Official Release Thread - Star Wars: The Planet with No Name

Just watched it (been gone for two weeks with family members who don't believe in the passing fad called the internet).

I liked it, kind of a is/isn't Star Wars cannon type movie. I liked the editing, the cropping effects and the general messing with the images I've seen throughout, even some of the dialogue was cool.

I liked the music selections, though the Dead Can Dance tune was overbearing at times and the jazz ditty was odd, but then it worked.

Did I sense some Samurai Jack editing goin' on in the final duel?

Overall, one of the coolest, meaning hippest, fan films I've seen in a long while.

 

"Did I sense some Samurai Jack editing goin' on in the final duel?"

You may have sensed it, but I have never seen an episode of "Samurai Jack". My inspiration probably came more from Hulk than anything else.

Sounds like an interesting show though.

-Spiff

 

Thanks to Jeremy_West, there is now a Quicktime version of the film on the web. I will consolidate all current links and mirrors in this post.

Hosted by Covax at Writer's Block Media we have:

Sorenson 3 Quicktime 426x240 pixels, stereo ~60 MB

Windows Media 9 720x480 anamorphic, 5.1 surround sound ~120 MB

Windows Media 9 320x240 anamorphic, stereo ~60MB

In addition we have two mirrors graciously supplied by the members of this board:

Mirror on WM9 720x480 hosted by The_Mathematician

Mirror on WM9 320x240 Hosted by aarondavis121.



PLEASE RIGHT-CLICK-SAVE AS.

Notes: More mirrors are welcome (especially for the QT file). If you have downloaded and successfully viewed either of the WM9 versions, there is NO point downloading Quicktime - it was compressed from the HQ WM9 due to something I overlooked when I mailed Jeremy a DVD. It turns out the maximum file size permissable by the WinZip 2.0 standard is 4.0 GB. The DV version of PwNN is 4.3 GB, and as such, gave a compression error.

I have compensated for this, and in a week or two there will be a "full-resolution" Sorenson 3 Quicktime version of PwNN available. It will also be about 120 MB, but will be in stereo sound.

-Spiff

 

I just watched it and I enjoyed it. I think the first saber fight was the best coreographed, but the editing left much to be desired for (too many fades, not enough different camera angles). Other than that, the soundtrack could have used some work, but there were some really good and seemingly innovative effects. Good job!

 

Hey guys, I'm now hosting QT version as well

 

Sorry, forgot link.

QuickTime Version

 

Not working.

 

My very late review. For all my reviews visit THE FAN FILM MENACE

This flick, despite its letter grade, is earning a spot on my Adam Recommends page for its constant creativity. Nice job. Review follows.


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There were rocks and trees and birds and things? yes, I loved the title of this film. It felt like something out of an old serial.

I liked the unique take on the crawl in a nice classy Copperplate Gothic (inspired by Dead End, by chance?) A beautiful title card as well. Further font fun occures with a subtitled scene with a nifty graphic in the corner and nice interplay between white and black in text set in an attractive Benguiat (yes?) A powerful chant plays.

I'm not a fan of the idea of a Jedi wearing glasses. The set they're hanging out in has very nifty windows, but looks a bit too much like a modern office in terms of set design and costume for the guy sitting at the desk. Though I do love his businesslike "May the Force be with you."

We get a beautiful shot of a ship passing through trees, followed by a nifty-looking if nonsensical effect of a Jedi landing. (What's that power called? Force jump-out-of-ship-and-turn-into-energy?

I like the music choice. Like the chorale before, it's not at all Star Warsy, but it works for the scene. Though I think the filmmakers should have edited out references to Superman and superheroes. Krypton is not in the GFFA.

Neat costume for the Sith, though. And damned if the Jedi's weapon isn't one of the coolest and most original things I've seen in a fan film in a very long time.

At 5:43, well, that's an interesting place to stick a lightsaber. I can't say I enjoy the choice of the strange effect applied to the Sith next, but at least it was well-executed and interesting.

The second Jedi is having adventures of his own, also introduced with neat graphics, but some amusingly low-tech effects are in his path as well. I really love the laser cannon, both creative and well-executed. The set looks too much like an Earth-based university pavilion (or some such) for my taste, though, and geez, here's another mystical character wearing glasses.

The third segment is city-based, and unfortunately really looks Earthlike. There's even English words on the wall. I start worrying if the Jedi's gonna get mugged. While the spaceship shot is nice, it doesn't make me forget that this is Earth that's being shot here. I also don't like the strange graphic insets. Here the music choice doesn't quite jive with me either. In short, it's a problematic segment.

In other news, I think this is the first CGI bodily-fluid spew I've seen in a fan film.

By 13:38 the music has just plain gotten strange. The wipes and split-screens, while interesting, get very, very irritating. I'm reminded of the Hulk movie. And that's not a good thing.

I'm not sure whether I like the inclusion of "Jedi Rocks". It's amusing but jarring. I definitely don't like being able to tell that the Sith who shrieks as he dies is wearing sneakers.

It occurs to me now, at about 17:30, that we've gone a very long time without any dialogue being exchanged in the film at all. That is an impressive feat, to tell a story visually like that. When someone finally does speak, it reminds me of Star Trek. Oops.

The credits are attractive and original-looking, with further haunting singing occuring.

Impressive. Most impressive.

There's not much of a story to this piece, which prevents it from achieving true greatness. And some things just plain don't work. But this fan film is mind-bogglingly original on a regular basis, which makes up for many a flaw. No simple forest duel, this. I would recommend this to any jaded fan film aficionado. There's always a new creative spirit out there.

B+
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Rick McCallum loves you!

 

I agree with almost everything Adam said above, but i want to go further about the music. This film had great cinematography, editing, effects, and for the most part coreography. The problem was, the music ruined the mood. I thought for a second that my speakers stopped working and someone had turned on MTV. The fight in the snow with all jedi and sith COULD have been ABSOLUTELY AMAZING with some choral or climactic music, but it had like this "funky" mellow music and some weird drum beats. This movie reminds me of how important the score of a film is.

 

I'm gonna disagree totally here. I loved the feel of the snow segment: It was put up, for the most part, to work like an old-school pulp kung-fu movie, in the vein of Brice Lee or maybe even the Shaw Brothers. Look at it like this, and it works: don't try to contemporize.

 

Sorry guys, mistyped the QT link.

here it is: Real QT verison

 

Finally a discussion of the music!

Kryptonite was chosen for several reasons - The song has an almost western twang to it, but is lyrically somewhat dark. Within the fight, it works as the Sith's theme song - it builds when he's gaining ground, or pressing his advantage, and descends otherwise. As such, it also dies with the Sith. In addition, kryptonite is symbolically green - which in my mind is the only color Superman is not.

The Sith's color is red, and in addition carries a double-bladed saber. To me, Darth Maul is the one-hit-wonder rock-star of the SW universe, he's a killing machine, he's super-cool, and he's a "Superman" (in a more generic sense). I think also, that the lyrics of the song reflect the psyche of what a Sith would be - seeking support if he goes crazy, and loses control of his actions, taking walks around the dark side, etc. My interpretation justifies the term "Superman" in the tune as an elevated view of the person, not directly the comic... While the phrase kryptonite specifically is simply a well known pulp reference as the weakness of a Superman.

Anyway - if the Sith is Superman, the Jedi, and his (many) green sabers is obviously Kryptonite. Once the three-bladed lightsaber comes out, it's pretty obvious who will win out.


The second song, is instrumental - and more or less just serves the action. Again, it is thematically involved with the Sith. The Jedi character here is almost a Samurai - he goes almost straight for the kill, is persistent but not overly aggressive, and is simply leathal. This kind of techno beat would not suit his character, who would posses a much calmer, but intense theme. The original editing track for the fight was "Welcome to the Jungle" - I'm glad we changed it The idea here was that the Sith couldn't hold on to any weapon for an extended period of time. He starts with a canon, and by the end is down to a pair of kitchen knives. If your opponent can block your knife throws with his sword, you really don't stand a chance. I usually laugh as the music crecsendos with the Sith thinking he's gaining ground right before his heart is cut open.


The third fight, in my view, only holds up with loud volume, and is meant to be violent, gritty and offensive. The music in this case is actually the Jedi's theme, which is why it doesn't die with the Sith, and in fact persists. The triplet structure of the "kill kill kill" chorous is structurally referencial to the obsession of this movie with 3 - 3 Jedi, 3 Sith, 3 Fights, followed by 3 Jedi vs 9 Sith, 3 for each (and of course, 3 blades ). The song refers to watching your back, the next man, etc. and is basically the thought process of a warrior like this. Most people figure hand to hand battles should be pretty... but if you've ever seen to people try to kill eachother, it isn't. The segment was designed to be different - and it works quite well with a number of audiences - but it doesn't hold appeal here. Oh well.


In the fourth battle, the title of the music "Chameleon" is referential to the Sith hiding in the trees (which are visible in the reverse zoom circular wipe shot). Jedi Rocks - is obviously just silly funk. I have a huge collection of jazz and funk to choose from... so Jedi Rocks was chosen to mock John Williams fans, and fans of Star Wars music in general. I figured PwNN will probably be the first and last fanfilm in a long time to use it. Just be thankful I stuck with Chameleon for the start, and not Sy Snootles lyrical masterings

The drum score that follows we recorded specifically for the film. In fact, we scored the whole movie with drums (about 20 different drums and 20 different cymbals - did I mention the gong? - you should have seen the setup), but decided to go the rock route instead (you should hear the drumming for the first blaster sequence!). I like how the drumming switches between serious roto-toms, and then goes into the schizophrenic funk. In the right mindset the group battle is merciless carnage - over the course of 4 minutes, you see n

 

For what it's worth, we used Jedi Rocks in "Young Jedi: High School Student".

(A loooooooong time ago.)
(in a galaxy, etc.)


Rick McCallum loves you!

 

Math: Thanks for the mirroring bro!

unique take on the crawl in a nice classy Copperplate Gothic (inspired by Dead End, by chance?)

Nah. Good guess though. I've been using Bank Gothic for a while, figuring simple is more powerful.

Here the music choice doesn't quite jive with me either.

The problem was, the music ruined the mood.

Well... In a perfect world there would have been two versions. The 'Official Version' would have had all Star Wars and 'passable' music (like Host of the Seraphim). The 'Funktastic Mix' would have been 70's pop and euro techno. It would have been a fanfilm first, however the editing of PwNN became such an enormous task, nothing short of a heroic effort by Jedi_Spiff, that editing it all yet again was impossible. Spiff decided to stick with a single version that compromised between both versions and the rest of us supported him. (The mad gleam in his eyes and closet full of weapons also helped in the decision.)

We do have one remixed scene, the rooftop rumble done music-video style with the song Underworld by Cowgirl. However since that?s the lest favorite fight putting it up online is kinda pointless.

 

Reminding me of HULK is a great thing. That movie had some of the most innovative editing, and the best montages I have ever seen. Sure - Grasshopper man was a little uninspiring, but the rest of it? BEAUTIFUL.

-Spiff

Edit: WRT the "ruined the mood" comment. I find this very odd - the music of PwNN IS the mood of the film. If you find the music confusing, distracting or irritating, that's good. We made the movie to evoke reactions from the audience... and I don't care if they're good or bad, so long as they exist. You could hate the movie, but so long as it didn't bore you - I feel my mission was acheived

As a side note: this is the first time in my life I have EVER heard of a Maynard Ferguson tune being labelled "mellow".


Edit II - the "strange graphic insights" were our attempt to show a premonition of the force visually. This was Paul Proulx's idea, and I liked it so much, that I couldn't let it go on the wayside. Sure - I had an edit with the Sith just jumping out from behind (Oh---scary)- but IMO Paul's edit was much more imaginative.

 

For the uninitiated: Paul Proulx's rdit of the Rootop Rumble (aka the ?Bionique Freaky Freaky Mix?) was the aforementioned remixed scene. Available on DVD this spring.

Biatch for President!

 

Well, I don't know what to say about this movie.

In some ways it's so cool it's almost silly. In other ways, it's quite a mess. There's great bits, there's horrible bits. It's wierd. That can be a good thing... I'm not sure it is in this case.

First, the techy bits: I was very impressed with a few of the effects; The 1st orb, the lightsaber-behind-the-trees thing (although I must admit I didnt even think about that until it was mentioned, which means it worked very well, so well I didn't see it as an effect, and didn't even think the though "Man, masking out all those branches must have been a pain", coz I was watching a lightsaber behind some trees

On the other hand, some of the tech was quite lo-tech; The entire intro/outro someone forgot to deinterlace. Eeech!

Those "animated displays" did nothing for me, they looked way too ... well.... "my first 3d rendering of a spinning sphere with textures" kinda thing. No panasch...

On the other hand, the introductory thing with the spoken lingo with subtitles and an AE spectral analysis plugin on was nice. The window zoom was very cool indeed.

Anyway... the subtitles stop, and the voice keeps talking. What the?

Beautiful chorale music in the back; lovely. Non-deinterlaced stuff is swirling on my screen. Barely audible dialogue commences (I think your 5.1-to-stereo downmix may be screwed up some, mixing in the rear channels in the front with no attenuation?).

Great "may the force" "it is" delivery. Best bit in the film.

The CG bits are frankly quite ... I'm sad to say... bad. Ship, planet.... again the "look ma, my first cg" apperance.

The first "landing" of the jedi: Looks cool.

Then comes the muzak. Ouch. Take me out of here, where is my mute button? Nothing could have fit less than this music. This could have been a good, engaging, powerful fight, but it just annoyed me. Turned something that could have been serious into a parody. Why? I just ask, why.

This sequence dies by its music. The fight may be great, but I can't tell; the music kills it.

The 3-blade saber was innovative, but it shows quite clearly how the coreography slows to a crawl since everybody is having problems remembering where to hit what. I'd chalk it up as a "cool idea that didn't work in reality" thing.

The most impressive thing with this fight (but I have to turn my speakers off to notice it) is how the double-bladed saber is ignited, unignited, back and forth... how did you do that? Was the guy just weilding the hilt and you added all blades.... or... what!?! Impressive...

Nice sith-murder!

Then comes the cardboard-gun vs. lighsaber guy. Uhm.

This sequence at least has music that "sort of" works, but the cardboard prop is quite disturbing.

A couple of REALLY cool shots tho, like, the Jedi blankly ignoring all those blasts that miss him, just gives one whoop with the saber for that lone shot that would have hit, deflecting it back on the opponent. GREAT!

Next comes the Matrix Jedi ripoff section.

Now we have the reverse of the 1st segment, in that a fairly crummy fight that could be a parody, is coupled with heavy very "serious" music. Hmm.

Not much to say about it other than that

Then comes the snow battle. I for one LOVED the Hulks editing (but hated the actual movie) so the multi-angle stuff goes on my "cool" list. One exception tho: The spining screens. Spinning screens is SO 1982. OUCH.

(I bet you guys kicked yourself when you got home and saw the snow on the lens )

Some REALLY cool stuff in this sequence. The best bit is those "realistic" fights, like the one that lasts less than a second. Like a real samuraj would! Great!

So anyway... dont have time to type more sorry but....

...a very uneven film. Messy stuff coupled with fantastic stuff, in a wonderfully strange and very special mix. For "strangeness", it gets 100 points and it sure has "style", the question is, do I like some of the "style" (like how some of the music bugged me out of my head)?

Partially a technlogical marve

 

(I bet you guys kicked yourself when you got home and saw the snow on the lens)

COOOOVAAAAXXX!!! Grrr...

You weren't supposed to notice it Zap! Yes - we kicked ourselves. Many times.

I'm very glad Zap that you noticed the motion tracking on the blaster sequences. Yet another home-made feature of CronFX.

WRT CG - yup - I did make some posts asking for help, but no one stepped up to the job - partially due to our poor publicity.

Sorry the music didn't work for ya.

Lastly - the choreography in the 3-bladed section of the film is beyond complicated. The weapon is extremely dangerous in all practical senses. The challenge was to make it look like the double bladed saber actually stood a chance. It works in practice, but is very intimidating to fight against.

The fights in PwNN may appear slow for several reasons. The main one being I didn't want close-ups, so the solid angles on swings are small. Most, if not all strikes in the sequence are legitimate: they are at real physical targets - we were not looking for the blade, but really trying to hurt each other.

Rather than elect for closeups to make the fight more intense, we phyically increased the complexity of the fight beyond anything I'd ever seen done - the sequence Zap mentioned with the retractable blades was probably the most difficult rotoscoping in the film. It was worth it to me though to show lightsabers for what they are - a fully retractable weapon. If you were trying to develop a fighting style for a realistic lightsaber, you'd be foolish not to include this as an advantage.

I wanted to be honest about the martial arts here - so we refrained from undercranking and never bring you so close you have to interpret what's going on. I also chose long takes for the action - it's much easier to chop something like this up, and make it disorienting. Catching a relatively small part of 7 foot flailed weapon is not easy, and the prospect of braining my brother wasn't very appealing. Most of these shots took 20 takes. There are definitely people who could have done this better than me (come on Asian kung-fu experts!). But I assure you as a participant, that you're looking at the real deal - and if my brother swung any harder he'd have broken my wrists - it took my hands a week to recover.

Lastly, no one has mentioned it yet, but do you guys realize we were standing in water, completely soaked, on slippery rocks for 2 days? The final reason the fights are "slow" is because they are pathing battles. Fighting in a field is easy. Fighting on a smooth floor with shoes is even easier. Fighting in water-logged hiking boots, in and around trees, mud, over rocks and logs is much more challenging. Not only is it physically difficult, but to get all the moving and panning shots (also something no one has really mentioned) without a steady cam, there is a fair amount of camera choreography involved. For each take, not only did we need to get the martial arts right, but we needed our cameraman not to shake, to track us on screen using cameras on 6 foot monopods while moving on muddy paths and river beds. I'm not writing this to toot my own horn, but mostly to express the pride I have in Greg, Dave Owen, and Paul for their camerawork.

Oh - who am I kidding? I'm damn proud we put it to film As for speed - go on... try to imitate this fight move-for-move. If you can, I bow to you - for your talents far exceed mine.

-Spiff

 

Wait, how come when Adam and I critiqued the music (and were less blunt about it) you got a little on the defensive side but when Zap says almost the same thing, you apologize? Did i miss something?

 

Zap > You

 

Oops. Playing favourites? I suppose if you're harsh enough about it, you'll make me feel bad. I spent a month mixing the first fight - everything from the ambient channels to the splashing of the water, to the chain sounds was foley, and fully positioned in 5.1 (or at least stereo for those without the capability) - to me audio is at least half the film experience - the fact he turned it off makes me very sad

-Spiff

 

Watching a third time, now that you mention it, the foley is particularly impressive. But, like I said before, the music just kills it for me. Kryptonite was just an exceedingly bad choice, IMO.

 

I have to check it again with my "Sennheisher HD250 MkII Linear" headphones to comment on such stuff as foley.

But yeah, that song was not perdy at all. Sorry just being honest.

But again, you score full points for originality and wirdness

Sabers and samurai-style combat (first ever realistic portrait of actual lightsaber battle ever put on film?).

/Z

 

Tell you what: If you can suggest a tune that works better rhythmically and structurally to the fight, I'll make a special version of the movie for ya (not aimed at anyone in specific).

-Spiff

 

I suggest "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion. I think the pan flute sections at the beginning of that song would add a surreal feel to that fight. It's also a song about a heart and that glowy object thing was kinda like the Sith heart.