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Star Wars Prequels Media Movies

Star Wars Fan Films, now Star Wars Audio Drama 102

Posted by michael from the behold-the-power-of-the-dark-side dept.
darth fluffy writes "Star Wars Fanfilms have become as popular as anime music videos in the geek world over the past year (if not more), but here's a new spin: a full length Star Wars Fan Audio Drama. Recorded with over 40 actors from 5 different countries. Hurray for the power of home PC's!"
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Star Wars Fan Films, now Star Wars Audio Drama More

Star Wars Fan Films, now Star Wars Audio Drama

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  • This would be sooo cool... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 26, 2002 @01:02PM (#4961008)
    If I was 22 and living in my parents basement.

  • New Stuff Folks? (Score:2, Redundant)

    by ewanrg ( 446949 )
    I think it's interesting to see this many people put this much effort into something they love. But I think it would be even more interesting to see folks put this much effort into something new. Something that would create it's own effect on the world - something new and fresh and...

    OK, so when can I expect to see some Cowboy BeBop fan animes?
    • "I think it's interesting to see this many people put this much effort into something they love. But I think it would be even more interesting to see folks put this much effort into something new. Something that would create it's own effect on the world - something new and fresh and...
      OK, so when can I expect to see some Cowboy BeBop fan animes?"

      I'm a little surprised somebody gave this guy a 'Redundant' rating. He makes a good point. Part of the problem of the vast majority of Fanfics (for any franchise, not just SW) is that the writers of these feel that they need to make the story as familiar as possible. "I better reference everything I know about Star Wars so that these people realize they're reading about it!" So what happens? Too much familiarity, too little creativity, too little risk-taking.

      What's really needed is inspiration. Any story can be good, even if it's a fanfic, as long as it's inspired. But here's the problem with Star Wars (or Star Trek.. etc...) too many rules have been defined. You should see the dorks come out of the woodwork whenever somebody does a Star Trek vs. Star Wars crossover fanfic. "Starfleet shields can withstand any laser weapons, Captain Picard was very clear about that. The Empire is powerless against the UFP!" "Bullshit! Just because they call them 'turbolasers', doesn't mean they really are lasers! The Empire could easily..." I'm not making this shit up. People get so uptight about the rules that it's hard to produce any work of fanfiction in these overly defined universes to satisfy lots of people.

      At least, with something new (like the parent poster suggested), the rules aren't defined yet. They have control over what they're doing and they can make something truely interesting and inspired.
      • Agreed, and one of the reasons so much sci-fi sucks so hard: when the purpose becomes writing science fiction versus writing a good story you've already lost, as genres are hopelessly restrictve forms. The "Starfleet shields can withstand any laser weapons, Captain Picard was very clear about that." arguments are arguments for technofetishism, not fiction, which is beased (always) on character develpoment and interpersonal tension.

        In my experience, fan fiction is not about god story telling, but about fulfilling an urge to participate in the fantasy world in a manner beyond reading.

        For an extreme example of how genre can kill drama, look at Deep Scape Nine. Although a favorite of the technofetisists, it was horrible as fiction, as it was completely devoid of any dramatic tension.

      • I'm a little surprised somebody gave this guy a 'Redundant' rating. He makes a good point. Part of the problem of the vast majority of Fanfics (for any franchise, not just SW) is that the writers of these feel that they need to make the story as familiar as possible. "I better reference everything I know about Star Wars so that these people realize they're reading about it!" So what happens? Too much familiarity, too little creativity, too little risk-taking. Believe me, that won't be an issue with Second Strike. That will become more apparent as we hit Act II on St. Patrick's Day 2003.
    • Are these American (pop) stars with anime-inspired music videos, or are these imported from Japan? Somebody please provide a link!

      • I didn't see a reply to this OT so I thought I might step in and provide some FYI. Anime music videos are generally anime clips set to any kind of "popular" musical score. Most of the ones I've seen have been something (for instance) like various Tenchi Muyo clips with a track from American pop bands or singers like No Doubt. I'm sure JPop could be substituted though I haven't seen any.

        In any case, it's mostly fan generated and is distributed through fan clubs, web sites, FTP, IRC, Kazaa, and Gnutella. Just do a search for something like "anime music video".
  • Fan fiction IS worse!

  • Uh Oh... (Score:5, Funny)

    by da3dAlus ( 20553 ) <dustin.grau@gmai[ ]om ['l.c' in gap]> on Thursday December 26, 2002 @01:07PM (#4961033) Homepage Journal
    "I think George Lucas' gonna sue somebody!"
  • So how long until George kills this?

  • Good thing they ignore physics... (Score:5, Funny)

    by FearUncertaintyDoubt ( 578295 ) on Thursday December 26, 2002 @01:12PM (#4961062)
    ...because explosions in space would sound exactly like non-explosions, and therefore, make for very dull audio.

    begin the great space battle
    "Roger, Red leader, I'm going in"
    twelve minutes of silence
    "This is Red niner. We got 'em. Let's go home"
    end the great space battle

  • I just hope Lucas (Score:4, Insightful)

    by TerryAtWork ( 598364 ) <research@aceretail.com> on Thursday December 26, 2002 @01:12PM (#4961066)
    has the brains to not kill this.

    IF HE'S SMART he'll encourage it. But you never know when he'll stop being smart.

    Like Henry Ford said about Model T jokes 'Every joke is another Model T sold' so every SW fan effort is another pile of tickets sold.

    • I just hope Lucas (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Blows his brains out
    • If he encourages this, he essentially gives up any ability to defend his copyright. At best he can just look the other way, but that would hurt their ability to defend also.
      • No its a TRADEMARK he has to defend.

        And that brings up another of my pet peves. This 'defend your trademark or lose it' thing is a scam by the lawyers.

        In Japan where they do not have this law the IP grafix/comix business is a lot bigger than in the west. Not a coincidence.

        By putting 'SW and all characters TM George Lucas 2002' they can cover their asses on this.

      • God, I hate replying to acknowledged trolls, but this idea is repeated too damn often as it is.

        What you said only applies to trademarks. You can only claim ownership of a trademark if the word or phrase isn't already in common usage to describe the thing you're trying to sell. You couldn't trademark "mouse pad," for example, because everybody already calls them mouse pads. Once you have a trademark, if you let people use it without authorization, it gradually becomes diluted to the point where you can't reasonably claim exclusivity any more. But this takes a lot of time. Johnson & Johnson still owns the trademark on "Band-Aid," Kimberly-Clark still owns the trademark on "Kleenex," and Xerox still owns the trademark on "Xerox."

        The fact that you don't defend your copyrights against infringement doesn't dilute the strength of your claim to those copyrights. Copyrights are non-conditional.

  • Not my thing, but... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by BFaucet ( 635036 )
    Well I'm not a big starwars fan, nor am I a big fan of fan fiction (how many times can the "fan" be placed in a sentence?) However, I feel the fact that this can be done is quite cool! I say, "More power to 'em!"

    After all, bringing people together and sharing ideas and such is the best thing about the net, right?.. Well other than porn, of course.

  • I think its good (Score:4, Insightful)

    by mugnyte ( 203225 ) on Thursday December 26, 2002 @01:21PM (#4961114) Journal
    Fan fiction is no more than collective imagination. When you envision the "just past the ending" scenes of your favorite move, you don't discuss it? Sounds like boring date, you.

    Fan fiction can be as bad as anything built through a collective, but this departure from a bunch of Harvard screenwriters' 6-month chop-n-splice is a refreshing. How many movies are you skipping because it seems formulaic, formulaic with a single twist or anti-formulaic in an almost reactionary sense?

    With fan fiction, its a bit of a random roll of the dice. Now, I will admit that having fans create their own story is a bit like asking for more of the same. But a movie sticks to a genre/premise at some level anyway, so either accept that or eat your popcorn and go home.

    The negative on fan fiction seem a bit ironic given the pro open-source stance seen on the /. It's not much different, IMO.

    mug

  • Bah (Score:2, Funny)

    by Aggrazel ( 13616 )
    I'm still waiting for Space Balls The Sequel: The Search for More Money !
  • Sort of related, this Star Trek TOS based film has been making the rounds the past few days:

    http://homepage.mac.com/starshipexeter/ [mac.com]

    Apparently it was in production for 7 years and they have just released it.

  • free mp3 rip! (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by SHEENmaster ( 581283 )
    I got a prerelease copy of this in mpeg layer 3 format.

    Too bad no one here would be caught dead listening to a patented compression codec. Better burn it or convert it to ogg vorbis.

    NM, I forgot that this was in the starwars section with all the lusers who think that space will remain a vaccuum even after a space ship, with enough air for thousands of passengers for years, explodes in the nearby vacinity. The same lusers who actually paid for a ticket or wasted the bandwidth on downloading episode 2.

    /me runs "echo /dev/zero > illegal\ prerelease\ of\ audio\ drama.mp3"

    /me watches as the starwars icon is replaced with a burning ephigy of himself.
  • Can someone who got it please put the audio (mp3 file) up somewhere, like on eDonkey?
  • "...I have a bad feeling about this..."
  • Is good to know the classic fantasy spirit that made Star Wars films so moving for an entire generation is still alive. These fan activities prove, the latest films like Episode one and two have not killed that spirit as many critics state

  • Howabout Starship Exeter (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ch-chuck ( 9622 ) on Thursday December 26, 2002 @02:33PM (#4961517) Homepage
    Described by one writer as:

    "an interesting site that will be a delight for anyone with broadband and an interest in obsessive sci-fi fandom. Ask yourself: if you and your friends decided to shoot an entire episode of TOS Star Trek, and you wrote a script set on the recommissioned Exeter, and you rented a warehouse, built a replica of a Constitution-class starship, designed all the sets and lighting to look like 1967 TV, and spent SEVEN YEARS on the project, meticulously recreating the look and sound of a TOS episode, what would the result look like?"

    I haven't checked it out yet but looks rather interesting [mac.com].
  • The original Star Wars (ep IV,V) was done as a audio drama, and broadcast over NPR. You can purchase it on cassette or CD.

  • Yikes. (Score:2, Funny)

    by bluephone ( 200451 )
    And when we Trekkies do this kind of stuff, we're called losers. :)

    And I don't care what ANYONE says, nothing in Trek is as goofy as those midicondrians from Ep1. :P

  • Let's See What We Can Do Here... (Score:3, Informative)

    by NPB-2S ( 636695 ) on Thursday December 26, 2002 @05:01PM (#4962660)
    Nice to see Slashdot taking an interest in the project. Of coure, now we're on a frantic hunt for more mirrors so 2S doesn't kill the entire StarWarz/JediNet server, but that's okay.

    To answer some of the comments (particularly the ones that show that the poster has no clue what they're talking about):

    Don't expect GL or LFL to kill the site. For those who haven't been keeping up, fan productions such as fan films have been around for years, and are an ever-expanding community. Lucasfilm takes a fan-friendly approach to the genre, only curtailiing those that somehow tarnish the SW name through extensive sexual content (Tripping the Rift, StarBallz, etc.) or use film footage direct from their films (the original version of The Dark Redemption, for example). While fan productions cannot receive official approval from Lucasfilm, many projects (including Second Strike) have received positive comments from people who work with or work for Lucasfilm or LucasBooks. (Daniel Wallace, for instance, has a regular segment on Second Strike's sister project, ChronoRadio, while Kevin Rubio, Ann Crispin, and others, have interviews scheduled for CR as well). In other words, there's no need to worry about LFL "shutting us down." They're about the most benevolent company in terms of fan productions that there is.

    FearUncertaintyDoubt: That's why you'll never hear a space explosion in Second Strike, only ones in the mid-atmosphere, at the highest.

    Fan Fiction Naysayers: There's a difference between fan fiction that directly comes out of a film and an original story set in the context of a fictional universe. Second Strike does the latter. It has very few tie-ins directly to previously released materials. It simply uses the backdrop of the time frame created by one comic book series and one novel series as its setup. After that, it could be an audio presentation of any other story or an entirely separate story. The Star Wars tie-in, though, represents the community we wanted to present it for, as a thanks for the support given to the projects that many of our 40+ cast have worked on in the past. In many of our cases, this is the last hurrah before leaving the fan production community.

    StewyGriffin: Perhaps it didn't make the page, so you didn't know. The entire production has cost *maybe* $40, mostly for food and such that our Mixer has been using as fuel for late-night mixing. Pretty much everything has been done with programs that we all had to begin with, and, after that, all that was required was time. A fan *film* on the other hand, require a decent sized budget. Part of why Second Strike is audio is to cut down costs to almost nothing.

    a1englishman: Listen to the opening of 2S. That's what we're paying homage to. You can tell the most in the model used for the opening narrator.

    I'll try to check back again tonight or once I get back to Atlanta this weekend. Just have to remember to ignore the trolls and keep an eye out for people who *have* bothered to check it out who can therefore make *informed* comments.
    --NPB
    http://www.starwarz.com/timeline /2s/
  • Its narrated by R2-D2...
  • This does not bode well.

    But you know what? I'm downloading the first act right now. I'll reserve judgement. . , well indefinitely. Even if it sucks bananas, I love collaborative projects like this. I'm sure everybody involved has learned a mountain of cool new skills, and are richer people because of it.

    Simply trying to coordinate a project of this scale represents a spectacular effort!

    Kudos, Kudos, Kudos!

    Now, (fingers crossed), if the script is any good, the project itself and not just what it represents might just be something special. Perhaps a new force in the galaxy to contend with. . ?

    Fingers crossed. . .


    -Fantastic Lad

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
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