JCC Amph so let's talk about fan edits

talk about your favorite fan edits that you've made or watched here (BUT DO NOT LINK TO THEM). I make fan edits when I can't cope with my life anymore. some fan edits I've made:

1. the hobbit - who hasn't made a fan edit of the hobbit? I have made three sets. 1 set condenses it to 1 film, with an extended edition that includes Gandalf's necromancer plot line. the 2nd set is a 2-parter that reconstructs the original story structure of the films before they were expanded into 3 movies. the 3rd set is a trilogy that basically just takes out the stuff I find annoying, and puts the destruction of Laketown at the end of film 2.
2. lord of the rings - I don't know how many of these I have. one was where I squished everything into 1 film to see if I could. after seeing the theatrical cuts in theaters, I made my own theatrical cuts of the trilogy– keeping them as streamlined as possible while still incorporating what I perceive to be the essential bits of the EEs. I have practically never stopped working on fan edits of these movies since I was 14. I think I did book edits once– six films instead of 3, restructuring them to Tolkien's original structural conceit.
3. beauty and the beast - I made a fan edit that is basically a collage of the animated film, broadway musical, and live action film. it is 3 hrs long and includes an intermission.

and last but not least, I am prepping work for a conceptual edit of the sinking of the Titanic. Its goal is to act as a precise reconstruction of the sinking of the ship. It will begin the moment the ship hits the iceberg and will end when as soon as it disappears beneath the surface of the sea. I will cut between A Night to Remember, the 1997 film, the 1996 miniseries, the 1953 film, and the 2012 miniseries. I have no idea how it's going to work but I'm working with 6 hrs of footage of sinking sequences. It will be 160 minutes long.

DO NOT WATCH ANY FAN EDITS. EVER. what are your favs?

 

Star Wars The Geordie Edit is pretty insane.

 

I’ve never seen one in my life.

 

I don't think most people have

 

Never watched one myself

 

Ditto

 

never watch them.

 

Okay, this legit sounds amazing.

Of course, I will never watch it.

 

Also it will all be in black and white so it’s easier to match them

but don’t watch

 

That's even better.

Won't watch.

 

You could put it for the JCC movie night

 

I once accidentally edited a fan. It no longer worked after that.

 

I’m surprised that nobody has tried to edit the Phineas and Ferb Star Wars special into Ep. IV. I’d be interested in somebody doing that, just to see what it does to the movie.

 

If you could make any fan edit, what is the concept and why would you make it?

 

I would edit the deleted scenes back into Master & Commander just because it's an amazing journey to a long-gone world, and I want to spend more time there.

 

Titanic edit currently at 200 minutes and need to get it down to 160- with 40 mins to cut, do I cut down on the sheer quantity of fictional subplots (1953's Barbara Stanwyck + Clifton Webb, some romantic subplot in the 1996 miniseries, obvs Kate + Leo in 1997) and keep the focus on the procedural action, ala A Night to Remember, or take the opposite approach and keep as many subplots as possible while squishing the more documentary feel of it?

One seems like an obvious choice given the nature of the project, but I'm torn. Currently editing the 10 minute final plunge sequence in lieu of cutting everything down yet.

 

Yeah I don’t think it’s optional to cut them down too much when they are great POV for some internal sinking sequences and the finale at the stern, but the other ones are fairly mediocre- the main benefit of including them is the pastiche element of the project.

currently, Kate and Leo are introduced on the forecastle desk and we get Billy Zane’s first scene in the smoking room, setting up their respective dynamics. It’s played as if they happen very soon after the collision.

 

I think the first fan edit I watched was The Phantom Edit and I think it kind of colored my experience. Now I sometimes think they are amazing reworkings of existing material that can show undeniable craftsmanship and should be respected like any other elaborative art... and sometimes they reek of fan entitlement and murky agendas to fix what is "broken" with a work of art. I guess it depends on the author!

 

They are definitely a weird, seemingly unclassifiable phenomenon. I oftentimes hold myself holding both of those perspectives at the same time when either admiring or constructing an edit. I don’t know if one can say with any real legitimacy that there isn’t a high level of entitlement that comes with messing with someone else’s work.

for me it’s really just some kind of therapy.

 

I say cut down the subplots, keep the focus on the sinking.

Not gonna watch it.

 

Matrix Revolutions is the one I'd do (well I did once on VHS) , basically I don't like a lot of the Zion stuff with characters I don't care about etc.

 

Thanks for the feedback. This would be useful if there were audience members for this project, but nobody watches fan edits.

 

Yes. Heavily edited flashback, I presume.