Comments on: Topher Grace turns all three Star Wars prequels into one short, punch 85-min hypermovie

By: acidrain69

acidrain69 — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 03:56:00 +0000

The movie industry will sue you to oblivion, then 5 years later sell the service at Walmart for $10.

By: bennett von bennett

bennett von bennett — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 21:18:00 +0000

really really annoyed by this article. “this is finally the mashup/re-edit of the abortion that was the ‘prequels’ that you have all been waiting for… but sorry, you can’t ever watch it.”

really?!? seriously Cory… not cool bro!

By: igpajo

igpajo — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 05:16:00 +0000

Yeah, but isn’t the audio for films just as much copyrighted as any of the visuals? Many of the scenes in that fan-made film use dialogue, sound fx and the soundtrack from the original movie. You’d think YouTube’s copyrighted music/soundtrack sniffing robots would have locked that down right away.

By: TokyoSpark

TokyoSpark — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 05:03:00 +0000

I made something sooooo good I can’t show it to you. What a great scam! And the web is falling for it! What a load of hooey. The other remixes are out there, and George hasn’t nuked any of them, so what makes this one different? Because some quasi-celebrity made it? Made what? Oh, right, it’s a secret. Until it leaks, it never happened.

By: Aleknevicus

Aleknevicus — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 00:53:00 +0000

Such a scheme would work only if the edit involves discreet snippets of the original media. Where it falls apart is when different aspects of multiple scenes are stitched together. (The most obvious example of this would be combining the audio from one section with the video from another.)

An EDL system would get you most of the way, but I suspect it’s the pesky, (seemingly) minor aspects that give life to the art.

By: pl1x

pl1x — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 00:38:00 +0000

When it comes to Star Wars, people are beginning to lay out the background frame work for this idea to happen. Folks at the link below have begun to create a spreadsheet which lists all the shots in the films, eventually it will have time code information which could be the starting point for someone’s EDL.
http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Shot-List-Spreadsheet-v0505-6-films-publicly-editable/topic/13403/

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 00:13:00 +0000

I suspect he’s smart enough to keep a tight control over every extant copy of his cut, down to making sure he only screens it in front of friends who don’t record the screening on their iPhones. This was essentially a training exercise for himself, which turned out well enough that he wanted to show it off to some buddies. In that sense, my guess is that he’s vanishingly unlikely to get into any trouble whatsoever for it.

Releasing it to a worldwide (or even neighborhood-wide) audience, however, is another kettle of Gungans entirely.

By: jimh

jimh — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 23:17:00 +0000

And you know, I can’t remember *ever* laughing at Mickey Mouse, unless it was The Air Pirates version…

By: jimh

jimh — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 23:01:00 +0000

I approve of this idea for all films, ever.

By: penguinchris

penguinchris — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 22:36:00 +0000

You’re just trolling, right?

Nothing you wrote is true.

By: penguinchris

penguinchris — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 22:35:00 +0000

There’s a pretty big difference between a parody that doesn’t use any of the original footage or audio and a re-edited version of the actual films…

By: EH

EH — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:59:00 +0000

It’s hip to be square!

By: EH

EH — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:59:00 +0000

Anon doesn’t depend on a SAG card for sustenance.

By: EH

EH — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:18:00 +0000

Unless he got “hacked.”

By: David Deutsch

David Deutsch — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:34:00 +0000

The video isn’t on vimeo at all, Cory made the same mistake that I made – expect that the link to vimeo would show you the recorded conversation that is embedded at the end of the article. You can still see it, but only in the embedded format. In that regard, it’s at least a first hand account in the blog post and four further first hand accounts in the video.

By: igpajo

igpajo — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:15:00 +0000

So I’m curious why the Fan sweded version of Star Wars IV is being allowed to exist and is viewable on YouTube http://youtu.be/7ezeYJUz-84 but Topher Grace’s version isn’t? Or does it just come down to what gets the red letter stamp of approval from Lucas himself? One is a tribute I guess and the other is a “Look how much better my version of the story is than the original” slap in the face. But in the eyes of the “law”, if one is allowed, there shouldn’t be a problem with the other. (not that I’m a lawyer or anything…just speculating on that last part.)

By: duc chau

duc chau — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:58:00 +0000

Just watch a bowl of refried beans explode in a microwave and skip the movies.

By: AviSolomon

AviSolomon — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:56:00 +0000

There is an interesting thread on FanEdit with links to alternate edits of the prequels: http://www.fanedit.org/forums/showthread.php?6746-Actor-Topher-Grace-is-a-FanEditor

By: duc chau

duc chau — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:55:00 +0000

“also, of course, one person’s “boring politics” is another person’s interesting narrative.”

No, no, no. You don’t get to skew the terms of the “debate” based on some fabricated a priori assumption.

Try, “also, one person’s ‘poorly formed self-indulgent tripe’ is another person’s interesting narrative”

There are plenty of fantastic “boring political” movies out there.

By: joelogs

joelogs — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:49:00 +0000

Close. Because the “author” was a business entity, it will expire 95 years after publication. So, 2072.

By: C W

C W — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:37:00 +0000

VLC should be able to do something similar, perhaps with extensions.

By: C W

C W — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:37:00 +0000

Just watch the Red Letter Media narration and skip the movies.

By: donovan acree

donovan acree — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:52:00 +0000

“The video is private on Vimeo, so I haven’t seen it, but Peter Sciretta’s detailed description on Slashfilm has me drooling for it. ”
So we are getting third hand accounts of someones movie mashup now?

By: Moriarty

Moriarty — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:44:00 +0000

Well there’s really only one person to do the leaking, so I imagine such a thing turning up would get Topher Grace in trouble with Lucas’ army of clone lawyers.

By: Senor Schaffer

Senor Schaffer — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:38:00 +0000

Wait. I’m confused. Did Topher Grace play “Donna” or did Topher Grace play “Kelso”?

By: TrollyMcTrollington

TrollyMcTrollington — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Leaking this is a moral imperative.

Nature finds a way. You can’t stop the signal.

By: Joseph Adams

Joseph Adams — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:28:00 +0000

Check out watching them in “machete order” http://www.nomachetejuggling.com/2011/11/11/the-star-wars-saga-suggested-viewing-order/

By: freshacconci

freshacconci — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:04:00 +0000

No, the first two are fine. Maybe turn Return of the Jedi into a sitcom-length short. But no C3P0? Are you mad?

By: Scurra

Scurra — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:01:00 +0000

Now do the same thing with the “original” trilogy, and I’ll be happy. Because they are equally full of ridiculousness that contribute little – although I think it would be difficult to solve the ending of Star Wars itself, large amounts of RotJ could certainly be excised without trouble. And how about a C3PO-free cut? He is easily as annoying as Jar-Jar.

edit: also, of course, one person’s “boring politics” is another person’s interesting narrative. I found the exploration of the inherent flaws in mass centralisation (whether at government or business level) to be worthwhile myself, even if it made the question of what happened next rather more pressing than was apparent in the original trilogy.

By: niktemadur

niktemadur — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:21:00 +0000

Assuming no more extensions to copyright term…

Getouttahere! Fuhgeddaboudit! You’re a funny guy!

That said, the answer to your question varies from country to country, usually 50 or 70 years after the death of the work’s creator. In the USA it’s 70 years, so if Lucas were to croak this year, Star Wars would enter the public domain in January 1, 2083.

But next time Mickey Mouse is about to be legally free, they’ll cry “terrorism” and “pornography” in the same breath and Congress will pull yet another Joseph Heller on us.