Synopsis:

Wages of Fear improves the original structure of Sorcerer by introducing the prologue vignettes in a complimentary way, that feels more meaningful and purposeful, to help move the story along whilst also revealing important information about key characters, as their story in the present unfolds. Wages of Fear remains faithful to the original film in terms of editing style, music and overall pace but also layers some much-needed TLC over areas of the original edit that felt rushed or were jarring.

Intentions:

Sorcerer is an incredible piece of cinema, suspenseful, tense and gritty like no other film. Often hailed as a masterpiece… Sorcerer falls short of this in my eyes. The key problem for me is the start of the film. The prologue vignettes feel like they were edited in a slapdash manner and look like an afterthought that was bolted onto the start of the film. Additionally, there are a few shortcomings in the original edit such has hard or out of place cuts (and some comically bad ones), some exposition during the Paris vignette is needlessly long and doesn’t add to the story or progress it along. Sorcerer Wages of Fear tries to address this issue. Three of the prologue vignettes are now viewed as flashbacks during the film. The editing of the vignettes has been reworked to make them feel less ‘haphazard’ and are now more cohesive with the rest of the film. These backstories are now revealed to help the story unfold in a less rushed way.

Change List:

1. Added Home of Fanedits text. 2. Added Faneditor info and usage warning text. 3. Added ‘Wages of Fear’ to Sorcerer title text. 4. Changed title music to solely use Hymns Spheres 3rd movement, with a longer build up and ending. 5. First vignette is Scanlon and his goons, armed robbery and escape. 6. Removed initial pan out of Bingo sign. Now starts with Scanlon driving up to the church. 7. Small stabilisation to Scanlon walking up to the wall to tie his shoe laces. 8. Removed initial getaway car scene due to awfully implemented hard cut and out of place sped-up footage of the car in the original film. 9. Removed one of Scanlon’s goons comical reaction to the truck pulling out in front of them. 10. Full stabilisation of one of Scanlon’s goons lying on the road. 11. Small stabilisation of mobsters walking through the restaurant to meet their boss. 12. Small stabilisation of Scanlon and his friend discussing the trouble Scanlon is in. 13. Porvenire, Chile text added to the start of the Porvenire sequence. 14. Second vignette of Victor Manzon. 15. Trimmed initial pan of Paris to start with a pan up to Victor’s balcony. 16. Shorten scene with Bank president for pacing reasons and the extra exposition wasn’t needed. 17. Reworked suicide scene for pacing reasons. 18. Removed scene of Victor ‘comically’ running away from the restaurant. 19. Back to Porvenire, Chile. 20. Removed crash zoom to wall picture of Chile’s president during oil manager and his boss discussing the bombing. 21. Third vignette of Kassem, 'Martinez' 22. Shorted initial intro to Jerusalem to start with Kassem and his acquaintances leaving a bomb outside the doorway. 23. Back to Porvenire, Chile. 24. Forth vignette of Nilo 25. Shortened initial sequence and removed lift scene. 26. Removed flashback of Scanlon goons comical reaction. 27. Added ‘Wages of Fear’ to Sorcerer outro text. 28. Added Faneditor info to outro text. 29. Added BBC sound effects copyright info to outro text.

Additional Notes:

My approach to a fanedit starts with the initial seed of an idea and visualising what the edit might look like. This is almost entirely in my mind’s eye, by watching the source material over and over to understand if the seed of the idea has merit. Once I feel the edit is viable, I start to document the original story, isolating key plot points, setup’s and dialogue that are potential issues for the edit. Next there’s a more detailed analysis of the film using Premiere Pro to assist me with rapid prototyping of the edit and the ability to isolate audio and scrub quickly through the film to produce a rough draft. If the rough draft has merit, finally I commit to producing the edit, focusing in on graphical changes, audio work, masking, tightening up the cuts and the fine detail that goes into producing a finished edit.

Other Sources:

Special Thanks:

Thank you to Futon88 who showed an interest in this edit and provided feedback. Thank you to ArtIsDead for producing the excellent cover art.