Raiders of the Lost Archives: A Shot-by-Shot Comparison

Montana Smith

Active member
InexorableTash said:
Stoo's project was featured on BoingBoing and io9 today.

Interestingly, the link was via http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/2012/01/01/raider-of-the-lost-lawsuits/ which gives it as an example of how Big Media's War on Culture affects derivative works. No, not Stoo's use of clips, but Lucas and Spielberg's homages.

If Jungle Jim's copyright holders were on the ball they could have made some pretty penny off the whip swing in Last Crusade.

Anyway, welcome to the "BoingBoinged Club", Stoo!

And from Rocket's heads-up, also here.

Stoo's going viral! (y)
 

Stoo

Well-known member
InexorableTash said:
Stoo's project was featured on BoingBoing and io9 today.
MontanaSmith said:
Stoo's going viral! (y)
So there I was, on New Year?s Eve, at a friend?s cottage deep in the backwoods of the Muskoka region in northern Ontario. After stepping outside for a smoke, I decided to check my e-mail, turned on my phone?s data-roaming and started receiving tonnes of messages from YouTube about my ?Archives? video. What the hell?:confused:

A couple of days later, Rocket Surgeon and Sakis both informed me that a few websites had picked it up. When I finally got back to civilization with a proper internet connection, I was overwhelmed with the amount of YouTube feedback and the number of websites that were reporting it.

Considering the video was uploaded to YouTube on 29 Dec. 2010, it?s funny that it started to take off almost exactly 1 year later on 31 Dec. 2011. In less than a week, there have been approx. 192,000 views! It has now spread to so many different websites that I can?t keep track. Though, with the good comes the bad. There is a fair amount of negative feedback and I?m even getting ?hate mail?!:rolleyes:

An Australian news site asked for an interview and a Spanish TV station wants to do a segment about my video. Yee-HAW!(y)
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Stoo said:
So there I was, on New Year?s Eve, at a friend?s cottage deep in the backwoods of the Muskoka region in northern Ontario. After stepping outside for a smoke, I decided to check my e-mail, turned on my phone?s data-roaming and started receiving tonnes of messages from YouTube about my ?Archives? video. What the hell?:confused:

A couple of days later, Rocket Surgeon and Sakis both informed me that a few websites had picked it up. When I finally got back to civilization with a proper internet connection, I was overwhelmed with the amount of YouTube feedback and the number of websites that were reporting it.

Considering the video was uploaded to YouTube on 29 Dec. 2010, it?s funny that it started to take off almost exactly 1 year later on 31 Dec. 2011. In less than a week, there have been approx. 192,000 views! It has now spread to so many different websites that I can?t keep track. Though, with the good comes the bad. There is a fair amount of negative feedback and I?m even getting ?hate mail?!:rolleyes:

An Australian news site asked for an interview and a Spanish TV station wants to do a segment about my video. Yee-HAW!(y)

Congratulations on your well deserved success. (y) Even though it took a year for people to realize what you'd achieved!

Ignore the negatives. It's inevitable.

All impetus to finish your other projects.
 
Stoo said:
An Australian news site asked for an interview and a Spanish TV station wants to do a segment about my video. Yee-HAW!(y)
Chance to see the Spanish incarnation of the Indy Exhibit?

Man I would love one of those shirts en español, Estuart!;)

Can't wait to hear how it pans out...
 
Congratulations...

Stoo said:
An Australian news site asked for an interview and a Spanish TV station wants to do a segment about my video. Yee-HAW!(y)


Spoiler alert? Raiders fan recreates Lucas's Lost Ark from cinema's Lost Archives


EVER watched a movie and thought, "I've seen that before somewhere"?

Stuart Pittman has - 30 times.

And that's just in the one movie. One of his all-time favourites, in fact - the legendary Lucas/Spielberg adventure blockbuster Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Released in 1981 and nominated for nine Oscars, it became one of the highest grossing films of all time and was universally hailed as the new benchmark in adventure movies.

"There's more excitement in the first ten minutes of Raiders than any movie I have seen all year," one critic claimed at the time.

But according to Pittman, Dr Jones' initial romp through the jungle "borrows" more than its fair share of sequences from a rich history of cinematic lost civilisations.

To prove it, the Canadian-born multimedia artist stitched together scenes from 30 different adventure films made between 1919 and 1973 to recreate the opening 15 minutes of Raiders of the Lost Ark.


It took Pittman 20 years to source the films. Another two years were spent compiling Raiders of the Lost Archives.

"Seeing Secret of the Incas on late-night TV around 1991 was the trigger moment," he told news.com.au

"Throughout the '90s, I put together some crude versions on VHS and the idea blossomed from there.

"In 2003, I began transferring my film collection to DVD but only decided to start assembling source footage for the digital version of the montage around the start of 2008."

Due to the fickle nature of YouTube stardom, Pittman's effort was also almost lost to the archives.

It's been online at Vimeo since February 2010, then was uploaded to YouTube 10 months later.

But it wasn't until a week ago that it was outed by one of the bigger online tech sites when the YouTube hits began to grow.

Along with the inevitable stream of hate.

Of the critics, Pittman said he was most saddened by those who used his project - which he sees as an homage - as a springboard to further disdain towards Lucas and Spielberg.

He's been called a Lucas hater - which he categorically denies - and told his video is "forced", "manipulating" and "idiotic".

"It's sad to see that my intent is backfiring in some respects and has generated yet another controversy between plagiarism and homage," he said.

"It didn't receive any criticism when I first shared it with the hardcore Indy fans at The Raven message forum."

Pittman describes himself as a "huge" RotLA fan. He went back to cinema for repeated viewings in 1981 and has collected filmed and printed memorabilia ever since.

So was he ever concerned about taking the shine off a cinematic legend?

Not at all, he said, claiming the "overwhelming majority" of feedback for his effort was positive.

"The project was nothing more than my love letter to Raiders and the films which influenced it," he said.

"I am not trying to expose the film-makers as 'copycat hacks' (as one person described)."

He's about to release a list of the 30 movies he used in the project - all but one of which are in his personal collection, on his YouTube channel, StooTV.

And despite the Indy fan-rage, he's plugging on, working on a side-by-side comparison of the truck chase from RotLA and several scenes from the other Indy films.

Until then, Pittman recommends Indy fans spend some time checking out the full-length versions of the films he spliced sequences from for Raiders of the Lost Archives.

His top three?

"King Solomon's Mines (1937 version), Secret of the Incas and Valley of the Kings."

You know how to give an interview! :hat:
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Rocket Surgeon said:
You know how to give an interview! :hat:
Thanks, Rocket.:) The jounalist asked for a personal photo but he published the article before I got around to sending him one.

Couple of corrections, though:

1) "Valley of the Kings" was not used in the video but I recommended it to watch.
2) I never used the word, "borrows".
3) I didn't describe myself as a "huge" fan. (I may be tall but am not fat.) What I said was that "Raiders" made a HUGE impact on me.

It was also a good opportunity to advertise The Raven so I slipped in a mention and it made the final print!;)
Montana Smith said:
Ignore the negatives. It's inevitable.
Someone even wrote, "I hate you!".:D
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Nice one, Stewie! (y)

"It didn't receive any criticism when I first shared it with the hardcore Indy fans at The Raven message forum."

rock1.gif
 
Stoo said:
The jounalist asked for a personal photo but he published the article before I got around to sending him one.
You should send the one on the camel in front of the pyramids...would show you're not some translucent shut-in.

Stoo said:
Someone even wrote, "I hate you!".:D
How great is that? A thread is in order...
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Rocket Surgeon said:
You should send the one on the camel in front of the pyramids...would show you're not some translucent shut-in.
Yes, I was thinking of sending that photo. Especially after a commentator said that I had "no f*cking life".:D
Rocket Surgeon said:
How great is that? A thread is in order...
A whole thread? Got any ideas for a name? I could just post the verbal diarrhea here.
Montana Smith said:
Publish the hate mail so we can laugh at those losers! ;)
For starters:

Adeiko: "You just broke my heart about Indiana Jones. I hate you :'("

dstorfer: "That's such hater stuff. All those clips out of context."

m0rgi0n: "obvious hater is obvious"

---
As of today: 225,000 views. That's just shy of a quarter million!(y)
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Stoo said:
I could just post the verbal diarrhea here.
For starters:

Adeiko: "You just broke my heart about Indiana Jones. I hate you :'("

dstorfer: "That's such hater stuff. All those clips out of context."

m0rgi0n: "obvious hater is obvious"

Ah, blessed are the ignorant. (n)
 

Mickiana

Well-known member
Poor Adeiko, imagine the illusions he entertains elsewhere in his life! Learning is difficult for some.
 

Stoo

Well-known member
TheRaider.net News Headline

The news headlines at the Raider.net has a short blurb about my interview.(y)
TheRaider.net said:
A look at Raiding the Lost Archeives and the man behind it... Someone folks at TheRaven know well http://t.co/rc8hhtWJ
Fri Jan 6 2012
That's an honour! BIG THANKS to whoever is responsible (Mitch?) but it should say: 'Raiders of the Lost Archives'. (The title has been mixed up with Jamie Benning's 'Raiding the Lost Ark' documentary). Can it be fixed, please?

---
Now here's something both insulting & amusing at the same time. One of the 1st websites to report my video was:
The Daily What by someone named, waxy, during the pm of Dec 31st.
waxy from The Daily What said:
Supercut of the Day: Montrealer Stoo of StooTV spent the past two years meticulously splicing scenes from 30 different classic fims spanning over half a century to recreate the intro to Raiders of the Lost Ark, and then put together this shot-by-shot comparison.

Because, really ? what else is there to do in Canada?
Canada-bashing aside, the closing comment is ridiculous since the video was put together in my spare time in SWITZERLAND and because, really - what else is there to do on NEW YEAR'S EVE besides write a blog about some geeky video?:rolleyes: Cheap, scornful internet journalism.
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Today, another website has asked for an interview.:D The boulder is still rolling...

---
For further reading pleasure, here are some more 'shining' YouTube comments:

Chesku: What a piece of sh*t.

kiepoolies: what a waste of your life

HilariousHyena: Wow, someone has no f*cking life.

branoar: thanks for wasting 13 minutes of my life.

shmutzdawg: this is the dumbest thing ive seen in a long time,,,and you wasted 20 yrs on this...what a turd
 
Hope you can parley this into something more!:hat:

Those comments are fantastic! What a bunch on maroons! That stuff reminds me of the end of Jay and Bob Strike Back.

Magnolia Fan...
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Rocket Surgeon said:
Those comments are fantastic! What a bunch on maroons!


Stoo said:
Chesku: What a piece of sh*t.

kiepoolies: what a waste of your life

HilariousHyena: Wow, someone has no f*cking life.

branoar: thanks for wasting 13 minutes of my life.

shmutzdawg: this is the dumbest thing ive seen in a long time,,,and you wasted 20 yrs on this...what a turd

Raiders of the Lost Archives: Twenty years in the making.

The Hate Mail: Priceless!
 
Montana Smith said:
Raiders of the Lost Archives: Twenty years in the making.

The Hate Mail: Priceless!
:hat:


KMart Desktop Computer for Christmas: $250

Mom and Dad's Internet Connection: Free

The encapsulated wisdom of "shmutzdawg" and comedy stylings of "HilariousHyena": Priceless.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Rocket Surgeon said:
:hat:


KMart Desktop Computer for Christmas: $250

Mom and Dad's Internet Connection: Free

The encapsulated wisdom of "shmutzdawg" and comedy stylings of "HilariousHyena": Priceless.

You said it much better!

:hat:
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Rocket Surgeon said:
Those comments are fantastic! What a bunch on maroons!
Check out the comments from the 'these-people-don't-understand' category:

---
Metexie: Nothing to see here. Move along folks.

Azishome: @StooTV Yeah, directors watch movies, singers listen to songs, and painters look at paintings, Artists have influences, that's how they learn!

shmutzdawg: why dont you rip apart the stones and the beatles now for ripping off every chuck berry and buddy holly lick...

NoobPwnr000: A logical side by side comparison? Heck no. ?One guy jumps off a building, and Indiana jumps across a hole. SEE!! RIP OFF!!!?

FullazInTheHood: Maybe this would have been interesting had it been footage from one or two or even five films. But 30 films! I?m sure you could easily do the same for any modern masterpiece.

gentlefury: This is EXTREMELY flimsy! You could basically do this with any and all movies. Take a movie and cut together completely unrelated shots that look similar to said movie from movies that preceded it.

DynamicUnreality: So there are only so many ways to shoot people in the jungle walking away from the camera, or standing there with a donkey, of course the shots would look similar.

eduran1: Idk, they are trying too hard to prove something that I don't think is really there. You could probably do this with tons of other modern movies and get the same result.

branoar: if you know anything about editing it is very clear to see that it's all been idiotically edited to match every single shot, trying to prove something that's not true. if you find the original movie you'll see what I'm talking about.

Mrdayz: I appreciate the effort you've gone to, and maybe you have a point, but I, for one don't get it. Dialogue scenes, and groups of people (camel trains etc) walking though the shot are stock footage for many many movies. I'm sure, without too much trouble, you could have included LotR (or whatever the capitalisation should be) footage in the same comparison.

Ash*taka6: To StooTV: You've got clips from color movies (e.g. THE NAKED JUNGLE, SECRET OF THE INCAS, the 1950 version of KING SOLOMON'S MINES, the 1973 version of TRADER HORN) in your "archive" montage, but you show them all in black-and-white only. That's incredibly misleading. Why did you do that?

danielearwicker: It's worth noticing that very few of these scenes actually match up - the person who edited together the old clips has made more effort (and used more sophisticated technology) than went into the original films, slowing footage down or repeating it to create the appearance of a match.

How many old films don't contain the following elements: hats, men walking slowly, men talking, men running, a man putting something in a bag...? You could probably replace most of the footage with scenes from Sesame Street and get equally good matches, if you use the same range of editing techniques.

badrabbit0077: You can't be serious... If I made a movie about football and I put it side by side with other football movies, wouldn't you say I borrowed from those movies? Oh wait, what if I made a movie set in Japan, god forbid my movie should have any similarities to other movies made in Japan as well.

These are hardly evidence of imitation, similarities perhaps, but not imitation. It's like saying a shot of a person walking in a crowd of people was imitated from XXXX number of movies with the same shots.

awezoom:@StooTV I liked finding similar movies in style and with similar characters with the hat, the leather jacket or elements, like the rock ball, but the rest of the montage is too manipulative. You can find scenes in every movie similar to other movies, due to influence, or just because it's a cool way to show something. This would be a great montage if every material came from only one or two movies, but you've just looked bits of movies that just resemble the same scene in Indy, no matter who appears or what's happening in the other scene. Any person unfamiliar with this kind of videos or not very familiar with cinema will directly believe the indy movie was a complete rip-off of other movies, because they won't waste time trying to read the explanation about the video. They'll just get the idea 'Indy was completely copied from 30's movies, frame by frame'. And that's the problem of this video. It's getting popular and it will become part of the common knowledge.

---
What makes me howl is the people who say that it would have been better if I had just used clips from 1 or 2 movies! "Raiders" is an amalgamation of MULTIPLE influences but, sadly, a fraction of folks are failing to fathom the entire purpose of the montage.:rolleyes:
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Stoo said:
What makes me howl is the people who say that it would have been better if I had just used clips from 1 or 2 movies! "Raiders" is an amalgamation of MULTIPLE influences but, sadly, a fraction of folks are failing to fathom the entire purpose of the montage. :rolleyes:

And the moral of the story is, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them think!

They can't see that it isn't a literal transalation, but an indication of the broad homage to Raiders' cultural ancestors.

I was wowed by your work from the first viewing. Now that I've seen some of the footage in it's original context, it only makes it more special.
 
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