How about.... a WC fanfilm?

gevatter Lars said:
For doing a Fanproject movie I like to refere to StarWreck. It took them about 7 years but the resault is fantastic. Also I might add that their bluesceen was just big enought for two person standing side by side and still you have people action in the background and cam movements.
For doing animated stuff you surely can use motion capturing but their is still the way of doing it manual. Sure its hard but possible.
A realese in episodes is also a possibility...still I would prefere to see a complete movie.
Maybe you can do both. For "training" you can do some short shots with just about 3-5min length. When you feel that you got enough knowledge you do longer scenes...about 10-15min and finaly you can than do a short movie about 30-45min....or like StarWreck a nearl 2h movie.
I’ve downloaded it recently and watched just the first 15 minutes (plan to watch it completely in the near future). From what I have seen so far it is a great achievement what they did. Such kind of project needs much work and commitment. It would be great to see something similar around here, although I’m a bigger fan of an animation project.
 
For pros to make a WC was not easy. I don't thinks fans would stand much of a chance. I'd go for something more realistic like a couple of folks in uniforms reading lines from WC3.
 
I wouldnt be that pesimistic. There have been several quite decent fanfilms in recent years. But as far as that goes every single one of those speakworthy attempts had quite some cash (10.000 $/€ min.) and at least a semiprofessional crew was involved in the making.
 
I agree that fans could to something worth watching but not without sacrificing something...sparetime, money, sleep and a lot of your sanity ^_^
It has taken me two month of work for my little ~1min trailer...and that was a very simple one.
For something like even a 10min short shot that would be interesting and has a good quality you would need quite some equipment at least at semipro level with some persons who know how to use it right, some computers..best in a network and a bunch of people working on it. Scriptwriters, someone who could draw a storyboard will be very helpfull. Then some people as actors, costumes, greenscreen, some people who can build stuff out of nothing if you need other props like guns, tables, anything the people should hold in their hands or carry.

It would be a difficule task but from my experiance with my short trailer and seein what other people have done I think its possible...just very difficult.
I think one of the most difficult task is, beside coordinating all these people, to get them together at one place and keep them their till its finished.
 
my question to this discussion is where the story is going to be based on?
there are so many scenes or events that took place, where would it begin?
 
Make a list of all possible startpoints and then pick the one you got your first idea for.
Look at the situation that is given at that point, what characters and events are allready given form the different sources, maybe contact some people here to verify things if you aren't sure and then think about what could happend from that point on.

I think their isn't a "You must start from here" thing.
 
Wing Commander Saga is apparently making filmed cutscenes for their game - but I kind of winced at them myself.
 
Let me reiterate the point that an online-collaboration fanfilm is a vain, sad effort. Novice filmmaking hasn't evolved to a point where dozens of fans from across the world can work together on a single product. Unless you are needing some speciality like CGI help or a composer, films are best made locally, either by yourself or with a crew of some sort. It's unlikely that you're going to find ten people on this board that live within a few hours of yourself and want to help on the film. What is going to keep people that live a few thousand miles away from agreeing to help and then stop responding to your e-mails?

As for online script collaboration? Here's a scenario; one person will suggest basing it off the book, then three posts will begin to question either the legal issue or the artistic one over originality, another five will begin to sidestep the thread towards a debate over the best book to base it off of, one post will be an attempted witty comment, and the cycle will continue, growing exponentially. What do you have if the thread lasts more than a week?

"1. EXT. SPACE"

I've always wanted to do some sort of science-based fanfilm (for some odd reason), but as a student of film, I know one thing: They're damned hard to make! It costs money, time, and experience points, so-to-speak. I certainly wouldn't have tried and make a special-effects intensive, other-world story for my first film. I definately don't suggest it to anyone who either doesn't study the craft and art or isn't at least semi-professional.

I do know that Wing Commander is losing to a few other "universes" in the Great Fanfilm War. Also, there have been a lot of people making fanfilms who are by no means Hollywood types. There have been a lot of mixed results, but each one of them had a lot of hard work put into them, and all of them added to their respective communities.
 
LeHah said:
Wing Commander Saga is apparently making filmed cutscenes for their game - but I kind of winced at them myself.

Lars is the one who made the Saga CGI trailer. It was just a school project and won't play any part in the actual Saga mod cutscenes.
 
ChanceKell said:
Let me reiterate the point that an online-collaboration fanfilm is a vain, sad effort. Novice filmmaking hasn't evolved to a point where dozens of fans from across the world can work together on a single product. Unless you are needing some speciality like CGI help or a composer, films are best made locally, either by yourself or with a crew of some sort. It's unlikely that you're going to find ten people on this board that live within a few hours of yourself and want to help on the film. What is going to keep people that live a few thousand miles away from agreeing to help and then stop responding to your e-mails?

Given that someone could get sets, space to film, a shooting schedule and script /concept art/ storyboards in place before hand, something like dragoncon could be the perfect opportunity to have enough fans available in on place to film. Then editing, music, and effects could very well be done collaboratively over the net.

But, this would need sure-handed direction, dedication, and organization. Everything needs to be inplsce well before the convention (as I assume everyone will still want to take in the exhibits) so that all the shots can be made in the few days everyone is there.
 
As for online script collaboration? Here's a scenario; one person will suggest basing it off the book, then three posts will begin to question either the legal issue or the artistic one over originality, another five will begin to sidestep the thread towards a debate over the best book to base it off of, one post will be an attempted witty comment, and the cycle will continue, growing exponentially. What do you have if the thread lasts more than a week?

I don't think that's a realistic scenario at all. I'm not especially interested in most fan films, but I do know for a fact that online collaboration is something this community *shines* at. From the 200+ part multi-author Holding the Line serial to professional quality games like Standoff to the CIC itself, we're good at getting together online and putting out a heck of an impressive product.
 
A CGI film would be possible with only online work...not to say that it still would need a heck of coordination and planing. A film with real actors is a complete different matter. I agree with ChanceKell that such a film has to be made at one location where you can gather everyone quickly enough to work.
I also think that a meeting at a convention is a quite bad idea because the convention would distract attention from what to do.
Depending on the length/size of the project you would need most likely month together not weeks or days. You aren't professional actors, cameraman, lightsetters or anything else. That means you will need a lot more time then a professional team would need and even these people need a lot of time and nerves.
Even if you meet at a con and would be as much as you can prepared you won't most like not find the time to go to the con at all. That is if you are looking for some quality in what you are doing. That mean even if the set is allready prepared when you arrive...shooting the scene takes a lot of time because you most likely don't have good actors.
The list goes on and on of why a real-acted movie would be very very difficult. I don't say impossible but hard if you go for a semi-pro level....at least that is my experiance I had when shooting short spots for a fantasyshop and a fantasycon....and also for the short trailer.
Rember that it took me 2 month for 1 minute...and even the short acted scenes took me half a day to get the lightning fiting to the CGI and then getting the actors to do it half has good as I wanted.

Thats why I would say...a short CGI would be more likely possible, if you find someone good enough with character animation...and a real film is harder.
For a short film I would guess that you need at least 5-10 people dedicated to it for about half a year minimum to 2 years.
 
gevatter Lars said:
I also think that a meeting at a convention is a quite bad idea because the convention would distract attention from what to do.

Even if you meet at a con and would be as much as you can prepared you won't most like not find the time to go to the con at all. That is if you are looking for some quality in what you are doing.

AD wasn't talking about attending a science fiction/fantasy convention at all. He was simply referring to the event where people working on the project met up. Any gathering for any purpose can be referred to as a "convention."

gevatter Lars said:
I
Rember that it took me 2 month for 1 minute...and even the short acted scenes took me half a day to get the lightning fiting to the CGI and then getting the actors to do it half has good as I wanted.

It just depends what you're doing. I've made 20-30 minute movies for school in a couple days.
 
He was talking about the dragoncon as a point to meet and that their should be some time to let people see the con...thats what I understood.

As for doing the shooting. Yes it realy depends on what you do and what technologie you got at your hands. Also the time and space/room for preparations is importend.

I think one could debate the pro and cons to death without any progress at all.
So the best thing might be to just let people post their ideas and concepts and then it would be possible to discuss what needs to be done and what the chances are that it will be done.
 
gevatter Lars said:
He was talking about the dragoncon as a point to meet and that their should be some time to let people see the con...thats what I understood.

You're right, he did also mention DragonCon. Yeah, we'd never get a film done during that. We're pulled in a dozen different directions and don't even begin to get to do everything we'd like to do just in regards to the con. Some people usually get together prior to that, but it's more likely a special meeting would be necessary.
 
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