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A re-edited film is a
motion picture A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since ...
that has been modified from the manner in which it was showcased in its original
theatrical release An art release is the premiere of an artistic production and its presentation and marketing to the public. Film A film release is the authorization by the owner of a completed film to a public exhibition of the film. The exhibition may be in thea ...
. Reasons for this type of editing may range from the distributor's demands to accommodating different audience groups. Fan-made movie edits are often met with controversy, as they bring up issues of copyright law.


Types of re-editing

There are three main types of film editing: format, length, and content. * Format – Feature films are commonly produced in a
widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ...
1.85:1 aspect ratio or 2.40:1 aspect ratio. which is different from the screen formats currently utilized for
television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
transmissions—a standard 1.33:1 (or 4:3) aspect ratio for
analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...
or
standard-definition television Standard-definition television (SDTV; also standard definition or SD) is a television system that uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. ''Standard'' refers to offering a similar resolution to the ...
broadcasts and the growing standard of 1.77:1 (or 16:9) aspect ratio for
digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using Digital signal, digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an ...
broadcasts. Prior to the beginning of a film presented in the 4:3 aspect ratio on
VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...
tapes or
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
s, a disclaimer appears (mainly over a black background), reading, ''This film has been modified from its original version. It has been formatted to fit this screen.'' Since the adoption of the
high-definition television High-definition television (HDTV) describes a television or video system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since at least 1933; in more recent times, it ref ...
resolution standard, some theatrical films intended for 2.39:1 or 2.40:1 aspect ratios have been reframed for 1.78:1 (16:9) for television and home video, and also require the modification warning as per
Directors Guild of America The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of Film director, film and Television director, television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Dir ...
(DGA) rules. * Length – Films may be shortened for television broadcasts (principally on advertiser-supported networks and terrestrial stations to accommodate commercial advertising) or for use on
airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...
s. On the other hand, DVD releases of films may contain longer edits than even the original release. In recent years, a growing number of feature films are being released in an ''Unrated'' cut, incorporating scenes that may have been excluded from the film's original theatrical prints. If a film has scenes edited to fit its designated timeslot, prior to the beginning of a re-edited film's television airing, an additional notice indicating that the film has been edited "to run in the time allotted" will be included in the format disclaimer screen. An increasingly common practice for length-edited films shown on advertiser-supported television networks is for the film's end credits to sometimes be speed up to accommodate succeeding programs, or to free up more airtime for advertisements. * Content – Some films have content deemed "objectionable" to "family audiences", namely
sexual content In media discourse, sexual content is material depicting Human sexual activity, sexual behavior. The sexual behavior involved may be Pornography, explicit, implicit sexual behavior such as flirting, or include sexual language and euphemisms. Sexu ...
(including
nudity Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. While estimates vary, for the first 90,000 years of pre-history, anatomically modern humans were naked, having lost their body hair, living in hospitable climates, and not ...
, regardless of its intent to be sexual in nature, and depictions of sexual activity), obscene language,
graphic violence Graphic violence refers to the depiction of especially explicit or detailed acts of violence in mass media. It may be real, simulated live action, or animated. Intended for viewing by mature audiences, ''graphic'' in this context is a synonym ...
, illicit drug use and perceived racial insensitivity. To make these films suitable for younger or more typical audiences, or to appeal to advertisers when a film is shown on ad-supported
broadcast television Broadcast television systems (or terrestrial television systems outside the US and Canada) are the encoding or formatting systems for the transmission and reception of terrestrial television signals. Analog television systems were standardized ...
or
basic cable Cable television first became available in the United States in 1948. By 1989, 53 million American households received cable television subscriptions, with 60 percent of all U.S. households doing so in 1992. A 2021 Pew Research Center survey found ...
services, alternative versions are created with such content removed or replaced. Often,
profanities Profanity, also known as swearing, cursing, or cussing, is the usage of notionally offensive words for a variety of purposes, including to demonstrate disrespect or negativity, to relieve pain, to express a strong emotion (such as anger, ex ...
are substituted with
minced oath A minced oath is a euphemistic expression formed by deliberately misspelling, mispronouncing, or replacing a part of a profane, blasphemous, or taboo word or phrase to reduce the original term's objectionable characteristics. An example is "gosh ...
s through
automated dialogue replacement Dubbing (also known as re-recording and mixing) is a post-production process used in filmmaking and the video production process where supplementary recordings (known as doubles) are lip-synced and "mixed" with original production audio to cr ...
(ADR) or are muted entirely. The editing of these versions is performed by a censor and not the producer or director of the work. In addition, a film is often edited if it originally received a NC-17 (No one 17 and under admitted) rating from the
Motion Picture Association The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the Major film studios, five major film studios of the Cinema of the United States, United States, the Major film studios#Mini-majors, mini-major Amazon MGM Stud ...
(MPA, formerly the Motion Picture Association of America or MPAA), as NC-17 rated films are not screened at mainstream cinemas or advertised on television. Therefore, studios will often re-edit the film to achieve an R rating instead.


Re-editing techniques

There are two main techniques for re-editing films:


Manual re-editing

Purchased film content is downloaded onto an editing work station's hard drive and are manually re-edited by third-party editors to remove objectionable content from the video and audio tracks. The re-edited version is then copied onto media (VHS or DVD) and made available for rental or purchase, provided an original version has been purchased in correlation with the re-edited copy. Some manual re-edits are done by fans (see ''
The Phantom Edit ''Star Wars Episode I.I: The Phantom Edit'' is a fan edit of the film '' Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace'', removing many elements of the original film. The purpose of the edit, according to creator Mike J. Nichols, was to make a m ...
'') to cut a film to their own – or their peers – specifications. Although a 2006 lower court ruling prohibits businesses from manually re-editing commercial films, the law still allows for individuals to self-censor and edit their own films for personal use.


Programmed re-editing

Programmed re-editing occurs when software (such as that employed in a DVD player) is used to skip portions of the video and/or audio content on-the-fly, according to pre-programmed instruction sets that are knowingly used by the consumer.


Opening notices

Major American producers and distributors began adding notices such as "This film has been modified from its original version. It has been formatted to fit this screen" in 1993. The voluntary labeling program was established by the MPAA in response to pending legislation in Congress that would have mandated more specific notices such as “This film is not the version originally released. . . . The heirs of the director and the screenwriter object because this alteration changes the narrative and/or characterization.”


History of manual re-editing

Early cases of this practice date back to
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
's occupation by the
Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
, who regularly stole prints of American movies from European countries during their
Blitzkrieg ''Blitzkrieg'(Lightning/Flash Warfare)'' is a word used to describe a combined arms surprise attack, using a rapid, overwhelming force concentration that may consist of armored and motorized or mechanized infantry formations, together with ...
raids. They would then either cheaply reanimate the movie (see ''
Hochzeit im Korallenmeer ''Wedding in the Coral Sea'' (; ) is a 1944 Czech animated short film. It was written, animated and directed by a group of Czech cartoonists including Jiří Brdečka, Břetislav Pojar, Stanislav Látal and Jaroslav Doubrava in German-occupied Pra ...
''), or would change the names of production staff listed in the credits (as with
Max and David Fleischer Fleischer Studios () was an American animation studio founded in 1929 by brothers Max and Dave Fleischer, who ran the pioneering company from its inception until its acquisition by Paramount Pictures in 1942, the parent company and the distrib ...
's cartoon shorts). As theatrical movies began to air on television, networks successfully sought permission to air shortened versions of movies. The television edits of theatrical films had sections or the entirety of scenes cut out, in order to provide a print length that could fit within a fixed number of multiple half-hour time slots (often four half-hour slots). This also allowed scenes unsuitable for television broadcast (such as those including depictions of sexual activity or graphic violence) to be cut or trimmed. On the other hand, networks would also often add footage deleted from a film's theatrical release to pad out a certain running time (usually three to four hours in length). In response to consumer demand, families began to re-edit purchased VHS tapes manually by making cuts and splices to the tape. A hotbed for this activity has been
Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...
with its conservative and entrepreneurial population. When ''
Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers a ...
'' was released on VHS in the winter of 1998, a video store owner in Utah began offering to re-edit purchased copies of the film for a $5 service fee. The service became very popular, and before long, several video rental businesses purchased VHS tapes and had them re-edited for their rental club/co-op members to watch. At the end of the 1990s, some small companies began selling copies of movies, without the scenes containing violent and/or indecent content, or foul language, to appeal to family audiences. By 2003, the major American film studios and individual filmmakers reacted against these unauthorized modifications, considering them to be a destruction of the filmmakers' work, and a violation of the controls that an author has over their work. Famed film directors and producers, such as
Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...
, publicly criticized this practice in entertainment industry publications. When DVD technology emerged, the re-editing industry began offering a disabled DVD accompanied by a re-edited version of the film on a coupled DVD-R for sale or rental. Several companies attempted this business, with some trying to do this through physical brick and mortar stores. The most successful of these proprietors of re-edited film content was Utah-based CleanFlicks, Inc., which utilized a unique deal model and proprietary stores to output the inventory. Clean Films later became the largest and most successful company in the business by employing an online rental model (similar to
Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
) and avoiding employing any physical stores. After a CleanFlicks franchisee in Colorado pre-emptively sued several major film directors out of concern that the guild (citing a notice on the DGA's website that inferred such a lawsuit was pending) were going to sue, the Directors Guild of America and the MPAA filed a countersuit against CleanFlicks and CleanFilms—while including several other distributors of edited DVD prints of theatrical features—arguing that the re-editing of their originally distributed work resulted in a derivation on a fixed media in violation of copyright. In 2005,
Mel Gibson Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. The recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Mel Gibson, multiple accolades, he is known for directing historical films as well for his act ...
released a cut version of ''
The Passion of the Christ ''The Passion of the Christ'' is a 2004 American epic biblical drama film co-produced and directed by Mel Gibson from a screenplay he wrote with Benedict Fitzgerald. It stars Jim Caviezel as Jesus of Nazareth, Maia Morgenstern as the Bl ...
'' to theaters (and later on
home media Home media refers to media used for recording, copying, delivery, and playback of various types of entertainment and information in the home. Forms of home media include: * Home audio * Home video * Magnetic tape * Phonograph record * Home comput ...
), with the
graphic violence Graphic violence refers to the depiction of especially explicit or detailed acts of violence in mass media. It may be real, simulated live action, or animated. Intended for viewing by mature audiences, ''graphic'' in this context is a synonym ...
toned down."''The Passion Recut'': domestic total gross".
''Box Office Mojo''. Retrieved October 12, 2019.
In 2006, Judge Richard P. Matsch of the
United States District Court for the District of Colorado The United States District Court for the District of Colorado (in case citations, D. Colo. or D. Col.) is a federal court in the Tenth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are a ...
ruled that CleanFilms, CleanFlicks and other edited film distributors was a copyright violation to distribute re-edited films without the consent from the film studios. The key was the fixed media aspect of the businesses; at all times, for instance, CleanFilms sold edited films with a legitimately purchased original copy. Furthermore, every edited DVD rental unit sold direct-to-customer had a corresponding original copy that was purchased at retail. ClearPlay was not affected by this ruling, as they did not sell fixed media, and editing took place as the unaltered streamed media was altered by the consumer's control of ClearPlay's software. In an odd twist, despite Judge Matsch's decision and his order that the re-editing companies to destroy all their re-edited inventory, shortly after the studios' victory in the Denver court, the lawyers for the studios negotiated with lawyers for the re-editing companies allowing for the sale of existing inventory. In an unexpected investor outcome given the loss of a major infringement case, one of the companies in the first three days of a "going out of business sale" generated more than a quarter of a million dollars in revenue and eventually sold enough re-edited movies to provide their original investors a return on investment worth five times or better the ROI. Less controversial than external bodies editing movies were the rise of director's cut editions of movies, which flourished with the advent of
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
s. These restore—and occasionally also shorten or omit (as in the case of '' Alien'')—scenes or footage from movies that had been left out of the theatrical print for varying reasons (including studio interference with the directors creative vision, inability to finish what was intended due to technology, or even the reactions of test audiences).


History of programmed re-editing

ClearPlay was sued by the DGA and MPAA, but the case was rendered moot by the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005, which clarified that ClearPlay's filtering approach was legal and did not violate copyright law. As a result, ClearPlay has been able to offer its products to consumers in the United States, while others have discontinued distribution of edited home video releases for legal reasons. Another aspect of re-editing comes with consumer made edits; the practice of fan edits (or fanedits)—which have become more popular as they have spread over the internet—involves consumers loading the filmed content into their computers and using video editing software to produce mostly a version with content changed for their own entertainment.


Future of the industry

It is unclear where this industry is headed. An April 2005 poll conducted by
ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...
indicated continued demand for the product. Of 1,002 adults from across the United States sampled for the poll, 39% of those polled expressed interest in purchasing re-edited films, while 58% of respondents said that they would not be interested in making such a purchase (with a three-point error margin). Despite the aforementioned legal rulings, companies continue to sell re-edited movies via the Internet, some of which have been shut down in accordance with the reasoning of the 2006 decision by the Colorado District Court. Even still, online search engine results reveal that companies continue to provide fixed media products, such as Clean Play DVDs. Sometimes, these re-sellers use "going out of business" tactics to move inventory. However, physical "brick and mortar" stores have been shut down, such as Cougar Video in
Provo, Utah Provo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Utah County, Utah, United States. It is south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front, and lies between the cities of Orem, Utah, Orem to the north and Springville, Utah, Springville to the south ...
, which remained open long after the named companies in the aforementioned lawsuit were closed down. One company, Swank, offers re-edited movies created by the studios themselves, supposedly for showings in correctional facilities and other non-theatrical locations. It is not clear if these versions are the same re-edited versions that studios create for airlines or television showings.


See also

*
V-chip V-chip is a technology used in television set receivers in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and the United States, that allows the blocking of programs based on their ratings category. It is intended for use by parents to manage their children's telev ...
*
Hays Code The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as th ...
*
Motion picture rating system A motion picture content rating system classifies films based on their suitability for audiences due to their treatment of issues such as sex, violence, or substance abuse, their use of profanity, or other matters typically deemed unsuitable for ...
, MPAA film rating system *
Television rating system Television content rating systems are systems for evaluating the content and reporting the suitability of television programmes for minors. Many countries have their own television rating system and countries' rating processes vary by local p ...
* Standards & Practices *
Censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...
*
Radio edit In music, a radio edit, or a "clean version," is a modification, typically truncated or censored, intended to make a song more suitable for airplay. It may be censored for profanity, vulgarities, or subject matter; or adjusted for length, instr ...
*
Film editing Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film stock, film which increasingly involves the use Digital cinema, of digital ...
, the techniques used *
Turner Broadcasting System Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. was an American television and media conglomerate founded by Ted Turner in 1965. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with Time Warner (later WarnerMedia) on October 10, 1996. As of April 2022, all of its asse ...
*
Edit Decision List An edit decision list or EDL is used in the post-production process of film editing and video editing. The list contains an ordered list of reel and timecode data representing where each video clip can be obtained in order to conform the final c ...


References

{{Censorship Film and video terminology Film censorship