A few friendly notes here to some of the curious out there: No one is saying that this work is perfect. It has its flaws, as most project do, but I read some of the post some people were putting out yesterday and while Shane has decided not to address any of that at this point, (partly because he's so busy trying to get the film through post production, and manage the premiere, and partly because he's on the verge of nervous exhaustion) I feel I must step up and set a few things straight. First of all Gina and I did not really know Shane and the crew of Panic Struck prior to this, except as competitors. Shane thought Gina would be good for the role after seeing some of her work. While it is true I rode Gina's coattails into the project, once Shane saw a little more of what I could do, he asked the writers to write a little more into the script for me. I am grateful and I will let those scenes speak for themselves. The point is no one cast their girlfriend in this thing! Furthermore all this talk of the girls being ugly is just stupid and petty. All of the girls are quite simply, stunningly attractive if you meet them in person. Of course the fact that I'm married to one does mean that I am a bit biased. A lot of people have come out saying the acting is poor. This is simply and completely unfair. You can not and should not try to judge the acting of an entire production based on a trailer, especially with a fan film. For one thing the takes that were used in the trailer may not be the same takes as what you see in the final movie, this happens even in professional movies. Furthermore you're seeing, what you are seeing completely out of context. For example; the scene with Taryn (Gina) saying "she lied to me" "she used me" is cut with scenes of characters fighting. That's for the trailer. That's not the way you are going it see it in the movie. In the actual film this is part of a highly emotionally charged scene. So why then did they use it in the trailer? They used it in the trailer because it's what was available at the time. This is the same reason Shane used the music from the actual Star Wars movies in the trailer. The plan had always been to have an original score but it wasn't done at that point. With respect to the fighting, we did in fact have a dedicated fight coordinator and he did a splendid job. Here again it's a matter of context and available footage. When you actually see the finished fights in context, not only do they look good, but they actually help carry the story along. As to the trailer itself, while we have all had the experience of going to a movie and realizing that all the best parts were in the trailer, this I assure you is not the case here. With a low budget fan film, trailers and teasers are released, not after the project is done to show of the best of what has been done, they are released to coincide with local conventions using what is available. Shane had a lot of tough decisions to make about the trailer and he decided to be deliberately vague as to story details, character motivations and so on. He didn't want to give too much away and whether I agreed with everything he did or not at the time, I want to make it clear that I stand by his work now. Rest assured that the finished project is far more polished than the trailer. We went back into the studio and did a lot of voiceover work to get rid of any of the ambient background sounds that you can clearly hear in the trailer. The CG in the trailer, while stunning, is in many cases just not finished. I clearly remember Shane saying that some of it was just above video game level in his opinion and that he was going to go back and rework it. Now when I watch some of the more finished stuff I am truly amazed. In some cases I was there, in the shot, and I can't tell you what was real and what was added later. This movie was shot over a long period of time; sometimes on a location, like the quarry, the caves or the bar, sometimes in the studio (green screen and all), sometimes on a set that we built. This was done to
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A few friendly notes here to some of the curious out there:
No one is saying that this work is perfect. It has its flaws, as most project do, but I read some of the post some people were putting out yesterday and while Shane has decided not to address any of that at this point, (partly because he's so busy trying to get the film through post production, and manage the premiere, and partly because he's on the verge of nervous exhaustion) I feel I must step up and set a few things straight.
First of all Gina and I did not really know Shane and the crew of Panic Struck prior to this, except as competitors. Shane thought Gina would be good for the role after seeing some of her work. While it is true I rode Gina's coattails into the project, once Shane saw a little more of what I could do, he asked the writers to write a little more into the script for me. I am grateful and I will let those scenes speak for themselves. The point is no one cast their girlfriend in this thing! Furthermore all this talk of the girls being ugly is just stupid and petty. All of the girls are quite simply, stunningly attractive if you meet them in person. Of course the fact that I'm married to one does mean that I am a bit biased.
A lot of people have come out saying the acting is poor. This is simply and completely unfair. You can not and should not try to judge the acting of an entire production based on a trailer, especially with a fan film. For one thing the takes that were used in the trailer may not be the same takes as what you see in the final movie, this happens even in professional movies. Furthermore you're seeing, what you are seeing completely out of context. For example; the scene with Taryn (Gina) saying "she lied to me" "she used me" is cut with scenes of characters fighting. That's for the trailer. That's not the way you are going it see it in the movie. In the actual film this is part of a highly emotionally charged scene. So why then did they use it in the trailer? They used it in the trailer because it's what was available at the time. This is the same reason Shane used the music from the actual Star Wars movies in the trailer. The plan had always been to have an original score but it wasn't done at that point.
With respect to the fighting, we did in fact have a dedicated fight coordinator and he did a splendid job. Here again it's a matter of context and available footage. When you actually see the finished fights in context, not only do they look good, but they actually help carry the story along.
As to the trailer itself, while we have all had the experience of going to a movie and realizing that all the best parts were in the trailer, this I assure you is not the case here. With a low budget fan film, trailers and teasers are released, not after the project is done to show of the best of what has been done, they are released to coincide with local conventions using what is available. Shane had a lot of tough decisions to make about the trailer and he decided to be deliberately vague as to story details, character motivations and so on. He didn't want to give too much away and whether I agreed with everything he did or not at the time, I want to make it clear that I stand by his work now.
Rest assured that the finished project is far more polished than the trailer. We went back into the studio and did a lot of voiceover work to get rid of any of the ambient background sounds that you can clearly hear in the trailer.
The CG in the trailer, while stunning, is in many cases just not finished. I clearly remember Shane saying that some of it was just above video game level in his opinion and that he was going to go back and rework it. Now when I watch some of the more finished stuff I am truly amazed. In some cases I was there, in the shot, and I can't tell you what was real and what was added later.
This movie was shot over a long period of time; sometimes on a location, like the quarry, the caves or the bar, sometimes in the studio (green screen and all), sometimes on a set that we built. This was done to