Star Wars Fan Film. A Jedi walks into Jabba's Palace to audition for a place in the band. Will he impress the mighty Jabba or end up as Batha Fodder? This is my Star Wars fan video paying homage to George Lucas and John Williams who inspired me to become a filmmaker and a musician.
Cantina Band composed by John Williams
Performed on the guitar by Nathan Fleet
Return of the Jedi footage © LucasFilm LTD
Last year for Star Wars day, May the 4th 2012, I painted my rain barrel to look like R2-D2 and filmed it http://youtu.be/rYSfVd7VAE8
For 2013 I wanted to make a fan film, raise the personal bar a bit, and pay tribute to John Williams. It started with the idea that a Jedi would audition for a place on Jabba's stage. I have known how to play Cantina Band on the guitar for years so it seemed like the perfect choice. Rather than just play it on the guitar I wanted to modernize it a bit so I used some beats and synth that I had written, in Garage Band using RemixTools Jam Pack, for a cue called Techno Electro One (TE-1) that was eventually used in a Judge Dredd trailer http://youtu.be/DLmnJvK0DjI
Changing the beats to match the tempo of the original Cantina Band, I rehearsed the guitar part with the beats and modified them as needed. Once the beats were locked I started to record the guitar parts. I actually used my light green Ibanez Artcore hollow body for the recording but decided to use the black Les Paul Studio for the video, for effect. I recorded the guitar in Garage Band and multi tracked a few sections, which you can probably hear if you listen for the harmonies. I exported the track from Garage Band and boost the levels with a bit of EQ and Maximizer in Nuendo5.
When planning the video I needed a small set. I used walls from a previous set (The GO music video by Spin Dizzy), some PVC joints and a styrofoam tube(used for the hologram stand) and very inexpensive paint from the RE STORE in Hamilton, and some sand from the sand box in the backyard. I took over the garage for a few weeks as i built the set.
The light was a 200w bulb from Home Depot in an industrial light holder.
I rented the custom made cloak from Master of Disguise in Hamilton. It was so well made and the lady told me it was hard to sew as it was upholstry fabric.
I hired puppeteer Ken Turner and his original puppet C.A.R.L. for an hour.
I filmed it over two evenings with a 1 hour puppet session on a JVC GY-HM100U and used a 16GB class 10 LX series SD card. It was captured at 1920 x 1080 23.9 fps. Camera was loaned by a film partner, Steve Parton of Strange Land Pictures.
The Puppet C.A.R.L. was shot in front of a small green screen taped to my basement wall. In post the green was keyed our and the rest was matted out using the 16point garbage matte.
I created two layers of C.A.R.L. The top layer was tinted blue, the opacity lowered, a venetian blind effect added, and an outer glow added. The next layer was a blurred glowing version. One frame at a time, I automated the opacity alternating between 40%, 16%, 40%,16% to get that "flicker" effect. All of these tips I found on YouTube and took elements of various instructions to get the look I was aiming for.
I prepared a lot of the footage on my laptop using Adobe Premier CS4. All of the C.A.R.L. hologram was prepared from home using only the effects in Adobe Premier CS4.
The footage was loaded and edited into Adobe Premier CS5 and edited over 10 hours at the Factory Media Centre.
The music you hear at the beginning and end is a ©© creative commons cue of mine called THE MIST. I altered it a bit for this video. https://soundcloud.com/nathanfleet/the-mist You can also get Techno Electro One ©© https://soundcloud.com/nathanfleet/te0-techno-electro-one?in=nathanfleet/sets/creative-commons-cues
Puppeteer Ken Turner
Original puppet C.A.R.L. designed and created by Ken Turner
www.kwturner.vpweb.com
Original footage directed and edited by Nathan Fleet
Special thanks to:
George Lucas
John Williams
Steve Parton
Tim Dashwood
Master of Disguise, Hamilton On
The RESTORE, Hamilton On
and to Star Wars fans everywhere...
May the Fourth Be With You...annually.
