Re-cut trailer

Last updated

A re-cut trailer, or retrailer, is a mashup video that uses footage from a movie or its original trailers to create a completely new context, or one different from the original source material. The mashups are parody trailers that derive humor from misrepresenting original films: for instance, a film with a murderous plot is made to look like a comedy, or vice versa. They became popular on the Internet in 2005.

Contents

Creation

The making of retrailers became possible with the availability of consumer-level digital video editing suites. The more sophisticated of these allow the editor to separate the audio and video tracks of a clip, allowing the original score or soundtrack to be removed — these contribute most to a scene's tone—and replaced with another. By placing clips of different characters (typically closeups) together in sequence, a relation between them may be implied, regardless of where each character is actually situated within their respective movie. All that remains is to include certain conventions such as voice-over narration, titles and credits, and the familiar MPAA rating system copy (the white-on-green introductory screen).

History

The earliest identified re-cut trailer debuted in December 2003, named Kill Christ, created by an NYU film student. It mocks the films Kill Bill: Volume 1 and The Passion of the Christ . [1] In 2005, the format started to gain popularity with Robert Ryang's re-cut of The Shining , which made the horror film appear to be a light-hearted family comedy drama about father and son bonding, adding voice-over narration and Peter Gabriel's song "Solsbury Hill" to augment the re-edited footage. [1] Ryang had made the re-cut trailer as part of a contest for the Association of Independent Creative Editors from post-production house P.S. 260 in New York City, with his entry winning. [2] After it was published to the Internet, it jump-started the popularity of re-cut trailers for the internet community. [1]

Soon after the Shining retrailer took the Internet by storm, Emerson College comedy troupe Chocolate Cake City created a re-cut trailer for the Back to the Future films, portraying the films' characters in a romantic homosexual relationship akin to the one by the main characters in the film Brokeback Mountain . The retrailer primarily used clips from Back to the Future Part III , which was set in the Wild West of the 19th century. Brokeback to the Future was one of several re-cuts that emerged in late 2005 in which a homosexual relationship was suggested between two male leads. As Brokeback to the Future gained popularity in early 2006, other re-cuts were created that specifically parodied Brokeback Mountain . [3]

In 2006, comedy troupe The Lonely Island made a Saturday Night Live Digital Short in which a trailer of Mel Gibson's upcoming film Apocalypto , a film entirely in the Yucatec Maya language, was recut and had English-language subtitles added to it based on statements made by Gibson during a well-publicized drunk driving incident of several months prior, to make it appear that the characters were saying anti-Semitic things. [4]

With continued growth of the Internet, including the ease of mixing videos and publishing to sites like YouTube, re-mix trailers continued to gain popularity. While most were made with the intent of present a film in a different genre than intended, other trailers were made to rectify what some might see as bad marketing or approaches to movie promotion. A notable example was the fan-made re-cut of John Carter based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs character. Michael Sellers, a fan of Burroughs' work, had been disappointed by the trailers Disney had released, including the one used during Super Bowl XLVI. He and his friend Mark Linthicum spent the evening after the Super Bowl downloading available material for the film and other works to piece together a more representative trailer of the source material; this caught not only the attention of the film's director Andrew Stanton, but of major media productions that praised the trailer's quality over Disney's own efforts. [1] [5] In a similar vein, the web series Honest Trailers from Screen Junkies similar remixes films to create trailers that sarcastically portray what happens in the film. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cut-up technique</span> Literary technique of rearranging text

The cut-up technique is an aleatory narrative technique in which a written text is cut up and rearranged to create a new text. The concept can be traced to the Dadaists of the 1920s, but it was developed and popularized in the 1950s and early 1960s, especially by writer William S. Burroughs. It has since been used in a wide variety of contexts.

iMovie Video editing software developed by Apple

iMovie is a free video editing application made by Apple for the Mac, the iPhone, and the iPad. It includes a range of video effects and tools like color correction and image stabilization, but is designed to be accessible to users with little or no video editing experience. iMovie's professional equivalent is Apple's Final Cut Pro X.

Trailer Park Boys is a Canadian mockumentary television sitcom created by Mike Clattenburg that began airing in 2001 as a continuation of his 1999 film bearing the same name. The show follows the misadventures of a group of trailer park residents, including two lead characters in and out of prison, living in the fictional "Sunnyvale Trailer Park" in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The series premiered on Showcase on April 20, 2001, and originally ran for seven seasons before concluding with a one-hour special on December 7, 2008. The series spawned three films: The Movie, released on October 6, 2006; Countdown to Liquor Day, released on September 25, 2009; and Don't Legalize It, released on April 18, 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anime music video</span> Fan-made music video consisting of anime clips set to an audio track

An anime music video (AMV) is a fan-made music video consisting of clips from one or more Japanese animated shows or movies set to an audio track, often songs or promotional trailer audio. The term is generally specific to Japanese anime, however, it can occasionally include footage from other mediums, such as American animation, live action, or video games. AMVs are not official music videos released by the musicians, they are fan compositions which synchronize edited video clips with an audio track. AMVs are most commonly posted and distributed over the Internet through AnimeMusicVideos.org, video downloads and YouTube. Anime conventions frequently run AMV contests who usually show the finalists/winner's AMVs.

<i>Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy</i> 1996 Canadian comedy film by Kelly Makin

Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy is a 1996 Canadian comedy film written by and starring the Canadian comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall. Directed by Kelly Makin and filmed in Toronto, it followed the five-season run of their television series The Kids in the Hall, which had been successful in both Canada and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trailer (promotion)</span> Short video advertising a creative work

A trailer is a commercial advertisement, originally for a feature film that is going to be exhibited in the future at a movie theater or cinema. It is a product of creative and technical work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fan film</span> Film created by fans inspired by original material

A fan film is a film or video inspired by a film, television program, comic book, book, or video game created by fans rather than by the source's copyright holders or creators. Fan filmmakers have traditionally been amateurs, but some of the more notable films have actually been produced by professional filmmakers as film school class projects or as demonstration reels. Fan films vary tremendously in quality, as well as in length, from short faux-teaser trailers for non-existent motion pictures to full-length motion pictures. Fan films are also examples of fan labor and the remix culture. Closely related concepts are fandubs, fansubs and vidding which are reworks of fans on already released film material.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cassetteboy</span> English electronic music and comedy duo

Cassetteboy are an English electronic music and comedy duo. The pair have achieved success with their cut-ups of celebrities such as Alan Sugar and David Cameron to make parodies of their subjects. Several of the duo's videos have gone viral, with 50 millions views on their own YouTube alone. Despite their success, Cassetteboy made no money from their videos due to their questionable legal status, until a revision of UK copyright law in 2014.

A fan edit is a version of a film modified by a viewer, that removes, reorders, or adds material in order to create a new interpretation of the source material. This includes the removal of scenes or dialogue, replacement of audio and/or visual elements, and adding material from sources such as deleted scenes or even other films.

<i>Loose Change</i> 2005–2009 series of films by Dylan Avery

Loose Change is a series of films released between 2005 and 2009 that argue in favor of certain conspiracy theories relating to the September 11 attacks. The films were written and directed by Dylan Avery and produced by Korey Rowe, Jason Bermas, and Matthew Brown.

Jean-Paul "Picha" Walravens is a Belgian cartoonist, comics artist, animator and film director. He is most famous for his adult animated films, such as Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle.

A video mashup combines multiple pre-existing video sources with no discernible relation with each other into a unified video. These are derivative works as defined by the United States Copyright Act 17 U.S.C. § 101, and as such, may find protection from copyright claims under the doctrine of fair use. Examples of mashup videos include movie trailer remixes, vids, YouTube poop, and supercuts.

<i>Angry Video Game Nerd</i> Comedy web series about video games

The Angry Video Game Nerd, originally known as The Angry Nintendo Nerd, is an American retrogaming review comedy web series created by and starring James Rolfe. The series centers on Rolfe's titular skit character, often simply shortened to "the Nerd", a short-tempered and foul-mouthed gamer who delivers commentary on retro games of poor quality. While the series began with Rolfe simply playing games while providing retrospective commentary, the show has grown in scope to encompass sketches featuring guest characters, reviews of gaming consoles and peripherals, and short lectures about video game history and culture.

Collage film is a style of film created by juxtaposing found footage from disparate sources. The term has also been applied to the physical collaging of materials onto film stock.

<i>Arrested Development</i> season 4 Season of television series

The fourth season of the American television satirical sitcom series Arrested Development premiered on Netflix on May 26, 2013, and consists of 15 episodes. It serves as a revival to the series after it was canceled by Fox in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Rolfe</span> American YouTuber, filmmaker, and actor (born 1980)

James D. Rolfe is an American YouTuber, filmmaker, and actor. He is best known for creating and starring in the comedic retrogaming web series Angry Video Game Nerd (2004–present). His spin-off projects include reviews of retro films, television series, and board games. He is considered a pioneer of Internet gaming videos, and is noted for his widespread influence on YouTube content after the series premiered on the site in 2006.

A supercut is a genre of video editing consisting of a montage of short clips with the same theme. The theme may be an action, a scene, a word or phrase, an object, a gesture, or a cliché or trope. The technique has its roots in film and television and is related to vidding. The montage obsessively isolates a single element from its source or sources. It is sometimes used to create a satirical or comic effect or to collapse a long and complex narrative into a brief summary.

A YouTube poop (YTP) is a type of video mashup or edit created by remixing/editing pre-existing media sources, often carrying subcultural significance into a new video for humorous, vulgar, satirical, obscene, absurd, profane, annoying, confusing, or dramatic purposes. YouTube poops are traditionally uploaded to the video sharing website YouTube, hence the name.

<i>Tenacious D in Post-Apocalypto</i> 2018 American TV series or program

Tenacious D in Post-Apocalypto is an American series of animatic shorts by Jack Black and Kyle Gass as Tenacious D, released independently through the band's YouTube channel. The soundtrack for the series was released as the band's fourth studio album, Post-Apocalypto, by Columbia Records. The stills from the series were used to create a graphic novel released by Fantagraphics Books in September 2020.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Wattercutter, Angela (June 21, 2013). "Why Fan-Made Movie Trailers Are Often Better Than the Real Thing". Wired . Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  2. ↑ Halbfinger, David (September 30, 2005). "His 'Secret' Movie Trailer Is No Secret Anymore". The New York Times . Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  3. ↑ Carroll, Larry (February 24, 2006). "'Brokeback To The Future' Creators Hope Heath And Jake Don't Hate Them". MTV . Archived from the original on December 19, 2018. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  4. ↑ "SNL Digital Short: Apocalypto Recut". December 2, 2006.
  5. ↑ Kit, Borys (February 22, 2018). "Fan-Made Trailer for 'John Carter' Could Be Better Than Official One". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved December 18, 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.