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Howard The Duck RePlucked

1stBILLED

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When Covid-19 hit and I was forced into quarantine, I began a journey of watching bad movies.
I feel that you can learn just as much from a bad movie as a good movie and, boy, did I learn a lot.

Then something unexpected happened.

Howard The Duck (1986) is considered one of the worst movies of all time. A commercial and critical flop.
I watched the movie on Netflix, preparing to have an informative time full of awfulness based on what I had heard about it beforehand. 

But I didn't hate it.
Not only did I not hate it, I liked it.
This revelation shook me to my core, it was so unexpected.

I came to the conclusion that the movie was not good but somehow had a good movie inside of it. Then I learned about fan editing.

In such a short span of time, I had become obsessed.
I bought my own copy of the movie and began the process of creating my own edit.

One cut lead to another, and another and another.
I began to think about the movie as a whole, what worked and what didn't.
I feel I am am now nearly finished what I feel is the version of the movie, dubbed Howard The Duck RePlucked, which I can enjoy.


gGCGyym.jpg

(current poster, made as a spoof of the original comic 1st issue cover)

In addition to cutting outdated or unfunny jokes, I also cut out lines that made me cringe or felt especially awkward or just plain did not make sense in their own context.

After that, I cut out cheap-looking or especially bad green screen or VFX shots that didn't appear necessary to begin with.

Then I tackled some pacing issues. The final third of the film is where I felt it drag the most and so I cut down on it extensively.

(!spoilers!)

Also, toward the end of the film, when the stop-motion monster is introduced, I noticed the composition issues with it.
The creature is changing colour from shot to shot, and sometimes appears to be lit completely different from the scene it is supposed to be in.

This lead to the more in depth side of the edit which involved me trying to fix visual issues with the creature.


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I had so much fun doing this and I hope it may eventually be listed among the amazing edits I have seen on this site.

vlEpKdd.jpg
 

DigModiFicaTion

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Starting off with quite the project. I've never watched this movie as I've heard it was a dud as well. I remember seeing trailers for it on old vhs movies though. The lighting changes look like quite the improvement. I'll have to do some more research into this to see if it warrants me trying to track down a copy of the movie to watch this.
 

Closer2God

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I absolutely loved this movie growing up(I still think its a decent film). 1stBilled Those re-done shots look amazing, nicely done mate.
 

1stBILLED

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Closer2God said:
I absolutely loved this movie growing up(I still think its a decent film). 1stBilled Those re-done shots look amazing, nicely done mate.

Thank you so much for saying so!
I honestly wish I had seen this movie sooner.
I am very happy with how the shots have turned out so far. :)
 

reave

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DigModiFicaTion said:
Starting off with quite the project. I've never watched this movie as I've heard it was a dud as well. I remember seeing trailers for it on old vhs movies though. The lighting changes look like quite the improvement. I'll have to do some more research into this to see if it warrants me trying to track down a copy of the movie to watch this.

I don't know how anyone can not watch this film. It's so notorious and bizarre. I love it, but I think it's a mixture of nostalgia, love for Lea and a masochistic love of crappy bizarro movies.

Definitely interested to see an edit of this, especially if it addresses some of the wonky effects.
 

SilverWook

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I dig that cover!

Speaking as someone who actually saw this opening weekend in 1986, I never got the hate. People seemed to be having a good time, I know I did. No riots broke out resulting in some hapless usher being stuffed into the popcorn machine or anything. I wanted to buy a Howard t-shirt for sale in the lobby and they were sold out!
If a certain Mr. Lucas wasn't the producer the critics might have been less harsh.

Howard has since turned up in the Guardians Of The Galaxy films, and Lea Thompson has said she would like to direct a new HTD movie.

Anyone who says in 2020 with a straight face that HTD is one of the worst movies ever made has never seen the work of Coleman Francis and knows nothing of hell. ;)
 

The Scribbling Man

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Not seen this. Not had the guts. Clips have made me reel back in horror.

Sounds like a cool project though.

I love your tagline: "The fan edit that no one asked for"
 

iridium_ionizer

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I know that my 10-year old sister liked the film when it came out in theater. When I saw it on VHS I found it interesting, but not quite a compelling narrative that I wanted to see over and over. 

As a piece of film history its kind of interesting because the film was executive produced by George Lucas, had Willard Huyck directing (who has several Lucasfilm writing credits), and had the full force of mid-1980's ILM providing the special effects. In an alternate universe the film's story was a little better and they made a sequel to this. 

As an aside, we all know that chickens have breasts because that is how we buy their meaty muscle from the grocery store / butcher, but do ducks have mammary glands in your version?
 

1stBILLED

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reave said:
DigModiFicaTion said:
Starting off with quite the project. I've never watched this movie as I've heard it was a dud as well. I remember seeing trailers for it on old vhs movies though. The lighting changes look like quite the improvement. I'll have to do some more research into this to see if it warrants me trying to track down a copy of the movie to watch this.

I don't know how anyone can not watch this film. It's so notorious and bizarre. I love it, but I think it's a mixture of nostalgia, love for Lea and a masochistic love of crappy bizarro movies.

Definitely interested to see an edit of this, especially if it addresses some of the wonky effects.

I think I would recommend giving Howard The Duck a watch to most people I know. It is quite bizarre (which I love), and it requires one to buy into its weirdness in order to find its value.
 

1stBILLED

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SilverWook said:
I dig that cover!

Speaking as someone who actually saw this opening weekend in 1986, I never got the hate. People seemed to be having a good time, I know I did. No riots broke out resulting in some hapless usher being stuffed into the popcorn machine or anything. I wanted to buy a Howard t-shirt for sale in the lobby and they were sold out!
If a certain Mr. Lucas wasn't the producer the critics might have been less harsh.

Howard has since turned up in the Guardians Of The Galaxy films, and Lea Thompson has said she would like to direct a new HTD movie.

Anyone who says in 2020 with a straight face that HTD is one of the worst movies ever made has never seen the work of Coleman Francis and knows nothing of hell. ;)

Thank you! I was originally thinking of referencing stills from the movie to create a more classic 80's movie poster but then I thought of the idea to spoof the original comic book series' 1st issue cover, which I found more fun to work on.

I wish I could travel back in time and see this on the big screen! Good for you to have experienced it.

I have a theory that a big part of the movie's lack of success came from it's marketing, and it not finding the right audience.
If something like it were released now, perhaps it would have found success.

I'd love to see Guardians director James Gunn's take on a Howard The Duck movie. :)
 

1stBILLED

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The Scribbling Man said:
Not seen this. Not had the guts. Clips have made me reel back in horror.

Sounds like a cool project though.

I love your tagline: "The fan edit that no one asked for"

Thanks! When I started, I had no idea if anyone would be interested so I felt the tagline was fitting. :)
 

1stBILLED

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iridium_ionizer said:
I know that my 10-year old sister liked the film when it came out in theater. When I saw it on VHS I found it interesting, but not quite a compelling narrative that I wanted to see over and over. 

As a piece of film history its kind of interesting because the film was executive produced by George Lucas, had Willard Huyck directing (who has several Lucasfilm writing credits), and had the full force of mid-1980's ILM providing the special effects. In an alternate universe the film's story was a little better and they made a sequel to this. 

As an aside, we all know that chickens have breasts because that is how we buy their meaty muscle from the grocery store / butcher, but do ducks have mammary glands in your version?

I think what has drawn me to multiple viewings is a combination of the humour, the characters, the craziness, and the music.
The story is odd because it is really trying to be two movies in one, with a Three-Act structure in the first half and then another almost completely separate Three-Act structure in the second half.

I now so wish the film got a sequel. The established characters and world are deserving of a far more interested story to play around in.

One may be surprised to know that I have so far decided to keep the duck mammary glands in this version!
It is a strange scene that everyone seems to remember or know about even if they haven't seen the film, and I think it's hilarious.
 

TinyBreadMouse

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1stBILLED said:
One may be surprised to know that I have so far decided to keep the duck mammary glands in this version!
It is a strange scene that everyone seems to remember or know about even if they haven't seen the film, and I think it's hilarious.

The scene is so well known that removing the scene would only disappoint, since everyone is expecting it.
 

1stBILLED

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TinyBreadMouse said:
1stBILLED said:
One may be surprised to know that I have so far decided to keep the duck mammary glands in this version!
It is a strange scene that everyone seems to remember or know about even if they haven't seen the film, and I think it's hilarious.

The scene is so well known that removing the scene would only disappoint, since everyone is expecting it.

Exactly!
 

1stBILLED

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KaUH1ta.png


I have put together a comparison video showing some of the monster clips. 
Original on the left, and edited on the right!

 

hbenthow

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How did you adjust the brightness of the different composited elements to match each other?
 

1stBILLED

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hbenthow said:
How did you adjust the brightness of the different composited elements to match each other?

I used a program called DaVinci Resolve, which allows you to select different elements based on colour so you can change their colour or brightness without affecting the rest of the scene.

And the best part is the program is FREE!
 

bionicbob

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1stBILLED said:
I have put together a comparison video showing some of the monster clips. 
Original on the left, and edited on the right!


Very IMPRESSIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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