***The Lightsaber Choreography Contest Entries: Discuss and Critque***

Exactly, both combatants know exactly where the other combatant's lightsaber will be so they both end up clashing at the same place for every move.

 

For those of you who would like to see detailed Results of the votes and where the other entries stand Click Here

Once again...


Your winners of the LCC VII (2009)...




In 3rd Place is:

SilentBat




In 2nd Place is:

STORMMovies




And in 1st Place is:

Tumblemoster


Congratulations to the Winners.

Coming Soon....The Judge's Chamber!

*Audience "Oooos"*

 

Wow, looking at the results page, that was a close race. The top 3 weren't separated by much at all.

 

Lol, I guess you do then....

I see what you are saying. I agree.

 

Congrats to you three, you deserved this one!

 

call me and idiot, but i'm confused. Was this the popular vote or is this the judges vote?

 

Congrats to the winners, and to everyone who entered. Making something is farther than many got... remember that, and learn from your work this year, and the responses it's gotten. It's interesting to watch the growth of some folks here over the years. It reinforces the advice I give the many many kids who email me asking for advice on making fight sequences, which is to get out there and do it. Even if you think it's gonna look like crap, do it anyway. And then watch it, and see what works and what sucks, and then go out and do it again, avoiding what sucks and honing in on what you like. Learn each time and grow each time... you will get better. And we all start somewhere.


So, since the voting is finally over, I now feel free to discuss my involvement with an entry without fear of swaying the voting. I wanted to let the entry stand for itself and be judged for what it is, without bias. It will probably come as no surprise to many of you, who already suspected I had something to do with Ricky vs SilentBat. I would have thought the saber props would be a dead giveaway (SiletBat uses half of my double saber as seen in the RvB fights, and Ricky uses Brandon's). My role was as camera operator, and I was basically responsible for the way the fight is shot and edited. I was expecting to be fairly involved with the choreography as well... but Antoine and Ricky didn't need it. They know each other well, and work together rapidly and enthusiastically. For the most part I would just watch them choreograph, think about angles to show it, and provide occasional advice on which way to face to favor the camera, or suggest a change in footwork or motion of the fight to play as dynamically as possible on film. Well, not film, but video. But this project started to blur that line, visually, more than anything I've shot so far. As was indicated before, we shot on the HVX200 with a Letus Extreme 35mm adapter which I had been looking for an excuse to play with for some time. I rented it along with a small set of Nikon prime lenses for 2 days and got the crash course in 35mm video photography the hard (but probably best)way. It was a beast to work with, but I think I managed to do OK overall. We can talk about all that in more detail later, if people are interested.

But anyway. As far as the choreography goes, it's pretty much all them... my goal was just to try to show it off to the best of my ability from behind the camera. I will point out, though, my couple of contributions to the "choreography" if you want to consider it that:

If you didn't like the baseball swing destruction of SilentBat's saber, you can blame me. We needed to destroy a saber, I thought it was a funny idea, and I always feel like you have to take chances on things like that, because they at least give personality to the fight. Not everybody's gonna like it, but you have to try things.

While practicing a different part of the fight, Ricky's glasses would keep falling off and he'd have to pick them up. One time he actually caught them before they hit the pavement, and I declared that we needed to work that into the fight and shoot it 30 times until he can actually do it again. I briefly considered pocketing the idea for use in RvD3... but you know.

The somewhat hand-to-hand part surrounding that shot, where SilentBat is now saber-less and engages Ricky in what ultimately ends in them both dropping the saber, was a bit difficult for the guys. They certainly had no problem working out swordplay, but weren't as confident when it was more close-quarters somewhat hand-to-hand work. So essentially for the first time I actually stepped into help work out some moves explicitly, and have a cool moment where SilentBat is trying to torque the saber behind Ricky into his back.

Aside from those things, the choreography is their work, and I think they did a fine job, especially for about 2 days of choreography/practice and 2 days of shooting. It was actually a very quick project all around. We also did the post production for the entry in about 2 days. The guy

 

Congrats to ALL of you, it really is an accomplishment to finish something and have people view it. Ryan, Ricky, Silentbat, how did your collaberation come about? Did you specifically seek out people in the LA area that were already doing an entry and then approach them? Also I'm curious how STORMMovies created the slow-motion saber ignition.

Finally, since fx, sound and editing undoubtedly come into play so much, what are the chances that the lcc can sort of evolve into a 'fight scene' contest, where the choreography is not the focus, but rather creating a polished, self contained fight or battle scene?

 

Those who followed the other LCC thread might recall that I simply made an open call that I was looking for SoCal peeps doing an entry. Ricky wrote me back, plans changed and evolved... it was off, then on, a time or two... but eventually the schedules worked out.

 

omg.
I totally forgot to vote.


//runs
(I'm sorry! I was away from my own computer most of the week, I didn't get to see all the entries!)

 

Great work everyone. I'd like to echo Ryan, because he said something really important:

You got something done, you put it out there, and a lot of other people didn't. Actually completing a project is an amazing achievement. It's the hardest and best way to learn to be a filmmaker.

Looking forward to the judges reviews.

 

Congrats Tumblemonster, Silentbat, and Stormmovies!

Did Lrd_Radon get DQ'd?

 

No he didn't. He got dropped off the list on the score sheet, not sure how. I updated it and sent the updated version to obijuan, but he's offline just now. My apologies to Radon for the omission.

 

Congrats to the top 3. A deserved victory for all three of you.

 

Congratulations to the winners!

Tumble, will you be wanting two free sabers from me (when I get the chance to make them)?

 

Don't those go to the judges winner? The results above are from the popular vote.

 

I honestly don't remember how that went for LCC VI (other than Ryan not wanting them). I'll go with whatever ObiJuan tells me.

 

If you're going to make two... why not give one to popular and one to judges' winner? If it happens to be Tumble for both, well, good job Tumble.
I'm not sure what the rule was, though. It prolly is up to Obijuan.

 

Either way, I appreciate the gesture. If you don't mind though, give them to whichever entry had the ugliest saber props this year, as they will clearly be the most in need of your skills!

 

Well that's very nice of you. Your sabers were quite nice by the way.

Anywho, I want them to go to to either the first, second or third place winners but if all three decline, I can always go down the list until someones says "gimme". If no one wants them well then, less work for me.

 

No prb man. It happens.

 

I held a camera. Do I qualify?

 

As mentioned earlier, now that the contest is over (at least the voty bit), here is the HD version with finished sound.

 

congrats to the top three, well deserved for the obvious hard work and time that went into them, bit surprised that Whiteley79 wasn't closer in the running at the end as those four were clearly the ones that were going to win. Each year i make a point to check out this competition and not one year has it been anything but brilliant. Thank you to everyone who took part and made some fun duels for us all to watch and enjoy.