Chic, IL Feature length fan film trilogy? We need help.

That brings up a question I had. Isn't it illegal to pay someone to work on a fan film? Of course, I know it would be illegal to sell it, but isn't the verbage along the lines of "if anyone profits financially" from the production?

I mean, who hasn't toyed around with the idea of doing a fan film. Darth Astuart's hoity-toity attitude aside, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and while I have plenty of good ideas myself, it's kinda fun to speculate what our favorite characters do besides what we see on the screen.

Just curious. I won't be filming my epic trilogy any time soon.

 

I'm not trying to discourage anyone, but since I've made one fan film and am working on the two sequels for it at the moment, I can say that making three 25-minute films is very, very hard. Especially when there's special effects and action involved.

I didn't know what I was getting into when I decided to make a SW fan film. I thought I'd get some friends together and we'd whack at each other with dowel rods and capture it on film.

Nope. There's tons of pre-planning: getting a cast rounded up (and getting them to stay with the project for extended periods of time), getting a camera, saving up lots of money, getting locations (a problem I'm having right now), storyboarding, putting shot lists together, writing a decent script, finding people who are willing to donate time to provide the visual effects, planning fight scenes that will not result in someone getting hurt but will look super cool, finding sound effects (both SW and general), getting a computer that's fast enough and has enough HD space to handle GIGS of footage, getting programs for editing and anything else that will come in handy, buying props, making/purchasing costumes... you get the point. And I did all this while working a full time job that is very exhausting.

It's a hassle, but damn if it isn't fun! I've had a blast making these films. I've met lots of great people, shared ideas with them, brainstormed with them and made a lot of friends in my area, as well as people in other states/countries. It's awesome.

I wish I could help you with your project (and I would like to see it if it gets made), but I'm going to be too busy with my own for a while. But if you ever need advice or anything, feel free to look me up.

Shwanzi

 

Yes, yes. To Shwanzi you listen.

Though, I'm down for watching a six-hour flash animation film. I mean only if it's broken down into 2 hour segments.

 

bosh is being modest. he's made his own 6-hour flash film.

check it out at www.unclebensfriedass.com (NSFW).

 

ROFLMAO!!!

 

I just want to clarify something: nobody said that the films would each be two hours long. In fact, we're trying to make the first one only one hour long, but the other two... Two hours is good. so this is only 5 hours of fanfilm. Hope that helps

 

Your clarification clarified something that you shouldn't see as a good thing: you have no clue as to what you're doing! IMHO, this project is going to fail (miserably), or else it'll be so far gone that nobody will watch it. Do you even have a DV camera, and do you have any idea how many hundreds of gigs of storage space you'll need?

Btw Kev, we've gotta show these people the "The Cow Movie!" If I only had that ADVC-100 still . . .

 

I admit that i don't know everything there is to know about filming. Thats why i'm here.

And yes, i do have a dv camera, and storage problems are easy to get around.

 

I'm still open to any helpful people's suggestions (besides "don't do it")

 

So what do you have planned for your films? What kinda locations do you need? What's going to happen? The more we know the more we can help.

 

From Max's website...

"Here we will chart our progress for all the world to see. Right now it can be described with two words: Not Much.
That's not quite true. Here's a list of what we've done so far, in no particular order:

~Named the movies
~Figured out the general plot
~Started the scripts
~Created this website
~I (Max) don't know about Conrad, but I've watched the Star Wars DVDs over and over again."

 

Don't laugh, that's more than I have done. I haven't even watched the DVD's all the way through yet.

 

Ooo, Bosh has new colors.

Yeah, I've only watched the DVDs through once.

 

not only have I not watched the DVDs, I haven't even named the movies yet.

one of them's regress...recharge...revenge of something? and the empty...spikes brak?

gawd, i totally suck at names!

 

Finally, someone cares.

we actually have a lot of locations in mind, which is more reason to do an animation. The locations include:

forests, generic cities, several different space ships, Errant Venture. All sorts of rooms, meeting rooms, space station rooms, New Jedi council rooms, cafe kinda place, super ancient jedi council, hangers. Oh and ancient ruins.

The list goes on and on. Now i'm sure at least five people will post things along the lines of "there is no way that you can make/find all these sets." I might agree with you.

 

Good Lord . . . schwanzi said he'd give you some tips, as will we, if you come up with specific, limited questions (not "how the heck do I come up with 6 hours of greate footage") about how to do certain things. You act like he's willing to marry you, or somehing.

I think a lot of people might jump in and help (myself included) if you started with a short movie, set in a forest (very cliqué by now) or a warehouse that you got permission for (like we did) or somewhere based on realistic goals.

Okay, I practically was ROTFL:

"forests, generic cities, several different space ships, Errant Venture. All sorts of rooms, meeting rooms, space station rooms, New Jedi council rooms, cafe kinda place, super ancient jedi council, hangers. Oh and ancient ruins."

Just go easy on yourself. If you write back telling me I don't care and that you're still shooting for anything except the forrest idea or a simple room, then you're clinically insane, and I know insanity--I'm taking a college psychology course. If you give us reason to believe that our time won't be wasted, then you might just get what you're looking for!

 

Do you want to watch 5 hours of movie all in one or two locations? Kinda hard to fit into the story with the time difference between exodus and resurection.

Do you guys know if it's at all possible to film on blue screen and add the backgrounds from models or something without being ILM? Or should I start mastering Flash MX?

 

Yes, it's very possible. And, I've heard from people with experience, quite easy once you get the hang of it.

Check over in the fanfilms forum for FX stuff though, that's definitely neither my interest nor my forté.

But yeah, greenscreen and bluescreen work is relatively simply done with After Effects or other programs.

[fanfilm cliché] I mean, check out DUALITY. [/fanfilm cliché]

 

"...several different space ships, Errant Venture. All sorts of rooms, meeting rooms..."

What, you want to film a scene at one of the CF book club meetings? I dunno, that would probably take some serious effort to get permission from either store....

 

Even though the book club sounds extremely excitiing, I think a red star destroyer would be a bit more appropriate.

On a seperate issue... If I were to start a Star Wars club at my High School (Stevenson) I would get to use all their programs, including about eveything from adobe and Animation:Master. Also I could film there... Some rooms would make good sets. And i could harvest talent from all the people in the different multimedia and acting classes. any thoughts?

Does anybody here go to or work at Stevenson High School by any chance?

 

"forests, generic cities, several different space ships..."

i live in a generic city. call me.

 

I'd say to start off using what's available to you. That's what I did when I wrote the first Pathways film.

For actors... I used friends that were SW fans (who were reliable) and I kept the number of characters very small in order to make things easier.

For sets... I asked around to see what I could get in the way of indoor spaces and I was able to use a co-worker's basement (a large one) and an extremely large empty warehouse at my place of work. So I used the basement as one of the character's living quarters at the Jedi Temple and the warehouse to be the villain's lair. I also utilized a nearby forest preserve for the outdoor scenes (and since it was winter we had snow everywhere which looks very cool).

Props... I only bought what I felt was necessary and what I could afford. The most expensive things were the sabers I bought from Parks Saber (never again). The rest I picked up at Walmart and I either re-painted them or altered them in some way. I had to get creative a few times too, like when I had to make a pair of shackles. I just took two of these thick cardboard rolls we have at work, sliced them in half, attatched door hinges to them so they could open and close, attach hanging lamp chain we had left over from redecorating my place and I painted it a rust color. Viola!

Costumes... It embarassing, but I had my mother make them. Sure I'm nearly 30, but she's a creative lady and loves doing that kind of thing so I left it to her. We picked up patterns at Walmart, as well as fabric and within a couple of weeks we had our costumes. Jedi outfit, robe and all. And it was quite inexpensive to do it this way.

FX... well, I know nothing about that so I looked around for people who were into that area of expertise. A friend hooked me up with someone at an art school in Schaumburg, and we talked about what I wanted. I had written the film with very little CGI in mind (about 5 shots total, not counting rotoscoping), but this guy was very inexperienced (the stuff he gave me looked like it was done on Mario Paint). So I posted on a few boards and got hooked up with a group of guys in Schaumburg who were very good. The only problem was that they promised much and delivered little. What they told me would take days would stretch into months (they kept taking on additional work that cut into the time it took to finish my sequences). They also were prone to infighting. But I got my FX (a year after I first met them) and they look pretty good, I just won't go back to them ever again.

Long story short... use what's available to you. Don't overstep what you know you can and can't do. Adjust your script around that and I think you will be fine.

 

"Don't laugh, that's more than I have done. I haven't even watched the DVD's all the way through yet."

Don't laugh, thats way more than I have done. I haven't even bought the DVDs yet and my Ep 2 DVD is STILL IN THE SHRINK WRAP! lmao

For props you can easily make sabers with parts from Home Depot. Check out http://bigyellowbox.tripod.com/

Blasters can be made from anything as well. Start with a toy gun and Star Warsize it.

The thing to keep in mind is that everything in the SW universe should appear worn or weathered. Its gotta look like its seen some action.

This goes for costumes. You look at Boba and you look at Jango and think Jango's armor is shiny and new. You're wrong. Jango's armor and suit is actually subtlely weathered to look used. The aluminium look of the armor always seems cleaner than it actually is.

Unless the character is some sort of royalty in some royal gown make the costume look worn. Thats the biggest mistake I see in fan films with regards to props and costumes.

The other mistakes are well absurd plot, horrible acting, bad direction, and inconsistent effects. I know these are done on little to no budget but then again some are just so so bad.

 

"forests, generic cities, several different space ships..."

What the hell is a generic city?

 

you live in one.