Do you ever re-edit movies yourself?

MakeEmLaugh

I recently edited an HD rip of Sergio Leon's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly down from 180 minutes to 166 minutes, removing the 14 minutes of footage which was included in the 2002 Special Edition (I felt these deleted scenes were unnecessary and distracting, especially considering how much Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach's voices have changed in the four decades since the film was made).

Now I have an HD copy of one of my favourite films in the version I fell in love with all those years ago when it was broadcast on The Last Picture Show with Brian Reddin on Network 2 on a Friday night.

Has anyone else ever done anything like this? I remember Mark Kermode saying he edited a VHS copy of The Shawshank Redemption to remove the final scene, as it hadn't been in the short story and he felt it was tacked on.

Fysh

There are whole communities built around fanedits, although obviously things get tricky the second anyone wants to talk about sharing their re-edits.

I think my favourite one that I read about is AARRSSWW-WWSSRRAA - Star Wars, with all the shots in the film sorted in ascending or descending order by length. Oh, and the editor who made it used the HD-DVD format as well for who knows what reason

I've tinkered a bit myself, but have quickly discovered it can be very time consuming if you're making any changes that aren't absolutely trivial, so you'd want to be sure it's worth the effort. On the other hand, now and again there are some fantastic results. "Tears in the rain" comes to mind as a recent example...

MakeEmLaugh

Fysh wrote: »

Now and again there are some fantastic results. "Tears in the rain" comes to mind as a recent example...

Go on...

Fysh

MakeEmLaugh wrote: »

Go on...

It's a high-contrast black & white version of Blade Runner that reframes the story to be almost entirely from the perspective of the Replicants. It sounds like it shouldn't really work, but it's great.

Sad Professor

I once tried re-editing The Two Towers. I wanted to cut the bad bits (warg attack, Aragon’s fake death), restore the Shelob sequence and improve the intercutting, which I thought was dreadful. Finding Nemo came out the same year and in comparison it was a masterclass in how to smoothly intercut between different narrative strands.

krudler

Sad Professor wrote: »

I once tried re-editing The Two Towers. I wanted to cut the bad bits (warg attack, Aragon’s fake death), restore the Shelob sequence and improve the intercutting, which I thought was dreadful. Finding Nemo came out the same year and in comparison it was a masterclass in how to smoothly intercut between different narrative strands.

Oh god, I remember an audible groan from the audience when it cuts from the Helm's Deep sequence in full swing back to Treebeard and his stupid poetry, talk about sucking the momentum out of a climactic sequence.

Sad Professor

MakeEmLaugh wrote: »

Has anyone else ever done anything like this? I remember Mark Kermode saying he edited a VHS copy of The Shawshank Redemption to remove the final scene, as it hadn't been in the short story and he felt it was tacked on.

Many people argue this and I've always disagreed. Cinema is a visual medium. Seeing Andy and Red re-united on a beach against the Pacific is a million times more powerful than watching a bus drive drive over a hill. That might work in a book, which is more about prose and dialogue, but not in a film. And I don't care if the beach scene is sentimental, it's a sentimental film. It's also a pretty dark film that IMO earns that ending.

I love Shawshank but far too much has been said and written about its message of hope. To me it's primarily a film about friendship, a platonic love story between two guys who go through hell but somehow survive and are reunited. Ending with the bus suggests that the message is more important that the story.

krudler

Sad Professor wrote: »

Many people argue this and I've always disagreed. Cinema is a visual medium. Seeing Andy and Red re-united on a beach against the Pacific is a million times more powerful than watching a bus drive drive over a hill. That might work in a book, which is more about prose and dialogue, but not in a film. And I don't care if the beach scene is sentimental, it's a sentimental film. It's also a pretty dark film that IMO earns that ending.

I love Shawshank but far too much has been said and written about its message of hope. To me it's primarily a film about friendship, a platonic love story between two guys who go through hell but somehow survive and are reunited. Ending with the bus suggests that the message is more important that the story.

Doesn't Stephen King prefer the film ending? same with The Mist. I don't mind the change, it's a conclusive end to the story, nothing wrong with something being left open but after everything Andy goes through in it then it's nice to see that it has a definitive end.

I tried to watch the underworld fan edit, it was horrible, Evanscence constantly playing over the dialogue.

Bipolar Joe

I've been wanting to edit Kiss Of The Vampire, with each shots location depending on Cage's facial expression. I also want to try slam Man With One Red Shoe and Big together, so it seems like it's a same movie about an autistic guy who can't dress himself properly.

Duggy747

Not full movies, more-so scenes.

One in particular is Optimus Prime's 1st transformation in Transformers 1. It just cuts to Shia + Megan Fox midway and then goes back to him without a frame of his transformation skipped.

It was like an itch that had to be scratched for me so I removed that small bit to make it one smooth continuous shot. :pac:

FunLover18

I edited Kingdom Of The Crystal skull down to 0 minutes

On a more serious note, no, but I have heard that Topher Grace's edit of the SW prequels is supposed to be pretty good

The J Stands for Jay

Fysh wrote: »

It's a high-contrast black & white version of Blade Runner that reframes the story to be almost entirely from the perspective of the Replicants. It sounds like it shouldn't really work, but it's great.

And how would someone get a hold of this? The googles, they do nothing.

Fysh

McGaggs wrote: »

And how would someone get a hold of this? The googles, they do nothing.

I am certain that we cannot discuss this sort of thing around here, unfortunately

There's a listing for it at the Internet Fanedit Database that might help, though. No download links or anything, but more information on the edit itself and its author.

Fysh

Duggy747 wrote: »

Not full movies, more-so scenes.

One in particular is Optimus Prime's 1st transformation in Transformers 1. It just cuts to Shia + Megan Fox midway and then goes back to him without a frame of his transformation skipped.

It was like an itch that had to be scratched for me so I removed that small bit to make it one smooth continuous shot. :pac:

That's quite nice.

I would've been really impressed if you spent the time replacing all the BayFormers via rotoscoping with the versions from the '86 animated feature though :P

gctest50

toy story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phFISjORzQs

Fysh

Given that the widespread awareness of fanedits owes a great deal to the Phantom Edit, I figure that this article about Star Wars fanedits is relevant to the thread and might be of interest to anyone who's not already familiar with the topic.

Adamantium

Sad Professor wrote: »

Many people argue this and I've always disagreed. Cinema is a visual medium. Seeing Andy and Red re-united on a beach against the Pacific is a million times more powerful than watching a bus drive drive over a hill. That might work in a book, which is more about prose and dialogue, but not in a film. And I don't care if the beach scene is sentimental, it's a sentimental film. It's also a pretty dark film that IMO earns that ending.

I love Shawshank but far too much has been said and written about its message of hope. To me it's primarily a film about friendship, a platonic love story between two guys who go through hell but somehow survive and are reunited. Ending with the bus suggests that the message is more important that the story.

Thank you. Nothing better than a film that earns it's ending.
I really want to see Topher Grace's (yes THAT IS Eric Foreman) cut of the Star Wars prequels, but it seems he never leaked it online and was only seen by a few people, it's supposedly masterful.

krudler

Adamantium wrote: »

Thank you. Nothing better than a film that earns it's ending.
I really want to see Topher Grace's (yes THAT IS Eric Foreman) cut of the Star Wars prequels, but it seems he never leaked it online and was only seen by a few people, it's supposedly masterful.

Doesnt it cut all three into one movie or something?

Adamantium

krudler wrote: »

Doesnt it cut all three into one movie or something?

Apparently so. It has a purpose made title and scrolling credits at the beginning too.

The trailer is the only thing that is out there online

http://cerealprize.com/trailers/redux-of-the-jedi

Fysh

Yeah, Grace has done a 3-in-1 cut of the prequels and screened it at his house once. Obviously he'd like to not get his ass sued into oblivion so he hasn't ever made it available. There's a write-up of some of the details here.

Personally I'm not interested in Star Wars much, but I've seen some amazing proof-of-concept shots for fantastic-sounding projects like The Story Of Leonidas and the 300 Spartans. Nothing but a trailer released so far, but I'm definitely watching this if it ever gets finished and released.

Trailer on Vimeo

Nervous Wreck

Dunno if it was Topher Graces version but I saw an edit of the Star Wars prequels cutting all 3 into 1. It starts with Duel of the Fates, effectively cutting out 98% of The Phantom Menace. It was still unwatchable though; those movies get worse every time you (try to) watch them. Had to turn it off after 20 minutes.

Fysh

TBH I find that aspect of fanediting a bit weird - the number of people spending hundreds of hours trying to polish the same turd is just mind-boggling to me, especially given that for the most part they seem to opt for the same sorts of changes...