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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."
that's alot of work just to duplicate your favorite film and it's not like they'll make anything from the effort other than the satisfaction of having done it.
But then, back in my teens in the mainframe and paper tape days, I wrote my own version of the ever popular Star Trek game. I didn't need to, I could play the original all I wanted. Even the source code was available. But I thought I could do the same job in a more easily understood manner. So I coded up a virtually identical version. It was much less code and alot easier to read, although the original was a little faster.
So I guess remaking something you like just because you can must be some kind of teen geek ritual.
Shot for Shot remake, certainly the Writers guild will have something to say.
A brilliant piece of work though. Puts Hardware Wars to shame.
Thumb your nose at the MPAA and get what you want at the same time... I bought both series on DVD on eBay years ago. They're Hong kong "bootlegs" but are basically re-encoded versions from other recordings (i.e. widescreen laserdisc) mastered to region 0 DVD. The Star Wars DVDs in particular are very, very nice indeed and most everyone who sees them asks how I managed to get an advance copy of the "real" Star Wars DVDs.
Of course, if the "real" versions ever come out, I'll get them as well, but in the meantime, everyone's always turning up asking to watch my copies.
Also picked up Barton Fink and a couple of other unreleased-on-DVD films this way...
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Am I the only one who thinks that a shot-by-shot remake of a movie is far from ingenious? Hell, when Gus Van Sant did it with Psycho, he was criticized for making it too identical. It's cool that they did it, and were able to manage it on what we must assume is a fairly small budget, but I think the hype over this thing is getting way out of hand.
This is a prime example of a copy of a previous work as a beautiful thing. Immitation really is the greatest form of flattery. It is terrible that works like this are normally supressed by copyright laws that don't serve the populance. The point of laws is to serve the populance. Clearly supression of creative expression serves no one. It is encouraging to see that Spielberg gave them a thumbs up on this project, but I don't doubt he would sue the pants off of them it he thought their project would harm his extensive bank roll. And who can really blame him if he did, he would just be taking advantage of the ludicrous law of the land. Who knows how many other cool projects like this have/will never seen/see the light of day as a result of corporate america's tight grip on the world.
FoundNews.com - get paid to blog.,
I saw this last Saturday. One of the most entertaining movie going experiences I ever had.
These guys did every sequence in the movie save one. After some frightening messing around with explosives they opted not to attempt the flying wing sequence despite having access to an aircraft and the part of the bald mechanic already cast.
Every other scene is there though and done with impressive skill given their ages and the era in which they made it.
Once more unto the breach dear friends...
When we go and pay our $7.00 for slightly less then 2hrs of entertainment, less we forget the fact that the fact that amature fan spinoffs done by essentually students can provide entertainment. While they can't nessicarly match the production quality of hollywood's almost endless budget, there is alot more to a media then it's production value, content is a factor too.
Starship Exeter [www.starshipexeter.com] is one example of fan based work. Based on classic star trek, their one release actually has a somewhat decent story as well as capturing that late 60's sci-fi theme while by todays standards is considered most cheezy. If you can get over the wind in the boom low quality film and shacky camera man, it's a worth see.
Now, i'm not nessicarly going to say that this is going to be any good... but it should prove to be entertaining at the very least. More so then alot of things targeted tward the typcial 12 year old. I intend to watch it, if for nothing else but to use as an example, "Look at what these 12 year olds did... hollywood you have no excuse".
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
That you can accomplish anything you want if you devote an average of fifteen minutes a day to it. That might take a while for bigger undertakings (do you suppose these guys averaged 15 minutes a day working on this for six years? I bet it might even be a little less than that). But fifteen minutes a day is such a small commitment that if you want to accomplish anything at all faster, just devote an hour a day to it over a period of time.
The only trick is knowing what you consider worth making an extended effort for. That takes vision. All the implementation takes is dedication.
It was insane. People wrapped around the Alamo two wide. The adaptation is very true to the film while still being very creative. I mean, how would you have done this stuff when you were twelve? I wish I had the ability to finish things I start like these guys. The Q&A's should've been filmed for the DVD special features. It was almost as entertaining listening to these guys describe how the risked life and limb and broke the law numerous times. Tbey basically played with guns, blew things up, got plaster molds stuck on their heads, (NOT dental plaster either) and lots of other stupid stuff kids do.
Four words in closing. The fire is real.