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What got you into fan editing?

I heard about Adywan's Star Wars Revisited, then I found Water World Extended. I was hooked immediately.
 
My story is a little different. I didn't even know that Star Wars edits existed!

Instead one day i was watching the Nostalgia Critic review of the Miramax's (horrible) version of The Thief and the Cobbler, and at the end of his review he said that a fan-made cut of the movie exists named "The Recobbled Cut" that restored the movie as close to Richard William's original vision as possible. I was intrigued and googled about it, and on my quest to find the dvd version of the edit instead of the youtube upload, i came across this site. I was fascinated by the whole concept of fanediting movies, and the creativity of some of the faneditors, so here i am!
 
Good to hear ol' NC's good for something. His new Pearl Harbor review is partly pretty good and partly nails-on-chalkboard dreadful, and the original segments just look and feel pitiful compared to what Red Letter Media puts out in Half in the Bag several times a month. :p
 
I heard about fan edits on backyardtheater.com - someone mentioned watching ANH:R outside. I asked for more info and was led here. I must have downloaded a couple of dozen edits by now (really should do some reviews sometime...) The level of passion, skill, commitment and unique vision that I see every month is awe-inspiring. I wish I had the technical abilities and time to contribute, but right now I'm happy to be just a fan-edit fan.
 
That's cool. We need an audience as much as we need fellow editors!
 
I followed the typical intro path: a filled-with-nerdrage-over-Ep-I Star Wars fan being delighted and amazed by the Phantom Edit.

But I didn't become aware of the whole realm of various fanedits until years later, after the backhanded release of the unaltered original SW trilogy as non-anamorphic, crappy-looking "bonus" DVDs by Lucasfilm, when I wondered if anyone online had worked on re-creating the originals in decent quality. That led me to originaltrilogy.com and then to here, to discover many awesome re-imaginings and restorations. Then late last year it was the extras on the Prometheus blu-ray that inspired me to try an edit of my own.

It's so odd to read on this thread that Mike Nichols has distanced himself from the phenomenon he more or less spawned. I had read before that he specifically felt bad about pirates duplicating and actually selling his edit, but I didn't know he had distanced himself from fanediting in general.
 
Great story, Severian!

Unfortunately, because of things that were out of Nichols' control (rampant piracy, and the inability -- at the time -- to get edits online for free), he got associated with the piracy even though he wasn't to blame. He probably didn't have any other choice but to step back. It's a shame, because I would have liked to have seen what else he could have done.

Even today, sadly, fan editors must constantly try to set the record straight for those who confuse what we do with piracy.
 
Garp said:
I heard about fan edits on backyardtheater.com ....
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and thanks to this story, i now have another website to add to my daily distraction list.
 
baileym43 said:
and thanks to this story, i now have another website to add to my daily distraction list.
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Ha! Sorry. :icon_redface:
See you over there!
 
TomH1138 said:
Great story, Severian!

Unfortunately, because of things that were out of Nichols' control (rampant piracy, and the inability -- at the time -- to get edits online for free), he got associated with the piracy even though he wasn't to blame. He probably didn't have any other choice but to step back. It's a shame, because I would have liked to have seen what else he could have done.

Even today, sadly, fan editors must constantly try to set the record straight for those who confuse what we do with piracy.
Click to expand...

Ah, that makes more sense, though agreed is still a shame.
 
Garp said:
Ha! Sorry. :icon_redface:
See you over there!
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man, your Backyard Theater site is heavy.
i enjoy reading through it though. lot of neat info there.

but back on topic. editors' and fans' origin stories.
 
Severian said:
It's so odd to read on this thread that Mike Nichols has distanced himself from the phenomenon he more or less spawned.
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It is probably a fine line he has to tread since he works in the industry. If I were actually working on movies in hollywood, I would also be tempted to distance myself or at least remain extremely anonymous.
 
Good point, Gem. I guess that's why we still haven't seen the Topher Grace cut of the prequels yet.

...I wonder if he ever followed through on his Close Encounters edit?
 
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