If there’s
one thing we can learn from the endless supply of director’s cuts, extended
editions and DVDs loaded with deleted scenes, there’s no one way to cut a
movie. Which brings us to OpenCut. The premise is simple: you get 90
minutes of raw footage on a hard drive, and have to edit scenes into a
compelling short film. The pay-off: professional camera gear, a listing on IMDB, and a chance to rub elbows with filmmaker
Joe Carnahan. From
OpenCut.org:
"OpenCut
is a completely open-source film competition designed to encourage people to
take professionally shot material and edit it in their own way. As there is no ‘one
way’ to tell a story, so too can stories benefit from being re-edited and
re-told from many different vantage points and perspectives."
According to
Wired’s Underwire
blog, the idea for OpenCut came to Project Director Terry Lewis after
seeing the YouTube re-edit
of a trailer for The
Shining, which recontextualized the film to seem like a romantic comedy.
[See also: Scary Poppins,
Brokeback to the Future
and Requiem for a Day Off]
Raw footage can take on vastly different meanings depending on how you
cut it, what music you lay under it, and ultimately what story you want to tell
with it. While re-edited trailers are entertaining, OpenCut takes the practice
a step further: “Think you could do better? Prove it!” So far, Carhanahan and
crew have collected more than 200 versions of Susannah, the film / footage supplied for this contest. You and I have
until July 15 to put our spin on Susannah.
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