Star Wars Uncut: Empire! Video claimed for ZYKFA!
Discussion started by CJ Kucera , on 10 September 09:36 PM
Hello everyone!
So, Star Wars Uncut is a project where they took A New Hope, chopped it up into 15-second segments, and then had the internet re-do those 15-second segments however they wanted. Then they took everyone's submissions and stitched them together along with the official soundtrack into a completely crazy and awesome video which you can see here: http://www.starwarsuncut.com/newhope
It's pretty much the Best Thing. Anyway, they've just opened up the submissions process for their next project: The Empire Strikes Back! Elaine and I claimed one of the scenes right away because they were going quite fast - you can see the one that we claimed here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCNiauTtskE
Summary and screenshots: http://apocalyptech.com/swuncut/
We would absolutely love to have the whole school in on this - we picked one with an awful lot of people so we can get all the kids in there and stuff. I'm imagining lots of kung fu things going on... Perhaps we can have the stormtrooper at the end dressed as some kind of Cobra Kai guy. It should be pretty awesome.
We have 30 days to film this and get it uploaded, so we're going to start thinking of how we should lay it out, but let us know if you wanted to be involved! It should be a blast. Once we get this one uploaded, we can claim another scene and give that one a try as well.
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Given that E and I are going to be out of town starting tomorrow, we went ahead and uploaded the video, so it's now on the official site!
http://www.starwarsuncut.com/scene/411
Feel free to go give it a "Like" over there. That's what people do with the internet nowadays, right? Like things?
Anyway, thanks again to everyone whjo's helped out with this! You're allowed to have up to five scenes, so I think I'm going to go ahead and grab another one. As I said before, I have no idea how they make the decision about what to use for the "final" finished product, but having more certainly wouldn't hurt. :)
http://www.starwarsuncut.com/scene/411
Feel free to go give it a "Like" over there. That's what people do with the internet nowadays, right? Like things?
Anyway, thanks again to everyone whjo's helped out with this! You're allowed to have up to five scenes, so I think I'm going to go ahead and grab another one. As I said before, I have no idea how they make the decision about what to use for the "final" finished product, but having more certainly wouldn't hurt. :)
4439 days ago
Okay, this one is probably it! Barring any last-minute changes tomorrow, this'll probably be what gets uploaded. If you want something changed, better let me know about it quick!
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
4440 days ago
We can't use that song?! BUMMER!!! Hahahaha
Looks great CJ, good job!
Looks great CJ, good job!
4440 days ago
... so I've been working on the video tonight, and I have yet to get the audio together (it's a shame I didn't get time to record various folks trying Chewbacca noises!)
Anyway, I got the timing all down and wanted to export and make sure that youtube, etc, would be okay with the final product, so I loaded in my standard go-to sound file which I use when I need generic audio but don't care what, exactly.
The results were, shall we say... serendipitous!
Just, um, thought y'all might enjoy that. On to audio editing!
(As a side note: everything but the very last scene in there is actually sped up 110% - our takes ran long!)
Anyway, I got the timing all down and wanted to export and make sure that youtube, etc, would be okay with the final product, so I loaded in my standard go-to sound file which I use when I need generic audio but don't care what, exactly.
The results were, shall we say... serendipitous!
Just, um, thought y'all might enjoy that. On to audio editing!
(As a side note: everything but the very last scene in there is actually sped up 110% - our takes ran long!)
4440 days ago
It's not done yet, no - I'm hoping to get it finished up by tomorrow. Work's been pretty busy and I lost all last weekend to work stuff (though I had been expecting that) so I hadn't had much time. I'll have it up by Thursday at the latest, though. :)
4441 days ago
Wanted to say "thanks" again to everyone who participated today! We had a blast, hope you did too. Now I've got to edit the thing together, do some sound dubbing, and get it uploaded. If anyone else is more familiar with that kind of thing than I am, feel free to let me know, though I think I should be fine.
Anyway, thanks again!
Anyway, thanks again!
4451 days ago
sven,
I'd be okay with planning this week and shooting next week, but we'll see how things go.
4452 days ago
I'd been meaning to post ever since Tuesday, but regardless:
I think we'll be fine for the big running-crowd scene; we've got plenty of lion/dragon/etc things to put in there. I did agree re: ghillie suit, though I think in the end it'd be sufficient to have someone with one of the smaller lions on their head. I'm actually thinking you'd probably be great for that role, Sven...
Prop-wise we're mostly good, though we need to figure out a way to convey C-3POness to whoever's on Chewbacca's back. E and I were going to take a trip to Mallatt's tomorrow to see what we could figure out for that, but if anyone's got ideas, that would be cool.
If anyone's got a karate gi for the Stormtrooper, let us know... Or, indeed, if anyone has any other props that they think might help out, do be sure to be there.
I'll probably not be AT Saturday class, but I'll show up during/after so we can plan stuff out and maybe even shoot things; we only need the kids for the middle section anyway.
I've been having a hard time nailing anyone down for actually being there - so far it's: Me, Elaine, Kyle, Sven, Shifu, kids. Other people have expressed interest but not commitment. I'll see if I can nail anyone else down over text tonight...
I think we'll be fine for the big running-crowd scene; we've got plenty of lion/dragon/etc things to put in there. I did agree re: ghillie suit, though I think in the end it'd be sufficient to have someone with one of the smaller lions on their head. I'm actually thinking you'd probably be great for that role, Sven...
Prop-wise we're mostly good, though we need to figure out a way to convey C-3POness to whoever's on Chewbacca's back. E and I were going to take a trip to Mallatt's tomorrow to see what we could figure out for that, but if anyone's got ideas, that would be cool.
If anyone's got a karate gi for the Stormtrooper, let us know... Or, indeed, if anyone has any other props that they think might help out, do be sure to be there.
I'll probably not be AT Saturday class, but I'll show up during/after so we can plan stuff out and maybe even shoot things; we only need the kids for the middle section anyway.
I've been having a hard time nailing anyone down for actually being there - so far it's: Me, Elaine, Kyle, Sven, Shifu, kids. Other people have expressed interest but not commitment. I'll see if I can nail anyone else down over text tonight...
4452 days ago
sven,
Y'all could come to Saturday class and we could talk about it afterward!
I could hang out until 4pm though I reckon.
I could hang out until 4pm though I reckon.
4454 days ago
CJ and I were talking about this during class tuesday, and I can bring my camera to shoot the video (it does 1080p). I have a tripod and a mount, so we can use those too. We were thinking about meeting at the school at 4pm on Saturday but that may be a tentative date.
4454 days ago
sven,
I tried coming up with several ideas. The one I liked the best was having the heroes run from the front door of the school to the back, get blocked by someone, dispatch him, and ultimately choose the side door. I was picturing this in sort of Hong Kong style with a busy school and a couple stunt type effects done to dodge things/people. Nothing overly complicated, just a bit of needless flair, maybe a leapfrog thing over a person or running over some chairs or stacked mats instead of taking a more obvious route.
I think we should try to enlist either Kimba or Davron (or both) for this.
Also, if done something like this, the 18 Brassmen reference could certainly be going on somewhere. :)
I was hoping others would come up with different scenarios. Please share any ideas you've had. The more options we have the better the result will be.
I think we should try to enlist either Kimba or Davron (or both) for this.
Also, if done something like this, the 18 Brassmen reference could certainly be going on somewhere. :)
I was hoping others would come up with different scenarios. Please share any ideas you've had. The more options we have the better the result will be.
4456 days ago
sven,
I've been thinking about this too, here are my thoughts...
Since there is so much camera cutting in this segment, we might want to consider merging to get more continuity. I watched the original uncut movie and noticed that the people that followed the camera cuts exactly sometimes ended up with clips that were harder to follow. I think it's due to having the entire scene change every 15 seconds combined with numerous camera cuts making for pretty darn discontinuous viewing.
Also, since there really isn't a memorable moment from the movie in this clip, what we really have, besides the dialog, is a scene with chaos and a bunch of people running and a blocked escape attempt with the heroes ultimately changing route.
I was wondering if we want to have the stormtrooper be a guy in a karate gi, who we'd have Chewbacca nonchalantly dispatch with a groin kick.
I would think it was be rather easy to mount a phone on a tripod. All you need is a flat vertical edge and you can tape the phone on somehow, since the phone is flat on the back side. Surely someone makes a clip type thing for this already?
What are we going to do for Chewbacca? I think a ghillie suit would be ideal. Does anyone have one?
I'll be in Saturday for class if that helps. Also, I'm pretty much free the next two weekends.
Since there is so much camera cutting in this segment, we might want to consider merging to get more continuity. I watched the original uncut movie and noticed that the people that followed the camera cuts exactly sometimes ended up with clips that were harder to follow. I think it's due to having the entire scene change every 15 seconds combined with numerous camera cuts making for pretty darn discontinuous viewing.
Also, since there really isn't a memorable moment from the movie in this clip, what we really have, besides the dialog, is a scene with chaos and a bunch of people running and a blocked escape attempt with the heroes ultimately changing route.
I was wondering if we want to have the stormtrooper be a guy in a karate gi, who we'd have Chewbacca nonchalantly dispatch with a groin kick.
I would think it was be rather easy to mount a phone on a tripod. All you need is a flat vertical edge and you can tape the phone on somehow, since the phone is flat on the back side. Surely someone makes a clip type thing for this already?
What are we going to do for Chewbacca? I think a ghillie suit would be ideal. Does anyone have one?
I'll be in Saturday for class if that helps. Also, I'm pretty much free the next two weekends.
4456 days ago
Oh! And one other thing. They're requesting that we submit our video in at least 720p (ideally 1080p). Our "real" camcorder is only SD, unfortunately... E's iPhone, I think, does 1080p quite well, actually, the one downside being that we can't mount it on a tripod. That's not super important since we're only talking fifteen seconds of video here, but it might be nice to have something more "real" than just a phone. If anyone happens to have such a device, please let me know, though I think we'll be fine with what we have, in a pinch.
4456 days ago
So, what we need personnel-wise:
* Lando
* Leia
* Chewbacca+C3PO
* R2D2
* Stormtrooper
* Running crowd
In general I think it'd be neat to have nearly everyone in our competition uniforms, and find some kind of Cobra-Kai-like outfit for the stormtrooper. It'd be nice to get something that could look vaguely like a Stormtrooper helmet on him - I still think that probably our Lei Tai helmets could do the trick, possibly with some extra construction paper temporarily taped on, or something. The trooper should probably wear some gloves, too, just to complete the ensemble.
I think one of the kids clinging to the back of one of the adults would work well for Chewbacca+C3PO. I hadn't had any great insights about how to do R2D2, though I'm sure one of the kids would love doing that too. Or perhaps we could use one of our drums on the wheeled cart, and use some ropes to pull it around? String some Christmas lights around it or something?
The crowd-running scene should be pretty easy - I figure the kids should have some fun running around. I suppose there's really not a LOT of room for kung fu type stuff in the scene but they could be at least cartwheeling or whatever. I think at least two should be carrying a lion, and maybe we should have a whole line with the dragon as well?
I liked the idea of trying to do the 18 Brassmen Of Shaolin Monastery thing, but given the limited time available in that scene, even if we stretch it out a bit to take some of the time from the running-crowd scene, I think it'd end up being too incomprehensible, esp. since theoretically Chewbacca should be taking him down from a distance.
I'm thinking it'd be a little more concise (and recognizable to a wider audience) to have Chewbacca take down the stormtrooper using some kind of quick, stylized chi-blast. I'm sure we could whip up some really lame digital effect to throw in there, though we'd have to get it on film pretty quick so I could muddle my way through learning how to do that. :) If anyone here DOES have more experience than I at that kind of thing, please speak up!
In terms of shooting locations, I'm guessing that we'll probably just do it at school, since that'll be the easiest place to get the kids together (after a class on Saturday, or something, for instance). If we think we could pull off getting enough people together at the Overture Center or something, that would be pretty sweet, 'cause I think there'd be a lot of opportunities there, but I'm not sure how feasible that would be.
So yeah, please feel free to hit me up with ideas! I'll try to finalize at least some of these plans within the next few days.
* Lando
* Leia
* Chewbacca+C3PO
* R2D2
* Stormtrooper
* Running crowd
In general I think it'd be neat to have nearly everyone in our competition uniforms, and find some kind of Cobra-Kai-like outfit for the stormtrooper. It'd be nice to get something that could look vaguely like a Stormtrooper helmet on him - I still think that probably our Lei Tai helmets could do the trick, possibly with some extra construction paper temporarily taped on, or something. The trooper should probably wear some gloves, too, just to complete the ensemble.
I think one of the kids clinging to the back of one of the adults would work well for Chewbacca+C3PO. I hadn't had any great insights about how to do R2D2, though I'm sure one of the kids would love doing that too. Or perhaps we could use one of our drums on the wheeled cart, and use some ropes to pull it around? String some Christmas lights around it or something?
The crowd-running scene should be pretty easy - I figure the kids should have some fun running around. I suppose there's really not a LOT of room for kung fu type stuff in the scene but they could be at least cartwheeling or whatever. I think at least two should be carrying a lion, and maybe we should have a whole line with the dragon as well?
I liked the idea of trying to do the 18 Brassmen Of Shaolin Monastery thing, but given the limited time available in that scene, even if we stretch it out a bit to take some of the time from the running-crowd scene, I think it'd end up being too incomprehensible, esp. since theoretically Chewbacca should be taking him down from a distance.
I'm thinking it'd be a little more concise (and recognizable to a wider audience) to have Chewbacca take down the stormtrooper using some kind of quick, stylized chi-blast. I'm sure we could whip up some really lame digital effect to throw in there, though we'd have to get it on film pretty quick so I could muddle my way through learning how to do that. :) If anyone here DOES have more experience than I at that kind of thing, please speak up!
In terms of shooting locations, I'm guessing that we'll probably just do it at school, since that'll be the easiest place to get the kids together (after a class on Saturday, or something, for instance). If we think we could pull off getting enough people together at the Overture Center or something, that would be pretty sweet, 'cause I think there'd be a lot of opportunities there, but I'm not sure how feasible that would be.
So yeah, please feel free to hit me up with ideas! I'll try to finalize at least some of these plans within the next few days.
4456 days ago
Yikes, so we've been procrastinating on this for far too long. I'm going to try and hopefully get stuff together to be able to start shooting soonish, hopefully in time to be able to organize something for this weekend even.
To start out with, I put together a pretty detailed description of the scene, just for reference (we don't have to follow it per-split-second as I've laid it out here, of course, but I figured it'd be good to know regardless). I've embedded the video, and included screenshots of various points (with timestamps) in addition to the summary
http://apocalyptech.com/swuncut/
In the next post I'll lay out my initial thoughts as to what we'll need for the shot, but for now, the scene summary:
Opens with a static camera showing Lando, Leia, and Chewbacca+C3PO running to the right, down a hallway which extends offscreen to the right. Leia has a blaster, and Chewbacca technically has a blaster too, though it's in his left hand so it remains hidden in this bit of the scene. R2-D2 starts off behind Chewbacca, facing some electronic doodads on the wall, smoking slightly. He starts moving once Chewbacca has passed him, bumps into the wall at about 0:02.70, backs up and starts slowly off down the hallway. He beeps angrily for a bit while doing so.
Right at the beginning (0:00.0) C-3PO has started to say "Don't Blame" -
C-3PO
"-ame me, I'm an interpreter! *I'm* not supposed to know a power socket from a computer terminal."
C-3PO moves offscreen just as he finishes his line, at about 0:04.33, at which point R2-D2 is still only just making his way into the main hallway.
The scene switches at about 0:05.77 to a camera which is panning from right to left, with a crowd of people running to the right. The lead two people are carrying a box between them, and many others are carrying boxes or equipment as well. In the middle is what seems to be a family with some kids holding a parent's hands as they run. There's a total of 19 people in that group.
Behind that running crowd, Lando and Leia are running in from a hallway in the back, moving generally from right to left. Leia still has her blaster. There's just panicky running-crowd noises.
At about 0:11.74, the scene changes to a static camera with R2-D2 and Chewbacca+C3PO running towards the camera from about center, heading to run "past" the camera to the right. A stormtrooper is running after them around a corner. At about 0:13.50 the stormtrooper fires once, and by this point Chewbacca+C3PO has turned around to face the stormtrooper, while still sort of hopping backwards. The stormtrooper fires again at about 0:14.20 and Chewbacca fires at about 0:14.40 or so, hitting the stormtrooper, who falls down against the wall.
The scene changes at 0:15.48 to a low, static shot of R2-D2, a little right of center, gliding towards an unseen control panel next to a door. The scene doesn't last long at all, and ends before R2-D2 has a chance to make it there.
To start out with, I put together a pretty detailed description of the scene, just for reference (we don't have to follow it per-split-second as I've laid it out here, of course, but I figured it'd be good to know regardless). I've embedded the video, and included screenshots of various points (with timestamps) in addition to the summary
http://apocalyptech.com/swuncut/
In the next post I'll lay out my initial thoughts as to what we'll need for the shot, but for now, the scene summary:
Opens with a static camera showing Lando, Leia, and Chewbacca+C3PO running to the right, down a hallway which extends offscreen to the right. Leia has a blaster, and Chewbacca technically has a blaster too, though it's in his left hand so it remains hidden in this bit of the scene. R2-D2 starts off behind Chewbacca, facing some electronic doodads on the wall, smoking slightly. He starts moving once Chewbacca has passed him, bumps into the wall at about 0:02.70, backs up and starts slowly off down the hallway. He beeps angrily for a bit while doing so.
Right at the beginning (0:00.0) C-3PO has started to say "Don't Blame" -
C-3PO
"-ame me, I'm an interpreter! *I'm* not supposed to know a power socket from a computer terminal."
C-3PO moves offscreen just as he finishes his line, at about 0:04.33, at which point R2-D2 is still only just making his way into the main hallway.
The scene switches at about 0:05.77 to a camera which is panning from right to left, with a crowd of people running to the right. The lead two people are carrying a box between them, and many others are carrying boxes or equipment as well. In the middle is what seems to be a family with some kids holding a parent's hands as they run. There's a total of 19 people in that group.
Behind that running crowd, Lando and Leia are running in from a hallway in the back, moving generally from right to left. Leia still has her blaster. There's just panicky running-crowd noises.
At about 0:11.74, the scene changes to a static camera with R2-D2 and Chewbacca+C3PO running towards the camera from about center, heading to run "past" the camera to the right. A stormtrooper is running after them around a corner. At about 0:13.50 the stormtrooper fires once, and by this point Chewbacca+C3PO has turned around to face the stormtrooper, while still sort of hopping backwards. The stormtrooper fires again at about 0:14.20 and Chewbacca fires at about 0:14.40 or so, hitting the stormtrooper, who falls down against the wall.
The scene changes at 0:15.48 to a low, static shot of R2-D2, a little right of center, gliding towards an unseen control panel next to a door. The scene doesn't last long at all, and ends before R2-D2 has a chance to make it there.
4456 days ago
Ha, they've got an awesome trailer for the new project here: https://vimeo.com/48227936
4467 days ago
