Tye
Nelson was not a winner at the FanFilm Awards but we decided to add him due to
his inspiring story. here we asked him a few questions about his journey into
filmmaking.
” What inspired you
to create a film adaptation of a Star Wars Extended Universe novel?
Our original
inspiration was actually a conversation between Jaci and I about putting
together a scene for our showreels, something that neither of us had done
before. We wanted something agressive, a fight scene. When trying to figure out
what would work, and how things could play out, as a Star Wars fan it occurred
to me that we already had something that was written that I could adapt. I
played with the idea of a fight that occurred earlier in the book, where Jaina
took Jacen’s arm, but the final conflict had more appeal and depth for where we
wanted to go, so I adapted that portion from Troy Denning’s book “Invincible”.
Can you tell us
about the novel you chose to adapt from? How did the Author feel about it?
“Invincible” is
essentially the final conflict between Jaina and Jacen Solo. It’s the build up
of the entire “Legacy of the Force” series. Being a Star Wars fan, I’ve read
the majority of the Expanded Universe books since the Thrawn trilogy by Timothy
Zahn came out back in the early 90s. I kept up with everything post Return of
the Jedi and for the most part I enjoyed the stories that were written. Jaina
and Jacen’s story was interesting, they were literally characters that I
watched grow from birth, to being the age we represented in our film;
everything fell in line, Jaci and I looking the age and part of the Solo twins,
we both wanting to explore characters that were engaged in such a heated moment
that had a real connection and history to one another; “Invincible” was the
story that fit our needs.
The author, Troy
Denning, is awesome! We had so much support from him. I had reached out to Troy
when we made public, audition tapes that we submitted to Episode VII. In one of
the comments, a viewer had said we were mispronouncing “Caedus”. I decided to
write Mr. Denning, let him know we were putting together a fan film adapted
from events in “Invincible” and asked how he and the other story group members
pronounced “Caedus”. He gave me an honest answer and we made the change in
post. From then on we kept in contact with Mr. Denning, letting him know our
progress, and he was more than supportive, even posting that Jaci and I would
have made the perfect Jaina and Jacen if Lucasfilm/Disney had gone that route.
We couldn’t be happier with his support, and to me as the executive producer
and writer of the script, if there was anyone who I wanted to impress, it was
Mr. Denning. We were adapting his words. His approval of the work, is better
than any award.
The Nano Killers
are the main obstacles in this story. What are they, and where are we in the
storyline of the book in your film?
The Nanokillers are
something we struggled with, there are still questions about them in comments
on our youtube page. Nanokillers are a genetically engineered weapon that
attacks the very make-up of a living being. Blood samples are taken from a
subject and the Nanokiller is designed to attack that species of life, leaving
all other life alone and unharmed. In Legacy of the Force, the Mandalorians are
targeted, followed by the Hapans. Though by targeting the Hapans it also meant
that Jacen Solo’s daughter would be targeted. That essentially is where we are
in our film. Jacen’s choice between doing what he believes is right for the
galaxy and doing what is right for his daughter. “Right” being the objective
word coming from an unhealthy, injured soul.
How did it feel to
play Darth Caedus? And how do you pronounce that name?
Caedus was fun. In
my initial discussions with the director of the film, Danny James, we had
discussed the need to make sure that Jacen/Caedus wasn’t a stereotypical bad
guy. That there was depth to him, he believed what he was doing was right, that
the ends justified the means. The great thing, is that it was already written,
we had the books to fall back on, and use as examples of why Caedus makes the
choices he was making.
Caedus is pronounced
KY-dus.
What challenges did
you experience making this film?
The biggest thing I
learned from this project, was that no matter how much I thought I was prepared
to go into shooting the film, I could have been more prepared. Almost every
aspect from pre-production through post-production has been a learning lesson
for me and I legitimately thought I was on the ball, that I had either taken
the time to prepare or that I could throw money at a problem to fix it, but in
hindsight, this was essentially my first project that I saw through to
completion. The experience of every challenge I faced was necessary, and
hopefully I can take those learning lessons and apply them to future projects.
Will there be more
films about the Solo family line? Can we expect a series from the extended
universe?”
There are more
films about the Solo family line, both being created by other fans and by
Lucasfilm/Disney. As for me, this will likely be my only foray into the fan
film genre. We enjoyed the process, but the idea is to make films that one can
be paid for and fan films don’t allow for that opportunity.
0 Comments