Edmonton sotr

I brought this up very briefly at the party and I'll talk about it much in the future as well. I am making a feature length, studio quality fan film following all the true idioms of a Star Wars film down to every detail. I'm looking forward to everyones participation as I will need help from technical crew to cinematographers to actors and a lot of people will be doing multiple tasks as well. I plan on beginning the shooting schedule in about a year or so. Any project like this is 90% preparation and 10% action.

If you would all be so kind as to PM me with your email addresses I will send you all a completed copy of the script. This is the final draft but I am open to suggestions. Though everyone who has read it so far loves it the way it is. Any other changes would be made on set in the interest of better story telling.

I've had a lot of exeperience with stuff like this and it is always a very memorable and enriching experience for everyone involved. It's a lot of work but the payoff will be incredible.

 

I've had the opportunity to work with Mark on video projects before.

This is going to be nothing short of spectacular and a lot of fun to work on.

 

I got the script, though I haven't had the chance to read it yet, I'm still willing to help out with anything but acting.

 

sounds cool I just need to get time to read it lol.

 

can't get it to open

 

Here's a list of positions that need to be filled.


Pre production

Light saber building, (need about 40 hilts for the final scene) costume construction, set building.

Cast

Captain Antilles (A man with dark brown hair who can play late 30's to mid 40's)

Vader

Chewbacca

Lando (A light skinned black guy with at least some partial resemblance to Billy Dee but
doesn't have to be a dead ringer.)

Aliska (Exotic looking female. Dark complexion with some ethnicity. Approx 5'6 give or take.
Athletically inclined and must be ok with stunt work.)

The Techs

Kabbal Korn (Old Gent)


extras. Lots and lots of extras. There have to be quite a few bar flies in the sabaac scene and a lot of star pilots and ground crew on the landing platform at Tomanic scene. I also need imperial officers. At least 5, preferably 7.
Also going to need stormtroopers to do what they do best: die. In many creative ways.

I have the ability in post production to multiply troopers so technically I could pull this off with just 2 but I'd rather not go all McCallum and scream "We'll fix it in post" every time there's a shortcut that can save the hassle in principal photography. So please, if you know of anyone, especially 501st who would like to lend themselves to the project. 10 troopers would be best.

Crew

Set building, lighting, someone to keep an objective eye on continuity. Position marking, framing, stunt people, fight choreographer (gee I wonder who wants in on that lol)

The all important caterer. I will gladly pay for lunch for everyone. Some of these shooting days will be 12 hours long though and in the interest of getting whole scenes done on time breaky and supper are up to you. If anyone wants to help out with food in any way as far as preparation, good to know. And if you can take an existing food budget and make it two meals, all the power to you. As long as we're not all eating soggy cardboard.

Post production

CGI (this is a big one), chroma keying, rotoscoping, animation. If you have a skill or a preference pick one or many. They're all needed.

 

how many days for shooting?

 

Well pick up shooting and some scenes can be filmed entirely on weekends. I can also do the Vader scenes on weekends as well. But for scenes requiring Han and Chewie that has to be done all in one stretch. I intend on flying Jimmy up here for a whole week straight. He'll arrive on a Friday, we'll start shooting Saturday and Sunday, then evenings for the rest of the week and whole days if I can get enough dedicated crew. Then two more complete days on the following weekend before he flies back.

I'm thinking if I include that week and then spread the rest over weekends, we're looking at a grand total of about 24 shooting days. That's the 9 day Han Chewie stretch, One day for the scenes where Antilles and Aliska conversate planet side, on the shuttle, and aboard the Tantive 4. One day for the Leia scene too. I need a whole day devoted to just the sabacc scene because of it's complexity, maybe 2. I'm allowing a full weekend for that just in case.

I need 4 shooting days for each light saber duel. That's 8 days of duel shooting. Mostly because the duels will be intense and they will be shot one camera angle at a time in the interest of saving film, adding angles and making it easy for the actors to learn the moves. If anyone's keeping count that brings us to 21. The other 3 days are for the landing platform scenes that don't involve Solo. The gents monologue regarding the description of the kessel run, tech reactions to Hans actions etc.

The shooting is set to start in June of next year so there's plenty of time to get things organized and schedules to match up. I'm going to break the script down and set up a specific shooting schedule next week. But I'd rather do that after I have the duels choreographed. Ky-Wan and I should set some time apart for that purpose so we can get moving on the rest. Updates to come.

 

I have a favor to ask.

Does anyone have a basic consumer level camcorder we can use to archive this whole thing? I want to document everything. Fight choreography, storyboarding, costume construction etc. We would need to be able to borrow this thing on a regular basis for this purpose. Preferably mini DV as I have a ton of those tapes already.

I think we're all professionals here and I don't think anyone needs to freak out about us respecting the equipment.

 

I would love to contribute, but I am in Calgary. Let me know if you need some Jedi extras!

 

I can act being an actor and all... And I do have some experiance with lightsaber building.

 

When it gets closer to the dates for shooting I will look to the Calgary force and 501st for additional people as well. Since this takes place in a time when the Jedi are scarce there will be no Jedi parts except for the lead female role. But I do have a little contest I would like to introduce.

This film will have easter eggs and one of them is the dead Jar Jar Binks. I'm going to need at least 5 good star pilot uniforms, all unique, some alien for flavor. But the best made one gets to be the pilot seen scraping jar jar roadkill off the hull of his/her cruiser in a panning shot on the landing platform.

Connor if you want to build the hilts you're welcome to it. I know you have an affinity for that particular aspect of the SW universe and this will give a chance to master your skills. These babies are going to be a featured shot in the film, leaving a very impressionable image so make em look good but use as much variety as you can. And we'll all be here to assist you and give ideas.

Sooner or later after all these summer events are coming to a close I'd like to organize a creative brainstorming session on how to achieve some of this.

 

I wouldn't mind doing continuity. Either that or acting as a gopher.

 

I wouldn't mind giving it a read...

 

I've been having an issue with trying to send it to a fanforce.net address lately so be warned lol. If it doesn't work there's ways around it.

Yeah that's what I figured. Just tried it, no go.

John if you have an aternate email addy with hotmail or yahoo or shaw then PM it to me. Otherwise I don't think it will work.

 

Me?, wanna do fight Choreography?...........I never would have thought of it. I wish me and my friend were still speaking he could stant sabers, hilts anything/ Ahh well. Not much to be done about it now. Keep in mind connor he'll need a few different kinds bro

 

We'll make do. I'm not all that concerned with using professionally lathed sabers. I mean they're only going to be on screen for one shot. The ones toward the end of it will need to be of higher quality as the camera gets closer but it's no big deal. This is all part of the fun. Besides we have tons of time to get them looking great.

I've had so much response to this in the past couple days I'm bugging out. I will also be seeing if I can secure the NAIT studio. I'm Alumni from that program and they don't use their biggest room at all during the year, let alone in the summer so my biggest hurdle of finding a set could be solved by the end of the month. We'll see.





Everything that has conspired has done so according to my design.

 

Hey Achilles!

I've got a camcorder, sorry it's not a digital, it's a super 8 tape that it takes. But if nothing better comes along your welcome to that!

I've finished reading the script. Brilliant!!! Great tie ins and dialouge, this has the chance to be a classic!!!

I'd like to put name in for the Old Gent. I've got a great old man voice that would lend itself well. And I do have some acting experience, just music/theatre in high school but, better than nothing!

I'm a professional photographer as well, so I could take shots for the poster and nessecary media stills.

Jason

 

Sounds awesome Jason. Glad to see you're enthused. You know I went over the script again last night with Kirk and from revisiting it again after taking a break from it, I'm that much more pumped.

I'm going to have to recast Captain Antilles. He was in ROTS as a guy about my age so there goes that idea. I'm going to need someone able to pull off the late 30's early 40's look with minimal make up to play that part. This may be the trickiest part to cast because it is a major one.

 

S'all looking good so far bro

 

I already have a saber design drawn up for the lead female jedi. I'm just in the middle of tweeking it.

 

Ok here's the plan so far.

I need to get the light saber duels planned first. Action sequences always take more time and attention to develop and this aspect of the film will take up a 3rd of my studio time for filming so I want to make sure everything is ironed out before we start. Having a duel look good on film is totally different than pissing around with some toys in the backyard.

We have to plan each move keeping in mind the height differences in the characters and the limitations of Vaders armor. Then we have to storyboard the whole thing from start to finish and judge what angles to shoot this all at. Then once the shooting schedule is in stone we must teach the routine to the actors one segment at a time. And then the most physically demanding and challenging part will be to put this into action but make it look completely convincing on camera.

When that's done I want to get going on costume construction and set design. Sentra and balsa wood are my two best friends. I'm sure we'll be able to do classic old school Lucas and make something out of popsicle sticks. In fact that would be pretty funny to make a real set decoration out of those as a joke.

I'm trying to secure the Quad City Jedi Orders Chewie for our purposes but if they are not keen I will build my own and improve the feet so it doesn't look like Chewie has Kiss boots under his fur.

That's it for now gang. More to come later.

 

Hey Mark I could ask my friend who built a chewie if there is any way he could help ya build one or give ya tips or see if he could get the guy he made a chewie for to send it down. Let me know if Quad City isn't keen.

 

Getting a suit on loan would be an amazing cost and time saver but before I get into that I'd want to see extensive pics of the complete product. I really like the fur/human hair combination and the way it behaves in motion is exceptional. If that can be duplicated then I would greatly appreciate it. I also want to make sure the mask is perfect. That's going to be crucial for close ups. The total height must come out to 7 feet with no exceptions. Even if modifications need to be made and we will be seeing Chewie walk quite a bit so again the feet is going to come into it too.

I'm very familiar with how to build it from the spring structure and casting of the mask to the machining of the bandolier. I'd just rather not build it if it can be avoided. Keep me posted.

 

Hey Mark I let him know so i'm waiting to hear back from him then when he knows to look for your e-mail I'll give ya his addy