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Topic:
Community Fan Film Clearinghouse*** Our own offsite message board? Cool!
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LLL
Title: TFN Fan Fiction Archive Editor
Registered:
Jul '00
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Date Posted:
2/15 4:30pm
Subject:
Community Fan Film Clearinghouse*** Our own offsite message board? Cool!
- Date Edited:
9/25 7:57pm (38 edits total)
Edited By:
LLL
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Have you ever wanted to write a fan film?
I don't know if everyone's seen this thread. This is a community fan film project. They are trying to do a fan film in which sections are shot by different crews in different locations, and then edited to make one film. A call went out a while ago for writers from over here to help out.
I'm going to try to put a script together for this, and what I would like to do with the project is recruit a staff from here to give each location depicted its own "feel." Often you can give several writers the same basic ideas, and the characters and situations they come up with are very different.
Here is the basic premise for the film:
What happens to people whom the Emperor and Vader aren't happy with, but aren't angry enough with to kill? And what happened to Naboo?
(Setting One; Crew One) Let's say that, with his unlimited power, Palpatine has designated one particular planet a reward/punishment planet for certain of his minions. On this planet, people Palpatine wishes to reward for some reason, or people he has in isolation doing some particular task for him, are allowed to live in grace and favor like little kings and queens. The economy of this planet is geared to flow wealth and riches up the ladder to these people and only these people. The rest of the people are serfs, taxed to death by the Empire, toiling their lives away and denied the fruits of their labor. They have just enough to stay alive and work, and that's it. Those who have been sent there as a punishment are forbidden to leave. It's a great life if Vadey and Palpy are in a good mood when they send you there, but if they aren't...
I had the thought that this is what Palpatine has done with Naboo. He still has a house there; presumably when he goes home he's one of the ones enjoying this still-beautiful world and reveling in luxury.
A certain family has been banished there by Darth Vader after the head of the family, a former fleet admiral, disappointed Vader in some way on a mission. From the highest echelons of Galactic society, they are now among the poorest of the poor. They have next to nothing; only their faithful droid has made the move with them. They've been there several years when the former admiral falls sick. They are too poor to afford medical care for him and too poor to be able to afford to have someone stay home with him. There is a cure for his illness, but the price is far out of this family's reach. It is an anxious and terrible time.
They do, however, have one card they are too afraid to play. In his service as fleet admiral, the head of this household observed many improprieties and downright atrocities, and he has a file of blackmail information. This could be used to influence one captain in particular to help, but the family hesitates. They are terrified of the wrath of Vader should it become known that a prisoner he sent here has attempted such a thing.
The droid, however, knows no fear. It simply looks at the situation with its logical droid brain, and considers the humans to be acting quite illogically indeed. As the former admiral gets sicker and sicker, the droid steals the blackmail chip and sets out to do what needs to be done itself.
(Enter Setting/Crew Two.) The first things the droid needs are transportation and communication. Certain smugglers are known among the serf population to visit, taking people off the planet who have relatives on other systems who are able to pay their fees. (They're also making money off the rich class, whom they pay to look the other way.) The droid heads to one who's known to be in town and has to bargain with the smuggler for help. Obviously, we'd need to give the droid something to bargain with.
The smuggler accepts the droid's price and takes the droid off planet. Now the droid needs to contact the person to be blackmailed, who's probably made admiral himself by now. (This person is in Setting 3 and filmed by Crew 3.) Whatever the blackmail information is, it's bad, so the Imperial agrees to the droid's terms to its face, but sends someone out after it to destroy it. Enter Bounty Hunter, in his ship (Setting 4, filmed by Crew 4.)
What ensues now is confusion over who has the actual blackmail information the Imperial wants to destroy. Being a droid, this entity is of course very intelligent, plus it can fake people's voices and send fake transmissions. The droid, trying to get its little metal behind, not to mention the smuggler's, out of harm's way, succeeds in making the Imperial think the bounty hunter has switched sides and now has the blackmail information himself. This turns the Imperial and the bounty hunter against each other, resulting in the requested space battle.
How it ends depends on what kind of effect we want. The standard expectation is a happy ending, with the guy getting well. We could turn this on its ear and make it a tragedy: by the time the smuggler gets the droid home the guy's dead, or something.
So far, some kind of tragic ending appears to be the choice, although we aren't sure yet whether it's the former admiral or the droid who bites the dust.
Our mission:
I will take Setting One, decide who the former admiral and his family are, write in the exposition we need, get the blackmail information into the droid's hands, and get the droid out the door in the black of night. Writer Two will take up Setting Two at the point where the droid arrives at the smuggler's hideout. You get to decide where the smuggler is hiding, who it is, what ship he/she/it flies, and what kind of person this will be. Get the smuggler and the droid off the planet and into contact with the Imperial who's being blackmailed. Enter Writer Three, who decides who the Imperial is, where he is, and writes this section, then the same with the bounty hunter. So a staff of four should suffice, although if someone wants to write with a partner, that's fine, too. Then I'll take the droid back home again and write the tragic ending.
We'll start by working up short summaries of what we want to do here, then coordinate so that our parts all work well together. Then we'll write. Right now we need a word of two from the filmmakers how long of a film they want, so we know about how many pages of script to shoot for. We'll be joined by Brentus of Gath, who is an experienced screenwriter and has offered to give pointers to anyone who needs help. Also along for the ride will be some folks from the fan films board, who will be shooting what we write, and may want to offer comments or help.
Once we're done, I'll check formatting and do a final edit. The script will then be submitted to the filmmakers as a first draft. If changes are requested, I'll come back here and keep everybody posted. I'll also come back and update us all here as the movie enters production.
If anyone's interested in joining the staff, please post and let us know what part you want. If you don't want to write, but just want to hang out, I personally like to get feedback on stories I'm planning. If you see a story treatment up here or a section of script and have any helpful suggestions (but, please, not flames!) feel free to post.
Thanks for everyone's time and interest in reading this.
-----signature-----
''Overall, to get a real deep, nuanced understanding of human behaviour, art is the best way.'' --Natalie Portman. Have a question or suggestion for the Archive? PM me anytime. 
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LLL
Title: TFN Fan Fiction Archive Editor
Registered:
Jul '00
|
Date Posted:
2/15 4:45pm
Subject:
RE: Community Fan Film Clearinghouse
- Date Edited:
2/17 6:05pm (3 edits total)
Edited By:
LLL
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Opening Crawl:
Dark times have befallen Naboo. Once a haven of justice and plenty, its economy has been retooled to benefit only the rich. While Palpatine's friends enjoy the beauty and bounty of the planet, Gungan slaves and Imperial criminals suffer under the Emperor's displeasure.
As the Galactic Civil War rages, fear reigns supreme. And on the streets where Padme` Amidala once walked, an Imperial family who's fallen from grace struggles for its very survival...
-----signature-----
''Overall, to get a real deep, nuanced understanding of human behaviour, art is the best way.'' --Natalie Portman. Have a question or suggestion for the Archive? PM me anytime.
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LLL
Title: TFN Fan Fiction Archive Editor
Registered:
Jul '00
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Date Posted:
2/15 4:48pm
Subject:
RE: Community Fan Film Clearinghouse
- Date Edited:
2/15 4:54pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
LLL
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Due to having to get up very early I'm not going to be on much tonight. I have work tomorrow and then a baby shower to go to (congratulations to keithabbott and his wife Ann!), but after that I should be checking in.
I have characters and ideas sketched out but no first scene written as of yet. We should find a place to post stuff when we get things done...the first scene at least. I don't know if posting it here is "legal" since this is Resource, and not a story board. If the mods will allow it, I'll put it here. If not, I guess it belongs in Saga.
More soon ...
-----signature-----
''Overall, to get a real deep, nuanced understanding of human behaviour, art is the best way.'' --Natalie Portman. Have a question or suggestion for the Archive? PM me anytime.
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DarthIshtar
Title: Former CR
Star Wars Trivia Hostess
Registered:
Mar '01
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Date Posted:
2/15 10:40pm
Subject:
RE: Community Fan Film Clearinghouse
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LOL, I'm in for that.
-----signature-----
"You are some self-important encyclopedia with too much time on his hands. I will see to it personally that you are used for spare parts every time my speeder needs an overhaul. You and that overpriced forklift out there." ~Dr. Bel Maden
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RX_Sith
Registered:
Mar '06
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Date Posted:
2/16 5:19am
Subject:
RE: Community Fan Film Clearinghouse
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I will assist as well. I can at least do some of the writing part, probably about the Bounty hunter. Exactly what are you proposing to film. Real live people, or the various Star Wars figures available at department stores and toy stores.
-----signature-----
Chief of Staff - The SWC Rebel Scum
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Darth_Manion
Registered:
Feb '07
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Date Posted:
2/16 11:15am
Subject:
RE: Community Fan Film Clearinghouse
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I would love to help out with this. I'd gravitiate towards the climax, but I'd take act two or help out wherever assistance is needed.
-----signature-----
"Life... is like a box of chocolates. A cheap, thoughtless, perfunctory gift that nobody ever asks for."
-Smoking Man, 'The X-Files'
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The Musical Jedi
Registered:
Dec '99
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Date Posted:
2/16 11:46am
Subject:
RE: Community Fan Film Clearinghouse
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If the staff of four doesn't include you, LLL, I'm happy to take the other portion. If not, I'll lurk and offer ideas as they come to me.
-----signature-----
Real heroes were like the characters in that man Tolkien's story, who did what they had to even if they hated it, even if it took their own lives away from them.
-- Otherland: Mountain of Black Glass, Tad Williams
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Lord help our Colts.
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LLL
Title: TFN Fan Fiction Archive Editor
Registered:
Jul '00
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Date Posted:
2/16 4:40pm
Subject:
RE: Community Fan Film Clearinghouse
- Date Edited:
5/2 6:26pm (8 edits total)
Edited By:
LLL
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Hi, everybody!!
*waves*
So we've got:
Writer One: decide who the former admiral and his family are, write in the exposition we need, get the blackmail information into the droid's hands, and get the droid out the door in the black of night. Me and Musical Jedi--confirmed
Writer Two: take up Setting Two at the point where the droid arrives at the smuggler's hideout. You get to decide where the smuggler is hiding, who it is, what ship he/she/it flies, and what kind of person this will be. Get the smuggler and the droid off the planet and into contact with the Imperial who's being blackmailed. JedSithor--confirmed
Writer Three: decide who the Imperial is, where he is, and handle his interaction with the droid (and possibly the smuggler as well, depending on how you decide it goes down). Darth Ishtar--confirmed
Writer Four: decide who the bounty hunter is, what ship he/she/it flies, and probably handle a space battle when the bounty hunter goes after his quarry. RX_Sith--confirmed
Writer One: take the droid back home again and write the tragic ending.
Have I got this right?? I'm a little confused what part Ish was expressing interest in. I was originally going to take Writer One's job, but I wouldn't mind writing with a partner. (Would that be you, Musical Jedi?) It seems like we have just enough people interested for everyone to have a part.
I think the crews are planning to film live action (with CGI, of course, for the droid.)
The person claiming the bounty hunter part is probably going to be most involved with the climax...since we don't really get into any space battles until the blackmailed Imperial hires him. If you don't feel comfortable writing a space battle best to swap parts with someone.
I'm going to haul my notes out and post the ideas for the beginning so far. I'd like to see what people think of what I've got. If my characters are too boring or schmaltzy, best to find out now! Once we've got a summary of that that we like, the next person can take it up and do a prose storyline of their part. Once we've built a complete story treatment that looks good, we can start putting our ideas into script format.
Unless anyone has a better idea? 
I have some stuff for the archive to do tonight. If I can get back here with the script idea before bedtime I will. Otherwise look for me here tomorrow. Hopefully some of the fan filmers will be along soon to say hi and let us know of any parameters we need to take into consideration.
-----signature-----
''Overall, to get a real deep, nuanced understanding of human behaviour, art is the best way.'' --Natalie Portman. Have a question or suggestion for the Archive? PM me anytime.
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DVCPRO-HDeditor
Registered:
Nov '06
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Date Posted:
2/16 6:16pm
Subject:
RE: Community Fan Film Clearinghouse
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LLL posted:
Hopefully some of the fan filmers will be along soon to say hi and let us know of any parameters we need to take into consideration.
As if on cue . . . . howdy! 
Um, yeah, we're using real people and some CG elements. The budget for this is non-existant, being an all-volunteer project, so while we're without limitations (due to advances in technology and what's available to us), we're pretty limited at the same time (due to having jobs, school, and the need for sunlight and fresh air).
This project is a pretty big deal to us, because we're trying to make a fanfilm using casts and crews in different parts of the world, brough together on-screen by means of greenscreen; as well as tell a large-scale story during the Rebellion that doesn't center around Jedi.
None of this has been accomplished in the fanfilm community before.
We're honored to have ya'll on board. 
-----signature-----
Editing out of the dailies. http://artists.ultimate-guitar.com/projectfreunleven/music/albums/321447 How about a magic trick? I can make a pencil disappear.
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LLL
Title: TFN Fan Fiction Archive Editor
Registered:
Jul '00
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Date Posted:
2/16 6:24pm
Subject:
RE: Community Fan Film Clearinghouse
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Re: Length.
If a gag goes on too long, it gets old. But we want enough time to tell a decent story.
45 minutes to 1 hour, total??
-----signature-----
''Overall, to get a real deep, nuanced understanding of human behaviour, art is the best way.'' --Natalie Portman. Have a question or suggestion for the Archive? PM me anytime.
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backdeskproductions
Registered:
Aug '07
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Date Posted:
2/16 6:46pm
Subject:
RE: Community Fan Film Clearinghouse
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Hello everyone,
I am Jon Maxwell, and I am one of the few responsible for getting this film started.
I am familiar with the fan film community as I have worked on a few myself. If you recall Joe Wilka's "The Movie Spoof III: The Return of the Spoof", I was the sound designer for the War of the Worlds-looking battle. I also continued to recreate sounds for the future DVD release and continue to touch up on a few scenes. I also worked on another "Wilkafilm" called "Reprisal" as the sound designer. I have experience designing sounds for Aaron Greer's upcoming films, "Walking the Edge" and the sequel to "Agents of the Force", "Retribution" which are coming soon.
In real life, I am a crew member of a local television station in Lima, Ohio. I am experienced in filmmaking and broadcasting and have access to a number of different equipment items to be used for shooting this new Fan Film.
I hope we can all work together and have fun as we embark on this difficult but rewarding journey. Many people have struggled to get as far as we have... now I KNOW we have the potential to complete this epic fan film. THANK YOU ALL!
About the length of the film, I would say 50-60 min.
-----signature-----
I now have surround sound capabilities!
I just need a project to exploit my newly discovered powers.
Tee hee
-Jon C. Maxwell
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LLL
Title: TFN Fan Fiction Archive Editor
Registered:
Jul '00
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Date Posted:
2/16 7:09pm
Subject:
RE: Community Fan Film Clearinghouse
- Date Edited:
2/16 7:16pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
LLL
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So we've got four sections and a denouement.
Hopefully we can make each of our parts 10 minutes--that's 10 pages--without resorting to obvious attempts to "pad" the scenes.
Welcome to the fan filmers!!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
For the droid character:
What does everyone think of this model droid?
I looked through the current guide to droids and this looked like the best candidate to me.
Unless somebody knows of one that would better suit OR can design one, perhaps?? With rudimentary facial expression capabilities? 
I'm trying to come up with call letters for this droid that sound right.
-----signature-----
''Overall, to get a real deep, nuanced understanding of human behaviour, art is the best way.'' --Natalie Portman. Have a question or suggestion for the Archive? PM me anytime.
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DVCPRO-HDeditor
Registered:
Nov '06
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Date Posted:
2/16 9:08pm
Subject:
RE: Community Fan Film Clearinghouse
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For the time being, perhaps we could just label it "Droid" and see what the computer animation folks think will work best within their skill sets.
Just a thought, y'know. 
Though, if I had my druthers, we'd use an astromech. 
I'm not the final say in anything, though, so I'd suggest deciding on the exact model later on.
-----signature-----
Editing out of the dailies. http://artists.ultimate-guitar.com/projectfreunleven/music/albums/321447 How about a magic trick? I can make a pencil disappear.
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LLL
Title: TFN Fan Fiction Archive Editor
Registered:
Jul '00
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Date Posted:
2/16 9:23pm
Subject:
RE: Community Fan Film Clearinghouse
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I don't know if that will work. 
What a droid looks like determines its capabilities, not to mention the fact that, if you look through the official Droid Book (isn't it called the Essential Guide to Droids?), many makes and models have distinct uses and personality traits that just won't do. If it's an R2 it can't even have dialogue, and that would be tough to sustain for an hour, indeed!
A droid's appearance and name often suggest its personality. I'm visualizing this droid having a long "Han Solo" style bargaining session with this smuggler (How's it going to pay for a trip? It hasn't got any money! Can it trade repairs, or something?) and we need some serious personality to make that pop. That's hard to write if you can't visualize your characters.
Therefore, I really think we need a "working model" droid just to help everyone be on the same page as they write.
If a change is needed, we can go back and tweak the script later.
-----signature-----
''Overall, to get a real deep, nuanced understanding of human behaviour, art is the best way.'' --Natalie Portman. Have a question or suggestion for the Archive? PM me anytime.
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BrentusofGath
Registered:
Aug '05
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Date Posted:
2/16 10:10pm
Subject:
RE: Community Fan Film Clearinghouse
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LLL posted:
Therefore, I really think we need a "working model" droid just to help everyone be on the same page as they write.
If a change is needed, we can go back and tweak the script later.
Hear hear! Yes, descriptions can and should be kept largely out of the screenplay, but a prototype, if you will, needs to be in the writer's heads if dialogue is to be properly written and written in a consistent manner. As is personality - again, kept out of the script, but needed in the minds of the writers. It works the same from narrative to screenplay format - character is paramount and at the beginning a look is very important.
-----signature-----
In time or so I'm told, I'm just another soul for sale, oh well Feel it in my bones when you break my back, break it just to watch me bend Why'd you have to go and Let it Die? -Foo Fighters http://conscienceoftheking.blogspot.com/
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The Musical Jedi
Registered:
Dec '99
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Date Posted:
2/17 7:18am
Subject:
RE: Community Fan Film Clearinghouse
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I agree with Brentus and LLL. It'll also make a difference as to how the droid interacts with the other characters. A droid with hands and arms will have certain abilities that an astromech doesn't, just by virtue of its height and limbs.
-----signature-----
Real heroes were like the characters in that man Tolkien's story, who did what they had to even if they hated it, even if it took their own lives away from them.
-- Otherland: Mountain of Black Glass, Tad Williams
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Lord help our Colts.
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