Videos
¿Qué Hora Es?
Things to look for in this video:
- The impact/use of setting, clothing, and props.
- The initial set up that lets you see the setting before the action happens.
- The variety of full scene shots versus close-ups. When is it necessary to see the full setting? When should you see just one actor’s face?
- How important was the introduction? Would the video have made any sense without it?
- How important was the title? Did it establish the tone?
¿Qué Hora Es? Parte 2
Spoof on George W. Bush
Things you can do with background
Star Wars, a spoof
A long time ago, Mark Hamill began his career as Luke Skywalker. He was pitted against (spoiler alert) his father, Darth Vader, in a series of epic films that changed the film industry and made it a possible marketing tool for toys. Mark (Luke) won the battle, and the galaxy was saved.
Many, many years later director George Lucas wanted to make more money off toys, so he put the story of how Luke’s father went bad on the big screen. The first movie, Phantom Menace, was a plot disaster consisting of little more than, “Hey, my space ship broke down and I don’t have any spare parts so while I’m hanging out on this desert rock I’ll gamble for the life of some ten-year-old mechanic who also happens to think he’s an Indi race car driver. Do I want to save his mom from a life of slavery? No thanks. Just the boy.”
That was Episode 1. Episode 2 was the improbable match up of Anakin the hot-headed, war mongering show off with a level-headed politician who was way out of his league. So far, George Lucas was bombing out. His scripts were wooden, the acting was bad, and Anakin had not turned evil.
So… in 2004, people were hoping for more. Together with my Spanish 2 class, we drafted and translated a script of what we thought would happen in the final film. We said
- Anakin would go bad because his wife would die during childbirth
- the Emperor would be revealed and the Senate destroyed
- the Clone Army would suddenly turn against the Jedi
- Anakin would slay the Jedi in their own school/training ground
- Anakin would be crazy strong with the force
- Anakin would kill Duku
- the Emperor would say something to Anakin that would make him turn to the Dark Side
- Anakin and Obi-Wan would battle it out near the end
- Obi-Wan would cut off Anakin’s hands
- the Emperor would find the wounded Anakin and put him on his own ship
- the Jedi temple would blow up, be destroyed
- Luke and Leia would be born, their mom would die
- Yoda would get charge over the kids
- and R2D2 and C3PO would spend a lot of time with an elevator
We released our film a full 2 weeks before Lucas released his. On all counts, we were right. Everything we thought Lucas would do, he did. Except in our plot Anakin turned bad out of revenge because his allegiance to the Jedi kept him from saving his wife rather than turning bad out of fear that he wouldn’t be able to save her.
We used props, original music, and bad, bad acting. It took us a week to translate our script, a little over a week to film, and a long, long time to edit. Our film is not on the internet because of all the original music we used. And because it’s cheesy.
But you’re going to make something cheesy, so be okay with that now.
And you’re going to put it on the internet for all to see.
So be careful how much copyrighted music you use. Too much, and your video will get pulled like ours did.
As you watch the film, think about setting, staging, introducing scenes, props, etc. Your film can only be at max 5 minutes long. We leaned heavily on stuff Lucas had made and on insider/fan-based knowledge. If you’re going to spoof something, you’ve got to start very soon.
Don’t forget to follow the directions!
Other Films
Spanish-Ace.com 