Wow, it's been a decade* since I was active here! Hello fellow nerds, the rock 'n roll guitar playing one is back!
"He's not dead...not yet"
The reason I've been away for so long is because in 2007, I had near-death experience #7. Some of you may have heard about that (probably not). I have no recollection of what actually happened, just woke up in a hospital a month later after being in a coma the entire time (best vacation I've ever had). In fact, was within 30 minutes of not even being here to post this message. A morning garbage-truck crew found my unconscious body at 4AM in a pool of blood next to a dumpster. I can only hope one of them commented "Aww, looks like somebody threw away a perfectly good white boy!" I've had to re-learn a lot of stuff, including guitar. Un-learned what I learned, I did (can actually play better now!)
Hyperspace to 2017.
My brother and I are making a sequel to our Star Wars homage we made in high school way back in 1990- SAD SAGA. At the time it was us shooting our own acting/cheesy homemade props and effects over the original SW soundtrack (we had a video camera that would let you dub either JUST video or audio separately). It was hilariously bad...imagine a Datsun B210 hatchback flying through outer space and you get the idea ("What a piece of junk!")
This new project is going to stay true to the spirit of the original: All in-camera visual effects (no CGI trickery whatsoever), and only using what we have on hand to improvise with. For example, we're converting/disguising my car (a Mr2 convertible) to look like a landspeeder using brown paper grocery bags and empty plastic vodka bottles for the jet engines.
Here's an early/rough saber test we filmed 2 nights ago. Using LED sabers when filmed at 24fps gives the authentic movie look of the o.g. trilogy. I've always thought that analog effects beat digital any day of the week.
Not going to start a Kickstarter campaign or anything, we already have pretty much everything we need to get this project rolling. TCSS hasn't carried EL wire in years, but if there are any members here who have some old EL wire/inverters they don't use any more, that stuff would come in immeasurably handy.
Fat chance on that most likely, but it never hurts to ask.
My first post in 10 years after almost transforming into The Force was post #666. Spooky, eh? Maybe I'm destined to follow Anakin's path after all.
*actually I did post some non-essential junk 7-8 years ago, not really counting those
Cheers,
"Like I was gonna let you take all the credit and get all the reward"
Last edited by Mi Gin Gonn; 03-30-2017 at 09:57 PM.
Unfortunately, all the sabers I built from scratch back in the day are long gone (I think there's still pictures of them floating around here somewhere). Do miss 'em, particularly the "Blingsaber" as Naashar used to call it. Right now I have a pair with shorter polycarb tubes that are meant to be coupled end-to-end like a saber staff, or separated they're more like Katana blades. I'd post pics but they're stunt sabers that were put together by an outside shop, all I did were the cosmetic alterations. Out of respect for Strydur and the store I don't want to post images of someone else's products despite what I've done to make them look cooler (a sink tube got the hacksaw treatment, among other things).
Shooting Sad Saga II will probably take place over this coming summer, right now we're in the planning stages. Perhaps we'll call it Sad Saga Episode V with some goofy secondary name.
Speaking of cheesy SW-influenced stuff, has anyone seen The Humanoid? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRYi_vpJvi0
So much like Star Wars I'm amazed Lucasfilm didn't take the producers to court; it came out in 1979, back in Lucas' litigation-happy era!
*EDIT* Found my old saber pics...can't believe they were still here after scrolling through dozens of pages on the "Share Pictures of Your Sabers" thread! Funny, I barely remember building these/posting the pictures...about one year before my Category-4 brain injury (they're ranked like hurricanes and I had the "hope you're not too attached to your house and belongings" variety). Or "The Before Time" as I call it.
Last edited by Mi Gin Gonn; 04-05-2017 at 02:46 AM.
Reason: old pics rediscovered
Prepwork overdrive, have barely slept in 2 days. And I don't even do Coca-Cola, just creative excitement.
Dee-roid fabrication was among the tasks at hand tonight.
Also recently acquired an old-school VHS camcorder, a good one VERY similar to the original used for making Sad Saga.
With it, can finally bring the original S.S* to the digital realm. Wondering if we should mess with it or leave as is. It's hilariously awful/awesome. All analog, in-camera effects. My brother and I are going to record a commentary track for it, just trying to see if I'll have the green to get it professionally transferred to DVD this month. Filmed from a plasma television screen may have to do for right now...we'll see.
After recharge:
Been too busy to access Earth Twitter from the ship
Guess who's back
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