Page 1 of Fan Edits - Vandalism, Art Or Neo-Piracy?

I found a fascinating thread over at Roobarb`s about Fan Edits of movies. There`s a whole community of Fan Editors over at originaltrilogy.com making their own edits of commercial movies. The movement started with the "Phantom Edit" version of Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace. Hollywood, naturally, frowns on the whole idea as it does those companies who make "family safe" edits of movies for overcautious parents.

It set me thinking if you wandered over to The Home Theatre Forum and started talking about fan edits, you`d either be burned at the stake or find yourself with a couple of hundred psychotic web-stalkers. Personally I think the idea of fan edits is a great one. There are dozens of movies I`d love to tweak myself. Unfortunately Hollywood and particularly directors like Spielberg and Lucas defend their work like tigers protecting their young and I would suspect they would try to get the death penalty for anybody who so much as trimmed a frame out of their movies. At the HTF there are dozens of cinephiles who would make up a howling lynch mob to help them.

The real motive against Fan Edits is of course purely monetary - piracy by any other name - but Hollywood always fields the "sanctity of the artist`s vision" in these cases.

You could start quite an intellectual debate about Hollywood`s split personality over this topic. Is film art? If it is art, then other artists should be able to come along and use that art as their inspiration - there are many variations on a theme of the Mona Lisa, for instance, or last year there was that exhibit that wound string around Rodin`s The Kiss. If you accept film as art, then another artist should be able to make their own edit of a movie (as long, of course, as the original is unchanged and undamaged.) If film is purely a business product - something to be stuck on a shelf and sold alongside the baked beans - then it rightfully should be protected against exploitation and piracy. However, in that case Hollywood should shut the hell up about art and stop backslapping itself at awards ceremonies.

Discuss. :D

J Mark Oates

On a similar theme I get old 50s & 60s records & if there`s enough information I convert them into stereo. Although it`s not true stereo it sounds like true stereo unlike the synthesized stereo on some 70s LPs. Now there are the purists that think the only version is the original & those that like to hear the original songs with a new life, it`s great in a car for instance. The same will of course apply for movies. I think it`s a good idea as no matter what they do with the movie there is still the original (benchmark) & though many edits will be crap I`m sure to some people they may be more slick or interesting. Now I want to see David Becketts Fan Edit of The Da Vinci Code. :)

Todays The Day. Tomorrow can wait...

I think fan edits are a brilliant idea. After all, for you to take the time to produce your own edit of a movie, you must have held it in pretty high esteem in the first place. So therefore a fan edit shows deep respect for the original, surely?

This is the digital age, and anything is possible. Most of us now have more technology packed into our houses than the White House had back in the 80s.

Hollywood should stop their grouching and start up Fan Edit conventions where people show their fan edits off to the public. They could even produce DVDs and official downloads that you pay for where you can see the best fan edits that have won awards etc. Hollywood need to work with us, not against us all the time. They`re fighting a losing battle so they may as well learn to live with it.

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Some say I`m from Biddenden. Some say my name`s Sue. Some say I`m really Marge on a mission.

I`m all for the fan edits (although I`ve never watched one) but the simple matter is if you don`t like them then don`t watch. It`s not as if the studio are releasing these versions and ramming them down your throat, althought wouldn`t suprise me to see fan edits getting released "officialy" in a few years

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"Looks like I picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue."

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I want to see David Becketts Fan Edit of The Da Vinci Code. I`m not a fan but, if I was to do an edit, the film would edit everyone out apart from Ian McKellen! Actually, I wouldn`t put that much work into it - I`d just erase it all!

David Beckett

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you must have held it in pretty high esteem in the first place. So therefore a fan edit shows deep respect for the original, surely?

By all means re-edit the crap, but I`d have thought that if you had high regard and respect for something, you`d leave it alone.

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but Hollywood always fields the "sanctity of the artist`s vision" in these cases.

Hollywood lost the moral high ground when they started releasing one version of a film in the theatres and on DVD initially, and then a few months later releasing `unrated` cuts with all the bits that should have been in the movie in the first place. >:(

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Jitendar Canth

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"I thought what I`d do was, I`d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes."

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I think that`s the `fault` of American cinema culture and the MPAA - if the `unrated` cuts of films like American Wedding, Hostel or Land of the Dead (to name a few) were to be released then Malls, where the vast majority of cinemas are located, would not show the films as the MPAA would have certified them NC-17.

Since the `cinema culture` in America is predominantly family orientated then directors will do all they can to secure an R rating (if threatened with an NC-17) or a PG-13 (if threatened with an R). It`s all to do with ratings at the box office and distributors obviously see the DVD market as in some way seperate and possibly a cash cow that could be milked for years after the film`s theatrical release.

It`s all to do with profit!

David Beckett

I`ve been at original trilogy.com for a couple of years now. some brilliant projects going on there, and I can say that the various edits of the matrix 2 and 3 fiascos are VASTLY better than the originals. I`ve been involved in a Ghostbusters archive project too. And that`s looking VERY good indeed!



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JamesL

This item was edited on Saturday, 7th October 2006, 15:09

James, can you point me in the direction the Matrix re-edits?