Here’s a preliminary example of the Photoshop + After Effects work for the upcoming Batman Reimagined kickstarter trailer. This is a shot from the movie Bruce Almighty starring Jim Carrey (The Riddler) where the messages on the signs have been altered to fit the new narrative. There are many similar scene transformations in the works for this project. Stay tuned, much more to come…
Frank Miller is Really Gonna Hate this Remix
If you somehow didn’t already think that Frank Miller, comic-book creator of 300 and The Dark Knight Returns, was a misogynist right-wing reactionary prick here’s the proof. In a recent blog post he shows his true cryptofascist colors by ranting against Occupy Wall Street protesters and calling them pond scum, louts, thieves, and rapists. Frank writes:
“In the name of decency, go home to your parents, you losers. Go back to your mommas’ basements and play with your Lords Of Warcraft.”
Well, Frank, sentiments like that put you squarely in the villains category (along with Bruce Wayne himself) in my alternative remixed Batman universe. I might just have to find a way to include a Frank Miller cameo in the remix.
Comic-book writer Alan Moore, creator of V for Vendetta, on the other hand has a decidedly different option. He has this to say about the recent occupy-related protests and those appropriating his Guy Fawkes mask design:
“Voice of the people…I think that if the mask stands for anything, in the current context, that is what it stands for. This is the people. That mysterious entity that is evoked so often – this is the people.”
Further reading:
- The Guardian - Frank Miller calls Occupy protesters thieves & rapists
- The Guardian - Frank Miller and the rise of cryptofascist Hollywood
- The Guardian - Alan Moore, meet the man behind the protest mask
Organization is key to any big remix video project and keeping track of the huge number of movie sources for this remix has been challenging to say the least. So I’ve started a listal.com list divided into sub-sections for each potential character. As I work building the new narrative out of these sources I will be adding/subtracting more films to/from the list.
http://www.listal.com/list/batman-reimagined-sources
Any film is at the same time an expression of a writer, and its an offering to an audience to create their own film.
Stewart Stern, Screenwriter (A Rebel Without a Cause)
A first draft concept design for a character study style poster.
This is a looks at first round of media sourcing for this project. More films might follow (and a few may be dropped) depending on how the narrative is progressing but hopefully it gives you an idea of the scope and complexity of the remix I’m trying to build. You’ll notice that all the above films star either Christian Bale or an actor who once played a Batman villain.
Spent the afternoon with a Macchiato @ Four Barrel Coffee in San Francisco working on the Kickstarter fundraising proposal this project.
Update September 15th: The project has been approved by Kickstarter! Now we have to make an awesome trailer for the fundraising drive there. Stay tuned. Same bat-channel, same bat-time.
More research materials courtesy of the public library system.
Sometimes, on rare occasions, the internets do not provide and I am forced to order strange physical copies of media. Today a handful of special edition DVDs arrived via snail mail adding to my growing list of source materials for this project.
The long researching phase begins! This will be my most complex remix narrative to date.
