On the previous page I pestered alan briefly about his work so far on The Jedi : Part 6 - Queens of the Sith,
because i want to expose his mysteriously driven soul. On this page i continue the harrassment.
WARREN:
Why spend so much time on something you can't sell?
ALAN:
I've got nothing but time now. So why not? Practice. Just need more practice. I need to stop acting, so I can get behind the camera more often and work on lighting scenes more consistently, rather than trying to get full-room coverage and hoping for the best. I need to learn to move the camera with purpose, and do a better job of creating depth in the frame. I need to develop a better repore` so I can actually help actors with their performances, instead of offering vauge suggestions to avoid offending them. And we need a to come up with an extremely good feature-length script, which is probaly the big brick wall....
WARREN:
I totally disagree of course. Look at The Abomination making it into hollywoodvideo.
Pipe Dreams Ent is making money and being seen, based on a movie we could pull off.
ALAN:
I don't think that we could produce something that I would be proud to put out to the mass market. More a
reflection of my standards and opinion than on what Hollywood Video will or won't accept. I don't have anything against John or Abomination, of course. I'm very happy that John's movie is getting seen and wish him continued success. And the world will be better for having the opportunity to rent your hairy naked ass at their corner video store.
WARREN:
My ass is not seen in Abomination, sadly.
So will you be attempting to sell this movie at all? or just writing it off as art flic fun?
ALAN:
First off, the definition of this movie as an 'art flic' makes me chuckle--
WARREN:
Do you dislike the idea of calling your videos art?
Does this make you uncomfortable or something?
Why is it funny?
ALAN: I didn't mean it as a rash generalization; to be sure I've done stuff that
screams 'I'm ART!!!! You will not understand and you will like it that
way!!!!' But a silly little Star Wars parody.... I'm not sure if that
fits the definition. Is it art, or entertainment? Is there a difference?
WARREN:
Yes.
ALAN: Chuckle.
WARREN:
SLAP! I SLAP YOU! Where does this subdued smirk humor come from? It is taunting. It suggest you hate the interview.
ALAN: Hm. ... smirk ... Better than two pages of me being boring, probably. Though the silly pictures are a nice touch.
WARREN:
Yesss. Everyone will think we are boring anyway, because we interact without endless profanity and insanity.
So i put in pics to try and remind them that I, at least, have mental problems. And then I try to cuss.
So. Anyway. Selling?
ALAN: Ok. Well. Legally, we can't exactly turn a profit on it, so no, we won't be selling it. Though, if at all possible, I would like to put it out on DVD, if for no other reason than to distribute to all the people who
helped out on the movie. And maybe to trade with other folks for their, erm, 'art flics.' I've always preferred trading to selling anyway. Community over commerce? I dunno... And then whatever's left over after all that will be sold off for cost of materials and shipping (ala that last
DVD we made).
WARREN:
Hmm. This community over commerce is a very good thought.
I will investigate this more in a future interview installment, maybe, along with artists vs. entertainers.
But only if anyone seems to give a damn about the philosophies of creating art.
Which no one in online video making communities seems to want to ponder. yet.
ALAN:
... (snore)
WARREN:
Can you talk about the challenges of writing a SEQUEL that is lined with injoke nods?
Is it easier or harder than writing a stand alone movie?
ALAN: For me? I prefer writing for a series rather than standalone (obviously, after 60 epsiodes of that one series...). I just like being able to develop characters slowly, and to show how they react in a variety of situations. In a series, you get to build more of a chronology, and it's easier when you're writing to say
'this character will react this way because of what happened to him ten episodes ago',
rather than basing it on some unseen and unexplored character description.
I find that, in real life, people are always talking about stuff from the past. "Remember the time when we..." "Just like when you said...." so on and so on. If an audience follows the story all the way through, they get more involved, because when a character asks "remeber when," the viewer can say "yes" just as much as the other characters can.
It can be an unfortunate crutch, though. Definitely some drawbacks. Say, if someone only sees the last installment (say... the 60th), no matter how good it is, people still won't be able to
get it. It's like showing someone the last Sugarhigh Crusade comic strip
[cough: now we are mysteriously plugging garrett. http://www.pythonet.org/sugarhigh/], and expecting them to get it. You can only hope it piques their interest enough that they go back and read/watch more. "It'll be a lot funnier once
you know what's going on." I tried to keep the humor more universal in the latest Jedi, though it was tough at times (again, Jeff & Case insisted on ad-libbing a lot of stuff that only they may find funny - we'll see how much
of it makes the final cut). We'll see if people can tell the difference.
WARREN:
Why is everyone so excited by making star wars flics when they all hate the prequels, and generally hate other fan flics?
ALAN: Um. I don't hate fan flics. A lot of people have gotten 'famous on the internet' off of them, so there's that. I guess.
And....
And......
DAMMIT!!! Can't you just ease up for a second on the 'why are you making
this, it's too much work, why don't we just give up, it's a bad idea, why
would anyone want to do this' questions? The same question, over and over
and over and over...
WARREN:
I have broken you. good. now you are my slave to command as i will--
ALAN: Just let me have my one last indulgence in childhood
playtime fun, and I'll move on to something better! Ok? When you were eight
years old, didn't you run around your backyard, waving a stick around making
the lightsaber noise? I know I did. I was a Jedi (I have the underoos
cardboard cutout diploma to prove it), and my dog was the rancor coming to
get me. Of couse, the Jedi and the rancor got past their differences and
became friends at the end of the adventure, but still... Star Wars, Lord of
the Rings, the Odyssey, the Lone Ranger, whatever - everyone grew up with
pop culture heroes, and everyone imagined themselves joining in on the
adventure. So maybe I just want to recapture that feeling of unrestrained
childhood joy for just a second or two. And you know what? When we're out
there, shooting the big scenes, hungry, tired, beaten to death, and hating
each other, I do. So, there we all are, with our plastic sticks, in our big
backyard, hitting each other over the head and fighting (now-invisible)
rancors, spaceships, windmills, whatever. And yeah, I know it's coming;
I'll have to get things together, move away to find work, and leave it
behind. My dog is dead and buried in the backyard, and soon enough this
will be too. So if I'm going to send it off, I'm going to do it the only
way I know how - I don't do things halfway, and I do not quit. That's why,
even after all these months, I'm excited to be doing this.
Pant.
Wheeze.
Now if you excuse me, I'm going to go start a collection of Peter Pan
statues and llamas for my house.
WARREN: eep!
Embarrassed (but encouraged) by my onslaught and this final thought, I left alan alone.
Tune in next time for more hounding interview questions about something or another jedi6 related.
If you have questions for alan about jedi6, leave them in the forum. i must go smoke. more later then.
