Fan Film Episode 1 Director’s Commentary

Get the inside scoop on Episode 1 and all it’s many versions that lead up to this final version of the debut episode of “Fan Film The Series” with this special director’s commentary version:

Fan Film Episode 2 Director’s Commentary

Episode 2 was episode 1 before episode 1 was episode 1. Khrysti was Karen, and Dave was Taylor, but Gregg is still Gregg. Make sense? If not, check out the commentary for Episode 2 of “Fan Film The Series”:

Fan Film Episode 3 Director’s Commentary

Lost in the woods, flubbed lines, siblings arguing – and that’s just half of the topic’s discussed in this episodes commentary:

Fan Film Episode 4 Director’s Commentary

Find out what those green striped sweatsuits are all about, and why all those movie posters don’t seem to match the storyline when you really think about it:

Fan Film Episode 5 Director’s Commentary

Episode 5, the last scenes in PA. But a little secret is revealed – some of these shots where done in Florida. Can you guess which ones? Well, stop guessing and watch to find out:

Fan Film Episode 6 Director’s Commentary

And last but not least, Episode 6 of Fan Film The Series with Director’s commentary. Hear the ups and downs of getting this final segment in the can, and more Xanadu references than you can shake a stick at:

Star Wars Planet of the Hoojibs

In one of the many incarnations of the numerous versions of the Fan Film The Series episode 1 script, there was a sequence of shots where my character was to be research some odd extend universe material about the original trilogy. The ideas were a shot of reading “Splinter in the minds eye”, playing the original Star Wars arcade game, spinning the wheels on a Star Wars slot machine, and paging through the read-a-long book “Planet of the Hoojibs.” I had the Arcade game, I was in Vegas 2000 times that years so I got a couple shots at the slot machine, and I have a copy of Splinter floating around somewhere, but the one thing I was missing was “Planet of the Hoojibs”. Well, thanks to eBay, I found a copy for 99 cents. I figured it was too cheap to pass up and even if I didn’t use it I’d have an interesting collectable that maybe worth $1.50 in 10 years or so. So I bought it. Ultimately that scene never made it in the final re-writes of the scripts we filmed for Episode 1 (all 4 versions), so it never got to be experienced in all it’s glory. It’s time to rectify that. So, here is “Star Wars, Planet of the Hoojibs” in all its glory. Enjoy this action packed story, that’s still better than the prequel storylines:

What – No Red Carpet?

Today at 10:45am Pacific time Fan Film The Movie had its official premiere! Well, at least episode two of Fan Film.

Given the fact that it wasn’t on the schedule, we got a standout crowd of three people. Including me and Ken.

On the bright side, people laughed at the Shocker scene.

Matt, time to submit to IMDB.

Group Effort

When Dave Fox told me we could film part of “Fan Film” at the theater, I immediately took him up on the offer and began writing that scene. The worked good on paper, but never having been inside this building, it was hard to work out the shots in my head. We literally had no idea how to shoot the theater scenes for Episode 4 until we got there that late Saturday night.

I found this great clip of the rehearsal run through of one of the more memorable scenes from the theater that is a great example of how everyone involved pitched in helped work out this scene. Oddly enough we usually didn’t record much of the rehearsal and down time, but this clip is pretty representative of how the collaborative effort was major part in making “Fan Film”:

Lego my storyboard!

When I wrote Fan Film, I had worked out how nearly every scene would be shot in my head.

Once I got to Pennsylvania and Dave took over as Director of Photography and Lead cinematographer and joined me as co-director, each of those scenes were done completely differently than I imagined. But, once again thanks to Dave’s natural talent in cinematography, the actual production shots came out far better than the one’s I envisioned.

However, there was 1 scene that needed to be shot the way I imagined, or at least as close as we could get it. That was the most elaborate visual effect / joke scene in the series.

The joke hinged on 2 elements, 1 the “story” leading up the punch line – I wanted the shots done specifically in a way to lead up to the joke, start with some dialogue, build some tension, then bang – the punch line. The 2nd element was the visual FX footage I needed to work with also had to be shot in a specific way for me to pull of the effect I was trying to achieve.

So the scenes are fleshed out in my head, and everything’s ready to go. Then “crack”, I break my ankle in Las Vegas. So pretty much convinced I can’t make it to PA for the shooting of this scene, I had to come up storyboards to share with Dave to show what I needed – especially for the FX part.

With time running out, and my inability to capture the perspective, angles, etc, or the actors on paper, I went to the local Lego store (yes, and actually Lego only store)  and picked up a bag of miscellaneous Lego men from the clearance bin.

With those Lego men, and a stapler, I was able to put together a storyboard of the shots I needs and go over them with Dave.
Here’s a sample:

Pretty silly, right?

Well, after getting the “all clear” from my doctor to both travel and be up on my feet, I did go to PA. I didn’t bring this storyboard with me, but did go through it with Dave prior to the shot.

This comparison video shows how much of it not only stuck in our heads, but actually helped with the final shot:

Not bad for $2.99 worth of Lego figures and an empty stapler.

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