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Derelict: Prometheus recut with scenes from Alien as a dual narrative

jobwillins

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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 that’s 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 wasn’t until I began cross-cutting Shaw and Ripley’s 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
 

darth-gary

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So I ended up watching this last night. Wanted to see the original Alien but then I remembered seeing something about this edit and only remembering the name Derelict and that is was a combination of Alien and Prometheus. I ended up finding it and watching it. I was finding that, after the first ten mins. or so, that I was invested in 2 different stories. Even though I knew they were 2 different stories (having seen Alien 500 or so times and Prometheus 3 whole times) I couldn't find myself fast-forwarding or anything, I just felt drawn in to both stories. It was insane. The black and white helped to tie things together and it's impressive how well the films work in that way. It was fantastic what you did here, being a die-hard fan of the original Alien, to make this work so well. This is one of those fanedits that needs to be seen. Great work!
 

TMBTM

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Sounds and looks very interesting.
 

addiesin

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Very bold move, making the films black and white. Especially since you say the last act cuts back and forth between Ripley and Shaw, and we all know the two evil creatures attacking them are, respectively, black and white. I haven't seen the edit but I imagine the dual nature of the new story makes some interesting themes surface. Color me interested ;)
 

asterixsmeagol

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Is anybody else having trouble downloading from Vimeo?
 

sgp1428

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^ The original post seems to say Vimeo has taken it down...... Maybe a PM to the editor is the way forward at the moment.
 

jobwillins

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The vimeo link was taken down. I submitted an updated DLC to .info a couple of days ago, but it hasn't been posted yet. Hopefully soon.
 

jobwillins

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The updated DLC is on .info now. Hope you enjoy it!
 

SmellySkunk

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This looks good ^_^

Do you have a large format version of the cover on IFDb?
 

AD_Phoenix

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I just finished watching this film and I was really impressed!
You have amazing editing skills. I left a review for you :p
 

thecuddlyninja

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SmellySkunk said:
This looks good ^_^

Do you have a large format version of the cover on IFDb?

I second this. I'd like to whip up a DVD cover and check this out.
 

thecuddlyninja

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Never mind. I've never been the patient type. :) I did this blu-ray cover for myself. If you like it, feel free to use it however you want.

derelict%20br%20cover.jpg

based on art by deviantart users T-RexJones and Harmois75
 

thecuddlyninja

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Also made this banner since I've been having so much fun going through Alien-related imagery. If you like it I can submit it to the site.

derelict%20banner.jpg
 

TM2YC

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58435714.jpg


This is sounding like an interesting edit :).
 

thecuddlyninja

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Review left on IFDB:

This is a gorgeous film. I thought the visual editing was absolutely top notch. It was very clever to use black and white to better match the footage and frankly, both movies looked beautiful in black and white anyway. It's hard to divorce myself from knowledge of the franchise but I think the clever bit is that this movie works regardless. If you know what's going on, you'll appreciate how it integrates so well. If you don't, there's a lot of ambiguity that is tied together in the third act. I especially loved the interplay of the two films in the third act, with Ash's speech probably being my favorite. The whole ending was superbly done. I was very lukewarm on Prometheus and love Alien but this is a great way to experience both. This will definitely replace the Prometheus theatrical cut for me.
 

jobwillins

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Thanks, thecuddlyninja! I'm glad you enjoyed Derelict and I appreciate the review

~J
 

jobwillins

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For anyone interested in more details about this edit, I've been posting some info on jobwillins.tumblr.com
 
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