Star Wars: Revelations Available Online

Lemming Mark writes "Panic Struck Productions have just released their first Star Wars movie, 'Revelations.' The movie has been produced on a not-for profit basis by a team of volunteers and is available for free download. Despite its humble origins, the production appears extraordinarily professional. The film is over 40 minutes long, complete with space battles and lightsaber fights -- need I say more? See more details at the official site, or jump straight to the download mirrors." (As promised last month.)

Re:Torrents

[bencvt]

Or better yet, just post the torrent itself as a comment here on /., MIME-encoded. (Good luck getting around the lameness filter, though...)

Re:Torrents:

[gad_zuki!]

Torrents down. Never, ever run your tracker on the same server as your full download mirror.

Please, enough with the naming!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it just me, or is anyone else tired of movies/games/t.v. shows with words like 'Revolution' or 'Infinity', 'suchandsuch:Armeggeddon or 'Revelations' or so on and so forth?

Please stop! It's not cool anymore!

Re:Subtitles?

[forkazoo]

quote: Is there a such thing as an .AVI (well any playback medium, really...) with subtitles?

Absolutely. I believe QuickTime supports subtitles and multiple audio tracks. I absolutely know that ogg supports them, because i have downloaded ogg's "From The Wild," which I could watch in Japanese, Japanese with English subs, or in English Dub (with or without subs). I didn't need to deal with an external subtitles file, it was right there in the ogg, all I had to do was select which track I wanted.

So, there, ogg ain't just for tree huggers and long hairs. Amazingly enough, it is sufficiently developed to be 100% useful, and "just work." It surprised me, too!

Re:Torrents

[SirCyn]

How long have you let it run? BT can be very slow to start, especially with the full force of a slashdotting.

Do you have the port(s) open? Many people do not, so the two of you can't connect.

To clear up a few misconections:
1. BT does not need any ports open, but it speeds things considerably. I went from 6KBps to 380KBps by opening 1 port.
2. Torrent files can be mirrored. There are links to the Corel mirrors, which everyone should be using for full effectiveness.
BT does connect to a centra tracking server, but the communication is minimal. Most tracking servers are on sufficient connections to handle just about anything.
3. BT takes time to connect with other. You are connecting to many people, and those connections take time to establish. Be patience and thankful someone took the time to provide you with something free.
4. BT is capable of extremely high speeds. You will probably run in to limitations in Internet Connection, Local Network, Hard Disk, Processor, and PCI bus limitations before the software limits you (most likely in that order).
5. BT is bad in ______ way (fill in the blank). Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to point out a deficiency in something you paid nothing for. Please try fixing the problem, rather than complaining about it next time.

Well, here's my take...

[iCEBaLM]

The acting, yes, is not the best however is on par with most of anikin/amidala from Ep1/Ep2. I thought Liam Neeson in Ep1 really brought it out there and Ewan McGregor was great support for Neeson but in Ep2 there was.. nothing.

Anyways, the lightsaber scene between the two chicks was horribly choreographed, why would a jedi whip out a second light saber only to swing them both in unison? I thought the one male jedis fight was pretty good, but it seemed like the only one, and it was too short.

These jedi seemed to have a lot of emotions including love between jedi? Did these guys who wrote this thing ever watch any of the movies at all? The only sane guy out of the "good" crew was the one who wasn't a jedi. Being a jedi, wouldn't the two be able to sense the general alignment of the other? The whole trust fight at the beginning is odd. If my sister, who was a seer jedi, knew another jedi and trusted him, why would I, also being a jedi, not trust him, especially if I could just sense his feelings? It makes no sense. Plot = swiss cheese.

Could have been better, had potential, blew it.

Judging From What I Saw...

[LithiumX]

First off, I only watched the first 15 or so minutes (it was late), so this is a point of view based on it's opening. However, what I saw will probably carry through for the entire thing, considering how basic the issues are. First, the special effects. This is a low-budget "home-brew" movie. I'm not going to demand an ILM quality production. It was fairly decent - on a par with many B movies that recieved far better funding (and full time work). Filming Techniques... these leave something to be desired. The camera shots don't look very well planned out, and are by no means dramatic. Not terrible (the camera's not in anyone's face), but between the lighting and the uninspiring shot angles, it's nothing to brag about. Many no-budget independant films with nothing else to show for, do better than this. Writing... ungh. While a lot of movies get by with poor writing by having high production values and a lot of glitz to distract you from the lines, when you're on a shoestring budget you can't hide a lack of a good script. Acting. This is my main gripe. It was bad. I've seen worse on direct-to-video, but I know non-actor friends who can do better than this. And people who say "watch the originals, are they better" are just looking for something to gripe about - there is no comparison. This is like watching someone's live-action rpg played out on a screen. The actors don't really seem to be into their roles, and are doing more posturing and pronouncing than conveying their characters. The glory of net-distributed films is that it allows people with no budget, no particular skill, and no training to put their heart and soul into a production that concentrates on attributes that have no price - imagination, intensity, and good writing. This didn't have any of these things. I'm sure this was a labor of love... and the sheer fact that they finished it is an accomplishment. The sheer fact that they got this many people interested is an even greater accomplishment. The end product, however, is not.

Re:Agreed, Extraordinarily professional...

[uss_valiant]

Except for the acting. :(

The CGI looks amazingly good and pretty much everything else seems quite professional too. The acting is probably on par with Hayden Christensen in Episode 2, i.e. mostly not very pleasing.

But I wouldn't only blame the actors, so many extraordinarily good actors played quite bad in the Star Wars movies. Go figure...

Disclaimer: I've never said that Hayden Christensen is a good actor!! :)

Re:Agreed, Extraordinarily professional...

[CrazyTalk]

Its not just the acting - its the look of the characters as well. It seems like a bunch of goth chicks just got together and decided to make a movie. They need to work on their hair/makeup so it doesnt seem as much like Star Wars versus Dracula.

Re:Agreed, Extraordinarily professional...

[dubious9]

Seriously. If you are going to put that much work into it, why not get some drama students? Or hire an acting coach? The CGI stuff and space scenes were fabulous, as were the set designs.

However, the Jedi instill no sence of being Jedi. The dialog is inane and the acting terrible. And not to be sexist or anything but the men handle the light saber much better than the women. Will fan fiction please notice that if you're not good with one light saber don't try to use more than one. The most powerful Jedi only used one. Obi-wan, Luke, Vader, Yoda: one saber. There's a reason for that.

Also, the story isn't that great. There is *much* better fan fiction out there. I know they really couldn't do too much in the time span that they had, but there is better stuff out there.

In conclusion: The space visuals and ship design are professional. The scene backdrops and explosions were very good. Costumes were ok to amaturish. Casting, acting, and blocking was amature.

Master Yoda says, "Unused their potential was. Great the movie could have been. But great they were not. Not like Jedi the Jedi were."