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| Magazine-Style REVIEWS OF EPISODE 1 CONTEST!; Contest Entries go here! | |
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| Topic Started: Sep 13 2007, 04:51 PM (2,298 Views) | |
| Kaydon Sentry | Sep 13 2007, 04:51 PM Post #1 |
Jedi Master/ The Director
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The Episode 1 section has been quiet as of late - so just wanted to drop a line that if you come up with a solid review/feature article on Episode 1, in the vein and style of a popular entertainment magazine like "Entertainment Weekly" or "Rolling Stone" - you could win the chance to preview the first 18 minutes of Episode 2! Since this is the Episode 1 forum, all entries for the contest go in THIS THREAD! GOOD LUCK! Check the contest details over at the Episode 2 forum, or just read the copy and paste job here: Hello everyone! So last night I finally sat down and LOCKED DOWN the first 18 minutes of Episode 2... meaning, they are in the archives and I can clear the path and space to rock the next section of the film. Now as a note, changes to the timeline are always possible (I added Atris to Episode 1 after the entire film was 'locked down'), but it's pretty much set in stone as far as pacing goes. In doing this, I have already burnt a DVD of the first 18 minutes, I did this so I could make sure everything worked on regular entertainment systems, not just my computer speakers and monitor. Anyway, HERE'S THE CONTEST: Produce an "Entertainment Weekly" style FEATURE/REVIEW of Episode 1 - not just a typical few sentences mind you - we're looking for creativity here... you can add quotes from the director, quotes from actors, basically work it like a feature article for a leading entertainment magazine. Within the review/article should have history leading up to the movie, maybe even creative andecdotes from the shooting of the movie, and obviously, your offical review of the movie as well. WINNING SUBMISSION WILL GET THE DVD I BURNED OF THE FIRST 18 MINUTES OF EPISODE 2: "SEARCH FOR THE STAR FORGE!" Couple notes: 1. Winning submission must also follow through with a nice "PREVIEW" article of your peak of Episode 2 - written in the same style of your winning submission. 2. The winner will also potentially recieve a FOLLOW-UP DVD closer to the release date - depending on how many more I make while working on the final edit. IMPORTANT!!! WINNER HAS A HUGE RESPONSIBILITY AS WELL. If the winning applicant LEAKS the first 18 minutes on youtube or here or *anywhere* else, I will NEVER release the final film to the public. EVER. So understand that the winner is entering into a deal of trust and confidentiality with us. If they violate that trust, they could potentially ruin the experience for everyone else! So get writing! Deadline for submissions is a WEEK FROM TODAY! Capitalize YOUR chance to watch the first 18 minutes of Episode 2! ~K |
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| Tpiom | Sep 13 2007, 08:13 PM Post #2 |
Sith Lord
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If the winner leaks the movie, I'll assassinate him myself!! :ph43r: EDIT: And I think personally that you should risk that, if you must - you've to trust that guy (so sending it to Grievous is NOT a good idea :D).. And you should add a text on it, like: *This is a preview only - you don't have the rights to spread it online* |
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"I expect most of us are going to die today, so you might want to think about all the things you care about. It won't matter soon. Uh... That's it, really." - The Exile | |
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| Sir Palamides | Sep 13 2007, 08:44 PM Post #3 |
Jedi Youngling
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Too bad, I guess this contest is not for me. My english is way too bad to do something like this...allthough I'd really like to participate! anyways, I hope you guys are creative and I can't wait to see your work |
 Click my signature to get to my KOTOR - The Movie Photobucket Album | |
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| JCarter426 | Sep 13 2007, 08:56 PM Post #4 |
Jedi Knight
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I'd participate, but I'm busy working on the Project...if I have time, I'll do it I guess. |
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| DarthRevan789 | Sep 13 2007, 09:19 PM Post #5 |
Jedi Youngling
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I shall try! i actually going to make a primative website to use it too  Alrighty, It won't be done for a few days, and I'm using freewebs. |
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| DarthRevan789 | Sep 13 2007, 11:08 PM Post #6 |
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Jedi Youngling
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I donna know I've I'l be able to get on here this week so here it is Site Address: www.freewebs.com/kotor1themoviereview it's almost done PLEASE PLEASE don't judge it until the due date. I can't upload music until a week  just to brag, i did it all in html |
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| JCarter426 | Sep 13 2007, 11:39 PM Post #7 |
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Jedi Knight
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Very nice! There are a few typos, but like you said it's just version one. That bit about "Logan" having to shave his head was hilarious! Though you might want to use the actors' names for the interview. I'm thinking of making a website for the Project. Is freewebs good? |
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| Voltan | Sep 14 2007, 01:48 AM Post #8 |
Bantha Fodder
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14 English credits out of 52 total.... DO YOUR WORK! (By the way, thank you for being cool enough to do this :D) |
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| Grevious | Sep 14 2007, 02:05 AM Post #9 |
Jedi Youngling
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Ahem. Excuse ME! I would never do a thing like that. I may be somewhat evilish and conniving but that's going a bit too far. I respect Kaydon and the time and effort he has put into these films...doing something like leaking the first 18 minutes of his film onto the internet would be pretty low. Good luck to all those writing a review (hell, even I may give it a try)...and if "leaking" the first eighteen minutes even crosses the winner mind (joking or not) you'll receive a permanent ban from the forums. I seriously doubt anybody here would stoop that low...but nevertheless, this is your warning. I'm watching you :ph43r: . -Grev |
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| DarthRevan789 | Sep 14 2007, 02:27 AM Post #10 |
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Jedi Youngling
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Yep |
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| JCarter426 | Sep 14 2007, 04:33 AM Post #11 |
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Jedi Knight
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Wow, you're succinct. I checked it out, pretty good place. The Project's site is under construction. OK, I know this is way off topic, but whatever. |
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| smittheelf | Sep 14 2007, 07:48 AM Post #12 |
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Here's my entry: After making three wrong turns and having to stop for directions twice, I finally arrived, thirty-five minutes late, at a quaint Italian bistro in the heart of Los Angeles. Inside, waiting for me, was Gregory Grant, the actor who recently shot to superstardom after playing the role of Logan Starr in “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic” (I am embarrassed to say that I cannot for the life of me remember the film’s subtitle), the first film in a new “Star Wars” trilogy, one that takes place thousands of years before the original films. I sit down across from Grant, and apologize for my lateness. He nods sympathetically, and says something to his translator in sign language. “It’s quite alright”, she tells me, relaying the message. Wait a second. Sign language? I’d just seen the movie yesterday, and remembered that Grant had a very dialogue-intensive part. He noticed my confused expression and, through his translator, launched into an explanation of one of the movie’s best kept secrets. When Gregory Grant was five years old, he was walking to school one morning when a car skidded off the road and plowed into him. Doctors at the time gave him only a twenty-five percent chance of living, but he miraculously survived. His dreams of becoming an actor, however, appeared to have been shattered. During the accident, Greg’s vocal chords were crushed beyond repair. He would never speak again. “I was devastated,” he explains. “But I still wanted to be an actor. So I moved to L.A. as soon as I turned eighteen. I was never able to get much work. HAPPI, a non-profit group that helps disabled actors, was able to help me get a few jobs, but not enough to really put food on the table.” Greg’s break came when Kaydon Sentry, the director of “Knight of the Old Republic”, spotted him in a Barnes and Noble bookstore. “I was casting the movie at the time,” said Kaydon. “And as soon as I saw Greg, I knew that was who I wanted to play Logan.” Grant explained his disability to Sentry, but the director had him come in to do a screen test anyway. He acted out the scenes while Sentry read the lines off camera. “That’s when it hit me,” the director recalls. “We could do the movie that way!” And that’s just what they did. Kaydon recorded all of Grant’s lines before shooting, and played them to the actor before each scene was shot, so he could lip-synch. “Kaydon was so generous about it,” Grant says, beaming. “He actually refused to take a screen credit for doing the voice. He told me the performance was so completely mine that he would have felt like a thief.” There was, however, also a dark side to the director. “Kaydon is such a great guy,” Grant assures me, “but he is an extremely demanding director! I don’t think Kubrick ever even demanded as many takes as he sometimes did. The worst was the scene in the Shadowlands, where we were fighting this big beast, the Terentatek. At one point, it slams me with its arm, and knocks me way back. They had me rigged up with a harness, and I got yanked back so hard that it knocked the wind out of me every time. Kaydon made me do that for thirty-seven takes! But it looks great on film, so I guess he knew what he was doing.” As hard as filming was, the greatest challenge Kaydon had to face was keeping the film under wraps, almost until it was realeased. “I really didn’t want there to be a lot of hype for this movie,” he says. “The more hyped a movie is, the more people it will disappoint.” With this in mind, Kaydon filmed the movie in almost total secrecy, something unheard of, and almost impossible to accomplish with such a big budget film. “I actually did talk about the project quite openly on some Star Wars message boards,” he remembers. “Just to gauge the fans’ reactions. But they didn’t see it coming, either. The few who knew about it thought it was going to be a machinima film, with footage taken directly from the game. They had no idea we were making a real movie.” The secret was revealed on October 6, 2006, when the trailer premiered in front of a handful of prints of “The Departed”. Word spread like wildfire. Fans quickly figured out what theaters were playing the trailer, and those theaters were swamped. One fan even claims to have traveled over four-hundred miles by plane to see the trailer. “I actually got a letter from Martin Scorcese the next week,” Kaydon says, “thanking me for driving up the movie’s box office!” Fans, already overjoyed at the sudden announcement of the movie, were made even happier when they found out that it would be released in about one month’s time. “For all I went through trying avoid it, the hype for this movie really built up big-time in that month,” Kaydon says. “It all worked out fine, though. It was really well accepted, by fans and critics alike. And rightfully so. Kaydon, his cast, and crew, have made a remarkable achievement. There is never any doubt that this is a genuine “Star Wars” movie, and a good one at that. The use of classic “Star Wars” music on the soundtrack, and the frequent wipes used to transition between scenes are enough to make any fan of the series feel at home. But Kaydon goes beyond that, also introducing into the score music from many other movies. Entertainment lawyers are baffled by how cheaply was able to afford the rights to music from “Harry Potter”, “Starship Troopers”, and a whole host of other movies. In each case, the music selected fits seamlessly into the film, and is subtle enough that even if one recognizes it, it does not pull them out of the movie. “I also decided to give the Wookiees subtitles when they talk,” Kaydon explains. “I know it’s a departure from the original series, but I wanted to give the movie my own touch. It always kind of bugged me how you never knew exactly what Chewbacca was saying, while Greedo and the other aliens were given subtitles. I mean, the guy helped save the galaxy, can’t you at least give him a couple of real lines?” One of the few complaints about “Knights of the Old Republic” is that many of its action scenes are lacking. Kaydon is quick to address this point. “Not only was I the director on this film,” he says, “but I was the cinematographer as well. I’ll be the first to admit that some of the action scenes near the beginning of the movie aren’t as good as I would like. But once I got used to the using the camera, around the time we were shooting the scenes on Kashyyyk, the action got a whole lot better.” No one seems to disagree with Kaydon about that. The Kashyyyk action scenes were considered so impressive that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences inquired about opening the Oscars with a comedy bit that would feature the acting nominees spliced into the Terentatek battle. “But Kaydon turned them down,” Gregory Grant says, smiling. “He told them that the actors who should have been nominated, me and Rebecca [Dillner, who played Bastila], were already in the scene.” The most widely praised aspect of the production is the cast made up entirely of newcomers. Roger Ebert, who missed the film on its initial release due to illness, recently doubled back and wrote a review. He called the cast “the best group of unknowns I have ever seen in a movie. Each performance is expertly nuanced, perfectly directed.” Grant leads the cast as Logan, a soldier of the Old Republic, suddenly thrust into a harrowing adventure. “The hardest part of the role for me,” he says, “was dealing with Logan’s emotions once he finds out that he might be able to use the force. Of course, it’s a really big deal, and under normal circumstances, he’d probably just sit and think about it for several days. But he’s not able to do that, so I had to convey his doubts and fears in much more subtle ways.” Rebecca Dillner’s character, Bastila Shan, is already a Jedi, and an extremely important one at that. “Bastila is a very interesting character,” Dillner says. “She’s been a Jedi since she was very young, but she is still flawed. She has quite a temper, even though she knows that Jedi should have no emotion. That she can’t control it frustrates her, and makes her even angrier. Because of her Battle Meditation [a rare, but powerful force power], she is often viewed as one of the Republic’s greatest weapons against the Sith. That’s a lot to put on a girl’s shoulders.” Rounding out the main trio is Jason Baden as Carth Onasi, an experienced Republic Soldier. The rest of the cast claims that Jason is nothing like his character. Many fans complained that Carth was too much of a wimp and seemed to only be around to complain. Baden actually shared their views. “Jason was always asking Kaydon to let Carth be a tougher character,” Dillner recalls. “He’s this big, tough guy with, I think, twenty-six tattoos. Always running around the set swearing up a storm. It drove him nuts that his character had to be a little more restrained.” The rest of the cast performs just as well as the three leads. Especially worthy of recognition are Moses Goldberg, who plays Canderous, and the actor who plays Darth Malak, the major villain of the film. Goldberg can be simultaneously funny and intimidating as the ex-Mandalorian mercenary. “I tried to play him as kind of like a Snake Plissken type character,” Goldberg says. “Which is ironic, since Kaydon tells me he first tried to get Kurt Russell for the role. Fortunately, he was already committed to doing Grindhouse.” All of the scenes involving Darth Malak drop the subtle comedy present in Goldberg’s role, but ratchet up the intimidation tenfold. Unfortunately, no one knows who to credit for this performance. In a nod to “Frankenstein”, Sentry left a line of question marks in the credits where the name of the actor would have gone. “We’ll reveal it at the end of the third movie,” he says with a sly grin. Ah, yes. There are still two movies to go. When the waitress at the Italian bistro brings our food to the table, I ask Grant a question about the sequels. He begins to sign enthusiastically, but then grabs his translator, stopping her from revealing what he said. “Sorry,” he tells me, then. “I’m not supposed to be talking about that.” Times like this make me with I understood sign language. Instead, Grant gives me a typical line about how the first movie was great, but that the second and third will be even better. But unlike most times an actor makes this claim, I actually believe him. Before we leave the restaurant, I have Grant teach me to say “May the force be with you” in sign language. He tells me he taught it to the entire cast on the last day of filming, since he felt that, throughout the entire production, the force had most definitely been with them. I conservatively award Episode I of “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic” three stars out of four. If it was rated any higher, and the next films are any better, it would be hard to find an appropriate rating. |
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| Tpiom | Sep 14 2007, 02:16 PM Post #13 |
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Sith Lord
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Err.. What. Can you summarize that please, and has this actually to do something with the contest ? |
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"I expect most of us are going to die today, so you might want to think about all the things you care about. It won't matter soon. Uh... That's it, really." - The Exile | |
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| Kaydon Sentry | Sep 14 2007, 03:28 PM Post #14 |
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Jedi Master/ The Director
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Excellent smiththeelf! Actually both entries so far are EXACTLY what we're looking for with this contest! I enjoyed that article immensely! 37 takes. Haha. |
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| DarthRevan789 | Sep 14 2007, 04:47 PM Post #15 |
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Jedi Youngling
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Just don't fully judge it yet, I'm still workin' on it! |
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