Things like this usually doesn't go past my notice. Guess I've been so occupied with other stuff lately. But yesterday was the anniversary of something very special and I need to make a note of it...
May 25th, 2025 is the twentieth anniversary of my... or rather I should say our... first motion picture, Forcery. An almost hour-long parody of Rob Reiner's film adaption of the Stephen King novel Misery. Forcery depicts Star Wars creator George Lucas, hot off of finishing the script for Episode III, being rescued from certain death by his "number one fan" Frannie Filks. It's not long before Lucas, who used to create Star Wars for a living, is now making it to stay alive.
This was an idea that hit me about a week and a half before 9/11. Indeed, I started writing the screenplay (though I had no idea HOW to really go about doing that) on the night before the attacks. I knew nothing about filmmaking at all. But I began learning everything that I could about it. I read, studied, watched how-to videos, got really good at scriptwriting and lighting and editing and whatnot. Most of all I learned anew how to work with people and collaborate with them on a project. It's amazing how so many good people came together to work on this. Forcery is a monument to them and their sacrifices toward making this dream into a reality, and I'll forever be thankful to them.
In the end, our movie was finished, just in time for Revenge of the Sith being out in theaters. And it's gotten some appreciation over the years. "Weird Al" Yankovic saw it and told us "Nice job!" Then it wounded up being featured a lot in the award-winning documentary The People vs. George Lucas. But I'm especially fond of all the good word that has come from Star Wars fans who've watched and enjoyed it. I think Melody Daniel - who plays Frannie in Forcery - is quite fond of all the guys who have said they like her especially. I'm going to be forever indebted to Melody. She brought a LOT of knowledge and wisdom (and patience) to the set and it would have been a far lesser film without her being there. Ed Woody, my college roomie from Elon, came up with the portable greenscreen and the "nine dollar dolly" and a lot of other inventions used in production. And of course there is Chad Austin, my best friend since third grade, who absolutely rocked it as George Lucas. I told him he could do this and he delivered magnificently. And there were many others also, who believed in this project and helped it come into being.
Well, you can read more about it on the Forcery page that's on this site. If you've never watched it before you can click on that link and then watch the original on Google Drive. Or you can watch it here courtesy of YouTube.
Thank you to everyone who in the past two decades has watched Forcery and took the time to tell us that they enjoyed it. We had fun making it for you :-)
(And to George Lucas, Stephen King, Rob Reiner, and the estate of Slim Whitman: thank you for not suing us!!)
Note: The top image was made by feeding the original poster for Forcery - which did not depict anyone - into ChatGPT and instructing the artificial intelligence to simply produce a cartoon rendering. And that is what it came up with. I am STUNNED. That looks exactly like cartoon versions of Chad and Melody in costume. I've no idea how the AI knew to do that... but ChatGPT did it!
5 comments:
Forcery is now as old as the original Star Wars trilogy was when Lucas made the special editions.
The AI rendition is great! Maybe ChatGPT itself watched Forcery. Can AI even watch video?
I saw Forcery a few years ago. It's a product of its time for sure and obviously a fan production. No doubt you did the car spinning out of control as best you could without damaging the car. That is part of the charm. The rest of Forcery makes up for that. May it ever find new fans!
Love the AI poster!
Grundy, you have given me an idea and I've already started looking into it. It's going to take some finagling but I'm going to see about using AI to create new footage for the car wreck scene. And incorporate that into the film, replacing the crash material that's there now. It would be like creating a "special edition" of our own. That scene has long bothered me, that it couldn't be better. Now perhaps with modern technology it can be.
Chris, I took some time today to watch your little movie and I really enjoyed it. It's like has been said above by Solomon Grundy, it is a product of 20 years ago but that makes it even more classic. You hit on an idea that it's astounding nobody had thought of already and you and your friends really scored a touchdown with it. Looking forward to the special edition!
Post a Comment