Star Wars:Forgotten Realm

Star Wars:Forgotten Realm Act I is online

2011-08-23T08:28:00.000-07:00

Star Wars Forgotten Realm Act I from Darren Crawford on Vimeo.

Act I is 22 minutes in length. I hope you enjoy it and great thanks to everyone who has been involved with the production of this movie. Now, we hit Act II with full Force. (Pun intended)

Movie Poster

2011-03-18T23:53:00.000-07:00

We now have a poster for Star Wars:Forgotten Realm. Our thanks goes out to Candace Bregola for creating this wonderful poster.

Act I (the first 30 minutes) will be released in May 2011.

Miniatures

2010-11-02T08:33:00.000-07:00

On October 30th we filmed miniatures at FVTV studio. Chris Olsen painted a clone gunship for us and Dave Ifversen animated the model in front of the camera. In one scene, the clone gunship will land and Jedi General Mallick (Max Monningh) will step off of the gunship. We are using the program Mocha to matchmove footage of Mallick on the gunship as it lands. The clone figures at the bottom of the above photo are for creating the far shots of the clone army at attention.

Frame grab from Scene 001

2010-10-13T13:14:00.000-07:00

Here is a frame grab from a completed shot in Scene 001. Abby Eggleston is an Imperial Captain on board an Interdictor class cruiser. CG ISD bridge was created by Sean Kennedy.

I talked to some of the Clone Wars animators at Celebration V. They gave me some pointers on how to reduce my render times for the CG. Their suggestions have reduced our render times by about 30%.

The 2010 Star Wars Fan Movie Awards are over

2010-08-12T19:15:00.000-07:00

Although we didn't win it was a very entertaining night. Seth Green, Jay Laga'aia, Dave Filoni, and Steve Sansweet were present to hand out awards. You should check out the winners on Atom.com.

Dave Filoni introducing George Lucas (pre-recorded video) for the George Lucas Selects Award.

The voting is over

2010-08-03T17:24:00.000-07:00

The voting for the 2010 Official Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge Audience Choice Award is now over. A big thanks goes out to everyone who supported us with their vote. Check back on August 13th to find out how the trailer matched up to the competition. Keep your fingers crossed.

Its Official !

2010-07-22T11:17:00.000-07:00

The Star Wars : Forgotten Realm trailer is an official finalist of the 2010 Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge. Please vote for our trailer at the following link:

http://www.atom.com/channel/channel_star_wars/?v=mgid:hcx:content:atom.com:c844e85f-c42e-490c-befa-1dcb389377e6

Star Wars:Forgotten Realm trailer

2010-06-10T23:47:00.000-07:00

I'm proud to present our long awaited trailer for Star Wars:Forgotten Realm. Follow the link below.

TRAILER

I hope everyone enjoys this preview of the movie. The trailer has been submitted to Atom films and approved for the Star Wars Fan Film challenge. Semi-finalists will be announced on July 22 and the public will be allowed to vote for their favorite fan film. Please be sure to vote for our trailer.

The credits at the end of the trailer reflect those who are seen in the trailer. Thanks to all of those who have been involved in some shape or form in the making of this fan film.

The Emperor

2010-01-18T01:57:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since there was an update to the blog so I thought I would post a couple tantalizing pictures from the movie. We had a reshoot on Dec. 20, 2009. The original Imperial Palace scene (Scene 39a) had a poor bluescreen which made it extremely hard to pull a key from so we reshot the scene. A professional Emperor's mask was purchased and Chris Olsen reprised his role of the Emperor. I think the new footage turned out fantastic and, best of all, I can pull a much better key.

Where's the trailer you may ask? We are putting the final touches on it, ie saber contact flashes. The ADR session tomorrow will complete the voices for the scenes used in the trailer. Once completed it will be uploaded to the blog and submitted into the Atom Films' Star Wars Fan Films contest.

X-wings, TIE Fighters, Explosions, Oh My

2009-07-12T15:48:00.000-07:00

Now that we are fully in post production mode, I though I'd release a 10 second tidbit. The shot is from the Imperial surprise attack scene that occurs near the beginning of the movie. There is no sound yet.

We've had two ADR sessions so far. Vader's voice has been recorded in its entirety. Yari'el and Jarad voice overs for the Sarco cockpit scenes have been recorded. Our first foley session was Thursday. What a blast. Dave, Max, and I are walking around the studio trying to sync the steps of Yari'el, Jarad, and the clone commander walking down a hallway. At the same time Dave is trying to mimic the armor sounds, Max is attempting to get the leather sound from the clones body suit as he moves in the scene, and I try to get the blaster sound as the clone trooper comes to attention.

We welcome Brian Kovacs to our production crew. He will be the sound designer of the film and is starting off with creating the ambient sounds of the Sarco cockpit and exterior (engines, fly-by, etc.).

Final Production Shoot and Opening Crawl

2009-05-01T13:54:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe but on Sunday April 27th the final production shoot was completed at Fermilab. In the morning we shot a scene in the Atrium of Wilson Hall. The Atrium is the backdrop for a meeting with the Prime Minister of Berrata Prime and our two heroes. The scene was completed by 12:30 and then we moved to the second floor to film another scene. A scene that involved turning a conference room into a bar prior to filming. (refer to above picture by Max Monningh) Several people, cast and crew alike, pooled their space-age odds and ends and added them to the set. Batavia artist Joe Gagnepain dressed the set with his sculptures, Curtis the robot, etc.

Thanks to all of the stormtroopers, aliens, bounty hunters, humans, artists, cast, and crew who took part in this last shoot. Without you this fan film would not have had a chance. The only filming left is the few pick-up and redo shots. There will be miniature model filming during post production. Also, lots of rendering!

The opening crawl with the lead-in to the first scene has been completed. Here is the opening crawl and the opening shot. There aren't any sound effects or music after the Star Wars theme. (Star Wars Main Theme is a trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd, composed by John Williams) The nebula took 8 days to render with 3 processors. Compositing all elements together took 2 days. Enjoy.

Lights, Sabers, Sound

2008-07-26T12:01:00.000-07:00

Here is a clip of completed shots of the Mallick-Vader duel. The sabers are rotoscoped and now we are adding sound effects to completed shots. The sound is in stereo but when fully finished it will be in 5.1 channel surround sound. The video has gone through a color correction. The aspect ratio of the movie is 2.35, same as the Star Wars trilogies.

This clip was presented at a Producer's talk at FVTV where we presented the state of our production.

An Army of One

2008-06-02T22:57:00.000-07:00

Mark Van Slyke has the only clone trooper costume in the entire Chicagoland area so we have to clone the clone for our shots that involve the clone army. Thanks Mark for agreeing to do this. This is scene 41 shot 3. Yari'el and Jared are escorted to the office of Jedi Knight Web Mallick.

There are 3 layers to this After Effects composition. The first layer is the one where the clone commander is escorting the rebels. The second layer is the guard at the door. The third layer is the painstaking rotoscoped layer of the commander walking in front of the guard. This is a first pass of the cloning technique and there are some noticeable areas to tweak before making it a final approved shot.

There is no sound for this shot.

First attempt at bluescreen keying

2008-04-15T05:51:00.000-07:00

Here is our first attempt at keying out the bluescreen behind the actors.

First completed CGI shot

2008-04-12T12:17:00.000-07:00

We have finished our first fully rendered and composited effects shot. The shot is of the Sarco, which carries Yari'el and Jared, being chased into the clouds of an uncharted planet. The blaster bolts were added with After Effects. The explosion comes from Detonationfilms.com. The foreground clouds were animated in After Effects. The Sarco and TIE fighters were rendered in Lightwave 9.2 and output to an EXR image sequence. There are 2 layers to each render, key and fill which are composited together in After Effects.

Screamernet, which is a network rendering program in Lightwave, was set up on our quad core machine. It treats each processor independently when rendering frames. Next, we will extend Screamernet to other computers on our intranet.

Lightsabers

2008-03-05T08:51:00.000-08:00

191 frames of rotoscoped footage taken down in NuMI.

This is Scene 70 Shot 16. The footage was deinterlaced and then rotoscoped with Adobe After Effects. All that is left to do is add a contact flashes where the sabers clash. Once Scene 70 is fully rotoscoped it will be passed to the audio team for ADR.

Compositing

2008-01-13T22:14:00.000-08:00

Currently we are working on a segment of the movie where the Sarco, Jared's ship, is chased by the Empire and eventually crashes on the planet below. We have about 50 GB of video to composite into this 22 second scene. There are several layers to be imported and adjusted prior to compositing. The planet is a layer. The ships are two layers each, keylight and fill light renders from Lightwave. The picture shows a composite of the planet, TIE fighter, and the Sarco. The exposure, brightness, and contrast are adjusted on each layer and then blended. The nebula background and blaster bolts are left to be added to the shot.

Rotoscoping

2007-12-20T20:17:00.000-08:00

We have over 6300 frames of lightsaber rotoscoping to complete. The process is arduous but rewarding. We are following the tutorial by Ryan Wieber. It creates the most realistic movie quality saber effects. After Effects is used in this process. After the footage is imported (each frame is a targa file), a mask must be placed over each saber in each frame. A seven second sequence is 210 frames. This takes a long time to complete. The background saber must be roto'd first followed by the foreground saber. The image shows you how the sabers will appear in the film release. This scene was filmed 360 feet underground in the MINOS detector hall at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

On a side note, our latest padawan Alexandra Crawford was born on December 4th.

Rendering

2007-10-05T02:12:00.000-07:00

We are using Lightwave 3D v9.2 for CGI animation. Files are saved in the ILM EXR format. The tutorial from the Battlestar Galactica Visual Effects Consultant Kelly "Kat" Myers is used when setting up scenes and rendering. A Key light specular pass and a Fill light diffuse pass, utilizing the 28 spinning lights cluster, are rendered and saved to several EXR buffers. Adobe After Effects CS3 is used to composite the various layers together. One 7 second shot right now is taking 1 hour and 2 minuted per frame for the specular pass.

360 ft under ground

2007-09-13T09:06:00.000-07:00

On September 9th we filmed part of the Mallick-Vader duel. The filming took place in the MINOS tunnel and experimental hall, which is 360 ft under ground. The non-Fermilab employees received Mine training from Mike Andrews so that they were qualified to enter the area. Thanks Mike.

We had 2 cameras for the shoot. Nathan Stein operated Camera A and Chip Edstrom was the Camera B operator. Chip filmed the fire fight between Jared and the 'troopers. Mark Van Slyke and Ed Silva played the scout trooper and sand trooper.

Ted O'Sullivan (Vader) and Max Monningh (Jedi Mallick) worked rigorously on perfecting the duel. Our fight choreographer, Bruce Worthel, did an excellent job with instructing the actors.

First outdoor shoot

2007-04-14T19:39:00.000-07:00

April 22 will be our first outdoor shoot at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Our location at the lab is indicated on the map with a red arrow.

What is Star Wars:Forgotten Realm?

2007-02-23T16:52:00.000-08:00

Star Wars:Forgotten Realm is a set 7 years after the events of Revenge of the Sith. The Emperor has mandated the expansion of the Empire. The Rebellion is in it's infancy. Rebel spy Yari'el Loor has secured the plans to an Imperial invasion of an area of the galaxy known as the Proteus Cluster. She hires Jared Dunkin, a xeno-archaeologist, to deliver her to her contact on the planet Berrata Prime. The Empire forces the them to crash on an uncharted planet located in a nebula. A Jedi, Web Mallick, and detachment of clone troopers, stranded on the planet for 10 years, witness the crash and rescue Jared and Yari'el from Imperial troops. Once the Emperor learns of this, he sends Vader and the 501st to deal with the Jedi.

Forgotten Realm is a 2 hour fan film that will air on FVTV in January of 2009. The cast and crew are very talented. We have a prop builder, two Productions Assistants, Director's Assistant, set designer, and costumer.
The lead role of Yari'el Loor is played by Laura L. Crawford. Jim Kirkhoff plays archaeologist Jared Dunkin. Maxwell Monningh has taken on the role of Jedi Master Web Mallick. The young Princess Leia is played by Victoria L. Crawford.

The 501st Legion has been instrumental is making this a reality. Darth Vader is played by Ted O'Sullivan. Numerous stormtroopers, TIE pilots, and officers have already been filmed.

The script was written in 2005 and production began on January 2006. Production continues through 2007 and all of 2008 will be devoted to CG creation, rendering, compositing, and editing. Release is slated for January 2009.

This film production is not associated with Lucasfilm, LTD.