This blog is a study based off of the Everything’s a Remix video series. The video is written and remixed by Kirby Ferguson.
Nearly nothing is truly original or pure genius. When we see something we like, we tend to want to copy it. We want it so bad that we often try to change it just enough that it doesn’t completely resemble the original, but not enough for it to be original.
Everything man-made that you see was most likely copied, changed, and transformed from an original or original elements. For example, often times songs are built off of the same bass line, guitar chords, or drum beats as other songs. Movies are created using some great aspects and elements from past movies to make a product that is seemingly original.
Is Star Wars Ripping Off Other Movies?
An example of creative copying that Ferguson used in his video was the Star Wars saga. Most that have seen it would say that the movies are a very creative and imaginative group of films that is not like any other. Though when studied closely, Ferguson says that “many of Star Wars’ individual components are as recognizable as the samples in a remix”.
According to Ferguson, the very base of Star Wars comes from Joshua Campbell’s book
The Hero With a Million Faces, where he “popularized the structure of myth”. One type of myth that was discussed in the book is monomyth. Monomyth is usually referred to as “the hero’s journey”; it included the many steps that the hero takes through his/her adventure which ends up transforming the character. These stages are evident in Star Wars on many ocassions, for example, “the call to adventure, supernatural aid, the belly of the whale, the road of trials, the meeting with the goddess, and much more.”
Many scenes and aspects of Star Wars such as the “opening titles design, masters of spiritual martial arts, a low ranking bickering duo, and a boastful baddie getting his arm chopped off” (Ferguson) can be recognised from old movies such as Flash Gordan (1936), Hidden Fortress (1958), Yojimbo (1961) and many more.
But luckily, Star Wars isn’t in trouble for ripping off other films. By taking original samples and changing, combining and transforming them, the films were created that are unique, creative and completely new.
As Ferguson said, “creation requires influence”. Everything new is created from certain elements from old ideas and if no one used any older ideas, we’d have run out of new songs, movies, books, etc., a long time ago.
People can often get confused as to how to create something new based off of something else, without copyright infringements or getting accused of ripping something off.
“Remix: To combine or edited existing materials to produce something new.” -Kirby Ferguson
There’s a reason Star Wars isn’t blamed to have ripped off other movies, even though it contains ideas from them. There is a difference between being influenced by and plagiarizing. Star Wars took the original ideas and built off of them instead of exactly copying. Those ideas are from many different sources and were completely repurposed for the film. In conclusion, like many other new creations, Star Wars was created as a remix of old movies. It used many existing elements and ideas but transformed them to make a unique movie saga.
Some guidelines that I think creators could follow to avoid ripping something off is to not directly copy a specific idea, especially if the original author isn’t getting cited, especially if the work being created is for commercial use.
We can all agree that downright stealing others’ work is illegal due to copyright laws, but we can avoid this so that shouldn’t be a problem. We should allow ourselves to be inspired and influenced by the work of others, and copying to learn is essential. This becomes a problem when what you created has an obvious resemblence to the original and had barely been transformed at all. Get inspired, take key elements and ideas for your story, use your own creativity to transform it, then share your new, remixed creation with the world.
Some interesting videos on inpiration vs. copying: Design Inspiration & Copying, Stealing, Copying and Inspiration
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