Check it out!

I'm not entirely sure where this thread should go. I can see it fitting in several of the fora so I chose this one just to be safe. Feel free to move it about as necessary mods :).

The development trailer for the movie Ancanar has been released to a limited crowd today (a day early). For those unfamiliar with the project, it's a story inspired by Tolkien's work in the Silmarillion. The Silmarillion is a much darker, poetic and "old myth" work than Lord of the Rings. In fact it is the backhistory. It really hits a spot that Peter Jackson missed with LOTR. PJ 1) wanted to make the movies not as dark as they could have been and 2) was limited in rating due to the wishes of the Tolkien Estate. Anyway, the story is an attempt to bring that Silmarillion world and feel to life while exisiting in a new world so as not to infringe on the Tolkien Estate's copyright. As a fan of the Silmarillion I can tell you it certainly makes good on it's word! It is in fact a student film that, due to huge popularity (the trailer was downloaded 1 million times in a single weekend) has now gotten some real funding and is being shot on HD.

Anyway, I'm not sure if I am "allowed" to give the address for the trailer out early (being a member of that limited crowd) but I figure I can at the very least give you the means of joining said small crowd so you can see it as well :). To see the trailer now you need to join the Ancanar Yahoo group (http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/Ancanar/). Now I hate these things as much as the next person but I saw the original trailer which was released several years ago and it was most impressive (and it was shot on an XL1). If this seems like too much trouble well, you can always wait until tomarrow :).

For those interested the offical site is http://www.ancanar.com

Now for my quick review of the trailer:

Overall it was very well done. The SFX were awesome (done with After Effects I do believe) for this sort of a film. For anyone who has seen other student attempts at "fantasy" you will know just how rare it is to find a movie of this sort that is well done (in fact never would be more likely).

There were several shots I wasn't entirely pleased with. One that was slightly underexposed (I think this was the directors goal though and I think it's appears even darker than normal due to the compression and the computer monitor) and a few that had a little wobble to them. I almost think the wobble (looks like a hand held shot) was intentional as most of the shots are rock steady.

The movie certainly has a HD look to it (my guess is that it was shot on the Varicam) but in a good way. The story is the heart of this movie though which is very rare. Excellent story.

Take a look if you wish! Good stuff! Maybe, if I get permission, I will post the URL to the trailer here :).
 
The link on the yahoo board didn't work or the link to the Yahoo group?

Yeah, that's actually the old trailer. The new one is definitely HD looking :).
 
Just a small update for those interested. I just found out that the most of the trailer was shot on the DVX. A few of the shots in the montage were XL1. I don't think the shooting with a studio budget has happened yet (or if so isn't far along).

I'm actually quite surprised that the DVX held up so well on those SFX shots. I *think* they used Ultimatte AdvantEdge for keying (which explains the high quality).
 
thats really cool. Where was the cave shot? looks kind of like the Sand Caves in the town I live in of Antioch. But they did some serious compositioning with 3D on the other side :)
 
Eh...

The problem now for films like these is they have to go a long way to distance themselves from Lord of the Rings in order to not come off as direct copies. I saw many FX shots that looked like carbon copies of shots from LotR, not a good start.

I know the idea is basically an homage to Tolkein's work, but a general movie audience will view it as a rip off.

My two cents.

Poke
 
Could very well be Poke.

It's too bad really. They started working on the movie before LOTR was even released. What I like about the movie, as a Tolkien fan, is that it intentionally tries to convey the feel of the Silmarillion (which the LOTR movie missed I think). Most people won't know this of course as you point out.

Yeah the SFX were similar! That's actually a pretty big compliment to the SFX team. They did some amazing work for an indie effort (and shooting on DV!).

Goldfish: Antioch as in THE Antioch near Jerusalem? I'm not entirely sure where the cave was shot. I am quite sure it was a mixture of places though. The shot of the entrance was a composite and the other side of the tunnel was a combination of a rocky background and composite.

The compositing is amazing in my opinion. All the footage in that trailer was shot on DV which only has 1 color sample for every 4 luminance. It's a pretty bad codec for doing SFX work!
 
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