suffered through another formulaic fan film...

p.s. yes, I have a job, AND IT'S TIME TO LEAVE!!!


Like the beating you took wasn't enough.

 

WOW. I don't agree with how Grover said what he did but I'm REALLY amazed at the sometimes childish but always harsh responses we got here.

datoolman, looks like we're even for that newbie I flamed some months ago (fighting fire with fire), at which you were aghast at my behavior, because I'm quite shocked in this thread.

Unfortunately I do have to agree with Grover on the note that very few of you seem to want to read behind the sometimes easily-misinterpreted words of a message board post. You were so willing to assume it was a flame (because you read everyone's ever-increasing frenzy before posting and got that interpretation stuck in there) that you responded in kind. This happened all the time when Mark Thomas was still posting here.

Now, as I said, I think, Grover, that you made a mistake in pinpointing one film DESPITE its immediacy to your topic. The best course of action would have been to critique fan films in general for the problems you saw in that one fan film, WITHOUT using an "anonymous" film as an example. As you can see, that causes an uproar.

Now, let's talk about this, hopefully reasonably.

I don't think Star Wars is about the special effects. If eye candy was what people REALLY wanted, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within would have slain at the box office. But it didn't.

Now, I can't deny the appeal of the special effects. But the ONLY reason they are there is to tell an entertaining and compelling story. I mean, how riveting was it to see Obi-Wan hanging from a probe droid hundreds of stories above the surface of the city planet, and since it looked REAL you really kept your eyes on it all.

But special effects should be in service to the story. I find it fascinating how people don't burn out at the END, when the FX are happening, but at the BEGINNING, when they're shooting the live action.

As for the "it's just for fun" argument, okay, it's just for fun, their own enjoyment, so they should have no interest in our opinions. As such, I see no reason in not sharing those opinions.

Despite lack of funds or anything else, if you DO put your "heart and soul" into a fan film, it'll be obvious. I didn't see anyone flame Power of the Sith when it was released, nor was there a peasant uprising when it was accepted to TF.N.

Though there WAS one for Art of the Saber, a pure effects test that didn't really matter to them.

Look, I've said it before and I'll say it now. We know that you can do lightsabers on a home computer. Duality made us all believe that a ship can fly by the camera and a blue room can be an arena for a fight to the death. We know the tools are there and the fascination with them has worn off. Now we want someone to do something WITH them.

If you're not that someone, okay. Rationalize it however you want to keep your ego up. But the point is, eye candy is no longer impressive on its own. The only way to show us something we've never seen before, is to tell us something with it that we've never been told before.

Otherwise it's just a bunch of pixels.

M. Scott