Fanmade lightsabre duel. You MUST watch this!!!

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-01-17 01:26am

A fanmade film featuring a one vs one lightsabre duel:

http://www.theforce.net/theater/fxproje ... ndex.shtml

YOU

MUST

WATCH THIS.

Worth the long download and awesome beyond words

PS: Sorry if this really belongs in pure star wars forum, but it's TOO good to be placed into any other than the most populated forum on this board.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-01-17 01:48am

*Bumpage to keep it on the "view new posts" page*

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-01-17 02:00am

That plain kicked ass for a home movie. Sah-weet.

Darth Balls · Post by **Darth Balls** » 2003-01-17 02:07am

You'd think that for such a well made movie they'd have the lightsabers giving off reflections from the sunglasses. The cheesy matrix ripoff outfits really didnt fit in. Other than that great movie.

SylasGaunt · Post by **SylasGaunt** » 2003-01-17 04:38am

Matrix rip-off? What the hell the only thing about them that even vaguely resembles the matrix outfits was the sunglassed, at least I don't recall any sweatsuits in there.

Anyway the movie kicked ass.

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2003-01-17 07:01am

I liked it.

My gripes come first:

- Setting: Why is it that so many SW lightsabre fighting home movies take place in a damned forest? I mean, seriously, when you think 'lightsabre battle' do you think of forests? No you don't, and do you know why? Because they're NOT INTERESTING. Any yahoo in suburbia could go to a forest and film there, and that's what happened. There are plenty of buildings that look exotic enough and could be used (THX 1138 was filmed without the use of soundstages), or you could go to a different locale...a desert would be nice, a snowy field would be cool, etc.

- Costuming: First of all, they didnt manage to exude a very 'Star Wars' feeling...it seemed like some Matrix guys with lightsabres (not that that isn't cool). But then, the quality of Matrix costumes wasn't even that great...the one guy was wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt...it was like me with a lightsabre. The choice of using sunglasses was weird...while it did prevent them from having to even pretend to act, it also brought up the problem that the sabres didn't reflect in them, not to mention that it helped disassociate the movie from Star Wars.
I understand that they wanted to give it an unorthodox feel, and not just use boring old brown robes. But this could be accomplished in other ways. Look at Anakin, or the Dark Jedi from Jedi Knight, or most of the EU Jedi...it can be different and still maintain that GFFA feeling. Hell, even better Matrix costumes would do.

- Music: Not that that's a bad song, but come on...the same song throughout the entire thing? The effect they were going for was obvious; juxtaposing violent, kinetic, or otherwise unlikely visuals with calm and dramatic music. This is done well in movies such as Platoon, SLC Punk, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, well, just about anything by Steven Spielberg, and Return of the Jedi. Here it doesn't come of so well. First of all, usually when this effect is tried, the source sfx are either muted or at least lowered considerably. This helps avoid what happens in this movie: for most of it, you don't notice the music at all, and then when you do, it seems out of place.
Also, leaving the same song to go on throughout the film betrays a lack of attention paid to it by the filmaker...no care was taken to assure that events in the film corresponded to events in the soundtrack.
The fact remains that the attempted effect is difficult to achieve, and I give the Ho Bros props for trying.
But...it would be easier to use faster-paced music. Just about anything looks cool when techno accompanies it. Or, to class it up, more energetic orchestral/choral music could be used. Portions of Mozart's Requiem (KV 626) would be nice. Or maybe a mix between orchestral and modern...the theme from Requiem for a Dream would do nicely (remember how powerful it was in the TT trailer?), or Escape by Craig Armstrong (heard in the trailers for Romeo Must Die, The Musketeer, and others). And if they want to stick to the Matrix theme, the song from the Agent Test Program with the Lady in Red would be super-sweet (find it on any p2p by searching for "Matrix classical remix").

- Story: All right, either have a cool story or have no story at all. Or have a porno-like pseudo-story, but this didn't make much sense. The guy writes do his beloved Sarah, tells her he loves her, then he dies. Oooh. Powerful. Did I mention that in "Art of the Saber" there's no saber art until 1:50 into the 4:30-long movie?

OK, I think those are all the gripes I've got. For now. Now, onto the praise!

- Picture quality: Very nice, and consistently good, at that. Good colors, and a sharp image. This shouldn't be too much to ask, but when you look at some other amateur films, you sometimes want to hit your head against a wall.

- Choreography: Of course. Excellent! A little silly at times, but always engaging and entertaining. When all your film is is a lightsabre fight, the lightsabre fighting had damn well better be kickass, and this one delivers!

- Lightsabre blades: This effect isn't as easy to do as it should be, and they do a very good job of it throughout the film.

My overall score is an 8.5-9.0 out of 10. There were a lot of gripes, but they mostly had to do with amateur film stuff, and not so much SW fan film stuff, so as a SW film, this does pretty well. For context, I'd give TROOPS a 9.5-10 (god damn TROOPS was a good movie!).

If you're looking at this thread, and you're debating whether or not to make the dl, stop debating and do it! As Shinova said, it's definitely worth it.

Post by **Lagmonster** » 2003-01-17 08:28am

Oh, for the love of diety.

Go watch DUALITY at www.crewoftwo.com like the rest of the normal SW-fan population.

Post by **Lagmonster** » 2003-01-17 08:31am

Actually, now that I think about it...

The independant film review site www.ifilm.com has an entire 'Star Wars' fan film section, ranging from serious endeavours to cheap spoofs and the immortal 'American Jedi' crossover spoof (American Pie meets Ep.1).

Since you can also find the incredible Killer Bean 2 and other really good shorts there, if you're into fan films and shorts, check it out.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2003-01-17 08:44am

I did a downloading splurge from TFN.net a few months ago... my definate favorite lightsaber duels were in "Legacy of the Jedi" and "A Question of Faith".

kheegster · Post by **kheegster** » 2003-01-17 11:31am

SylasGaunt wrote:Matrix rip-off? What the hell the only thing about them that even vaguely resembles the matrix outfits was the sunglassed, at least I don't recall any sweatsuits in there.

Anyway the movie kicked ass.

It's not like we ever see any SW characters wear shades, so wearing shades definitely is un-SW-ish.

2000AD · Post by **2000AD** » 2003-01-17 04:15pm

IMO Duality owns this all over the place!

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2003-01-17 05:22pm

Duality was better, to be sure, but IMO, this one has better fighting. Duality had better production values, but the actual choreography just wasn't as good; there were too many times when it just looked silly.
As far as fanfilms go, Duality was about as good as TROOPS.

Yogi · Post by **Yogi** » 2003-01-17 06:06pm

Looks OK, but has a bit too much of the"twirly twirl twirl tactics" that would get one killed in real life.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2003-01-17 06:32pm

It was cool. The choreography was some of the best I've seen in a fan film -- the double-bladed saber choreography kicks Duality's ass. However, the lightsaber effects were just not very well-done, and the opening monologue was pretty good up until the guy said, "... until the last breath excapes my lips ..." It's fucking "escape," okay? It sounds like a third-grader is speaking when people make dumbshit pronunciation errors like that.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2003-01-17 06:33pm

Robert Treder wrote:Duality was better, to be sure, but IMO, this one has better fighting. Duality had better production values, but the actual choreography just wasn't as good; there were too many times when it just looked silly.
As far as fanfilms go, Duality was about as good as TROOPS.

Nothing can even approach TROOPS in terms of fanfilm goodness.

kheegster · Post by **kheegster** » 2003-01-17 06:42pm

Argghh! Why can't I open the damn vid!!??

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-01-17 07:04pm

kheegan wrote:Argghh! Why can't I open the damn vid!!??

Do you have Quicktime?

kheegster · Post by **kheegster** » 2003-01-17 07:06pm

Yeah...I clicked on the link on TFN, but it won't open...

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2003-01-17 07:19pm

The other thing was that the compression job was just atrocious. 110kB/s datarate on the video and it looks like shit because they're stupid to use a standard resolution or crop the black bars. I've produced 640x272 video from DVD's at 70kB/s that's infinitely more watchable and scalable than the shit encoding job these guys did. That's the thing about TFN fanfilms: no one knows anything about video compression.

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2003-01-17 08:02pm

Damnit. 2mb away when it got stuck...

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-01-17 08:14pm

Pretty nice. And there were some nice lightsaber tricks. Though all the twirling was pretty dumb. Same with the costuming. The music was nice though didn't exactly fit, even considering the dichotomy it was going for.

I've also seen other stuff by these guys. They are pretty good at fighting. Though they need to work on the camera angles a bit. Though I guess due to the size it will be seen in, they are forced to move tighter in.

Edit: There was some unneccessary slow mo. At least there wasn't that much though.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-01-17 08:22pm

Robert Treder wrote:I liked it.

My gripes come first:

- Setting: Why is it that so many SW lightsabre fighting home movies take place in a damned forest? I mean, seriously, when you think 'lightsabre battle' do you think of forests? No you don't, and do you know why? Because they're NOT INTERESTING. Any yahoo in suburbia could go to a forest and film there, and that's what happened. There are plenty of buildings that look exotic enough and could be used (THX 1138 was filmed without the use of soundstages), or you could go to a different locale...a desert would be nice, a snowy field would be cool, etc.

I think so many home movies are in forests because they are easy to access and are pretty "timeless." It's hard to shoot one in downtown San Francisco and have it be in Star Wars after all. True, there are some buildings that can be used, but not everybody has access and they may not be allowed to do it.

As for deserts, I have seen some using it. I haven't seen snow, but that can be a bitch to film in. With the cold and if it snows.

Basically of natural settings, forests are probably the easiest to access, after all not everybody lives near something like a desert. Though a beachside cliff could be cool.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-01-17 08:27pm

As for deserts, I have seen some using it. I haven't seen snow, but that can be a bitch to film in. With the cold and if it snows.

Were'nt these guys in Maryland in the summer ? That discounts snow. And the nearest desert is a long way off. I think were Neoolong and I live is one of the few places where you are 4 hours or less from desert, snow, and forest. Even then there isnt any snow in the winter. Plus if these guys were in college they might not have time or money to go travelling.

I do agree that a barren environement like The Great Salt Lake in some abandon building would be cool.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-01-17 08:30pm

TrailerParkJawa wrote:
As for deserts, I have seen some using it. I haven't seen snow, but that can be a bitch to film in. With the cold and if it snows.
Were'nt these guys in Maryland in the summer ? That discounts snow. And the nearest desert is a long way off. I think were Neoolong and I live is one of the few places where you are 4 hours or less from desert, snow, and forest. Even then there isnt any snow in the winter. Plus if these guys were in college they might not have time or money to go travelling.

I do agree that a barren environement like The Great Salt Lake in some abandon building would be cool.

I don't know about summer, but the film said Maryland.

And yup, California and microclimates. We have it all here.

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2003-01-17 08:46pm

California weather sucks... A few days ago, it was freezing cold here; there was often frost on the ground when you woke up. About 3 days ago, there was a bunch of fog which left most people with a visibility range of 40 ft. Then yesterday it was really hot... Gah, Hawaii has the best climate IMHO