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Post by agentsamstanley on Sept 5, 2016 21:15:34 GMT -6
Wow, I had no idea so many fanedits of BW2 had been done so far.
Well, I'm giving a shot at my own recut. Trying to remove all the unnecessary gore and cheap scares and keep the film more psychological and ambiguous, just like the director originally intended. I've seen that in other fanedits people removed all the interviews and pop culture analysis from the beginning. I'm not cutting that out, as it was the director's original intention to make a film about the hype created by the first film.
I'm still in the middle of it, but this is what's been changed so far:
- Inserted several title cards about the original film and about Jeff's past and why he was locked in a mental asylum (doesn't make any sense to show all that footage of him locked if the film is not going to explain why). Also removed all the mental asylum footage, it's just sadistic and of very bad taste (sorry to those who enjoy that). - Opening credits completely changed. Black screen with white letters in the same style of the original film with Frank Sinatra's Witchcraft playing instead of Marilyn Manson's Disposable Teens. - All the murder flashbacks that keep popping on the screen removed so far. - All interrogation scenes that keep popping disappeared (they'll all be at the end). - Tristen's vision of drowned little girl in the hospital removed (dumb and not scary at all). - Jeff's flashback of the hospital after Kim says "They should've never let you out", I replaced the footage of him drooling that white liquid (just out of place and of bad taste) to the shot of him sitting in catatonic state, staring at nothing. - Tristen telling Stephen that she saw the little girl in the hospital removed (as it never happened in my edit). Later scene where she tells him her dream of killing the baby moved to later in the film. - White glitch in Jeff's footage of the tourists killed in form of a pentagram, and Stephen saying kind of bored that it looks like 'Coffin Rock' (never liked the way this scene plays out, and why would this image appear in Jeff's footage if they never shot the killing of the tourists). - Little girl on the bridge walking backwards. Same reason as the girl in the hospital: not scary at all, just dumb. Stephen just hears the crying, goes outside, hears that shriek, gets startled, looks again, nothing there. - Removed Stephen saying to Tristen they need to go home and Tristen grabbing his arm saying "not yet, I need to understand what happened". Dumb reason to make them stay. - Removed Erica clawing Stephen's stomach. They wake up from the illusion right after Erica asks Stephen about the marks in his stomach. - Removed red necks throwing stones at the van and that horrible heavy metal song Kim is playing inside. Just kills the mood of the scene when she sees the little kids. Added a song from Carter Burwell's score instead. - Removed Kim finding the bloody nail file in the beer bag (otherwise it's kind of obvious what happened in the store).
So, that's what I've done so far.
Here's a a video comparing my reworked intro to the film's intro: (updated, thanks for the tips/corrections ghostprints and BlackHillsHermit)
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Post by Sticks•n•Stones on Sept 5, 2016 21:20:43 GMT -6
Yes!
The more fan-editors there are the better!
Together we shall fan-edit this thing into the ground!
Fan-editors united!
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Post by agentsamstanley on Sept 5, 2016 21:24:50 GMT -6
Haha, thanks for the reply. And I agree, with many fanedits Lionsgate will eventually realize there's a fanbase for the original cut of this film.
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Post by Sticks•n•Stones on Sept 5, 2016 23:11:24 GMT -6
Hey. One of your title cards should say drawn instead of drew.
And also, Jeff took an infant in his early teens, but wasn't committed until age 18.
By the way, how do you know he was 18 in the year 1990? He was committed at age 18, yes, but in the year 1990? But yes, he was released around August 1999.
Also, just curious where you got that he was in Shelter Glenn Asylum for nine whole years from '90 to '99.
I'm just going by "Shadow of the Blair Witch" here ..
Anyway, I'm really happy with my version.
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Post by agentsamstanley on Sept 6, 2016 0:30:57 GMT -6
Thanks for the heads up. English is not my primary language, good to know about 'drawn' instead of drew.
According to 'Shadow of the Blair Witch' Jeff was 27 when the Coffin Rock murders took place (1999). If he was committed at 18, the year would be 1990. And if he was released around August 1999, he was in the Asylum for 9 years.
I figured that kidnapping the baby was the reason why he was put in the asylum. Do you happen to know the reason?
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Post by Sticks•n•Stones on Sept 6, 2016 0:47:57 GMT -6
I don't remember Shadow saying he was 27 when the killings happened..
But anyway, yes, I do know why he was institutionalized.
It was because AFTER taking a baby in his early teens he did other strange things. All of those things added up and got him tossed into an asylum once he turned 18.
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Post by agentsamstanley on Sept 6, 2016 1:00:03 GMT -6
Thanks for the info.
I can't remember the exact mark, but Shadow shows a newspaper about the killings and in there you can read Jeff's age. I was trying to look for it right now, and I just saw the scene of Jeff's mom talking about the baby kidnapping, and that instead of going to jail Jeff was sent to an institution. And according to the psychotherapist "he was brought in because of the abduction of the infant". That's why I assumed the abduction was at the same age he was committed.
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Post by Sticks•n•Stones on Sept 6, 2016 1:12:11 GMT -6
Nope. Around three or four years after the infant abduction.
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Post by agentsamstanley on Sept 13, 2017 10:14:18 GMT -6
Resurrecting this thread to post the trailer I did for my recut
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Post by agentsamstanley on Sept 13, 2017 12:35:27 GMT -6
Yeah, the whole story about Jeff's past is very muddy with conflicting info all over the internet. Unfortunately the laptop I was using to work on this edit had its fan burned out and it stopped working for good, so I lost all the original files of the edit. Luckily I had one finished copy saved on my Google Drive, but now I can't make changes to it. Anyway, I think the important thing is to establish Jeff was committed in the past because of something related to the witch. I'd love to tell the facts straight but I won't start a new edit from zero just to correct that info lol.
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Post by BlackHillsHermit on Sept 13, 2017 15:57:20 GMT -6
Yeah, the whole story about Jeff's past is very muddy with conflicting info all over the internet. Tell me about it. Hard trying to portray even minute facts such as age as accurate when there are X different versions of it out there and they all seem canon. I don't know what the dossier may or may not say. Dossier states, in one newspaper article, that Jeff (aged 17) was institutionalized for the kidnapping in 1992 (same year it took place), and spent four years at the Shelter Glen institution. So, we can see right off the bat that the dossier and the doc/mockumentary give different ages for Jeff (as well as institution names). 24/25 in the dossier and 27 in the doc. Unfortunately, the dossier also gives a lot of contradicting information in its own pages. There are times when the Black Hills murders happened in late September of '99, and others when it was late June. Regardless, it is a plethora of useful tidbits, as it covers all of the characters and does not primarily focus in just on Jeff (unlike the doc). Just as ghostprints stated, based upon wording from the doc, dossier and the movie, it seems very likely that Jeff was in and out of inpatient care from 1992 until late August 1999. Trying to guess the 'when' and 'why' honestly makes that part of his history very interesting to me.
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Post by agentsamstanley on Sept 13, 2017 21:11:58 GMT -6
Ok, so let's get this straight. Jeff looks at least 27 in the film, so I think it's safe to say he was 17 in 1990, when he was sent to the asylum. What about the kidnapping? When did it happen? Was it a baby or a 11 year old infant? Did he took the baby/kid to Coffin Rock? He returned the kid himself? I'd like more details on that.
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Post by agentsamstanley on Sept 13, 2017 21:30:12 GMT -6
The first version of my edit actually stated Jeff was 17 or 18 when he kidnapped the infant, but someone here corrected me saying he was in his early teens when he did it.
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Post by agentsamstanley on Sept 13, 2017 22:27:12 GMT -6
These are the changes I made: "In 1990, Burkittsville resident Jeff Patterson (17) kidnapped a 11 month old infant from his neighbours and carried it with him to the woods saying "voices told him to do so". According to locals, Patterson had a history of "odd behavior". The baby as retrieved unharmed and Patterson was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He was comitted to Shelter Glenn Asylum where he received in and out inpatient care from 1990 to August 1999, when he was formerly released".
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Post by BlackHillsHermit on Sept 13, 2017 22:45:28 GMT -6
According to the 'Shelter Glen' documents and various news clippings in the dossier, Jeff was diagnosed as a schizophrenic, possibly paranoid. In documented sessions, mainly the first one after he was admitted, the psychiatrists asked why Jeff kidnapped the baby and his response is, "The younger the child, the sweeter the flesh" Another session talks of Jeff's dog when he was younger and (towards the end of the dossier) we get a few pages of a book Jeff drew as a child, one titled 'How to do majik' and explaining that his dog, Rusty, got sick and was going to die, until Jeff used the magic spell book with an important note regarding its usage: 'you have to do blood on the stone or it won't work' In the drawings, we see Jeff standing on a large rock with some unidentified man standing next to him (remember, this is a book drawn by a child, so everyone is a stick figure and you can't really get any idea of who it is. It does appear that one leg is drawn much larger than the other on the mystery man, almost like a prosthetic of some sort. Is there a man with a peg leg in the Blair history or anything?) When asked about these drawings in therapy, specifically the man, Jeff mumbles something unintelligible and refuses to speak on it any further. In a later session, a nurse had reported that Jeff had a nightmare about blood on the rock. As the prodding continues, it is revealed that the rock in the nightmare may have been Coffin Rock. When asked whose blood it was, Jeff replied that he didn't know but it may have been the baby's blood. He continues on, stating it was 'supposed to be a trade. That's what I was supposed to do. For the magic to work. The way it did with Rusty. But I didn't give him the blood. So it's all my fault. The blood on the rock now-that's my fault!" (Now, this session was recorded on October 26, 1994, and if I recall correctly, the events of TBWP also took place in October of 1994. It seems as if Jeff is blaming himself for the possible deaths of the three documentary makers, but that doesn't make sense within the world of BoS because TBWP is viewed as merely a movie in that universe and not 'real' It yet another session, Jeff is asked to talk about an accident that happened with his father. He was only nine years old at the time and the two were camping in the Black Hills when his father slipped and hit his head on a rock, causing massive head trauma and putting him into a coma he never came out of. It is hours before the two are found by other campers and Jeff was trying to care for his father the entire night. From what I can understand, Jeff reported that he saw something in the woods, a monster of some sort. It may have been the 'witch' or something else entirely. It never goes into detail. Of course his vision was blamed on hallucinations and fear from what had happened to him that night. Years later, there is a newspaper article highlighting the Patterson family's routine on the father's birthday. He's being cared for at home, still in a coma, but Jeff and his mother never give up hope that he will wake up one day. Jeff even comments, "My mom and I, we'll never give up hope. You just have to believe. All we need is a little bit of magic to go our way." Other things to note: Jeff's parents have an interesting history. His father was a painter who had a rough start and, after trying to make it outside of Burkittsville, he ultimately had to move back and ended up as a hermit, living in the woods for years and only returning to town every so often to buy groceries and painting supplies (very reminiscent of Rustin Parr). His mother was part of the Blair Witch Cult and the two ended up meeting in the woods at some point. Before having Jeff, the couple suffered two miscarriages. One of the nurses/aides mentioned in the sessions a few times is named "Erica" and the name alone may explain a bit more of Jeff's attraction to the Wiccan (and her looks, of course). The name of Jeff's dog, Rusty, may be another reference to Rustin Parr, as I imagine Rusty is a common nickname for a Rustin.
Now, my belief is that Jeff kidnapped the 11-month-old baby to sacrifice it at Coffin Rock in trade for his father's health, so his father would wake up and be fine. In the end though, Jeff just found that he couldn't do it. As far as who the mystery man is, the'he' Jeff is reluctant to talk about... that's a good mystery.
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Post by BlackHillsHermit on Sept 13, 2017 23:19:59 GMT -6
I like to not know what I don't know. Haha, I don't think you would be a fan of the BoS story I'm working on then, as I try to go into a lot of detail about things where there was a severe lack of it.
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Post by agentsamstanley on Sept 13, 2017 23:53:36 GMT -6
I like to not know what I don't know. Haha, I don't think you would be a fan of the BoS story I'm working on then, as I try to go into a lot of detail about things where there was a severe lack of it. Thanks for posting all the details from the dossier. I'd love to read that book as I'm a big BoS fan but wasn't able to find it anywhere. I'd be very interested in reading your fan story. Does it cover more info about the other characters too?
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Post by BlackHillsHermit on Sept 13, 2017 23:54:48 GMT -6
You have a very valid point, but I think it's situational. Whereas mystery is the very essence of TBWP experience, I don't feel it applies to BoS the same way. By and large, the mystery is explained (even without the needless gore scenes) by the group uncovering their lost footage and the interrogation scenes, with the only remaining question being the one that Tristen and Stephen were fighting over for their book title: was this a case of history or hysteria? While we are lead to believe it is hysteria, there are many things that happen that persuade the viewer to second guess that conclusion. I honestly love that part of the movie, that idea behind the story, and that is something I only plan on enhancing through a majority of it, not exactly tackling one way or the other until the end. Delving deeper into some of the mysteries the film presents (and a few of the legends) is something I can't help but get excited about. Thanks for posting all the details from the dossier. I'd love to read that book as I'm a big BoS fan but wasn't able to find it anywhere. I'd be very interested in reading your fan story. Does it cover more info about the other characters too? My pleasure. I was lucky to snag it up for a buck online about a year ago. It does, or will, I should say. I want to give a healthy piece of time to each character in this, even if some are more irritating to cover than others (damn you, Stephen!)
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Post by BlackHillsHermit on Sept 14, 2017 0:21:33 GMT -6
The truth of the ending to Book of Shadows is this: It was history, not hysteria. Everything shown on video was the truth. But the way they remember everything happening was false. Sorry, I should have explained better. I meant history meaning the Blair Witch/Evil having a direct hand in all of the events once they arrived at the foundation vs. hysteria meaning they were all committing these acts of their own accord while living in a shared delusion that we (the viewer) went on with them. Either way, I get what you mean, but I guess it depends on if you view the film as having happened in chronological order. That being that some of the odd events (like everyone seeing the huge oak as soon as they set foot on the foundation and not at all having any sense of fear or paranoia set in to kickstart the hysteria or when Kim found the folders, filled with information and pictures for each tour member sans Jeff. Even if the police somehow put those together after the fact, how were they able to acquire old family photos and the like so quickly?) having happened as we saw them and not as recollected by the accused. By the way, I apologize for thread hijacking with this back and forth, I just enjoy sharing my views on the matter.
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Post by agentsamstanley on Sept 15, 2017 21:19:14 GMT -6
It does, or will, I should say. I want to give a healthy piece of time to each character in this, even if some are more irritating to cover than others (damn you, Stephen!) Good, I'm very curious to learn how Stephen became such a pretentious geek. Also, to me the whole hysteria theory was nothing but Stephen trying to rationalize the supernatural events they were experiencing. I agree with ghostprints, I think it was a clear case of history/the witch. Are you going to address Erica's background as well? Did she or didn't she lie about her origins?
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Post by agentsamstanley on Sept 15, 2017 21:19:40 GMT -6
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Post by BlackHillsHermit on Sept 20, 2017 3:19:11 GMT -6
Are you going to address Erica's background as well? Did she or didn't she lie about her origins? I do have a good (or at least I think it's good) idea for how to handle Erica's backstory. Honestly, right now I'm still just working on the layout for the fic, but new ideas keep popping into my head. I've read the thread about Erica speculation on this board and it really is quite interesting. While some ponder that she may have been expecting something supernatural to occur with her desire to commune with Elly, I don't think that was the case. She seemed too surprised and frightened about everything they were experiencing to be expecting anything even remotely like it. I do think she has some kind of a dark past that made her sketchy with her details, but not an ominous or supernatural dark past, just one that anyone can find themselves in with a few bad choices in life. Her line about shedding her mortal coil piqued my interest in just what she may have been hiding. Most would take the statement as meaning she is ready to die, to leave this plane of existence and join Elly, but, again, with how she reacts to what is happening to them and how she could die (the scene where she is talking to Kim about the forming runes on their bodies), I'm not so sure she means that. There is another meaning for mortal coil, 'the troubles of daily life and the strife and suffering of the world. It is used in the sense of a burden to be carried or abandoned...' and that one strikes far more true to what she may mean when wishing to commune with Elly. Something is bothering her, a part of her past is eating away at her every day and she thinks that somehow connecting with Elly would relieve that suffering, that hurt. That is what I want to try to explore in my background for her. The dossier doesn't go into any kind of background on Erica except that the mailing address she gave Jeff was non-existent and there was a rather strange chat room session between the two where, despite others being in the chat with them, no one witnessed her enter the room or chat with Jeff and she made an eerie reference to his past with the kidnapping of a child (I'm still debating whether to include that bit from the dossier or not, because it makes Erica look like she has some kind of supernatural ability about her when nothing of the like is shown in the movie. thankfully, the things in the dossier can be explained away when I give some thought to it).
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Post by agentsamstanley on Sept 20, 2017 9:38:15 GMT -6
I do have a good (or at least I think it's good) idea for how to handle Erica's backstory. Honestly, right now I'm still just working on the layout for the fic, but new ideas keep popping into my head. I've read the thread about Erica speculation on this board and it really is quite interesting. While some ponder that she may have been expecting something supernatural to occur with her desire to commune with Elly, I don't think that was the case. She seemed too surprised and frightened about everything they were experiencing to be expecting anything even remotely like it. I do think she has some kind of a dark past that made her sketchy with her details, but not an ominous or supernatural dark past, just one that anyone can find themselves in with a few bad choices in life. Her line about shedding her mortal coil piqued my interest in just what she may have been hiding. Most would take the statement as meaning she is ready to die, to leave this plane of existence and join Elly, but, again, with how she reacts to what is happening to them and how she could die (the scene where she is talking to Kim about the forming runes on their bodies), I'm not so sure she means that. There is another meaning for mortal coil, 'the troubles of daily life and the strife and suffering of the world. It is used in the sense of a burden to be carried or abandoned...' and that one strikes far more true to what she may mean when wishing to commune with Elly. Something is bothering her, a part of her past is eating away at her every day and she thinks that somehow connecting with Elly would relieve that suffering, that hurt. That is what I want to try to explore in my background for her. The dossier doesn't go into any kind of background on Erica except that the mailing address she gave Jeff was non-existent and there was a rather strange chat room session between the two where, despite others being in the chat with them, no one witnessed her enter the room or chat with Jeff and she made an eerie reference to his past with the kidnapping of a child (I'm still debating whether to include that bit from the dossier or not, because it makes Erica look like she has some kind of supernatural ability about her when nothing of the like is shown in the movie. thankfully, the things in the dossier can be explained away when I give some thought to it). I think you're on the right track. I really can't see anything mischievous about Erica and I don't think she had any supernatural abilities. Maybe the author confused Erica with Kim? Erica seemed pretty confident on witches being earth children who embrace nature not evil, and that Elly was turned into an evil witch just to promote a silly horror film. As for Kim, her psychic abilities also seemed kind of fake to me (at least until they experience the blackout in the Parr foundation). Kim was probably discriminated a lot because of her goth looks (the scene at the store and the hallucination with the rednecks kind of reinforce that) and needed to feel special somehow. I have a cousin who was a little like that during her teenage years and she always had these stories about how she could see/sense the dead. It was an obvious cry for attention.
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Post by BlackHillsHermit on Sept 20, 2017 15:49:46 GMT -6
See, this is a great reason to be here. Discuss different theories and compare how they may go against other ones. She desired something supernaturally positive for herself to happen, but later realized she had awoken some kind of evil and was very fearful and sorry for it. Communing with Elly would have been supernatural, and possibly positive for her, so I will give you that, but I don't think she woke anything or caused what happened to the group in any way. Before she even begins her widdershins ritual (which is the only time we are shown she could have woken anything, really), things are already going a little sideways. The huge oak appeared in the middle of the foundation when they first arrived, well before Erica's chant. Furthermore, she does not apologize in any manner, but shows/feels fear for what she perceives they all did ("we brought something back with us"). Now, her chants (both in the forest and at Jeff's house) are something else entirely. They simply make no sense when you think about it. The wording, invoking Persephone, etc. I have read kgt's threads (and wish she was still around so I could further discuss some things with her, but it looks like she left the site), but even she is questioning some of what Erica may have meant. Honestly, I think the chants were created based off of lazy writing or someone misunderstanding certain things. As for Munnsville, Illinois. ... It was probably meant to be a real place. She was probably really from there. I don't believe she lied to everyone about it. No doubt that Munnsville, IL was meant to be a real place within the BoS world. I mean, they tried to contact Minister Geerson in his Episcopal church in Munnsville, so that verified the town was real. What I believe was fake was the address in Munnsville that Erica listed when she applied to participate in the tour. And when they called her father and were only able to speak to her father's assistant, that proves nothing. Because it didn't really happen that way. It's just what they remember happening. So the assistant's information is false. See this is where the back and forth can get interesting, because there is no way to really know if they were suffering from history or hysteria. Like I said, the movie almost makes it look like it is clearly one, but there are a lot of hints that that may not be the case at all. We don't know if it really happened that way or not. Many like to quote Jeff when he is talking to Kim and states, 'Video never lies, Kim. Film does, though,' meaning that what we were witnessing outside of the video footage was a lie, and the only truth was on those tapes. However, that entirely ignores the counter statement that Tristen made during her back and forth with Stephen. 'Because if people believe something enough, isn't it real? Perception is reality.' Now that brings an interesting angle to the tale: what version of perception is reality here? The side we see with the group or the side the world is shown to make them all look insane? If you believe there truly was an evil out there, there's no denying that it could manipulate perception to make it reality.
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Post by BlackHillsHermit on Sept 20, 2017 16:18:17 GMT -6
As for Kim, her psychic abilities also seemed kind of fake to me (at least until they experience the blackout in the Parr foundation). Kim was probably discriminated a lot because of her goth looks (the scene at the store and the hallucination with the rednecks kind of reinforce that) and needed to feel special somehow. Interestingly, the dossier seems to concur that Kim had some sort of psychic ability (with documentation of her getting into fights/beat up over it when she was as young as 15. she even went as far as to disclose personal details about a camp counselor that they believed could only have been obtained through misappropriation of camp records). I believe she was discriminated against because she had this gift and drifted towards the goth lifestyle later in life because it fit more with who she felt she was and, perhaps, she felt that goths would be more open-minded towards her unique ability. While I totally agree that the redneck teens were catcalling her based on her goth appearance, I also have no doubt they would have done the same to Erica (sans Morticia/Elvira namecalling) because men (teens especially) can be assholes like that.
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