Ryan vs. Dorkman 2

D

DorkmanScott

Active member
A few years back a friend of mine (now roommate) and I made a short lightsaber fight scene movie for a contest over at TheForce.net. The long title is "Ryan Wieber vs. Michael 'Dorkman' Scott". The more commonly used short form is "Ryan vs. Dorkman", and the most commonly used acronym form, RvD.

Then, in the spring of 2006, suddenly the film was all over the net -- YouTube, Digg, Google Video, you name it, it was probably there. So we decided it was time to do what we'd always just talked idly about doing: make a sequel.

We put up a website to update on our progress, and just this evening we publicly posted an exclusive first look behind the scenes at the upcoming sequel, RvD2.

The movie was shot on the HVX, 720p 24pN. The behind-the-scenes footage was shot with the DVX, so we kept it in the family.

I will be updating the progress of the film, as well as occasional anecdotes about making the film and the HVX workflow, over the next few months. In the meantime, please check out our site and link all your friends to our sneak peek!

http://www.ryanvsdorkman.com
 
Nice! Looks really cool. I am interested in details regarding the recording of the score, do you think you could elaborate a bit? Like how many sessions, how much will it cost etc? (What kind of figures are you looking at?) Anything would be nice to know. :)

-Chris
 
Last edited:
greetings dorkman...i wondered if this would ever wander over from tf.n....top work by you and ryan...really...
 
ChrisHurn said:
Nice! Looks really cool. I am interested in details regarding the recording of the score, do you think you could elaborate a bit? Like how many sessions, how much will it cost etc? (What kind of figures are you looking at?) Anything would be nice to know. :)
Click to expand...
According to our composers, the recording should only take one session, and only a few hours as opposed to an entire day. The other soundtrack we mention, Forced Alliance, was about 15 minutes' worth of music and they recorded that in 3 hours. We have about half as much film to score, so that should be ample time.

As far as cost, we basically plan to tailor the session to what we can afford. At this point, with our previous donations and funneling our own cash into this, we figure we've got between $6-7000 that we can put towards making this happen. That will get us about a 30-piece orchestra and the 3 hours we'll need in a decent studio.

Any additional funding we receive will go directly toward making the score "bigger". Mainly that means being able to hire more performers (each one will cost about $100 for the day). To get the "best case" full orchestra, we're looking at approximately doubling the amount we're currently able to put in.

We got pretty far with pretty small amounts of money up to now. Unfortunately for that (but fortunately, of course, for the quality), these are the performers who record just about all the scores in Hollywood, and they don't work for free. We're getting them at about 10% of what they normally charge, which is a huge discount, but still a lot of money.
 
Holy crap. Everyone comes over here from that FXhome.com site.

I remember looking at Ryan's stuff soooo long ago. Edit: Omg you guys grew up. Ryan has like... facial hair. LOL.

Good luck on the new fight.
 
Last edited:
HVX200, that's a huge improvement over the old GL-1! I watched Ryan vs. Dorkman a while ago (highly compressed and low resolution). Will you release this on DVD?

What software will you be using? I know you used After Effects, Premiere and Photoshop before. Will you be using FCP and Shake?

And how does this fit in if you're both older and you both died in the last one?

I remember Ryan on 30 by 30 Kid Flicks! Paleothetic Park is the only one I actually remember.
 
Looks cool. Some of those quick shots in the sneak preview amaze me. Does roto'ing at 720p slow the process down at all or has it proven to be more efficient? Can't wait for the release!
 
Yea, RvD was great. I remember watching it back when I was just getting into filmmaking. I gladly dropped a little donation months back to help with the location (I think it was to help with the location:huh: ). At any rate, I'm looking forward to part 2.
 
AuditoryVisuals said:
HVX200, that's a huge improvement over the old GL-1! I watched Ryan vs. Dorkman a while ago (highly compressed and low resolution). Will you release this on DVD?
Click to expand...
The plan is to release both on DVD, possibly included with a behind-the-scenes documentary.

AuditoryVisuals said:
What software will you be using? I know you used After Effects, Premiere and Photoshop before. Will you be using FCP and Shake?
Click to expand...
A lot of people in the low-budget world use Shake now, especially since the amazing drop in price a few months back.

It remains my opinion, though, that using Shake to do lightsaber effects is like using a cannon to kill a mosquito. While we've upgraded to Final Cut for the editing, we're still using After Effects for the visual effects.

AuditoryVisuals said:
And how does this fit in if you're both older and you both died in the last one?
Click to expand...
It's kind of like Evil Dead 2. Part continuation, part remake. Try not to think about it too much.

AuditoryVisuals said:
I remember Ryan on 30 by 30 Kid Flicks! Paleothetic Park is the only one I actually remember.
Click to expand...
You're lucky. He won't show that one to anyone anymore -- I've never seen it!

Alex Jeffery said:
Looks cool. Some of those quick shots in the sneak preview amaze me.
Click to expand...
:dankk2:

I think the shots we didn't include are even cooler. ;)

Alex Jeffery said:
Does roto'ing at 720p slow the process down at all or has it proven to be more efficient?
Click to expand...
Mostly it's more efficient. It's not too difficult for AE to call up a frame from the video stream pretty much right away, so I don't spend any more time waiting for the video to load than I would in SD (that being my subjective experience and not something I've actually measured).

With so much resolution, the detail is outstanding. I've had to guess where the saber is maybe three or four times this time around -- compared to working in SD, where half of it is guesswork, and trying to get it right can be pretty tough.

On the flip side, once the glows are added, the video chugs a LOT more than it does in SD -- to watch a time-efficient preview I sometimes have to scale the quality as low as a quarter. There's probably video cards that would make that unnecessary, but all I've got is the standard stuff in my comp.

Rendering is surprisingly not as much of a chore as I thought it would be. Most shots are done in 5 minutes or so (of course, most shots are two seconds or fewer).

snodart said:
Yea, RvD was great. I remember watching it back when I was just getting into filmmaking. I gladly dropped a little donation months back to help with the location (I think it was to help with the location:huh: ). At any rate, I'm looking forward to part 2.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your donation! If we didn't use it for the location, it'll be going toward the music, and I don't think anyone will be disappointed. :)
 
Hiya Michael [Dorkman] its Richard from over at fanfilms.com site [Majormorgan - Secrets of the Sith].

I can't wait to see RVD2, the first one was supercool and the fact your shooting the second at HD makes it all the more cooler for me.

Did anything ever come of the other script you sent me?

Anyways, until RVD2, see ya.

MajorM.
 
Hey Richard,

Good to see you here!

That script went on the backburner when the money went dry. We may start it up again with the same general concept, but since then I've grown a bit and I think I'll probably end up rewriting the thing almost from scratch.

Whatever happened to YOUR movie? :tongue:
 
Hiya Michael,

severall things happened off the back of the work I did on my 'Secrets of the Sith' trailers, the main one was I got a lot of work from it and my career with my company took off. I've since done some work for TV here in the UK mainly CGI directed TV advertising, and there's been a lot of corporate video both live action and CGI.

The main thing is that I've had a break from finishing 'Secrets' for about 2 years now [sporadic bits and pieces here and there] but I do need to finish it, if only to thank everyone who helped me with the pre-production and production. So I'll be trying to make some time for that.

I'm glad to see that there's a new RVD and I can't wait to see it. RVD was totally awesome, but with the new experiences you've gained since then and a new format to shoot on this one's gonna eclipse the original.

I'll be keeping an eye out for news, but if there's any sneak previews, give me a nod, I'd love to see.

Hope all goes well.

Talk soon,

Majormorgan
[Richard]
 
We have officially booked a theatre for our premiere event.

We will be showing RvD2, for the first time ever anywhere, at the Wilshire Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills, CA. The screening will be on February 24th, 2007, at 5PM.

Prior to the screening, we will be showing some other lightsaber fan films in a sort of mini-festival, to give RvD2 some context and show the creative "lineage" of the film. Some of the filmmakers will even be in attendance to introduce their films.

Admission is free, and the theatre is spacious (400+ seats), so anyone in the L.A. area is welcome to come and bring all your friends. If you like Star Wars, lightsabers, or just seeing HVX footage projected onto a big screen at full HD resolution, we've got a fun evening for you.

In the next few days I'll be writing up a little post on the HD workflow we've been dealing with, if anyone has an academic interest in such things (and, perhaps, if someone has a better idea for next time!).

We've also got a scoring session coming up for an original score we're having made for the film. We'll be recording at Capitol Records with a 60-piece orchestra on Sunday, February 11th. Already confirmed on percussion is M.B. Gordy, whose work can be heard on the soundtrack to the new Battlestar Galactica series. As I understand it, he is pretty much the exclusive provider of percussion to that series, so it's great to have him on board.

More information on the screening and the score at our website.
 
Hey hey! great to see you guys are still kickin' it in high gear! That's great that you were able to snag the drummers for BSG.. What better drum talent can you get than that?

I enjoyed the BTS preview and heck.. I may try and make it out to the showing on the 24th. The joy of living in the land of milk and honey :) I'm wondering if you they'll be showing my music version of 'Art of the Saber' or the original with Zimmer's track? Guess I'll just have to see!

Good luck fellas!

/j
 
Kholi said:
Are the ART OF SABER guys going to be there? I remember that fight from a few years back.
Click to expand...

Last time i talked with Clarence, he was still living on the east coast. Unless he's making a special appearance?

/j
 
I have to say that Ryan Vs. Dorkman was a movie I showed to EVERYONE when I found it. It inspired me to delve deeper into VFX and I continued on to make Stricken on my DVX100b. I credit alot of it to that first time watching RVD. It got me into After Effects. I can't wait for RVD2! I have since gone on to own 10,000 worth of HVX glory and addons, work as a commercial editor and land a directing gig for a feature called "The Cracked limb" filming next year. Little did you know RVD would change so much for people. Seriously, it was one of the MAIn reasons I dove into AE and learned what I did. Thank you and good luck with RVD2!
Ryan and michael, I hope you enjoy Stricken as much as I enjoyed RVD.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aap-11vrYaM
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top