A STAR WARS fan film actually worth seeing

At least it's better than the Hellraiser fan film.

That was actually pretty fun to watch. Of course, think of what these guys could've done had they applied that much excrutiating time and detail towards an original work, and it becomes just as silly and pointless.

I was actually quite impressed with editing, angles and the camerawork in general. Whoever directed it, obviously hasn't done this for the first time.

This kind of shit is an awesome demo reel if you want to be a generic action movie director. Come up with something original.

If I had the equipment and the facilities and the effects equipment these guys have access to, you can be sure as shit I wouldn't make a fan film to hone my skills. Fan films do nothing to further yourself--they may be fun, but with the time they put into this, I could've made something fun and original. And there's the rub.

You ever see two five-year-olds playing duel with their lightsabers? They all do the same thing: they try to hit each others' saber.

It was a well produced entry to the contest they entered, but I am so tired of showy light saber battles where any real attempt to attack the person is secondary to waving your saber around in circles, over your head, behind your back, etc.

Silliness notwithstanding, they did an awesome job.

Like in the actual Star Wars films themselves?

List the fan film people who have big careers.

You don't post throwaway shit on the internet. That's the difference.

"Doode, lets make the COOLEST Star Wars lightsaber fight EVER!"
"You mean, like, EVER?"
"YEAH, this is gonna be the shit! We post this onto the internet. We gonna get famous!"
"You mean, like Star Wars Kid?"

I'm with devin on this. Anyone can make a crappy fan film. DO SOMETHING NEW.

Yeah, DIY Lightsaber duels are such a scarlet letter.

Christ.

Exactly!!

IMO, one of the failings of the PT, mostly ROTS. The OT got it right.

Honestly it wasn't even THAT good. They did do a great job of the light effect and synching it up with the actors' movements but I'm sure that's been done so many times that a million in-depth tutorials can be found on the internet and then it's just a simple case of read the directions-push the buttons.

But even given the benefit of the doubt that the effect was truly original, still, the action was so obviously choreographed. Everything looked staged, nothing really flowed all that well. The one skinny dude who bit it first knows how to twirl a stick, which did look cool, but the punches, kicks, etc. obviously didn't connect at all and that one bit where they rolled - cheesey.

I'm not saying these guys suck - it's obvious they know how to shoot and edit, which are the basic fundamentals, but it wasn't creative at ALL and it wasn't flashy or really worth showing off, minues the lightsaber synch (and I still think they had to have found a tutorial).

G-Dude was right - had they put that much time and effort into an original creation they probably would have something special on their hands. As it is now? meh.

Wasn't there already a thread about this a couple of weeks ago? How much discussion is this thing worth?

There was! And to answer your second question, not much. This thing wore out its internet welcome in less than a week.

Exactly, shouldn't we all be discussing the non-mystery that is the ending of Poltergeist III?

Goddamn, you love playing the I-have-no-life-and-thusly-I'm-up-on-all-this-nerd-shit-before-any-of-you-peons card.

Don't make me start calling you Bradley.

I'm honestly terrified to death by the Julian Beck character in Poltergeist II and III.

To death.

"Because I'm smart. And I know what you're thinking."

'Course, it wasn't Beck in III-- he passed away shortly after wrapping II. Just to creep us out more.

It was very well-done for what it was...I congratulate them
on their hard work and accomplishment. But I agree
with the others, you really have to come up
with your own stuff to get anywhere. It's the only
way to stand out in a crowd. This has been the case
at the beginning of the careers of all of the big filmmakers.
They got noticed because they did shorts or wrote scripts
that stood out from the pack. It's tough to get noticed
if you're doing fan films, especially when the stuff has been
done to death.

Still, hard work is hard work, so a job well-done. Just the
wrong job.

The shot in 2 where he slowly walks up to the house is just.. too good.

Wow, you guys can be really harsh. It was decently choreographed with some inventive bits. At least they kept it simple in terms of sets and props.

And these kids look high school age... should be a decent portfolio piece to get into art/film school... if only i had the computer programs that are available today when i was a kid... i would've been goofing around with the same type of stuff... shame they didn't finish it off with locale & costumes... course that would have lost some of the humor...

Well apparently, the kid in the blue shirt landed himself a job as an effects artist at LucasArts, as a result of this video. He worked on Republic Commando, Knights of the Old Republic II, and the Revenge of the Sith game. It's not a big film career or anything, but now the kid's got himself a steady gig creating Star Wars effects in videogames.

Ebaumsworld chose to run this ad next to the video:



CG rendering of a chubby nerd having a lightsaber fight to sell the product. Awesome. He kinda looks like Moriarty.

That lightsaber effect in the ad doesn't even look that good.

Notice the "create completely new visual elements" tagline.

Yeah, completely new, but we'd rather shill our product using a 29 year old effect that hasn't nearly been overused yet.

Actually, I'd like to see someone take a crack at reproducing the in-camera front-projection technique they tried on the first film.

What's this? Explain.

To elaborate: What they tried to do was set up a 45-degree reflector in front of the camera, with a bright light attached to the side. The motorized, spinning saber prop was coated with ScotchLite material-- the same stuff used on freeway signs-- which reflects light directly back at its source. The idea was that light would shine back from the sword, through the glass, directly into the camera. The glowing sets and costumes of the Krypton scenes in Superman: The Movie were shot the same way.

If you check the documentary on the SW DVD, there's a neat outtake where you can see Lucas's reflection in the glass after a take.

Most of what you see in the final version of Star Wars is the animated (and colored) overlay. The pulsating flicker comes largely from the spinning blade, and I think it makes "Episode IV"s sabers look more dangerous than in the other films, where the effect was purely animation.

Thanks, Colt. I'm usually not into fan films, but that was very well done. Especially when you consider the age of the kids and the resources involved. I also thought the choreography was much better than the over-hyped "Del" from EPISODE III.

Here's an interesting one to check out that has some impressive production values. I'm curious as to what you think about it:

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2669337

Revelations is an impressive piece of work, and much better viewed if you torrent the DVD set. Here's the homepage.

Its good but its the film eqvilant of writing good fan ficton while trying to be an author.

Needs to be faster. More intense.