Discworld Fan Film Possibly the Largest Scale Fan Film Ever
An anonymous reader writes "After clocking in at $82,000 on their Kickstarter campaign, two Troll Bridge trailers have been released online showing helicopter shots in New Zealand (video) and a large scale bridge set that was built and shot on (video). A Behind the Scenes (video) has also been released demonstrating what fans are now actually capable of, given decent crowd-funding. The film has finished shooting and is expected to be released next year. Sir Terry Pratchett has been apparently thrilled with the progress."
But can it beat Star Wreck for best production award?
Lest you auteurs out there get too exciting, thinking you're going to film your Michael Bay ripoff dream project for a song, keep in mind that the entire cast and crew *volunteered* on the project (some for years). If you were to factor that cost in, it wouldn't surprise me if the actual cost of this project was well north of $1 million.
I just wanted to mention that, because these kinds of fan films often advertise incredibly low budgets that mislead a lot of people to think that real filmmaking is easy and cheap, and anyone can do it. It reality it takes a team of pros to produce a decent effort (not just some shitty student film or Youtube novelty). It's just that very low-budget efforts often get those pros to *donate* their services. They're not going to do that for your average Michael Bay ripoff.
My personal favorite professional-grade fan film is Broken Allegiance, easily the best Star Wars fan film ever made (IMHO). It was shot in Australia with a volunteer cast and crew made up of film professionals for about $10,000. It's one of the few fan films I've seen with professional lighting, actors who aren't horrific, and a halfway decent script. And it's one of the few Star Wars fan films that plays it straight instead of doing the 10-millionth stupid parody of a franchise that's almost become a parody of *itself*.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
I still don't think that it'll beat the "Sex Trek" series...
Interpret "beat" however you will...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
I would be very happy if proven wrong on this someday. So far, for some strange reason, all of the movies have taken the material very seriously. His work screams for some mad genius or a bar of mad geniuses to really bring the full effect to the screen.
By all means, keep trying. Or as Ventinari would say 'Don't let me detain you'.
Outside of possibly being an excellent learning experience for the people involved - will anything non-farcical come out of this?
I don't mean ridiculous in that the Cohen/Discworld story is a parody, there's nothing wrong with that, but the production values of the trailer seem totally amateurish - as if you'd given panavision or Red cameras to a bunch of teenagers who'd rather be doing something else.
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the titles font were terrible. It reminds me of the tv shows I used to watch on saturday/ sunday afternoons in the 90s.
I see where you're coming from but it doesn't change the fact that the budget is $82,000. Yes, plenty of people are donating time and resources and yes, not everyone can produce a similar film for that money, but regardless of how, they are producing this film on a $82,000 budget. That's very impressive.
Yes. Amateurish.
Almost like it was being done by fans who are not professional film makers.
What do they call those? Oh ya...amatuers.
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
Why do you have to be a professional film maker to make something that isn't ridiculous? I know two different film makers who aren't "professionals" who make films with excellent production values for virtually nothing. One makes short comedies and the other makes many variations of film.
If you watch the trailers you'll see good locations, costuming, and decent editing. You'll also see ridiculous acting and, apparently, ridiculous direction.
Don't conflate 'amateurish' with 'ridiculous.'
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I think for a fan film made on a shoestring budget they looked very professional and well-done. Better than movies like The Gamers, which I hold up as pretty well done.
Do you know what goes into making a movie? I don't think you're being realistic at all. You want TV-show closed-set professionalism for $82,000?
GCS/MU/P d- s:- a-- C++++$ UL++ P+ L++ E+ W++ N o K- w--- O M+ V- PS+++ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5- X R++ tv+ b++ DI++ D++ G+ e++ h-
Do you know what goes into making a movie?
I do actually, and I know that is is INCREDIBLY hard work. That being said, it is certainly achievable.
$82,000 is a lot more money than many films are ever made with and I don't recall seeing too many that were laughably bad like the trailers were.
Making a decent film is tough, making a decent trailer is much easier. If the trailer(s) are hokey, the movie is going to be an order of magnitude worse. As Clint likes to say - "A man's got to know his limitations..."
I hope I'm wrong because I've loved lots of other fan films.
Do you remember the Star Wars 'Cops' parody 'Troops'? It was Rubio and friends with a LOT of ILM/Lucasfilm guys helping out, made for nothing.
I remember laughing my a** off while working at SoftImage when some of the DigitalStudio guys made cuts and trailers out of it.
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I guess Clerks was shot for like ~$23,000 and it was pretty professional cinematography. They had to shoot in B&W and most of the actors volunteered as well, though.
GCS/MU/P d- s:- a-- C++++$ UL++ P+ L++ E+ W++ N o K- w--- O M+ V- PS+++ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5- X R++ tv+ b++ DI++ D++ G+ e++ h-
Should all fan fiction be NYT Bestseller List worthy?
All fan art worthy of the Louvre, instead of something that looks like it belongs on my fridge?
I cringe to think of what you say about your kid's macaroni art family portrait.....
So why do amatuers making a fan film have to display a professional hollywood level of expertise?
The whole point is its a labor of love from people who love the topic, regardless of their expertise. It had meaning to them, as well as to (hopefully) other fans who can also appreciate it for what it is. I'm not conflating anything. You are however very confused.
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
Is impossible to translate fully a Discworld book, just too much of them is not visual. Instead, try to do a different film that catches the spirit of it.
I'm a tv producer. When producing a short, feature, tv series, etc. and you're looking for money you need to have very clear your budget. Maybe you can count with donations like this project, but any contribution should count as part of the budget.
It's very common when you're producing that your investors and partners don't want to pay for the whole development or pre-production, they think the same as you do that some work doesn't has a cost. But everything has a cost, from the original story (are they paying something to Mr. Pratchett or the editors?), to the guy doing the screen writing (hey, adapting a short story to a movie film takes time and talent, most of the time only the former), and all the rest of the stuff to finish a project.
What you do when the investors don't want to pay for the development? you include these figures in the production budget. But wait! the investor don't want to pay for the post-production, what you do? you include the cost in the development or start looking for more investors. They think your movie costs X, but in rality costs more, a lot more.
It's a trap to think you don't need to count donations as part of the budget, it's a trap investors use in their favor.
It's amazing what some people can accomplish. I play that movie as background noise when I'm coding all the time, lol - "In a row?"
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The discussion about contractors working on the 2nd death star blew my mind.
GCS/MU/P d- s:- a-- C++++$ UL++ P+ L++ E+ W++ N o K- w--- O M+ V- PS+++ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5- X R++ tv+ b++ DI++ D++ G+ e++ h-
Should all fan fiction be NYT Bestseller List worthy?
Building yourself a strawman here? LOL. I didn't say it need be 'oscar worthy', I simply asked if anyone else thought the trailers were amateurish to the point of being ridiculous. If don't agree, great, but stop trying to make it sound like I'm disappointed it's not 'Avatar' in chainmail.
All fan art worthy of the Louvre, instead of something that looks like it belongs on my fridge?
I cringe to think of what you say about your kid's macaroni art family portrait.....
Sanctimonious much? :)
So why do amatuers making a fan film have to display a professional hollywood level of expertise?
Again, the only person making this stipulation is you. I, as is clear to someone less hotheaded and looking to argue as yourself, simply found the trailers to be shockingly amateurish.
If you had an OP that stated you thought the trailers looked great and wondered what other people thought - I would hope nobody who disliked the trailers would attack you for stating that you think fan films must be hokey pieces of crap...
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http://www.whysanity.net/monos/clerks5.html
Vintage!
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Because every time he watches it he doesn't realise he's seen it before.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
As your mother clearly didn't say to you, "thats not funny and its not clever", otherwise you woudn't think it an "obligatory" post.
Next time think again (and again, and again, and...) before unleashing your coruscating wit upon us.
Should all fan fiction be NYT Bestseller List worthy?
It should aspire to be a lot better. Kevin J Adamson's.... material.... regularly features on that list. The bar really isn't that high.
You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
D'oh. Kevin J Anderson. I deeply apologise to all the hardworking Kevin J Adamsons in fanfic whose life I have inadvertently ruined by comparing to the perpetrator of Jedi Academy and Prelude to Dune.
You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
I actually donated $25 to the Troll Bridge project about 10 years ago.