DARK BEGINNINGS - The Official Thread

Since I did not see an official official thread for the recently released film, DARK BEGINNINGS,
I thought I should start one . . . BEGINNING with my review.



JediTAC's Official Review - STAR WARSARK BEGINNINGS

Bro-Films' DARK BEGINNINGS is a tale of a pair of Sith sent to a desert planet to assasinate an Ambassador and, subsequently, hunt down a pair of Jedi Knights who have come to the planet to prevent the assasination.

Thie first thing I noticed when viewing DARK BEGINNINGS were the production company intros - which I liked. The second thing was the quintessesntial Star Wars opening crawl - which I also liked. The sentence structure was short and concise, and the fluidity of the animation was done well. However, I would have liked to have seen the crawl composited onto a starfield background instead of a solid black background.

The opening scene was a bit too drawn out - taking up about 1/3 of the whole film. It portrays portion of a desert planet, a Trade Federation mother ship in orbit, and a trio of Trade Federation fighters escorting a Republic Bus to the mother ship. My first thought was .... HUH ??? However, seeing as how this film was, obviously, made in the spirit of fun and experimentation, I thought, overall, that the opening animation sequence was fairly well done.

As we are introduced to the four primary characters of the film, I couldn't help but formulate a question in my mind (which I think applies to 90% of all the Star Wars FanFilms I have ever seen) . . . . Why is it that Jedi/Sith must always be walking ... walking ... walking ??? In the case of DARK BEGINNINGS, both the Sith and the Jedi are walking through the barren wasteland of the desert terrain (which I did like, by the way). But, and especially in the case of the two Jedi, why does it always seem like they are walking without purpose and/or LOST? I mean, what purpose did the two Jedi have to be out walking in the middle of of a barren desert? If they were sent there to protect an Amnassador, wouldn't they be in a city/township of sorts?

CASTING
This film is a prime example of the "high school aged" actors portraying Masters and Emperors. If this weren't meant as a "made for fun" film, I would have to say that the casting wasn't thought through very well - especially with regard to the so-called (and quintessentially depicted) "Emperor." However, since this film was obviously made for fun, the casting issue isn't too much of a big deal - so long as the film is viewed with that in mind.

ACTING
Unfortunately, this is an element that suffered a bit. The actors' performances were lackluster and uninspired. It seemed as though they were just spitting out their lines so that they could get to the fun of their lightsaber duel. The two Sith seemed more friendly and intimidated than fearsome and powerful. (And the Sith Master needs to have a serious discussion with his tailor.)

VISUAL EFFECTS
While the lightsaber and blaster effects were okay, the TPM-esque "stabbing through" effects were not the most impressive. Again, as this was a "made for fun" film, the experimentation with the effect is well worth the effort - and I would assume that future endeavors by this filmmaking team will realize improvements in their techniques.

STORY
Since this issue seems to be such a sticking point with most people, I thought I would touch on it.

First of all, if one were to look at the DARK BEGINNINGS poster on their respecitve website, their tag lines "Every Jedi has a tale ... Every legend has a beginning" don't really seem to have anything to do with the film itself. I know it's fun to use lines like that ... but only if they actually pertain to some facet of the story in the actual film. In this case, they did not.

Secondly, the realy "story" is actually depicted within the opening crawl. More information is actually presented within those three short paragraphs than within t

 

Master TAC has done it again!

Very nice review indeed. I can only second what you wrote. But all in all I enjoyed this short film a lot. Sure, it has like almost every fan film it´s weaknesses, but overall it was nice to watch and some work and effort had been put into this.

 

Yes, I enjoyed this one too, but it could have had more dialogue and the sabers being stabbed into people looked unrealistic. It needed some sound effects too for the punches and those sorts of things.

Other than that it was terrific.


just my thoughts,
aaron

 

TAC seems right on the mark here. And while it seemed like yet another Jedi Duel rehash, it did have some nice elements in it like the Sith Bikes.

However, I thought some of the effects work was out of scale (like the Sith ship as they call out the probe droids).

However, I would welcome another effort ...

 

[edit]

 

Again, I want to reiterate that I do not want my comments to be taken as "flame" or as though I do not appreciate the efforts of the filmmakers. Rather, I simply post my thoughts and opinions, honestly and with integrity, on those points that I feel worth pointing out.

EVERY effort is a worthwhile endeavor .... just as there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers.

 

Not bad...not great either.

I found, besides teh age thing, that the saber combats were sickenly slow. The one lunge by "Yellow Saber Dude" could really have sliced that Jedi flat....

The fighting just seemed like fake and slow, banging sticks etc...I felt to peril for any of them.

Thats my 2 cents.

Great rotoscoping though!

Justin

 

Again, thank you for your criticism. We did have a starfield backround behind the opening scroll its just that you can't see it because of the compression of the file. And about the ship scale thing, its hard to see but there is a hill right in front of the jedi and the ship is quite a ways away. Thats why it looks so big.
I agree that there is more story in the opening scroll than in the whole movie and the acting is kind of dry. We made this movie as a final project before me and my co director leave on Missions for the LDS church for 2 years.
Like I said before the movie was made on a very short time frame and we really wished we had more time to work on acting and lines but hey, We only had 1 day to film the thing and 20 days for the special effects. I think we did awesome on the effects for the time alloted us. Dark Beginnings is just kind of a fun film to watch and thats what we wanted to accomplish. Thanks for your criticism and I hope you liked it over all. Hope to make another film in 2 years.

Thanks all you guys!! Starwars Rocks!!

Greg - Brofilms

 

excellent guys!! I like special effects, especially the speeders. How did you them? I also liked the planet shot in the beginning You guys ever thought of doing tutorials?

 

Yes We have made some turorials but still need to make more. There are some at my co directors web site which is www.geocities.com/saberfilms

 

TAC, you should do reviews pro. You seem to be very good at getting to the point of things.

This movie sounds like fun. When I'm at my friend's house with the cable modem I'll be sure to check it out. Speederbikes..mmm.

 

TAC, you should do reviews pro. You seem to be very good at getting to the point of things.



Funny you should say that . . .
(something to be revealed very very soon)

 

TAC as bad as hate too..lol, I must agree that you did a great job on your review. I think you were brutaly honest but with good form. I like this kind of critique but I cringe at the thought when you get hold of mine! This is the only way to learn. We need people like TAC, sometimes lol, who will shoot it straight.

Good show guys.

 

Nice job Brofilms. I liked it. The effects were outstanding.


Not everyone is Steven Spielberg TAC.

 

Sorry to offend you , Cougar . . .
But where exactly did I imply that I expect everyone to be a Steven Spielberg?

First of all, Steven Speilberg's last two films completely blew ... so to compare someone to Steven Speilberg these days, in my opinion, wouldn't be much of a compliment.

Secondly, where is the value in candy-coating everything with praise ... when there is apparent room for improvement and opportunities to learn from people's views and opinions? Just because I comment on some areas where I feel improvement could have been/can be made, doesn't mean that the filmmakers' efforts are any less appreciated and/or worthwhile. Rather, I would think that hearing people's opinions/comments about one's project would be one of the most valuable tools one could utilize toward further development of one's skills and techniques. Am I incorrect in this assumption?

Lastly, if I didn't appreciate the filmmakers' efforts, I wouldn't have taken the time to write up a review and post it on the Forum. Doesn't it occur to you that by doing so, more attention might be brought to DARK BEGINNINGS then otherwise might have been (since I didn't see any other threads relating to it - to date).

The bottom line is . . . .
Whether overwhelmingly flattering or less-than-praising, any comments/opinions/suggestions relating to a project can only serve as a tool toward learning what works and what doesn't (as far as your target audience is concerned). I will further say, as I always do, that such comments should always be communicated as respectfully and CONSTRUCTIVELY as possible - and backed up with intuitive thoughts and/or possible suggestions.




JediTAC
(Self-Appointed FanFilmmaking Philosopher & Critic)

 

I really do appreciate your review TAC. I don't feel put down at all. In fact criticism helps people improve on areas that need work. Thanks for the comments and criticism.

greg

 

JediTAC That was an excellent review. I would like you to do the review for my film ?ADOTF? when it is finished (only 33 hours left of editing).

As far as ?Dark Beginnings? goes I enjoyed it and was glad you shared it with us but the sword fighting was a bit slow.

 

I liked the movie. I do agree that the saber fight was slow, but other than that it was a cool movie...I enjoyed watching it alot.

 

Sorry to bust your chops TAC...

No hard feelings...

 

Not in the least.

 

I just want to say thank you to everyone that checked out the movie and gave their opinions about it. I have had a lot of fun seeing how many people have watched it and commented about it. Thanks you guys, and STARWARS ROCKS!!!!

 

Just wondering if there were anymore thoughts or opinions on the movie, we would love to hear them. Thanks again.

Greg- Brofilms

 

Your Co-director?
Rory always told me HE was the director, and YOU were the co-director! ;P
Kidding, of course.

Anyways, great job on the film. I already left comments in the *other* thread. AWESOME FX.

 

I felt the film was okay. It was painfully slow and a little short on the story side, but it was mildly entertaining.

And TAC... I agree that 'A.I.' was seriously lame, but 'Minority Report' kicked arse!

 

To start off I would like to pay due respect to Tac and his review... full of vim and viger as always, very well done and basically anything he said about the film is true. Now to mine own little review...

I thought Dark Beginnings was definitely a fun little film. The CG was not necessarily always great in places, but the only reason that comment is made, is because sometimes it would interfere with the clothing or someones head and or body... Other than that they did a very nice job with all of the CG I was very impressed.

The Choreography... I didnt think it was all that slow. It was a little lack luster in the way of it's fluidity and sort of hit and miss, but with the short amount of time they put this together in very good, not bad at all. Roto was nice, especially with the constant brightness of the desert area they were in. Didn't like the stab through stuff... if they would have sped that up a little, then I think it would have been alright, but it was a little slow for my liking.

Acting/Dialogue... was better than some fan films, worse than others. Honestly its going to be hard to get any sort of good acting in a fan film that is "serious" unless your in an actual SW movie and even then to some people it's not the best (ie:"I truly, deeply, love you". What was George thinking when he said cut and didn't say Natalie lets make that more believable shall we.)

All in all a very fun and visually fun film to watch. Keep up the good work and good luck in your 2 year missions. - J -