Trailer for Fan-Made BATMAN Music Video is Actually Good

Fan films are an interesting thing. On the surface, you’d think they would mostly be awesome; the problem doesn’t exist so much now, but back in the day plenty of geeky movies (especially superhero ones) received flak for not adhering to the source material enough and running amok with it. A potential solution to that is actually put the fans in charge, and thus the fan film was born.

However, the main problem with this is that so many of these fans just aren’t filmmakers. Sure, they may want to be and obviously hold an interest in it, but it’s very rare that a competent director emerges with an awesome Marvel movie they made over a weekend. A notable example would probably be The Punisher: Dirty Laundry, starring Thomas Jane and Ron Perlman.

Earlier this year there was another big fan film making the rounds, but this time it was all about Power Rangers.

While these are both technically fan films – as in, they’re not bankrolled by a major studio – they are made with professional filmmakers, crew and cast; when I generalize fan films, I’m talking about the kind made by nerds who do this out of passion on a shoestring budget. Those are the ones that mostly suck. There are exceptions, yes, but I find that their aforementioned passion can get in the way of their creativity.

It’s obviously great that films like the above exist, but in a way it’s also a bad thing; the art of the fan film comes from achieving a lot from nothing, not achieving a lot because you have a lot at your disposal. It gives the impression that that really is the only way to go about making something great, which is why it’s amazing to see stuff like Hourglass.

Vancouver-based artist Tom MacDonnell got in contact with UTF the other day to show us his trailer for a Batman-inspired music video, titled – you guessed it – Hourglass. Fearing some kind of shoddy piece of shit shot on a camcorder with a Batman who looked like present-day Val Kilmer, I clicked with trepidation. I was pleasantly surprised when the trailer turned out to be pretty fucking awesome. Check it out!

I was stunned by the professionalism of it. MacDonnell made the costumes, played Batman and served as both director and editor, resulting in an end product that looks industry standard, all down to the striking cinematography and slick camera movement – although I have a feeling we won’t be seeing Ben Affleck with piercings next March.

The full, thirteen-minute music video will be out on October 1st, and it’ll definitely be covered here on UTF. Will it live up to the evocative trailer? Let’s hope so!