DJ, play the edit

[thebitterguy]

normanrafferty linked to a trailer Remix for Sleepless in Seattle that recast it as a stalker /horror movie.

It was pretty interesting, but after watching it I was uncertain if how much it had been edited. For one thing, all the scenes were darker than I remember them; the material between shots was definitely from another source.

It’s not as strong as the Shining one from several months back. That did its magic with only optimistic narration, out of context shots, and Peter Gabriel. And a lack of axe-sanity.

I think doing that, remixing a trailer to be for a completely different film, is an interesting media trick. I like having my perceptions played with on occasion (on occasion; I still having watched Jacob’s Ladder all the way to the end). The best ones we’ve seen so far are the ones like The Shining and the Titanic one, changing as little as possible to change as much as possible. The Sleepless in Seattle or West Side Story ones, that have to change something visually, seem somewhat lazier. The effort is there, but it smacks of cheating.

I know, I know, petty complaint at best. I wonder how easy it would be to mix two different movies, maybe with the same actor, from different genres (Sin City and The Whole Nine Yards?) into one trailer? Interesting thought, in any case.

Comments

[etherlad.livejournal.com]

Did you ever see the Cabin Fever trailer?

Lemme see if I can find it...
Here we go: http://www.ps260.com/fever/cabinfevertrailer.mov

[thebitterguy]

I must have missed something; what was the original movie?

[etherlad.livejournal.com]

Cabin Fever. B-ish movie where a bunch of kids in an isolated cabin start coming down with this really bad/deadly disease. Sort of a typical monster movie, but with the disease as the monster.

[thebitterguy]

Ah. Interesting play on the original and the weepy diseased friend flick. Yes, that was well done.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

I'd think it was cheating except marketing departments in major Hollywood studios do it all the time. So, fair game, really.

[thebitterguy]

Hollywood marketing departments are, by their definition, evil.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Actually, they range from Satanic (Miramax/Weinstein Co.) to well-meaning-but-pretty-much-incompetent (Universal. Fucking up "Land of the Dead" I could understand...but "Cinderella Man?" "Serenity?" "MUNICH?" A Steven Spielberg thriller, with Oscar nominations, is getting bitchslapped at the box office by the gay cowboy movie? Which, admittedly, is released by an arm of Universal, but still! It's Spielberg!)

[creativedv8tion.livejournal.com]

I think "Cheating" is a bit on the wrong track.

The Shining trailer is more inspired. Better quality work - splicing stuff from other sources into a trailer is lesser quality.

That's my take.

[thebitterguy]

Cheating might be a bit strong. Lazy, perhaps.

re: cheating and 'whats allowed in a recut'...

[(Anonymous)]

Hey!

This is Demis the editor-dude of the sleepless in seattle trailer, scouring technorati for interesting feedback regarding the recuts! Great comments - I felt like I should jump in with a retort or two! :)

I can tell you that 100% of the trailer was cut from the original film only, apart from the shots with the text on it, where I used some stock flames footage... (is that allowed?) All the quick slices - the flicking around at the start, and the various quick shots and flashes linking the various bits are all from the film. The only change made was in color correction : perfectly acceptable for a lot of actual hollywood trailers out there who do pretty much the same thing and get away with it - my pet hate is how some of them even add special effects (glowing objects, flashes of light) that arent even there in the finished movie... like the trailer for "National Treasure" that almost implied there was a supernatural element in the film by its trailer, but no... just old clues in dusty rooms.. :)

If you ask me, I reckon the cheating in these recuts is when they use audio or quick shots from other films the actors have been in to get the message across - i was reading theres even a line of audio in the Shining trailer which isn't in the film, but hey, the Shining trailer will always be the best of these recuts, so who gives? I don't wanna say a bad word about it - genius.

The other thing that bothers me is that a lot of the latest recuts are just the same boring gay joke based on the main characters being bonding men in the original film - all the brokeback ones are just getting tedious, following in the footsteps of "Romance of the Jedi", the Terminator 2 one and the numerous "Sam and Frodo are gay" parodies of the last few years... I don't really care about the gay aspect of it - its just a tired joke and I consider the Titanic / Shining approach to be a lot more clever so far as twisting the original content.


I guess I could have left the color the same and it would still have worked - its the music that makes it the funniest. I just wanted to go for a distinct style, and darkening it was what i was after.

Personally, the scariest would have been to just leave Meg Ryan in there for the whole minute as a freeze-frame... :)


Glad you liked it anyway - tell yer friends :)

Cheers
Demis

Re: cheating and 'whats allowed in a recut'...

[thebitterguy]

Ah, I was just talking out of my ass. There's no real way to 'cheat' in something like this. No real rules to break.

I've been enjoying some of the Brokeback ones, mainly because BBM was a source of much amusement here, and I never saw the Sam & Frodo/Romance of the Jedi ones, so the gay buddy drama is still a fresh genre for me.

The flames seemed a bit out of place. I never saw SiS, but now I'm terrified to do so, so that's a good job.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

That did its magic with only optimistic narration ... [a]nd a lack of axe-sanity.

See, this is like the odd sort of "brinksmanship" I was talking about the other week with regard to the "things I have that you don't" meme. It's no good saying "I have a copy of the 1953 Dell Portuguese translation of 'Everything You Can Do With Turkey For Thanksgiving'" when someone asks you to name a book that none of your friends have. The whole point is to name a book that's as close as possible to the kind of books your friends might own, but in fact, one that they don't.

In this case, I think the true success of the re-mix trailer lies in changing as little as possible in your use of materials to still get the greatest effect.

Which brings to mind an interesting thought-experiment exercise about the 'The Shining' re-edit. Can you think of any way the editor could have kept bits of the "here's Johnny!" scene in the trailer and still kept the 180 degree theme effect? Hmmmm....

[thebitterguy]

Which brings to mind an interesting thought-experiment exercise about the 'The Shining' re-edit. Can you think of any way the editor could have kept bits of the "here's Johnny!" scene in the trailer and still kept the 180 degree theme effect? Hmmmm....

I really don't think that would be possible. It would be hard to imagine reimagining someone hacking his way through a door with good intent in his heart, especially such an iconic image as that.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

But that's the challenge, see? How to make it a heartwarming-chopping-through-of-door! 8)