STAR WARS CHRONICLES: SEEDS OF DARKNESS

Show a little common courtesy and respect for the FanFilmmakers who have put the time, money and effort into creating previous FanFilms. Although you are certainly entitled to your opinions about any/all FanFilms, your comments above were downright discourteous, immature ..... and just plain RUDE.


I would have thought that a member of your age who has been around for as long as you have (August 2000)
would have a little more class than that.

Your points is well taken. I will try to be a little more tactful in the future.

 

I just watched this one for the first time yesterday. WOW! What a fun ride of a fan-film! I really enjoyed it. It is so obvious that a lot of time and effort was spent on this project - time and effort that really shows. WELL DONE, very well done!

EDIT: I just had to add more...

You know, I really loved the space battle choreography, timing and camera angles. This was very reminiscent of the original trilogy?s battles. Something that I thought TPM was lacking in. There?s just nothing like a well-done, exciting, action packed space battle. The blaster fire visual FX was a tad on rough side (technically), but it really didn?t detract from the whole battle feel and that?s probably something that only graphic geeks like me notice (and maybe a some perfectionist fan-film lovers who notice any imperfection in any film). There are a lot of things that were very well thought out and implemented in this fan-film. Again, VERY NICE WORK! I?m very sure that this is one of those fan films that will be frequently watched by myself and many other SW lovers. What a ride!

 

Well I saw this film a while back and neglectd to comment on it. It's really hard for me talk about this film, there are so many things I loved about it and so many things I didnt like about it.

Story and Characters: Sure it has deviations from the official timeline, so did DarkSkies and both were great. It's the story that counts and I have to say that SOD had a great story. The characters were original, something that doesnt happen much in fan films. Unlike most Fan Films, the Jedi characters in SOD weren't cookie-cutter comic book superheros. I didn't care for the ending much, it seemed to me that battles on the ground and in orbit were for nothing.

Acting: I can't say I liked the acting here. I felt the pilots were okay, and so was the rogue Jedi Master, but I felt that the female protagonist often underacted and occasionally displayed an emotion that I felt was inappropriate for the scene. The acting wasn't bad, but there were no outstanding performances or actors that brought life to the screen.

Cinematography and Editing: The line of action was crossed far too many times in this film. It almost became nasuiating during the sabre duels. We also spent way too much time at medium distance, not enough close-ups at emotionally critical moments. Much of the duel was shot too far away for my tastes. The duel is neat for a few moments of thrills but if you watch the sabre duels from the movies you will see that allot of the shots are close-ups and medium-closeups. Emotion brings life to your characters and we get emotion through closeups.
I think you did a great job emulating the cross-cutting between two different, yet related battles as the SW films do. You dont get that much in Fan Films. It's nice to see that some people are aware of the editing styles of SW.

Visual Effects I thought these were pretty damn good. Not quite KQ but pretty close. I think the only flaws were in the cinemtagraphy of some of the dog fights; a few of the shots seemed to lack inspiration in their composition and movement.
I also have to say that the effect of having the pilots bounce in their seats didnt work. It seemed a bit cheesy. In the future to convey movement I offer the following suggestions:
1) I think the films moved the cockpits, this is pretty expensive but I think it would work.
2) Create some kind of structure to block the light. If you watcht he Death Star battle at the end of ANH as well as the battle in ROTJ you will see that shadows cast by the canopy's frame move around and help convince the audience that the actor is really flying an X-Wing Fighter.

 

I love the fact that so many people have so many different opinions!
Some people like the story others hate it. Some think the cinematography and editing was great and others don't! etc...
This is indeed very interesting and we have learned a lot from everyone's comments!
One thing we realized is making a film is really hard and takes a lot of time and dedication... and no matter what you do you will never be able to please everyone. But that's ok... because ultimately the whole purpose is to have fun and continuously get better! You can bet that we won't make the same mistakes in our next movie!....we will just make a bunch of new mistakes!!!!

Maz

 

I saw Seeds of Darkness and I would reckon that still Broken Allegiance is the film to beat. I can't get over how good it all looks!

 

Not to get defensive here but I think people are missing the fact that this film was shot with no budget. If we could have moved a light source around the cockpit to simulate the xwing spinning or turning we would have. In addition there was no way we were going to have the funds to build a full size cockpit that we could shake or move. Indeed we thought about these things. But its just not practical on a shoestring budget. In addition I could never fit a bigger cockpit between my washer and dryer!!!!

I appreciate the constructive comments and even the non-constructive. Just remember that we are not professionals and not a single one of us has ever worked on or made a film before. We were making it up as we went.

In addition I agree that Broken Allegiance looks great. But I'd also like to point out that it seems as though it is being made by some very professional people too. I feel concerned for a lot of the new "low-budget" films that are coming out once films like BA and Tydirium show up. Obviously the bar is going to be raised. The fear is that the fan film viewer will not be willing to accept the "non-professional" fan film.

Not trying to rant or rave but it's obvious that the face of fan-films are changing fast. I hope I'm not mistaking that BA and Tydirium are being made by people who are more that just "normal guys with real crappy jobs who grab a camera and some friends and go shoot a film on the weekend." Everything I've seen and read seems to point to the fact that they are "legitimate and formidable studios" who have some funding and manpower to pull off a "real" looking film. Am I wrong?

 

I wouldn't worry about it Icicle, personally I think your stuff more than holds it own against these other films. It will be interesting to see how films like Broken Allegiance fair against yours actually. You've set a pretty high standard in terms of space battles.The production values on Seeds of Darkness where NOT little league by any stretch of the imagination.

Looking at it, who the hell needs a professional greenscreen studio if you can produce that kind of stuff inbetween the washer and the dryer.