Oregon Ordered My New Computer -- Ready for Fan Films!

On Saturday, I ordered my college graduation present. It is a dual 2.5 Ghz G5 Apple with dual 20" flat screen monitors, 8 gigs of RAM (yup), 500 gig hard drive, 5.1 channel THX surround sound setup, iSight webcam, wireless keyboard and mouse, and of course the Production Suite software bundle with Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro 3, and Motion. If I need any other software I'll obviously buy it soon after.

It was a $9,250 bad boy with software prices included. I am, needless to say, really excited to play around with this monster. March 16 can't come soon enough!

So my friend Erik and I, who some of you've probably met since he was at the first few meetings years ago in the Fan Force, are definitely thinking it would be fun to make some Star Wars fan films in the future here. I'll be off college, Erik basically doesn't have any commitments, so our schedules will be infinitely flexible with other people who might like to help out. I figure this is great because if we have a group of 4-5 people working on something, inevitably coordination for a group is very hard, but it makes it a lot easier that Erik and I are completely flexible, day or night, weekend or weekday, at least once I'm out of college and back from Cabo San Lucas for spring break around the end of March.

I also already have two studio lights that are quite expensive, my Canon XL-1S 3CDD digital camcorder, and money to spend on some dolly equipment I want to get here shortly. I want to get something to mount the camera to a car, and also a a stabilizing dolly for the camera basically. There is this great site that sells this stuff I had bookmarked somewhere.

So I figure really we have all of the highest end equipment to make something good, but we'll need some talent and time obviously. I'm taking this time off, about 17 months, before I head to Los Angeles to go to grad school, hopefully at USC or UCLA but obviously that's not an easy task.

We'll get something setup here hopefully for our Portland Fan Force filmmaking later

 

*looks to the future with stars in her eyes* THAT IS SO AWESOME! I'm so excited to make a fan film. Just the other day I was getting all itchy to make another one of my "movies", obviously they aren't that great ofcourse because I don't have ANY good equipment to use. But THIS, THIS is going to be SO AWESOME. I definately want to help, put my name down!

 

I am sure we can use all of the help possible. I'm not going to be heavy-handed here either as far as the creative stuff goes. I mean I am fine having anyone else come up with the script or material or ideas, etc. I would most like to be involved in the production and direction aspects, but would not insist on that either. More or less I just want to work on some film projects and don't care that much what my role is, even though it's my equipment, I want it to be used for some cool purposes.

It seems like we could come up with something pretty sweet with enough time and effort -- at least we will not be limited by equipment. This is a real workstation, real professional stuff.

 

Sweet. If you need any help with your film, feel free to ask me. I've got experience in several area, and am working on a major, high budget film this summer.

Hey, maybe the Oregon FanForce should make a fan film...

 

I'm free for whenever and have soe ideas.

 

All of the components besides the actual computer have shipped. The computer ships on or before Monday, March 7. It'll be to me when I get back from college, then, supposedly.

I also have an interest in working on some non-Star Wars film projects, so I know that's not in the official capacity of the Fan Force, but if we do Star Wars work, we can always collaborate on other stuff, too.

 

Good deal, I also still have my list non-Star Wars projects that I want to get done.

 

I just thought of a new idea that I will definately need your guys/girls help on(well, you don't HAVE to, but help would be great). It was one of the mob movie ideas and I just expanded on it while I was delivering papers this morning. It will be about this huge drugdeal that happens in Jefferson. It will focus on 3 main characters,
1. A cop
2. A paperboy
3. The Mob family/employee

I really haven't figured out how long it will be yet, but I know that it will be in 3 different segments, One for each of the people. It will kind of look like the show Boomtown, or maybe somewhat like a Tarantino film (minus all of the swearing ).

Well, that's about all I have right now, I'll post more later when I think of more.

 

Yay! pick me! pick me! I don't care what i do or who i am, I wanna be apart of it!

 

Okay Larena, I dub thee worthy of being School Student Extra #20 . Just kidding. Anyway, I thoughht of more this morning, before I get started I'm going to give them names so it will be easier to follow, so here are the names...
- Cop: Dave Pliskin
- Paperboy: Colter Rose
- Mafia driver: Albert Gordon
- The Cleaner: Johnny A

Okay, now that that is out of the way here it is. I'll break them up into the 3 different segments.
(The bold is where the story is going to most likely start and be in the film).(The italicized is back story that will have to be mentioned and not seen).

Albert
- Both Colter and Albert go to the same school and are apart of a Junior/Senior school project to pick a carreer to follow up on, intern for and then write an essay about what they have learned and if they would want to have that job in the future. Colter doesn't have to intern since he already has a job, but he still needs to write an essay on what type of job he would want. Albert on the other hand picks limo driver and unknowingly gets employed by the local Mafia boss to be his driver. Albert doesn't know this and takes the job. At first his jobs are pretty easy, just taking the Boss's daughter around to were she wants to go. It develops into more complex missions and eventually he realizes that he just did a drug exchange. He tries to get out but the Boss threatens him and his family if he quits. He then assigns Albert to do another drug deal in Jefferson at 2:00am. This deal goes south when the buyer was Undercover Cop Dave Pliskin. He arrests Albert and Albert makes a deal that he will help bring in the Boss as long as he gets this expunged from his record. Pliskin has Albert call the Boss and tell him that everything went allright and that he will bring the drugs to him after he gets out of school the next day. Pliskin drops him off at ome and tells him that they will watch his house just incase the Boss suspects anyhthing. The next day at school, Albert notices one of the Boss's "Cleaners" and asks him what he's doing there, he tells him that he needs to take care of Colter. Albert hits Johnny A, runs for it and calls Pliskin to come into the school. There is a big chase/shoot out at the school as Albert tries to save Colter and Pliskin tries to take down Johnny Aand protect both Albert and Colter.

Colter
- It begins with Colter doing his paper route and noticing a drug deal going down. He isn't seen by any body and takes down the license plate number. After the route, he stops by his house to get ready for school and have some breakfast. He goes to school and tells his friend that he saw a drugdeal going down earlier this morning on his route and that he was going to tell the police. He runs into his girlfriend and they make plans to skip school later and hang out. He goes to class and is assigned to the project. He tells the teacher that he allready has a job and he can't make time to get another one, that is when she tells everyone that if you allready have a job they can either write the essay about their current job or still do the original assignment just without being an intern. After that class he skips the rest of the day to hang out with his girlfriend. He calls the police to tell them that he has some information about some recent drug deals that have been going on in Jefferson. The policeman tells him that there is currently nobody in that can take his call but that as soon as one gets in he will give thm the message and call him back. Colter gives him his name and cell phone number. Colter then goes to his girlfriends house where they cuddle and watch Star Wars . Pliskin calls Colter back and thanks him for calling because he thinks that he may have some information on a case that he has been working on all day. Pliskin tells him that he has would like to meet him and talk with him about what he saw. They agree to meet at a cafe. Colter gives Pliskin all of the nformation that he has and Pliskin thanks him for the info. Colter goes back to his girlfri

 

That sounds cool. It seems like you'll need a lot of people.

 

Well, 5 for the main cast and then atleast 4 or 5 for the supporting cast. I have a feeling that Pliskin's segment will have the most ammount of extras. Once I write everything out, I'm sure that we will then beable to combine some of the minor characters together, Like Colter's friend can allready just be turned into his girlfriend so we don't have t worry about another person.

I think that the hardest actors to get will be all of the aldult roles, like Pliskin, the Boss, Johnny A(mid-late 20's would also work), and the police officer on the phone and/or Pliskin's patner. I allready have thought of people for the minor ones like the cop and the teacher. I was thinking my old English Teacher could be the teacher and then I might beable to talk to my old cop friend that used to work for McNary to see if he could be apart of it, if he can't I could always just get my cousin who is a cop to do some of the things.

I have allready thought of all of the locations we could film at.
- McNary
- Ike Box
- My home
- A couple of my friends homes
- Primetime Pizza
- Some of the great ole coutry roads on my Ppaer Route
- Some downtown exterior shots of buildings

Well, that's about all think of right now. I'll try o get Pliskin's story writen as soon as possible.

 

Wow,I just realize from you post that I AM the only girl on this SW board! *random thoughts from Melanie's SPAM Brain.*

 

Haha, wow, I just realized something insane. I'm actually not very knowledgeable about Macs at all and basically just ordered the best computer I could get because I know enough to realize that Macs are great at video editing.

So I was reading this article today and just realized two things. First, my computer was delayed more than a week, and I wondered why -- the 2.5 Ghz G5 is apparently still a really rare computer with large shipping times. Not very many people even order them. Mine shipped 3/15, so it actually won't be there when I get home today to Portland, but it'll be there by the time I return from Cabo so it's all good.

Second, and here's the part that I can't get over, the dual 2.5 Ghz G5 Mac is the only Mac, and as nearly as I can tell the only computer outside of a supercomputer, that uses a liquid-cooling system to keep the processors from overheating! You know your computer is fast when it has to be liquid-cooled.

 

Wow, and HOW MUCH did this all cost?!

 

The retail of all this was more than $10,000. I got it for $9,250 on student discount

 

and where did you get that kind of money just to spend on a computer?

 

Hey Bowen.... I am definitely down. Just get a hold of me and I will do all I can to make myself available for your filming needs. Whether it be me helping you out with behind-the-scenes stuff like loading/unloading, holding booms, ya know that kind of thing. Any other things I can help you out with *ahem* acting-wise....
At any rate, what services I could offer, they are at your disposal. I also dabble with fanfic writing, perhaps I may something that may spark an interest in you wanting to film???


PM me or email me mgunner75@yahoo.com

 

Thought of another Star Wars fanfilm idea,
"The DeX-Files". I haven't really thought about anything else about it, just that Obi Wan would investigate unexplained force activities throughout the galazy.

 

Hey,

Sorry didn't see the new replies, phew, where have I been?

Larena, the computer was a graduation present, and I don't want to sound too spoiled (too late, lol) but my family is well off so money is not much of a problem. I could have paid for the computer myself but convinced my dad it was a good graduation gift. It sure has been useful so far.

I would still like to do a fan film project perhaps this summer, but right now Erik and I are working on this script for a full length movie and we're really excited about it. I have a friend who is going to be a co-director but we're still probably going to need the help of at least a few other friends or whatever.

The plot concept, which is all we have (we're going to workout an outline by the end of April, but it'll be close), basically revolves around this psycho guy, some creepy dude, who is hiding in a giant house (my house is going to be used for filming, conveniently) and secretely manipulating the lives of the people in it. It's not a murder / violent film, just going to be really eerie and creepy, lots of strange camera angles, and it is just meant to freak you out. So that's the project we're going with for now because we thought of this idea and realized my house is perfect for it, we have the equipment, etc. I think it'll be a blast, but a huge challenge.