A Word from Ryan Wieber
Director of "ALTERNATE LIGHTSABER DUEL"

This project began as part of our final project for Drama class, which we chose to do on video. We basically spoofed three movies, calling our spin-off sequences "deleted scenes you probably haven't seen". First we started off recreating the "lingo" scene in the car from Terminator 2 word for word, then veered off and took the "lingo" John was teaching the Terminator too far. Then we emulated the pill scene from The Matrix, only we involved a third pill about an inch in diameter that was "not to be taken orally". (don't worry, that was the punchline. We didn't go any farther) Then, of course we did an alternate saber fight for the end of Attack of the Clones because, well... we could.

We ended up shooting the project (the saber sequence in one night) rather close to the due date, so after editing the other two sequences, I was extremely hard pressed to finish the editing and effects for the lightsaber fight. Realistically, 95% of the effects you see in this poject were accomplished inside of 72 hours. Even with a good deal of rotoscoping help from Steve (Link64PD), I was barely able to finish the video, run off a copy and get one and a half hours of sleep before going to school to turn it in. I was unfortuantely unable to get any sound worked out in the lightsaber sequence by the time it was turned in. The whole thing went over really well with the class anyway, and we got an A on the project, so it's all good.

After taking a week or two to recover and sleep, I figured there was a good chance I could get the project hosted on TFN, so we went out and rerecorded lines, did some foley, and over the next couple months I mixed the sound for the project. I went back and only retouched a couple effects shots that really needed help and left most everyhting else as it was created in the 72 hour daze because I just plain didn't want to put too much more time or effort into it. So yeah, there are some minor problems I'm sure, and it lacks some finishing touches I would have added to a real Fan Film project, but all in all, I'm pretty impressed with how well this came out, given the circumstances.

So anyway, download it and enjoy.

Ryan Wieber

Director, Alternate Lightsaber Duel