TomH1138
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I've been meaning to post this question for some time, and just kept forgetting to get around to it. Then someone else posted a similar thread to this, but it involved a sock account so it got taken down.
Still, the question is a good and fun one.
What made you all get excited about the idea of doing fan edits?
I bet for many people, it had something to do with the prequels and the special editions. Still, I'd be curious to know the specifics.
For me, it was actually something very different. I was a huge fan of the TV show The Monkees growing up. As you all probably know, about once an episode, the fictional band would get chased by spies / monsters / gypsies / what have you, while their hit songs like "I'm a Believer" and "Last Train to Clarksville" played in the background. (These segments were referred to as "romps.")
At some point, a friend and I discovered that the songs weren't always the same in the same episodes. Depending on which station reran the episodes, different songs would play over the romps.
Investigating into the issue, we found that in the summer of 1967, after the initial run of episodes, a lot of the shows were re-dubbed with new songs to promote the Monkees' then-current album. When the show went into syndicated reruns, some of the originals were used, and some of the re-dubbed episodes were used. Apparently, Columbia didn't know or care that substitutions had been made. As far as they knew, it was all just the same show.
And each time the show went to a different station, the station got different copies, meaning that you never quite knew which songs you were going to get.
Further complicating things (in a good way) is that when the show went to Saturday mornings in 1969, the episodes were dubbed again with what was then the Monkees' current music. So occasionally, the 1969-71 episodes also appear in reruns out of the blue.
For an example of what I'm talking about, here's a romp from the first episode, "The Royal Flush," featuring a song from the Monkees' first album, "This Just Doesn't Seem to Be My Day":
Now here's the same footage from the same episode, but with the romp set to "Apples, Peaches, Bananas and Pears," a song that was meant to be included on the 8th or 9th album but got left off at the last minute, meaning that this episode was the only place to hear the song for years:
My 14-year-old mind was blown away by this kind of thing. It was probably the first time I fully understood that film is malleable. In the coming years, my friend and I would try to dub off other Monkees songs onto the episodes using two VCRs (usually with terrible results).
I also tried to edit a version of the theme for the TV show Sliders, taking three different versions to make one coherent new theme. This was also attempted with a VCR, so the results were disastrous there, too.
My friend was the first one to get a copy of The Phantom Edit, which I really enjoyed. Then I finally decided to start exploring for fan edits online back in '09. I came across this site right away, but as often happens with first-timers, I got confused about how to download, and left in frustration. I came back here last fall, and thankfully, you all were willing to lend tech support until I finally got it.
So that's my story. I've been trying to fan edit for about 20 years without much luck until the Internet and YouTube came along, and now I'm slowly progressing on some features, and editing little trailers and such in the meantime.
How about the rest of you?
Still, the question is a good and fun one.
What made you all get excited about the idea of doing fan edits?
I bet for many people, it had something to do with the prequels and the special editions. Still, I'd be curious to know the specifics.
For me, it was actually something very different. I was a huge fan of the TV show The Monkees growing up. As you all probably know, about once an episode, the fictional band would get chased by spies / monsters / gypsies / what have you, while their hit songs like "I'm a Believer" and "Last Train to Clarksville" played in the background. (These segments were referred to as "romps.")
At some point, a friend and I discovered that the songs weren't always the same in the same episodes. Depending on which station reran the episodes, different songs would play over the romps.
Investigating into the issue, we found that in the summer of 1967, after the initial run of episodes, a lot of the shows were re-dubbed with new songs to promote the Monkees' then-current album. When the show went into syndicated reruns, some of the originals were used, and some of the re-dubbed episodes were used. Apparently, Columbia didn't know or care that substitutions had been made. As far as they knew, it was all just the same show.
And each time the show went to a different station, the station got different copies, meaning that you never quite knew which songs you were going to get.
Further complicating things (in a good way) is that when the show went to Saturday mornings in 1969, the episodes were dubbed again with what was then the Monkees' current music. So occasionally, the 1969-71 episodes also appear in reruns out of the blue.
For an example of what I'm talking about, here's a romp from the first episode, "The Royal Flush," featuring a song from the Monkees' first album, "This Just Doesn't Seem to Be My Day":
Now here's the same footage from the same episode, but with the romp set to "Apples, Peaches, Bananas and Pears," a song that was meant to be included on the 8th or 9th album but got left off at the last minute, meaning that this episode was the only place to hear the song for years:
My 14-year-old mind was blown away by this kind of thing. It was probably the first time I fully understood that film is malleable. In the coming years, my friend and I would try to dub off other Monkees songs onto the episodes using two VCRs (usually with terrible results).
I also tried to edit a version of the theme for the TV show Sliders, taking three different versions to make one coherent new theme. This was also attempted with a VCR, so the results were disastrous there, too.
My friend was the first one to get a copy of The Phantom Edit, which I really enjoyed. Then I finally decided to start exploring for fan edits online back in '09. I came across this site right away, but as often happens with first-timers, I got confused about how to download, and left in frustration. I came back here last fall, and thankfully, you all were willing to lend tech support until I finally got it.
So that's my story. I've been trying to fan edit for about 20 years without much luck until the Internet and YouTube came along, and now I'm slowly progressing on some features, and editing little trailers and such in the meantime.
How about the rest of you?