Slashdot Mirror
Ask Director Daniel Knight About Filming Terry Pratchett's "Troll Bridge"
Daniel Knight, besides being an actor, D&D fanatic, and collector of He-Man figurines, is the director of a film version of Terry Pratchett's Discworld story Troll Bridge that's been enabled by a massive Kickstarter campaign. Filming has finished (you can see some of the raw and intermediate footage linked from that story) and now all the rest of the work that goes into the finishing and releasing the movie is underway. Why this film? Knight says he "ended up acting a small role in a short film called Star Wars: Broken Allegiance. My performance was terrible. But that introduced me to the world of fan films, and I started wondering if it would be possible to do a Discworld one." The project is clearly a labor of love — it's a massive undertaking on a shoestring budget, with a tough goal: "Troll Bridge aims to be the largest scale short film in history. Using resources garnered over eight solid years of dedication, love, sweat, and tears – Troll Bridge has already begun exceeding expectations as to what should be anticipated from a short form production." The cast and crew (even the caterers) are all volunteers, but it still takes money to construct sets, create costumes, and buy time with needed equipment. Daniel has graciously agreed to answer your questions about the process; as with other Slashdot interviews, you're invited to ask as many questions as you'd like, but please ask them in separate posts.
What were the best and worst parts about your experience running a Kickstarter campaign? Whether it be about the Kickstarter site in particular or generic to any "crowdsourcing" platform. Any advice to anyone thinking about launch such a campaign? (and please don't say simply "do it" -- any words of caution about how you structure and suggest the price your reward tiers?)
My work here is dung.
At Slashdot we have a love/hate relationship with Hollywood. While it produces some of our favorite movies, it also has a lot of criticism directed at it. We rant about the MPAA, copyright law, Hollywood accounting and even the general stagnation of its creativity. As an (apparent) outsider to that who also wants to make films, how do you view Hollywood? Inspiration? Repressive? Hostile? A future paycheck?
My work here is dung.
Why Troll Bridge? Why not another Discworld novel or short story? Perfect length? Was it the easiest to envision? Requires the least special effects? Your favorite of the Discworld stories? The only one you could secure the rights to?
My work here is dung.
What cameras were you using? Red? Any DSLR's like the Canon 5D3? What were the pro's / con's of the different cameras you were using?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I'm wondering what tool(s) you were using? Final Cut Pro X, Avid, Adobe Tool Suite? Why did you use what you did? Can you give some details of your workflow processes with these tools?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Anyone wondering about the quality of this endeavor should check out the silly Discworld short that Snowgum Films did without a budget: Run Rincewind Run!
There's also the behind-the-scenes pictures.