STAR WARS CHRONICLES: SEEDS OF DARKNESS

WOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

VERY NICE FILM! Lots of fun watching this!!!!!

padawanNick's bullet list review:

THE GREAT!:
- Score: Jason Graves is THE MAN!
- Sound Engineering: Excellent mix! Dialog was clear, score was at just the right level to convey the mood, just fantastic!
- SciFi3D: AWESOME space choreography and cinematography. ROTJ is my favorite movie of all time and I'd have to say that this crew did an incredible job creating their own version of the intense ROTJ style space fights!

THE GOOD:
- Story Twists: There were several story twists and revelations that really made this fun to watch. (No spoilers here though.)
- Cast: Nice acting guys (and gals). There was a lot to pull off here. It looks like everyone had a really good time. Kudos.
- Opening Crawl: It doesn't sound like a big deal, but a really good opening crawl is actually very difficult to execute. This felt very balanced, true to the original films' style and dropped the viewer right into the story. Nicely done.
- Hovering X-wing: Can't say more without putting in a spoiler, but I really liked that shot.

The OK:
- Cockpit "Sets": These looked really nice, but the CGI floating out of sync with the action was a bit distracting. Also, the detail of the background didn't seem to be on par with the detail of the outside shots.
- Tempo: While the story twists were good, the overall plot was pretty thin and it seemed like the tempo of the film suffered from it. I know this grew from an FX test, but, it seemed like there was a lot of dialog going on that didn't really go anywhere or really add to the story. Even the battles themselves dragged on a bit. The plot twists, acting and SciFi3D FX save the tempo from being bad by filling the gaps with fun stuff to watch, but I still felt like some scenes were really dragging along.

The Bad:
- Details, Details, Details.
You guys clearly put soooo much time, effort and creativity into making this FANTASTIC film, I really hate to bring this up,
but still, this is a review....
There were a lot of really distracting details that got by. I am in no way saying that I could ever produce a film this good myself, but given the high quality of the other aspects of the film, many of these details really stood out, including:
- Car driving by in background of saber fight.
- Picnic area roof in park background.
- Light shining on front of lice action pilots, then cut to outside shot with light coming from behind ships.
- "New technology" X-wings looked pretty beat up already. (When I saw the post about x-wings being new, I started hoping we'd see some nice shiny chromium x-wings. sorry.)
There were more, but you guys at Icicle probably already know them better than I do.
I had a couple other minor gripes about the film, but none of what is left is really worth bringing up here. Icicle: feel free to PM me if you want to here about 'em.

Overall, this was a truly fantastic fan film with a real epic feel. The score is the best I've ever heard in a fan film that didn't use John Williams. Lots of fun to watch!!!!!

Congrats on completing such a monumental task! Thanks for sharing!

Have fun!

 

Wow, this film blew me away! The CG, music and editing were absoultely top notch. I was so engrossed in the film, I was shocked to see that it was the end of a clip. I don't have enough time to gush on about that space battle, so I'll leave that up to TAC's lengthy review on Monday .

 

Thanks icicle, your tip worked for me. I'm half way through watching and am blown away.

Way to go!!

 

I just want to say that this is the most incredible fan film i have ever seen. I signed up for the message just to be able to post and tell everyone how incredible it was. Everything just came together to make it so great.

 

I think u change and add stuff right up to the start on every film...they added a shot to Ep. I I think 2 weeks before its realse...

 

Just finished watching the entire show. What fun! Suspension of disbelief was way up there on this one.

Red 1: Oh my God! Look at the detail on those things!

And the Wilhelm screams (I counted 2 of them) were a nice touch.

I didn't notice any cars or picnic benches, was too busy watching some decent acting. And the music was terrific!

Way to much fun watching this!

MJ

 

I'm really surprised how many people have picked up on the Wilhelm sound. I expected it to get noticed but not so quickly. Once again I am blown away by the knowledge of the people on these boards. I thought I was the only geek who really knew what the Wilhelm sound was.

Hmmmm.......impressive.

 

WilHelm sound?

 

I would like to thank everyone for all their comments! I am glad that you guys are enjoying this film and I am happy that I can finally get my social life back

All comments and criticism are welcomed. Knowing what we did right and wrong can only help us do a better film next time!

?- SciFi3D: AWESOME space choreography and cinematography. ROTJ is my favorite movie of all time and I'd have to say that this crew did an incredible job creating their own version of the intense ROTJ style space fights!?
PadawanNick I?d like to clarify one thing, Sci-Fi 3D was NOT involved in our movie whatsoever. They are listed in the credits because we used some of their 3D models. All the space battles were choreographed and animated by us. And thanks for your review!

Also I would like to say that this movie would not be the same without Jason Graves' music! He trully made our movie shine!

Thanks again!

Maz

 

Yes, I registered today, but I've been lurking this board, unregistered, for, what, a year and a half, two years now, so this isn't somebody with no knowledge of the goings-on here ranting away.

First and foremost, the guys behind the effects on this film need a job at ILM. Seriously--if you don't get the call, there's no justice in this world. Stunning, stunning work - by far the best offered yet.

Secondly, it was *fantastic* to hear Jason Graves' score for this! Yet one more aspect that made this film stand out so. I know he already gets work, and I hope he gets more because of this.

Third - GREAT use of sets! It's hard to find good locations, and your crew did a fantastic job doing so! I didn't notice the car drive by that was mentioned in a previous post, actually... If that was during a saber battle - well, I play with swords, so you know I would be too involved in the action to notice something in the background while sabers are clashing.

And fourth, Red One (Reginald Carolipio) stole the show! That guy was far and away one of the best actors I've seen in *any* fan film...

which brings me to the inevitable bad point of this work - most of the rest of the acting. Fan films seem to, by their nature, need some acting help. This one hurt in this area especially, but perhaps that is because of its excellence in so many other areas. Either way, it caused that aspect to sadly stand out. Simple things, such as having Master Rotal's voice be less... unnatural, would have benefited the whole film greatly. Red Leader (Martin Hudzik) did a pretty good job, especially as he ended up being, essentially, the main character. Others have spoken of the dialouge, but I think it was written well, just not delivered as well as it could have been.

Oh, one more gripe, and you guys KNEW this one was coming, even with the "this isn't cannon" disclaimer:

CLOAKING?!!? (grumblegrumblegumble)

That isn't to say I didn't enjoy the film - far from it!!! Absolutely fantastic, but any feedback should be a full, honest assessment, no? I hope to see a fan film that can work as much on lines as it does on effects, but if ever we get to that point, why would we need Hollywood (hey, maybe that's a good thing).

Anyway, I'll end my intro rant here - thank you, Icicle Studios, for delivering the goods. You did a bang up job, and I hope my gripes didn't resound more loundly than my praise.

 

Bravo! Though I've only watched parts one and two (three is 66% downloaded) I am amazed. Never have i ever seen a fanfilm with this great of a story and spacebattles. I'll write a bigger review when I finish watching it all. The only thing i thinks not so good is the acting by oneof the pilots. I dont know who but i'm sure everyone knows who i'm talking about, even though his acting was bad it made me laugh anytime he said anything so good/bad job i guess.

You'll hear from me more later!

Risk

(while writing this message my download has reachd 88% Yay!)

 

hehehehe... somehow I know who you're talking about Darth-Riskbreaker

Just remember one thing everyone who acted in this movie are just our friends/neighbors/family members/co-workers etc.... none of us have any experience in acting. We just did it for fun!

Beat_Poet, thanks for your review. Your gripes didn't resound more loudly than your praise. We appreciate honest opinions!

Thanks again!

Maz

 

OUTSTANDING! Heres my review.

Story: 10/10

The story was really one of the things that separates this film from others. The script was written very well and all of the dialogue was believable. It got you feeling for that characters. The end of the movie seems like a cliffhanger, I was left saying "Damnit give me more." Which is a good thing.

Acting: 9/10

The acting was very good compared to some/most of the other fanfilms out there. Though there were certain people who were funnybad as i said before.

I think the acting was above expectations for a fan film, great job to everyone.

Video Effects/CG: 10/10

WONDERFUL! I loved these sooo much! I thought it was great the way you could see space and what was going on behind the pilots when there were cockpit shots. The space battle scenes were great, I coulda mistaken it for a SW movie.

The saber battles were also great. The choreography was very good and the speed of the battles was wonderful. To tell you the truth, from the trailers I thought the rotoing was going to be bad but man, when I saw it in the film I felt like kicking myself. Great rotoscoping and blaster effects.

Music: 11/10 p)

Man, this music was wonderful. Very very professional, I could have mistaken it for any famous composer. I can't even begin to imagine being able to do something like that. Great GREAT Job.

Overall (Not an Average): 1,000,000/10

I love this fan film. This has made it to #1 on my list. Great everything! I'm not sure what else to say except for superb job and I hope to see more from your studios soon.

Risk

 

What can I say...it was extremely well done.
I really liked what I saw and heard.
You and your crew are to be commended for all your hard work, it truly shows.
As for nitpiking, there's really no point.
At the quality level you produced this epic, I'm almost certain you know where and what could've been better or given more attention to...you don't need a schmuck like me to tell ya
Besides, I really couldn't find a whole lot to complain about.
Excellent job!

 

Overall a nice job. Good CG and other visual fx (neat little Sith trick as well). I may be in the minority here, but I didnt think there was that much of a story. It seemed pretty simple and not giving much depth to the characters given the length of time.

Audio was OK, but it was really seemed that it was dubbed-over which was a distraction. And I too caught the Wilhelm (nice touch). Music was great.

Nice saber fights as well. I also like how you commented that you did this for the fun of it (got your friends to do it etc) To us at TBX thats what its all about. As I stated I kind of wished it had more of a story element to it than all of the glitz. As I stated before though..very nice job.

 

ok, icicle... i'm begging now... i NEED the wilhelm for my fanfilm.... is there anyway i can get it from ya??? pwwweeeeeezzze? lol

 

Sorry...
Just so I could be sure I wasn't seeing things, I re-watched the saber fight, and the car is there.

(Is that a spoiler?)

It drives from left to right in the lower left side of the screen in the SOD2 file from 03:38-03:40. (And yes, the saber fight is awesome!)

Also wanted to add that the computer scanning and targeting displays were very well done in the film. They go by so quickly in films, you never notice them. Most fan films don't include them at all, but SOD had several. Another very nice element of the film.

Have fun.

 

Shoot, I must be the only one here who can't notice bad acting. I haven't any clue about who's the funnybad actor, or why people said Dannik in KnightQuest was bad. He seemed like the perfect little brother from where I'm standing.

*shrug*

Anyways, on that cloaking, I have an explanation. But I think I'll wait to see if digital llama brings it up so I can send them another e-mail.

 

8 hrs 29 mins to go for part 1...
I can guess the ending though... how about, the rebels are all wiped out, and the badguys win.
Thats a traditional fanfilm ending.

 

First my soundbite review:

Wow!

Now for my full on 'waffle' review:

When I saw the first trailer for Seeds of Darkness way back when I was immediately hooked, it really looked like these guys had captured the things I like about Star Wars. Great action, clean visuals and fast pacing.

Now seeing the entire epic the trailer was correct. Seeds of Darkness has all of these things in abundance. There where so many nice points it's difficult to know where to begin. I actually thought there where some great performances in there, the tittle tattle betwen the main two X-Wing pilots (the brother and the oriental looking guy) where great, and the line about 'getting the girls' was really nicely done. Not at all cheesy to me, I was there, it was watching Star Wars. My only bug with the X Wing pilots was the 'Brother X Wing guy' seemed to have ants in his pants. He bounced around even when the X Wing was hovering above the ground! But most of the time it added to the illusion. All of the targetting computers and stuff worked so well, they really blended seamlessly with the fight sequences and made me feel like I was in their dogfighting to. And a GREAT couple of shots when all of the ties swarm towards us, heat trails and all, again. Dang that looked a lot of work!

The entire space battle was top drawer stuff, definately the best I have seen in a fanfilm, just to actually coordinate a sequence that lasts that long is hard, but you guys pulled it off really nicely. I remember watching 'Dark Side' (the german film) and watching their long old X Wing battle, but I remembered being a little bored watching that one, it just went on to long. The SOD battle was even longer! but entertaining all of the way through. I think for a few reasons:

1. You cut back to the planet every now and again to sustain the action (a technique used throughout the Star Wars movies but rarely used in fanfilms, the exception being Emergeance of the Sith)

2. The action was so slick it was nice to just sit back and enjoy it.

3. You had some really nice dialogue going on between the characters, which added to the entire spectacle, and held my interest throughout.

The story was right up there with every other fanfilm story Again this is a comment that gets bandied around all the time, but I've never actually seen a fanfilm that has a 'good story' to date, so until I see one, Seeds of Darkness definately passes the story test for me. I'll get slaughtered for this, but Star Wars movies just don't have great stories to me, they're brilliant excuses for great action sequences. That's why I love 'em, and SOD was no exception.

I loved it. There was such a lot of work that went into this project, you should be proud of your results. The sound (both the ace music, and the crystal clear dialogue effects) where the new standard. I haven't heard anything like this before (Duality sound was great, but there basically wasn't any dialogue to compare!) The visuals where all executed nicely, without any real 'duff' shots to pull down the overall level of quality (which is really hard to accomplish) and the pacing was great.

A really impressive film, one I'll watch a fair few times I'm sure. Nice work folks, worth the wait for me.





P.S. (Honestly not a codec plug) How about producing a small filesize for the poor old 56k community? There are a lot of people throughout the world that just can't download monsters like this. I realise it's horrible to see your 'baby' destroyed on a lousy small version, but it's great to be able to extend your viewing audience to. Before ADSL I just wouldn't have been able to download a 200MB film, it's a shame to leave people with slow connections out in the cold.

 

WWWWWOooooooo !!!
I just saw the film !!!!!
MOST IMPRESSIVE !!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS ICICLE !!!!

The characters are good. I love Master Rotal and Darth Adun. The story is ok but the most impressive thing is the space battle. Very well done ! The lighsabers fight between Rotal and Adun is great much better than the battle in DUALITY !!!

I love the relationship between Kane and his sister.

The acting is good. The costumes are good bla bla bla ....
VERY GOOD JOB !!! it's the best fanfilm ever made with Knight Quest.

BRAVO !

 

Once again thanks for all the comments! This is great!...

We will eventually post something that will hopefully answer most fo the questions we got so far and address a few things about the movie. We're not saying much yet cause we don't want to spoil anything for the people who haven't seen the movie yet.

We're going to try to get a smaller version of the movie asap. DaftMaul we might need your help on that....

Thanks again!

Maz

 

I haven't been able to download Seeds Of Darkness because my computer crashed and I'm using my parents computer right now. I probably lost my hard drive and all the work on it. I have a feeling it's a virus in my computer - it won't start up into Windows. I might be able to watch SOD next week after I get my computer checked out and fixed up.

 

Ok, here goes, FYI, I'm going to be brutal, but on the only 2 things I know about, CGI and Continuity.

In the timeframe they used, the technology was WAAAAAYYYY off! TIE Interceptors weren't even developed until around RotJ, Bombers weren't around even during ANH, ISDs, Adv. Frigates, Calamari Cruisers, etc were not around in that time frame.

CGI: The stars look like they were done a different way for some shots, and another way for others. Also... TIE's don't shoot that fast.

Questions: Where did you get the ADV. Frigate model... and is it available for D/L?

 

LOL... we saw this one coming!

You are totally right about everything you said Anonymous_Jedi.... and we're the first ones to admit that our movie isn't 100% cannon and doesn't follow the SW timeline precisely. But we didn't really care We wanted to have a huge battle and we thought it would be fun to have all those different ships battle it out. We didn't want to restrict ourselves to only using certain ships... We wanted to have fun and add our own twists.

About the CGI stars...once again you are totally right my friend. It's part of the learning process...as we went on we found out different ways of doing the stars. (we didn't want to go back and redo all the scenes though... )

The ADV. Frigate was created by us. It's not available for download yet. We used the model created by Sci-Fi 3D (the one by Sean Kennedy) as a reference to create our own.

Thanks

Maz