OFFICAL Wand Duel films released!!!

Ok, so here are the entries (in alphabetical order of entrants' names ) This thread is for critiques, comments, and constructive criticisms. Some varied stuff here, so congrats to all!!!!

Voting thread to follow


"The Wand Duel" by Dr-Carnivora

"Bunny Hop Go Jo" by elemental_fantasy

"Wands" by Penitio

Enjoy!!

 

Three?
Wow. I was imagining so much more.

Dr. Carnivora's is kind of funny, when they're not Wanding. When they are, they desperately need effects. It's got no "umph" otherwise. When they get 'hit', there doesn't seem to be any real effect, there's no sense of danger here. I like how they were able to be bold with certain things, like hanging onto the roof of the car while fishtailing, or dropping that pile of debris from the cliff. I'd like to see it completed, though.

I'll watch the other two soon.

EDIT: Elemental_fantasy's entry contains a lot of running for very little payoff. Smashing the streetlamp looked pretty cool, but the duel itself was point and shoot. Nothing too fancy there. Granted, I'm not wand expert, but I would think you can do more. EDIT 2: Oh yeah, I did like the use of the Transformers music. It seemed somewhat appropriate, unfortunately your target audience is likely to recognize it on the spot. Alas.

Penitio definitely has the most interesting costumes of all of them, lol. The initial fighting seems odd. They might as well be holding guns, the way they're using their wands. Kind of a fun ending, though. Both of 'em, really. I haven't seen a backspace that small in years.

-Vaportrail

 

Has anyone seen this movie called Trans Formers? I hear it has good music.

 

I'll get to the proper judging categories soon, but i was pleasantly surprised by some of the stuff here after all the drop-outs.

There was a lot more original interest, but so many drop-outs along the way that it was quite a shame, still, 3 entries. Hopefully we'll see more for next time, potentially this competition could be really cool.

Good luck to the entrants We'll sort out the judging soon.

 

That "fish-tailing" stunt was probably one of the stupidest things I've ever seen a kid do for an amateur film.

 

that was actually the only part of it I enjoyed.

 

If I didn't prioritise my other film, I might have had an entry. Oh well. Next year certainly.

My vote would go to elemental_fantasy, for the best effects and camera work of the three. The first was far too long and wasn't really a wand duel at all. The third one had a nice setting and great costumes, but that's about it.

 

I am actually pretty disappointed with the entries. The only good one was elemental fantasy and even that one didn't have a great payoff but it had good camera work, visuals and music. I would loved to have seen the equivalent to a RvD for this competition. Maybe next time.

 

I had a really great script and all, but school got way to busy. But hopefully I'll be able to work on it for next year or even just as a side project.

Now onto the entries.

Dr-Carnivora: It was really long. And semed to be alot of running and melodrama.

elemental_fantasy: The effects were good but there was a huge build up and not much pay off. I would probably classify this as a chase scene with a couple shots fired.

Penitio: Long. I couldn't hear what they were saying alot of the time. And the effects could have definitly done with a little work.

I'd just like to go on record as saying that the reason I think that this didn't really work, is because unlike Star wars where EVERYONE and thier mother knows how to do blasters and lightsabers. No one has ever done a Wand Duel before. So alot of time was spent trying to get an effect that looked good, which left very little time for actual filming editing, comping etc. Hopefully next year, now that we know a little more how to do this we can get some better entries.

 

Well. I think everyone would have done well to go to HP-Lexicon and watched the behind the scenes of Order of the Phoenix when they went over wand dueling: http://youtube.com/watch?v=DYU1C86VH-s

 

Speaking as a working stunt coordinator, the stunt and the car work were actually performed rather well.

 

I completely agree with you. I think this was more of a test and seeing if anyone could come up with a good wand effect. Hopefully we will see more tutorials come out within the next few months and more people will begin to master the wand effects and maybe we will have more a competition the next time around. Only time will tell.

 

Dr-Carnivora: This one could've turned into something quite good. You just left out the most important part to magic... The magic! Your acting was pretty good though, but you guys pretty much made a fool out of yourselves buy not adding in any effects. If I didn't know it was supposed to be a wand duel, I would think it was just a couple of guys swinging their arms around like idiots hehe. 5/10

elemental_fantasy: This one was probably my favourite. I think you had too much running, and not enough variety in the spells. The thing I noticed you did that a lot of people forget to do is you added the spell in the reflection of the window when the little girl was looking out. 6.5/10

Penitio: Well I am still confused as to what was going on. Most of the time I couldn't hear what the actors were saying! I think this could have turned out alright though. All you needed was better acting, and better effects. For every spell, you just used the same old simple spell over and over and just coloured it differently. The few you added explosions to looked even worse in my opinion. You slowed down the explosion... Biiiiig no no . 4/10

Overall I think the quality of all the entries was crap. I was expecting at least one person to come out with their inner Ryan/Dorkman.

Whilst I dropped out of this competition I still intend on making a wand duel. I'm still trying to find a few props and a time where all my actors can be there. I don't want to sound up myself or anything, but I was really surprised at how well my script turned out. When I get some filming done, I'll post a few screenshots of what I have on a new thread.

Anyway... Nate, hurry up with yours =P

 

This is a very new venture for everyone. I'm hoping to wow you all in this year's competition - and there will be one. I had other priorities.

 

Hehe, keep your pants on. We got about 2 months until we start shooting and 11 1/2 months until release. Should be a lot of fun

EDIT:

The Wand Duel

This one suffered heavily from the lack of effects. I am rather imaginative when it comes to Harry Potter wand work, so I was able to fill in a lot with my imagination, but really I shouldn't need to The location was cool, as well as a few things you did with it. But in my opinion, seeing as you set up a personal backstory between the characters, we really never got up close and personal in any of the intense exchanges. The use of mostly non-verbal spells was used to your advantage, but there was a slip on an incantation. You really wouldn't want to use Reducto on your nuts (Reducio would be the proper spell).

Bunny Hop Go Jo

I liked this. If I recall correctly this was a test duel entered when you couldn't submit a final film, right? It looked nice. The camera work was very effective for me, and really I like those couple shots where you pretty much moved through the spell. Good use of sound when that happened, I may borrow that idea this year Also, very nice touch acknowledging the muggles in the area who are witnessing this. The shot of the girl looking through the window was great (camera movement, reflection, reaction, music, really cool), and the couple innocent people who were caught in the line of fire would be really powerful in a more serious and carefully planned film. We're still thinking of doing that as well. Effects weren't 100% top notch, but at least they were there. This was my favorite

Wands

Overall I just had a hard time following this one. Between unclear dialogue and confusing action I really didn't know who was fighting who or what was really going on. I will take this opportunity to emphasize the importance of performance when doing wand work. Much like shooting a film with guns, your actors definitely have to ensure they are aiming precisely and reacting appropriately. The biggest challenge I see ahead of me this year is training up to 10 people on how to properly fight and react to magic that isn't there, as well as help each person develop their own personal fighting style. It is tricky, and I think it takes some imagination and time on the actor's part to really get the gist of what they will be seeing and reacting to 9 months down the road when the effects are all finished up.

I think there are way more possibilities in the Harry Potter universe when it comes to fighting than there are with lightsabers, and no one really explored them with this competition. I blame that partly on the limited time frame, and partly on peoples' usual ritual of waiting until the last minute. I usually don't try to go around tooting my own horn when I have nothing yet to show, but I hope with our film next Christmas we can show what can be done when you take the time to really study the source material and understand the rules of Rowling's magic (Deathly Hallows dives into some fascinating information), as well as explore the possibilities with the cinematography (which again, elemental_fantasy did a nice job). In the end I just want to live up to my own imagination , and I would love to see others to take it to the next level as well.

 

Give me a "year" and I'll (Hopefully have something good. LOL. Thats the hope anyway.

 

Yes. I completed filming on Beyond and am in post production with it. BHGJ was a test video to obtain financial backing for Beyond. If I knew this was gonna be what I entered I would have spent more then just 2 days on it.

Beyond will be entered later this year. Also, play with light saber sound effects, slow them down (or speed them up), add some bass, take away some treble. The sound effect for the pass through magic shot was a slow light saber swing over cranked with fades.

 

I'm so glad you mentioned research! I'm telling you all if you had just watched Order of the Phoenix as a large reference (especially the behind-the-scenes bits) and really read the books intently enough you'd all have a better understanding of the structure of the duel. There are actually base rules and forms of dueling that the choreographer of Order of the Phoenix came up with which would have been a nice way for you all to just get your footing (but not limiting yourselves) to.

I know the first entry had a bit of choreography going on but (like everyone else is saying) the lack of an effects takes that away completely. And the second duel had too much Prior Incantato. The third entry was really basic.

I suppose I'll do my review now. Heh.

"The Wand Duel" by Dr-Carnivora
First thing I notice is the use of Harry Potter music which I loved because it brings us as the audience into the world of Harry Potter automatically (good job on that!). I also really liked the transition of the Harry Potter music to just regular old radio tunes to bring us back down with some down to Earth music which goes with the "present day" title card in the beginning. Great stunt work with that car! Felt some real danger there (probably cause I knew there was real danger!)

Other folks say the acting in this was solid but I thought it was very unconvincing. Especially the first line. "What the hell do you want, brotha?" I mean, the guy was about to run him over and then he says something like that! I think what really hinders me is the way the line was delivered too. At the point where they were talking about who the bad guy was sleeping with I was immediately taken out of the Harry Potter world and no longer took the video seriously after that.

But then the duel starts and I thought it could be saved but there are no effects! Not even an implication of effects! I really enjoyed the choreography you all put together but with no effects it really does look like you guys just flailing your arms around. The "engorgio" spell was really immature and didn't make me laugh. And whoever else said it was right, you don't want to "reducto" your little homie ... it would destroy it completely:

Reducto (re-DUC-toh)
"Reductor Curse"

"redusen" Middle Eng. diminish, from "reducer" Old Fr. bring back to the source, from "reducere" L. bring, lead

Blasts solid objects out of the caster's path.

Snape used this on rosebushes at the Yule Ball after his talk with Karkaroff (GF23)

Harry learned this spell as part of his preparation for the third task. He used it to blast a hole in the hedge (GF31)

A Reductor Curse during D.A. training reduced a table to dust (OP19)

Used by the various D.A. members at the beginning of the battle of the Department of Mysteries to smash shelves in the Hall of Prophecy as a diversion (OP35).

Also, I don't think a lot of the verbal spells had enough "umph" behind them. When the bad guy said "bombardia maxima" he should have really meant the words and the effect behind them. As Bellatrix Lestrange said once to Harry when he tried to use the Cruciatius curse on her "you've got to

 

*Cough* JaJ2 and JaJ: CS. *Cough*
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Going to watch the entries now. Curse my internet speed.

 

Okay 1. but 1 question how much of that beautiful knowledge have you shared with the rest of us (aka tutorials... hint hint, nudge nudge)

 

As a judge, it's not really fair to comment on the individual entries at the moment, but I would like to give all of them thanks and kudos for actually getting something together to share. I would also add that I did enjoy watching all of them, and none of them made me want to switch it off (which has happened with a few of the LCC entries in recent years).

I agree with the above comments that hopefully this will spur more people into entering and competing next year, and that the apparent lack of entries should NOT be perceived as a "failure", but this is a new concept. People should be aware that there WILL be a 2nd competition, so you can get writing and practicing now!

 

Look, I did the best I could with the time alloted, alright? Jeez.




I'm half tempted to think up what I might do for a wand duel, but honestly I'm not into Harry Potter, or magic/fantasy that much at all. This would prolly require research of spells, since I was imagining that people would be doing more than energy blasts at each other. It's magic, guys. Free your mind.

-Vaportrail

 

Since this is the first contest pretty good entries IMO. Can see people are trying to 'test the waters' so to speak with what they can do.

 

True dat. ALthough it would be really really cool. If everyone would do a tutorial of how they did their spells. It would really help everyone out for next time.

 

I think this is great, so many had projects but not enough time, like me. I think these 3 entry's are a great thing for a first round to encourage folks to enter next year especially with plenty of prep time now, as well many projects already in the works for next year. I am looking forward to seeing Dr-Carnivora finish the effects and re enter his project in completed form in 08. As well I am also very curious to see how awesome Nicks and Charisma's stuff can turn out as well if Mike and Ryan entered.

I think we can expect great stuff from this competition in the years to come!