The Formula - Released

Allrighty, here's my review.

Now I've watched this flick three times through. It's entertained me so much I've shown it to bout anyone who'll sit with me for 52 and some change.

I loved the dialouge, the story kept me interested and I actually so felt in the same boat. I think I'm going to have the end speech printed on my wall for reference.

Now I can't comment so much on the editing and sound since its not realy my forte, and I've no complaints except MORE!!!!! But what I can comment on -

Fighting: If this really is your first time and no foreknowledge, I bow. You guys really learned to step and incorporate moves. Stage combat is telling a story. The first dream sequence fight really had the feel of jedi. In fact my favorite part was the was the blade closed down as greg slid across the floor. I liked the matrix lesson, except for the four swings at the head. naughty naughty.

Other than that i am thoroughly impressed guys. Any one of you ever want a fighting part in AQOF2 you're in.

and thanks for the nod in the film, I heard the series start on the pc and my saber whistle went off.

 

Scud- While I had absolutely no fighting experience and Justin had about a month, Abe has been doing fight choreography for about 5 years. It's really that you refer to the dream sequence fight as "really had the feel of jedi" since we were rapier fighting, which we've never really seen in Star Wars, but we've always felt they would if they had weightless blades.

As for the headswings- they're definitely not as close as they look. Abe really made sure that those were done right. I'm sure Abe will read your post and go on a huge rant on the choreography explaining everything, which is something i've been hoping for him to do (hint, hint, Abe!)

Thanks for the compliments, it's a blast to hear from the people that inspired us from the start.

-Chris
-Chris

 

Wow, an excellent film guys. This will be the difinitive fan film for the forseeable future. Very inventive, very funny, very well acted, and very well shot. When you get a studio deal please keep me in mind as your DP or something. The little kid & the lunch money scene totally cracked me up. Very entertaining. Put me on the list for a DVD, I'll trade you one for an Essence of the Force DVD if you're interested.

 

It's hard to find if you don't know where to look. And it's NOT in the Faq.

Actually, it's not nearly that hard.

If you don't have an icon, you just need to look at one of your posts, and under your name, where the icon usually goes, there's a link that says 'Your icon here' or something like that. You just have to click the link and you're taken to the icon page.

So THERE.

 

I especially liked all of the Mountain Dew references...lol There is no try...there is only....PANTS!

 

I really wish I could see this movie! I really wish I could see this movie! But my 56K connection is actually downloading it at an average rate of about 0.8kbps... See you in 60 hours or so.

-Paul

 

filmmaker:

Between my film and yours, Pepsi could start their own Dew Film Festival....

-Chris

 

That's right. Dew MUST be the Essence of the Force. Too bad Pepsico doesn't realize it yet.

 

Hello there!
Since Chris has apparently wanted me to post about this, I'll comment on the fight choreography.
First off, thanks to Scudknight for his comments, it's nice to have the approval of fello fight choreographers. As for the headswings: I was actually disapointed how they turned out on screen because the masking was off. I hit the mark too early while pulling Steve's seat around, so you can see that Chris doesn't even come close to "just missing" Justin. If I'd nailed the camera angle right, it would have looked like Justin (Zarth) was just barely dodgeing out of the way of Chris' (Tom's) swings. In actuality, Justin is a good 10-14 inches out of Chris' swing arc and is actually ducking before Chris swings (now I'm giving away choreography secrets), so the blade never actually crosses the plane of Justin's face (conforming with SAFD saftey regs).
As for what I wanted to accomplish with this film with respect to the choreography. I wanted to present lightsaber fights in the manner I've always felt they should be done. As Chris mentioned before, the lightsaber (if it existed) is the perfect sword fighting weapon because it has almost no heft (the weight of the blade). So, it is perfect for any swordfighting style; it can move at lightning speed so it lends itself to smallsword and light rapier, but it's is also a beam of plasma with tremendous cutting power, so it's also perfect for heavy rapier, broadsword, and samurai. I really wanted to incorporate all these styles into the movie because we've never seen them used in the Star Wars movies (mostly because George has always stated that lightsabers MUST be used two handed).
So, the vision fight is a rapier duel, the matrix scene jumps between smallsword vs broadsword, heavy rapier vs samurai, and then staff fighting vs what was supposed to be light rapier, but Chris couldn't move the saber move the saber fast enough and still safely maintain control, so we had him finish the fight using broadsword.
My actual favorite fight scene is the "Bond of the Force" fight. I got to incorporate all of the swordfighting styles (as Jacen uses them all against his Sith opponent), but more importantly, I got to do a really vicious lightsaber fight; again, something we don't often see in the movies. By the end of the fight, the sith is punching and kicking Jacen all over the place and, when Jacen gains the upper hand, he nails him in the groin, DEACTIVATES the lightsaber and proceedes to pummel the stuffing out of the sith boy! The three right crosses and the backhand are actually my favorite part of the whole scene. We finally get to see a Jedi get down and dirty! Also, this was specifically chosen to help the narrative of the fight; Jacen is so concerned about finding his brother and desperately wants to know where he is that he lets his emotions and anger get the better of him and we see him briefly dip into the Dark side. Only after he's slammed the Sith to the ground does he realize what he's done and forces himself to calm down and be One with the force. As a trivia side note, the manner in which the Sith died was a deliberate choice. In the original script, Chris had written that after Darth gives up the information, Jacen kills while he's laying on the ground. This didn't seem right to me. So I suggested that Jacen walk away from the Sith as an insult ( I'm turning my back on you to show you how little a threat I consider you to be). That way, the Sith could attack, which let Jacen kill him in self defence, much more befitting the Jedi Code.
All in all, it was a great time and thanks to everyone for their comments. Scudknight (and all the AQOF boys), I and the other Llama boys would consider it an privilege to be able to fight in your next film. You know how to get a hold of us!

Abe

 

Thanks, Abe! That's really cool!

 

Hello LLamas,

I just wanted to thank everyone for allowing me to be a part of this amazing film. I can't even convey just how impressed with the whole thing. You guys are great. When you set up the camera in my living room and told me to burp and fart... I wasn't sure what to think about the whole thing. When I saw the end product I had to lift my jaw off the floor.

Thanks Again,
Chad
aka Bobba Fatt

 

Janz_Walker:
Thanks for the info. bud. I've got something up now at least. Your suggestions were helpful. Same with yours, EagleIFilms! I'd just be a little more careful with your wording in later posts. People might think you're full of yourself.

Abe! It's great to read and hear about the fight choreography from you again. Looking at my present situation, I'll be back late August for six months at the shortest length. Monica's coming to pick me up, and she has to be back by the 28th. My mission is to pick up some $$$, and update my resumes. Anywho, the one regret I had while doing The Formula is that I never got to do any fight choreography myself. Think I could hit you up for some lessons when I head home?

 

EagleIFilms wonders:

Do the Llamas own phones, or e-mail each other, or do they just talk via the forum? Hmmmm...

 

As a matter of fact, Gregory(would you rather I call ya' Greg?), we have ALL those modes of communication at our disposal! I just wanted to post my thanks to you and "THE OTHER CHRIS", and I had a few more things to report to Abe. Since the phone is long distance, and Abe's working at this time of day, not to mention I don't usually have this sort of time to be on the computer, I decided to practice what you preach! CONSERVATION IS THE KEY! So in one post, I thanked you, I thanked Chris, and I hit Abe up with some news. You should be proud. So thanks again for showing me the light.

 

HA!
As a matter of fact, I only communicate with the other llamas via the message boards. In fact, every Digital Llama Radio show we've done, I'M NOT REALLY THERE!! Nope, I'm typing in what I say and Chris has a software program that has my speech patterns digitally stored in it. So, whatever I type, it translates into sound and records it for the show. Keen, huh?
What's up, Steve?! Great to hear from you and I can't wait till you're back. You bet we can do some lessons! Just hook up with me when you get in (cuz we're gonna have the big party waiting...) Also, anyone else who is in the Iowa area who would like to take swordfighting lessons, get in touch with me at duelmaster@hotmail.com.

Take care everyone!
Abe The Furry Llama

 

Hey Abe!
I'm STOKED about the party and the lessons! LEGAL EAGLE GREG!!!! Wanna come learn sword fighting in Iowa this fall?

 

Oh Abe! I forgot, I had something else to tell you, but I'm not allowed to post two messages back to back on the message board! So, I'll just get back to you later sometime. Darn, if I'd only edited that last post!

 

Gregory(would you rather I call ya' Greg?)

Gregory, thanks.

Anyway, you guys crack me up.

Oh, and if you'll pay for the plane ticket, I'm there.

 

Well, now that you mention it, EagleI, we DID decided to make a low budget movie in order to save money JUST for this purpose! Yes, yes, we Jedi Llamas have the special gift of telekenesisniuffiluphigus. Basically that means that we can see into the future while watching Sesame Street. In other words, PACK YOUR SUITCASE!!!! Suit. Case. SUITCASE!

 

Wow.... Now only 18 hours left.

-Paul

 

<shakes head in bewilderment>

Steve Phelan, ladies and gentlemen...

...you scare me sometimes, but by god you're amusing to watch.

-Chris

 

Hey Chris, when's the next DLR? (sorry to be slightly OT here...)

 

Okay, I'm going back and listening to the pre-TFN DLRs and in DLR1, Justin refers to a painting scene in the film...what happened to it?

 

Oooh, deleted scene.

 

Ahh...the Deleted scenes. Don't worry, Young Padawan, all will be revealed in time...

As for DLR, I'm prodding Chris to record soon!
Abe