Star Wars: Revelations (and the Raiders of the Lost Franchise)

[miker]

If you had access to a team of professionals, a few buckets of money, and three years of time would you:

a) Create and direct Star Wars: Revelations knowing that there would (in theory) be zero ROI and such a miniscule chance of being "noticed" by anyone important that this really would be a labour of (misguided?) love.

b) Use that same finance, skill and talent to come up with an original idea that you could flog to the masses and maybe spin-off a TV series?

or

c) Just use your credit card and pastiche the whole goddam industry with a half-decent script and some fine professional performances? To hell with CGI!

Fan films. I JUST DON'T GET IT!

Can anybody explain?

BTW, I am a Star Wars fan, but I would only entertain making an official franchise film. Perhaps that's just me. I don't hear JAK calling any time soon though.

Whatever happened to Kevin Rubio?
[img]eek.gif[/img]

[ray_bog]

Fan films. I JUST DON'T GET IT!

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I agree.

Why people plow so much effort into someone else?s product is beyond me.

Why propagate, what is basically, someone else?s work?

Sure, you're working with established characters/worlds so there is less development on your behalf, but why not develop YOUR OWN IDEAS?

Seems ironic that Star Wars breeds thousands of fans films...yet Star Wars is essentially Lucas' Flash Gordon fan film...albeit with a heavy dose of originality...

People should look to Lucas and realize the power of an original idea? Would we respect him half as much if he?d made a series of Flash Gordon movies?

I think not.

[jb_617]

I don't know guys. I mean "Troops" was just fucking hilarious and did the rounds for ages (still doing them as far as I know). It was a really good example of filmmaking from some talented people. Sure, it was based on someone elses franchise, but I still think it was worth doing.

[EDIT] Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. Lucas pretty much ripped off Star Wars by taking elements from a few different films an slapping them together. That's why it doesn't hold together too well.

It's like he just sat down with "The Myth of the Birth of the Hero: A Psychological Exploration of Myth" by Otto Rank and structured out his script.

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Just for the record: I HATE STAR WARS.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ April 18, 2005 09:36 AM: Message edited by: jb. ]</font>

[ray_bog]

It's like he just sat down with "The Myth of the Birth of the Hero: A Psychological Exploration of Myth" by Otto Rank and structured out his script.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">And that's a bad thing...?

You're missing the point entirely.

[Matty2phatty]

The thing is though, that Star Wars as a whole has made well over a billion dollars, so whether there is originality in his script or not probably didn't matter that much or it wouldn't have done the business that it did.

I think when a movie does that kind of business i gotta stand back and admit that they must have done something right. It's the same with Titanic. People always bag that movie (i actually enjoyed it) but it grossed over a billion too.

Surely you can't make that kinda money if the product doesn't have something to it?

But back to the fan films, i think there is a certain amount of freedom afforded to a filmmaker when they decide to make a film in an already established universe.

I mean the aforementioned Troopers is funny purely because it is in a universe that many people find familiar.

I've forgotten my point.

[jb_617]

Originally posted by ray_bog:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> It's like he just sat down with "The Myth of the Birth of the Hero: A Psychological Exploration of Myth" by Otto Rank and structured out his script.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">And that's a bad thing...?

You're missing the point entirely.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I didn't mean that it was a bad thing. Just that credit should be given where it's due. Yes Lucas made and enormous franchise, yes his films routinely gross in the high 100's of millions...

But, very little of it is his original work. It's been said a million times and I'll say it again. He's just one man. Thousands of people have worked on those films and they <u>all</u> deserve equal credit. I realise that this is never going to happen. But it would be nice if it did.

As for missing the point. I don't think I did. What I'm saying here is that someone else (Rank) did the hard work. He worked out what makes a mythological story so compelling. Lucas just took his work and made a film with it. Admittedly a very good film, but the man's no genius. Rank was.


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So there.

[Tasty Fish Lips]

There are hundreds of professions that I myself could never do. I have no interest in playing professional basketball. I have no interest in being a doctor. I have no interest in fishing.

But many other people do. That's their choice, for whatever reason - they enjoy doing it.

Filmmaking offers hundreds of different avenues. Not all filmmakers think the same.

If someone wants to make fan films, if they enjoy doing it regardless of a profit or ego boost for coming up with something original - what do I care.

They're doing something they enjoy. Good for them.

I may sound like someone who makes fan films. I'm not. But, like playing pro basketball, being a doctor, or fishing, I have respect for them.

I think for many people, it's not the end product, or the profit, or the acclaim - it's simply the filmmaking process. They just like it.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ April 18, 2005 10:23 AM: Message edited by: Tasty Fish Lips ]</font>

[miker]

what do I care.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">nailed it.

Sure, I have respect for any movie that's made, heck even Liquid Sky and Mutronics command respect from me.

But moviemaking is hard work, right? Why not work a bit harder and make something that you also own?

And Lucas was influenced by Seven Samauri and Joseph Cambpell IIRC, and his single page synopsis for the saga sounded ridiculous - I think it's in "Skywalking" somewhere. "The Princess and the Pirate hide in an asteroid" being my favourite sequence from the saga so far.

But he had American Graffiti behind him, he had weight at that point and he used it shrewdly IMO.

[ray_bog]

If you are making a no-budget short and you have no idea what to do, why not make a fan-film.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Fan films are hardly liberating experiences that need less work/devlopment. If anything, fan films are creatively restrictive!

You still need to cover the basics of great plotting/dialog/pacing with a fan film... So why not make something original? Something that benefits from your own experiences and any props you have lying around?

So you've cut some corners and you don't have to think of any characters -- you still have to put words in their mouths and give them something to do...

[Tasty Fish Lips]

So why not make something original?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">What makes you think they don't? Who says that the only films that these people make are fan films? It's pretty silly to think that they ONLY make fan films.

They probably DO make original stuff. But they also have a deep love for an already existing film and just want to make one of their own. They want to take characters that they already know and like, and put them into a new situation - that's all.



Many artists adapt or remake from other works. Screenwriters adapt novels into screenplays. Painters copy styles from other painters, or even try to recreate exact paintings, just to see what it's like.