Song of Darkness, Song of Light

Hey, be nice to Son of a Hutt. Some bullies just beat him up and took his lunch money. (JK)

 

I thought that was hilarious, just wanted to bring it back up in case someone hasn't read it yet.

 

Man... I have always been a big fan of Dave Barry and that is just hillarious... I e-mailed it to everyone I have ever met.

[This message has been edited by YODA the all powerful (edited 05-12-99).]

 

Now that the charity screenings are out, lets bring it back up once more.

 

and once more to the top

 

Again!

 

HOLY POOP ON A STICK, DARTH FATUOUS!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!! ROTFLMFAOLOL!!!! WHOOOOOOO!!!!! I'VE NEVER HEARD OF DAVE BARRY, BUT HE IS FUNNY!!!

 

For what it's worth, I to thought it was funny laughed all the way through

 

Up.

Now that the movie is out, more people need to see this...

 

This is so funny, I had to bring it back up for others to see. Enjoy!

 

Must be an American kind of thing i guess

 

I saw that YTAP was looking for this thread, so I'll bring it up.

 

Thanks Sots!

I can't believe I skipped right over this. I obviously need to do some more indexing ad get back in practice.

Anyways, I just had found this article on my hard drive and reposted it... now I can delete it.

 

I can't believe how funny this is! Just bringing it back to the top.

 

This is my first Fanfic, so go easy on me.

***

As Terana stepped off the ship and onto the soft ground of Yavin 4, she was struck by a strange sense of Deja Vu. Everything, from the trees to the Masassi temple, now housing the Jedi Academy was familiar in a dreamlike way. She shrugged off this feeling as she stepped inside to meet Master Skywalker.

[This message has been edited by Terana Lewani (edited 05-20-2000).]

 

It was cool inside the Temple, but not cold enough to make her tighten her cloak.
As Terana walked, she noticed for the first time the Glyphs etched on the black stone walls. She gasped, attracting the attention of several other Jedi. She paid them no mind as she read the familiar writing; she had been raised speaking this language. "Tane Dathin Dala!" she muttered to no one in particular then hurried down the corridor, still milling over the sight she had just seen.

[This message has been edited by Terana Lewani (edited 04-24-2000).]

 

Little time jump here guys.
***
Terana walked out of the room, memorizing the number on the datapad and the instructions on how to get to her new bedroom.
Luke Skywalker, Jedi master, sat in his chair musing about the odd girl who was his new student. There had been something about her, a certain look that gave her a strange look of dignity, especially considering she was just a poor girl from an obscure planet.
Something about her eyes. Yes, that was it. Her eyes were blue/green with brown centers but the brown was tainted with...
yellow? No, that was impossible, he told himself. The only human he had ever seen with yellow eyes had been the Emperor...
Luke paused, wondering about the faint possibilty that... "No", he told himself solidly, that was ludicrous. Luke sat back in his chair, still slightly uneasy about the young girl named Terana Lewani.

 

Anakin Solo, wondering who his new roomate would be, streched out with the Force and touched the mind of the new Jedi trainee. Suddenly he heard a voice in his mind What is it? it asked, slightly annoyed at being disturbed. With a shock, Anakin realized it was the new student. Where did you learn to thought speak outside the academy? he asked. My mother taught me. I don't know where she learned it. "Oh" Anakin said out loud, and heard a voice say "Come on in" He entered his sleeping quarters and saw the newly installed top bunk was taken by a young girl about his age.
"I'm Terana Lewani. you are...?"
"Anakin Solo"
Terana touched her index and middle fingers to her forehead and as soon as she had removed them, started humming a celtic sounding tune.
"What's that?" Anakin asked.
"A song. Wanna hear the words?"
"Sure"
In a fluid, haunting voice, Terana sang.

Song of Darkness
Song of Light
Blend together in the night

Child of Hatred
Child of Love
Courting in the stars above

Young more powerful than their Kin
Time will end where Dark begins

As Terana ended her last note, Anakin stared open mouthed at her. Finally he spoke, saying the only thing he could.

"Wow."
"Thanks."
They smiled at each other in newfound friendship.


[This message has been edited by Terana Lewani (edited 04-24-2000).]

 

AARGH!!! Double post. mad.gif

[This message has been edited by Terana Lewani (edited 04-20-2000).]

 

Write more, please!

 

Terana almost saw Anakin's question before he asked it.
"Where did you learn that song?" he asked.
"It's an old prophecy from long before this temple was built. Perhaps that's why it's etched on the wall outside the door."
"Wait. Are you telling me you can read the Glyphs?"
Terana shrugged. "Sure, can't you?"
"No. No one I know can, besides you."
"Well, that's odd. Everyone from my village can. I was raised speaking that language."
Anakin looked confused then said "Weird. What does it mean?"
"I think it means that someone evil and someone good have a child, as do someone that had a bad childhood and someone that had a good one. These children are more powerful than their relatives, and I can't for the Lord and Lady tell what the last line means.", she said with a smile.

 

woah, big undertaking dude... it sounds like you need some bigtime background replacement if you actually want to do something in those settings that you cannot substantually create. Uh, i hope you like hard work, cause you would need extensive preparation and testing to make it look good. Ok, you would need Green/Blue surfaces, weather these be foam backed material, painted walls, etc, and for these you would need very even lighting and probably special lights/filters specially for this. Uh, a good camera would help, something that produces very little "noise" and has very good color definition, maybe a 3ccd would do nicely. Adobe After Effects with Ultimatte would be very helpful for removing the green/blue background and reflections. Some 3d program (you choose) for creating the backgrounds would be good as well, i have seen people use 2d art to replace the background, but i don't hold up very well for shots over a few seconds if the subjects move. You would certainly do well to produce some amount of a set, floor, close objects, etc. Oh yeah, and a WHOLE BUTTLOAD of skillz would be good too, cause this type of operation is incredibly hard to do very well... any experienced monkey(me) can remove a green background and add something in there, but doing it well is way beyond this monkey's ability... hope this helps and good luck dude.

 

It can be done and done well, but you need a few things in addition to what has already been mentioned: 1) ability to conceptualize clearly and communicate that to who you're working with. 2) Good art skills. You'll need extensive storyboarding if your actors will be interacting with virtual backgrounds, and you'll need to learn a good 3d Program (If you have deep pockets, use 3d Studio or lightwave, if you are poor like me, get Blender http://www.blender.nl http://www.blender.nl ).
3)Patience. You will have to learn the software and learn it well (both your effects software and your 3d software), and this takes time, particularly if you use the monkey method (screwing around with something until it finally works). You will need to do literally thousands of test renders, and you will need to look at them objectively.
4) One big honking computer and HD. This will take mondo processor time (though, if you have more than one computer, the 3d stuff can be farmed out over a network), many many gigabytes of HD space, and at the VERY LEAST 128MB RAM and a 32MB AGP grafix card.

If you still want to do things this way, here are a few tips. 1) Shoot outdoors as much as you can. If the shot can be done just as easily on a hillside (which you don't have to build) as it can in a cave or a bunker (which you have to either build manually or digitally) than do it. This will make your digital environments look better ('cause of less screen time) and your life easier (less design/render time). 2) Wherever possible, build props. It's not hard to dress up ordinary thrift-store furniture and a friend's basement to be a stormtrooper bunk room or a death-star control room. Add a little aluminum flashing and spray paint to the walls and you have yourself a set, or at least some nice-looking consoles to go in a digitized scene and add depth to it. 3) Maximize your digital time. Have a three minute dialogue that could just as easily be done in one or two lines with some nice camera work? Do it. 4) Fancy camera work. Using close-in shots on a partly digital set can sometimes eliminate the digital backgound, or at least minimize the amount you have to deal with. 5) Design the sets first, shoot second, polish third. As long as there are no major interactive elements in the digital set, just use a rough pencil sketch or rough render as a guide for setting things and people up on the set. Shoot all your footage, then put it into the computer. You'll find it much easier to fine-tune your digital environment when you know where the people are gonna be. 6) Be realistic. Allow yourself a year at least to complete a heavily digital film that runs 20 minutes or less. And get help from friends and enthusiasts, as long as they are reliable.

That's my 2c for the moment. Good luck!
-Lokmer

 

Terana was in a hall of mists, walking without purpose. She heard her echoing footsteps as she traversed the hall. Suddenly she turned on a dime and was looking straight at a person in a loose black robe of the same design as hers, except hers was brown. It had the same silver clasp at the neck, holding it together.
The person took down his hood to reveal a man in his mid-thirties with yellow eyes the same shape as hers and a handsome face with kind features. As she looked into the man's eyes, he took something out of a hidden pocket and placed it in her hand.
He leaned down and planted a soft kiss on Terana's forehead, then vanished. As Terana stared at the spot the man had stood a second before, everything around her faded to black and she opened her eyes as she woke up, her hand closed tight around an object in her left hand.

 

Good job, keep it coming!