According to Everything is a Remix: Part 2…

• 74/100 films are remakes, adaptations, sequels of existing films
• We as a society like the familiar
• “The old into the new is Hollywood’s greatest talent”
• Films are based on theme park rides, blogs, books and more
  • Films are also built on other films
  • Then told, retold, subverted, referenced
• “Original” films are not really original
  • Most are genre films with standard templates
  • They also fit into sub-genres that have even more specific elements
• Certain films reshape pop culture, but that still doesn’t make them original
  • e.g. Star Wars is very imaginative but most of the individual elements are sampled from elsewhere
• “Creation requires influence”
  • e.g. influence from our lives and the lives of others

This short analytical film was one of our “readings” for week 11 of this course. Not only that, but it is highly relevant to the work my group is doing for our fourth project brief. Our focus is on adaptations and the concept that nothing is original changes the way we look at particular films, as well as other adaptations in other mediums. Our focus is on Romeo and Juliet, one of the most commonly adapted stories of all time. Everything is a Remix encouraged me to think about the differences between relying on an “original” as a source for the plot, characters and thematic elements of a story, as opposed to sampling specific sequences or features from a number of works for a particular purpose or effect. I think that the difference between a remix and an adaptation is that an adaptation more closely relies on its original as a template, whereas remixes tend to take more chances, experimenting with how different elements could be manipulated and to what effect.