Fan-created Star Wars Spinoff in The Works 196
Lazarian writes "According to an article from the Edmonton Sun, director Mark Twitchell from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology has begun filming Star Wars: Secrets of the Rebellion, a non-profit venture expected to be released in 2008. From the article:
"The 27-year-old Edmonton director begins shooting a feature-length independent Star Wars spin-off film at NAIT Saturday, and has amassed $60,000 to bring his dream to life.
"I'm the only guy crazy enough to do this, because I'm not allowed to turn a profit. The film is for hardcore fans who miss the character development of the original trilogy.""
Too bad IMPS died. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Too bad IMPS died. (Score:2)
Re:Too bad IMPS died. (Score:3, Funny)
Democracy does work! (Score:5, Interesting)
SFX and quality (Score:2)
BTW - Hemos, I'm normally not the grammar Nazi type, but "from the better-then-crazy-lucas dept."? Can we at least get it right on the front page? Now cue someone pointing out some bad grammar in
Re:SFX and quality (Score:4, Funny)
Found it!
Re:SFX and quality (Score:2, Funny)
BZZZT, sorry but that was the wrong answer, please play again. The question was, where is the GRAMMATICAL error in my post, not where is the TYPOGRAPHICAL ERROR. Bob, is there a consolation prize for our player?
(The poster DID specify grammar error! I love these games, it makes me a better speller and writer!
Re:SFX and quality (Score:2, Insightful)
The problem is that CG still (typically) doesn't look as good as using scale models, puppets and costumes. The ships in the original trilogy look realistic. The new movie's ships look like cartoons; effectively, that's what they are. Another example, loook at the difference between Chewbacca in the original and JarJar in the new movies. Agai
Re:SFX and quality (Score:2)
Excellent point. Especially when you compare the relative size of the same character in the versions of the film. New Jabba looks quite small compared to the monstrous, disgusting, and obese figure we were introduced to in Return of the Jedi. The cartooniness is repulsive (moreso than Jabba himself).
Re:SFX and quality (Score:2)
Yes. It is one of the fundamental laws of physics - "The size of Jabba is invariant over time" - and is also the very reason why Big Bang happened: a universe smaller than Jabba couldn't contain Jabba, so it had to expand. If that expanding would ever stop, the universe would begin to collapse, and eventually be smaller than Jabba; that's what kept the expansion going (but just barely at th
Re:SFX and quality (Score:3, Funny)
All is forgivable to the goddess of the metal bikini, heathen.
Re:SFX and quality (Score:3, Insightful)
It's exactly the other way around. CGI looks too good. A real warship has some paint peeled off, there's some rust around, someone's coffee's been spilled on the gunner seat, there's dried muddy footprints going around the place and duct tape holding together some odd device, some doors make a screeching noise when they move no matter what you do...
A CGI ship looks like it came straight from the s
Re:SFX and quality (Score:2)
Re:SFX and quality (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:SFX and quality (Score:2)
I don't think the original effects were primitive at all. With the technology available at the time the amount of creativity that went into every aspect of the movie was incredible. Every single little detail of the film had some genius figuring out a way to make it appear as real as possible.
As an example, my ex-father-in-law worked for a landscaping co
Re:Democracy does work! (Score:4, Insightful)
Computer animation in movies is really something that I've come to despise. To me it looks considerably worse than old fashioned special effects, especially in lower budget horror and sci fi films, which are my favorite genres (or they were before everything started looking like a video game intro). That's not to say that they can't be done well, it just doesn't happen too often. I'd take the old effects in The Thing or Alien over most new films relying mostly on computer effects.
Re:Democracy does work! (Score:2)
Directors tend to overuse CGI because it's easier these days, and I have an appreciation for practical effects, but I've seen a lot of great use of the technology. Despite it being very fashionable to bash it, I think special effects have never looked better, for the most part.
Re:Democracy does work! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Democracy does work! (Score:2)
(note: I'm in the movie)
I don't think you have to worry about that. Firstly, the use of CGI is being very carefully undertaken... nothing overboard, nothing excessive, and nothing "we're too lazy to do this right, so let's just CGI it".
Secondly, the CGI that is being used is FREAKISHLY top-rate. One of the ship models has 3x the polygons that the
Re:Democracy does work! (Score:5, Insightful)
If this is anything like the fan videos that have come before it, it will probably have incredibly high production values (e.g. CGI effects, space ships, awesome compositing work, and realistic weapons), but will suffer from poor audio and acting.
For example, I was just watching the latest Star Trek: Exeter the other day. While the acting is not the worst (that title goes to a good-looking Star Wars fan film I saw a while back), it often suffers from the "spitting out the lines"-itis. Instead of training the actors and/or editing for proper timing, the actors are allowed to speak their lines one after another without any sort of pausing. The result is that they come across as emotionless actors speaking lines.
Now Shatner did have a propensity for overacting. (It's my... ship... my... ship!) However, he was at least acting. By not taking the time to slow down and deliver the lines, the actors never manage any real emotional expression. Which makes their lines that much harder to follow.
I say, "that much harder", because the voice audio is usually terrible in these amatuer productions. They need to either get a good mic *really* close to the actors, or they need to re-dub the audio in post-production. A combination of both wouldn't be such a bad idea. It would also help to try and clean up the audio that they do record. Try to remove any background noise or echoing (it's *really* hard to get perfectly clean audio without a sound booth) and boost the volume to be louder than the incessant background effects.
Exeter has one more annoyance that's actually quite unique to the production. They allow the actors to make nervous movements. While it's not that big of a deal for someone to rock a chair in real life, it's incredibly distracting in a movie. Hopefully they'll realize this and make their actors sit still for their lines.
That's my opinion, anyway. I imagine that someone trained in the field could provide more precise advice.
FWIW, I think it's amazing what fan films have been doing these days. If we wait a few more years, we may find that what used to be Internet fan films will become the Internet television of tomorrow. I just hope someone reboots Blake's 7. It would be a wonderful show to see back on the air.
Re:Democracy does work! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Democracy does work! (Score:2, Insightful)
The first one would be if novice (but formally trained) actors would volunteer to take part on this project to try and project themselves into the entertainment industry. I think that this is much more likely on a Star Wars fan movie than for a Star Trek one, since SW has much more popular appeal I dont't see that as an impossibility (BTW, I'm
Re:Democracy does work! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Democracy does work! (Score:2)
That said, I'll make sure to bring that up with Mark tonight. Congratulations, you just positively affected the outcome of
Re:Democracy does work! (Score:2)
Sweet! I'm glad to have been of service.
Re:Democracy does work! (Score:2)
Also, you can now claim to have "given great input into the best Star Wars fan film of all time". Looks good on a resume, and it's a great line for picking up chicks.
But I don't think I can get you in the credits.
Re:Democracy does work! (Score:2)
I'll settle for the film having top-notch audio. Thanks for trying, though.
Re:Democracy does work! (Score:2)
Do not want (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Do not want (Score:5, Informative)
A picture is worth a thousand words (Score:2)
Re:A picture is worth a thousand words (Score:2)
Re:A picture is worth a thousand words (Score:2)
Just open a new window, so that there's no referer, and paste the URL into the address bar.
Re:A picture is worth a thousand words (Score:3, Informative)
not the typical nerd (Score:3, Insightful)
uh huh. Are we ignoring the past twenty years of film school students, the vast majority of whom all envision themselves as the next george lucas and at some point in high school or college made a film that references/parodies/extends star wars in some way? Gimme a break, there's nothing special about this dork... if anything he's jumping on a trend after it's already been destroyed by the new trilogy. Great news team, Edmonton Sun.
Obligatory ... (Score:5, Funny)
Many Bothans will die to bring us this information.
Re:Obligatory ... (Score:3, Interesting)
There's 18 years seperating the first event and the second/third event in that list. That's a lot of time to span. Plus, you have to consider that that timespan has already been spoken for in the upcoming Star Wars television series [bbc.co.uk].
Delve into the downfall of the Jedi? (Score:2)
For the fans? (Score:5, Funny)
"I'm the only guy crazy enough to do this, because I'm not allowed to turn a profit. The film is for hardcore fans who miss the character development of the original trilogy."
I don't think this guy understands Star Wars at all...
Re:For the fans? (Score:3, Funny)
"I'm the only guy crazy enough to do this, because I'm not allowed to turn a profit. The film is for hardcore fans who miss the character development of the original trilogy."
I don't think this guy understands Star Wars at all...
Like any fan film, we have to make some deviations from the original...
One in a long long line... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:One in a long long line... (Score:2)
And of course, Star Wars itself was not entriely a new idea [wikipedia.org], either.
Fan Films are Inherent (Score:2)
I would have to say fan-films are inherent. When I was about 6 (1979) I absconded with my mother's 110 camera and setup my Star Wars action figures and X-Wing fighter on the floor and shot a 'film'. I understood the 'sequence-of-still-images' part, but not the frame rate.
Clearly I hadn't heard about fanfilms at that time, I just had the urge to make one. People are always emulating things they enjoy. Sad to say, the p
Re:One in a long long line... (Score:2)
That's very true, but this is most definitely the biggest, and most ambitious. This isn't a few guys going around with a camcorder, or even several friends with a few good props. This is soundstages, greenrooms, huge sets, bona-fide hollywood propmakers and actors...
I have full respect for all the fan films that are out there, and I've enjoyed them. This isn't meant as an insult. It's simply that this movie is larger in scale than anything that has been done before.
Life Sucking Lawyers (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Life Sucking Lawyers (Score:2)
One would hope that GL harkens back to his days as a struggling independent film-maker and gives the guy a pass. However, he is now cast in the role of studio exec and he may not be happy to hear of such a thing, especially where he receives no cut.
Always in motion is the future.
Re:Life Sucking Lawyers (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Life Sucking Lawyers (Score:2)
Basically Lucas has done what everyone else seems afraid to do. Trust in the consumer to be honest with him when buying official Star wars products. He doesn't mind if pe
Re:Life Sucking Lawyers (Score:2)
Re:Life Sucking Lawyers (Score:2)
Re:Life Sucking Lawyers (Score:2)
It came straight from the mouth of a guy with no legal training, and apparently without enough money or sense to ask a competent lawyer.
I can't blame the guy though. He wants very badly to make a star wars film, and he's left with a terrible dilema. He can either spend money on a lawyer and almost certainly be told that his idea opens him to untold liability, or he can go ahead and make the f
Re:Life Sucking Lawyers (Score:2)
Re:Life Sucking Lawyers (Score:3, Informative)
Lucas has for years said fan movies of Star Wars are OK [creativecommons.org] as long as they don't turn a profit. This doesn't imply any other autors/screenwriters/directors think it's ok to make rip-offs of their movies. It's something Lucas has specifically said he's OK with. That's why it's ok with Lucas' laywers.
This isn't saying it's OK to make any ripoffs of any Spielberg, Woody Allen, etc, etc, movies. Just Luca
Re:Life Sucking Lawyers (Score:2)
I gave two examples of doing something illegal because I said it was ok. That's what this guy is doing... he's doing something illegal because he says it's ok.
Making a movie based off of Star Wars is illegal unless permission is granted by Lucas Films (I assume they're the copyright holder?)
No where in the article was a reference to Lucas Films saying it was allowed.
And nowhere in your link was a ref
Re:Life Sucking Lawyers (Score:2)
The grandparent post was about Lucas' lawyers giving permission for fan films. You came back equating that to endorsing music pirating, or killing being fine. That, my friend, is a troll.
If you are too lazy to google for yourself, you could easily go to www.starwars.com [starwars.com] and see for yourself. Notice the "Lucas Online" at the bottom? That site is owned by Lucas. Also, notice what is right above that notice at the bottom? "Star Wa
Pink-5 (Score:2)
The linked article is pretty content-lite, but I hope he produces something interesting and has a good time doing so.
I have been a big fan of Pink Five [trudang.com] for some time now. It's always been funny, but the production values have been getting significantly better as the story continues.
Although it is an apples-organges comparison, I find it interesting that fans with no budget can create movies that are more interesting and entertaining than George Lucas (Ep 1-) can with his billions!
Maybe passion is more im
Film's budget break-down (Score:5, Funny)
Transportation: $52
Equipment: $3,401
Special effects: $2,900
Insurance: $1,200
Legal fees in anticipation of lawsuit from Lucasfilm: $52,000
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Film's budget break-down (Score:2)
I'm in the movie, and I can honestly say... get a motherfreakin camera, cuz Mr Lucas is gonna have some drool on his chin.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Film's budget break-down (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Commander Rob!!! (Score:2, Funny)
http://www.commanderrob.com/ [commanderrob.com]
Admittedly, the acting quality from the action figures is a little...um...stiff.
Tod.
Re:Commander Rob!!! (Score:2)
Once again, I'm amazed at how much stranger truth is over fiction.
BTW, any chance you could publish more scripts? It's amusing to see how close the films are to the source material.
Re:Commander Rob!!! (Score:2)
To answer my own question, "Commander Rob" has posted another of his scripts here:
http://commanderriker.bravehost.com/movie_scripts. html [bravehost.com]
The choice bit:
Still illegal... (Score:2)
99% of all Star Wars Fanfilms suck (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:99% of all Star Wars Fanfilms suck (Score:2)
And 99% of Hollywood films suck. Coincidence?
Re:99% of all Star Wars Fanfilms suck (Score:2)
Actually, there has been great care taken with a long and well storyboarded plot, good character development, and suchlike. Much more thought ahas been given to "What can we do to write a good story" than "What can we do to have a 54-minute lightsaber battle".
Also, we really built most of the Cantina, there is a full-size Falcon cockpit, and many other full sets. While we do have to CGI a lot of parts (such as the rest of the bar), it isn't going to turn into 30 seconds of indoor scen
Just to clarify (Score:4, Funny)
Because I'm not quite sure yet: Are you in this movie? ;-)
Re:99% of all Star Wars Fanfilms suck (Score:2)
And I'm supposed to believe... (Score:2)
I expect terrible actors, terrible direction and even worse dialogue. All compounded with: bad FX, worse audio and a poor cinematography.
Yeah... this sounds like it's going to save Star Wars.
Re:And I'm supposed to believe... (Score:4, Funny)
Would be difficult to do worse than 'Phantom Menace'. Though, to be fair, it's not the actor's fault that they suck ass in the movie.
"I expect terrible actors, terrible direction and even worse dialogue."
If they can write worse dialog than George Lucas, they deserve an award.
Re:And I'm supposed to believe... (Score:2, Insightful)
It's not supposed to save anything. It's a fan-made film. For fans.
Re:And I'm supposed to believe... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:And I'm supposed to believe... (Score:2)
Really?
I don't know what the average movie budget was back then, but it looks like $11 million then, adjusted for inflation, would be equivalent to about $35 million today. So Lucas had somewhere in the neighborhood of 500-600 times th
Who will they find... (Score:2, Funny)
like
James T.
Kirk?
Re:Who will they find... (Score:2)
However, if they want to guarantee a success, they could always have someone dressed as a Wookiee beat the crap out of someone dressed as a Vulcan. I can think of lots of fans (of both series, actually) that would enjoy watching that. Including me :)
But how does he decide who shoots first? (Score:2, Funny)
ugh... (Score:5, Insightful)
Lucas had shitty, crappy dialogue in the new trilogy, and that held a lot of the actors back... Natalie Portman and Ewan MccGreggor have done impressive stuff in the past, and the reason they looked so bad in these movies was due to the poor script, the actors did what they could with what they were given.
Now, when these indie SW films seem to get fans to play the parts. Even if you have a good script, these people have no idea what they are doing, and it shows. The same way that Lucas can make his actors look bad with a bad script, bad actors can make a good script look bad.
Here's to hoping he ropes in real actors, even if they don't give to shits about SW than using a bunch of fanboys who they they know what they are doing.
Re:ugh... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:ugh... (Score:2)
Actors don't just spend 1.5 hours working with each other they spend months and years learning each other's personalities so that they can interact like they know each other.
Reacting to each other well and modifying your lines and character to match what's going on seperates the real actors... from star trek fans who've watched the movie 100 times all want the facial expression of Boba Fette and have no self image and wierd tension even with their friends and co-stars.
The dire
Why all the bashing (Score:2, Insightful)
More Obligatories (Score:5, Funny)
"It's as if a thousand Lucas lawyers suddenly cried out, and then were silent."
"That's no Lucas bomb, it's a fan flick!"
"He better get those Mt. Dew Bottles to editing by tomorrow morning, or there'll be hell to pay."
And finally, said the director of the fan film to Lucas: "Would someone get this walking carpet out of my way."
Re:More Obligatories (Score:2)
"NOOOO!!!!!!"
(I had more O's and more !'s, but the
Cast (Score:5, Informative)
Included in the cast:
Zach Jensen: Jedi Master Kit Fisto (Episode 2)
AND
Jeremy Bulloch: BOBA FETT!!!! Ok...he won't play Boba Fett in this movie.
You aren't the first (Score:4, Informative)
"I'm the only guy crazy enough to do this, because I'm not allowed to turn a profit."
Actually, you're not the first and only guy, and I doubt you'll be the last. Come on, this was only a year ago! Star Wars Revelations [ifilm.com]
If I'm not mistaken, that one sucked too
Leigh Brackett's Other Work (Score:3, Informative)
I'd really like to see Space Opera make a comeback, but it seems unlikely with the failure of Serenity at the box office.
Re:Leigh Brackett's Other Work (Score:2)
I'd really like to see Space Opera make a comeback, but it seems unlikely with the failure of Serenity at the box office.
Whoa there! The financials for Serenity are hard to judge unless you look closely. Even though the box office take for Serenity seemed lackluster, a little inspection of the numbers reveals a different story. First, it wasn't taken seriously by the studio, who released the film in about half as many theaters as it could have -- something like 1500 theaters in the U.S. The Jodi Foster f
I'm confused.... (Score:3, Funny)
Am I supposed to hate this because it is "new" Star Wars and will have lots of CGI, or am I supposed to love it because it is a fan film and not Lucas?? Tell me what to think!
Please hurry, I want to make up my mind before I see it...
Making a movie for profit? (Score:2)
Crazy? I don't think so. It is well known that [wikipedia.org] even if you make a successful movie, you don't make a movie to make a profit [wikipedia.org].
DUDE!!!! (Score:2)
The best part is that everyone involved in the project is such a huge geek, and Star Wars fan, that everything just comes together perfectly.
Everyone needs to go Slashdot XPress Entertainment [xpressentertainment.ca]. Tha
Re:Star Wars Kid (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, I get that he was humiliated in front of all of mankind. I also get that he used the school's very expensive equipment wrecklessly and without permission. Maybe the school should now sue him f
Re:Star Wars Kid (Score:2)
He had all the ability in the world to spin things in his favor, if not only in the eyes of fellow geeks, but still. I hope he uses some of that money to buy some thicker skin.
Re:Isn't this piracy? (Score:2)
1. Maybe he asked.
2. George Lucas is pretty benevolent about people creating direvatives of the Star Wars universe as long as it stands within official cannon. (see reason 1)
Re:Isn't this piracy? (Score:2)
Sigh. You're new to this whole thing aren't you? It's pretty obvious from the rest of your post that you're not really into this Star Wars thing are you? Basically, that powers that control the Star Wars (this means George Lucas) and Star Trek franchises (
Re:from the if-then-better-than dept. (Score:2)
Re:from the if-then-better-than dept. (Score:2)
In order to enforce arbitrary rules you need a cudgel of some sort, whining is the equivalent of a mosquito bite, annoying but easily forgotten.
To say that "than" means only this, and "then" means only that is arbitrary, you can just as easily say that both spellings may connote either meaning and that their interchangability simply reflects the increasing overlap in their everyday pronunciation.
Flexible languages live, prosper and assimilate. Rigid, inflexible languages be
Re:Between Eps III and IV? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Meesa Dying! (Score:3, Informative)
I'm in the movie, and I don't know if I should say... but I don't think I'll get in trouble if I tell you that your concerns will be assuaged in a manner involving deep space and a fortuitous high-speed collision with a starship.