Fan Edits

I have just discovered the fascinating world of the Fan Edits, which are exactly that: Fans re-editing their favourite movies.

Of course, the most revisited movies are the Star Wars ones… Well let me tell you that the Revisited version of A New Hope, by Adrian Sayce is in every way superior to the Special Edition Lucas did himself. And M. Sayce is not even a professional editor. He learned by doing, experimenting at home. His version corrects all the imperfections of the original movies (he did some color correction, re-edited certain scenes) and even adds new special effects that matches those done by ILM in 1997. And of course, Han still FIRES FIRST… Amazing.

And it’s after seeing his version that I discovered fanedit.org. It’s an impressive collection of Fan Edits, of movies like Lord of the Ring, Blade Runner, Batman Begins… All new versions that correct little things; that take out a bad line or even entire scenes or re-insert previously deleted scenes. Each new edit is catalogued and commented by the community. Now, not every edit is as good as what Sayce did, but it remains an interesting exercise.

I won’t comment on the legality of all this, nor will I comment on subject like integrity or the artist’s respect. What we have here are fans that create their own special editions of their favourite movies and who gets nothing in return, and they do it because they love the original film.

It’s an interesting underground movement that anyone interested in motion pictures should check out.