Back in 1991 when I completed Denim Jones, personal computers were still fairly limited in their ability to do high quality digital effects... unless you had $20,000 (or more) lying around, that is! I was able to make some low-res titles and a credit sequence, but even that maxed out my Amiga500's limited CPU power and memory.

Flash forward to the Year 2000. Personal computers are MUCH more powerful, people are now travelling in flying cars, and robots rule the Earth. Amidst the carnage created by the Robot Overlord's tyrannical rule, my brother, Lee, had purchased a shiny new PC capable of broadcast quality video editing. Wanting to learn more about its capability, he suggests that we re-edit Denim Jones as a practice project.

The Special Edition is born.

Lee took the helm in the 3D CG animation department and I started the daunting task of re-editing the footage... with Lee's expert guidance, of course!

Our first goal was to be more brutal in the editing. The original version was edited in two nights, so a lot of the decisions were made hastily, with sleep-deprived minds. I would watch Denim Jones from time to time and all the mistakes we made in editing called out to me. "Fix me! Fix me!" they cried. I was now in a position to answer their pleas, with the time and technology to get it right. With 99 video and audio tracks available to us in Adobe Premiere, how could we not? Of course, more freedom means more nit-picks, and anyone who knows me knows that I am the Master and Supreme Dictator of Nit-Picks. Steven Spielberg once said, "Movies are never finished, they're just abandoned." Well, I tried my best to finish THIS movie.

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Of course, I'm sure that five years down the road I'm going to watch the Special Edition and say to myself, "Man... I really should change that." Since when is Spielberg ever wrong?

The editing was indeed brutal. We cut about 12 minutes out of a 49 minute movie. I was quite shocked at how much unnecessary footage we left in the original movie. I guess that goes to show you what a good night's rest can do for you. That, and nine years of experience and hindsight!

The blooper reel that I alluded to in the History of Denim Jones section was trimmed from a ghastly 47 minutes to a respectable 4 minutes and incorporated into the credit sequence. So, if you include the credits and bloopers from the original movie, we had cut it down from 100 minutes (yikes!!) to a very watchable 43 minutes.

In addition to the editing, we added a lot of sound effects, digital CG shots that Lee created using LightWave 3D, and some cool wipes and transitions, courtesy of Adobe Premiere. Lee added so much to the Special Edition with his professional looking titles and animations, that I can't thank him enough. He turned my "home movie" into a movie that rivals some of Hollywood's best.  *wink*  Thanks again, bro!!

The end result of our work is a sleeker, more refined version of Denim Jones which is chock-full of cool animation sequences, special effects and an exciting new musical score. (See Legal / Copyright Notice.) It's guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat, or at least the front half of it! Well, I guess that really depends on the size of your ass... but I digress.