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ESCAPE
FROM NY SE DVD
ESCAPE
FROM L.A. DVD
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 I
am a MAJOR John Carpenter fan, and when he & Kurt Russell team up,
it's always a fantastic result! "THE THING," "BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE
CHINA," and of course, "ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK" and its sequel, "ESCAPE FROM
L.A."! This music video is a tribute to the creative force of Carpenter
& Kurt Russell, and the anti-hero character of "Snake" Plissken featured
in both of those films. The first is an absolutely cult classic,
but the second has a split audience. Some don't like it, some do,
and it's undeniable that the plot follows somewhat closely to that of the
first film. Whatever the case, "ESCAPE FROM L.A." has grown on me,
and I consider it a worthwhile sequel that offers some of the same, but
a lot of new material. "L.A." is much more action-packed, and much
more of a 90's action movie where "NEW YORK" was more about a dark, covert
style of action. New York and L.A. are starkly different cities,
and Carpenter truly emphasized that contrast with these two films.
My original idea for this video included the song "HIGHWAY
TO HELL" by AC/DC back in early November, 2003. Though, I chose to
hold off on the video until December as I still had my "NIGHTMARE ON ELM
STREET" music video planned for November. As plans for that video
faded, I focused on Plissken, but as time passed, I had changed my choice
for the song to "ARMY OF ME" by Chimaira (off of the "FREDDY vs. JASON"
soundtrack). Work began on this music video at the end of November,
2003, and was planned for completion a matter of DAYS before the 2-Disc
Special Edition DVD release of "ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK" back in mid-December,
but progress on the video wasn't moving along as swiftly I had hoped.
I had to rent "ESCAPE FROM L.A." on DVD TWICE, and went
back to "ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK" a number of times (the exact number is a
little fuzzy right now). I started out with footage from the original
bare bones DVD release, and finished with footage from the Special Edition
release. It was good that it took longer than originally planed because
footage from the original opening sequence to "ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK" (which
is included, in full for the first time ever, on that DVD) has been incorporated
into this video (though I had to matte it into a 2.35:1 aspect ratio).
You will see these few clips near the video's end. The quality of
the footage is lacking, but it's still a nice addition to this music video
as it is to the SE DVD.
I think I did a good job of intercutting footage from
both films, and definitely a nice job on the transition effects sequences
that you'll see from the get go. You'll see a lot of new additions
to this video that will appear in most, if not all, of what I have planned
for 2004. You can call this a primer for my John Carpenter Trailer
Series that will run throughout the year. Also, major thanks goes
to Mihai for emailing the complete lyrics to "Army of Me" as I could not
find them anywhere online, or was able decipher all of the lyrics by myself. |
