Buff, NY Bisons 2013 -- Pre-Planning

Hi everyone,

Starting today until January 12, I am officially taking ideas for this year's Bisons Star Wars Night story. I have a basic framework of ideas I want to work it, but there's still a lot of room for other ideas. Please don't hesitate to pitch your ideas.

Feel free to post here, or if you'd prefer to keep them more private, PM me on the boards or shoot me an email.

Please note, not every idea is going to get used. It is absolutely 100% not personal to anyone. Not every idea works in context of a live show like this. Some ideas may be unfeasible, or just not a good fit for the overall story, but in my experience it's better to pitch the idea. Even if the exact thought doesn't get used, it may end up leading to something even better or get modified slightly to work into the story. Or, ideas leak into shows in the years to come (though obviously that last one will be up to other individuals).

Oh, and no zip lines!

 

Bryan, you've got my idea for the "break in" scene. Maybe that can lead into something more of an infiltration plot by the Jedi to rescue Luke and retake the field from the Sith. I've also shared an idea in the past of a battle with Starkiller and a Jedi in which Starkiller is defeated. The last scene on the field would be the Emperor and a cloaked figure walking to Starkillers body with the cloaked figure ready to start another battle. The Emperor would stop him stating that there would be another time, at which point the cloaked person would reveal himself as a clone of Starkiller (portrayed by the other Losey twin).

 

Nice!! Jon!!!

 

Not sure what you have in mind for a rescue but perhaps Leia could participate.. in disguise... as BOUSHH...

 

Bah.

 

Just as long as Leia stays away from garbage chutes...

 

It would be cool if we could have a scene in which the infiltrating Jedi happen across some Imperial officers and/or Mandos that erupts in a short firefight. It would be nice to have some saber action in which it's not Sith vs Jedi, but rather the Jedi deflecting blaster bolts. Could have a shot ricochet a little too close to Buster and he ducks the shot. Maybe have the Jedi sheepishly apologize to him to kinda add some whimsicle light hearted flavor to the scene before we proceed with the mission.

 

The issue we've run into with blasters is that there's no real way to do the effect well. Even if you worked your "phaser" magic into some props Jon it wouldn't necessarily look like a blaster bolt. The issue of proper aim would also take into effect.

We've done the blaster bolt thing on the field many times before by just pretending the bolts were there. It's fun for about 10 seconds and then it looks really lame. As one of the Jedi who did the Clone Wars skit and deflected blaster bolts for 30-40 seconds, that's a loooooooooong 30-40 seconds of creatively swinging at air.

Additionally, we'd be asking folks to essentially NOT duel or ask out-of-towners with those costumes to come in earlier for more rehearsals.

 

Maybe do the blaster/Jedi fight on film and put the blaster bolts in during post production?

 

That's an option so long as it's SHORT. Getting the two visual effects shots done on time for last year's show was like pulling teeth.

 

How about one bit of on-field action between innings, something that moved the story along and didn't require dueling (if it was too early in the evening and not yet dark)? Just to change things up a little. Probably with Buster, et al, to grab attention.

 

I was thinking more of the filming. It would be a very short segment, at least as far as the actual fight scene is concerned. I can't see us doing something like this on the field at all as it would be really lame and I don't think anyone would get it. I can help coordinate the choreography for the blaster blocks. I have ideas to for camera angles too if that would help.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking. The sabers turned out really well last year, I thought we could expand on it this year.

 

still like the idea of letting celery win due to the Wookiees (NWO) gabbing the hot and regular chicken wing into the dugout or into back corner of outfield and come out licking there fingers/rubbing there belleys...this of course would be for a time filler

 

I'm good. But not that good. To get a laser to show up visibly and look good would require a higher output laser and some fog effect low on the field. The fog would look great with the sabers, but isn't practical. The laser...well, lets just say that I wouldn't want someone to miss and hit me or anyone else in the eye. I'm not too crazy of shooting those things around at each other let alone missing and hitting someone in the crowd.

 

What about this synopsis:

The Jedi dispatch spies to find Luke Skywalker (can have a variety of in and about park shot videos)
Along the way, we engage small groups of Sith in minor skirmishes (3 on 3 or something like that), who eventually alert the Emperor of the rescue plot. The Emperor, of course foresees this and is luring our rescuers into a trap. (more videos)
Finally, the climax arrives to the park where, say 6 (or so) Jedi confront the Empire and their minions in an attempt to rescue Luke. The Jedi get surrounded as part of the Emperor's trap (battle skirmishes, et al)
But, the Jedi play one card up their sleeve that the Emperor has not foreseen - they unleash the rest of the Jedi and reinforce the existing Jedi and vanquish the Empire's Sith and minions. (finale battle royale - can get real creative here)

Very general and broad, but a lot of room for enhancement. Can intertwine the Losey twins (sub)plot somewhere into all of this, too.

 

Also, while I do like a central storyline and can appreciate featuring face-characters, I also like the idea of some subplots or a B-plot line that has some of other characters from our troop featured. To that end, is it too early to ask who is going to participate in the Bisons event this year and what character they are going to commit to the story?

 

I see no reason why I won't be able to participate. So count me in.

 

blaster fire wuold be awesome but yeah sadly there are not many options to make it practical and play well for the crowd : /

A hard set up idea would be to have a line from a blaster connected to a lightsaber.

right off the bat. keep the line taught would be a problem as well as the length as the field is big and distance is what would make blasters cool. shooting at someone 10-15 feet away would look a lil lame.other thoughts on it elastic cord to keep a straight line. attached to the line a lightweight LED line but t would have to be programmed to give the proper look, speed, etc. you know technical stuff. other than how ridiculous this would be to set up. setting up multiple setups would be very stressful.

so in short. impractical idea that would be more trouble than itd be worth but that my brain for ya!

smoke and lasers would be easier but as jon said it can get risky with potential blindness and whatnot. almost as bad as taking an arrow to the knee!

bam.

 

I'm not a fan of the idea of trying to create blaster fire on field. Choreographing the blaster blocks and then filling in the bolts would be much easier than trying to do that live.

 

Hey Bryan, can you forward me the soundtrack so I can get started with the choreography?????? ****ducks under desk to escape the barrage of blasterfire...****

 

I have a thought for the duel, though it doesn't really mess with the story much. I thought the gauntlet was very cool last year, and taking that I think we can make it better.
have a duel where 2 jedi fight back to back against 3-4 sith. Where the players are ones who can practice often to make it work well, and where there is a lot of interaction between the 5-6. Where it's not 2 separate duels with some interaction like the gauntlet was but 1 well rehearsed mashup with 5-6 people.

Also..I'd almost like to use the mascots differently. Like they are now full jedi, fully trained after several years. At some point have them do something simple in a fight. Like helping to free luke by forcepushing a sith away. or something really easy. I understand there will be no practice for them, which is why I'm not saying dual, but something more than being prisoners every year. lol
I figure walking out, gesturing with your hand and walking away should be easy enough to grasp without practice. *shrugs*

 

I want in on the gauntlet idea. I actually started work on some choreography facing off against two different opponents in one of our last get togethers. I can open up my church when we have people available to start working out again. I would like to choreograph this to music if at all possible as I can queue off of the music to have everyone involved keep in track. Some of the ideas that I had rolled out were active trade off of partners, where during the scene one Jedi may intervene in the fight between his partner and a Sith attacker. During the fight, we could have some Sith reinforcement enter from the back field.

I was thinking about how to enter the Jedi. Here's my thoughts. Every year, we've charged from the dugouts or home plate. I would like to propose something like the geonosis scene, where the Jedi in their robes (Robes draped so they can easily be thrown off) enter the perimeter of the field quietly, sabers turned off and hidden. On a queue, they would ignite their sabers and then throw off their robes revealing their presence. The music would swell to climax and then they would charge the Sith to begin the grand battle. The robes would be out of the way of anyone tripping on them and can be collected after the game.

 

Play that to "United We Stand, Divided We Fall" by Two Steps From Hell

 

I like this idea.