STAR WARS UNIVERSE TURNING THE PAGE WITH FAN FILMS

STAR WARS UNIVERSE TURNING THE PAGE WITH FAN FILMS

With the recent arrival and rejection by a huge part of the fan base the new Star Wars film Solo represents a pivot point in the biggest franchise in motion picture history. 

The movie Solo is a lesson for the mega motion picture studios that could have been taught to them if they had bother to ask those of us in the low to micro budget world. The lesson is that the audience dictates to you rather than you dictating to the audience. when it is your own money at risk rather that Mickey Mouse’s pocket change it is a universe where reality rules the day. If it is going to be your house, your future and that of your families on the line you go out of the way to find out what it is that will please the intended audience. 

This is sometimes difficult to discover when making a micro budget digital film. In the world of Star Wars it is easy to uncover because the fan base is gigantic and cannot shut up about their likes and dislikes. Leading into Solo the core audience told the studio and its heads that they did not want a Solo film. Their were a dozen properties in their extended universe that they would have lined up for weeks ahead of time to back and this was not on the list. A Vader film or a Revan film or a Thrawn film or a Bane Film or a reboot of episode eight would have served them better. The head of the studio laughed in their faces and called them fat lonely losers who will eat what is put in front of them like Oliver Twist and like it. They of course instead did what fans of a rebel alliance would do when confronted with imperial rule, they rebelled by not showing up. Today I am not here to bury Solo. That is up to others. Today I would like to suggest that the Star Wars universe will be fine because of the fans and the amazing film makers that they are becoming. A hand full of the fan films are already better than the last two offerings from Disney. These films do not have the budgets and the access to the best actors on earth, but what they lack in scale they make up for in passion. These film makers love the material and understand it in ways that the bosses at Disney will never come close to. 

Today we are going to look at a few such films in this mini Star Wars Fan film festival. I hope that you enjoy them. The first and perhaps most popular is the amazing Darth Maul, Apprentice.   

The making of footage.
    

 The next film is Star Wars: Dresca. This is a newer fan film that I like and some people close to me absolutely love.  

 The next movie is one of my personal favorites. I wished that the film maker had maybe made a few changes so that it could have been a stand alone film in a scifi universe of their own making. It is part of what could be a compelling feature if ships and uniforms were changed. There is a lot of solid low budget film making going on here. The film is titled, Days Past - A Star Wars Fan Film. 

 




 The last film I want to share is the longest, almost an hour, and should be more well known. It has flaws, but so does Solo. It is not a great film, but there is alot to like about this movie. The film is titled Regrets of the Past. 

  Thanks for checking out my little film festival and do not worry the future of star Wars is in good hands it is in the hands of the fans.

Blade Runner Thoughts on Filmmaking

Blade Runner Thoughts on Filmmaking

I was a kid when I saw Bladerunner for the first time and it was on television. I thought at the time that it was the most visually interesting film that I had even seen. It was not in the scifi class of The Empire Strikes Back, but I liked it. I just did not love it or understand why it was considered groundbreaking or an all time classic. 

Many years later I saw it on the big screen and at this point having become a Ridley Scott fan I saw what all of the fuss was about. I had gone into it the first time around think that I was going to see straight scifi and had no clue what CyberPunk was all about. My scifi reading had been limited to Ray Bradbury, Harry Harrison and Robert Heilein with a little Arthur C. Clarke throw into the mix. I needed years of Anime and other influences. 

Now decades later we get a sequel and of course it was doomed to disappoint. This did not have to be the case, but we all knew that it would when we discovered the ridley Scott was not going to be the director. I personally wish that he had tackled this project and handed the last Aliens film off to another filmmaker. Lets look at the original trailer. 

   

 Now the new film.


   
 Now what made the first film so damn good. This is a pretty good film making tutorial.

 
What Blade Runner Teaches Us About Filmmaking from CinemaTyler on Vimeo.


Thanks for dropping by my blog. I am doing a free giveaway of any of my books that you wish to read in exchange for a review posted to iTunes, Amazon or Google Play. If you want a copy you can leave me a message in the comments and I will respond.

FILM MAKING RANTS AND A COOL FREEBIE

 

I would first like to thank Rob for making the video that I am presenting to you today. He touched on so many of the problems with movies today. I wish that I could say that he is only correct about studio films, but low budget films and micro budget digital films suffer from the same problems.

Readers of the blog know that I have problems with CGI and the god awful screenwriting that dominate the playing field, but there is so much more and the video below touches on things that I have overlooked.

We need our heroes back. I do not mean another Marvel film. I mean big time film makers. Why is it that most of the truly great thrillers come from places like Korea. Memories of Murder came out almost fifteen years ago. Where are the domestic answers to that kind of film making. We have the basic equipment. We can raise the money. I know that we can craft the screenplays, but they do not get done.

Maybe too many of us are chasing money instead of quality.

Look it, I thought when I started this blog almost five years ago I would be networking with amazing film makers and by this point in history the digital revolution would have changed the industry forever.

Instead too many film makers are either walking away just when they are getting good or dreaming about cashing in at Netflix or Amazon. Allow me to offer up the three F's that you need to consider.

Fuck Netflix, Fuck Amazon and just go out and make some really good Fucking movies.

Okay I am back with my Freebie offer. Today I am giving away ten free copies of my Audiobook on Writing A Low Budget Screenplay. The first ten people who email me at cannonbooks777@gmail.com with a request for a copy will be sent an Audible.com code. Even if you do not have an account there you can use it anyway. This is for those of you who are having problems with crafting a low to micro budget screenplay or just want to improve your screenwriting.

IPHONE FILMMAKING POST

 IPHONE FILMMAKING

Sometimes I forget that just because I run a blog dedicated to iPhone film making that Not everyone visits that blogs. That this is my top film making blog so it is here that I should sometimes share updates on the state of smartphone film making in all its glory.
A few years ago I was asked the question, Do you think that someday people will be making top of the line digital feature films using their iPhones?  My answer was that as the technology improves there is no reason why not. I think that we passed that thresshold two years ago and now it is up to you, the micro budget film maker, to embraces these amazing film making studios that you have in your pocket.

The iPhone can capture footage equal to that of some of the mid range DSLR cameras. It can record native sound better than all of them and with an added app and a Mic it can record amazing sound. Also you can edit your footage in phone and or sent the files almost instantly to your laptop.

Here is a look at some great iPhone film making gear.

 The next question that needs to be asked is, What kind of film fits this tool the best. I am about to say a bad compound word. Do not panic and run screaming off into the dark of night. FoundFootage. Yes Found Footage. If you are ever going to shoot a Found Footage film then using an iPhone makes perfect sense. The problem with many Found Footage films is logic. Where did the camera come from and why won’t the person involved put it down. Who would drop their iPhone during a crisis? Think about it and if you need some real advice on how to make a Found Footage film you could always check out my well researched book on Found Footage film making, link here for the book at the iTunes store and the picture is a link for the paperback. I know that this was a shameless plug, but a Blogger gotta eat and raise money for the new iPhone coming soon.

Thanks for visiting and remember to share this post.

MyAnnabelleCreation contest Post

I normally shy away from contest because of the entrance fees and the lack of any real exposure. For instance screenplay contest are notorious money grabs. I understand the need to pay the readers, but certain contest that I will not name charges more than a hundred dollars to enter.

This is a short film contest that charges nothing. I wish that I had been informed about it earlier, but here it is. I will allow the director of Lights Out and the new Annabelle film (I saw a screening and it is pretty good, much better than Lights Out) tell you about it.

 



You can click here to find the contest rules. It ends the 27 of this month.

Now we get to turn this into a great little post of short film making. The film maker of this great little horror movie has posted some amazing advice on how to make a winning short film. Let's have a look.

 

 
 

 

 

SCREENPLAY, THE DREAM VS. BUDGET REALITIES

SCREENPLAY THE DREAM VS. BUDGET REALITIES

You wrote a great screenplay. You were dying to go out and shoot it. You sat down and did a budget breakdown and discovered that Guy Ritchie would think twice before blowing that much money. In other words you are a low budget film maker, but you wrote a big budget screenplay. 

 

This has happened to us all. 

 

The thing that you are going to have to do is set it aside until you can afford to make this film and go about writing and producing a film or two that will help you to raise the money for that script. 

 

You are going to have to learn how to write a low or micro budget screenplay. The problem with this is that most film makers only have a few clues as to how to do this. Limited locations and limited cast members is part of it, but not the whole story. Because if you are not careful you will limit yourself right out of writing a quality screenplay. Instead you will end up with a film that looks and sounds like it was paid for with food stamps. 

 

The rules of crafting a great script does not change. In fact you have to focus more or these fundamental rules when writing your low budget screenplay.

This is a chapter from my new audio book on screen writing. If you have an audible account or a kindle account you can easily check it out there. Also available on iTunes.

You see that writing a low budget screenplay is not enough. You need to write a quality one. When I started this blog many years ago I wanted to help other film makers while learning as much as I could along the way. I love movies and want to see better and better stories being told. If you go back in time to the 1930's and 40's then jump to the 70's it seems like people did know how to make great films, but since then the secret of steel was left on the battlefield. It is time to get back to making great movies again. Great movies begin with a great script. Over the next few post we are going to talk about writing.

Thank you for visiting my blog and please take a moment to share this post.

A CROWDFUNDING POST

I know that it has been awhile since we did this, but I have been busy with the release of my screenwriting book on audio.
Let’s get down to business a huge part of digital feature film making is fundraising.
There usually comes a time during production or in post that the money runs low and  you need to reach out for some more. thankfully Kickstarter and indiegogo are there to help. 

Yes, I know that there are other sites, but for today we are going to focus on campaigns that are live on these sites.

First up is a film titled INNER GHOST.

     

Remember that if you do not have money to donate that is fine. You can help by spreading the word. Share the campaign on Facebook or Twitter. Okay we are going back to back horror movies on Kickstarter. This one is titled The Black Gloves.



    

Over at Indiegogo we have a few campaigns that I believe are worth taking a look at. Remember the difference between the two sites is that at Indiegogo you get all the funds raised whether or not you hit your goal.

 This film is being prodced  by a seventeen year old. The coolest thing about micro budget film making is that it knows no age. You can be sixteen or sixty when you get started.  The title of
this film is A GUY, A GUITAR AND A GIRL.


 The next campaign is for the scifi film AGAIN.  This one has just started so you have almost two months to think about it and talk about it.





Anything that reminds me of Andromeda or Babylon 5 is a good thing and this next crowdfunding campaign does just that. Project Abaddon: Rise of the Destroyer




Back to Kickstarter for the last film on this list today. VOYEUR



I love to highlight crowdfunding campaigns, but to do so I need a little help.
If you have a indiegogo or kickstarter campaign for your project up and running please do not hesitate to contact this blog about it, just leave a comment and a link and I will do my best to help.
Thanks and good luck guys.