Joshua Wille

Fan edits are essentially unauthorized alternative versions of films made by fans. Unlike traditional film editing, which is characterized by a new assemblage of original film or video content, fan editing is a form of recombinant filmmaking that reactivates existing arrangements of audiovisual material. Fan edits are noncommercial transformative works that illustrate the mutability of digital cinema as well as the potential for new media artists, experimental filmmakers, and diverse critical voices to emerge from a networked public.

The Phantom Edit (2000) is a seminal fan edit based on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) that established a model of production and distribution for fan edits. As a central research problem, this study recognizes that the failure of previous scholarship to account accurately for the history of The Phantom Edit, as well as an evident lack of close engagement with contemporary fan edits, have hindered the ability of scholars to grapple with significant developments in fan edit culture. In general, film and media studies have failed to account for both The Phantom Edit and nearly two decades of progressive work.

This study builds upon the limits of previous scholarship in order to illustrate a historical trajectory of fan editing from The Phantom Edit to its more diverse present state, which is exemplified by Raising Cain: Re-cut (2012), a fan edit based on Raising Cain (1992) that was eventually endorsed by Brian De Palma and sold as the official director’s cut. Furthermore, this study examines practical trends of fan edits and effective means of classification. Combining archival research, interviews, practical fan editing experience, and textual analysis of fan edits collected over several years of participation in the fan editing community, this study offers a foundation of knowledge about the technology, legal contexts, and cultural practice of fan edits.

PDF full text available: https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/handle/1808/26032

In this essay, I examine the logistical problems of sharing unsanctioned film versions (fan edits) on popular online video Web sites like YouTube as well as controversial torrent indexes like The Pirate Bay. Additionally, I explore cases in which celebrity fan editors such as Steven Soderbergh and Topher Grace limited public access to their high-profile re-editing projects, and I introduce the term "vaporcut" in order to differentiate unsubstantiated works, such as Grace’s 85-minute Star Wars prequel trilogy edit, from authenticated fan edits. Moreover, I explore how some fans attempt to replicate scarce fan edits but they inevitably create new transformative works that that reflect their own creative perspectives.

Full text of this essay: http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/663/537

A fan edit can generally be defined as an alternative version of a film or television text created by a fan. It offers a different viewing experience, much as a song remix offers a different listening experience. The contemporary wave of fan edits has emerged during the remix zeitgeist of digital media and at a time when digital video editing technology has become more affordable and popular. The increasing number of alternative versions of films and the works of revisionist Hollywood filmmakers such as George Lucas have contributed to a greater public understanding of cinema as a fluid medium instead of one that exists in a fixed form. The Phantom Edit (2000), a seminal fan edit based on Lucas's Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), inspired new ranks of fan editors. However, critics have misunderstood fan edits as merely the work of disgruntled fans. In order to provide a critical and historical basis for studies in fan editing as a creative practice, I examine previous interpretations of fan edits in the context of relevant contemporary works, and I use an annotated chronology of The Phantom Edit to trace its influence on subsequent fan editing communities and uncover their relationship with intellectual property disputes.

Full text available: https://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/575

Notes and addenda: https://wille.tv/2014/09/22/fan-edits-and-the-legacy-of-the-phantom-edit/

Joshua Wille interviews Dutch filmmaker Peet Gelderblom about the making of his archival fiction feature When Forever Dies, which recombines material from 125 years of film history in order to tell a timeless story of love, betrayal, and redemption. https://foundfootagemagazine.com/issues/issue-7/