Slashdot Mirror
Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation
jonerik writes "Ain't It Cool News has an article on one of the more fascinating fan film projects ever conceived: A shot-for-shot remake of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" filmed in Biloxi, Mississippi between 1982 and 1988 by Eric Zala, Jayson Lamb and Chris Strompolis. What's particularly amazing is that the trio began filming the project when they were twelve and finished six years later when they were eighteen. Now, fifteen years after the project was completed, word of the film's existence has gotten out and audiences who have seen it have reportedly been stunned by the trio's ingenuity, with none other than "RotLA" director Steven Spielberg giving Zala, Lamb, and Strompolis a big thumbs-up. The complete film isn't available online, but a trailer that gives a bit of the feel of the finished project can be viewed. The Austin Chronicle also has a story on the project."
It's not much, and the encoding seems rather horrible if you ask me, but I managed to snag a copy before the Slashdot effect took over. Their front page seems to be loading rather slowly now.
So, if you want to watch an AMD K6/2 400mhz go up in flames on a 768kbps DSL line. Here you go:
Raider's of the Lost Ark Remake Trailer
My ISP is so going to kill me...
Ummm... release date November 4, 2003. You can't wait another five months?
They can't, since it's a scene for scene remake it falls under the heading of 'derived work' and requires permission of the copyright holder (LucasFilm, I presume) to distribute.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
If anyone cares the song that plays during the trailer is Four Ton Mantis by Amon Tobin. An excellent song.
$_='while(read+STDIN,$_,2048){$a=29;$b=73;$c=142;
I think 'derivative work' is a more fitting appelation here. Of course, I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on television, but I'm pretty sure that Parody isn't a catch all term that grabs all works in this class.
One god, one market, one truth, one consumer.
You can do non-linear editing with VHS, it is just a bit trickey. You need a minimum of two decks, and 3 works much better. With a two deck setup you drop markers where you want it to start and stop and in what order. The unit that controls the decks then takes care of the rest. It holds the record VCR, gets the play VCR to where it needs to be, starts them in sync, records what it needs, stops, goes to the next point, etc.
Now this approach is not without problems. The biggest problem I found was with the seeking of the VCRs. Even on fairly expensive ones (like $500 at the time I think), they weren't frame accurate. So you had to fudge your cuts by about 3 frames in both directions, you couldn't get it dead on. I'm sure that $2000+ master units can seek to a single frame, but none that I've ever touched. Also, you don't really know how it is going to look till its all done, you can't really preview it since there is often a lot of time in seeking inbetween shots. YOu have to set the whole thing up, let it do the dub, tehn see if it came out ok. If not, you have to make the changes and redo the dub. Each time, of course, is slightly wearing down your master. Wrose still is if you want to use multiple cameras and tapes. The 2-deck controllers I used never understood this concept, they wouldn't prompt for tape switches. So you either had to shoot it all on one tape, or get a setup with 3 decks.
However, it is all possable to do non-linear. Just because it isn't digital, doesn't imply linear editing. Heck, before digital (and even now in some cases) you could do non-linear editing with film by simply physically cutting and taping together the segments. Same for audio. Get a 2-inch master tape, a sharp knife, some gloces, some tape and a lot of patience.