Star Wars Fan Film - The Darkness Within Trailer...

Here is the trailer to my fanfilm, 'The Darkness Within'. I'm the director and VFX supervisor. I've been working on it for some time.

I've posted this here simply because I've not seen many FFUK'ers making and posting films.

FFUK local, GrandMoffTarkin has also been working on the film with me. He is the CGI Artist for this film project.

Enjoy the trailer.

Final Trailer

 

It's true. I did the CGI for it. It's me to blame.

So have a look at that trailer, would ya?

 

I'm quite interested in the whole fanfilm business, and would be quite willing to start making one.



But I believe Halibut is the one to speak to about fanfilms though.

 

I'm quite interested in the whole fanfilm business, and would be quite willing to start making one.



But I believe Halibut is the one to speak to about fanfilms though.

 

A round of applause for the double post separated by 5 whole minutes!

 

Awww fudge.

 

20mb for a trailer?!?!

compression compression you MUST learn compression or a film maker you shall not be!

 

nice trailer - it could have done with a bit more plot teasers though.

The CGI looked great, and the fight sequences looked really exciting.

It is a 20Mb trailer, but its really high quality (both sound and picture).
For a trailer you could have reduced quality to reduce file size, promoting people to download it, and saving your bandwidth.

If the finished movie is of the same quality as the trailer, then I'll look forward to watching it.

 

compression compression you MUST learn compression or a film maker you shall not be!

Correction: I have learnt compression, and I am already a film maker. The reason why I couldn't further compress this trailer was because the original file was created on a Mac. Thus, when I transferred the file (a few months back), I never held on to the timeline and respective program data. I only have the .mov file, and if I try to compress this in Adobe Premiere or any other program, it reduces the size of the file at the cost of the quality - making the trailer unwatchable.

malkieD2, thank you very much for the kind comments. They are very much appreciated.

 

hey, no problem at all remember and tell me when the finished movie is available.

I realise the time and effort that goes into these things from making my own movies a while back. Nothing exciting - I did a lot of stop-mation, and a dodgy 'Blair Witch' rip off.

Anyways, you might want to talk to Mark (Halibut) about file compression - maybe there's a way to take the MOV file that you have and convert it to a smaller MPG or something. I have no idea about these things.

 

The CGI looked great

Y'know, whenever I hear that, I get a nice warm fuzzy feeling.

 

Very good from what I've seen, look forward to the finished film.

And the "Burly Brawl" theme from Matrix Reloaded bizarrely went very well with lightsabers. Good job!

 

Hey, lets be realistic. Its not gonna win any OscarsTM for 'Best Trailer' or 'Short Film', but at least you have actively gone and MADE something and got the experience. If you want to get into filmmaking professionaly you're going to need to have experience. Good job.

Now comes my opinion about the film. Sorry dudes but its fairly standard no-budget fan film stuff. Some of the lightsaber battles are good, but your guys are really not giving it their all 100% of the time. Its obvious they are not actors. But in the end its really just a fan film and so it does not matter if things are not perfect. The lightsaber effects are OK, although the opening ship sequence was a bit basic.

Im a filmmaker too. I've got some pointers, critisism, and advice for you if you want:

- Firstly, you have people talking in the trailer, but cant hear them. It looks really rubish if you do that.

- You have a wobbly panning shot of a tree, thats not too interesting and has nothing to do with anything, did you HAVE to put that in?

- Next you had a bit of writting near the start. What did that say? It flashed up WAY too fast. Bad editing.

- That bit when the saber was thrown up to the Jedi, It looked bad. The guy catching it really looked like he was catching from someone instead of effortlessly using the force.

- When the guy takes his saber off his belt you can see a camera tripod in the background. Thats a funny one for the blooper reel!!

I hope your not too disapointed by my thoughts, but I am being realistic. I dont want to lie and be all 'wow, its the best thing I've seen ever'. I want to help you better your films!!

I look forward to seeing the final film

Cool. Keep it up.

 

check out fan films forum, they all seem to make fine looking trailers under 10mb!!

just because you have some kind of superfact connection dosent mean your audience has!

 

Thanks for the positive comments, Darth-Exodus. Nice to hear that you liked the music.

Whoa. Animawookiee, great feedback. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Now, let me respond to some of your comments.

- Firstly, you have people talking in the trailer, but cant hear them. It looks really rubish if you do that.

For a film maker, I would have expected you to understand the idea behind the trailer a lot better than most. The whole point is not to give away anything about the plot. That's the reason why you can't hear them talk. It's also the reason why the music plays the dominant part. I've seen many film makers use this technique, including Lucas.

- You have a wobbly panning shot of a tree, thats not too interesting and has nothing to do with anything, did you HAVE to put that in?

Yes, I had to put that in. There is actually a great significance to that shot. Films are more than just about characters, VFX or action. They are about the environments in which the story grows and takes place. In this case, the characters find themselves on a remote planet, in a dark, secluded forest. The darkness of the forest is reminiscent of the darkness growing in their hearts. Simple as that.

- Next you had a bit of writting near the start. What did that say? It flashed up WAY too fast. Bad editing.

I don't know how you managed to miss it, but it said, "Darkness will fall".

Thanks for the feedback!

I'd also like to add that this was first time for all of us. VFX, CGI, film making, acting, story telling - everything was new ground for us.

Oh, and Ripper, if you don't want to download the trailer, don't. I'm not forcing you.

check out fan films forum, they all seem to make fine looking trailers under 10mb!!

Check my previous post. I already explained this. Stop spamming by bringing up the same issue over and over again.

 

I just watched the trailer a few more times over, and I'm still impressed

I still think you could have given away a little of the plot in the trailer - maybe just a few shock lines such as "its all over", or "now you die" etc. I never noticed the tripod in the background of one shot - lol, it just adds to the amateur nature of the production, and isn't a bad thing.

The force grab of the lightsaber wasn't too bad. Perhaps you could speed up the film at that point to make it look less like someone else threw him the saber. (or alternatively film him throwing the sabre away, then reverse the film).

The FX of the sabers still look awesome and the fighting looks real (better than the Vader vs Obi ANH fight ).

I also enjoyed the different sound track used, rather than using the now cliched StarWars main theme.

Although no-one talks, the acting looks pretty good. Basically, I want to see the final movie.

Get on with it !

 

Imran i DO want to look at your trailer that is why i say this.

its perfectly easy to compress alot more with out loosing much quality, i've seen films at 1mb per min which are watchable on a TV screen.

DVD-Rhelp.com] has some fantastic articles on converting files

try making it an mpg then you can watch it on VCD as well

 

Ripper has asked me to back him up over his claim.
I cant as I'm not expieranced.
But it is big for just 1min 19 secs, through it is nice...

Dont want to get into a argument, so Ripper can find someone else to back him up... (Preferby someone with knowledge of the subject)

 

Well it didn't take me any time at all to download it, but then I'm on the Work Network. I think it would take an age if you have a 56Kbps connection, if it was compressed (i.e. made smaller) then I'm sure that it wouldn't take so long to download (15 or even 10Mb should be quicker to download than 20, I'm fairly sure of that).

As for the Trailer itself, well we aren't allowed Quicktime here so I haven't watched it but if I had I'm fairly sure that I would have spotted people talking without any voices, strange camera tripods, Force throws that aren't very realistic and pointless shots of trees. Apart from that I'm sure that I would have enjoyed it.

 

I think it's great. The CGI is very impressive and the saber technique is very convincing... I'm noticing a few echoes of ROTJ there

Keep me informed D_I, and I'll look forward to it's release!

 

Sorry but what I seen of this was awful. I've seen better clips on 'You've been framed!'. I thought this was very poor. I was trying to download it again to give further points but it wont download. It's only my opinion but I thought it was awful. Sorry.

 

wow, a 1 post troll from March03.

well, thanks for your comments, I doubt the director is losing any sleep.

If you can PM me, or start a thread when its finished I'd appreciate that

 

The comments were for the 'director'- not you, so no need to 'thank' me.

 

Luke, thanks for the kind comments mate!

It's only my opinion but I thought it was awful.

Well, I'm glad that it's only your opinion. Like it. Hate it. It doesn't bother me. I enjoyed making it, and that's what matters most to me. I posted it on the FFUK forum to allow my friends to catch a glimpse of my work.

Besides, do you make films? Do you have a film or trailer that is any better than mine? If so post it, please. It's so easy to judge somebody else's work when you haven't done something similar.

 

Ummm I can't get the link to work and i'm afraid the download buttons on your webby don't work either. (or I'm a retard which is probably more likely)