CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

So here is the result of an amateur video project a friend and I worked on over the past summer. Inspired by such fan films as Art of the Saber, we thought 'hey, why not give it a shot?' For those not in the know, this is a choreographed fight sequence of the lightsaber mold, complete with a couple of Force moves.

It's not perfect by any stretch. Scheduling forced us to do the entire thing in only six hours, meaning no reviewing of footage and no retaking a shot. We're starting development on another, hopefully much more superior one.

One thing I'd really like you guys to do is give us some feedback! Tell us how it looks, what we did wrong, what you liked, and how we can make it better the next time around. Better yet, please contrast it to our inspiration, Art of the Saber, and tell us how close we got.

--> Download "Final Reunion" from MediaFire

If the download is too cumbersome, *please tell me* and I'll upload it to YouTube for easier viewing.

Enjoy!

(PS: I'm the guy in black.)

So I put it on YouTube, since no one was probably bothering before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhVawbGWjdY

You guys did a great job! The effects on the lightsabers were good, and the fighting was well-choreographed, even if you didn't have a chance to retake anything.

It's a shame more people aren't paying attention to this thread.

this is awesome!!!!

veeooon veeoooonnnnn

the lightsabers were really well done. i agree with kkun.

Great stunt fighting! Well Coreographed.

It has only received 2 comments on youtube...CAA members should post their comments there instead of here.

Anyway, awesome job...it's bizarre that a real person could wield sticks like that.

Martial arts much or something?

A real person? As opposed to a robot?

Thanks for the support, guys - and *yes*, it would help greatly if y'all would rate and comment on the video itself. The more positives it gets, the more people will see it.

No, Mitsukai - neither of us have ever taken martial arts at all. Thanks, though.

Did anyone have any suggestions for how we could make it better?

Your editing was a little chopy in places. The sound effects could use a little polishing, but you've got them down beyond that.

Like I said, that actually isn't an editing problem. We couldn't review footage and refilm, so we essentially 'forgot' a few vital transition shots. We'll try to fix that next time around.

As for sound... Do you mean the relative volumes or what? I'm curious.

Bah, it's all CG. ;p

Sweet job. If you did all that in six hours, I stand fairly amazed that it came off so smoothly.

Dunno. Some of the squealier noises were used. Try throwing in a greater variety of noises. There are massive numbers of lightsaber noise packages you can download.

Nice job. Well choreography, and the ending was awesome..

1 question.. What program did you use for the lightsabers?

Nice job. Well choreography, and the ending was awesome.

Haha, I'd expected CAA-ers to jump all over the ending because it's so anime-ish. In answer to your question, we used Adobe Premier for editing the film together, and then used Premiere's filmstrip capabilities to basically generate a big old graphic. We then did rudimentary color grading and the lightsabers in Photoshop.

We'll try, Etoh. Thanks for the recommendation.

Wow, that was really good. XD The choreography is impressive, and I didn't really notice any editing problems. Nice job with the lightsaber sounds, too, and kudos for picking yellow as opposed to red, blue or green for the two that were used through most of the fight. XD

Excellent work!

I'll give some honest constructive criticism.

First off, excellent choreography. Very well done for an amateur attempt.

Second, too much flash sword-swinging moves.

Third, the running at each other scene was rather... XD lame. It was also a bit obvious that when striking, you were a few feet away from each other.

Fourth, the lines were a tad cheesy. XD

But overall, VERY good job.

When I saw it, the voices were hard to hear and the lightsabers were pretty loud. The only other thing was the way the double-ended lightsaber got knocked away. I kept expecting it to come back down because that is the way it went up. The smoldering chopped stick was a very nice touch.

I just thought I'd say "Teh Awesome"

And...

Bump

(everyone needs a chance to see this)

Looked like a fun project.

The lightsaber effects were awesome and seemed in par with the effects in the original trilogy.

The part where you use the force to move things was actually somewhat funny.
Can't explain why but something aobut it made me chuckle.

That was pretty awesome. After the anime-esque simultaneous attack at the end, one could tell that the shot was a still with only the lightsaber changing at all. I'm going to disagree with Ryan and say that I liked some of the flashy moves, although I can see why he would think they got gratuitous at times. You might try toning them back for your next film as an experiment. Also, in one of the close-up shots [I believe it was the white-clad warrior's Sephiroth-esque stance near the end], you could see that his lightsaber handle was PVC [or at least, it appeared to be PVC to me]. I don't mean to be picky, but it's the details that count, and you've got the basics nailed, so this is really all I have to critique.

About the saber effects ~ am I to take it that you edited the saber glow in frame-by-frame? Also, would you be able to offer some tips on how to create a film of this type?

Thanks for sharing this video! ^_^

.rai//

Yeah, we did it frame by frame. Took a long time. =P For tutorials I would check this site out first of all: http://theforce.net/fanfilms/explore.asp They're way better than I am. If you've got some specific troubles/questions, I can give you my advice.

BTW, which shot did you think was the still? The one before we charge at each other isn't quite a still - it's like 20 frames on loop. The flickering back-and-forth is probably one or two frames per shot, though.

We are toning back on the flashy moves, or at least trying to incorporate some of it into combat so they're actual attacks/defense instead of just arrogant showmanship.

Thanks for the support, Bob.

Sweet Video. I would love to see another!

Very nice. I agree; another one would be cool.

Just a mild gravedig here to say that our YouTube upload has reached 10,000 views!

*proud*

Impressive...most impressive...considering it was only 6 hours, that was quite a good deal of fighting and very well choreographyed....
Usually a fan-made lightsaber duel that is very very good often features something that no one else has used yet, and I'd say the forced thrown sticks were that original piece....Well done....

It's good. I think it might look a lil better at night,but very good nonetheless

Gosh, that's awesome. I've always wanted to learn how to do lightsaber effects like that. I bet it's loads of fun ^^;
But really, great job! It came out well, especially for the short time you made it in. Any plans for future movie making?

Oh,and i like the use of the yellow sabers. They are better than the usuall blue,red,green, and purple sabers