User talk:Maskedweasel

Noob Answers

Thanks for asking. Before you create a page, please make sure the title is eligible and please have good screencaps. Almost all new pages will get looked over by admins anyway. If you have any concerns as to the eligibility of a particular title, you can ask one of us. As for building the page, it's important that you do it because you've actually watched the movie and there's no guarantee anyone else has. If you're unsure about coding, you can use the sample code page I have here. As for time, the actual creation of the page shouldn't take more than maybe an hour. That's not much if you've already put in two hours to watch the film and maybe another hour to go through the screencaps. Good luck! --Funkychinaman (talk) 13:16, 13 May 2014 (EDT)

BTW, if you have any doubts about whether a title is eligible or not, please ask. --Funkychinaman (talk) 21:21, 13 May 2014 (EDT)

That's great, many thanks. The titles I have are: Funeral in Berlin, Billion Dollar Brain, Brass Target and Breakthrough. The only issue I may have is with the screencaps as the first two titles are taken from normal DVD (not bluray!) but Brass Target and Breakthrough are from VHS as they have never officially been released on DVD. Should I still put them up or is the quality going to be an issue? Thanks again! --Maskedweasel (talk) 03:56, 14 May 2014 (EDT)

Let's do the two Harry Palmer films first. --Funkychinaman (talk) 11:12, 14 May 2014 (EDT)

I certainly hope your caps look better than the ones you provided for Zulu Dawn. If you need tips on getting good screencaps, please refer to the IMFDB Screencapping Guide. --Funkychinaman (talk) 12:34, 14 May 2014 (EDT)

LOl! Yeah, the Zulu Dawn caps came from a DVD that came free with a newspaper which hadn't been remastered! It's not exactly a favorite film of mine, so I won't buy it!!! In all honesty I think the Breakthrough screenaps I have are worse, but it's quite a rare film. I am away for a week so will upload the Harry Pamler films when I return next week. Cheers for the help! --Maskedweasel (talk) 03:48, 15 May 2014 (EDT)

Your screenshots looked squished

How are you grabbing screenshots? It appears that the aspect ratio is off as the people in the shots appear to be too skinny. VLC is a good program to grab screenshots. ---Ben41 (talk) 16:30, 22 May 2014 (EDT)

According to IMDB, the aspect ratio is supposed to be 2.35:1. Home video versions might be in 4:3. Your caps look like they're in 16:9, which is in between. --Funkychinaman (talk) 18:26, 22 May 2014 (EDT)

I've redone one of your screenshots of what the correct aspect ratio should be. --Ben41 (talk) 16:31, 22 May 2014 (EDT)

Hi Guys, Cheers for the info, yeah as I looked at the files I thought there was an issue, I uploaded them to check how the page looked for editing purposes. I used VLC and another piece of software, but this is from a few years back so can't remember which I used. Which one did you modify Ben41? I can try resizing them, but it may be easier and better to re-capture them! --Maskedweasel (talk) 03:58, 23 May 2014 (EDT)

Take a look at this screenshot for the proper aspect ratio.

--Ben41 (talk) 04:44, 23 May 2014 (EDT)

Ok I've tried resizing them are they ok quality wise? --Maskedweasel (talk) 09:18, 23 May 2014 (EDT)

Breakthrough and Brass Target

Are there really no other projects you want to work on? And I find it puzzling that the two films were never released on DVD, you have some pretty big stars here. --Funkychinaman (talk) 10:52, 5 June 2014 (EDT)

I've looked into purchasing them, Breakthrough is only available on VHS. Though it boasts a fine cast, it is a god-awful B-movie, made worse by the fact that it's meant to be a sequel to Cross of Iron! I think everyone involved in it tried their best to forget it! Brass target is available in the UK (where I am) but only on imported DVD, which are a bit expensive for this film. I've got some other, easier films on DVD that I can work on, maybe further down the line I can get better quality Screencaps for these two films! Cheers for the reply! --Maskedweasel (talk) 11:23, 5 June 2014 (EDT)

It's odd that they'd attempt a sequel to Cross of Iron with an entirely new cast just two years after the original. I can't think of any other sequel that did that. The closest I could think of is The Guns of Navarone and Force 10 from Navarone, but those two were seventeen years apart, so it made sense. The Dirty Dozen and its sequel were eighteen years apart, brought back the same cast, and wow, it showed. --Funkychinaman (talk) 12:31, 5 June 2014 (EDT)

It is odd especially as "Cross of Iron" was a box office flop, but maybe Andrew V. McLaglen thought he could do it, he was on a roll at this point, knocking out successful action films but he was wrong! (He also is a repeat offender as he pulled this same stunt with the equally awful Return to the river Kwai in the 80's) This brings me on to a quandry I had about writing the page for Breakthrough. The begining of the film has sequences taken directly from Cross of Iron and the Battle of Neretva. Do you have to list all the weapons shown or can you be as lazy as the filmakers and just direct people to the original films for these segments? --Maskedweasel (talk) 15:30, 5 June 2014 (EDT)

The screenshots are passable, but you need to crop the screenshot below so there are no black areas. Also, it's best to display this and your other screenshots at only 500px because of the quality. Also it is best to rename your files with the title of the film or television show first. --Ben41 (talk) 14:12, 5 June 2014 (EDT)

Cheers Ben41, Yeah I think I'll hold back for a bit and see if I can source better originals to get screencaps from. --Maskedweasel (talk) 15:30, 5 June 2014 (EDT)

Murphy's War

Do you have good caps for Murphy's War? Because I have the DVD and it's on my extended to-do list. --Funkychinaman (talk) 17:16, 8 June 2014 (EDT)

I've got some, also just writing up the page, do you want to use them? Will upload some samples.--Maskedweasel (talk) 17:25, 8 June 2014 (EDT)

Mine are in the correct aspect ratio. I'll try to have the page up by midnight EDT. --Funkychinaman (talk) 20:28, 8 June 2014 (EDT)

Screencaps

What program are you using to obtain screencaps? --Funkychinaman (talk) 17:45, 9 June 2014 (EDT)

VLC media player, I'm adjusting aspect ratio with Photoshop.--Maskedweasel (talk) 17:52, 9 June 2014 (EDT)

Are you grabbing the caps as PNGs and then converting to JPG? That gives you better quality. And why is the aspect ratio off? --Funkychinaman (talk) 18:19, 9 June 2014 (EDT)

Will give it a go. After editing the image the aspect ratio is off a bit, so I re-adjust in photoshop.--Maskedweasel (talk) 18:31, 9 June 2014 (EDT)