Re-Editing Movies that Are Out of Chronological Order

[the_sneaker]

My buddy Tim is a huge movie fanatic, and loves to show movies that we consider classics to people who have never seem them. Recently, we just showed our roommate Pulp Fiction and while he loved it immensely, he said it was a bit hard to follow, because, it was out of order. That fact didn't bother me any when I first saw it, but I could understand where our roommate was coming from, so Tim hopped onto his computer, ripped the DVD onto it, and used Final Cut to re-edit the movie so that from start to finish, it was in chronological order. Of course, I would never hope that any movie made would change it's original way, especially Pulp Fiction, however, it was really interesting to see it like that. Right now, he is doing Memento, not because we think it sucked by any means, only we just wanted to see what it would be like to see it in order.

Have you guys ever done something like this? Ever attempted to watch a movie that was purposefully edited out of order, in order. It's kind of cool to see it from another perspective.

[LordSimen]

Oppositely, I've always wondered what True Romance would have played like if it was in it's original, out of order timeline.

[APzombie]

Thats pretty cool. doesn't the Memento SE dvd have a feature that does this?

I make alot of fake trailers for films i love (not goofy ones, ones that i would like to have seen) but not this. I have a friend who edited the Rules of Attraction backwards scenes to play in forward motion. DIdn't reveal anything of course but we got a kick out of it.

Lord- good call! I read the original script, not only would playing that the way Tarantino wanted, but he also had music cues in the script (i think only one was actually used in Scott's version). That would be a bitch to add without the original SFX tracks but hey, it would be cool. Though Zimmer's theme rocks.

[BigSugar]

Coolest thing I've ever heard along these lines was Coppola doing The Godfather Saga for T.V. in which he took both films and edited into chronological order whilst adding back deleted scenes. On the Collectors Edtion there's an old into he filmed that was shown before the movie. I've only seen it once, but it was really cool.

[the_sneaker]

Originally posted by BigSugar
Coolest thing I've ever heard along these lines was Coppola doing The Godfather Saga for T.V. in which he took both films and edited into chronological order whilst adding back deleted scenes. On the Collectors Edtion there's an old into he filmed that was shown before the movie. I've only seen it once, but it was really cool.

Thats kind of where my roommate got the idea to re-edit Fiction. Even though I have seen that movie so many damn times to count, it was really enlightening to see it front to back. It answered questions that I didn't even realize I had.

[sirdizzy]

On the Limited Edition version of Memento, there is an easter egg where you can play the movie in chronological order

[Digifruitella]

I had that idea when I first saw Memento. I personally like to edit, so it seems fun to do that.

[the_sneaker]

Originally posted by sirdizzy
On the Limited Edition version of Memento, there is an easter egg where you can play the movie in chronological order

Fucking figures. My roommate literally just got done editing it about two minutes ago. He's gonna be pissed, lol!

Originally posted by Digifruitella
it seems fun to do that.

It really is, surprisingly. I was kind of against the idea of doing so, because I hate it when they go back and create the "director's cut" and all it is is so different from the original version that I can't enjoy it. Yet, it really is cool to see it from a new perspective! If you have the ability to, I suggest doing so. It's a lot of fun and really cool to see.

[The Heart Collector]

I don't see the point in doing this. It breaks the flow of the movie. Why in God's name would you want Pulp Fiction to be in chronological order? What's so hard to understand about it? That some characters that are shown to be alive after they were killed are in such a state because it's a separate story? I have to question the mental faculties of anyone that didn't get that.


I mean, what's the point of watching Memento in order? The story is supposed to work using the chronology of the movie, you know. It's the way the story is TOLD. If the story were told in chronological order, it would have to be filmed a lot differently.

[the_sneaker]

Originally posted by The Heart Collector
I don't see the point in doing this. It breaks the flow of the movie. Why in God's name would you want Pulp Fiction to be in chronological order? What's so hard to understand about it? That some characters that are shown to be alive after they were killed are in such a state because it's a separate story? I have to question the mental faculties of anyone that didn't get that.


I mean, what's the point of watching Memento in order? The story is supposed to work using the chronology of the movie, you know. It's the way the story is TOLD. If the story were told in chronological order, it would have to be filmed a lot differently.

Please, don't misunderstand me; I completely agree with you on every point you made. I was speaking for my other roommate when I said that he did not understand Fiction completely.

Like I've said, it's just another way to watch the movie. In my original post, I, in no way, supported the idea of changing the original version; I was just saying that it was kinda cool and interesting to see it from a new point of view. Kind of like seeing deleted scenes from a movie that you have seen hundreds of times. It adds a new element that you never thought of before.

[Cronos]

i've watched a number of fan edits, i've never watched one of these types of films put back into chronological order though, doing that's never really interested me

[Addi88]

Someone re-cut the Enchantment Under The Sea dance from Back To The Future. I thought this was pretty neat.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4589540173717485087

[the_sneaker]

Originally posted by Addi88
Someone re-cut the Enchantment Under The Sea dance from Back To The Future. I thought this was pretty neat.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4589540173717485087

That was fucking cool!

[Cyclonus]

According to this Stanley Kubrick bio I read, United Artists orginally recut The Killing so that it would play in chronological order, but it was such a disaster that they ended up releasing it the way Kubrick wanted.

[The Postmaster General]

Originally posted by Addi88
Someone re-cut the Enchantment Under The Sea dance from Back To The Future. I thought this was pretty neat.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4589540173717485087


Oh La La!

[bigred760]

I think it would be cool to do the opposite; take a movie in chronological order and mix it up a bit . . . a la Pulp Fiction.

[the_sneaker]

Originally posted by bigred760
I think it would be cool to do the opposite; take a movie in chronological order and mix it up a bit . . . a la Pulp Ficition.

That would be pretty cool. It would have to be a movie, though, that could still work all mixed up.

[deftdelivery]

Great idea dude - as a fun editing experiment. Let me know if you follow up with any more ideas. I'm intrigued that you actually learned even more about pulp fiction...everyone always thinks they have the movie totally figured out...you never know.

[the_sneaker]

Originally posted by deftdelivery
Great idea dude - as a fun editing experiment. Let me know if you follow up with any more ideas. I'm intrigued that you actually learned even more about pulp fiction...everyone always thinks they have the movie totally figured out...you never know.

Yeah, I know what you mean. It totally blew my mind because I have seen it so many damn times, and yet, seeing it from a fresh angle pointed out small little things that I never caught onto before and made it really cool to watch!

[Superplasmatron]

This reminds me A friend of mine was doing a Q and A with Gaspar Noé after showing his film Irréversible, she was very shocked when an audience member, said somthing along the lines of

'after she was raped she goes to a party and is really happy, did the rape actually happen? or was it a dream?'

some people, huh?

[The Postmaster General]

12 Monkeys seems like one of those films that could work cut like 21 Grams.

[inglourious basterd]

If your friend is willing to re-edit a famous scene to make it his own, feel free to lead him to our filmmaking forum. It is definitely a great exercise and it would be a breath of fresh air.

[the_sneaker]

Originally posted by psudoazn
If your friend is willing to re-edit a famous scene to make it his own, feel free to lead him to our filmmaking forum. It is definitely a great exercise and it would be a breath of fresh air.

Will do. I've tried to get him on the forums before, but he just never seems interested. However, if he does another edit, I'll take a short scene of it and put it on the forum for ya.

[The Postmaster General]

Originally posted by Roy L Dennis
'after she was raped she goes to a party and is really happy, did the rape actually happen? or was it a dream?'

some people, huh?


In regards to another famous non-linear film, I had someone ask me how in the hell John Travolta came back to life.

[the_sneaker]

Originally posted by BubbaStrangelove
In regards to another famous non-linear film, I had someone ask me how in the hell John Travolta came back to life.

LMAO. Oh, god, some people really need to open their eyes sometimes. I can kind of understand why they would ask that if they didn't know Pulp Fiction was non-linear, however, that was one of the biggest strong points of the film. I would think you'd be hard pressed not to know that fact.