Scanline: Director's Cuts (Patron Version)

I have a Masters in Music Education. I finished it over ten years ago. Following your questions on the problems inherent in a Director's Cut made a piece of me live again. Your dissections of some favorite games (okay, yes, it was the Bloodborne video that led me to you) accomplishes the same -sort- of thing, where we are taking a piece of media, and really dissecting what it's about. I don't get to engage in that teaching early childhood music. I thank you for being a wonderful way to bring that sort of thoughtfulness back into my life. (If it's not obvious, this is my first post as a dewy-eyed Patron.)

Marie Cory

I am satisfied with our transaction of money for entertainment. Thank you, total stranger!

Also it was awesome to see Shannon too :D

Dave

Great video!

Dave

That's very strange. When did you become a patron?

Hbomb

Came here to say much the same thing. I'm in favor of Director's Cuts if something integral was lost due to studio meddling, even if we're only able to see it because that same studio figured out how to capitalize on it. The best case scenario for this sort of thing is Wim Wenders' "Until The End of The World", a 5 hour epic in which hardly a moment is wasted getting chopped down to 2 hours and 20 minutes by the distributor. He hid his final cut from them and waited for either the license to run out or for them to go out of business, and began screening his version in 2015.

Stephen Mlinarcik

I loved the video but I´m not in the credits

Not that one, but I've done similar things. One of my all-time favourite movies Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas.... I had absolutely no idea Johnnie Depp was playing the lead character until years after I'd first seen it (and I'd seen it dozens of times since then).

Dagmar Makara

Loved the video. I have a question for other folks- did anyone completely miss that Deckard was a replicant for a number of years? If not, I can sit by myself over here...

Loved this one - it's been great to hear you talk about films again, which I know you're passionate about. The other topics are great too (video games, measured responses) - but it's been a while since I've watched a great piece on film by someone more knowledgeable and studied on the subject than me :)

Dagmar Makara

Another fantastic video essay, loved it. So true about Apocalypse now, I tried watching it like 3 times but ended up falling asleep or doing something else every time before it ended. Then one day a mate of mine told me about the original non-redux version, watched that one and loved it.

Tedsville

This is great; I'd never really given that much thought to DCs. I also had no idea they'd become such a thing! I always watch the Final Cut of Blade Runner, the Extended Editions of LOTR and the Despecialised Editions of Star Wars. And I think I've only seen Apocalypse Now Redux, which explains why I did not get why it was considered such a great film... Definitely a lot to think about. Fabulous work, you two! <333

Kimberley Challis

Great video! While I agree that director’s cuts have become an absurd marketing tool I think there’s several good examples of DCs that were done by the filmmaker to very good effect. One that comes to mind is the Lord of the Rings trilogy especially The Two Towers. Many people including myself felt that the original release felt like a bit of a slump when placed between the first and third movie; the DC truly filled it out and made the movie clearer about a number of plot points, particularly all the Rohan scenes. Clearer establishment of the plot and characters there, why the Lads stopped there, and the route taken to Helm’s Deep gave it a lot more relevance and made more sense geographically. The DCs of the other two movies were possibly a bit more self-indulgent but I think it’s worth it for the Two Towers improvement. The only changes to the definitive release with the three book-styled volumes was IIRC a transfer to Blu-ray that was nothing to right home about so I feel like the studio never went really overboard with it. (We don’t talk about The Hobbit) I think part of the reason there was such a surge of director’s cuts is because before 1980 films were not usually considered by studios to be a worthwhile asset to keep preserved. Many of the directors who were coming up in the 60s to 80s remember movies and TV shows that are simply gone or missing parts of them so DCs was the reaction to that particularly after DVDs became more widely available. We’re seeing a huge downturn in DCs now as more and more movies see wider distribution through VOD purchases. Movies are cataloged and preserved and studios may be less inclined to let directors tinker with their films since the director would need to be paid-they don’t want to justify that many times because something something yacht something something. Just my observations tho-great video! I was thinking about Rutger Hauer when he was brought up and perfect timing, as soon as I was going to let it go he gets a beautiful memorial. I almost cried. RIP that beautiful man.

L

I’m not sure about that but I’ve seen many ‘director’s cut’s that have had so little added or removed that the movie was not noticeably impacted.

L

wonderful video!

Calysto

Has there been a director releasing a director's cut that is just the same thing as the original as a sort of pretentious but somewhat clever statement?

Idoesnot

This editing hurt my neurotic personality. I LOVE it

Great video! Loved it!

Stephanie Guttormson

based on the title I assumed this WAS the director’s cut of this video about director’s cuts. my bad 🤭

Nathalie

But the comment about slapping your meat too hard against the walls of the set is basically the best thing and must be protected at all costs.

A_Blinkin'

The conversation that ends in a ripple delete felt forced to me and was not justified by the payoff of the gag.

A_Blinkin'

My sexuality is that jacket.

Robert Shippey

The best part about paying too much for film school is i that i know a ton of folks who are going to show this to their students... in film school.

I think there's some issues with the sound mixing, especially near the end. I also think the quote(s) that start at 24:46 drag on for a really long time.

Starboi

Scanline: Director's Cuts (Director's Cut)

HTTP_Lovecraft

Some of the zooming animations are very jittery, it's happening throughout the video, just so you know!

Benjamin Röjder Delnavaz

Scanline: Director's Cuts (Theatrical cut)

Ash Rose

Amazing. Seconding the janky text animation at 38:22. Love the multilayered backgrounds, and 42:06 onwards struck me as incredibly beautiful - the framing, the lighting, the focus. I dunno, it just really slammed itself into my brain in a good way.

Dan Sparks

This was a really good video and I'm glad you put it out :) also wanted to reiterate Shannon accidentally saying "benevolence" at 27:26

At 27:23, Shannon reads 'benevolence' from a piece of an article that's also shown on screen, where it says 'beneficence' also, I love you guys, the vid is great. I actually discussed this topic with a friend a while ago, it's so cool to see a video on it now.

wendigotypes

Kane was a year before Cat People (and both were RKO), but Cat People's use is much more tied into the scene. Kane just has an unconnected startling image and noise, Cat People has a LOT of build up that culminates with that bus coming into frame.

Robert Denby

I got a bit confused when Shannon said Cat People might be the first jump scare over Citizen Kane. Didn't Kane come first? Another interesting detail about Ridley Scott and Director's Cuts is on the Director's Cut DVD for Alien he says his preferred version is the theatrical one but the distributors made him do another cut. He changed it so the movie felt different with faster cuts and pace in general but it was made to sell DVDs.

Mangoappreciator

speaking of director's cuts, it just occured to me, will we ever see a video on deus ex: human revolution?

Pel

Good video. The earliest example I can think of a movie being extensively altered after the fact by its director is Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush. The movie came out in 1925 (it was silent of course), and was re-released by Chaplin in 1942 with narration, a music score and sound effects to ‘modernize’ it. Chaplin also cut the film significantly, including taking out the original ending, a kiss between him and co-star Georgia Hale, because Chaplin went through a nasty divorce with Hale a couple years later. Sam Raimi HAS tinkered with the original Evil Dead several times since the late 90s; a couple of the bad matte shots have been improved, and camera and sound equipment has been digitally erased. Tom Jones, which gets mentioned briefly, is a movie that got absolutely wrecked by its director's cut. The director decided 25 years after the fact to remove all the original scene transitions, along with about 7 minutes of dialogue and small scenes, and just about everyone said it wasn’t as good as the original cut. Until recently that director's cut was the ONLY version shown in repertory screenings and on video. Criterion thankfully restored the original theatrical cut, and it was a years-long process of finding footage. Alien, which I bring up since it was mentioned in the VHS episode, is another good example of a bad director's cut, and one that Ridley Scott even says is labeled as such because of marketing. The flow of the film was near perfect originally, and messing with it was a disservice.

Robert Denby

Love the video! Also heads up but there's some weird jittery animation at 38:22.

You look extremely sharp in that coat, but also why are you wearing that coat, is it not winter in the UK? Serious question. I do not know if summer happens in England.

Rory Blank

Great video about something I don't think a lot about. And I'm sure the irony of releasing a patron version is not lost on you. As always, great and thoughtful work.

HBomb and Blade Runner, at the same time? Yes! Modern video games are a kind of mass art that takes the director's cut concept to its apotheosis. They're released with the intention of patching in fixes and selling DLC. Some content is even hidden behind de facto gambling. And it's an archival nightmare. I still enjoy recent games and I love seeing my favorite games get more content and tweaks, but it's weird coming back to art that's different the next time I encounter it due to an update that happened in the background.

Been waiting on this for 2 months and I am not disappointed. Thanks Harris and Shannon!

Josh Burcham

Hbomb... I was glancing at the clock and thought you weren't gonna make it! Also what universe are we in where you made the deadline of before midnight? :P Right, gonna watch this now :D

Dagmar Makara

Yay!

Charlotte

I love your film videos.

So happy to see another Scanline!

OperaDog

Oh shit, it’s back. Hell yeah

Rory Blank