": removed close-up of "MARSH" doorbell plate, because it was too obvious. Now it's more subtle, more of a detail that will reward repeat viewings. - "Bev Returns Home": removed the "You're not real!" exchange by the closed door, makes it feel more like an escape and less like IT just allowed Bev to leave. - Re-ordered the Library scene between Richie and Pennywise - Trimmed down the "Dinner Montage" at the Chinese restaurant. - Removed the image of Pennywise superimposed on the moon during "Wake Up, Henry". It is still implied that he sees Pennywise in the moon, but not shown directly. - Trimmed the "Fortune Cookie" sequence to tighten it up a bit and mask some of the lesser effects. - Cut A LOT of Harry Anderson's CLEARLY improvised comedy during the "Calling Stan" sequence. - Re-cut Bill's re-telling of Stan's "Mummy Encounter" so we ONLY see flashbacks of things that Bill witnessed firsthand. - Trimmed the part where Mike slams the prop fridge and it pops back open momentarily. That has bugged me since the 90s. - Trimmed the Clown Dog from "Henry Escapes" and leaves the *how* nebulous, but implies that he used the switchblade given to him by It-as-Belch. - Removed some of the hokey dialog from "Ben and Bev Kiss", but because of the single tracking shot (there are a LOT of those in this miniseries) I couldn't really do much with the "Why is it so mean?" mini-monologue. - Bill's "I don't want to be scared anymore" speech is now 30% more inspirational! - Re-cut the "Pennywise in the vines" monologue to hide the superimposed pennywise. We still see the Losers Club looking at a singular location, but what they actually see is not shown to the viewer. - HEAVILY re-cut the final fight with IT in it's spider form. Removed almost all wide shots of the spider. Removed MOST of the close-ups. Basically tried to show as little of it as possible. While I think the practical spider looks pretty good, I think it's better to be less explicit, and allow each viewer to fill in the blanks on their own. Let the creature be more personal that way. - The film now ends when the Losers Club emerge from the cave. - Custom end credits (expanded from original, using IMDB to credit many more folks who went unrecognized in the original miniseries).

Additional Notes:

Used Final Cut Pro X and Pixelmator. Watched the whole miniseries 3 or 4 times, taking notes about what things could be safely cut (that didn't set up or pay off anything later), then went scene-by-scene trimming bad (or badly delivered) dialog, irrelevant or overly heavy-handed moments, and special effects that don't stand up very well.

Other Sources:

IT (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: Benjamin Wallfisch).

Special Thanks:

My family, Machiffet, Sinbad, and TheCuddlyNinja for the feedback that helped polish this edit.