SCORE ONE FOR THE GOOD GUYS!

posted by Russell Johnson

A barrier is broken! After waiting for a month to hear from TheForce.net and most of the cast and crew (including myself) getting restless I finally got the email.

"We regret to inform you that TheForce.net will not be hosting your film!"

WHAT?!?!?!?

Yeah, our film "did not meet their standards." And usually rejection brings out my most cynical and defensive attitudes. However, I maintained my composure. (Okay I was pissed to begin with but it passed quickly.) So, instead of heaving verbal hand grenades we had a back-up plan that made a tirade unnecessary. We knew that TheForce.net might have a bit of concern over the "content" of the movie, and great strides were taken by myself to assure them that if they chose to host it we would remove the uncensored version of the movie from the web. I missed Celebration mainly because I was so stressed over the whole censored/uncensored issue. I had to make sure the option was out there for our audience. One version for those sensitive to the explicit language and one version for people like me, David and almost everyone who worked on the film who don't give a rat's ass. Another lesson learned in self censorship (don't do it, leave that to the uptight assholes.)

I guess a small verbal tirade wasn't completely out of the question. Back to the back-up plan. I sent out a copy of the DVD to iFilm, Atom Films and Film Threat. Then I received a second email.

"Congratulations. We are happy to inform you that your movie has been chosen by the staff at iFilm for distribution on our website."

Needless to say I was singing the "Team America" theme song in my head! Thanks Matt and Trey! And thanks iFilm! Not only have they hosted the film but as of this writing it is #6 on the Top 100 short films (past 7 days) and has 8,600 views! It's all thanks to everyone who has been to our site and watched the movie. We really appreciate the response and we plan to do a follow-up fan film in the near future.

We still are waiting to hear from some of the other sites about the movie but this is a great start! On behalf of everyone at Twenty One and all those who worked on the movie.

THANK YOU!

NOW SERVING 250,000!

by Russell Johnson

We've been making movies for over 4 years now. Original ideas with the hope that people will become fans of our work. I suppose that is why many indie film makers make horror and/or supernatural movies. The audience is there just waiting for a new movie to come out. They don't care if it's schlock or not. As a matter of fact maybe the crappier it is the more people will watch. It's hard to be a small indie film company and draw a big fan base.

Which makes this Star Wars fan film even more of a surprise. We knew going in to this that it may be a movie we can use to draw more attention to our original works and 12 STEPS would break us into the next phase of our film making careers. But now I'm starting to believe that this fan film IS THE MOVIE that takes us to the next level of our careers and everything, including 12 STEPS, would have to live up to it.

This movie has set a new standard for us and has a built in audience the same way horror and B movies do. If it's good fans will come, and they have. When we launched our website back in 2002 we had and still don't have advertising and were only wishing people would find out about the site and check it out. Since that day and up until April 23rd of this year we averaged 1500 hits a month. Not bad we thought and least some people knew who we were.

Well little did we know that April 23rd was the end of that. That's the date we released EPISODE IV.V: THE UNKNOWN DISCOVERY. Since that day we have had close to 250,000 hits on our site, all in under 4 weeks! We aren't even sure if that's really good or not comparatively, but we're not complaining. Our email list has grow from around 80 people to 143 and counting. Just yesterday we went on a local morning TV show to promote the movie (you can watch clips on the site) and we had 30,000 hits in ONE DAY alone! We still aren't sure how far this thing could go and I believe we've just scratched the surface.

Funny thing is that this maybe the only thing I am known for and I hope that's not the case but I would rather better be best known for this than for nothing at all. This movie is giving me, giving all of us, more exposure and it can only lead to more opportunities for us. It may not be an original story or even original shots but I'm glad my name is on it.

Star Wars and obviously Pulp Fiction fans are loyal and we couldn't be more grateful for that. They know the dialogue, the costumes and the story of those movies better than anyone. It's a great franchise crossed with a great movie and I think that makes this a little bit harder than a indie horror or B movie. There are fans out there waiting to pounce and you had better not disappoint or they'll let you have it. I've watched a lot of fan films and the criticism can be great and it can be brutal. Always some of both but you have to strive for more of the previous and much less of the latter. We understand those fans because we are our audience and this is a movie I'd want to see. I'm just happy and grateful others do too.

CELEBRATION III

by David Cottingham

What an experience! I’ve never been to CELEBRATION. All I’ve seen is what the members only Fan Club allows you to see on starwars.com. What an experience! We were able to burn about 300 of the 500 disks we planned to take up to Indy on Saturday. I got 45 minutes of sleep while Dave Silvernell kept burning the disks in the morning. After that quick nap on a couch in the office, a quick run home for a shower, we were on our way to CELEBRATION at about 12 noon. We got there around 3:15, but with the help of time zones, we gained an hour. We arrive in Indy at 2:15. Here we go.

THE APPETIZER

Silvernell and I have brought two black bags with us that could hold about 40 disks each. So, we parked in the garage next to the convention, loaded up the bags, and went at it. Both of us were pretty worried about how CELEBRATION would handle two guys handing out free DVDs when everyone else was there to sell something in the enormous room they had there for people who paid for booths. So, we decided to stay outside and pass out the DVD. At first, we really were picky on who we wanted to have the DVD. We targeted groups of people and mostly people who were dressed up. We’re Star Wars geeks, so we wanted to make sure we handed out to geeks. But, unfortunately, the weather wasn’t the best for standing outside and being picky, although, it did benefit Silvernell. He was able to smoke whenever he felt it necessary. So, after about 30 minutes, we went back for another load of DVDs and then decided…we’re going inside.

THE SIDE SALAD

As soon as we walked in, it was breathtaking. The amount of people there was overwhelming, but everyone that I could see had something about Star Wars on them in some form or other. At first we thought, let’s be picky again, but after about 15 minutes of looking around, we realized that anyone there would appreciate and love a free DVD, especially a free DVD of a Star Wars fan film. And not only the film, but two versions of it, an audio commentary, a 22 minute behind the scenes featurette, outtakes, and a trailer, FREE. So, we walked around the place a little and noticed a really long line of people waiting to get into this exhibit. Silvernell took the front and I took the back. We started handing out the DVD and met in the middle. We were out within 5 minutes. So, off we went to the car again for another load. When we got to the car, we saw that we had about 120 DVDs left. We didn’t want to come back again since the weather was getting colder, so we decided, screw it; we’re taking the box inside the convention.

THE MAIN COURSE

We walked through the doors once again and started looking for a great place to set up shop. We found it in the most crowded hallway in the convention center. As soon as we filled our hands with the DVD, people flocked to us. In a matter of seconds, we were out. 120 DVDs gone. It was awesome. People started asking us what it was about, who was in it, where we were from, everything. I feel bad for not having more DVDs for the people who came up after we were empty handed but I think we accomplished our mission. And according to our recent hits on our website, I KNOW we accomplished our mission. Thank you to everyone who has checked out the site and passed it on to others.

THE DESSERT

We went up to CELEBRATION III to pass out our film, but when I was walking around I saw a sign that read, “Rick McCallum to show EPISODE III footage”. I had to see what Rick had. Silvernell and I got in line, and in about 30 minutes, we were seated and Rick came out from behind the curtain. Right away, without hesitation, he says, “Do you all want to see what I got?” The crowd yelled in unison, “YEEAAAAHHHH!” Lights went off, digital projection went on, and all I have to say is, “&^##*$%&”. The footage was unbelievable. What we saw basically was a 10 minute montage of the film in order to nothing but music, no dialogue. It was awesome. That is the reason why I love HD and the Digital format. It DOES look great. It CAN give a filmmaker his vision. I think I’ll always use HD and why not. So, in summary, we handing out 300 DVDs, saw incredible footage of Episode III, and saw thousands of fans who love Star Wars as much as we do. I don’t know if I’ll ever make it to another CELEBRATION but I do know, that even though the last Star Wars film is coming out, Star Wars will definitely go on in some form or other. There is just so much LOVE for it. And LOVE lasts forever.

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!