• READ BEFORE POSTING!
    • If posting a video, please post HERE, unless it is a video as part of an advertisement and then post it in this section.
    • If replying to threads please remember this is the Promotion area and the person posting may not be open to feedback.

watch Epic Darth Maul Fight with incredible Make-up!

Hi fellow Film Fans!

I like to present to you a cool little Star Wars Fan-Film that we (Vi-Dan Tran & Shawn Bu from T7 Production) made recently. It's a lightsaber duel featuring Darth Maul and Jedi with incredible Make-Up, action and amazing music!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvwMwDvQhvQ

We would be very happy if you give it a look and could give some feedback :)

r0v5.jpg


frpu.jpg


tgm0g.jpg


We also made a Making Of Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3mO2Hu1Sz0

Have fun! :)
 
Cool!

What did you use as lightsaber on set? It looks almost like a real one :)

The making of sounded familiar: added the lightsabers takes a long time...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4y9WeLP0rY

The Jedi enters the battle a bit too aggressive: was he about to switch to the dark side? ;)

Anyway: where in Germany are you located?
 
Thanks again! Happy to hear that people like it! :)

We are actually working on a longer, storydriven fan film.

@ WalterB Some of the Sabers are Master Replicas, some are self made by our cosplaying friends. Yea rotoscoping the lightsabers is a pain in the ***..... I like your trailer. is there a whole film coming out? Im located in Aachen atm. direclty at the border to the Netherlands ;)

The Jedi is still a Padawan and he is desperated, because Maul is much more powerful than him. That was the idea.

P.S. How can I insert a youtube video with a thumbnail?
 
Last edited:
Awesome, awesome work. I loved the VFX, and the fight choreography was good. None of that shaking so much you don't even know what you're looking at camera movement :)

It would have been nice if there was some more emphasis on some of the non-lightsaber combat (kicking, punching), although generally I thought the sound was well done.

The subtle attention to detail was nice, with purplish lighting on the faces characters when close, as well as the lightsaber sound effects actually synching with the movement of the sabers, instead of a video with well done visuals and weak audio.

:)
 
lol, I never knew it was possible to get battle ready lightsabers.
I used broomsticks with painted isolation foam (to keep it a little bit safe, since we didn't practise the fighting at all :P ).

Aachen is indeed close to The Netherlands. I'm located near the west coast: so it's still at least a 2 hours drive.

I just made that trailer for fun: there is no real story behind it: a magical chocolat easter egg is kind of a rediculous thing to fight over ;)

However: it would be cool to make a short Star Wars inspired movie one day. (I've got an idea, but no time at the moment...)
 
Yea that sounds great!
In my first ever short film, which was a lightsaber fight with my brother in school, we also used broomsticks :D
 
I have so much to learn. This was phenomenal. The sound FX were money and the makeup was canon-worthy. Great job. I took a cornier approach to my lightsaber video.
 
As others have said, overall a good job. I'll disagree a little with some of the comments on the audio side of things though. The SFX were good but overall the sound design and mix were not quite so good. The mix was two dimensional and lacked shape and energy. In other words, the sound had no perspective and didn't help the story anywhere near as much as it could. For example, the big hit at around 0.37 which brought the jedi to his knees didn't sound like a big hit, we hear many whooshes when they are just twirling their light-sabers in the air but when we have a really huge hit which is important to the story of the fight, no whoosh and a hit with less sonic impact than many of the other hits! This is what I mean about (lack of) shape, energy and storytelling, and this is just one of several examples. I said two dimensional because although the visuals change perspective effectively, the audio doesn't. Regardless of whether the visuals were a wider shot or a CU, the sound always had the same unchanging perspective. Without audio perspective changes, the mix doesn't sound quite right, it contributes to the mix lacking shape and energy but more importantly it doesn't make the audience really feel involved in the action.

Additionally, more Foley and vocalisations in places would have helped and both were rather weak.

You specifically mentioned "amazing" music but actually I disagree. This clip is a good example of the difference between a music composer and a film score composer. As a composition, the music is fine but as a score to a film clip it's not so good because much of the time it's fighting against the sound, rather than working with it. And this is one of the skills required of the film score composer; to imagine what the sound is going to be doing or at least to have an idea and then to write complimentary music. A music composer on the other hand will just try and tell the story/scene with the music alone, without regard for the fact that the music is not the centre of attention, it's only one piece of the puzzle! To an extent, this also indicates an error on the part of the director, as the composer has obviously not been directed adequately.

This is all meant as constructive criticism. As I said, overall your scene is good and your sound mix is not bad or certainly not bad enough to feel obviously wrong. However, this is just the first step because as with the other film crafts, not "obviously wrong" still leaves a great deal of room for improvement. Your choreography, make-up, cinematography and editing are all good and you've obviously considered the artistic details of the visuals; angles, perspectives, and edit density (for example) to tell your fight story. My advice is to learn to do the same with the sound design! Instead of just thinking in terms of well sync'ed, good sounding SFX, start thinking of sound design in terms of a storytelling tool.

G
 
@AudioPostExpert
Hey thank you very much for taking the time for your lenghty comment! Appreciate it very much. That is very helpful! :)
 
Back
Top