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Fan Remake Films: Active Engagement with Popular Texts

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Fan Remake Films: Active Engagement with Popular Texts FAN REMAKE FILMS: ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT WITH POPULAR TEXTS Emma Lynn A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2021 Committee: Jeffery Brown, Advisor Becca Cragin Radhika Gajjala © 2021 Emma Lynn All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Jeffery Brown, Advisor In a small town in Mississippi in 1982, eleven-year-old Chris Strompolos commissioned his friends Eric Zala and Jayson Lamb to remake his favorite film, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). This remake would dominate their summer vacations for the next seven years. Over thirty years later in January 2020, brothers Mason and Morgan McGrew completed their shot- for-shot live action remake of Toy Story 3 (2010). This project took them eight years. Fan remake films such as Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation (1989) and Toy Story 3 in Real Life (2020) represent something unique in fan studies. Fan studies scholars, such as Henry Jenkins, have considered the many ways fans are an example of an active audience, appropriating texts for their own creative use. While these considerations have proven useful at identifying the participatory culture fans engage in, they neglect to consider fans that do not alter and change the original text in any purposeful way. Sitting at the intersection of fan and adaptation studies, I argue that these fan remake films provide useful insights into the original films, the fans’ personal lives, and fan culture at large. Through the consideration of fan remake films as a textual object, a process of creation, and a consumable media product, I look at how Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation and Toy Story 3 in Real Life reinforce the fans’ interpretations of the original films in a concrete way in their own lives and in the lives of those who watch. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 1 My Background ........................................................................................................... 3 Choice of Texts ............................................................................................................ 4 Previous Research ........................................................................................................ 5 Methodology ................................................................................................................ 8 Chapter Outline ............................................................................................................ 9 CHAPTER ONE: FAN REMAKE FILMS AS TEXT ............................................................ 11 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 11 A Unique Aura ............................................................................................................. 12 Classification of Text ................................................................................................... 13 Remake ........................................................................................................................ 14 Adaptation .................................................................................................................... 17 Fan Films ..................................................................................................................... 19 Swede ........................................................................................................................... 21 Parody vs. Pastiche ...................................................................................................... 23 What is the Difference? ............................................................................................... 27 Lexicon ........................................................................................................................ 28 Syntax .......................................................................................................................... 36 Style ............................................................................................................................. 37 Extratextual Elements .................................................................................................. 40 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 41 CHAPTER TWO: FAN REMAKE FILMS AS PROCESS .................................................... 42 v Introduction .................................................................................................................. 42 Dissolving the Audience/Author Binary ..................................................................... 43 Why Remake? .............................................................................................................. 47 Maintaining a High Standard ....................................................................................... 53 Creativity ...................................................................................................................... 56 Escape and Performance .............................................................................................. 60 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 62 CHAPTER THREE: AUDIENCE RECEPTION OF FAN REMAKE FILMS ...................... 63 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 63 Receiving Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation and Toy Story 3 in Real Life ...... 64 Previous Knowledge Required .................................................................................... 67 Fans .............................................................................................................................. 70 Critics ........................................................................................................................... 76 Creators ........................................................................................................................ 78 Copyright Owners ........................................................................................................ 80 Movement and Impact ................................................................................................. 82 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 84 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................... 86 Fan Remakes as Pedagogy .......................................................................................... 89 The Future of Fan Remakes ......................................................................................... 91 Final Thoughts ............................................................................................................. 93 WORKS CITED ...................................................................................................................... 95 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1 Screenshot of Toy Story 3 (2010) taken by author ...................................................... 30 2 Screenshot of Toy Story 3 in Real Life (2020) taken by author ................................... 30 3 Screenshot of Toy Story 3 (2010) taken by author ...................................................... 31 4 Screenshot of Toy Story 3 in Real Life (2020) taken by author ................................... 31 5 Screenshot of Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation (1989) taken by author ......... 33 6 Screenshot of Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation (1989) taken by author ......... 34 7 Screenshot of Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation (1989) taken by author ......... 59 8 Screenshot of Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation (1989) taken by author .......... 59 1 INTRODUCTION Imagine a remake of a popular blockbuster film featuring a cast made up of entirely children and teenagers, homemade sets and costumes, and filmed on non-professional equipment. Would it be worth watching? Fan remake films not only exist but are continually being created. This fan practice relates to two distinct features of our current popular culture landscape. First, media production is evolving into something almost anyone can do. Second, media content is becoming increasingly recycled, reused, and remade. In the age of the Internet where most smartphones feature video capabilities, people are able to create their own media content and post it online with relative ease. In professional film industries, films are rarely exclusively original, with large companies producing feature films based on previously established properties, as evident in the recent influx of Disney’s live action remakes of their animated catalogue, including Cinderella (2015), Beauty and the Beast (2017), and Mulan (2020). Naysayers in line with the Frankfurt School agree with the criticism that “culture today is infecting everything with sameness” (Adorno and Horkheimer 96), mourning the lack of creative and unique content. Despite these criticisms, fan remake films stand as a unique phenomenon that emerges from these two features of our popular culture landscape. The DIY nature of this practice allows anyone
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