Become the director of a blockbuster !
by Olivier Godest, published on 2.11.2009
The film “Be kind rewind” by Michel Gondry called it first. Now it’s up to the audience to get behind the camera. Here’s a unique initiative by Casey Pugh (ADD LINK) for all fans of the galactic universe. This internet user created a collaborative platform called Star Wars Uncut, whose objective is to revisit the scenes of a cult film: Star Wars (episode 4) by filming them in either realistic or completely offbeat ways.
The idea is simple: the film Star Wars Episode 4 is broken down into 2036 scenes of 15 seconds each, anyone can choose between one and three scenes to work on. Once chosen, the new director has a free hand in giving the chosen cinematographic moment a new approach. Once all the new scenes are re-edited and uploaded, it will be a brand new film entirely created by a community of fans that will play on the Star Wars Uncut website.
32 years after its launch, the passion for this episode has not died down: all the scenes have been reserved and 72% of the film is already finished. To avoid having unmotivated people not finishing the work that they’ve committed to, a 30 day limit has been set to create the reproduction. Past that date, the scene becomes available again. The amateur directors have shown great creativity by transforming a local factory into Princess Leila’s headquarters, using cardboard masks to represent Han Solo, or more simply an old gray car as a spaceship. Some of the results however, are incredibly realistic.
All artistic genres are represented in this community Star Wars, from film to cartoon, stop-motion to animation. This is also transmedia: allowing a community of fans to rework the content and using any kind of media to create a new ramification to the story by taking even deeper possession of the universe of the story.
In order to reward the work accomplished, a trailer regrouping the re-mixed sequences has been put online: http://www.vimeo.com/678800 . The film should be presented at the next San Diego comic-con taking place from July 22nd to 25th . May the force be with you!
Discover and follow the project here: http://www.starwarsuncut.com/. A trailer is available at http://www.vimeo.com/678800 .
