make a fan film?
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darthgordon
Sr Member
Re: Anyone ever tried to make a fan film?
When I was a teenager and there was very little editing software available. Heck! We were using an old VHS camcorder that weighed a ton. SFX... forget it. Converting VHS to digital... we had no idea how... and even if we had, we would have had to do everything, frame by frame. It was the mid 90's.
I still had a ton of fun and would do it in a heartbeat if I had others that wanted to combine resources.
When I was a teenager and there was very little editing software available. Heck! We were using an old VHS camcorder that weighed a ton. SFX... forget it. Converting VHS to digital... we had no idea how... and even if we had, we would have had to do everything, frame by frame. It was the mid 90's.
I still had a ton of fun and would do it in a heartbeat if I had others that wanted to combine resources.
CB2001
Master Member
Re: Anyone ever tried to make a fan film?
I've wanted to. I've had tons of ideas for fan films. The problem with it is the lack of friends that share the same interest as I do, which is sort of why I like machinima (as you don't have to find the crew to make something).
Another problem are the ideas. Some of the ones I've had are just not great. Below are just some of the fan film ideas I had:
1. The Matrix: Hercules- I wrote a 20 page fan script in 2004 that took place within the timeframe of the films. The premise involves a "Protector" program constructed by the Rebels of Zion, whose test run has him going into a "government building" and retrieving the source code for the Agent programs. It took place shortly after the events in the animated short "The Final Flight of the Osiris" and before the events in the "Enter the Matrix" video game. The reason I didn't proceed with it is because I didn't live in a metropolis area that could double as "Mega City" (the city from the "Matrix" films), nor did I know a lot of people which could have helped in filming it.
2. Indiana Jones and The Tablets of Destinies- I came up with this idea after I purchased my Indiana Jones fedora, but I know I wouldn't be able to do it. The premise involves Indiana Jones (not Dr. Henry Jones Jr. or his son, but his grandson, and the kid actually being named Indiana), a 20 year-old Lit. major at Florida State University, who gets involved with the search of the mythical Tablets of Destinies while trying to traverse the lands of confusion in the 1980s and keeping a couple of steps ahead of KGB Agents trying to find the Tablets. The reason why I haven't done it is because of two major factors: A. Recreating the setting of the 1980s on a shoe-string budget. B. I'm worried that people wouldn't like the teenage Indiana, who is in no way like the Dr. Jones we know and love. Granted, he'd have his grandfather's Fedora, but he's a wimp and doesn't event want to be involved in the situation, unlike his grandfather.
3. Psycho Land- I came up with the idea for this after finishing reading "Psycho House" by Robert Bloch (this is the third story in the "Psycho" novel series. And many remember the first novel, which was adapted into the classic film by Alfred Hitchcock), which carried on an idea presented in the novel "Psycho House" and inspired by my time at working at an amusement park. The premise would be set 10 years after the events in the novel, where Otto Remsbach's idea of turning the Bates Motel and House into a tourist attraction and then into part of a psychopath-themed amusement park has long since come true. Following a young man who works at a Dippin' Dots booth set up outside the Bates House and Motel, he spends a majority of his hours alone (except for when the tram tour stops at the spot to allow tourists to explore the area) and begins to notice something that was there before: a figure seen sitting in the bedroom window of the Bates House. Now, I would actually have liked to done this as a short fan film and actually would have liked to use the Bates Mansion and Motel facade that was at Universal Studios Florida, but since they tore them down and put up a stupid Barney stage show, it was snuffed out (not that Universal Studios would have allowed a fan film to be filmed in the park anyway).
4. Battlestar Galactica: Lone Survivor- I had been working on a "machinimia comic book fan fiction series" based in the universe of the new "Battlestar Galactica" series, involving a group of civilians. I had thought about doing it as a series of web shorts where we only follow one human character as he tries to make his way around on a Cylon-Occupied 12 Colony planet. The reason why I can't do it because it's too close to the comic series I was working on and the story is too epic to create on a small budget (plus, I'm not good at CG work, so there was no way for me to create Cylon Centurions needed).
Right now, I've toyed around with doing a fan film "trailer" for a TRON fan film which would depict a reworked version of the TRON 2.0 storyline, with Jet Bradley being involved. And I even considered on taking it a bit old-school by using model miniatures for certain visual effects.
And the only fan film I had any involvement in is the one I was the set photographer on last weekend: Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash. It's directed by Trent Duncan, the same person who did Jason vs. Leatherface (in fact, my Jeep was used in the production)
Not only that, I came to realize that out of all the fan films possible, I realized that no one has ever attempted a Phantasm fan film. Probably because there's not many people that have the look of the Tall Man, I suppose.
I've wanted to. I've had tons of ideas for fan films. The problem with it is the lack of friends that share the same interest as I do, which is sort of why I like machinima (as you don't have to find the crew to make something).
Another problem are the ideas. Some of the ones I've had are just not great. Below are just some of the fan film ideas I had:
1. The Matrix: Hercules- I wrote a 20 page fan script in 2004 that took place within the timeframe of the films. The premise involves a "Protector" program constructed by the Rebels of Zion, whose test run has him going into a "government building" and retrieving the source code for the Agent programs. It took place shortly after the events in the animated short "The Final Flight of the Osiris" and before the events in the "Enter the Matrix" video game. The reason I didn't proceed with it is because I didn't live in a metropolis area that could double as "Mega City" (the city from the "Matrix" films), nor did I know a lot of people which could have helped in filming it.
2. Indiana Jones and The Tablets of Destinies- I came up with this idea after I purchased my Indiana Jones fedora, but I know I wouldn't be able to do it. The premise involves Indiana Jones (not Dr. Henry Jones Jr. or his son, but his grandson, and the kid actually being named Indiana), a 20 year-old Lit. major at Florida State University, who gets involved with the search of the mythical Tablets of Destinies while trying to traverse the lands of confusion in the 1980s and keeping a couple of steps ahead of KGB Agents trying to find the Tablets. The reason why I haven't done it is because of two major factors: A. Recreating the setting of the 1980s on a shoe-string budget. B. I'm worried that people wouldn't like the teenage Indiana, who is in no way like the Dr. Jones we know and love. Granted, he'd have his grandfather's Fedora, but he's a wimp and doesn't event want to be involved in the situation, unlike his grandfather.
3. Psycho Land- I came up with the idea for this after finishing reading "Psycho House" by Robert Bloch (this is the third story in the "Psycho" novel series. And many remember the first novel, which was adapted into the classic film by Alfred Hitchcock), which carried on an idea presented in the novel "Psycho House" and inspired by my time at working at an amusement park. The premise would be set 10 years after the events in the novel, where Otto Remsbach's idea of turning the Bates Motel and House into a tourist attraction and then into part of a psychopath-themed amusement park has long since come true. Following a young man who works at a Dippin' Dots booth set up outside the Bates House and Motel, he spends a majority of his hours alone (except for when the tram tour stops at the spot to allow tourists to explore the area) and begins to notice something that was there before: a figure seen sitting in the bedroom window of the Bates House. Now, I would actually have liked to done this as a short fan film and actually would have liked to use the Bates Mansion and Motel facade that was at Universal Studios Florida, but since they tore them down and put up a stupid Barney stage show, it was snuffed out (not that Universal Studios would have allowed a fan film to be filmed in the park anyway).
4. Battlestar Galactica: Lone Survivor- I had been working on a "machinimia comic book fan fiction series" based in the universe of the new "Battlestar Galactica" series, involving a group of civilians. I had thought about doing it as a series of web shorts where we only follow one human character as he tries to make his way around on a Cylon-Occupied 12 Colony planet. The reason why I can't do it because it's too close to the comic series I was working on and the story is too epic to create on a small budget (plus, I'm not good at CG work, so there was no way for me to create Cylon Centurions needed).
Right now, I've toyed around with doing a fan film "trailer" for a TRON fan film which would depict a reworked version of the TRON 2.0 storyline, with Jet Bradley being involved. And I even considered on taking it a bit old-school by using model miniatures for certain visual effects.
And the only fan film I had any involvement in is the one I was the set photographer on last weekend: Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash. It's directed by Trent Duncan, the same person who did Jason vs. Leatherface (in fact, my Jeep was used in the production)
Not only that, I came to realize that out of all the fan films possible, I realized that no one has ever attempted a Phantasm fan film. Probably because there's not many people that have the look of the Tall Man, I suppose.
Last edited:
SmilingOtter
Master Member
Re: Anyone ever tried to make a fan film?
Our local Fan Force put together a few around the time Ep. 3 came out. My favorite - I got to play the bad guy - was "Busted" and is still at our old Myspace page:
Macon Clones (Macon Clones) on Myspace
Completely cheesy, and a lot of fun to make. We were very fortunate to have a very good CG guy to help us (and direct.)
Our local Fan Force put together a few around the time Ep. 3 came out. My favorite - I got to play the bad guy - was "Busted" and is still at our old Myspace page:
Macon Clones (Macon Clones) on Myspace
Completely cheesy, and a lot of fun to make. We were very fortunate to have a very good CG guy to help us (and direct.)
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