Tranzor’s The Thing: Late Night TV Edit

Just when you think you’ve seen it all on the World Wide Web…

While aimlessly drifting through random Google searches last week, I was somehow led to a website called www.fanedit.org, a site where movie fans upload their own versions of commercially released flicks. I was skeptical initially, as I’ve dabbled into the same thing from time to time (for the sake of my own amusement) with less than stellar results. However, one particular edit, Tranzor’s The Thing: Late Night TV Edit, made me curious; not only is John Carpenter’s The Thing my all-time favorite movie, but as I read through the description I discovered that the movie was edited to make it appear like a Chiller Theatre style of local TV broadcast. Considering that I try to catch Wolfman Mac’s Chiller Drive-In every Saturday night, I knew that this particular fan edit might be worth suffering through a day’s worth of RapidShare downloads to watch.

The editor, a fellow who goes by the name of Tranzor (duh), made The Thing black and white, added film grain and scratch noises to emulate that of an old, rotting 16mm film, and zoomed in on the widescreen picture to make a new pan & scan image. Tranzor even cut out scenes of extreme gore and cursing to further enhance the “late night fright night” television experience of yesteryear. Several other changes were made…but I don’t want to ruin any more surprises here.

Don’t take my word for it. Here’s a few screenshots of the movie that I took (bless you, Media Player Classic Home Cinema):

I have downloaded and burned the DVD. Bravo, Tranzor. Best time I’ve had watching a movie in quite a while.

The banner below will take you straight to the description page, and from there you can find links to download the DVD file folder. NOTE FOR NOVICES: You will need WinRAR to extract the DLC file, not to mention the DVD itself when all the separate RAR files have all been downloaded. You’ll also need JDownloader, an excellent batch downloading program, installed in order to open the DLC file. The DLC will automatically add the RapidShare links for the DVD to jDownloader when opened.

Which brings me to my only complaint tonight: RapidShare sucks. Unless you’re a premium user, downloading a set of RAR files that are 3GB in total size might take you a day or two (as it did for me). Luckily, Tranzor’s other edits are available through Megaupload; I only hope that he’ll add MU mirrors for this at some point.

So what are you waiting for? Get over there, download, burn, enjoy, and leave Tranzor some good feedback while you’re at it.

I Suck as an Editor

While skimming over the story excerpts that I’ve posted on this blog, I can’t help but to shamefully roll my eyes at my editorial skills…or lack thereof, especially concerning the excerpts for The Blackening and Ghosts of Cleveland. Needless to say, a ton of errors have been fixed since I originally posted these excerpts and I plan on reposting the updated text to their respective entries soon.

The most difficult messes to clean are the ones made yourself.

The Evils of Social Networking

Back in 2009, I started a MySpace page to promote my first (and still only) full-length novel, The Blackening. The reasoning behind it was obvious. As an aspiring horror/sci-fi author (and not-so-proud owner of an Ohio Directions card) I wanted to expose my work to the masses and hopefully get lucky; after all, these types of feel-good success stories we always hear about on the news are the kinds of rags-to-riches accounts that keeps us fools dreamin’, right?

After the MySpace page went nowhere in a hurry, I turned to Facebook, which I left in disgust about a month ago. Why? The first reason was that 94% of my Facebook friends really didn’t give a good goddamn about reading my material and helping spread the word; ditto to the dozens of other Facebook pages – mostly small-press publishers and horror-themed groups – that I contacted in a futile effort for exposure and opinions. But who has time to read anything when there are millions of videos to share, thousands of games to play, and hundreds of metaphysical beings to argue about?

Another of my motives for leaving? The lazy factor. Thinking, mentally constructing, and typing a uniquely individual comment based on critical thinking is a rarity on Facebook. If you agree with someone, just click the convenient “Like” button and move on to the next thing. Digital hedonism has a name…and that name is Facebook.

Which brings me to this: Facebook causes people to fall in love with their own lives and how they live them. I sure wasn’t above falling into this trap. I started my Facebook profile to promote my work, not myself, but promoting myself was precisely what I ended up doing; humorous status updates so I could relish in the jovial reciprocation of my friends became the norm. People nowadays are more interested in sensationalized personalities than a human being’s passion, accomplishments, or body of work. Just look at Charlie Sheen. Seriously, how many pictures of yourself do you have to post, how many useless status updates do we have to read, how many PetVille accomplishments do you have to flaunt, or how many music videos do you have to share? Piss off with it already.

All I tried to do on Facebook was use my talents to ascend out of the squalor I’ve lived in my entire life; all I wanted from my friends was a little boost, some input I could use to improve and write even better stories. Maybe my dreams aren’t meant to be. Perhaps those with bad luck act as the counterbalance to those who have better fortunes. But this struggle is all that guys like me have.

The final reason I won’t be on Facebook? I just don’t belong in the maddening crowd. I never have and I never will. Whenever I’m out in public, I go to an area that best allows me to see where everybody else is. Lurking outside of the tempestuous vortex of humanity – perhaps with a few other kindred souls – is right where I belong.