Lo-Fi Movie ReCreations Are About To Blow The Fug Up

Lo-Fi Movie Recreation: The product of an attempt to recreate an existing (frequently high budget) movie without the budget, technology, or talent that distinguished the original.

Sounds awful, right? They're usually not meant to be screened. Lo-Fi Movie Recreations tend to be simple expressions of fandom, designed to expel a burning compulsion from the creator's system. And geeks sure do have that compulsion. Fanboysngirls have been attempting to recreate the the objects of their cinematic affection since video cameras became cheap enough to give a twelve year old for their birthday.

But the apocalypse draws neigh: soon, the Lo-Fi Recreation will no longer be the territory of the obsessed fan. With two major movies on the subject looming on the horizon, the trend is about to go from underground to all around with the force that will blow YouTube's servers out the back of their office.

The trailer for the film that's going to blow it all wide open, after the jump.

I give you the bootlegged trailer for Be Kind, Rewind, Michel Gondry's latest bit of weirdness (via Solace In Cinema). The film follows the adventures of two video store clerks, who decide to replace their ruined inventory with homemade versions of every movie in the store. The trailer is a little shaky, but the Low-Fi goodness starts at -1:46.


And since Hollywood does everything in pairs, Paramount has writer Daniel Clowes working on a screen version of the true story of three kids who produced the most legendary Lo-Fi Recreation to date - a full length, shot for shot, seven-year-in-the-remaking adaptation of Raiders of the Lost Arc. See the trailer for the boy's opus below, (you can also read Geekanerd's review of the film). The Clowes script is still in the works, but if Be Kind, Rewind does well, which I think it will, you can bet The Adapation adapation will be fast tracked.


Once Gondry's and Clowes' films are out in the public square, everyone and their mom is going to be trying their hand at recreating classic film scenes. And why not? It's easy. Here's what you need to make a lo-fi recreation of your favorite film:

1. A camera
2. A DVD of your favorite movie (which you already own)
3. Ingenuity

Ah, but is it art? An innovative recreation can definitely be entertaining, but is the mere copying of an impressive work of art/entertainment something worth celebrating? The film snob in me says "NO, NO, NO, NO!", but the film geek in me, who remade Episode I's climatic lightsabre battle in high school, will keep me from raining on anyone's parade.