2000 AD Online Forum

Link: viva la spania

Jesus. Fucking. Christ. :O

'king 'ell (apart from the Spanish speak) that looks aces. It's a fan film, but it had a Universal logo attached- so what's the story?

Gotta assume Mills has okayed this.

Holy crap!
This is better than 300.

Check out this guys other stuff here, Batman arkham Asylum and Captain Harlock.

Link: Holy crapola!

Ah, even better with the subtitled version.

That is amazing! Looks like Clint Langley's Slaine brought to life. No bad thing!

 
       John Prescott is going too but no one will notice
       because no one knows exactly what he was paid for.

   One journalist described him as " larger than life"

   could someone explain this as i cant

   He is the Mr.creosote of the Labour Party.
   [ i just watched him down a pint in 5 seconds]

   He has had lots of practice.  
   
   There are 7 seperate bars in the house of commons.    They are open 24 hours  And the MPs
  are only charged 1970s prices  as they are heavily subsidised.

::  it had a Universal logo attached- so what's the story?

Because the soundtrack he used is owned by Universal.

As for the fan film, it's one of the few times I've seen one where I'm pissed off that the film doesn't exist. That looks really good (and, frankly, Horned God _would_ make a decentâ??if expensiveâ??film).

Gotta assume Mills has okayed this.

Best laugh all day!

Very nice for a fan film...

The mpeg version from the main page seems to be a bit better quality, but it mentions there's a DVD quality version knocking about on torrent sites...

- Steve

Good, holy, fuck!!

Jaws are on the floor over here.....

i have to admit, i'm not normally a fan of this stuff, but these are something else...

love the ARKHAM ASYLUM one too.

oh, + what Art said....

Well that's something I never expected to see. Incredible.

Fuck
In
Hell

If anyone can get that on a DVD, bring it on down to my cinema in Canterbury and i'll show it on a 35 foot screen.

That is f'n brilliant!

Impressive!

Holy jovus.

Superb stuff. Simply superb.

Bolt-01

That's stunning! Like Mr C said, it's like Clint Langley's stuff has jumped off the page. Warp spasm and everything, this film needs made NOW.

Wow..if a fan can do it why can't rebellion?

Sweet. Now who says films have to be big budget with a big named director?

Fan Films are the future.

To be fair, films are generally a bit longer than that, and have things called 'actors' attached to them.

Looks good - like the twisted faces on the actors.

To be fair to Pat, he might not know anything about the film, but I suspect if he did have any objections they'd be different to the ones he had about fans creating original comics with his characters - given this is a straight adaptation into a different media, it's probably not ticking the boxes that set him against the fanzines.

It says it's none profit and both Pat and Simon get their names mentioned.

What more publicity in Spain could Pat Mills ask for? The people there must be screaming out for Slaine Books after seeing this ;o)

Personally I'd take it as a compliment.

There's a scale factor problem when trying to make full length feature as compared to a short (and a proper short at that)... it's a lot more money and a lot more effort and it involves a lot more people to get something even vaguely acceptable

Never the less...funt me like I've offended Gok Wan! That is spectacular.

That sends a shiver up my spine watching that.

Now this is what I want to see. Ever since I brought the reprinted series, I feel like I have been hanging for something like this for while. Like I had personally imagined 'The Horned God' would look good in another medium. Yet I was never sure if Simon Bisley version of Slaine would haved been the right choice for a film adaption until seeing this one.

It's like having two christmas's in the same year.

The quality is very good. I wonder if the character models were based on actors or taken straight from the graphic novel. They look well rendered.

Watching the short a second, third and fourth time.  Taking in more detail, it's is like seeing the graphic novel come to life and they do look like like real actors when close up. Recognising Ukko, Slaine [of course] Medb, Slough Feg, Niamh, the Finian King, the Lady of Flowers and the face of the Spear of the Sun. [doped on poppys] WOW.

How can they not finish this. Surely the fan responce would be worth the fee.

One minor quip. I just guessing here as I have no real idea about the ancient northern dialects and accents. Though I have always imagined Slaine might favor northern Hibernian [ Irish, Scottish Gaelic, even a Scottish brogue.] as opposed to Ibernian [ Just very Spanish sounding.]

"There's a scale factor problem when trying to make full length feature as compared to a short (and a proper short at that)... it's a lot more money and a lot more effort and it involves a lot more people to get something even vaguely acceptable"

Yes, though (as always) we're entering new territory with digital technology being more accessible and people more willing to watch something that looks stylised and arty, if not quite real, as they have been with the Frank Miller films. As long as the films were suitably fantastical and moody and provided an alternative to the usual Hollywood fare people wouldn't expect a helicopter crash every 20 minutes or even big sets, you just have to create a convincing enough world, which is more to do with the creative quality than facilities.  

That's not to say you could compete with the big blockbusters and their big name actors, but it must be more possible than ever to independently produce something that can look like a Sin City or 300.

Just watched this again with English subtitles.

It's good to hear the names Slaine, and Ukko are pronounced as they seem to be.

As for the production costs, well if I was rich man [Which I'm not.] I would contribute a substantial amount towards this production and there appears to be a hefty fan response on this messageboard and many more outide as well. Just imagine each and every fan even contributing alittle bit of money towards this.

Now, if Pat Mills and Simon Bisley saw this and was impressed and not angry that what had been done so far was done without their approval.

The production costs must be pretty steep already - a lot of it'll be CGI, but someone's gone to a LOT of trouble making those costume's. Not only incredibly accurate but very well too (esp whatisface the weak kings armour).

So refreshing to see folk really putting their hearts in it, after endless versions of films and comics on Youtube where binliners and waterpistols stretch the budget (Bladerunner filmed on the streets of Manchester still causes shudders)

That's King Rudraige, who was married to Niamh for a year. Didn't know who he was or that there is footage of Cathbad until I found the casting credits.

Alot of money indeed.

I'm starting to suspect that theres more of this filmed than was shown. The trailer looks like a bunch of scenes that may have been longer, then cutdown and put together.

They claim be a non-profit enterprise, yet have a recruitment section.

Considering the talents of Mangamax sculpting , McWild and MikeC's computer animation skills I'm surprised to not see them involved.

thats fricken class that is, needs to be done now.  Rebellion see what you can do(or at the very least a Slaine game could be fun, God of war rip off and similar stuff to that for the cut scenes? cant go wrong).

CU Radbacker

It's simple.

First the movie, then the game;]

"The trailer looks like a bunch of scenes that may have been longer, then cutdown and put together."

That was probably how it was designed, thoughâ??it doesn't mean there's any additional footage whatsoever.

Sweet Jovis son of Grud but that was DOUBLE PLUS GOOD.  I... wow.

IBARRRRRRRR

Those are just...WOW!

All I can say is WOWWW.

Did anyone notice there's a 'Dark Crystal' vibe running through this.

Something, I didn't pickup on from the actual pages of the 'Horned God'.

Some of the imagery therein, the familer faces, the murky atmosphere.

That's a good point, TS - Ukko in particular would fit right in, and cave with the omphalos-thing.

Well spotted Tordal.

***Did anyone notice there's a 'Dark Crystal' vibe running through this. ***

No.

Even if the execution is sometimes poor, I always liked the notion of fan-films - people with an actual love of the source material turning it into a movie (or a mock-trailer, as is mostly the case), and sidestepping the whole convoluted production process where twenty different people insist on twenty different things that must be changed before the material is ready for a wider audience (begging the question why they bother optioning it in the first place).
If you think about it, there's not really a great need for a huge budget in most comic-book movies - Batman Begins didn't need all the daft prosthetics, cgi monastaries and cityscapes, massive fuck-off Batmobile, rubber gimp suit, etcetera.  These elements were necessary only to tick the summer blockbuster boxes on the superhero-by-numbers sheet, but a little imagination can take you a lot further than any amount of cgi.  The old saying about radio having better pictures than tv springs to mind.

 ***The old saying about radio having better pictures than tv springs to mind.***


Well that really negates the whole argument then.

I think good actors have a lot to do with how a film works, along with a good script and good direction, all of these take experience & imagination and in this world they don't come cheap. Also the biggest cost factor in making movies is TIME, there's no getting away from the fact that movies like Batman take 2 years to make and that's a long time to employ a lot of people. You can generally tell a fan film is made cheaply in the "choice of scenes" that is made, generally the scenes are just actors talking one on one in medium shots and close ups with a smattering of action, if any at all.

These fan "trailers" work better because no shot lasts longer than 5 seconds, so you can get a taste of every kind of scene, and give the impression of an actual film, but in reality to create a full length feature film like this, with advertising and distribution thrown in, will still cost millions. Unless you are independently wealthy and it's your hobby.

There's been five or six Batman films with another on the way. Yet none of them shown so far have turned out right despite the large amount money poured into them.

I really think that Batman should be left to rest in piece.

Despite my attitude towards Batman's continued reccurence on the big screen. I was however alittle impressed with Arkam Asylum short. It almost had me thnkng that those villian really are Batan's lackeys.

Where can I find the subtitles version?

Top right corner has the link

Link: or click this

All valid points, but sadly negated by the fact that most 'proper' movie trailers are more entertaining than the end product.  Anticipation of the movie can be more rewarding than actually sitting through it (Dredd, Daredevil, Hulk, Ghost Rider, the Batmans, Superman Returns...), and thus fan-made trailers can be argued to replicate the only worthwhile element of the comic-book movie experience, but with the added bonus of not having the disappointment ruining your evening after you realise that you're not getting those 2+ hours of potential drinking time back.

...not negated at all, as I said, acting is as important as good scripts and good direction. No matter what the end product, it's takes time and patience to make a film. Even with the auspicious beginnings of a good script, 100's of things can go wrong each day that are beyond the control of most people in a film production. The fact that a film ends up at least watchable, is a miracle when you consider all the variables, and then it has to contend with the market of audiences which can go against your film for a myriad of reasons or just the mood of the moment. Making films is a tremendous gamble with the fickle taste of mass audience, it just proves how difficult it is to engage people for 2 hours with a story that moves and intrigues, it's why so many movies fail.

To make trailers is easy in comparion, you take the most energy impacted clips of your film and jam them into 3 minutes and people will think it's great, but will always give the wrong impression of any film because it's really only an advertisement for the trailer, not the film.

It's only when a good film comes along that you realise how much  of a miracle it is, as they are always the exception.

I'll just take piccy down.

Not such a good idea putting that one up in the first pace.

The whole fan film thing was something I didn't even realise existed, so this peaked my interest to see what other gems were out there. This is the first thing I found and it isn't quite as impressive somehow, I gather the Slaine one is an example of the absolute best?

Link: Thundercats NOOOOOOOOOOO

That Slaine is certainly the best i've come across.
The Arkham Asylum is very good, but my fav Bats i've come across so far is:

Link: Bats v A v P

And this really captures the "regular" comic feel.
Superman is spot on, Bats less so:

Link: Worlds Finest

And this is Power Girl.
You can see a coupla reasons why they chose the actress and its interesting to see how the cameraman manages to keep the shot pointing down her cleavage pretty much all the time.
GGA made real:

Link: Benny Hill lives

The fan films are great. Considering their budget, they're better than they're legimate counter parts.

The actors are spoton. Referring to the Batman Superman fan short featuring Lex Luthor and Two-Face. Though I would transplant the other Batman from second Fan short featuring the Joker, Alien vs the Predator and replace the Batman in the first short film with this guy.

If you get my meaning.

Has Stan Lee seen these, I wonder.

BTW, chaging the subject from Super hero to fantacy...

 I had found this fan made promo for Dragonlance last year whilst really looking for officially made material from the soon to screening Dragonlance cartoon. [ later on this year hopefully.]

Most of the cast I would consider a bad choice, but it is still interesting to watch none the less.

I think it's made in Turkey, I'm not sure.

Good to see, as I have read and enjoyed the first double trilogy just after leaving school so long ago now.

Link: Fan made Dragonlance

Well, Gabriel Byrne claims that no-one sets out to make a bad film - and if anyone would know, he would, considering the amount of world-class turds he's put his name to.

I agree that good films are rare, but only because movies in the west (and elsewhere) are for the most part products of a production line mentality, and not an artistic one - they have no greater aspirations beyond selling us a star, a director, a fancy adaptation, or a by-the-numbers actioner for summer.
There are any amount of breakout wunderkinds making their name in indy films and going on to greater success, despite never spending  millions on a movie or it's marketing.  El Mariachi and Clerks are the most obvious ones that spring to mind, though they did eventually get a push by marketing men once they'd already made inroads into mainstream audience awareness (the massive Clerks X anniversary box set, for instance, seems overly-presented given the rough charm that made the movie popular in the first place).

Probably not worth dwelling on the fact that once they made their respective directors famous and able to actually use millions of dollars on marketing, actors, etcetera, the end results were risible.  Though I'm probably wrong and Jersey Girl is a classic.

A common thing that I have noticed in the fan made 'Powergirl' and something that would that would lower the price for making these modern day superhero films such as Superman and Batman.

That would be the name 'DELL' on the computer box the an was trying to exchange at the office where PowerGirl was working.

I'll just take a wild guess and say that they payed for most of production to be made.

This type of product placement couldn't be used in any type of descent 'Slaine' movie. Not without cmmercials inserted in I guess.

Link: Product Placement

The odd thing for me was the blatant product placement in the V For Vendetta film: Dell - used by fascist oppressors everywhere.

Would love to see more fan movies [ good ones.]showcasing taentof other 2000AD artists and their repective 2000AD characters.

I was wondering if anybody had noticed that in some parts of the beginning sequence. Slaine is shown to be wearing his trade mark fur lined cloak and towards the end. He's suddenly wearing a blue cape.

Of course it's easy for a novice Slaine fan to assume that he's just changed his cape, but I beg to differ.

Apart from the fact I've seen Slaine to alternate between tartan cape and the fur one I mentioned earlier. I don't think he's ever worn the light blue cape he's seen to be wearing in the fan short.

As a aftertought I thought this might have been a oversight, something to do with the blue screen editing. Though I'm well aware that it's easier enough to wear a fur cape without the assistance of photo-digital editing.

So that one has me stumped as I have just gone through pages of the graphic novel to double check if Slaine is wearing a blue cape and on those pages that correspond with the fan short. No sign of a blue cape.

BTW, I just downloaded some demo software that allows me to take screenshots of the fan short film when it is paused. That way I can enlarge them to screen size to really appreciate the details. Though is a reduction picture quality as I do so.

Please let me know if I'm violating property/copyrght laws by doing this. Otherwise I have about atleast sixty pictures worth of scene changes taken from that short Slaine featurette. Some of them might be worth seen closer up. Unless some of you computer literates have done so already.

The bigger the picture, the more blocky it is. Soe pictures look better than others. There's one or two of Slaine chopping into a enemy formorian [ By the looks.] is very blocky and murky on every resolution.

"As a aftertought I thought this might have been a oversight, something to do with the blue screen editing. Though I'm well aware that it's easier enough to wear a fur cape without the assistance of photo-digital editing."


Im guessing they used green screen as opposed to blue, simply because you get a better result when working digitally.
Maybe the cloak is blue so they could cut it out seperately from the green? Doesnt make sense though, too many shadows.

The only reason i could come up with was that the fur cloak simply wasnt available on the days those scenes were shot.

Either way, i'd love to know what Mills & Bisley would think of this stunning homage!

I have to admitt, I'm probably wrong about any connection between the blue cape and use of a blue screen.

Not that I know too about much that stuff anyway.

Though it does look alot like the actor in costume with a bunch of props standing up against a painted background of the sky and a screen with rolling clouds and those flying boats digitally added.

However it's done, it certainly looks impressive.

I'm a bit late to all of this.  But, er, yeah.  Great.  Well done those Spaniards.

It does indeed look like a much better movie than 300.

I wonder if the actors they used are well knowns in their own countries.

I couldn't find them on imdb.com

I wonder if they have more englsh sounding non-de-plumes.

Not seen these before. Made by the same peeps(?) who did Dead End, and proves (in my mind at least) that a 'proper' Joker *can* work on film.

The Death of Robin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoUrfCpUS7w%22%20target=%22_blank)

The Death of the Joker (Apparently an imagined death by the Joker himself)

Somebody has finally uploaded 'The Horned God' short film to You-Tube for easier viewing.

So far nearly other You-Tubers that have commented on this work, wants to see this made into a proper movie.

Link: Now you too can watch this on a full screen