Friday, March 02, 2007

RvD2

I don't typically do too much posting on my geek streak, but tonight's a special occasion.

For those that aren't aware of the phenomenon, there's a very dedicated group of fans of various films that create what are known as "fan films". This occurs predominately among fans of the Star Wars universe given that George Lucas is very supportive of his fans, whereas other producers and film companies are highly antagonistic towards such ventures.

Generally, Troops (a Star Wars themed parody of COPS featuring stormtroopers) is considered the forerunner in this field. Since then scores of fanfilms, have been produced.

But these films are frequently more than just kids in halloween costumes running around with toy lightsabers. With the advent of modern technology, it's become possible for amateurs to create realistic special effects.

Entire forums are dedicated to the making of these films. In that particular forum, in late 2002, early 2003, the first ever lightsaber choreography competition was hosted. The winner of that competition was a duel between two of the forum veterans: Ryan Weiber vs "Dorkman" Scott. (Ryan pioneered the creation of lightsaber effects for amateurs and later went on to get a job at Lucasarts as a result of his work in this competition).

It was hinted that there would, at some point, be a sequel, and finally, four years to the day later, Ryan vs. Dorkman 2 is on the web! So if you have ~9 minutes to kill, check it out.



For the high def version, you can find it here (requires DivX player).

Now if they'd just finish Tydirium....

1 comment:

nullability said...

Sheiße! That was great. I always did wish that they would cut up the scenery a bit more in the movies.