Star Wars Revelations - May the Force Be With You!

n0alpha writes "For all you Star Wars fans out there, if you've been less than satisfied with the last two episodes of Star Wars, fear not. There is a new episode coming out soon -- but I'm not talking about Revenge of the Sith. On April 16th, 2005 the world will be blessed with a brand new episode, Star Wars Revelations. This is an independent film, completely put together by volunteers and organized by Panic Struck Productions, but don't let that fool you into thinking it is sub-par. Visit their website to view a trailer."

Comments

Looks good

[maotx]

The movie looks pretty decent. The CGI effects are better than the original movies though the acting could use a little improvement. For an independant film I'm really impressed with it. If they showed it at my local theater I'd be willing to cough up the $9 to see it just for the original content.

Any word on how they are going to release this film? Online? Select theater?

You r right... George Lucs lost his touch

[dark-br]

I was raised on the the Original Star wars trilogy and have watched them over and over! But the new star wars prequels are pure junk, when compared to the original three. The original 3 are easy to digest and seem to whisk you away to this fantasy world and the story just flows freely throughout the movies.

The new and improved CG crapfest movies are force fed (go on eat up, it's star wars of course you'll love it) and trudge along with jagged edges.

The new movies also lack patience in its story develop, almost as if Lucas is trying to cram in to much crap. Mark my words, the new star wars trilogy will never become classics. However, the original trilogy is classic cinema. at least will always have those to enjoy.

Re:You r right... George Lucs lost his touch

[servognome]

I've watched the OT and Ep I & II also to figure out why the old ones are good and new ones are bad. It wasn't nostalgia, since I've watched other things that as a kid I loved and as an adult I see suck (ie Voltron, Robotech).
The things I noticed:
Sense of granduer - Watching the OT the universe seemed so much bigger than the characters. In Star Wars just the opening scenes allude to many things that were not explained until the prequels, and some not at all. You get a sense that there is a whole universe of things going on and you are just following the adventures of a particular group of people.
Episode I & II seem to be more pre-packaged. There is no sense you are following the characters on their adventures through the universe, it is presented more as if the universe revolves around the characters.
Extra Characters: In the OT I felt as if there were so many more things going on, other key players. While the movies followed Luke, Han, & Leia, there was still a war being fought, when they returned to that thread things had changed. Battles had been won and lost, the Alliance had grown, in many ways you could feel the main characters in the movies weren't that important, the universe went on without them.
In Episode I, the main characters did pretty much everything. You couldn't come up with stories for Naboo Pilot 13 like you could for Wedge, an "extra" character that shows up in all 3 movies. Episode II does allow stories to be written about the clone wars, but there are no specific characters that you tie into the movies.
Location: The locations in the OT were unique and had a sense of character. Dagobah, Hoth, Tatooine, Cloud City, all had a sense of character about them and they complimented the story. There is a reason every game pretty much has a Hoth battle. Not because the scenery itself was anything special, but because the frozen wasteland so paralleled the story of the rebellion and the battle itself; lonely, hopeless, and on the brink of death.
The locations in Ep I & II were wasted or lacked character. The urban slums of Corouscant were ignored, Naboo had no particular sense that it was "special", and Tatoone was just a rehash.
/rant

Mirror (be nice)

[amitti]

Got a new box, lets see how my Dual Xeon handles.. (be nice)

web_trailer_II_larger.mov

-Mitti

Review based on Trailer (or, IANAMovie Critic)

[RyoShin]

First off, the CGI, while not to the level as the 'AAA' modern day films, is still quite amazing. Ships, exploding stuff, robotic limbs... Very nicely done. There were a few scenes in the trailer where the CGI looked blurry compared to the rest of the shot, but that could be fixed up before release.

I don't really follow the Star Wars universe as a whole, so all I can say about the plot is that it is interesting.

However, as many people have already pointed out, the acting is sub-par. The lead evil actress tries to have some sort of menacing voice, but just sounds like her mouth is packed with something. (acorns?) The acting of other parts (such as the confrontation on the 'good guy' ship) seems forced, with delayed reaction time. The lightsaber scene between the two lead females just didn't feel right.

There were also some parts of the trailer that just didn't fit in with the pace of it. The one main example that I saw was the girl dancing in a futuristic version of those hanging cages (I have no idea what they are called.) The pace of her body threw off the suspense that was (supposedly) building, and conflicted with the (then) slow music. It also had no real purpose that I could tell.

Hopefully the acting throughout the entire movie averages better than the trailer, but I wouldn't be surprised if the opposite were true.

It's probably good for them that they can't charge money for it.

I am not a film critic, obsessive Star Wars fan, or acting buff, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night.

On performing arts

[Qbertino]

I studied and trained performing arts, have a diploma in that and I also consider myself somewhat firm at general visual/fine arts.
The thing hat occured to me about watching and noticing the bad acting , as a lot of people here allready have done, is I thought that I would have done it better. Yet the other part of that is that it also occured to me how extremly difficult it would be to get it just right. For novices aswell as for me.

I've long considered starting a little independent film project and I think I would be the type of guy to a) not consider a fan project like this 'below' me and b) actually be able to aply my skills in such a way that everybody would profit from it. Like for instance the mentioned bad acting. There are a few extremly simple rules of acting that just sink in with the years that these people could have followed to greatly enhance even that short trailer. Very much like the simple rules you just know when to apply as an experienced programmer.

Some must-have basics:
If you want to sound fierce, loud and evil, tone down on the vowels and emphasise the consonants. Do speech training. Do speech training with your lines.
The moment you know your lines is the moment you START practicing them, you don't stop it there. (That's what differs a school play from professional acting btw)

When you act, your head and facial expression leads your motion, when you dance your body leads your motion and facial expression. For dancing: On at least one part of your body at a time the musical beat should be visible. (Cue stupid dirty jokes below :-) )

And finally, my performing arts process I've refined over 10 years of professional work -
practice an act in this order (and in this order ONLY):

1) Learn to know the play and learn your lines by heart. Nothing else. Don't dare try to act at this stage. NEVER try to act at this stage. If you do, you WILL suck on stage/film. Trust me. I've studied with to many third class perfomers, the world has enough of them. In fact, you shouldn't even move very much when reciting your lines at this stage.

2) Give your lines flow and vividness by supporting each one with an inner picture and vision. EACH AND EVERY SINGLE ONE. Give the string of visions a storytelling consistency. It's at this stage perfomers notice wether they've understood the playwrite or wether they have to correct their povs at some place or other. This is the stage at which storyboarders, and directors of photography double check their plans for shooting. Again: don't act yet. Do more of a reciting or storytelling thing. Good RPG Gamemasters enter this stage frequently for instance.

3) Forget your lines for this stage. Think of that other person whos lines you happen to know by heart and what kind of a character he might be. Pratice stances, poses and gestures emphasising basic emotions with the impitus of that character. Don't do that with the lines. Don't act the play! Do that with differen't things. Lines you make up. Best is to make up a little play by itself. You're on the safe side if you take - for instance - the tragic Anakin Skywalker (well he was a tragic character and the acting wasn't bad at all for such a 5th grade script) and try to play him as if he were a part in a comedy. Don't speak to early. Practice the stances, poses and gestures. Learn the difference between movement leading to pose and pose leading to movement.

4) Now practive stances, poses, gestures and movement of the play. Use the visions of 2). Don't speak your lines to much. Whisper them or speak them toneless. You want to concentrate on the moving part. You practice that seperately from speaking at first.

5) Add you lines and and your adversaries in play. Get in sync. If your coplayers are good, you won't even need a director. Do the stuff. The thing. In one word: Act.
HERE is where the acting kicks in. And once again: Anybody who starts earlier in the process WILL suck in performance. When you