What the hell took so long to put this thing online?
Like I’ve been telling everyone, the big obstacle has been finding a method that most importantly prevents unauthorized duplication…or at least severely hampers the ability for people to make commercially viable unauthorized copies. Basically, this is being done as a legal safety net, about which I warn in the film’s opening disclaimer.
After examining many options, I was left only with using Flash video, as despite its relative ease of nature to copy, it’s still more difficult than ripping from a regular movie file, not to mention that with the video control options floating on it, it’d make for a very annoying experience if you were to attempt copying it straight into a video. ^_~
EDIT (01-16-2015): I finally caved and put it on Youtube in 2013 for the DEE Tenth Anniversary project, buuuuut that got messed up later in the year when the audio got taken out by copyright claims. I hope to remedy this by putting it back on the site next chance I get. Sorry for the inconvenience! *_*;;;
Dude, I was at Otakon 2006, and you totally did NOT play the film even though your panel implied that you would. What was the deal with that?
Wow…Otakon 2006 was quite a mess…and not just with “FFvsKBB” either! But that’s somewhat unrelated, so I’ll save you the obscenity-laced details.
LOOOOONG story short, I was prepared to screen the film one last time during fan parodies, THEN do a comprehensive panel with video clips. However, because nobody informed me that I had to do a disc check with Video Staff, I never found out until FIVE MINUTES BEFORE THE PANEL that my discs (ALL of the copies I brought, mind you) didn’t work with their hardware. It didn’t help that since basically the majority of the crowd hadn’t seen the film and, as per agreement with my crewmembers who were on panel, we’d just scrap the panel and show the film if it turned out like that. In summation, if you have a problem with how that went, bitch to Otakon on my behalf for leaving out that important detail that didn’t allow me to prepare more thoroughly for an emergency situation of that sort. If you do, I’ll give you a cookie
(Disclaimer: Mario means a metaphorical one. If you want a real one, buy it yourself.)
Why are there so few Kaiju characters!? Couldn’t you get some more? I mean, Studio Kaiju was helping you after all, right?
First and foremost, if it wasn’t obvious enough by the emphasis on this having been a fan film, no, I did NOT receive any help from Studio Kaiju. Tempting as the notion may have seemed to seek out their help, to be realistic, that would have been like playing Russian Roulette with a six shooter and five chambers filled with bullets. In other words, I was already pushing my luck as is, so I didn’t want to guarantee a premature death for this film while attempting to bring it to life in a way I would’ve preferred.
That being said, I was left to see what I could squeak out of my friends, ’cause to be honest, my original vision had a LOT more Kaiju characters involved for certain sequences (such as “Round Two,” and “Final Round’s” factional rumble). Thus, there was a severe limitation to the amount of Kaiju characters I could include in the film. It sucks really badly ’cause I figured since I was gonna be doing a film I’d get a bunch of other Kaiju characters involved, but whatever…you can only go so far with so few resources. ^_~
EDIT: In April 2006, Studio Kaiju got their hands on it, and gave it a thumbs-up by declaring me the “Otaku Fan King” for that month. Things went further than that when prior to the “Someone Must Die!” event at Anime Boston that year, one very prominent member of the performing team (if you knew who he was, you’d realize I do not exaggerate when I say that) even expressed to me personally that he would have been interested in playing the role he’s known for in Kaiju Big Battel in the film itself…and all for the price of travel fare! This just goes to prove how awesome these guys really are…and how I kinda dropped the ball on that one. Ah well…you have my excuse above. ^_^;;;
In “Final Round Part IV”, how the hell is Aeris (who just “died” in the previous scene) still alive?
Hooooo boy…This was one of those things that bothered me immensely from the moment that things started going haywire in the last week of the film…Ok, LONG story short, after having to write our actress off the set because she needed to catch a train home, we had to not only work around her NOT being there after the dance-off, but somehow explain how she was able to be there when it went down. It was at that point the continuity of Aeris being alive started to fall apart. It didn’t help that I forgot to notate it for the “Final Round” commentary shoot, and thus I wasn’t able to slip in a line thru the commentators about her “reappearance” during the commercial break and thus salvage that. So, that didn’t escape me, and although I wanted to remedy it, there was quite literally no time. 0_0;
Why is “Behind the Fantasy” so LONG! Can’t you just trim it out of the movie?
This is by far one of the most controversial aspects of the film…and to a certain extent, I completely agree with this criticism. However, what needs to be understood here is that for every minute of “Behind the Fantasy,” there is a minute of footage I never got to shoot because of my budgetary restrictions. So in essence, it was contrived as a simple-yet-effective “filler segment” for the film. What ended up happening, however (and this is why I stubbornly keep it in the film when screened as a whole), is that these segments not only allowed me to make out-of-story jokes about the various industries that inspired this film, even real-life relations and other absurdities, it also allowed me to flesh out some of the characters and show how they know each other in the context of this story, and why they act the way they do…even if they seem like human set pieces most of the time.
This, by far, is the biggest reason why this remains in the film when screened at conventions. You see, in the original audio that served as the script for the story, beyond the narrators and commentators, the only real characters that had anything to do were Tidus, Shuyin, the Persocoms (who had no lines either), and Dr. Cube. The characters who appeared in Final Round (and by default in most cases, “BtF“) were never even supposed to BE in the fight in the first place! Thus, when included in the main film, I figured “since many sacrifices were to be made due to budget and time, I might as well do something unorthodox and potentially amusing.”
My final conclusion however would be that if I were to ever do it all again (albeit with a real budget and everything), I’d make “Behind the Fantasy” a stand-alone counterpart to the main film, since I believe it serves a good purpose…and allows a way to rip on things in character. ^_~
EDIT: As you notice, in the internet-ready edition of “FFvsKBB,” “BtF” has in fact become a series of stand-alone segments that are located on DEE’s YouTube page. So, for those of you who enjoy this segment, you can still see it, just not as it originally appeared in the convention screenings of the film. It is found on the site censored since I was taking the versions you see from an already segmented version of “BtF” that only had the censored tracks.
Oh, and for those wondering why comments are disabled on all those videos, it’s because I’m only using YouTube for distribution purposes, not as a video message board. Catch my drift? ^_~
In “Final Round”, why are there little to no sound effects during the Big Battel?
It’s really a two part answer, one of which is practical, the other artistic. The practical one is that, quite honestly, by the time it was finished there was almost no time to add in as many sounds as would be preferred for a rumble of that nature. Hence, I opted to just crank the music up and let the beats of the songs cover for it. Artistically, if you’ll notice (with an exception or two), all the sound effects return when the “KBB TV” logo disappears from sight. This is because I was going for a “live television” type feel, although given that I couldn’t change the frame-rate to make this distinction easier, I figure this was pretty effective, ’cause let’s be honest: real life impacts don’t make the kind of sounds we’re used to in the movies and on TV, so I figured I could get away with at least that little license. ^_~
Is that your real torso?
…
No, I used a stunt torso, which they make really cheap and hyperrealistic.
*pause*
Yes, yes it is. ^_^
Can I have your torso?
If you work hard, then yes you can. Heck, you can even surpass mine with ease if you try hard enough. If you mean literally tear it off my body and wear it, then you’re a freak and stay away from me. 0_0;;;
Are you a natural blond?
HELL no. 0_0
What sorts of changes are there from your original audio script and the film?
Glad you asked! The principal change revolves around the expanded role of the Final Fantasy characters, who for all intents and purposes, did not exist in the original audio. From having them appear in “Final Round” to the addition of the “Behind the Fantasy”, this entire group of characters gets more time to shine, and as a result, many new moments that made their way into the film were possible. A great example of this is the “betrayal” segment where Seifer and Rinoa jump to Cube’s side in “Final Round.” Although a means to work around a shortage of extras for Minions, it provided a new take on events in the story that I never would have done if I’d gone with everything as it was in the “script.”
Another notable change, and one which unfortunately has a negative impact on one character’s role, is the addition of Agent Smyth in “Final Round’s” commentary. As you could probably surmise from seeing Joey in the commentator squad, Yugi Moto was originally supposed to be the second commentator. Due to an inability to acquire the costume in time, this was a last minute switch that occurred to salvage the thing. Although at the time it felt like a cop out, in retrospect, it made more sense and made what was supposed to be kind of a throwaway character (Smyth) into a more relevant one.
Other major changes include:
- Addition of Shuyin fighting his way into Dr. Cube’s Lab (“Round One”)
- The setting of New Zanarkand (“Round One”/entire film)
- The Wedding Scene, additional dialogue in “Final Fantasy Fists of Fury”, and the Riku/Squall/Plantanos segment “The Fast and Los Plantanos” (“Final Fantasy Fists of Fury”)
- Additional action with the Agents, expansion of Smyth role. (“Round Three”)
- Omission of Dr. Cube’s Minions being the ones to wear down Shuyindus and replacing it with Dr. Cube himself doing the beating. (“Final Round Part II”)
- The Agents returning after the Battel, altered monologue for Connery to reflect some of the changes that were made in the wake of the film. (“Final Round Part IV”)
Is there going to be a sequel?
HAH. In case you didn’t get the implication of this during the director’s notes, my reason for wanting to do a number of spin-off projects and no direct sequel is simple…the entire STORY is a sequel OF ITSELF! Originally, Round One was the be-all-end-all story until I decided for kicks to see where I could go with it. This led to “Final Fantasy Fists of Fury,” which only teased at there being a Round Two. It was when I recorded Round Two that it just kinda snowballed into the rest of the story from there. Henceforth: no sequels, just spin-offs.
Why do the costumes, acting, audio quality, and other such things suck?
…*blink…blink…blink*
IT’S A FAN FILM FOR F***’S SAKE! x_x; I mean, if you read the director’s notes, you’ll see how much I had working against me, and any reasonable person can at least conclude that, given the limitations compared to my grand vision, many sacrifices had to be made, even ones that I had originally planned to compensate for. It was a very uphill battle indeed and thus, for what I managed to accomplish, it wasn’t too bad, despite all it’s flaws. After all, ask anyone who goes out to make a film of any sort, and they’ll tell you they had some measure of trouble along the way.
As rewarding and fun as it is, let’s be honest here – no matter how large or how small the project, it’s a pain in the ass and problems pop up all the time. If it’s a piece of cake and there aren’t ANY problems, then the person who told you that is either a liar or made the crappiest piece of crap to ever be crapped out of a crap. That or a Uwe Boll movie.
This leads me to the final, and very much related question of…
If you have time now, why not go back and fix the problems with it?
The reason I refuse to do that is because it’s basically pouring more money and effort into something that is over and done with. What’s more, the only reason I’ll return to this particular story and this film in the future would be if I got a Hollywood deal and lots of money so I could do it the way I wanted to this time around and eliminate all the problems I (and unsurprisingly, audiences) had with it.
Besides, I’ve had to slightly tweak and recut this thing numerous times for convention DVD submissions (namely to make minor tweaks for 2006), as well as the version you see online, so suffice it to say, I need a bit of a break from this thing. ^_^