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The Karate Kid Rehearsal Movie

Director John G. Avilsden has uploaded a video rehearsal version of The Karate Kidย (1984) to YouTube.

Back in the early 1980s video technology allowed directors to shoot cheap rehearsal footage before they used the expensive film stock for the actual shoot.

If you get the recent Blu-ray of The Outsiders (also starring Ralph Macchio) you can see Francis Ford Coppola do a similar thing with his young actors.

This must have been lurking in a cupboard somewhere in Avilsden’s house but back in May 2010 he decided to upload it to YouTube.

The end result looks like a cross between a fan film and B-roll footage but is actually a fascinating document of the filmmaking process.

You can hear the director (or crew) making comments about certain shots and what sounds like Polaroids being taken for reference.

The thing that struck me whilst watching it?

The weird similarities between this process and the one used to bring Avatar to the screen, despite the huge gulf in budgets and technology.

Here it is in several parts:

[Via Metafilter]

> The Karate Kid at IMDb and Wikipedia
> John G Avilsden’s YouTube Channel