Rise of Nobility official release discussion thread

So let the other thread lock and die. And remember no hijacking!

The official release will be tonight approximately 6pm. That's when I'll update the downloads page on RiseofNobility.com. If you'd rather not wait...go to NatalieEmpire.com and scroll down a few news items from the top for their links.

I hope you all enjoy it. Comments are welcome.

A hell of a big cast
qui-gon annunciates a little too much
sound fx is great

Padme sounds very good
acting is weak in a couple places (Qui-Gon sometimes puts the wrong emphasis on the wrong place in the sentence, but sounded good otherwise)
sound effects are excellent, on occasion, they take over and it is difficult to tell where they would be located in the scene, and the dialogue which should be the focus, is lost in the mix.
music mix is good.

There is a female Gungan that sounds like Victoria Jackson, and takes one of the most difficult accents or dialects and puts too much Jar Jar in it.

a couple nods to the movies that were, in my opinion, nicely done

The final bit is a little too matrix for me, but it does explain a driving impulse for the speaker.

any cursing? nope. no worse than what was in the movies.

Overall, I didn't notice the 45 minutes pass at all. I wasn't bored, and was genuinly entertained. I think this project may end up suffering from hype curse Phantom Meance suffered. Episode 1 could've been astounding, but because it had what would've been nearly 20+ years of hype, and 15 of anticipation, nothing could live up to our expectations. This project has been around for quite a while, and it seems that the audio format is beginning a huge push, especially with this high profile production. I think this is a great product, and is definetely worth the listen.

I think I'll do a more in depth review in the October episode of Requiem of the Outcast.

I'm finally replying to one of these threads! In between piano exams and power outages things have been hectic...


My chest went all tight when I heard that people have already listened to RoN. I was that nervous! But I must say that you guys (being the two people who have replied so far! ) are really great. I can see by your mix of good and bad comments that you are being honest, which I appreciate. I know that RoN isn't even close to being perfect, but I'm glad that people are realizing that, and still enjoying and accepting it. I think that for my first starring role, things aren't going too bad! *wipes sentimental tear from corner of her eye*

Anyway, I need to go listen to the bally thing myself now! Ta-rah!

Downloading now...

As Elizabeth said, the comments have been fair thus far. Good and bad. I'll summarize some of my earlier comments from the other thread

?I love Jar Jar even if he is clumsy and abnoxious.

?I totally agree about the job Elizabeth did. Amazing.

?Getting actors to portray Shmi and Qui-Gon..well..that was extremely difficult. And we knew it was going to be tough. We lucked out with Elizabeth. Even with a lot of practice, some of us had trouble. Jar Jar...I'm not the best of the fans doing imitations, but part of audio drama project was to try and get everyone in the Moisture Farm Co-Op involved in the acting..so I did at least try. As we all did. But I think we got the best people for the parts that we had available to us at the time.

?"Qui-Gon kinda sounds like a child molester?" I'm still trying to figure out why that is Adam. I have no idea what would lead you to that conclusion?

?All the music choices but one (that Elizabeth chose) were mine. So if you liked it, hated it..well..that's me. I was pretty relentless at not giving up control on that end. I have a passion for music, as that was my study in school. So if it didn't work for you, it's okay. It's not going to work for everyone, but I'm personally pleased at the choices I made.

?"I loved Padme's monologue about the smells, etc. of Naboo water... city walls, etc." Actually, the really weird thing is...Linda wrote that even before AOTC came out. I just tried to link it musically with that of the deleted scene in Ep2. It just kinda ended up sounding like that scene. Pretty spooky huh? Linda wrote just like George. eiry.

?"Anolo sounds oddly calm after a damn spaceship crashed." I agree to some extent. But I have to cut Kody some slack. He was very sick all throughout recording. And I know he did his best under the conditions of being in and out of the hospital. I tell ya though...he did have the best voice for Anolo out of all the people we had auditioned. He was Anolo.

?"I was very, very impressed with the vornskr noises. Couple that with the well-chosen music and Amidala's screams and you've got a hell of a well-designed soundscape for that chase." This was the first scene I worked on. It was NOT easy by any means and honestly I'm still not totally satisfied that it "works". But I did my best with it, and I knew it would be tough from day one so that's why I started with it first. I originally pitched that scene to Linda and she really liked it so it stuck. It was really hard to create by sound and have it come out visually correct if that makes sense. Either way, I'm glad to see you noticed the intensity in it's creation. We worked on that scene for an entire year to get it close to right. We even made changes to it during the last editorial meeting.

?"Xizor's voice was EXACTLY as I used to imagine it reading "Shadows of the Empire" Awesome." You aren't the only one to say that. Linda, thought he was perfect for the role. And Linda wrote the part perfectly in my opinion. I think she nailed Xizor and Veruna...each of those scenes are some of my favorites.

?"Amidala's confession to the Gungan is one of the best bits of fan-media acting I've seen around." I'm glad you liked that scene. Honestly, mixing wise..that scene was the easiest to do. Just two characters. But I do recall Elizabeth and Pam having to redo it a few times each. I really connect Padme to Luke there...she gets upset with Nordey. The same kind of upset that Luke gets with Yoda. That's exactly why I connected the two scenes with the music Yoda and the Force. I wouldn't have changed that music for anyone. And it did come up a few times let me tell ya. I'm really glad you enjoyed that scene though.

?"Okay, how many references to pedophilia toward Amidala did we really need?" well..that's a risk we took to advance the storyline. It happens in real life. As much as we despise it, we tried to keep it low key. But that's just how the story unfolded.

?"Good link to ANH with the more-money-than-you-can-imagine bit..." that was a last minute addition and rework

Excellent, excellent.

Most of the points I would make have already been made, but I'll still make a few anyway.

Good story. I had already read the script on the site, so I wasn't exactly surprised by any of it, but it was still well done.

Most of the voices were pretty good; Shmi and Qui-Gon were just a bit strange sounding at times, but still pretty good. Nordey sort of sounded like a cross between Jar Jar and Yoda at the beginning (Weren't you even playing Yoda's Theme?), but I got used to that.

Most of the music selection and editing is very well done.

Finally, I have to publicly praise Bellyup for her phoenominal job. Not only does her voice sound like Portman, but her acting was very good, IMO.

Loveed it, loved it.

Okay, I have to ask....so what did you guys think of Red Beard???? Is he not your favorite character? hehe. I loved Ted in this. Definitely one of my favorite performances in the audio drama along with Jeremy and Abe right behind as Xizor and Veruna. Of course I adored Elizabeth. And I loved bill as the Mechanic. To me he sounded just like a Besalisk (Dexter Jetsetter) to me without even tinkering with his voice much. Ted was just too funny in this thing. The music helped of course, being from SOTE, but still the number of times he says "what?" and "huh?" just makes me laugh every time.

Keith

Keith: The link on Fanworks will go live once Fanworks itself opens on Monday.

Also, I was tempted to write a review, but I am not sure whether it's appropriate that I do so for projects that are technically tied to Fanworks in any means.

If you think it's appropriate, I'll write one. If not, I'll not. I'm up in the air on it.

And, last but not least, Keith, drop me a line once there are exact download locations for the mirrors on other sites, and I'll get your page ready for Monday. Right now, I only have the RON and Fanworks links for the three final versions on the page. Also, I've moved your news byte down to today's date, and the two featured newest releases are just the absolute most recent (usually, just one, unless the case of simultaneous releases), so that's been cut to just Mob and ROTO #1, since they're Sept. 1 still.

Nathan et all, RoN is officially released. You can visit our downloads page for all the links. I'm still awaiting a few more hosts however, but they are having a few technical issues at the moment.

Keith

I did like Redbeard... I even originally wanted to design him as a Besalisk. Kieth knows that.

Well, I think the whole 'condition" thing is extentuating circumstances because of their location, not personal ability. Not one of my favourite bits, but I think that makes a little more sense. It's location-oriented, can't go beyond a certain point, and can't turn it on or off, either, while Jedi can. That's my two cents, could be right, could be wrong.

Raneely. I hate that kid. ^_^ Something about that voice is so annoying...

Love Xixor... love his voice, love Prince Veruna, such a great slimy character voice, I tend to mimic him when I listen to him you know?

Jar-Jar. Alright, lemme let you in on something about Jar-Jar. You don't like him really until you start to work with him. The voice is fun and easy to do, but on my personal end, I liked his character because it was the one real bit of freedom I had in the storyboards, he could do more and be more comical, so he was a nice release.

And I can really tell in a lot of places where the storyboards were used, the sounds reflect the design and set-ups very well.

Chris

Keith: Updated all the info, so it's ready to go for Monday.

Just wanted to stick my head in and wave to everyone. Why didn't anyone tell me this was here back in July???

I also wanted to thank, now that the Mammoth is FINALLY done, Keith for his many many MANY hours of dedicated work, and our director Pam Kinney who had to put up with such a ... contentious crew and create that accent. I knew it would be murder, so I saved the job for the person I knew could handle it!

But most of all, I'd like to give a special thank you to Elizabeth Ascot.

She's a terrific little actress, and this is her play.

--Linda Lyons
--writer, Rise of Nobility

Chris..

That's true, but when I heard Bill's voice, I knew he'd be a better Besalisk. The voice and the thought of a 4 armed Mechanic sounded intriguing to me. Ted has this southern tinge to his voice that really says "human" to my ears.

There are two points about Nordey's condition that probably need more clarification. It's true there are some similaries with the Jedi. That's where the similarities end. Amidala says some things in one of the later scenes that foreshadows Nordey's condition. And it's true that location plays a huge part of it. She has some control over her condition, but she can't just go anywhere with it. The whole condition thing is more based on earthly concepts than what you see in the two movies. Now that said, Nordey never was force sensitive in any regard. If you follow the story closely, you'll see our Heroine was treated as force sensitive. It was Linda's concept from the beginning, but it wasn't elaborated or focused on in anyway. We just posed the possibility.

Raneely is supposed to be annoying. His voice really hit on that. He's not really a totally mean kid, but he has his moments. I kinda consider him an antagonist in a way. An antagonist to Amidala and Anolo. In my opinion he could be borderline dark side if he had the force in him, but he's still tinging on the light side.

You're right Chris, with Jar Jar there's a lot of room for freedom, because you never know what mess he's going to find himself in next.

The storyboards were very helpful, especially when working on the Vornskr chase. There are pics of me, Luke and Ann trying to figure out how to place the sound. We went to a local park to do some effects recording, and while we were there we tried to figure out how that scene would progress. It was a very odd experience indeed, but quite helpful.

Nathan, thanks!

Linda, I posted the new link to the main egroup description page. All ya had to do was hit that and it would take you to the proper board.

I guess I just forgot to announce it. hehe.

Keith

Hey Keith,

Congratulations on finishing it! Haven't had a chance to listen yet, but I'll give a full review once I get it downloaded.

Also, congratulations on getting your release news posted on FanFilms.Com. I tried numerous times to get that done and no one responded. Guess you gotta be in the click or something. ?

Oh for heaven's sake... there is no "clique" when it comes to the news on TFN FanFilms site...
And the first time I got *any* message from you about posting news on your Coruscant project was this morning...

Fenn

Hey, hey. No hijacking! hehe. Fenn, I forwarded him your name this morning. So everyone should be happy now. Happy happy...joy joy. Okay, from the drama back to the audio drama now.

Oh and Elan, thanks...and look forward to hearing whatcha think. Nathan, I forgot to mention..you do what you feel is best regarding reviewing. I'll leave that totally up to you.
Keith

But most of all, I'd like to give a special thank you to Elizabeth Ascot.

She's a terrific little actress, and this is her play.

Thanks a lot Linda. I appreciate it.

Chris--you didn't like Raneely?? *laughs* He was in my top five favorite characters! I think John did a great job portraying his mean and snivelly nature. And I have to agree with you on Veruna and Xixor--both of them were done excellently! Hats off to Abe and Jeremy!

Oh, and I burst out laughing at the end when Adam's name was pronounced wrong! Sorry, but that just sounded really funny to me. Oh and Adam, where was your "cameo" line? I never picked it up. Clueless me...

Adam: Maybe I'll create a section of those kind of reviews for the site under Miscellaneous or something. Maybe some kind of essay on each project. I dunno. Just seems kind of disingenuous to me.

Keith,

Still haven't had a chance to download it yet. I have 56k at home and it just isn't worth hogging all my bandwidth here. I will try it out when I get to work. Can't wait to hear it all.

Fenn,

Geez, no need to get all bent out of shape. I was told Chris Hanel was the one to go to for the longest and never really got anywhere. This morning I was told it was you.

I don't think Chris even has news posting capability. When a news release about 2S took forever to get up, he had to get special permission to put it up himself, as I recall.

Keith,

I've been keeping my eye on this ever since we first talked back in December(?) and boy was it worth it. The mix was near perfect far as I could tell. Great transitions, excellent SFX/Foley and ambient noises, awesome mix man- really. I listened to it while I was working in AE tonight (one of the nice things about audio dramas- It only commands one of your senses) and I had to keep stopping cause I kept getting caught up in the story and the performances. It really took me into that world and the sounds were so real I didn't have any problems conjouring up what those characters or environments actually looked like.

It's already been said, but Elizabeth's performance was excellent- no, no-I take that back. It was more than excellent. She was Padme in my minds eye. Perfectly cast. I loved Red Beard and nearly everyone else performed admirably for a fan production. I hate to say it, but the one thing in the entire Star Wars universe that I can't stand is Jar Jar's voice. Your impression of it was actually pretty good...which was a bad thing for me. That same disdain carried over to Pam's character also, which is a shame cause she did sound like a Gungan (even though I felt it was made a little TOO quirky), but that just carries too many negative feelings for me. That's not really your fault though and you stayed true to the universe, so I tried to overcome my prejudice.
Well, what can I say? This was awesome! I can totally see why this took 4 years to do. Bravo chap! Stand up and take another bow- you guys really deserve it.

[applause]

Elizabeth...Adam's cameos come during the guard chase scene. He's one of the guards screaming to get you even up to the point where you close the door to the kitchen and the guards are yelling at you from behind the door. Don't ask me for which lines specifically. That's a little hard to remember.

Jeremy:
Thanks so much for your comments. I know the whole cast and crew would be very appreciative of them.

Ya know, I still love the fact that all the tree branches cracking, bark scraping, running in the woods, and brush being whizzed by were done by me, Luke and Ann. That was a blast to do. Foley work was something we actually spent a lot of time doing, and I do think it added a lot to the overall sound. You mostly think of mixing and recording dialogue but we really did it all. I wish there was video of us when we were stomping our feet on the floor grabbing each other with coats on in the hot afternoon inside that garage hehe. That would have been priceless. I do have the raw audio though. hehe.

We got so lucky with Elizabeth. In fact, the original thread of how we found her is still here on TFN! I know Michael has the link on his site somewhere.

Yes, indeed. I knew people would either like the character of Jar Jar and Nordey in RoN or they wouldn't. Simply because of Ep1 or the acting. I sure hope people dislike our characters more because of prejudice than our acting. hehe. At least in this case.

Thanks again!

Keith

One of the creaming guards....ah! Well, I'll have to listen again and try to pick him up!