Super 8 Star Wars remake
January 4, 2008 8:43 AM   Subscribe

"In June of 1977, Jim, John, and Gary saw Star Wars at White City Cinema in Worcester, Massachusetts. They were impressed. In the months after seeing the movie, so many costumes and models were made that they decided to remake a few scenes on super 8 film. The project grew into a fifty minute film." (Text from the Google Video description of the 15 minute version.) The remake's website includes stills, a downloadable "bloopers reel", an extensive "making of" photoessay and a brief photoessay on the construction of the R2 unit used in the remake.
posted by cog_nate (19 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
Holy crap. Other than a lack of shininess on C3PO, if I hadn't known those stills were of an amateur remake I would never have guessed it. I gotta see the video.

Aaaaand queue google video to be broken. (Probably my firewall.)
posted by DU at 8:51 AM on January 4, 2008


God, this is awesome!

(White City Cinema is (was?) in Shrewsbury, just across Lake Quinsigamond from Worcester.)
posted by dirtdirt at 8:52 AM on January 4, 2008


I saw Star Wars there, too. I saw it in the summer 1977 when I was visiting my grandparents, and then again in the summer of 1978 when it was still playing. I didn't really go to the movies much until I was able to ride my bike a couple miles to do so a few years later. We would visit my grandparents for a week or so every summer, and I am sure that the adults would be looking for ways to get the kids out of the house (it was a two-bedroom downstairs of a duplex and there would be seven of us staying in it during visits). I rememeber walking to a neighborhood pool (Homes/Holmes? Field) with my siblings. So I guess they sent us off to the movies, too. I always thought it was strange that I saw Star Wars in the same theatre, twice, one year apart, and in another state.

My grandparents have both died since then, and I have not been to Worcester in ten years or so. Sorry for the super-derail. I haven't even clicked a link yet. I just found myself very vividly caught up in the boredom/wonder/excitement of being seven years old again.
posted by flarbuse at 8:53 AM on January 4, 2008 [1 favorite]


Well, I was just about to FPP the cut scene from the beginning of Episode IV but one Star Wars post a day is all anyone can handle.
posted by Derek at 8:59 AM on January 4, 2008 [1 favorite]


And then there's Raiders: The Adaptation, which played at New York's Anthology Film Archives recently.
posted by muckster at 8:59 AM on January 4, 2008 [1 favorite]


Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?
posted by Horace Rumpole at 9:12 AM on January 4, 2008


What astonishes me is that they must have recreated the scenes from memory. If they started this only months after the movie came out, they wouldn't have been able to have a tape of it yet, would they? Did common folks even have VCRs in 1977?
posted by MrMoonPie at 9:23 AM on January 4, 2008


Pretty cool for amateur stuff in the late 70s. They must have gone back to watch the movie a dozen times to get it down that well too.

Yes, White City Cinema was on the Shrewsbury side of the Quinsig. puddle. Now it's an Outback and a Qdorba. I saw a few dozen movies there growing up (including one of my first dates!), but I don't miss it. It wasn't a very good theater. I saw Empire at Showcase Cinema's downtown, on the big screen which was a much better screen. Can't wait until the renovation of that theater is complete (even if it's going back to it's live theater roots).
posted by inthe80s at 10:10 AM on January 4, 2008


I know Jim and John through the R2 Builders group. They are also incredibly talented 3D animators.
posted by ChrisLee at 10:32 AM on January 4, 2008


Jongsma. Jongsma. Jooooonnnnnngggggsma.

Say Jongsma.

Sounds funny.
posted by Pecinpah at 10:34 AM on January 4, 2008


That is great! I want to live in a future made out cardboard and papier mache!
posted by aubilenon at 11:09 AM on January 4, 2008


Sorry, a distant past made out of cardboard and papier mache
posted by aubilenon at 11:09 AM on January 4, 2008


Yahoo! recently featured a video of a pretty impressive go at it by some fans in the UK. (with commercial-before-video goodness)
posted by starman at 11:13 AM on January 4, 2008


this is extremely great! there's not supposed to be sound, right? because it was filmed in super 8? it's amazing how well the film works as a silent movie.
posted by ericbop at 11:26 AM on January 4, 2008


inthe80s, the grand opening is in March.
posted by paxton at 11:29 AM on January 4, 2008


ericbop, yes, no sound.

One of my favorite things about this is the use of film scratches as laser blasts.
posted by cog_nate at 12:48 PM on January 4, 2008


Nice! A while ago I met the creator of this late 70s one:
"At the age of twelve, inspired by the first film in the Star Wars series, Will Wissink started working on his own super-8 space epic 'The Dark Planet'.
In this 25 min. stop-motion film, which took four years to complete, all kinds of household tools made their film debut as robots and space monsters."

So Star Wars must have inspired tons of kids.... Is there an index somewhere that anyone knows??
posted by borq at 1:44 PM on January 4, 2008




Delightful.
posted by sklero at 5:03 PM on January 4, 2008


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