June.1999
The Qui-Gon Show
The New Venue, the D.FILM Digital Film Festival and Atom Films joined forces to bring you this "Star Wars"-inspired satire made by and for the online community.
"The Qui-Gon Show" is the result of an intensely collaborative digital filmmaking process and the winner of the 1999 Makin' Wookiee Contest.
Stills from "The Qui-Gon Show"
About "Makin' Wookiee":
A panel of judges, led by Billy Dee Williams (that's right, Mister Smooth, himself, Lando Calrissian), selected a script from over 300 entries to the D.FILM and Atom Films web sites. A team of digital filmmakers turned the screenplay into reality.
Click here for the contest rules.
Click here for the top 16 scripts.
About the Writer:
Robert Fyvolent wrote his script under a pseudonym (and for good reason). An attorney at Sony Pictures Entertainment, winning screenwriter Fyvolent is "in the biz". Hollywood insiders may recall Fyvolent's anonymous spoof of the famous "Disney - Katzenberg Memo" that circulated during the early 90s before the Internet heyday. Fyvolent wrote the Qui-Gon script in April after seeing the trailer for George Lucas' long-awaited "Star Wars" prequel. Fyvolent pits the Liam Neeson character Qui-Gon Jinn into scenarios inspired by "The Truman Show" and "The Matrix", calling into question issues of identity, consumerism and Yoda.
About the Filmmakers:
Evan Mather is the director of one of the most popular and provocative films on the Internet - "Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars".
John Stravopoulos is technical director of Silicon Alley-based Nettmedia and a recent graduate of New York's School of Visual Arts animation program.
Jason Wishnow is the creator The New Venue and the director of a new documentary about "Star Wars" fandom for Channel 4 in England.
Click here for the complete credits.
About the Process:
From Wishnow's storyboards, Mather shot the sequences involving "Star Wars" action figures from his animation studio in Seattle. Meanwhile, Stravopoulos and the New York animators composited backgrounds for Mather's footage and prepared the hand-drawn sequences for Flash animation.
Nettmedia generously provided animation space and computer equipment for this endeavor.
About the Technology:
"The Qui-Gon Show" was made with QuickTime 4 in mind. When the script called for a significant thematic and stylistic change, the filmmakers switched technologies as well. Using various tools, the stop-motion footage was shot on video and composited and rendered as a QuickTime movie. The hand drawn scenes were animated in Flash. By combining the two formats as part of an aesthetic decision, the filmmakers were able to tell a six minute-long story and keep the file size down.
The filmmakers utilized Apple Computer's new Final Cut Pro editing software during the making of the movie. Apple also supported the production of the film with equipment and technical advice.
On the Web:
"The Qui-Gon Show" is appearing on The New Venue for the month of June, Evan's Star Wars Cinema at JediNet, and the D.FILM site in QuickTime and on the Atom Films site in Real Media G2.
Or you can download the movie to your computer (quigon8mb.zip).
June marks the one year anniversary since the New Venue started showcasing digital flicks. "The Qui-Gon Show" will be up for the entire month in 5 MB and 10 MB formats.
View this movie.
You can find out about other digital flicks in the New Venue Archives.
