Making the Film - Interviews


DJ Hupp - 22/Nov/02
Question 1: "For those that have not heard of you, can you give us a little background on who you are, and why you decided to re-edit the film AI?"

My name is DJ Hupp. I am a filmmaker in Sacramento, California, USA. I've been involved with filmmaking for about 3 years. During that time I've made 2 short films (one of them won 2nd prize in a national competition) I've been involved in several other productions including short films, music videos, and comedy shows. For more information about me check out my website: www.djfilms.com. Ever Since I saw the "phantom edit"(the fan re-edit of Episode I) I thought it would be fun to do a re-edit of a film, but at the time there wasnt any good candidates for a re-edit. When I saw AI, I thought that it would make a good subject for a re-edit for the same reasons that EpisodeI was: both films had the potential to be extrodinary, but there was a small portion of both films that was so bad that the entire film was ruined.

Question 2: "How exactly does one go about re-editing a film? How, for instance, did you get the entire version of AI onto your PC? What equipment is required?"

To get a 2 1/2 hour movie onto a pc, you need a dvd rom and dvd ripping/decrypting software. Then to get the movie into an editing program, you have to use a program to convert the file to a file type that the editing program will recognize. For good quality video, you'll need about 14gb of space for an hour of video

Question 3: "Having viewed both the original and the Kubrick Edit, it is obvious that you were faced with having to edit a lot of footage out. How much of a problem was this, and what parts of the film were the most difficult to edit out.?"

Most of the scenes could be easily removed because there was no mention of the scene in the rest of the movie. The most difficult scene to edit out was the doctor know scene, because the movie doesnt make as much sense without it, but its still a better movie without it, even though it doesnt make as much sense.

Question 4: "I agreed with almost all of your edits, but I was confused by one scene. When David visits the factory where he was made, I felt it would have been appropriate to see him go in and then have the scene where he looks through the factory and sees all the other 'DAVIDS' in their boxes. He then returns to the edge of the skyscraper. I always felt the scene where he meets Professor Hobby was a bit unbelievable, mainly due to the fact that the professsor would rather go round up all of the other scientists (leaving David alone) than simply usher David through to meet them. Why did you ultimately leave this scene in, when it could easily have been edited without breaking continuity?"

That's a good point. I dont know why I didnt think of that.

I totally agree with you. I think I was probably too caught up in trying to figure out a way to get the scene to work that it didn't occur to me to get rid of the scene all together.

Question 5: "You mention on your website that your biggest reason for re-editing AI came from the Dr. Know. scene. By removing this scene completely we are left with a 'jolt' in the film whereby David is with Gigalo Joe and then he is suddenly running away from what would have been the Dr. Know. room. I must admit that I could not see a way that this could have been better because of the lack of source material. Did you thus consider, at any time during your edit, using visuals from any other films - similar to the way Ridley Scott used outtakes from the Shining at the end of BladeRunner?"

I didnt ever consider using outside material. I liked the idea of the challege of working with limited material.

Question 6: "From reading your resume, it is clear you have ample experience working with miniDV. What is your take on the format and its true worth in the filmmaking world?"

I think that Mini DV is an extremely valuable resource. It opens the doors for filmmakers that otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity to make a film. Mini DV puts the power of filmmaking in a neat little package that anyone serious enough about filmmaking, will be able to get thieir hands on. In many ways its not as versitile as film. but I think that in many important ways, it is more versitile than film.