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Afan film is afilm orvideo inspired by a film,television program,comic book, book, or video game created byfans rather than by the source's copyright holders or creators. Fan filmmakers have traditionally beenamateurs, but some of the more notable films have actually been produced by professional filmmakers as film school class projects or as demonstration reels. Fan films vary tremendously in quality, as well as in length, from short faux-teaser trailers for non-existent motion pictures to full-length motion pictures. Fan films are also examples offan labor and theremix culture. Closely related concepts arefandubs,fansubs andvidding which are reworks of fans on already released film material.
The earliest known fan film isAnderson 'Our Gang,[1] which was produced in 1926 by a pair of itinerant filmmakers. Shot in Anderson, South Carolina, the short is based on theOur Gang film series; the only known copy resides in the University of South Carolina's Newsfilm Library. Various amateur filmmakers created their own fan films throughout the ensuing decades, including a teenagedHugh Hefner,[1] but the technology required to make fan films was a limiting factor until relatively recently. In the 1960s UCLA film studentDon Glut filmed a series of short black and white "underground films", based on adventure and comic book characters from 1940s and 1950s motion picture serials. Around the same time, artistAndy Warhol produced a film calledBatman Dracula which could be described as a fan film. But it wasn't until the 1970s that the popularization ofscience fiction conventions allowed fans to show their films to the wider fan community.
In the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, there were many unofficial foreign remakes of American films that today may be considered fan films, such asSüpermenler (Superman),3 Dev Adam, (Spider-Man),Mahakaal (A Nightmare on Elm Street), andDünyayı Kurtaran Adam (Star Wars).
Most of the more prominent science fiction films and television shows are represented in fan films; these includeStar Wars (seeFan films based onStar Wars),Star Trek (seeStar Trek fan productions),Doctor Who (seeDoctor Who spin-offs), andBuffy the Vampire Slayer (seeUnofficialBuffy the Vampire Slayer productions). Because fan films generally utilize characters and storylinescopyrighted andtrademarked by the original filmmakers, they are rarely distributed commercially for legal reasons. They are exhibited by various other methods, including showings atcomic book and science fiction conventions, and distribution as homemade videos, ranging fromVHS videocassettes toCD-ROMs andDVDs.
A notable fan film is alsoRaiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation, made as ashot-for-shot remake of the 1981Indiana Jones adventure filmRaiders of the Lost Ark. Using the original film's screenplay and score, it principally starred and was filmed, directed, and produced over a seven-year period by threeMississippi teenagers (Chris Strompolos, Eric Zala, and Jayson Lamb). In 2015, the documentaryRaiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made was released. The film follows three childhood friends, Eric Zala, Chris Strompolos, and Jayson Lamb, from 1982 to 1989 as they set out to make their fan film ofRaiders fan film.
In 2012, two Arizona-based teenagers, Jonason Pauley and Jesse Perrotta, made alive action shot for shot remake of the 1995 animated film,Toy Story, with the toy characters animated through stop motion, puppetry, and live actors for the human characters, while using audio from the film. It received a positive response from critics, and the original filmmakers.[citation needed]
Indian-born American filmmakerAdi Shankar started producing aseries of satire films based on popular franchises and comic book characters, before evolving into a full-fledged entertainment brand. His films includesThe Punisher: Dirty Laundry withThomas Jane reprising his role fromThe Punisher[citation needed] andPower Rangers: Unauthorized, a dark reimagining of theMighty Morphin Power Rangers series.[original research?]
FilmmakerSandy Collora gained much notoriety in the early 2000s for a series of fan films he produced featuringDC Comics heroes Batman and Superman.Batman: Dead End premiered at the 2003San Diego Comic-Con, whileWorld's Finest was prevented from showing in 2004 due to copyright claims fromWarner Bros.[2]
Some fan film productions achieve significant quantity and or quality. For instance, the seriesStar Trek: Hidden Frontier produced 50 episodes over seven seasons – compared to only 34 episodes for the 1970s sci-fi seriesBattlestar Galactica andGalactica 1980 combined.
Star Trek: New Voyages started as a fan production, but has since attracted support from several crew and cast members from the differentStar Trek series, as well as a wide audience.
A similar fan production,Star Trek Continues, produced byVic Mignogna, have been well received by critics, who praised the quality of the production and stated that the show set a new standard for Star Trek fan films, while highlighting the resemblance of the episodes with those of the original series.[citation needed]
Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning, a Finnish feature-length spoof of bothStar Trek andBabylon 5, attracted over 4 million downloads and has been released on DVD in several countries, making it possibly the most successful Finnish movie-production to date.
The Lord of the Rings fan filmsBorn of Hope andThe Hunt for Gollum debuted at Ring*Con and theSci-Fi-London film festival (respectively) in May 2009 and was released on the internet.[3]
Ghostbusters: The Video Game features a small nod to the fan filmReturn of the Ghostbusters by way of a drawing posted on the wall[4] in the Ghostbusters firehouse headquarters. The child's drawing of a Ghostbuster is signed by a fictional character created in the fan film.
On September 27, 2009, Italian fan filmMetal Gear Solid: Philanthropy was released over the internet, a 10,000 Euro production based onHideo Kojima'sMetal Gear Solid video game series.
Dan Poole's stunt work in his fan filmThe Green Goblin's Last Stand garnered recognition and an endorsement fromSpider-Man co-creatorStan Lee.[5]
John F. Carroll'sMasters of the Universetrilogy began withThe Wizard of Stone Mountain in 2011 and has premiered at conventions inGermany and theUS. Other films in the trilogy will be released on the internet in 2013.[6]
Iowa brothers Morgan and Mason McGrew spent eight years recreating the 2010 filmToy Story 3 in stop motion. TitledToy Story 3 in Real Life,[7] the film was shot using iPhones and was uploaded to YouTube on January 25, 2020. The shot-for-shot remake uses the film's original audio. According to Screen Crush, Pixar's parent company Walt Disney Studios gave the McGrews permission to release the film online.[8]
Due to copyright protection, trademark protection and limitedfair use provisions, fan films made without official authorization might exist in a legal grey area.[9]
Still, fan films often operate under the radar or IP ownersturning a blind eye as long they are non-commercial activities.[10]
"We got in touch with Tolkien Enterprises and reached an understanding with them that as long as we are completely non-profit then we're okay. [...] They are supportive of the way fans wish to express their enthusiasm."
Also, lawmakers strengthened fan activities in recent years by extending fair use cases; for instance, in 2012Canada'sCopyright Modernization Act explicitly added an exemption which allows non-commercial creation of fan film material.[11] A 2013 US court rulingLenz v. Universal Music Corp. acknowledged that creative fan activities on copyrighted works might fall under fair use and requested that copyright holders check and respectfair use before doingDMCA take down notices.[12]
The popularity of fan productions brought about by affordable consumer equipment and animation programs (Prosumer equipment) with thedigital revolution, along with the ease of distribution created by the Internet andWeb 2.0, has prompted several studios to adapt their official policies and programs regarding fan films.[13]
The highest profile of these programs has beenLucasfilm'sOfficial Star Wars Fan Film Awards, launched in 2000.[14] The awards formerly permitted onlydocumentary,mockumentary, andparody entries, while prohibiting seriousfan fiction. However, this restriction was lifted for the 2007 awards. Lucasfilm's limited support and sanction of fan creations is a marked contrast to the attitudes of many other copyright holders.
Some copyright holders opened up for the idea of fan films:DC Comics was known to actively discourage the creation of fan movies in the 1990s.[15] In 2008, however, DC Comics changed its tune when its president, Paul Levitz, gave provisional permission to fan filmmakers, stating definitively, "We’re against anything that monetizes our assets and our copyrights without our permission. We are not against things where people use our assets if they don't do anything monetarily with them."[16] Similarly, Paramount took a more welcoming stance towards fan filmmakers in the 2000s.[17]
Unlike many American TV shows, the British seriesDoctor Who allowed its writers to retain the rights to characters and plot elements that they created - most famously withTerry Nation'sDaleks. While the BBC has never licensed the character ofthe Doctor for use in fan films, a number of the writers have consented to allow the monsters and supporting characters they created to be used in direct-to-video productions (seeDoctor Who spin-offs).[citation needed]
The creators ofRed Dwarf sponsored a fan film contest of their own in 2005, inspired by an earlier fan film production in 2001 calledRed Dwarf - The Other Movie, with a fairly wide remit ranging from fictional stories set in theRed Dwarf universe to documentaries about the show and its fandom. The two winning shorts,Attack of the Giant Hand Monster andThe Movie: Yeah, No, Yeah, No, were featured in their entirety as bonus features on the Series VIII DVD release, along with a montage of clips from the runner-up entries and a short intro clip fromRed Dwarf - The Other Movie. This made them among the first fan films to be commercially released by a property's original creators.[18]
In 2008, a cease and desist letter was issued byFox Studios to close production on aMax Payne fan short in development.[19]MGM has similarly shown hostility to an internet-distributedJames Bond fan film.[20]
Paramount Pictures actively pursued legal action againstStar Trek fan films in the 1980s,[21] such as the animated film seriesStar Trix, and a never completed fan episode spinoff tentatively titledYorktown: A Time to Heal starringGeorge Takei andJames Shigeta.[1] During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Paramount had a more relaxed approach towards Star Trek fan films, with Star Trek actors frequently participating in various fan productions, such asStar Trek: Of Gods and Men. However, following the 2015 controversy surrounding the team behindPrelude to Axanar's attempts to profit from their unreleased feature film, Paramount tightened its stance on fan productions.[22]
From 2010 to 2015, animator Matthew Gafford developedStar Fox: The Animated Series, a webseries based onNintendo'sStar Fox video game franchise. However, after a cease-and-desist from Nintendo based on the usage of theStar Fox intellectual property, Gafford changed the name of the webseries toA Fox In Space. The first episode ofA Fox In Space was released online in April 2016.[23]
In June 2014,Godzilla: Heritage, a fan film based on theGodzilla franchise, was announced onKickstarter. The project, conceived by filmmakers Timothy Schiefer and Greg Graves, was unsuccessful in meeting its initialcrowdfunding goal of $25,000, receiving only $16,025 from 186 backers.[24] On July 18, 2014, a second Kickstarter campaign for the film was created, this time reaching a set goal of $10,000, receiving $19,554 from 193 backers.[25][26] Following the release of ateaser trailer for the film in 2016, the filmmakers were contacted byToho, the company which owns the rights to theGodzilla franchise. In order to protect Toho's intellectual property and to avoid confusion in the marketplace, the filmmakers agreed to a number of conditions, including that the film would not have the word "Godzilla" in the title, that the filmmakers would not receive profits from the film, and that no further crowdfunding campaigns could be created.[27]
Two fan films based on the Harry Potter "Wizarding World" received the attention of Warner Bros. after both films attempted to raise money through crowdfunding: the 2016 film "Severus Snape and the Marauders" and the 2018 Italian film "Voldemort: Origins of the Heir". After private discussions with Warner Bros., production on both films were allowed to continue with the agreement that they no longer use crowdfunding to raise money for the films and that they be non-profit.[28][29]
In August 2018, it was announced that a fan-made short film, based on the1990 two-episode television miniseries adaptation ofStephen King's 1986 epic supernatural horror novelIt, was being produced under the nameGeorgie.[30][31] The short, which starsTony Dakota who reprises his role asGeorgie Denbrough from the miniseries, centers on the idea of how the narrative ofIt may have continued that Georgie had not been killed byPennywise the Clown.[32] The short also stars Ben Heller who played young Stanley Uris in the miniseries.[32]Georgie premiered at theBoston Underground Film Festival on March 22, 2019 and was released online on June 10, 2019 on theFangoriaFacebook page.[33][34]
Batman Dracula was a fan made movie made bypop artistAndy Warhol. While some scenes were shown in the 2016 documentaryJack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis, the film is lost for the most part.
As media scholarHenry Jenkins points out, fan films are shaped by the intersection between contemporary trends toward media convergence andparticipatory culture. These films are hybrid by nature—neither fully commercial nor fully alternative. Fan films represent a potentially important third space between the two.[35]
Similarly,Stanford Law ProfessorLawrence Lessig argued that for the first time in history, creativity by default is subject to regulation due to growingintellectual property rights likecopyright andtrademark. This trend results in artists (like the fans mentioned in this article) needing the permission of the copyright owner to engage in mashups or acts of remixing. In Lessig's view, this new phenomena limits creativity.[36] To help artists mitigate thechilling impact of copyright law, Lessig founded theCreative Commons and proposed theCreative Commons licenses.[37][38]
Canada is one of a few countries, if not the only one, to have introduced into its copyright law a new exception for non-commercial user-generated content. Article 29 of Canada's Copyright Modernization Act (2012) states that there is no infringement if: (i) the use is done solely for non-commercial purpose; (ii) the original source is mentioned; (iii) the individual has reasonable ground to believe that he or she is not infringing copyright; and (iv) the remix does not have a "substantial adverse effect" on the exploitation of the existing work.
in 2013 a district court ruled that copyright owners do not have the right to simply take down content before undertaking a legal analysis to determine whether the remixed work could fall under fair use, a concept in US copyright law which permits limited use of copyrighted material without the need to obtain the right holder's permission (US District Court, Stephanie Lenz v. Universal Music Corp., Universal Music Publishing Inc., and Universal Music Publishing Group, Case No. 5:07-cv-03783-JF, January 24, 2013).[...] Given the emergence of today's "remix" culture, and the legal uncertainty surrounding remixes and mash-ups, the time would appear to be ripe for policy makers to take a new look at copyright law.
