The Formula - Released

HAHAHA! That's the funniest film I've EVER seen!

 

Lest you all forget the dialup user's pain, my connection is a whopping...

2.3 kbps

If they ever get DSL in my neighborhood, I will personally tear apart my old modem capacitor by capacitor.

 

Rive:
Not just a "Jaws" monologue, but I'm guessing it's crossed with a major Babylon 5 reference in the beginning of the same monologue... Loved it!

Fenn

 

we've not forgotten our dial-up cousins, There will be smaller versions available early next week, i'm waiting to hear from Chris as to where we're cutting the segments up.

anyway,

Nick "Shorty" Long

 

Interesting rip from "High Fidelity" to start off the film. I haven't been following the build up, so i don't know if this was the intention of the whole script or not, but starting off with a blatant steal from another, non-Star Wars related movie is a bit of a fan film turn-off

 

Wow, great work guys (gender inclusive of course!)!!!

A very well made film... professional level acting for the most part, MOST IMPRESSIVE! Without a doubt some of the best acting I've seen in these films.

I also loved the "Pants" section... "Yeah, great one Chewie, always thinking with your pants!" hehe...

Fantastic work guys...

John.

 

Bedivere13, there's a bit of a difference between a clever homage and a "rip" or "steal".

 

The "Jaws" monologue is a clever homage- The "high Fidelity" lines are not. Why?

A: Both use a few word replacements to change the meaning of the original.
What makes the Jaws monologue a clever homage is that the original is so well known that the audience is almost immediately tipped off to the existance of the homage. The music from the scene also tips us in. We feel as if we, as an audience, are part of the joke.

With the "High Fidelity" lines, there seems no real point. THe speech is given but there is no indication, musically or otherwise, that this speech is anything other than original.


I can see where the movei makers were going with the lines as they were, but my initial observation i stand by: Basically opening the "real" movie with a subtley altered speech with no indication that the speech is a homage is a bit of a fan film turn off

 

VERY VERY VERY VERY GOOD! I mean this movie was just great, while I myself may not be a Fanfilm Maker, I am just starting production on my first feature film and seeing this just really made me remember why I was doing this, why I love film so much. It made me laugh so very much. Greg (Abe right?) just cracked me up to no end, almost anything the guy did made me laugh.

Though I did have some minor beefs, a one major one. The minor beefs being that sometimes I felt the one shots dragged on for a long time and that sometimes the movie parodies (The Matrix in particular) just carried on far too long and really kept the story back a bit but they were funny so that can definately be excused. And the major beef was the stolen "High Fidelity" monologue, and while it may have seemed like a clever homage it wasn't...it was just taken right from the movie and it just didn't seem right... it made it seem like you guys didn't know what to say so you took someone else's work instead.

But the good far outway the bad (bah what bad, like I said just minor beefs). This movie is an inspiration to me and I'm sure to many other filmmakers everywhere. You guys truly know how to make a film and truly know what it is to be a fan. Congrats and thank you.

 

Well, guys, all I have to say is that you really know how to do it. Absolutely fabulous work. Having done a number of films of my own, I know the hardship that the producer/director goes through in trying to make the best production possible. And it's true, the fact that you're doing this with your friends to have fun does sometimes disappear from view. Hit close to home

Well done! Absolutely wonderful.

 

TumbleMonster: "I wish I could have seen it in Iowa."

What were you refering to? Was the film shown at some kind of premiere in Iowa? If so, I live in Iowa, and I guess I missed it. Oh well.

 

Well instead of waiting 12 hours for the movie to download, I swallowed my pride and drove to my parents' house to use their DSL line, and of course it took only 20 minutes to download. At this point in the thread there's really nothing new I can say that hasn't been said already, but I just wanted you guys to know that you did a GREAT job, I loved every minute of it, the acting, dialouge, and story were all well done and different. Keep it up and keep cranking out radio episodes for the love of Mike. Becca, you're beautiful. Thanks again guys.

 

"What were you refering to? Was the film shown at some kind of premiere in Iowa?"

There was a one-time showing Saturday evening in Marion. It had a pretty good turn out.

I would just like to say that you did a great job Chris. Thank you for letting me be a part of it. Can't wait for your next project.

TTYL
Dave

 

Grrr...I tried downloading twice and each time it stops short. It says "Web Page Not Found" and there was only ten minutes left.

-nobody

 

the site is back up, it usually goes down for betwwen 1-5 minutes at this time for the ISP to do routine checks.

Sorry.

anyway,

Nick "Shorty" Long

 

nobody try right clicking on the link and do a save target as

 

macho - it won't make a difference, the entie site goes down for a few minutes.

It's DAMN annoying.

anyway,

Nick "Shorty" Long

 

Macho - I was, I meant only ten minutes left of download time.

Anyway, it works now (and was kind enough to pick up where it left off) and is down now, must go watch.

-nobody

 

Pixel - They had a premiere at a high school in Marion. They got a standing ovation! I was supposed to be there. I got about 20 minutes away from home and a belt broke on my car, so I couldn't make it.

I heard the premiere was great though!

-tm

 

You know...there's probably some Star Trek fans out there I'll piss off by saying this, but those Trekkies struck me as awfully true to life, and it was oh so satisfying to see them get it from the Warsies.

 

HEY! Am i the first 56ker to download this film!

If so: Yippee!!!

19 hours later I had the film, in it's full 211 megabyte glory!

I downloaded, I double clicked, I watched, I conquered.

Great movie guys, this was EXACTLY what I was hoping for (seeing as you gave us NOTHING but the radio show to give us an idea of what the film WOULD be)

But the comedy was great, the acting was great... it was a real movie.

And after all this talk in your show about the different swordfighting methods, i expected something special. The best part was, I actually did see all the different styles... there was real skill there, great stuff.

The only problem I had (anyone else) is that the screen "wiggles" sometimes... like, it looks REALLY weird, you see curved black on both sides and the picture gets distorted...

Besides that, GREAT GREAT GREAT movie, this will be one to show ALL my NOn Star Wars fans.

Cya
Mike

PS: Chris as the director REALLY shined true to home.... I mean, I could really relate with you... it was excellent, just an overall great movie.

PPS: Does anybody else think it is an injustice to have the TF.N logo right in front, but no FanfilmFX logo, seeing as how Nick was up till 5am (he's reminded us all on several occasions )

 

Actually guys, I've thought of one gaping weakness in this amazing movie.. I hate to say it but...

It's too damn LONG, which GREATLY HAMPERS MY ABILITY TO WATCH IT AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN. GRRRRR.

Yeah, nothing new here. The Formula -- it's the film you love to love.

 

I will chime in my two cents here. Good job. Overall a very watchable piece. The High Fidelity thing...to me it set the tone...and in fact told me immediatly what to expect. In truth I had seen nothing about this film before now...not sure why...but by the opening sequence I was pretty sure I knew what to expect. The funniest thing though was reading the notes from the director and seeing that my first fanfilm project perfectly fits....the formula ....I neared spit my coke out but in the end you make these things for the exact reason stated...its fun..and you want to

The trekkies were funny. I am one of the few people it seems who enjoys both universes. but I have known quite a few guys just like those two...and quite a few SW fans that argue like that as well.

Anyway..great job guys. Now get to working on that film that does fit the formula heheh

Shadoe

 

Okay. Um, wow. This is.... unreal. Your response has blown me away, as the audience did at the premiere party (pictures of that coming soon). I'll talk a bit about all that in just a second, but first, to answer some questions....

1) THE COMPRESSION

Yes, the compression is something that i would not call great, but it is hardly Golden-Y's fault. First, i had to send it to him on VHS, not mini-dv. Not only was his camera not working at the time, but the mini-dv deck that we output the movie from seems to dub back to the tape at the wrong speed... it plays in all other decks Sloooooow and jumpy. I have no idea why, but until we can output to another DV source, i'm going to have to figure out another way to send this thing to a compressor... DVD maybe, who knows, Steve's boss Wayne (who's been such a great guy to borrow equipment from) is helping me with that.

Also, we REALLY wanted to make the release date. We promised Saturday, and we were going to deliver Saturday. Golden-Y and NickLong were instrumental in getting that taken care of.

(As for why there's no fanfilmFX logo on the movie? Nick's hosting of the file was a last minute decision, a neccessary one for a Saturday release. It was made long after we had finished the movie. If i ever have the chance to alter the movie, I will be glad to throw it on.)

2) HIGH FIDELITY - HOMAGE OR RIPOFF?

This one kinda perplexes me. Of course, myself more than anyone believes in everyone's right to their own opinion. (our radio show relies on that belief.) However, i myself cannot see a difference between what i did with the Jaws monologue and the High Fidelity monlogue.

(At this point i'm going to assume that you've seen The Formula so i can make a few points here).

First, Bedivere says "What makes the Jaws monologue a clever homage is that the original is so well known that the audience is almost immediately tipped off to the existance of the homage". He cites the music, and the fact that we didn't use any for the High Fidelity monlogue.

Actually, when we first had the Jaws scene rough cut, there *was* no music. It was an afterthought by Steve to put it in, to help people make the Jaws connection, as Bedivere points out.

No music in the High Fidelity section? No. Why? A few good reasons. First, whereas Jaws has its classic score, what singular song, to you, screams 'High Fidelity'? Anyone? Anyone? And if you have an answer, it probably wouldn't go well with that moment right there. It was a choice on our part not to have any music there. And i think it worked the best it could.

As for if Jaws is more recognizable... I was actually more worried about people getting the Jaws monlogue than the other way around... i moved stuff around and hacked it up so much i was afraid of people being able to make the connection. High Fidelity i left intact more or less because it worked the way it was. And Tom and Rob Gordon were in very similar situations at the times of their rants: Having just had their psyche run through a blender, and needing to get it off their chest.

I am a HUGE HUGE HUGE John Cusack fan. I worship his work as an actor, writer, and filmmaker. If he were ever to see The Formula i would die happy right then and there. And i put that in (and broke down the 4th wall repeatedly) as a tip of the hat to the man.

It's an homage, no matter how close to theivery it is in other viewers eyes. (Didn't anyone see Maru? If what we did is a ripoff, then Maru is highway robbery.)

I'm sorry if you feel there's a difference between the ways we treated the two monlogues, because i can't change that. All i can do is offer an explination for the choices i made in the film to make the best product possible.

Or i could just take a bit of advice from my own character and say "Who cares if my film's not perfect?"

Okay, and then...

3) THE RESPONSE

Again.... wow. Everyone's kind words and thumbs up has been unreal. We came home from the premiere last night totally walking on cloud nine. Everyone loved the film, people cheered throughout, we got

 

Chris, I want to thank you for spending so much time and putting as much effort into this film as you have. It has paid off! I could go on and on about how funny and clever the film was, but I thing that'll be taken care of in the next few pages to come. Like Eagle, what really struck me was that this fanfilm had a purpose. It showed the human side of carrying out your dreams and completing your passion. It was well rounded, well balanced. Sure it was funny, but at the same time, it made you feel for Servo's situation. I could literally feel what he was going through. Both of these aspects were blended together very well. I still can't think of anything I would change to make it better.

The message overall was very real and honest. I appreciate the fact that it actually HAD a message. The monolouges were never boring; VERY well written. The dialouge and interaction between the actors were simply astounding for such a film. Abe's anger really came through in the scene near the end. I kinda backed away from the screen, fanning the heat off the monitor.

Thank you Chris. You'll probably never know exactly how much some of us appreciate you for all you've done. You're truly an inspiration to us all.

Now, for the comments on what I actually liked (j/k) :

Loved the pants comments. I've even gone so far as to come up with my own after discussing it with my friends:
"Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your pants."
"The pants are what gives a Jedi his power."
"Your pants can decieve you; Don't trust them."
"He asks the impossible! I need more pants!"
"Commander, tear this ship apart until you find those pants."
"The pants in this artoo unit will give us the information we need."
"That's impossible! Even for a computer!" "No it's not. I used to blast wamp rats in my pants back home; they're no bigger than 2 meters."
"Ooooh. He's been frozen in pants!"

That's all for now. Other things I enjoyed:
- Justin's Episode IV musical. I could actually do the music if you put words to it, Justin.
- Justin's little hilt spin before igniting. I'm still trying to do it. Although I could probably spin a single blade better than you could. Alright, I think Justin and I need to have a sabre-spinning showdown!
- Justin peeing in the woods. (I didn't exactly ENJOY it, but you know)
- Justin and Abe whacking each other behind the couch. Just cause I can relate.
- Chris' line "I know what I wanna do!"
- The Trekkies. My goodness, do they know how ridiculous they looked?!

Which brings me to my final point. Alright, the guys who did the sabre effects for your fanfilm are none other than our beloved DorkmanScott and Ryan_W. The guys who did the lightsabre effects for the fanfilm in the Formula were Trekkies. Is there some subtle connection you're trying to establish?

Again, Thank you Chris. We owe you.