Ryan vs. Dorkman 2

Miceael, is Ryan vs Dorkman 3 going to be shot at 4K on the RED ONE?

And another question, how long is Ryan vs Dorkman 2? Also, is the guy who killed you in the first one going to be in the second one?
 
Last edited:
I remmember some years back ( was it 4 ) I was looking at theses RVD shorts and tests and I did learn a lot for after effects from your site.

But why haven't you guys laid down the sabers and made something of your own creation and market that?
You can make a making of RVD I and II and sell it on DVD but will Mr Lucas allow you?

Cheers can't wait to see high rez verion on the HVX.
 
Last edited:
msconce: Wow, thanks for the kind words. You're welcome for whatever our little film may have contributed to your motivation, but of course we can't take any credit for your talent or passion. That's all you.

I saw Stricken a little while ago, clicking the link in your sig. It was great, especially for a first-time film project! Much better than my first attempt at the genre. Great lighting and visuals. I thought the pacing was a tad too slow, and the "twist" came a little too far before the end, but overall a great first effort.

AuditoryVisuals: With the jump from RvD to RvD2 being SD to HD, it seems only fitting for the next film to be 4K. :cool: But then again, we'll see if I can afford the RED when my number ultimately comes up. I'd like to at least get a mini35 adapter and lenses when the time comes.

That reminds me, I gotta get that workflow post up tomorrow.

It looks like with opening titles, but excluding closing credits, the film will be about 7 minutes long. "The guy who killed me" is actually a clone of Ryan (kind of an in-joke). There is only one of me and one of Ryan in the film, so either yes, we're both clones, or no, like the Roadrunner cartoons, we aren't really acknowledging our prior deaths. Pick the one you like better. :)

FREUDENBERG: This is a question we get a lot. Sometimes it's phrased "With all the support and donations you got, why not make something original?"

The thing is, we don't have support and donations for something original, we've got them for RvD2.

People liked RvD, we've always wanted to make an RvD2, so it seemed that now was the time that we'd get the most attention -- and not the fantasy "OMG awesome here's millions of dollars make a movie" attention that usually accompanies such endeavors. The simple fact is that this thing took us 6 months of production and post-production (and a full year if you want to count preproduction choreography and other prep). We want as many people to see it as possible, and now is the best time for that.

Don't get me wrong, we do want to be doing our own stuff. After this Ryan and I are done with lightsabers for a few years. It just so happened that RvD2 wanted to happen now.

As far as selling stuff, RvD has music that would cost us upwards of $50,000 to license and sell with the film on DVD. RvD2 will have an original score, but the sound effects of the sabers are still Lucasfilm. They never seem to actually care, but we don't want to take the risk. We can't sell the two films directly.

However, we do plan to sell a DVD filled with a crapload of behind-the-scenes material, tentatively including a production documentary, raw-to-final comparisons, and a shot-by-shot breakdown of the effects processes used in the film. Everyone who buys that DVD will also receive the two films on a separate disc as a "free gift." :happy:
 
Okay, so here's the much-promised discussion on the RvD2 tapeless workflow.

Ryan and I had been eyeing the HVX since Panasonic announced it in 2005, and when we made the choice to do RvD2, it seemed like the perfect reason to upgrade to the new camera. As hot as P2 sounded, however, it was not part of our original plan. At $800 or so for 10 minutes of footage, the card seemed to be prohibitively expensive, especially given the fact that we knew it was going to drop rapidly the way digital storage always does. At the time the Firestore drive was also still a pipe dream, so the plan was to tether the camera directly to a computer via Firewire and shoot that way.

We bought a brand-new (at the time) MacBook Pro and loaded it up with Final Cut Studio. We did some relatively successful tests of capturing directly while recording, but as we developed the fight and the camera angles, it started to become clear that we would be compromising the film by tethering it to a laptop, and certain camera moves would be almost impossible to achieve that way. After a great deal of debate and rationalization, we buckled down and picked up a 4GB P2 card.

We chose to shoot the film in 720p for a variety of reasons. The main reason was the ability to undercrank at 22fps, speeding up the fight ever so slightly without making it look too unnatural, a common practice in kung fu movies. As it turned out, even the slight undercrank made the movements look unnaturally fast, and with the exception of one shot, we ultimately decided to shoot at a normal 24fps.

Since we only had one P2 card, and the MacBook doesn't have a PCMCIA port, when the card filled up we had to stop shooting, hook up to the laptop, and dump everything off. While it sounds like a pain in the ass, this actually proved to be a blessing in disguise. We shot the film in August in Atlanta, Georgia. Our location was the interior of what is, by day, the Los Amigos tortilla factory. We're talking a concrete box in humid Atlanta in the middle of the summer, filled with ovens that have been running all day. We shot from around 8PM, when the sun went down, to around 5AM, when the first shift of employees came in to start their day.

With the exception of our first fighting shot, almost all the shots in the film are quite brief, and combined with the ability to erase takes that didn't work at all, we actually were able to shoot for several hours before filling up with ten minutes of footage. By that time we'd been sweating buckets, swinging sticks like crazy people, and we were more than happy to adjourn to the air-conditioned office we were using as our staging area and recharge while offloading the card. I believe most of the eight evenings we shot, we only dumped the card twice: somewhere around the middle of the shoot, and when we wrapped at dawn.

After shooting, with the footage loaded onto the laptop, we went out for breakfast, which usually meant Waffle House. Now, I had never seen a Waffle House before. They don't have them in California, or at least not in L.A.

When we got to Atlanta, our host Ruben (owner of the factory where we shot) told us there was a Waffle House on just about every corner. I've heard that saying before, but damned if there wasn't actually a Waffle House just about everywhere you looked. And, they're open 24 hours.

So we'd stumble in at around 5:30, 6AM each morning, sweaty and bleary-eyed, order, and start cutting together the night's work on the laptop. We could identify shots and performances that weren't quite working and would need a reshoot, and it was a massively important motivator to be able to see it coming together as we shot it.

It all went pretty smoothly, everyone here knows the wonders of non-linear editing and the ability to experiment that it gives you. It wasn't until after shooting wrapped and we got home to work on the FX that we ran into some difficulty.

This is kind of a long post, so I'll break here and come back tomorrow or this weekend with the post-production workflow.
 
AuditoryVisuals said:
Was there a lot of shots that "didn't work at all"? Hours of shooting and only 10 minutes of footage?
Click to expand...
I guess it would sound that way, but surprisingly no.

We approached this film with a rather different attitude and style than we did with the last one. The editing is paced a lot faster, with many of the shots lasting fewer than two seconds -- but hopefully not to the extent that it becomes disorienting.

We shot everything in specific coverage. We would decide that, for example, the next shot should cover three moves (or one, or five, or whatever). We'd figure out the best shot for that, practice the moves and the camera move a few times, and then shoot. We didn't bother slating or anything, so each time we rolled camera we probably rolled an average of five seconds. Three or four takes, on average, and then we'd move on to the next shot. Shooting like this, it takes quite some time to amass 10 minutes of footage.

Oh, I just realized I forgot to respond to a query:

Kholi: We gave the Art of the Saber guys an invitation to attend, but unfortunately it sounds like they won't be able to make it.

I didn't realize that there was a re-scored version of Art of the Saber!

Edgen: Do you have a high-quality version of Art of the Saber, with either track?
 
I can't wait for this. It's pretty exciting and I loved the work you guys did on RVD. I'll probably fly out from out from idaho next month to see this. Ryan really opened my eyes to what is really possible with a meager budget and some decent resources. My whole background has been in audio production over the last 15 years and I've just recently made the switch into film now with affordable HD set ups. I have to ask though, how were you guys dumping the footage from the P2 into the Mac? Or did you just go with a Windows based laptop? Anyway keep up the great work and I can't wait till next month.
 
Huh, Dorkman is now on these boards. Hope to see you here more often! On the TFN boards you're one of the only individuals with... well... talent/experience/knowledge and I can say that I've learnt a lot from you and the others. I'm NitroBlade on those boards, not a big poster, but once in a while.

Can't wait for RVD2! Looks amazing!

After RVD2 do you have any projects lined up? Or are you trying to spend your time finding some work in the industry? Or both?
 
Hey hey... Just wanted to see if anyone else was going to attend the screening on Saturday the 24th? I'll be there with a few friends.

and scott.. I wish I had a high quality version of the newly scored Art of the Saber, but that's all I got from the Ho brothers. (actually, the only version I have is actually mix in at the wrong spot, but they never got a chance to fix it.) (plus the vocals are a raw mix with no reverb which urks me everytime I watch it)

yup yup!
/j
 
Since some people here will find this interesting...

As you may know if you've checked the website, a few weeks ago we rented Capitol Studios for half a day and recorded the score to RvD2 with a 60-piece, professional orchestra.

A lot of people think it's awesome that we got an orchestra, but even I didn't really understand just how much like a "real" score it would sound.

Check out a 30-second preview of the score here.
 
Wew hew! SOunds Fantastic! Can't wait to hear it to picture. Who's the composer for your project? Is it the drummer from BSG? orr..?

Kudos on getting your film score with a live orchestra :)

/j
 
Congrats on the screening tonight fellas. GOod thing you found a power chord or I would have demanded my money back!!! :)

I think the world will enjoy your short and best of luck to it's success on the March 1st release.

Cheers!
/j
 
It's released and man is it hot. If anyone ever needs HVX footage that really sells it as a "film looking" cam then watch this fight. :) Congrats to Dorkman.

Check their site for details.

- Kyle
 
Just watched it. Great job all around! The choreography and effects were movie grade. Now if only you guys could flip and stuff...Heh maybe we'll see that in RVD3
 
That's some darn fine work there Michael. Smack Ryan on the back for me, and say good job as well!

I was waiting for this to come out Thursday, and then I ended up pulling an all nighter with my 3D application, and didn't get a chance to see it until late last night!
 
hey guys! Congrats on the release of DVD2.. 90,000 views on uTube is definitely something to be proud of. Keep up the success and good luck on the bts and OST sales. What a Great way to make your money back. :)

Cheers!
/j
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top