Treasure of the Templars - fan flick

[DMProductions]

I ran across a posting on a forum about an Indiana Jones fan film called "Treasure of the Templars". But this movie doesn't look like your typical fan film -- beautiful images!

Check it out, but BE WARNED -- there are LOTS of images on this link. If you're on a slow dialup, better think twice.

http://www.filmmaker.com/postt9255.html (http://)

Then check out their website and download the trailer - www.treasureofthetemplars.com (http://). AMAZING stuff! Gets the ol' indie juices flowing!

[See tukka]

Very cool...Is that really filmed with xl2?? Looks awesome...
Tha trailer looks much better than the screen shots...Maybe they CC it after the screenshots...

[blink281aa]

That looks unbelievable.

[J.R. Hudson]

Watched the first 5 minutes at the main site..........

It's official. This is the best example of the XL2's 'indie-filmmaking' capabilities I have seen yet. Very very impressive use of not only the camera but your technical prowness. This felt every bit a film. Bravo. This looks fun and I can't wait for the wntire film to be ready for us.

Reservations? Indiana Jones is American. The accent is tough to swallow. The actor playing Indy looks like a kid more than a man. Indiana Jones is a grown man. Not a punk-ass. And I always always say this when I see a fan-film; a good one at that....

You spend all of this time, energy and resources on a fan-film. Why? You coul have created you own characters, your own stories, your own world and not run the risk of some Californian questioning the 'Character' of Indy.

IMHO as always

It does look solid. Not only the best INDY fan film I have seen, but maybe the best FAN FILM period. The production value is off the charts on this.

[Erik Olson]

Still downloading this as we speak... twenty minutes on broadband...

On another note... filmmakers in Land Rovers? Talk about a bunch of poseurs.

Uh... oh, yeah - strike that!

e

[J.R. Hudson]

Yeah those Land Rover guys think they're pretty cool. :laugh:

Damn globetrotting adventurers.

[theHeadlessPuppy]

Stills look good but site doesn't work... Shame cos I'd like to watch the trailer.

[Erik Olson]

The video link has to be typed into your browser - the filmcan gooey isn't properly linked in some places.

e

[DMProductions]

Fan films can be fun - admit it, they usually reek of Velveeta - but I was impressed with this one. I do agree that maybe they could've focused their energy on an original piece as they seem to have their s*it together.

[Trent]

I am at work right now but I am going to have to check it out when I get home...

[J.R. Hudson]

Fan films can be fun - admit it, they usually reek of Velveeta - but I was impressed with this one. I do agree that maybe they could've focused their energy on an original piece as they seem to have their s*it together.

That's what I thinking. This is tight. And unfortunately 'someone else intellectual property'.

Seems a waste of talent and resources

[DMProductions]

Yup. Maybe now that they've got this one under their collective belts, they'll be more inspired to stretch?

[icicle22]

I don't want to scare you all but it looks like this movie was shot on the old XL1 or XL1s and not the XL2. I could be wrong but the production photos from California look like an XL1. You can see the red part on the body that scoops up towards the top. This was removed on the XL2.

FWIW.

Correction: On the Scotland production shots I see an XL2 for sure. So they obviously used one. But I think all of the California shots are XL1 (at least the parts we have seen.)

[DMProductions]

You may be right, Icicle. The CA shots do show a XL1. Good eyes!

[gzabetas]

I too was amazed at the look of the trailer compared to the photos. I was afraid they would have the same flat too crisp video look but I saw golden tinting with smoothness to the image.
Wonder what they used for post.
...

Well I looked at their forum where they go into detail of their production. PLenty of info there.

[kprince]

Looks like they used three different cams XL1, XL2, and ENG, can't tell it's covered up. Weird. I'd stick to one cam myself. To each his own. Looks damn good for an XL1. Even fooled some big time dvx users. Shows you how sound design subliminally makes imagery pop. my 2cents

[TimurCivan]

Wow..... that actually was really awesome. And the guy that palyed teh head abad guy really did look like the german dude from Raiders..... too bad Indiana had a thick russsian accent....

[Ken Gawne]

Hello

I hope its not inpprorpiate of me posting here - a friend saw this discussion and directed my intention to it.

First of all my name is Kenneth Gawne - producer, actor and co-writer. The director is Jonathan Lawrence (you can find him on IMDB - 3 of the entires are him). Dan Riser and Joanthan Lawrence also co-wrote the script.

Anyway, the desert opening you have been watching was all shot on XL1s. We shot that over a year ago. Everything that we shot subsequently, we shot in Scotland in a 6 week period over July and August this summer. That was all shot on XL2s.

If you have any specific questions about any of filming please feel free to ask them to me here and I will do my best to answer them or alternativly visit our forum through the website and post them there (the director Jonathan Lawrence posts there regularly and is very happy to answer questions on filmmaking).

I hope you all enjoy the finished film when its completed.

Ken :)

[J.R. Hudson]

Hi Ken

I have a question:

Why would you spend all of your energy, money, resources and time on something that is someone elses intellectual property? Why not just invent your own characters and world?

You appear to have done a very nice job (even though Indy looks like a weeny-arm and sorta adolecent) but at the end of the day 'You have nothin'"

I'm just curious and am not menaing to come across as harsh; just trying to get into the mind of a Fan Film Maker. (I ask the tough questions)

[Ken Gawne]

Well... quite a loaded question. I got asked the same question on a different board so perhaps the easiest thing to do is post the same response:

It all started out as a much smaller venture - it was just messing around with a friend (Daniel Riser) with a video camera and an Indiana Jones hat in their backyard about 2 years ago. I had never even considered filmmaking before, either as a career or as hobby (having never had a videocamera of my onw).

So as the project gained momentum being totally inexperienced I simply posted on the internet for assistance. Here luck was with me, for I found an offer of help in JONATHAN LAWRENCE - he offered to let us use all his equipment free of charge, the onyl thing he asked in return was that if we used his camera that he would be allowed to accompny us as his camera was his lifeblood as he needed it to learn money. I simply replied if he was coming with us anyway, heck, why didn't he direct it. He agreed and thus the whole project leapt forward one hundred levels in both scale and quality.

Once Jonathan came onboard, thats when I made a conscious decision to make this film as good as I possibly could. The original idea was that he would shoot the first 5 minutes in the desert in CA, and when I returned back to Scotland where I live then Jonathan would no longer be involved with the project and I would find local people to shoot the rest of it. Well after seeing the very first dailies of what we shot in the desert I just knew that it wouldn't compare - so we ended up talking and Jonathan agreed that if I could get the funds to fly him over to Scotland, then he would come and direct the whole picture. Using student loans and all the personal savings I had.

So hopefully now you can see how the momentum kept building - from there we created the website. We had a journalist contact us from seeing the site, which then led to us appearing in 6 other papers, the local radio, and 2 TV spots on the news on 2 channels.

So anyway, enough on the history of the film and more on the filmmaking side of things.

The film will be a feature film of somewhere around 80 minutes. It goes without saying the whole film has been made on a non-profit basis. We never intend to sell, make profit off this film in any way whatsoever. However we still want get it seen as widely as possible - so our plans currently are:

1) Internet
2) DVD (distributed ourselves - we are working on a solution whereby there is no money made in doing this)
3) Release in theatres (we already have theatres which have agreed to screen it, again this will be for free)
4) Film festivals

The film was shot in both California, and Scotland with a little second uni stuff in Paris. We even did a road trip crossing the Western Sahara in order to fundraise for filming.

Summer 2004:

In California we shot the opening 5 minutes you can see on the website. Shooting itself was about 4 days. For this we used amongst other things

- XL1s
- Crane
- Wireless boom mic
- Reflectors

I am sorry if I am not technical enough to give specifics - all the equipment belonged to our director Jonathan - if you visit the Templars forum he will read any questions and will surely answer them specifically.

We also had the assistance of several re-enactors who came along and helped out, both by providing a lot of the costumes, props, weapons and sets and set dressing, but also acting as well.

Summer 2005:

Shooting lasted 6 weeks.

In Scotland we were also accomponied as well as the director, by our prop master/re-enactor/actor/set builder/cook Paul Denton.

Others came over to help on their own volution and finance - my friends Dan Riser and Josh Edwards (both bringing their XL2s) and our costume designer Lauren. Jonathan had also upgraded to XL2 by this time. Also brought over his mini-crane, mini-dolly tracks, sound equipment, etc.

However we were quite limited equipment wise and budget wise in Scotland. Lights were a problem as the generator we had bought in Scotland before the American team arrived turned out not to operate (let this be a lesson - test everythign well in advance!!). Also the place to hire lights was very far from most of our locations so we had to make a choice - lose a lot of time and travel costs hiring professional lights Vs buying cheap lights from a hardware store and improvising. Needless to say we improvised. Burning torches were used in a lot of scenes and worked really well in addition to creating a great atmoshphere and mood. Also we got lucky with the natural daylight in places and thanks to the combiantion of the XL2 and the director behind it we managed not just to get by but to actually use the light conditions to our advantage where necessary and make it look good.

One of the problems with most of our locations was accessibility - a lot of stuff is shot outside which gives good production value (castles, caves, waterfalls, etc) but sometimes it was an arduos trek into the locations.


Anyway, what do we hope to acheive with this project? Thats a tough one. Onbiously it isn't money. Everyone involved knew this at the very begining of the project. From the actors' points of view it is presumably recognition, that chance to get discovered as with every film. And that is probably the same for everyone else to - I would love nothing more than for people to recognise Jonathan's talents (as you already have here in this thread) and knowing what Jonathan can do with next to no money, in terribly difficult conditions, encountering problems which he did; I would love to see what he could do with big sets and real money and let his creativity be unlimited for a change.

The real thing I noticed from this film was that on this scale everyone ends up doing everything - actors are also transporting equipment, Dan for example not only did camera, but in CA organised transport, co-wrote the script and came up with the basic ideas and did camera as well as any other work that needed to be done.

So really I guess this film is a showcase, but in a way that if it wasn't a fan film it might not be. Indiana Jones is a well known concept and consequently it might get more interest and/or publicity than if it was just another action film.

But none of us ever started out making this film truly considering where it was going or with cynical ideas about how to get noticed. Like I said, initially it was just a bit of fun, and then it became a lot of fun and a lot of hard work.

Basically for me, friendships aside (because truly, I have met some wonderful people and genuinly lifelong friends through this project and I am eternally grateful for that) for me this has really been filmschool. At the beginning I knew nothing and now... well now I know that I know nothing. And I also know not what to do! It has been such a great learning experience and I have learnt a lot from an acting perspective and oh wow what a lot from a producing standpoint!! But every mistake has been a lesson and something I will know better in the future and that is invalauble. Cheapest filmschool I could ever have had - and nothign like practical experience to really understand things.

Oh, and I never want to make another fan film of my own again! As much as I enjoyed this experience, it was tough as heck and while I am not in filmmaking to make money, being so totally excluded from making money to the point of banruptcy is a little frustrating and I do sometimes catch myself thinking how things would be if we had made this film a legitimate profit earning film instead of an Indiana Jones fan film.

Well there ya go - an inside perspective on Treasure of the Templars. Sorry if its long, I guess there is just a lot to say. If anyone has any individula questions please feel free to ask and hopefully I can answer them. Also please visit the forum at our website to talk with other members of the cast and crew as well as sharing general opinions on the film.

Thanks for listening to my rambling.

Ken

[Ken Gawne]

Oh, also about Indy looking like a weeny arm. Ok can't defend that I should have worked out more. Sorry. But an adolescent Indy he is - the idea was to have Indy be the same age as myself so the entire story is structured around that - its all a prequel to the trilogy.

Ken :)

[J.R. Hudson]

LOL

Oops. Sorry.

The 'Weeny Arm' comment was in contrast and Comparison to HARRISON FORDS Indiana Jones. Taking foot out of mouth now.

It does look like the coolest fan film ever made (The Star Wars ones are a little on the geeky side and too full of Jedi's for me). Keep us in the loop as I'd like to see more. I can't say I'd ever make a fan film but if I did it'd probally be Indy.

[Ken Gawne]

LOL don't worry about it - I prefer honest opinions to diplomatically constructed ones and its not the first time somone has brought up Indy's stature. I think its a fair point.

We have a behind the scenes video as well if you want to see how filming went in Scotland:

http://screen7.co.uk/fun/behindtot_low.wmv

Ken

[FilmMagic]

Ken,
Absolutely fantastic. I knew that look was in the XL2 somewhere but it just had to be found. Bless you for finding it. Great job.

[Ken Gawne]

Thanks - yes Jonathan is a genius and really knows his camera inside out

Ken

[skettalee]

I want to tell you Ken that you are an inspiration and greatly motivate alot of us here (i feel I can speak for quite a few on this). Seeing how it all started with just backyard games to a full feature film that looks just stunning. We can all do it if we try. I know personally being in the Air Force right now I get quite depressed feeling like im stuck here in South Carolina filming someone talking and copying it to DVD just to go home and say man I didn't do anything. But reading your little speech of the process and also seeing the clips makes me go wow! No offense, but if he can do it, I know I can as well. I just gotta put my mind to it. Im sure there are people out there nice enough to want to help me as well. I feel that I help out in everything I can in life and im sure I have a few equals out there that want to team up. Great job man and I hope you go far in all you do.

Know what also? I want to be an actor as well and I think I can act just as good as anyone else on the big screen, I just need my chance. Let me know if you ever need a White 25/26 year old to do anything on screen! Im in South Carolina though... I wish to god I was in Cali or New York or something to get where more films are being made.

[Shiloh Arts]

Great work I really enjoyed the action scenes the most. Some of the acting was over acted, but overall I'm really impress with your dedication to the project.

[Ken Gawne]

Thank you.

Skettalee - I actually think you might have a better chance outside of CA. Everyone there is an actor or somehow related to the industry but for example here in the UK, to the general public anyone making or associated with a film is something of a rarity

Ken

[Jay Rodriguez]

love the behind the scenes stuff

[Norm Sanders]

Wow, REALLY impressive. Not so much for the XL2, as it's difficult to tell with the low bandwidth/size, but the film was fun to watch, and was altogether well done. Loved the website too.

[Ken Gawne]

Thanks for the praise guys. We are hoping to have a proper trailer ready by mid November and then it will be battling for the premier!

Ken

[greatescapefilms]

wow. great work i cant believe some of that was shot with an xl2. when can we expect the final product? :huh:

[Rasquachemedia]

the links don't work for me

[Ken Gawne]

Here is the trailer:

http://homepage.mac.com/brian_lynn/TOTT/

Estimated release of the final film is Summer 2006

Ken :)

[Luis Caffesse]

Nice work Ken.
You've got some crazy stunts in there.
Is that you jumping off the cliff towards the end of the trailer?

[xl70e3]

Weird... you know, unlike that 5 min opening scene the trailer didn't impress at all. It looked like video, it sounded bad and overall tasted like any other amateur fan film. Sorry... :undecided

[Luis Caffesse]

Weird... you know, unlike that 5 min opening scene the trailer didn't impress at all. It looked like video, it sounded bad and overall tasted like any other amateur fan film. Sorry... :undecided

You know, that seems like it's going to sting more, given your avatar.

[ROKOKO]

i think this is an amazing achievment. fan film or not, it is really a showcase of hard work and dedication. My personal issues are with some of the acting, the sound (not great) and the main actor choice. It's personal taste. He doesn't do it for me as the gruff leading man/indiana jones type. The framing as well on some scenes was a little too basic, setups too rudimentary for such a stylized concept as inidana jones. However, that's me trying to be strict and unpatronizing. Great work and should get a lot of praise from indy fans.

[xl70e3]

You know, that seems like it's going to sting more, given your avatar.


You are probably right :embarasse It's just that this new footage somehow wasn't on par with the really excellent opening that was posted earlier. Or at least it didn't look as such to me...

May I suggest one thing, though? Get rid of that trying-to-look-badass-sexy-chick with the gun from the trailer... and from the movie, if possible. That single shot manages to ruin the teaser more than anything else :lipsrseal

[tktk]

looks fun, being a fan myself.