What is WestFest?

CallaghanFilms said:
My fear...

That there is so much bloody effort put into not making a "real western" that we, the audience, end up seeing next to no "real westerns".

Keep in mind, the Western (in its purest form) is the one genre that every leading man in filmdom has wanted to do at least once in his career. That's just how bad-ass it really is.
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I hear you. I just wrote an old fashioned western and I hope to get a location for it.

Otherwise I may offer it up for grabs.

MAH
 
In my book...
Western = At least partially set in the American Frontier; set betwixt and between the Civil War and the time just shy of the turn o' the century.

Outside of this, I'd call it a "period piece"
 
CallaghanFilms said:
In my book...
Western = At least partially set in the American Frontier; set betwixt and between the Civil War and the time just shy of the turn o' the century.

Outside of this, I'd call it a "period piece"
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In general I'd agree with you, but for "WestFest" the mods have made it clear that you can be in any timeframe or location you want, it's more the characters and the themes.
 
CallaghanFilms said:
In my book...
Western = At least partially set in the American Frontier; set betwixt and between the Civil War and the time just shy of the turn o' the century.

Outside of this, I'd call it a "period piece"
Click to expand...


The website referenced for 'information', indicates that a sub-genre "Contemporary Western", can be set in modern times, while retaining traditional valued 'western' themes, motifs, situations (in so far as they are modernized...), etc. So, you can have a singing cowboy ala Roy Rogers, or perhaps a 44 packin' sheriff transfer to New York... or a more contemporary 'western' setting in the US West... or whever the hell... heck some drunk who can only get a job as a carnival side show, complete with fake indians, takes his trusty sure footed horse to merry old Engel Land and wins a major cross-country/steeplechase race... or whatever...
 
Just some interesting aspects of Western films...
- Saloons that housed gambling, music, prostitutes, and shooting.
- Rise of the loner (aka every Clint Eastwood character ever)
- Rescue the damsel in distress
- Code of honor that some people live by. Sometimes respected by the public and other times not (Samurai, Cowboys, ect... even Boondock Saints have this aspect to them)
- Rise of technology and the industrial revolution (Terminator franchise was built in this principle, just a few centuries later). Often contrast with characters that hate thee new technology that everyone else loves.

Hope that helps generate some ideas for people.
 
I'm pretty sure almost everyone's first choice is "real western" but when you start breaking it down there's often no cheap way to go about doing it right, and that's where the other options are going to have to come into play.

"real western" fest would have about 8 movies in it, and no one wants that.


CallaghanFilms said:
My fear...

That there is so much bloody effort put into not making a "real western" that we, the audience, end up seeing next to no "real westerns".

Keep in mind, the Western (in its purest form) is the one genre that every leading man in filmdom has wanted to do at least once in his career. That's just how bad-ass it really is.
Click to expand...
 
I wonder how many films will have this shot in it.... :violin:
*and cue bandito musicale*

4260274152_47953541df.jpg
 
I recently got western as my genre in a 48 hour film competition and ended up winning with this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_BYvTmBrF4

We didn't want to use guns so we took hours thinking of another way to stage a showdown. We didn't have much in the way of western locations so we decided to try and make something like BRICK where the characters act and talk in a different feel then the setting they are in. We focused on making something that dealt with the western concept of a lone man returning to his town to make something right.

Anyway, maybe this will spark someones creativity.
 
In the mean time, place your bets please!

Got me hat laying down on tomorrow twilight.

(i agree, i suck at this cowboy talk)
 
Shawn Philip Nelson said:
If it has to be in a certain timeframe or type(s) of locale, it could limit a lot of our city dwelling bretheren
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Or, make the 3D section one of the hottest....

The Wife and I watched the "New Moon" installment of the Twilight series. The film itself was... uh... well... since neither of us are in the demographic target...

But the special features did have some interesting behind the scenes sequences.

One shot the kids are in the 'highschool' parking lot. Well, they built up enough of
the steps and railing, then had huge greenscreen panels so that they could 'drop in' the brick school house of the previous installment, having made a 3-d model of the
school...

As a totally tangential remark... Michael Sheen who plays Lucien, a werewolf, in the "Underworld" series, apparently has switched his 'kink' and has now become king of the vamps... and Dakota Fanning has become a hot blondie vamp...
 
Ki-Ki said:
In the mean time, place your bets please!

Got me hat laying down on tomorrow twilight.

(i agree, i suck at this cowboy talk)
Click to expand...


To make a good cowboy western, remember to put the metal plate under the sarape, and all will be well...

As I recall Benny Hilld did ok with his 'cowboy' shtick, until he said 'houseton', instead
of 'hewston'...
 
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