***LCC VI Rules***

If I get to one this year, I'd be tempted to do what JediPastor did last year and just add the contact flashes, then do a nice audio mix. Prolly not even 'saber sounds, just sticks.

I've got enough to work on without adding LCC 'sabers to the mix. Last year's session was brutal, I was spending day after day just roto'ing when I was home.

EDIT: Just chatted w/ Mik3. We'll try for one again this year.
w00t.

-Vaportrail

 

I know how you feel... None of my friends actually care enough to put any effort in (as you saw in my entry last year). Makes it so god damn hard!

 

With the exception of Laz & Boter for a brief few scenes, the entirety of FKaD has been shot with me and a bunch of non-TFn-ers, and primarily non-filmmakers for that matter.

It's just about finding the right people. I went through about a half dozen fems before I found the female lead (my g/f wound up volunteering. Go figure, right under my nose).

You just gotta find someone who commits when they say they will, and it helps if you can interest them in the project. What are their reasons for wanting to be involved? How can you maintain that interest?

-Vaportrail

 

I feel your pain Wookiefett.
We star wars fans seem to be a little light on the ground in oz.
or at least I can't find that many.

 

Yeh, on the cast and crew database theres about 25 Aussies... Except most of them are in Melbourne and the rest most likely have left the boards. Most of them are over 30 too I think. The one guy that did like like 45 minutes from me I lost contact with, I don't know what happened to him either!

I normally would ask a friend. Last time my friend Ryan seemed really interested in it, but just lost interest after the first few choreography sessions. They're more than willing to help me out, but they can't maintain the interest I have for long enough, therefore doing a terrible job... Mr_47 Which state do you live in? (PM me)

So unless I can find a few new friends that are into making films in college (for all you Americans, college in Australia is just a step up from high-school. College for you is University for us) pretty quickly, I'm not going to enter this year =( It's a shame, I want to win those lightsabers! Haha...

 

Ah, that suck Wfett. I am in the same boat. I so wish I lived down under right now mate.

I think you should push hard Wfett and do it anyways.

P.S. Can someone please link or P.M. me the past years LCC entrys? I havent seen anyy of the LCC's... : (

 

I may enter if I have time. I'm acquiring some neato toys that could make a LLC awfully cool. Maybe likely I'll not have to time.

Errr, if it's there, then there it is. And if not, you'll remember my sidelong intentions.

 

VaporTrail, great to hear that you're in. Competing with all of you will be a great experience for my first time.

It would be cool if you other guys find someone to help you out, too. I don't know if it actually helps, but I'll share some of my thoughts on this matter with you. My "crew" for this contest includes four people: my fighting partner, who does different kinds of martial arts, so he's interested in the fight itself and likes my vfx work, too; then a good friend of mine who'll help us out as a cameraman, he doesn't really have experience, nor is he particulary interested in Star Wars, lightsabers, fighting or vfx itself, but he's a pal of mine and will help out as a favor; another old schoolfriend of mine, who is about as interested in filming, vfx and lightsaber stuff as I am, and will serve as kind of a co-producer; and myself, of course.
I guess I'm kinda lucky with this team. My co-producer is probably the most willing person after myself, since he's into that filming stuff as well. As far as I know, he's not around on these boards, but he has visited this site and seen alot of fanfilms; he's also impressed by Ryan W.'s work like I was a few years ago when we discovered it and learned alot about this whole lightsaber stuff from it. The problem is that I have talked with him about this project two days after I decided to take part and my crew was actually complete; so I offered him a part as kind of a co-producer and maybe cameraman, and I guess he'll help out with the special effects as well.

So, it's true, you need to find people who are interested in this. Looking at a filming college is a good idea; as well as looking for people who do stage combat. For inspiration, I've looked at some youtube-videos of stage combat, and some of their stuff is simply awesome. People like them should definitely be capable of and interested in helping you with such a choreography video.

 

Wanna get a plane over to my house for a few weeks? Good deal, you get free food and accomodation!

 

Here you go elemental...

LCC V Entries

 

You can find the entries from I-IV here:

http://fan-files.com/


On a side note, I was wondering if perhaps I can get some help here. See, I can take care of nearly everything for my entry: Choreography, location, camera, camera man, sparring partner, Lightsaber VFX, music. But I can't for the life of me get my saber sounds to ever sound right.

I did this test about a year ago : SFX Test
But I personally dont think it's good enough. What do you guys think? And if it's sub-par work, could I get some help from someone?

 

Well, first of all, the problem is that you mix the sound effects from the original trilogy and the prequels quite randomly. You can hear it in the very beginning and in the end of your clip, the clashes sound very different. Mixing up so many sound styles does of course not sound very uniform. It's okay to use sound effects from both trilogies, but make sure at least to use similar sounds after each other. Also, you should make the sounds match the style of your fighting. If you start out slowly, you should make the clashes sound slow and rough, like in the OT. If the fighting becomes faster, you might use clashes from the prequels that match a much faster fighting style.

Once you're done with the clashes, make sure to use the right swing sounds. Your fighting in this video is very fast, but you are using quite slow sounds. Again, try to choose sound effects that match the way you're fighting.

 

Also, and maybe this is just me, if there is no soundtrack in the BG like this (granted this is a test and you are going to put music), you might want to mix the ambient sound (BG sound), which you can record on a different track, with your saber sounds.

Also lowering the volume on them is a good idea. The Lightsaber sounds are loud indicating, to me, that the fight should be closer to the cam.

Again this is how I would put together a duel. Loud sounds for closer shots, low sounds for far away shots, but not too low.

 

If there's no music, I usually run the whole 'saber sound track through a filter in Audition, which makes it sound like they exist and echo/resonate within a given setting.

It works pretty well.

-Vaportrail

 

Sometimes strikes are not meant to land. Instead, they are meant to off-set the opponent, or to make them block in an akward angle, making them vurnuble to another attack. What is lacking in most duels, and I don't you touched in this, is that the fighters are contasntly missing each other, as you stated near the end. When that happens, the duel gets stale. But missing your opponent here and there does not make it bad choreography or anything like that. In fact, if done right, it can open up other possibilities of false attacks just to gain another opening.

 

Officially in, by the way.
Had a first choreography session with my mystery opponent today, some pretty good stuff already.

 

Mystery opponent = RocketGirl.

 

This is true; feints are a solid strategy in any fight. You can also ?strategically stick bash?, i.e. interrupt an opponent?s blade mid-swing in the hopes of creating an opening. Don't avoid using either if you know what you're doing. But in something like the original (un-rotoed) Ryan vs. Brandon ? to pick a high profile example ? few of the strikes are really at center-mass, you can analyze frame-by-fame and come to realize not a whole lot of that choreo is really lethal. While the rotoscoped version has some FX to add some edge to the fight, when I play it at regular speed my brain doesn?t interpret any risk to the characters.

(I don?t want to pick on Ryan, as RvD2 has much superior presented choreo, in no small part thanks to superior cinematography, but also the individual blow look like the guys are actually trying to cut each other and the blocks look that much more desperate.)

As an aside: Mistakes are realistic; misjudged strikes, trips, misses fumbles, etc. that?s the majority of real rights. The problem lies in that realism is tough to get balanced with cinematic needs, e.g. ?how to make it cool?. This requires a certain appreciation for drama, even to the point where the drama in the sequence is more important than fight but without delving into melodrama. One of my favorite ?realistic fight scenes? is the final fight in Once Upon a Time in High School (which you can find on YouTube here); it?s dirty and un-heroic and very? intimate, surprisingly. It?s not everyone?s cup of tea, though, I think most of you would be bored with it.

 

I'd like to put in my two cents on one aspect of stick bashing... well, more like something that is not neccessarily stick bashing but can be mistaken for it by the casual observer.

If two combatants are utilizing footwork (i.e. one opponent is advancing and the other is retreating), what would normally not be stick bashing can appear to be so, simply because the retreating combatant is moving out of range. Of course one could argue "Why does the retreating combatant still block the advancing combatant's saber if s/he has moved out of range?" Simple answer, the retreating opponent is not sure that moving backwards will be enough, especially sine the other person is still advancing, and is blocking out of reflex/habit. Same thing applies to the advancing combatant. That person may feel that s/he is close enough to connect, especially if the retreating combatant stops retreating.

Another argument is that the advancing combatant is, well, advancing so that the range may not change so if it still looks like stick bashing, the combatants may be too far apart to be attacking or defending and thus should wait until they are closer together to do either.

Take that as you will. Regardless I still think that some of the moves I and my friend Jeremiah did in my LCC3 entry (entry 07) were confused with stick bashing because of said footwork. Obviously some of it was indeed stick bashing, just not necessarily as much as some may have thought.

 

She wishes.

 

She wishes.[/quote]
Bam?

 

Just to add my two cents worth: In my local SFC, when we are doing Honor Duels (one of the many weapon based games we play) I find my opponent sticking his sword (which are foam and 100% safe, I make them) out in front of him defensivly. When I see this, I defintely "stick bash." If I give the beat attack enough force behind it, I can almost always knock the guys sword from his hand, or out of the way long enough for a quick jab to his now exposed side.

With that out of the way, I can say there are defintely some beat attacks coming in my LCC entry. So why not? Stickbash away.

 

Pft, always so secretive. Just admit it. It's Brandon again.

-Vaportrail

 

Admit it, Vapes, a Ryan_W vs. RocketGirl duel would pwn anything else you could ever hope to devise. Especially after the legion of DorkmanScott clones surrounded them and challenged the winner.