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Seinfeld and Jackson on, er, Unauthorized Derivative Works
Posted by James Grimmelmann on Tuesday, January 27 @ 00:00:26 EST Copyright
On the commentary track to the DVD Extended Edition of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, director Peter Jackson talks about the editing of the film, which includes a great many flashbacks. One possibility he mentions is of recutting the entire trilogy to be in strict chronological order.

In fact, he hopes that some fan will be encouraged to try, and would like to see how it turns out. His work on the trilogy has been about creating a version of Tolkien's story rooted in his own experiences at movies (from King Kong to Harryhausen), and he understands the value of turning his own creative products over to others for them to build on. I hope someone goes ahead and recuts the trilogy, and that New Line is as understanding as he is.

Jerry Seinfeld, too, has made some nice commentaries on the values of reuse and recreation. One episode of his eponymous show, The Little Kicks, involves his being drawn into a movie-botlegging ring when he's handed a camcorder and forced (at gunpoint!) to tape "Death Blow!" Jerry, initially reluctant, gets increasingly into the job, zooming and framing the film brilliantly. The head of the bootleg ring asks him to tape another, saying, "I was gonna give it to one of my other guys, but it's an arty movie and quite frankly, they don't have the sensibility." Eventually, Jerry's directorial demands -- a full crew, three cameras, headets -- cause a confrontation with his boss; Jerry refuses to compromise his artistic integrity to get the bootleg out the door quickly.

In a sly way, this episode points out the creativity involved in even what seems like a blatant act of piracy. The camcorder bootleg, with its audience noise and its framing, can be done well or done poorly, and it leaves behind traces of subsequent creators. I can't help but wonder whether it's any coincidence that I was able to find the entire script to the episode with a quick Google search.

 
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