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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."
Maybe the DVD to the adaptation will be out before the original version's. I certainly have stopped holding my breath for RoT and the original Star Wars series on DVD.
I was gonna throw in a "now three young girls progressing through....." punch line....but....nahhhh, even I'm not that perverted.
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.
Man they'd have to have big balls to attempt that scene!
Esteem isn't a zero sum game
They did this with Betamax and VHS? That must've meant linear editors - I don't envy them that task...
6 years of doing this. Now that's dedication. My interest in re-enacting scenes from Indiana Jones waned after a heated August afternoon with a bunch of friends, following which the guy who played an evil German had to be rushed to the hospital.
Ahh...good times.
"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it." - G.B. Shaw
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.,
Am I the only one who saw 'RotLA' and thought:
"Rolling on the laugh ass", what the hell?
This is left as an exercise for the reader.
I got it at 100kbps too. And I dont subscribe. Ah it pays to keep your money in your pocket.
true enough. Spieldberg gave them the thumbs up, but who owns the rights to the movie they copied?
FoundNews.com - get paid to blog.,
this is all to the good, but I'm going to wait ten years for the "director's cut" with gratuitous CGI, unnecessary scenes, etc..
It would be in keeping with the Spielberg spirit, after all..
... if any karma whore out there has a bittorrent of it or something ;)
Back in my day, we didn't have all that new-fangled technology to put ourselves in our favorite movies. We did it all in our minds! Uphill! In the snow! Through barbed wired and acid pits! And we liked it!
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
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...
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...
Only it wasn't quite "shot for shot". ...and it was called "Raiders of the Burning Bush." ...and it starred "Idaho Smith" not "Indiana Jones." ...and "our hero" ended up with 1st degree burns after digging up the bush (he was subsequently beaten by Nazi Ninjas.
A really cool thing to do... I didn't realize Mississippi was so boring!
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.
How long before we get a telesync on alt.binaries.vcd?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
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;
First, nothing begins if not opening
for violations of Der Kopiright Akt. Herr Ashkroft announced that these economic terrorists will be stripped of their citizenship and summarially tortured for days without sleep until they confess to their vile plans of toppling the government-approved media.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
I live in middle of nowhere and will never get to see a screening, so if anyone has a copy, please get a torrent version out there for me.
Some friends of mine did a similar project. It wasn't a shot for shot re-make, but an original story called Indiana Jed. Was a lot of fun for high-school students to make, and sure beats the heck out of playing computer games for hours on end. Take a look at Indiana Jed
There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes. -- Dr. Who
See show details
We use to be boring...
now we have all kinda stuff to do.
And that's just a sampling of biloxi...
Here's a sample of Tunica's boats! Of course, here is a whole web site dedicated to Mississippi's new found wealth.
If you enjoy hiking, camping, fishing, Elvis, the blues, college sports, famous authors--then you might rather visit this site.
Anyway, trying to get Mississippi a few props... and I have a few Karma points to burn.
Davak
Nothing personal against Mississippi (damn.. it takes forever to type M i s s i s s i p p i !).
:)
You should be proud that it inspired these guys to do something cool...
I'd think it wouldn't be Spielberg who'd make trouble - after all, he got his start as a punk kid making films at a very young age. If anything, he probably be supportive. It's the numerous monied interests who own various bits and pieces of "intellectual property" who would sue the pants off of anyone they thought might "reduce the value of the asset", despite the fact that many fan-derivived works serve to sustain interest in the original property, thus ENHANCING the value of the asset...
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.
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.
... the first kiss, get a girl to strip and put on Marion's dress while they filmed it in the mirror.
They are in my opinion quite obviously geeks, not that that's bad, considering how they had to make it, but when your a geek it's hard to get a girl to do anything (personal experience).
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.
Hey! Don't spoil it, I've never seen Raiders of the Lost Ark.
I'm still waiting the DVD release anytime now.
--
Karma is overrated, whoring is ok.
I think I will remake Andy Warhol's 8 hour epic "Empire" SHOT-FOR-SHOT!
They could make so much more money if they were to put up a web cam that shows them working on the film. Yeahh...that's the ticket. And every 12 hours shut it off and recycle old footage. Yeah. $20 a subscriber.
I think I should get $5 just for suggesting it.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
There are obviously many parodies and knockoffs that have been released as retail products, such as spaceballs, and a large majority of Weird Al Yankovicz's songs. Does anyone know about how copyright law applies to these situations? Does one have to first license the material, then make whatever they want, or do they have to license it and get a final product approved, or, can they just do whatever they want and pass it off as a parody? If the latter was true, it would be interesting to see some sort of Hong Kong Starr Worrs or something with the exact same movie, word for word, but with actors in goofy costumes. I dunno, im kinda losing focus here, but i would be interested to hear details about this if available. Later.
-Silmarildur
The reason you can't find it to download is because there are only a few dvd copies out there and they all belong to the people that were the main participants. There are some video tape copies given to friends and family but I doubt you'll see it online soon. I think there is too much respect for these people and what they did to spread it for free. But you never know, it may pop up eventually.
the background music to the trailer is Amon Tobin... They may be geeks, they may love this movie too much...but they at the least have GREAT taste in music... god i wish the rain would stop -me
i saw the baby, and the baby looked at me
While reading this story I got an ad:
i d=1235
"Star Wars Trilogy DVD $31.99 Only. Ready for delivery One shipping rate for any quantity"
which linked through to http://www.dvdoriginal.com/product/viewprod.asp?p
Which have such wonderful nuggest such as:
"Due to the fragility and bulkiness of standard DVD case, all of our DVD titles will come in a specially designed light-weight DVD sleeve pack. This shall hold and protect the disc better than the normal case." Riiiight...
or
"Q5: Does your DVD come with inserts or booklets that normally contained within the DVD case? A: No. Our DVD consists of Disc and Cover Art only. There are no inserts of booklets. " Uuuh huh.
Erm... slightly illegal copies of the Star Wars movies... how is it legal for Slashdot (by way of OSDN) to promote such illegal products on the website?
click
-- There is no sig line, only Zuul.
> How about this: if I create, with my own hands, a piece of furniture
The very next day I could legally create, with my own hands, a nearly identical replica of that piece of furniture. Thank you for the excellent example.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
I think more than anything else, people are cheering it on because of the ingenuity displayed by these amatuers in writing this OS. Low budget software like that are far more impressive than stale Microsoft remakes precisely because they are low budget - people have to improvise. Surely you would not see the remake for the interface or anything new - it's a remake, you've seen it before. It's just something that makes me step back and marvel at what can be accomplished if you are dedicated enough.
Cheers ;)
Don't steal. The government hates competition.
I'm currently in the pre-production stage of a shot by shot remake of Star Wars OT. It finally took six years and three second degree burns, but I made a functional light saber. Also, any female /.'rs who have a C-cup chest or bigger can audition for the roles of Leia and Oola ;)
can i suggest a remake of john cage's 4'33" instead?
A week for a LucasFilm DVD? You're kidding, right?
Ummmm
9 2157648/qid=1054714539/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_2/102-48059 13-1769756?v=glance&s=video&n=507846#product-detai ls]
George Lucus ISN'T Stephen Spielberg. Lucus is to Media what Sco is to linux. For those who can't remember, Lucusfilm sued Battlestar Galactica because of multi-points of similuarity between it and Star Wars.
But even George Lucus has a sence of humor, according to this site [http://www.nitcentral.com/askchief/ac980522.htm]
"I remember the guy who made a Star Wars parody, Hardware Wars, got a letter from Lucas' lawyers warning him about copyright infringement, and he sent them a letter saying, "your boss liked it", and he included a copy of a letter from George Lucas saying how much he liked the parody. He never heard from the lawyers again."
So, strictly speaking if the director of the orgin work likes it, it really helps.
[why sue Galactica and not hardware wars, this is beyond me, oh perhaps because lucus wanted the money, and new hardware wars made no money]
While you are correct, the artical seemed to emply that Mr. Spielberg liked the derived work planed to see it on opening night.
However, I don't know other copyright holders that may have an interest in this work.
According to [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/07
Raiders of the Lost Arc is chapter 24 in the complete adventures of Indiana Jones. So there might be an author that still holds a copyright somewhere, but who knows.
I would suspect that that Spielberg would be willing to atleast co-operate with the kids if they decided to release this either on P2P systems, TV, or video, at least give them a whos who to contact.
I am not a Raders of the Lost Arc geek... perhaps someone who knows more about the specifics can shed some light on the details.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
once great directors who can't seem to put out a decent movie
Herm? Did you miss SPR and Minority Report?