Vader and some Star Trek Online news

While I'm sure some of you are wondering about the progress on Connect More, I don't have much to tell other than we're looking at getting another Vader other than the one I thought we would get. The search continues there. But in other news, a few of us are getting together in the new MMO of Star Trek Online. If you're interested in joining up, fire me off a message. So far there are three of us from FDP, but we'd be open to more once you pass the initiation (which may or may not involve Lake Minnetonka). ;-)

Updates

I did a few updates to the FDP website today. I removed the left hand side frame where the links were to incorporate it into the rest of the main page so they scroll along with everything else. Also new is a Flaming Death Productions history page. This will save me a lot of time so I don't have to write the history over and over when new people ask about the origins of FDP. Yay for me!

Yeesh...

Looks like next year's Star Wars Celebration V will be held in Orlando, Florida from August 12 through the 15th. I guess that means I'll probably pass on yet another one of these... unless we somehow manage to get in as a finalist in the Star Wars Fan Film Contest.

Acting roles for Connect More up for consideration

I've had one audition so far for the Jedi role, and I'm considering getting someone from the local 501st Legion for the Sith role. I also have the perfect person to perform the announcer if he so chooses to accept my forthcoming invitation. This is looking to be quite the project!

So far it's looking like we'll be shooting sometime early next year, perhaps January or February depending on when everyone can get together. I also have a couple of locations in mind, but I need to do a little more investigating before making the final choice.

Script is ready....

Okay, I do have a finished script. I finally got around to revising the one I had since I was creating the first one from memory. Between games on Facebook, LOTRO, and a busy summer, it's about time I get back into the swing of things.

I'll be sending e-mails out to people soon regarding their participation in this one. It'd be nice to get a few more volunteers, though, just so I have some choices available.

The Price is Right? I hope so!

Argh! I think I finally have the price of DVDs in the Stockroom at the correct price. Turns out that the shipping was $0.17 more than what I was charging, but that should now be fixed. I also upgraded my PayPal account to a business account while I was working on all this.

New DVD: Class of 1989 20 Year Reunion

For those of you who went to Fairmont High School and graduated in 1989, this is the new DVD I created for the 20 year reunion which was this weekend. Yes, there is a charge of $4.25 per disc, but it's only for the cost of materials and money transfer fees. Just click on the link to the Flaming Death Stockroom either in the menu along the top of the website or in the link on the left hand side. While you're there, you can also purchase Flaming Death t-shirts or DVDs of our first short film, "Yoda's Treasure".

Atom Contest

Winners of this year's Star Wars Fan Film Contest have been chosen and are viewable at http://www.atom.com/spotlights/starwars/challenge/. I haven't seen all of them yet, myself, but I have seen the winner of the George Lucas Selects award, "Star Wars Retold". Good stuff!

Next up: "Connect More!"

I'm looking for people interested in being either in front or behind the camera on this one. For the actors, I need two male leads. One will be a Jedi which could be similar to Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan, but that's flexible and not definite. The other will be a Sith wearing Darth Maul-like makeup. Also needed will be two camera operators, a boom operator, an audio recorder. Other jobs may come up as production gets closer. So, fire me off an e-mail if you're interested!

*sigh*

The folks over on the message boards at TheForce.net have discovered who the finalists for the 2009 Star Wars Fan Film Challenge are, and unfortunately we didn't make the cut this time. So, it's back to the drawing board for next year's contest. Voting for this year's awards begins on July 1.

Here are the finalists for the 2009 Star Wars Fan Film Challenge:

Bad Day for Vader
Blasted Behavior
Death Star Over San Francisco
Emperor Palpatine and the Attack of the Copyright Infringement
Glen Eisley Glen Mos
Jedi Camp
Knights of the Old Republic: Revan
Lord Vader's Trial
Mark Valley vs Drew Mazanec
No Love for Wampa
Saber
Star Fury!
Star Sports Theatrical Trailer
Star Wars in a Notebook!
Star Wars: Cinemagic
Star Wars: Retold
Sudden Remakes 1
SW Episode XVI: Family Dysfunction
The Closet Unleashed
The Fate of the Duel
Where Are They Now
WTF Star Wars

Deadline arriveth!

The deadline for fan film submissions at atom.com has come. Now we wait for word on whether the film gets a nomination or not. Public voting begins July 1, so I'm assuming we'll hear something within a month. Cross your fingers, say a prayer, sacrifice a small animal, or do whatever you choose to do to bring us luck!

Class Reunion Project

As a side project, I'll be creating a slide show for the FHS Class of '89 20 Year Reunion. I created something similar for a reunion of sorts for the early 90s InterVarsity Christian Fellowship group a couple of years ago, but unfortunately that was one of the projects lost when my portable hard drive died. In any case, if you're from the class of '89, send me some photos to use! Just e-mail using the link on the left side of this browser window. The larger the resolution, the better. I can handle just about any file format that's out there, so no need to worry about that. For those of you who have posted photos on FaceBook, it would be nice to get those sent to me as well since the photos there have, for the most part, probably been shrunken down in the posting process and wouldn't retain their quality if increased in size. I'm putting a deadline at or about July 17 so as to give me enough time to work on this. Thanks!

New Link

After wanting to do it for quite a while but always forgetting to do it, I added a link to the U.S.S. Red October website on the links on the left hand side of the website. Since I sometimes refer back over to that site, it seemed... well, logical.

Also, only 8 days left until the Fan Film Contest submission deadline over at Atom.com!

Take 2 w/ short intro

It's been suggested by a couple of people that I shorten the credits at the beginning, and I'm starting to agree. I'll keep the longer version up, but I think I'll cut an abbreviated file and upload that for use in the contest. I'll get that done tonight.

"Luke & Leia" now online!

I've posted the movie over at YouTube and Atom.com. I'll have a streaming link in the "Luke & Leia" portion of the website in just a few hours. Enjoy!

SUBMITTED

Since I'm having thoughts of moving the party to the 16th, I decided to upload the movie to Atom last night. It's still in the processing phase, but it should be available at some point today. In the meantime, I'm going to get it rolling on YouTube as well while I can. It shouldn't take me too long to get that set up as long as I find the time to do it while I'm here at work. I'll send out a link at some point today. So, I guess that makes today, April 29, 2009, the world premiere day of "Luke & Leia"!

SUCCESS!

After screwing around with the film quality over and over to try to get the file size under 100MB as dictated by Atom.com's submission guidelines, I ended up using a converter to convert the good MOV file over to a WMV file which came in at less than 60MB! I was thinking of submitting it to Atom.com tonight, but I think I can wait a week and a half so that it coincides with the premiere at the party on May 9.

Quick Update

After playing around with the editing tools again, I decided to use the original footage of Abbie and use a still shot of Shawn and Chris as the transition piece for her to get off of the camera before the booth shot again. I know this may not make sense to anyone right now, but maybe it will when the film is released. I just wanted to let it be known that Abbie is still getting her 5 seconds of fame. ;-)

Some people have received their release forms via e-mail or will be in the next couple of weeks. If you could send the signed forms back ASAP, it would be much appreciated.

Last Edit, then Paperwork

I received the restaurant background photos from Chris over the weekend, and they look great. However, the green screen shot I took of Abbie is not cooperating well. It's far too pixelated around the edges against Chris' background pics, and I cannot smooth them out enough to make them decent. So, after all this time, I believe I'm going to have to replace that shot with a backup shot. Sorry Abbie! I should have this step completed very soon. I am having a difficult time getting the master AVI file working with Windows Media Player, though. I think I finally have it figured out, but in the meantime I'm going to go with a Quicktime file which I tested yesterday. Fortunately, Atom.com allows uploads of a few different file formats, mov files being one of them. Now to try to figure out how to get the file size down to 100MB or less without losing too much quality. Expect the premiere of the film to be at my 18th Annual Sci-Fi Party with online access to follow shortly after.

Next up is getting all the paperwork in order. Atom suggests signed contracts for actors, owners of locations, and music rights holders. I wish I would have noticed this before so this could have already been taken care of, but then again I should have expected it since I heard about what people went through the last time when I was trying to submit "Yoda's Treasure". According to their site, they say to submit the film anyway and will notify me if they need copies of any of the forms. That should give me a little time to get everything in order.

End of principal photography!

Abbie's shot is finished! We used the green-screen and will be adding in the background sometime soon, I hope. Once that is completed, the film is DONE and ready to be uploaded for the 2009 Star Wars Fan Film contest. Then it's on to the promotional materials.