KNIGHTQUEST

I was one of the lucky ones who did receive the newsletter, so:

I love KQ
Everything was more than great, except for some sentences getting lost under the music.
And for the camera-turning-around-the-buddies-thing: I so much very love that! I love it so much, I mix up my english!! I liked that even before KQ came out (saw it somewhere, I think), and you used it extensively and very well. It was in the trailer, too (wasn't it?)

I got only the wmv version. Although I fu***** hate Media Player 7, it worked pretty good and more than acceptable. I will reboot after downloading it the whole night (a few hours of it at least) and it may be even smoother, maybe. (P-II-400, 128 RAM).

And don't post ANYTHING regarding links!

 

Thank you everyone for the response. It's truly an exciting time over here at Banshee Pictures.

One of the things I love about movies, which is evident regarding the reviews for KQ, is how totally sub-jective it is.

I read the reviews on this board, I have also been getting e-mails from people with thier thoughts, and it's amazing how the same movie is interpreted by different people.

Some people love the story, others think it's weak. Some people love the camera movements, it makes others sick. Some people say the acting is great, others say it's mediocre at best. I've got replys from people saying Karina is their favorite character, others say Dannikk, some say Ulic. (I've even gotten one e-mail telling me Chee is his favorite.)

Many people say the film is too long at the end, that it's anti-climactic. Others say it's just right or, (I'm blushing here,) perfect.

The only thing that's pretty much unanimous is that the effects are AWESOME. I want to take a moment to publically thank Clay Kronke for his wonderful saber work. Clay truly is the "God" of lightsabers. And of course Tom Sehenuk. I don't think I could ever praise or thank Tom enough for his work on this film. Most of the shots turned out better than I could have ever hoped for when I was designing them. He continued to exceed my expectations time and time again. Tom and I have been freinds for a long time now, and Tom, buddy, if you're reading this, thank you. You have my utmost respect and admiration.

As to some of the questions you guys have been asking:

SOUND: This is a work in progress. I still have a sync problem when trying to export to tape. I have some people looking into it and once we figure it out, there will be a new mix so we can balance the levels to where they should be at that time. We will also try to clean up the dialog a little as there is some hissing here and there.

TARA: Many have complained that Tara and Chee were unnessesary and that there really wasn't much going on. They are the catylist that sets the story in motion. Without them, Vader would never have found Ulic and his Padawans. They are not the focus in this story, but I have an idea for a sequel that centers on them where we find out just who exactly sold them out and has them on the run from a certain droid bounty hunter called IG-88. Don't know if that will ever happen though. We'll see.

TROOPER FIGHT WITH TARA: Just so you all know, I HATE this entire scene. Where Karina comes and rescues Tara, it sucks, I hate it, I cringe every time I watch it. This scene was supposed to be much bigger and much more exciting, with Karina really mixing it up with the squad and Tara in hand to hand combat with a trooper. So what happened? Two thing. 1- The troopers I had contacted to come out and be in the movie...they never showed up. So we only had the ONE trooper suit. That's right, for those of you that haven't figured it out, whenever you see more than one trooper on screen at the same time, that's a composite shot. Which brings us to reason 2- We didn't have the time to set up really complex shots with just the one trooper. It would have taken days and we just didn't have the time to do it. So we had to get what we could and I had to make it work in editing. If there's one scene in the whole movie I would want to do over it's this one.

For every flaw or mistake you guys see, I see a hundred more.

Why did I cross the line so much? I didn't have a monitor on location. So I couldn't see what was going on. Combine that with three different DP's and no script supervisor and well, it's amazing anything came out.

Why is Vader so skinny in some shots? When we had the costume made, it looked fine in real life, it was only after we got the dailies back did we realise just how skinny he looked. We tried to fix it with re-shoots but could only re-shoot a few shots.

Ulic's death is confusing: Yeah, I had to make that up on the spot because we didn't have the time to change locations. There was also snow on the ground and we had to somehow shoot around that.

 

I got the newsletter, but when I downloaded the windows media player version, all I got was a black screen on all three files.

Anyone else have that trouble?

 

I'm having a prob with downloading the films.

Because it's the download is done through the cgi thingy, i can no longer resume my downloads, which si annoying, cause isp time out every 2 hours, and thankfully I'm on ISDN, so i can get aroudn 45mb of hte film I've got the first two of hte Quicktime film, but I can't stay on long enough to get the third, is there any way I can resume my download.

 

The Links are on the site.

 

Truly magnificent. A drama that is an exciting and original mix of 1950's serial and Shakespearian tragedy.


That's the best way I can describe it. Put that quote in the DVD.

Dannikk... very annoying character. He reminds me of my younger brother. >

That's pretty much all I have to say. Everyone else who's praised this film has said it already.

So Joe, what's next for you?

EDIT: Oh yeah, who else besides me and the Prelude To Hope producer saw the SWMA.net sabre test?

 

I just wanted to mention something most others left out. The camera work truly makes this movie ten steps above anythink else out there. It is obvious that no camcorder was used (even if you didn't see the "behind the scenes" feature). The moving shots give life to the scenes, and i think that the people who dont like them dislike them because these are not the type of shots that Lucus and his team ever used on the saga. I think it is wonderful.
How dare people say that Duality, a film with little story and cartoonish sfx, was better than this! (Sorry, Duality folks, the film was great for its time and it is still a favorate, but every new movie to come out has to be better than the last, right?)

 

Joe, GREAT JOB!

Anyway, this was the first fan film where I actually felt for the charactors.

If I was a chick, I surely would have cried near the end.

Speaking of crying, I almost did at the V F/X at the beginning of sec 3. The chase over the planet. MY GOD! Wow! Like, so cool! How the HECK did you do it?

DUDE! WOW!

I'd watch it again but I've got school work to do.

 

would somebody, who already has downloaded KQ, be so nice to send me the 3files via ICq ? please...

 

Good flick, Knightquest, the continuing story.

 

Darth_Adaul, can you send me the movie files?

 

I don't know how to express how much i enjoyed the movie. I really can't. You guys are an inspiration for all fan film makers. But all i want to know is how? Im just puzzled at how you did some of those shots. With what programs? Etc. I think it would be great if for the major effects, you could put together a little how we did it sorta thing. Kinda like they did for Duality. I really am interested in hearing about the making of the chase scene when your flying through the clouds and everything and seeing birds eye views of the terrain, it was incredible! Also how did you achieve the explosions, sparks, and smoke? I have so many more questions, but i'll save those for later.

 

I myself would like a Quicktime file the same reolution and frame rate as the .wmv files. My stupid Media Player is skippy...

Very well done all around. A couple of nitpicky bits here and there (mostly with the edits and a couple of lines of dialogue), but the overall look and feel of the film is fantastic. I was impressed with what I saw even a year ago, when all I knew of were the first batch of the 80-odd saber shots. The look of the film is unmatched, and all the CG is very well done (good job Tom )

And the sabers are halfway decent, too

 

CAN´t ANYBODY GIVE ME AN AnSWER?...please send me knightquest per ICQ.....

 

"Transfer rate 480 bytes per second"???

"Estimated time left: 18 hrs 10 min"??!!!

WITH A T3 UNIVERSITY CONNECTION???!!


This must be due to everyone else trying to download it at the same time, right?

 

Mine downloaded at 167 KB/sec, sec 3 (the only one I timed) came in over the Net in 8 min.

And that's on a cable.

Wild, just download it from the site.

 

I think I´ve downloaded the whole stuff about 2 times, because it always abortes...

 

Part 1 downloaded in about 13 minutes.

Part 2 has another 2 hours to go...

and I'm at work with a BMFP. Must be a high server load.

What I've been able to watch so far has looked good, or rather I THINK it looks good, because the framerate looks like a Flip-It cartoon, with 2-5 second drop outs or worse. Frustrating.

Looking forward to a clean QuickTime version to come out!

Hoc Futue

Edit: 13, not 3 minutes

 

I watched it again this morning so I could see it without my roommate making MST comments. Again, I can not describe how much I love this film. I nearly cried at the end (yes, on the 2nd viewing).

So, Joe, there's going to be a version with the audio rebalanced? Awesome. Audio balance I think is the only thing that needs fixing.

 

Well, Joe took his time and it SHOWS. WELL DONE MONROE!

 

hmmm...

i downloaded the firsrt section in WMV, and although the image quailty looked good, it is so jumpy that i can't really watch. it is sort of like looking at a comic book (still shots).
the problem may be WMV sucks on the mac (since it isn't the video size. i have played 2-300 MB per minute movies before with minimum to no lag) so i'm trying to DL all the .mov verisons now and see if i can wacth more normally that way.

i'll let you know what i think when/if i get something that i can watch coherently.

 

First the formalaties:
(POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT)
(POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT)
(POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT)

First well done to all who were involved in KnightQuest... Regardless of what anyone thinks about the film, the fact that you all actually got it together and released it is an achievement in itself..

Anyhow what did I think.

Well put it this way I had the same feeling of anticipation as when I went to watch the phantom menace, as the opening crawl ended, wondering what would come next.

First off the actors did themselves proud, there was a lot of dialogue in this film and usually with fanfilm this tends to let it down when the acting doesn't quite come across as it was intended, but in this every sentance felt natural.

Story/Plot, great The worst thing about the plot and its a really bad thing...... it makes me want to watch KNIGHTQUEST 2 Its a very nice open ended ending (does that make sense

Camera shots, when you do the slow motion of Darth Vader meeting Ulic it was inspiring. The camera cuts in that scene made a refreshing change from the usual cuts we see.

Music, well although none of you did the music, it was still put together and edited in very nicely, just a little too loud in places, i had trouble with determining what was been said.

Finally special effects, well I think you should know what I'm gonna say.... wow sums it up.. I especially like the cliff scene, the mist is great.


So in closing, get to work on Episode 2.. What happens with the smuggler and the hutt? Does the jedi ever get her revenge? does she team up with the smuggler?

bb

EDIT: one final thing, some people seemed to have probs watching it? I played it back on a P2-400 with 400 megs of memory. Worked a treat I even watched it again after linking it to my tv.. wow the surround sound effects rock.....

 

I posted earlier but I just wanted to comment when Joe said that there are things that really bother him about the film. It was interesting to hear you say..we didnt have the time to really work out certain things...so we'll make it up as we go.

I think that we have all done that at one time in the creation of our films...you however did a great job and covered all the bases.

I thought I saw in the credits that there were two stormtroopers..if you had two or one...great job on the compositing.

 

Its a real shame that not everyone will see this film. From all accounts its a class act.
I just wonder why tf.n have changed their download procedure. Its bad enough that i'm (and many other most likely) stuck with a 56k modems, but making sure that disconnected downloads can't be recovered is just a plain smack in the mummy/daddy button.

I guess this mean I won't be able to download anything over 15meg from the fan film section ever again. 56k, with a max of 3k a second and a 2hour peering system. I get 19% (half of which is an advert) and the other half the starwars logo and the beginning of the story crawl, only then to get a real smack in the chops with a disconnection.

ho-hum

 

I am very amazed at the effects work. While it seemed not so good in the trailer, it looked very well done for the movie.

I've only seen the first part of three so far. It seems kinda star wars-y, but doesn't quite hold that Star Wars feel to it, and maybe I can put my finger on why later. The older man isn't TOO dramatic right now. I look foward to parts 2 and three. I think the videography could be stronger. lots of things blown out in backgrounds and just overall shots seem a bit too bright (from a professional standpoint, but that's being more picky). the story doesn't seem to be very strong right now, but again I haven't seen the rest. I'll write again later.

Anyone look at "The Phantom Scalper Menace" pics?