M: Restored Ending (on youtube)

[Energy]

The preproduction video is where I got the storyboards and images (and audio) for my 'ending' video. It's starts off by stating a few bits about the book and it's awards and quickly dives into a 30 minute synopisis of the entire film. This is before actors were hired etc, yet already at this stage it gives the idea of the film's futuristic-esqe feel.

Certain images and shots are directly recreated in the final film that are taken from this video. It mixes paintings, CGI, and test shots with actors taking the parts of the voices.

highlights include:
* Original daemon test
* Lyra's original meeting of Mrs Coulter
* Lyra riding Iorek shot that got the film greenlit. This is pratically the same in the final film!
* The ending!

The video was originally placed on here on youtube, then moved to Stage6 (which you could download from) however New Line Cinema didn't like the video being public, claiming it was heavily steeped in what Tom Stoppard wanted from the film (bollox), and had the video pulled. The video did show many of the changes that were made with the film, however most fans who have seen it prefer it to the final thing. Where you'd find it now I don't know, I just have my copy for editing work.

As for the guys running, I know the buildings look weird, but I do believe thats not a scene in oxford. I think the angle doesn't help my argument. There is no point in the film where we'd have a battle in Oxford. If I remember rightly these guards are a spot on match to the ones in trollsaund as I checked them out because I noticed the buildings too! I think it's just a part of town we hadn't seen before...

[TheRealNeo]

Besides a mistake. I didn't mean Oxford, I meant Jordan College.

According to storyboards [see links below], in the original cut, where this scene was set shortly after Lyra’s departure with Mrs. Coulter, the Master would watch as the zeppelin takes flight (!), and then have a dialog with the Librarian, and then he would be arrested. In the theatrical cut, where this scene is set two scenes earlier (before he gives Lyra the alethiometer, "his last gesture as a free man", says Weitz in the DVD commentaries), the Master watches the zeppelin still landed (!), talks part of the dialog with the Librarian, and there is no invasion of the college.

Well, I wouldn’t say that the arresting scene is primary essential, but it would add some action and/or tension, as well as close the part of the Master, and explain better why he secretly gives the Compass to Lyra before the Magisterium can get hold of it in the raid of the college, and show the power of the Magisterium against free thought. Since in the 5-minute preview we see the shot of the Master watching as the zeppelin takes flight (!), and in the final trailer we see a Magisterial soldier breaking through a door at Jordan College, we can assume that the fate of the Master was in Chris Weitz’s original vision.

http://sphynx-sn.deviantart.com/art/quo ... -123187223

[Energy]

Very interesting, and yes I easily stand corrected. Good article. Going to read that in depth now!