Wow! I had absolutely no idea that my initial posting
about my Jan. 16th screening would inspire such heated
debate -- especially since the vast majority of people
participating in the debate have not yet seen the
thing -- although I have been paying very close
attention to what people on both sides of the debate
have had to say. And by the way, thanks to Matt
Armstrong, who actually did come to the screening, for
throwing in his two cents.

If anyone on a_film_by would like to get a copy of The
Brevity Edit on DVD, I'll be happy to mail you one of
them, on my dime. It'll be an NTSC DVD-R.

All you have to do is hit me up at
eggcity101@... with your mailing address, and
I'll send one out to you. Hopefully you should get it
in about 1-2 weeks -- perhaps a bit longer if you're
across the pond.

By the way, to address Brad's concern of "If Bret has
anything intelligent to say about why, in his opinion,
so much of Lynch's film doesn't work, then he should
say it.": The main reason I haven't much yet is
because I've been too busy reading everyone else's
responses!

Rather than debate the points of the very circular
discussion regarding what I've done (and fan edits in
general), I'd rather let the edit I did speak for
itself. Although, I do feel like I should address a
point that Brad made, when he said "I'm sure that Bret
will profit by this work in some way; he may well be
hoping to get a job in the industry.": if I were
hoping to "raise my profile" somehow through this
endeavor, wouldn't I have chosen a more high-profile
project to re-edit? Why on earth would I have chosen
"Inland Empire"? Wouldn't it be easier if I'd have
chosen Peter Jackson's "King Kong", or maybe cross-cut
Clint Eastwood's "Flags Of Our Fathers" with "Letters
From Iwo Jima" into one two-hour film? Or maybe do
one of those movie trailer mash-ups, like the recent
turning-The-Shining-into-a-comedy things, and stick it
on YouTube, a place where my edit will never been seen
for a variety of reasons? The project stemmed from my
initial gut reactions to a theatrical screening of
Lynch's original -- not because I had to hatch
something to increase my notoriety.

Also, yes, it's true that a lot of people who might
see The Brevity Edit might only see that version, and
not Lynch's original, but I think it's a wildly
over-the-top suggestion for Brad to make when he says
"Hasn't Lynch's film been suppressed, at least as far
as these individuals are concerned?" Lynch's original
3-hour "Inland Empire" is available through Amazon,
Borders, Blockbuster Video, Netflix and nearly every
other major and minor commercial outlet imaginable in
many countries throughout the world. If anyone wanted
to see it, they are very, very, very free to do so --
and would only not choose to see the original out of
their own free will. If anything, my edit will
actually get MORE people to see Lynch's original --
hence the term "fan edit." I am a fan of Lynch's
work, and I wish for more people to get involved in
the critical discourse over "Inland Empire".

Perhaps my original description of my edit was worded
hastily. If I'd described it merely as "A video essay
on...", rather than "A fan edit of...", then nobody on
this board would've been up-in-arms, and everyone
would be clamoring to see it.

Again, anyone wanting to see the thing can email me
for a copy. I might be a little late in getting in
seeded through bit torrenting, and besides, not
everyone does bit torrenting in the first place.

Bret Berg
eggcity101@...



________________________________________________________________________________\
____
Be a better friend, newshound, and
know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.
http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ