Community Fan Film Clearinghouse** At loooooong last...

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

 

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...

 

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 ...

 

LOL, I'm in for that.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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??

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

I'm not so sure about an astromech... it would seem like we're trying to make a movie like WALL-E.
And I KNOW this is going to be mentioned at some point... We do NOT want an astromech and a protocol droid going on a journey together because it would relate to ANH too much. I say we go with a protocol droid but something that has a little more splendor in its looks. Not like C-3PO... maybe we could come up with our own model. Maybe it was manufactured at home by its master?

 

The Star Wars Databank has different types of droids. Just peruse the list and see which one everyone thinks would work the best.

The wikipedia article on Star Wars Bounty Hunters also has a variety of Bounty Hunters. Again, search through the list, and tell me which one you think you want me to write about, unless you want me to pick it.

 

Do we want canon? Or to make our own OC?

 

For the bounty hunter:

Hmm...leaving that up to the filmmakers might be best, because they have the best idea whether they can cast someone who will pass for a canon character. I was all for letting the writer handling that part to make one up, but if the "filmies" want to use an existing character, they should be accomodated, I think.

Droid:

One that is a one-of-a-kind home construct would suit--especially if some rudimentary facial expression capabilities could be planned--as would a BLX. A protocol droid might, if it can do ship repairs, or perform some other service to the smuggler in exchange for its fare off Naboo. I also found this variant of a protocol droid. These are all female in personality.

To recap what's been suggested so far:

A.) One-of-a-kind home construct
B.) Astromech
C.) BLX
D.) Protocol droid
.........a.) LE-manifest droid
.........b.) 3PO droid
.........c.) LOM droid

Any other ideas?? For right now, we just need to visualize something in order to get scriptwriting started. So, I'm going to call this "generic humanoid droid with arms, legs, and hands, and at least a somewhat pleasant personality" and just kind of go with that, until we can really nail down what we want. Perhaps we can do a poll or something, to decide who our droid is.

I'm going up to the "reserved" second post now and posting an opening crawl, plus trying to get opening scenes visualized. I'll see how far I get tonight, and post it up for critique if the mods don't object.


Brentus should be along soon to give us a "basics of screenwriting" primer for those who haven't tried to write a script before.

On other fronts:

I'm trying to get assignments finalized. If you volunteered to help write, please scroll up to about the fourth (or fifth??) post and see if you're happy with what I've got you down for. If not, we may be able to do some shuffling.

If you want to help write,

but don't have a part yet, please post and say howdy. There may or may not be room at this point, but I don't want to leave out any interested party if I can help it. This goes for the "filmies," too!

 

The LOM series might also work, though I can't speak to costuming for it. It also had at least one who corrupted its programming for personal gain, which could explain our droid's behavior if it got more extreme.

 

Ok, here are some basics of screenwriting. Forgive me if you already know this stuff, but I have no idea how far anyone is with this format, so it's best to start at the beginning:


People who read screenplays are not readers, they hate lots of prose. If you hand in a screenplay with lots of prose, they will glance at it then move onto something new.

Descriptions should be kept very, very very basic. Only actions and dialogue - anything that can be 'seen' on screen. Introspection cannot be infered by the audience and therefore has no place in a screenplay. Directors and Production Designers like to go into the detailed descriptions - they don't like it if it's already in the script.

The header of each scene is in ALL CAPS and looks like this:

INT. JAMES' LIVING ROOM - NIGHT

Int or Ext means of course Interior or Exterior and everything else is self explanatory.

When you first introduce a character who will speak, you must put the name in ALL CAPS. Like thus:

INT. JAMES' LIVING ROOM - NIGHT

JAMES walks into the room.

The name of the character speaking should be placed as close to the center as possible. some people like to use the center function and some just like to use the Tab key. Either is fine. The dialogue beneath the character's name should also be as centered as possible, but of course spread out a bit further, like a couple of inches from either margin. There are free resources - just google 'How to format a screenplay' or some such - that tell you exact spacing and this and that.

Font is always Courier or Courier New and size 12.

You start with FADE IN: after your title page, and the last thing on the screenplay should be FADE OUT: set to the right margin.

And please don't include the phrase "we see", as in trying to direct the camera. That's the Director's job and is one easy way professional movie makers/script readers can tell if you're not experienced in writing scripts.

Everything else is fair game.

And if you have any questions, feel free to pm me.



Although for fanfilms, there may be a bit more freedom as it's not a life or death thing because there's no money involved, this should get you started.


Ok, here's a couple of links to formatting websites.

Scriptologist
Screenwriting

Again, if anyone has any more advanced questions, post them or pm LLL or me.

 

OMG, please don't PM me!!!

*I'm* going to have to PM Brentus!!!




P.S.--I made several edits to my last post. It's got a lot of important info in it, so you may want to scroll up and reread.

 

I've done screenwriting before, so will definitely be actively participating.

 

What's Happening!
...er, i.e., the status report...

1.) The "reserved" post has been replaced with the ...

Opening Crawl

Feel free to read and post comments.

2.) Final assignment of script parts proceeds apace. I PM'd everyone who said they were interested in writing something to make sure everyone is happy with their part. I'm waiting 24 hours to hear back from everyone. If someone wants a different part, we may be able to reshuffle. If everyone wants the part they've tentatively been assigned, however, I'm going to close the staff to any more writers, hopefully tomorrow night.

3.) Musical Jedi and I are starting the opening scenes. When these get done, they will be posted...somewhere. Depends where the fan fic mods will let us post them. After that, everyone will...

4.) Read, to get an idea where we're starting out at, then start working up a prose outline for their part. This may have to proceed in a staggered fashion; for example, the person with the droid and the smuggler will have all the information he needs to start writing a narrative, but the person with the Imperial and the person who picks up where the bounty hunter comes in may have to wait to see where the story is before they pick up their threads. So keep your eye on this space!

5.) The Droid We're Looking For: So far, six droids have been proposed as our traveling droid main character. I'm holding the "nominations" open for now. For writing purposes, I'm just imagining a humanoid droid with a fairly pleasant personality. This can be fine-tuned as we go. I want to look into the possibility of posting a poll for us to vote on which droid we want if we don't get any more "nominees." The droids suggested so far are listed in the 20th post on the Resource thread.

6.) It is my hope that as pieces, parts, and plans for the story go up, people whose parts will overlap will be able to sort of brainstorm together. Kind of like, "I like what you've got there, but I was thinking that when the bounty hunter comes in, she might do this, so what if you did that with your part to lead into it?" Or something like that. Hopefully this number of cooks will make up just the right sublime soup.

Does everyone feel comfortable working that way?? Is this OK with everyone?

*cue Palpy*

"If we work together, I know we can discover the secret."