Fan-created Star Wars Spinoff in The Works

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.""

Comments

Too bad IMPS died.

[the linux geek]

I actually really enjoyed chapter one of IMPS: The Relentless (impstherelentless.com) but it seems to have died. It's a pity; that was probably the best SW fanfilm out now.

Democracy does work!

[andrewman327]

This has the most potential of any story I've read on /. in a while. Like many geeks, I was terribley disapointed by the three prequels. One of my bigger complaints is the heavy handed use of digital effects. Considering this film's budget, I doubt that that will be a problem.

Re:Democracy does work!

[slackmaster2000]

I would think the opposite. It must be cheaper now to do things with computers than to do them the old fashioned way. Granted this movie won't have the excessive high dollar effects of the prequels, but I'd bet that it's going to be mostly computer animation, and the cheap variety.

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!

[AKAImBatman]

One of my bigger complaints is the heavy handed use of digital effects. Considering this film's budget, I doubt that that will be a problem.

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. :-)

Do not want

[birder]

Do not want.

Re:Do not want

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Do+ not+want!

not the typical nerd

[the_tsi]

"Mark Twitchell isn't a typical Star Wars fan. Rather than collect countless plastic toys or blog online with closet sci-fi nerds, he indulges his hobby in its "purest" form: film."

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 ...

[Stavr0]

The film will delve into the the downfall of the Jedi, the theft of the Death Star blueprints, and the Empire's efforts to reclaim them.

Many Bothans will die to bring us this information.

For the fans?

[Otter Escaping North]

"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...

One in a long long line...

[Rob T Firefly]

This certainly seems to have more potential than most, but just in case one or two people on the Internet don't already know this isn't entirely a new idea. People have actually been doing Star Wars fan films for quite some time.

Film's budget break-down

[StefanJ]

Catering (five boxes Little Debbies', two liters Mountian Dew): $7.00

Transportation: $52

Equipment: $3,401

Special effects: $2,900

Insurance: $1,200

Legal fees in anticipation of lawsuit from Lucasfilm: $52,000

Re:Film's budget break-down

[JFMulder]

The face on George Lucas when he sees the film and sees that it's better than what he wrote : priceless.

Re:Life Sucking Lawyers

[Rob T Firefly]

Ever since the original trilogy, George Lucas has always been quietly supportive of non-commercial fan-created Star Wars stuff, even before the Internet and its resulting explosion of SW fanfic and things. I seem to remember he even judged one or two fan film competitions. I think that stance is one of the wisest moves he's ever made as grand poobah of a cultural icon.

99% of all Star Wars Fanfilms suck

[mrshowtime]

I think most Star Wars Fan films do try and not suck, but mostly all of them end up becoming a lightsaber/cgi fest with no story or plot. Ironically, much the same could be said about the "new" trilogy. The only good fanfilm I have seen that is coming out is http://www.tydirium.tv/ they actually built a huge Star Destroyer model and had real sets.

ugh...

[TrippTDF]

My problem with the fan films is fans thinking they can act, and they can't.

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:And I'm supposed to believe...

[0123456]

"And I'm supposed to believe he can find better actors, can direct better and will write a better story than we already have."

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:SFX and quality

[andrewman327]

"filmmakers seem to haved deferred to SFX to carry the movie"

Found it!

More Obligatories

[hellfire]

"Making films ain't like dustin' crops boy!"

"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."

Cast

[dafz1]

There are some "Official" Star Wars actors in the movie.

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

[LuminaireX]

"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

If I'm not mistaken, that one sucked too

Leigh Brackett's Other Work

[sesshomaru]

I think it's sad that no one ever pays attention to any of Leigh Brackett's other work. Sure, Empire Strikes Back was a fine film with crackling dialogue, but I can vaugely remember some of her other Space Operas from when I was a kid (mostly short stories). (Time to buy some books, I guess.)

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:Between Eps III and IV?

[Motterman]

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category= 3&id=35849&type=0 Rick McCallum, George Lucas' longtime Star Wars producing partner, told SCI FI Wire that future projects are a ways off, including a live-action TV show that is at least a year and a half away. "Star Wars TV series, probably not for a couple of years," McCallum said in an interview at the Saturn Awards in Universal City, Calif., on May 2. "George is starting to start the basic concept of it. ... We're interviewing writers. We're seeing a lot of people. But I'd say it's not going to be happening for another at least 18 months." McCallum also denied rumors that the new series would focus on members of the Skywalker family, but repeated that the show will take place in the timeframe between Episode III and IV. "All-new characters," he added. "That missing 20-year period when Luke is growing up. ... Think bounty hunter. That's all I can tell you. There's nobody else that you'll know [in it]. At the moment. You know, it's still [in] really, really early stages. He hasn't really sat down to think about which direction [he's going]."

Just to clarify

[rk]

Because I'm not quite sure yet: Are you in this movie? ;-)