THE FORCE IS A CRAZY MOFO!

by Russell Johnson

When we first decided to make this movie I thought it would be cool and we would generate some traffic to the site. Little did I know how popular it would become and I don't think word has really spread too far yet. This movie has some legs on it. Which excites and scares me all at the same time.

The DVD was passed out at Celebration III in Indianapolis to about 300 people. (By the way the guys saw exclusive new footage from Episode III and said it was unbelieveable!) So, the DVD includes the movie, both censored and uncensored, a behind the scenes featurette with cast and crew interviews, bloopers, trailers and an audio commentary. That's a lot for free and we are starting to see the rewards of putting together such a package. People are starting to post it on blogs and forums across the internet. Emails are starting to come in for copies of the DVD, and our website bandwidth is being pushed to the limit. I wouldn't be shocked if the DVD popped up on Ebay somewhere. One father wrote in to say his two kids are fighting over it!

Now we can't make a dime off of this movie and we are weighing several different options on how we can distribute the remaining DVD's to fans who want them without pissing off Lucasfilm. We think we have a solution and we'll be posting something soon on it.

Anyway, some of the comments and thoughts that are starting to spread across the internet. It seems that the "Jabba-in-the-box" line is going over huge, people are "laughing their ass off," they love the quality of the picture, sound and score, and the links are popping up on these boards and forums. Fan films, a Halo site (I think, redvsblue.com) , TheForce.net, Black Nova, livejournal, netbattletech and so on. We haven't even heard back from TheForce.net about our movies status with them and if things don't work out there we'll be sending it off to ifilm, Atom Films, Film Threat, JoBlo and Ain't It Cool News and more. So like I say I think we are just scratching the surface here.

All of us here at Twenty One Productions, and I am sure FilmBurn Studios, Dynamix and Post Time Productions as well, want to thank all the fans who have been spreading the word across the web. You are the friggin' FORCE!

THE 11th HOUR

posted by Russell Johnson


Friday afternoon and the movie gets released tomorrow. 500 DVD cases sit awaiting their cargo, and the DVD's sit with Stormtrooper face label waiting to be burned.

Q: "Are you worried?"
A: "Yes."

Q: "Is it going to be a late night?"
A: "Yes."

Q: "Will you get any sleep?"
A: "Probably not."

Q: "Is it always like this?"
A: "Yes."

Q: "Why?"
A: "Who knows and who really cares?"

It'll get done, it always does. Whenever we set a deadline for a films completion we will work until the very final second on it and it doesn't really matter why. If it did we'd never be able to finish a movie. We all have things that have to be done, in our nine to five jobs, our personal lives, and our movie lives. They don't always coincide with one another and usually one suffers as a result of the others at some point or another.

The last movie we had a premiere for was THE MIDNIGHT. It was scheduled to play at 11:00 am on Saturday. Once again, Friday night and I was on the phone with David from around 10:30 pm Friday night until 6:30 am Saturday morning. The final DVD print of the movie was burning at 10 am. The movie played on time. God knows how but it did and that's just the way it goes. Yeah, I get stressed, but I always get stressed. The fact that I'm not bald and gray at this point in my life is a miracle. And the truth is, even though I may outwardly appear to freaking out, inside I know it'll be okay. Actually, I think we work best under the gun. As a matter of fact, we will probably be putting the DVD's in their cases in route to Indianapolis tomorrow morning.

That's the way this project has been from the beginning. It came together quick, it was shot quick, it was edited quick and the effects were done quick. (Believe me, my special effects supervisor made sure I understood that. Jason you're the man!) But even though everything was completed at a break neck pace the final product didn't suffer. All in all, this is probably some of the best work most of us have ever done. And if we could make money of this thing, we'd make more on this than any movie we've done so far, a lot more.

So, you're not going to make a dime and you've done nothing but worry and lose sleep. Stupid huh? Maybe to some people but not to anyone of us who have had even the slightest hand in this movie, or at least as far as I'm concerned. Sure we've lost a lot. Let me rephrase that, not lost, but given a lot, and willing to this project. For everything that we've given we have nothing to do but gain from it. And even if we don't it will have been worth it. It always is. If you don't believe in that then you should never be making movies in the first place.

What, me worry? Only if I wasn't surround by the very best people who have given everything they had to make THE UNKNOWN DISCOVERY the best it could be. If I wasn't, then I really would have something to be worried about.

NEXT UP: CELEBRATION III!

FX: THE SPLENDOR AND GLORY CONTINUE

by Russell Johnson

Saturday I meet up with David since Jason was just about through with about 90% of the special effects for the movie. He finished up a bunch of blaster shots, the holes in the wall (more on that later) and handgun shots. When we were shooting we were able to get the toy blasters and paint them black so they looked good. The handgun we had to get for the scene was a different story and it was much cheaper. Still a toy pistol but were talking the quality of a really good water pistol from a dollar store. Well, in this business you work with what you have and make due the best you can.

So, Jason sends over the completed effects shots and David throws them in, adds a few rough sound effects and it's playback time. Well, we couldn't contain ourselves. We laughed our asses off and not because the effects were cheesy but they worked so incredibly well that we couldn't have been happier and they looks so fucking cool. That cheap ass toy pistol Justin comes out of the room firing is just comical in it's raw format. But when you add the muzzle flashes and sound you couldn't tell we weren't using a real gun with blanks on set. And the laser blasters. There's just nothing else to say but perfect! Simple, but so effective.

From a directing stand point here's something I learned and need to share. It was not until Jason had to match the gun blasts with the number of times the actors pull the trigger on plastic toy guns that I realized what the problem was. As you can probably imagine the guns we used have very little, if any, trigger pressure resistance and absolutely no recoil. Which means the actors shoot so fast and so often as opposed to how a real gun would react if that's what they had. So, just remember that when you "fix in post" make sure the action will match the effect. Another tidbit from my "continuing eduction program." Thankfully, Jason was able to make it all work.

On to the bullet holes in the wall. We have several scenes in which our troopers stand in front of a wall with six bullet holes in it that happen after they get shot at and they have dialogue and movement. None of the shots are that long but it still makes for a shitload of effects work. Muzzle flashes, blaster rays are simple, Jason's words not mine, compared to those bullet holes. Gun flashes are just a few frames sometimes as few as one. However, for example, we had to change the ending of the movie that day. Okay not change, just modify. Which added a few more "to do" items on Jason's list. Now just to give you an idea of how pain staking the bullet holes in the wall effect is, we gave Jason one shot that lasts for 23 seconds. Not long on screen but for Jason that is 600 frames of work. On our budget not the most cost effective and probably the hardest and most time consuming effect Jason even has to do for the film.

Lesson learned. Next time buy some drywall, built a fake wall and then punch holes in it. That'll save you three days of post production. There's still a need for good old special effects done on set. Use them wisely.

YOU MAY FIRE WHEN READY

by Russell Johnson

As the post production on our Star Wars project moves along we are on the verge of making the jump to light speed. I gathered with David last night in the editing room where he has been working non-stop on the opening crawl. By the way, it looks great. I know we aren't the only fan film makers to do a Star Wars crawl but you still can't help not being proud or getting excited about the whole friggin' thing. We watched several passes and are more than happy with the results.

Enter special effects. Jason, who I have spent much of the last few months calling James, my apologies again, who is working in L.A. has finished up the opening sequence where the Stromtrooper transport shuttle leaves the Death Star and heads to Alderaan. Now I'll admit this is my first time working with special effects so I'm still feeling my way through the process. A week or so ago I see an early version of the shuttle leaving the Death Star and I have to admit I was a bit underwhelmed. It was cool and all but I just thought it would look more realistic, all the while never doubting Jason's skill. This is where my ignorance really came shining through, and shows you, and myself, my utter lack of knowledge of the whole process. Last night I see the crawl plus the complete fx shot of the ship from Death Star to Alderaan and this time I was a bit more than overwhelmed this go around. Obviously the first look I saw was for position, speed, etc. Much like an animatic only with slightly more detail. But last night's shot was perfect! I was just astounded.

At this point things are going along well and we hook up via video conference with Jason in L.A. We need to discuss the bullet holes in the wall behind the troopers. So we shoot him off a still frame with placement for the holes and then we continue to shoot the shit amongst ourselves via web cam. Anyway, this whole time he's working on a few rough placements for bullet holes and then shoots them back over. Fucking awesome I tell you and maybe it's because this is the first time we are really using digital effects and I am so excited about it that my perspective is a tad skewed, but I can't get over how good it all looks. David has even done some very nice work in removing some characters out of a shot and Jason also worked on a small piece that I don't even want to give away. Needless to say that the term "we can fix it in post" really means something entirely different in the digital age. One more reason digital kicks films ass. And all this is not so much the "big" effects, the gun blasts, the space ship or planets but the ones you'll never know about unless they are pointed out to you. That's the beauty of it all.

So on to the jump to light speed. We have the poster almost complete. The images are put together all we need to do is tweak credits and title. Which reminds me, I have been hunting for the font used for the credits portion of the poster as well as the official "title" and have had no luck. I had almost given up hope but this morning I gave it one more shot. I open my font book and say to myself, "I am going through this one last time and study ever page, ever font in here." And damned if it wasn't like a slap in the face but right there on the first page is the exact font I've been looking for for a week. I know it probably means very little to you, the reader, but I nearly blew a nut. Lesson here; Never give up kids!

Next week we are in the studio working on the voice over work, the behind the scenes interviews and the making of featurette. The whole thing has to be done in 2 weeks. Here's hoping that crunch time on EPISODE IV.V doesn't push us all to the Dark Side! But if it does we've already got the wardrobe!

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU

by David Cottingham

First off, let me tell you that it has been unbelievable working on independent films the past four years. I’ve met great people, created strong relationships, and developed life-long friends. Up to this point, Twenty One Productions has produced eight short films, one feature film, and a pilot. We’ve shot films in Lexington, Louisville, Cincinnati and New York. And not only have me and Russ worked our ass off on these films, but so did a ton of people. Durbs, J-Rod, Suse, Goss, Scotty, I love you guys. Our friends at Post Time, Filmburn, and Dynamix, we can’t do it without you. And to all the other people that have helped us, I try to thank them as much as I can. There are so many to name and acknowledge, and I hope we have given them the credit that they deserve. But after four years of creativity, we have decided to do a film that didn’t originate from our minds or our hearts…but from the mind and heart of George Lucas.

We have shot and rough cut a short film we’re calling Star Wars Episode IV.V: The Unknown Discovery. And I have to say, for me, this is by far the most fun I’ve had making a film. Star Wars is very dear to me, I wouldn’t say I’m a fanatic fan, even though my close friends would probably argue against me on that, but I do adore the vision of Lucas. I’m a fan of the films. I don’t play the video games, I don’t read books or magazines on the expanded universe, I pay attention to the characters and situations that happen in Lucas’ six episodes, the final film coming out in May of 2005, and yes, I’ll see it at the Midnight showing; plus a couple times that day J. I remember when Russ and I were promoting our feature film, The Midnight (which you’ll be able to purchase at our online store here very shortly, had to plug it), we were doing an interview on a radio show. Well, the radio show always plays this call-in game and Russ and I were able to participate. The object was for people to call in and try to stump the hosts with questions on various topics, today the topics were Eugene Levy films, and Star Wars. Well, the first question came in and the question was of Star Wars, “What was the name of the Stromtrooper who had a communications malfunction in Episode IV on the Death Star?” No one knew it. After looking around the room and noticed four blank faces, one of which was my partner Russell, who is a huge Star Wars fan, I simply leaned to the microphone and answered, “TK421”. Looking back at that now, I can see that situation became a little bit of foreshadowing for Twenty One Productions. Here we are now with two Stromtroopers in a Star Wars film. It makes me laugh every time I think of it. It was so surreal to see them walking around the set. I can only imagine what that would have felt like on the original set back in ’75 when Star Wars was only known to a few people in the film industry. What it has become is amazing. For most filmmakers, it’s the reason why they do it. And I think Russ would agree; it’s the reason why we do it.

Our Star Wars film is different obviously to George Lucas’ Star Wars. It’s a comedy, but it’s directly related to the films and that’s the most important thing. We’ve used another popular film, “Pulp Fiction”, to set the scene and fit it into the Star Wars timeline. It’s a scene that has been used time and again in different spoofs, but not like this. And, I don’t know, I’m not sure our film is even a spoof anymore. It’s a Star Wars film…with a little comedy.

So, all in all, I just wanted to say that this film is made from true fans of Star Wars and George Lucas. I would hope that if Lucas himself were to ever see this, that he’d enjoy it. By no means are we making fun of it or degrading the universe that Lucas had created. That is also the main reason we’ve paid so much attention to quality. We shot the film in HD, the animators are making sure the space scenes are perfect and parallel to the Star Wars films, and we’re even digitally ‘fixing’ our mistakes we made on the set. Though not to the same extent, but the same things Lucas does on his films. So, we hope you enjoy it, because we enjoy making it. And since this is entirely a fan film, you’ll be able to see on our website. Thanks so much for all your support over the years and trust me, there’s a lot more to come. To quote the late great Obi-Wan, “The Force will be with you, Always.”