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Concerning Fan Edits

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As soon as the SW trilogy was released to VCD, I bought it and made my first fan edits by using tmpeg to paste the two halves back together and cutting out as much SE material as I could without it being noticeable. I even searched the internet for a wave file of Luke's line "You're sure lucky you don't taste very good" and edited it back into the soundtrack of ESB. I am not sure if DVD burners were commercially available yet, if they were they would have been way above my budget and I didn't even consider buying one. I just kept the three films saved on my laptops hd and would plug it into my TV to watch them. I never even thought about trying to fix The Phantom Menace by editing it.

When I first heard of the Phantom Edit, I was skeptical but excited at the possibility. I think The Phantom Edit kind of introduced the idea of personally editing movies, and I think in the case of the SW PT trilogy there was nothing to lose. Since this time I have been enthusiastic about fan edits, but my high speed internet has torrents blocked.

Since FE began putting them on rapidshare I have taken the effort to grab a few. So far every single one has been a big disappointment. The best work I have seen by far is ADM's Pearl Harbor edit, but honestly there are parts of it that don't work. This is by no fault of ADM, but the fact is the actors are out of sync with the edit. I guess you work with what you have, and it is still a vast improvement above the original. Pearl Harbor is a movie I see justified to edit, it had some great material, and is about a subject that is very close to many people's hearts. Extended editions are also sometimes really cool. But sometimes it feels that they are just edited to be edited. Not even to make them flow better or to bring them closer to their source material, but rather to create a whole different story that takes it even further away from the source material. Does anybody else feel this way? My opinion of fan editing dropped from feeling it had great potential to improve movies with slight flaws, to feeling like it is just a bunch of kids seeing how much they can change the story of one movie to be something completely different. Anybody want to mention any outstanding edits they feel are definitely worthy of downloading? Or their general opinion on them? (Not trying to rag on anyones edits, just something that was on my mind and I thought I would post it to see if others felt likewise).

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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I'm not impressed by many fanedits, but AMD's hit it every time for me.
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MagnoliaFan's "Balance of the Force" and "The Clone Wars", which are edits of TPM and AOTC respectively, were my introduction to fan-edits, and they're both fantastic. I'd also keep my eye on Trooperman's "Shroud of the Dark Side" if I were you; it hasn't been released yet (I think the current deadline is March, but TM says he won't release it any later than May 25) but it looks to be the most ambitious fan edit to date.


Plus I provided a voice for it.

http://i.imgur.com/7N84TM8.jpg

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I didn't really like MagFan's insistence upon replacing the slightly annoying Nemoidian and Gungan dialogue with the extremely annoying backwards dialogue. Otherwise they were pretty good.

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I'm working on an awesome fan edit right now. It's going to be the first gay version of Empire. I'm taking input right now, how long do you guys think Vader's shlong should be?

HARMY RULES

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I think they should fight with their shlongs rather than lightsabers. Vader's shlong should be bright red and Luke's should start out blue but slowly turn green. Before they fight they should whip out their Jedi dicks and have to work them, and while it's getting to lightsaber length it should make a more prolonged version of the noise a lightsaber makes when it's first turned on.

Harrison Ford Has Pretty Much Given Up on His Son. Here's Why

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I've seen a few fanedits that I like a lot, but by and large, I think a lot miss the mark. A lot of them I see as pointless. Either the movie in question was fine the way it was or was a dumb enough movie that no one should have considered editing it. The ones that are really good, though, are real gems that should be seen.

I used to be very active on this forum. I’m not really anymore. Sometimes, people still want to get in touch with me about something, and that is great! If that describes you, please email me at [my username]ATgmailDOTcom.

Hi everybody. You’re all awesome. Keep up the good work.

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I know that we haven't gotten along in the past Stinky, but I would be honored to have you work on this project with me. Your ideas are better than anything I have so far. Do you think the Death Star should be a huge metal anus, or one of two huge metal nuts?

HARMY RULES

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Originally posted by: Nanner Split
MagnoliaFan's "Balance of the Force" and "The Clone Wars", which are edits of TPM and AOTC respectively, were my introduction to fan-edits, and they're both fantastic. I'd also keep my eye on Trooperman's "Shroud of the Dark Side" if I were you; it hasn't been released yet (I think the current deadline is March, but TM says he won't release it any later than May 25) but it looks to be the most ambitious fan edit to date.


Plus I provided a voice for it.


Yes, I have kept up on Trooperman's AOTC edit since the beginning. I think that was before I even registered. I remember thinking he was some silly kid who thought he could redub the film with a PC mic. After seeing his first screens of the naboo scene where he color corrected it to be night time, I decided he wasn't as silly as I thought. I am definately looking forward to it.

I never liked Magnolia Fans edits that much. The whole changing the story so much never really seemed to work that well, and the dubbing of Jar Jar was a bit too extreme. Make him tolerable, don't try to make him a badass, it is a step too far in making him something he was never intended to be. The reversed language has always bothered me.

It is interesting to see how many people feel exactly as I do about fanedits. I feel exactly like Reverend Beastly. A lot of films didn't make sense for an edit in the first place. War of the Worlds could have benefited, but instead they pushed it further from the book, even going as far as to remove the few references to the book the movie had.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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I'd like to add that negative feedback is just as valuable as positive.

If you found something a disappointment, or thought it just didn't work, then let the creator know by posting a - constructive - comment in the relevant thread. Such comments should provide a motivation for editors to improve on things with the next edit they attempt.

Unfortunately, too many people are reluctant to post negative comments for fear that the creator will "take it personally" (and yes, there are a couple of members I can think of who may take this attitude). Perhaps the facility to post anonymous comments would be useful in the new software.

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Originally posted by: Moth3r
I'd like to add that negative feedback is just as valuable as positive.

If you found something a disappointment, or thought it just didn't work, then let the creator know by posting a - constructive - comment in the relevant thread. Such comments should provide a motivation for editors to improve on things with the next edit they attempt.

Unfortunately, too many people are reluctant to post negative comments for fear that the creator will "take it personally" (and yes, there are a couple of members I can think of who may take this attitude). Perhaps the facility to post anonymous comments would be useful in the new software.


My whole philosophy is that if you don't like what someone has done, do it better.

It's very easy to sit back and criticize the hard work of others without ever having to produce results yourself.
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I don't really think that argument holds water; do you have to be an actor to know when acting isn't any good? Or do you have to be an artist to know you hate Jackson Pollock's work?

On the other hand, if you turn out a shoddy product yourself, you probably have no grounds to criticize others.

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Originally posted by: Darth Chaltab
I don't really think that argument holds water; do you have to be an actor to know when acting isn't any good? Or do you have to be an artist to know you hate Jackson Pollock's work?

On the other hand, if you turn out a shoddy product yourself, you probably have no grounds to criticize others.


I would agree with you in principal, but we're talking about amateur editors here, who do edits and preservation projects out of a love for the material and at their own expense of time and in some cases, money.

I just think it is bad form to criticize someone's hard work at this level. More often than not the criticism takes the form of "hated it," and since when was that productive? It just seems hurtful to me.
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I think if you are going to throw a work out to the public (or even to close friends), you should always be ready to recieve some critism. Whether you are a pre or an amateur. I agree, it is hurtful to go and bash the hell out of somebodies work because you don't like it. I also agree constructive critism is a very good thing, but artist should always understand that they can't please everybody. One diffculty with giving constructive critism is the risk of giving it to somebody who will take offense.

I wasn't trying to bash faneditor with this thread. It is just something I used to think was a revolutionary idea, but now that I am seeing it in action it rarely makes sense. ADM's stuff is always surefire. I haven't seen one of his that doesn't make sense. I know I mentioned Pearl Harbor as not being quite right, but I also said the trouble was with the source material, not the editor. So far I have only heard people saying either that fan editing is the greatest thing in the world, or that it should be illegal. I was curious is anybody else felt the way I do. I think one thing they suffer from, is being in the hands of two small a group. When a movie is originally cut it passes the eyes of a good number of people, which would obviously cut down on bias and a lot of awkwardnesses. When you have just one or a few people editing, and nobody else seeing it until it comes out, you run the risk of a lot more awkward scenes, and you can fall victim to your own creative bias. The biggest problem I see with some fan edits, is that they take a scene that they want to fix, and once they fix it the proceed to tinker too much and push it to far making the film feel much less professional. George comes to mind when I think of this, there were some things he didn't like about his films personally, and when he went back to fix the things that needed fixing (matt lines, orange blobs, gay Ewok song, etc.) he pushed it over the top and over tinkered. Something may be too bland and need a dash or two of salt, but when you go an dump the whole shaker on it, you'll find your food was better when it was bland.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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Originally posted by: TheCassidy

More often than not the criticism takes the form of "hated it," and since when was that productive? It just seems hurtful to me.


I definitely agree with that. Like I said, I was impressed with the Magnolia Fans edits, but still found them lacking in some aspects--the backwards dialogue and making Jar Jar needlessly rude.

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I agree in principal with Chaltab and C3PX, but I maintain that if you think it can be done better, do it better. I'd love to see someone inspired by a fanedit to create their own version, "improving" in those areas they found lacking.
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With regard to Star Wars edits, George Lucas is entirely to blame (I don't necessarily mean this in a negative way either). With the Special Editions, George threw out any concept of canon and continuity. Whether you like it or whether you don't, everything is fair game as far as ideas and edits are concerned. If we want to make improvements to films (as long as one doesn't profit from this project) I think it is fine. Even preservation projects to restore the theatrical version of films that have been changed later are fan edits on a small scale.

Most fan edits are and should be made to please the editors and no one else. If you happen to agree with their editorial choices and enjoy the new version, that's great.

With the regard to criticism of edits, constructive or otherwise, the editor should be open to criticism. On the other side of the coin, the viewer of the fan edit ought to have the right to offer criticism, but still should keep in mind that the edit isn't for them, so if there are things they dislike, that is their own choice to dislike it and the editor is of course under no obligation to please everyone and anyone.

Like it says at the start of the MagFan edits, "It is said that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly upon our point of view. This is merely another."
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Originally posted by: TheCassidy
I agree in principal with Chaltab and C3PX, but I maintain that if you think it can be done better, do it better. I'd love to see someone inspired by a fanedit to create their own version, "improving" in those areas they found lacking.


I think that happens all the time here. Probably most of the edits done around here were greatly inspired by Magfan the Phantom Editor before him. I have my own versions of the PT I have made, I took ideas from the other edits I have seen and put them all together into my own personal edits. In my version of the Phantom Menace I have the whole pod race sequence clocking in at just under five minutes, and I worked it so there is no submarine scene at all. I took a lot of my Jar Jar cuts from Magfan, but I didn't bother with subs. Over all mine are much more conservative edits, leaving as much of the original feel to the films as possible, while removing the parts I find unbearable. However, I don't claim I can do better, just more to my own liking.

But it is a very interesting to think that there is a good chance everybody here has a very different version of the PT that they watch.

So, has anybody seen Kirkless Generations? I have seen a few CBB edits and have so far not been impressed with them. They do impressive editing work, but story wise I feel they are too far removed from the source material for the film (War of the Worlds is a good example) and are just looking to make something new and interesting out of a film they didn't enjoy. I was wondering if it is worth my effort to obtain Kirkless? I always thought it was a lame way to pass the torch to the TNG crew, and felt it would have worked better without teaming Picard and Kirk together, but I think the movie is pretty cool otherwise (for an ST movie, that is). Were they able to pull it off fairly seamlessly? I really don't see how they could make the fight scene at the end work too well. Any outstanding reviews for this thing?

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape