- Messages
- 76
- Reaction score
- 5
- Trophy Points
- 18
I wanted to see if I could put together a dual narrative version of Prometheus that cuts between the crew of the Prometheus and the crew of the Nostromo 30 years later (and assumes they landed on the same planet). I ended up cutting about 30 minutes from Prometheus and using an hour of Alien in its place.
A lot of my editing choices were aimed at increasing ambiguity. Yeah, I know. Increase ambiguity in a film thatâs largely criticized for its ambiguity⦠genius. But really it was more about shifting the questions. The first scene in Derelict on the Prometheus is David wandering a ship and studying languages prior to arriving at a planet. The first scenes on the Nostromo are the crew waking up to a distress call. Why is the crew of the Prometheus at this planet? Why is there a distress signal picked up 30 years later? These are the questions I wanted to begin Derelict with and what largely helped dictate what scenes I used for the film.
Early expository scenes that clearly spelled out their mission and motivations were cut, including the second half of the cargo bay scene and the scene in Vickers' life boat. We also never see the scene on primordial Earth (probably) with the Engineer seeding life. Lots of scenes, or parts of scenes, were cut to better serve the pacing of the dual narrative. It's not exactly Godfather Part II in that respect, but I think it works pretty well as alternate experience.
I actually nearly gave up on the project after my first pass because of the third act. The entire film was around the 3 hours long and large sections of the climaxes from Alien and Prometheus were left to play out nearly in their entirity. It wasnât until I began cross-cutting Shaw and Ripleyâs final scenes that I got enthusiastic about the results as a whole. I finally felt Derelict was a different enough experience from watching either film on their own to warrant its existence in the universe.
I originally posted a cut on Vimeo for a few friends to watch, then a few nerdy news sites found it, apparently liked it, and embedded it on their sites. You can probably guess the story from there - it was eventually taken down. Anyway, I hope the Fanedit.org community enjoys it. Thanks to Kal-El for encouraging me to post it here.
Here's a trailer that still exists on Vimeo (as of now)
Thanks,
~J
A lot of my editing choices were aimed at increasing ambiguity. Yeah, I know. Increase ambiguity in a film thatâs largely criticized for its ambiguity⦠genius. But really it was more about shifting the questions. The first scene in Derelict on the Prometheus is David wandering a ship and studying languages prior to arriving at a planet. The first scenes on the Nostromo are the crew waking up to a distress call. Why is the crew of the Prometheus at this planet? Why is there a distress signal picked up 30 years later? These are the questions I wanted to begin Derelict with and what largely helped dictate what scenes I used for the film.
Early expository scenes that clearly spelled out their mission and motivations were cut, including the second half of the cargo bay scene and the scene in Vickers' life boat. We also never see the scene on primordial Earth (probably) with the Engineer seeding life. Lots of scenes, or parts of scenes, were cut to better serve the pacing of the dual narrative. It's not exactly Godfather Part II in that respect, but I think it works pretty well as alternate experience.
I actually nearly gave up on the project after my first pass because of the third act. The entire film was around the 3 hours long and large sections of the climaxes from Alien and Prometheus were left to play out nearly in their entirity. It wasnât until I began cross-cutting Shaw and Ripleyâs final scenes that I got enthusiastic about the results as a whole. I finally felt Derelict was a different enough experience from watching either film on their own to warrant its existence in the universe.
I originally posted a cut on Vimeo for a few friends to watch, then a few nerdy news sites found it, apparently liked it, and embedded it on their sites. You can probably guess the story from there - it was eventually taken down. Anyway, I hope the Fanedit.org community enjoys it. Thanks to Kal-El for encouraging me to post it here.
Here's a trailer that still exists on Vimeo (as of now)
Thanks,
~J
