Synopsis:

I'm an obsessed Orson Welles fan (He's the greatest Director that ever lived after all), collecting all his films and re-buying them repeatedly when a better quality release comes along. So 2008's 'Orson Welles and I' sounded like a great idea. A film chronicling the final week that lead to his New York production of Caesar (A show that put him on the cover of Time). A staging with modern Fascistic dress and lit like the Nuremburg rally (A recent event in 1937), it was designed to take Shakespeare's play and fashion it into a warning about a world already slipping toward world war. But while the scenes devoted to this play were perfection with Christian McKay delivering an astonishing performance as Welles, it was fatally flawed. Because about a third of the film was focused on a romance between two fictional characters played by Zac Efron and Claire Danes, that had nothing to do with the reality of the situation. So that Orson didn't even get top billing in a film about him!

Intentions:

It was my intention to make 'Me and Orson Welles' much closer to the kind of film a Welles fan like me would want to see. I've done this in three ways; Converting it to B&W as we never saw young Orson in colour, removing the romance subplot entirely and by slipping several Wellesian nods into the intro and outro of the edit. I've also added a 1937 newsreel as a prologue, to set the play in it's historical context. The new title is of course in reference to the great 'Withnail and I'.

Change List:

1937 NEWSREEL' PROLOGUE: 00.00.00 TM2YC Ident added 00.00.07 Looped projector footage added with sampled 8mm projector sound 00.00.08 Added 'News on the march' intro from 'Citizen Kane' 00.00.15 Created my own '1937 a year in Review' preface card 00.00.19 Inserted heavily edited and aged 7min vintage 1937 newsreel roundup with added TM2YC propaganda for the eagle eyed ;-) (Projection mockup) 00.00.24 Cuts to full frame of newsreel for next 7 mins 00.07.21 Back to looped projector footage 00.07.26 Added 'News on the march' outro from 'Citizen Kane' 00.07.28 Cuts to projection booth sequence from 'Citizen Kane' with added background noise 00.07.32 Part of Welles introduction to the 'Mercury Theatre on the Air' production of Caesar added 00.07.58 'Citizen Kane' footage cropped and edited to mimic delivery of Welles' words 'ORSON WELLES & I' PROPER: 00.08.09 'Blank widescreen RKO logo animation' added, created by the super talented Rogue-theX (With a new morse code message from me!) 00.08.12 RKO titles overlayed from 'Citizen Kane' Blu-Ray 00.08.23 'Me & Orson Welles' footage begins (Converted to aged B&W) 00.08.23 'A Mercury Production' titlecard from 'Citizen Kane' added 00.08.31 'Orson Welles & I' titlecard created to mimic style of 'Citizen Kane' titlecard 00.08.38 TM2YC titlecard added 00.08.44 Credits slightly trimmed 00.12.33 Removed several of Gretta's lines including the first naming of 'Richard' 00.13.14 Cropped shot to remove Sonja 00.17.16 Removed 6.5mins Richard spends with Sonja 00.17.41 Removed 30second scene with Sonja 00.24.36 Removed Sam naming Richard 00.26.02 Removed 3min scene of Joe discussing Sonja and brought CBS Radio scenes forward 00.26.20 Removed Sam naming Richard again 00.34.12 Removed 3min scene with Sonja and brought first half of 'arson' scene forward (So it flows out of the earlier CBS "Bad luck thing" dialogue) 00.34.25 Cut back to poet scene rehearsal 00.35.11 Cut to second half of 'arson' scene 00.38.49 Return to Richard's stage debut scenes 00.39.36 Removed 90second chat with Sonja 00.40.46 Moved 'bored in classroom' and 'Richard being told off by his mother' scenes to later in the edit 00.43.53 Removed Richard offering to pass Gretta's story to Sojnja 00.47.20 Removed Sonja's arrival 00.47.46 Removed Joe chatting up girl scene 00.48.09 Removed Richard talking to Sonja and cropped one shot 00.49.16 Removed 4min 'Night out with Sonja' scene 00.55.11 Removed Richard chatting to Sonja on the street 00.55.17 Cut in 'worried' reaction shot of Richard from later in the sequence 00.55.20 Cut in second 'worried' reaction shot of Richard 00.55.55 Cropped all shots of Orson talking to Richard to remove Sonja and recut sound and visuals 00.56.27 Removed Sonja telling Richard she is sleeping with Orson and chat with Joe 00.56.40 Removed Richard's argument with Orson scene plus cut in 'Richard being told off by his mother' scene 00.57.05 Cut in 'bored in classroom' scene 00.57.19 Cutaway with Richard still 'head in hands' (Was boredom now implied to be dispair) 00.57.19 Heavily edited version of 'Joe trying to talk Richard round' to remove references to the arguement 00.57.36 Drastically re-edited, re-sequenced and re-dubbed version of the 'Park bench' scene. It was about Orson saying sorry, it's now about Orson lifting Richard's spirits 00.59.47 Removed Shot of Richard getting a card from Orson 01.00.36 Removed Richard being named again and press photo 01.01.52 Added reaction shot of Richard to Orson giving same pep speech to George 01.14.07 Cut end of party scenes where Richard found out the truth and instead there is a long fade to the empty theatre scene 01.14.15 Drastically re-edited, re-sequenced and re-dubbed version of Richard farewll to Sonja so it's now a melancholy private moment reflecting on his experiences 01.14.29 Removed final 2min classroom speech scene 01.14.57 Removed a few shots from 'box of memories' scene to maintain continuity with the new story 01.15.28 Removed final naming of Richard 01.16.20 Removed reference to Sonja 01.16.36 Removed refrence to Gretta being there on opening night as this was both bizarre in the original cut and implies that this final scene is taking place much later in time than I want it to 01.18.42 Added overlayd 'The End' title from 'Citizen Kane' 01.18.47 Created moving shadow effect under title to mimic the lengthening of afternoon shadows as the film fades to black 01.18.56 Completely remaid cast list credits to showcase the real people versus the actors who played them 01.20.21 Added 8min 1934 Welles silent short 'The Hearts Of Age' to play oposit the credits and beyond 01.26.00 Added credit for Rogue-TheX's 'RKO Animation' 01.06.12 Film glides slowly from left to center 01.28.32 Specially created widescreen RKO end card added FanEdit Length: 88 Minutes Original Length: 114 Minutes Time Added: 10 Minutes Time Removed: 36 Minutes.

Additional Notes:

GENERAL EDITING DETAILS: - Film converted to aged B&W - Richard's romance with Sonja (Claire Danes) has been entirely removed (Approx 25-30 mins of footage) hoever... - A few shots of Sonja emain and she is refrenced by other characters by name (As are several background characters in the original film) - All mentions of Richard's have been removed (The real guy was actually called Arthur), he is now just "I" - Several scenes have been resequenced and drastically recut to change there meanings e.g. - 'I' being fired after an argument with Orson has been replaced with 'I' quitting due to stage fright and pressure from his family - 'I' being re-fired by Orson at the end has been removed - A 1937 roundup newsreel has been cut together and now forms a pre-title introduction - Several shots, images, logos, sounds and techniques from 'Citizen Kane' have been used at the start and end of the edit to evoke that masterpiece - A real-life to film comparison has been added at the end for the principle players - Welles' short film 'The Hearts Of Age' now plays beside the closing credits - Not including the opening and closing portions, the film is about 70mins now (37mins-ish removed).

Other Sources:

Me & Orson Welles' Blu-Ray 'Citizen Kane' Blu-Ray Several Public Domain sources (Including Welles' 'The Hearts Of Age' short).

Special Thanks:

Thanks of course to Welles himself, to Director Richard Linklater for re-staging Caesar in such detail and to Rogue-theX for contributing a stunning widescreen RKO animation. Thanks also go to those that have offered feedback and suggestions in the thread.