Rewind a few years. Our crudely animated fan film “Nintendo: Oldschool Revolution” was getting 6,000 hits an hour. This went through my head as I stared our newest, and vastly superior film. I remembered how much attention I used to get with my fan films…but I didn’t miss it or regret my decision to step away.

This is my last article for Fan Film Follies.com. I’m just too busy. My back hurts and my head is spinning. We’re submitting our feature film to Sundance and then focusing our attentions to our animated TV pilot. There’s a lot going on. Not tooting my own horn, and not really complaining either. I love and hate it. I asked for it, though…and I got it.

A couple of years ago, I had decided that “The Greatest Fan Film of All Time” would be our last fan film. Fan Films are easy. Even the worst get attention just because they feature previously established characters that people will watch no matter what. Walking away from that spotlight was hard, but it was necessary in order to grow. It never really felt right before that. It never felt like we’d earned the attention. Hell, even “Greatest Fan Film” was an attempt to ignore the easy publicity. I made it 45 minutes long. Too long for a quick, in-the-office viral video. I didn’t care. I wanted an epic so I made one. Now, two years later, I shudder as I watch it. Crappy, rushed editing. Terrible pace. Some great lines, fights, and dialogue. Some of it, not so great. Still, I love it and I appreciate it. It was a step on the ladder. I learned from it and moved on. Some other fan filmmakers are doing the same. Some of them aren’t.

Let’s explore with some familiar names from the world of FAN FILMS.

Christopher Notarile. He’s made some fan films that are pretty popular. Some are pretty solid. Like most fan filmmakers, he’s done his Ledger’s Joker impression and put it online for the world to see. He’s got some skills. He’s got a style and a vibe to his films that, like it or hate it, is distinguishable. Right before I started this, I visited his Facebook page. It says “Hollywood’s Best Kept Secret”. I wonder how long that’s been there. Hollywood’s not a town known for keeping it’s secrets very well. Chris (like me), is annoyingly cocky sometimes but the truth is that (like me), he’s getting older (tho, we’re clearly not getting OLD). We’re both pushing 30. Time to “make the leap” to serious films. He’s doing it. About damn time. Spandex was fun but what did it ever really get him? Like me, it’s exciting to have internet fanboys worshipping your work, but being taken seriously by the people and producers who matter is a different beast entirely. Best of luck to him. May he make the leap.

Aaron Schoenke. Another solid fan filmmaker. His growth from project to project is undeniable. When all is said and done, he’ll probably have had more influence on the world of fan films than anybody ever has. Only Fiorella and Collora come close, but in my opinion, Schoenke is leaving them in the dust. Anybody can make a trailer exciting. Anybody can make 3 minutes fast paced and gripping. Schoenke is slowly learning to make 35 minutes as compelling as a 2 minute rollercoaster ride. When and if he ever makes the leap to real filmmaking, he’s going to make a mark.

John Fiorella. The guy made Grayson. Compelling, intelligent, and cohesive…even if it was only a trailer. I’ve spoken to him a few times and he’s incredibly nice…but where is he now? What is he doing? Grayson was released SIX YEARS AGO and nothing came after. The team of he and Gabe Sabloff seemed to have so much steam when I first started making films. I worshipped them. Now, it’s like they’ve dropped off the face of the earth. It’s a shame. I hope they make a non-fan film related comeback and show the world what they can do, be it together or individually.

Chris Bouchard. The Hunt For Gollum was pretty cool. I even showed it to one of the Lord of the Rings producers and he dug it. Check out Bouchard’s IMDB page and you’ll see a few other fan films, but nothing of any real worth to a studio and no real proof that he’s worth making an investment in for a real film. That’s not to say I don’t think he could do it. I think he likely could…but could he do it with his own characters and stories? Would you even know who he was if Tolkien hadn’t created Middle Earth all those years ago? Probably not. All that talent and he’s never really shown what he can do with it. I think he will eventually. I think he could do it right now.

Sandy Collora. He never did get that gig directing a big screen Superman or Batman film. His short films (Batman: Dead End and World’s Finest) were an attempt to prove he could handle it. So, WB sees that he made a so-so Superman short. Every director in Hollywood could make a so-so Superman short. Hell, a lot of them could make an AWESOME Superman short. None of them do. Know why? Because it doesn’t do ANYTHING to land you the job. It doesn’t do or mean a damn thing.

Make no mistake, these guys have the tools. Also, I know that I am perfectly able to be placed on that list. God, so many of the guys I listed here (and plenty others too) are incredibly talented individuals. They have such huge fanboy fan bases. So many viral videos. So many hits on Youtube. But in the end, none of it matters. None of it matters because all of their fame and all of their success is based on a huge, blistering short cut. Somebody else’s material. In the end, the fan films they’ve created have zero influence on Hollywood. On the flip side, it may have been fun to watch and it may have been an awesome homage to characters we love. That’s okay. I get that. Fan films can have heart. They can be fun. They can resurrect characters that Hollywood has left to die or raped entirely (Cyclops, anybody?). If only for a fleeting moment, they can make it feel like it’s ALMOST about to finally happen on the big screen. But it’s not. That’s the sad reality of fan films.

The funny thing is, I like fan films. Good ones, anyway. I just care about the guys making them with hopes of making the leap to the big time. If you just wanna make fan films forever, that’s fine too. Have fun. But, if you think it’s gonna score you a three-picture deal on the new Fantastic Four movies, think again. Of course, there are always those wacky, one-in-a-million exceptions to the rules, but that’s why they’re called “exceptions”. Reality isn’t so easy.

For those who are currently “making the leap” and for those who are planning on doing it soon, GOOD LUCK. Say goodbye to your instant viral videos and your loyal fan film fanbase. Learn your craft, pay your dues, and let nothing stop you. Hopefully, we’ll all meet at the top!

Thanks to Chris with Fan Film Follies for letting me write these monthly articles. It was fun and a good form of therapy. I’m still shocked at how successful the Superman article was a few months ago!

See our trailer here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

TAKE CARE, ALL!!!!!

Larry Longstreth
4Reelz, LLC
4Reelz.com

Fast forward to today. Every comic book, novel, video game, or other famous media is either in development or already on the fourth film of the franchise. My question is this: Have any of them REALLY panned out the way we once thought they would? In my opinion, the answer, with some exceptions, is “not really”.

As a kid, I worshipped Wolverine. Who didn’t? Still, I knew Cyclops was the leader…even if I didn’t like him. Wolverine and Gambit were cool, but they followed Xavier and Cyclops. In 5th grade, I didn’t understand how such cool rebels could respect guys who were so square. It was about mutual respect and teamwork. Being obsessed with the “cool” image, I couldn’t get that. I do now, but I didn’t then.

Growing up, I remember being blown away by all of the character contrasts. While my folks would flip through a comic and scoff at the size of the women’s breasts or the corny powers and dialogue, I was unbelievably frustrated that they couldn’t grasp the underlying themes. Racism. Teamwork. Morality dilemmas where it seems you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. I daydreamed about an epic X-Men movie filled with teamwork, personality clashes, and beautiful messages about doing the right thing even when it’d would be easy to justify doing something else instead. I knew that if somebody made an X-Men movie and they did it right, it could be more than just some popcorn pop culture. It could be cinematic greatness and even the know-it-alls would have to admit that maybe there was something to those damned X-Men stories.

Unfortunately, The X-Men movies came and went. Oh, they certainly made money and they definitely impressed the casual movie-goer but my dream of cinematic greatness was like Xavier’s dream of mutants and humans co-existing, completely forgotten in the name of being cool instead. The colors and personalities were toned down for what people claimed was “realism”. Everybody wore black leather instead of the admittedly over-the-top yellow and blue suits. Nobody in the films had any personality and the film was written in a way that if Wolverine wasn’t your favorite character, there was nothing going on worth watching. Xavier was poisoned and put in a coma. Cyclops pouted and brooded, an obvious design on the part of the writers to make Wolverine more likeable, while Storm looked lost and Jean flirted with Wolverine while Cyclops and his jealousy kept her on a tight leash. Wolverine, on the other hand, had all of the fight scenes and cool lines. It was, in every way, a “studio film”. I understand the business side of things, but there was no effort made to make the movie anything more than a cash-in on what was popular. Gone was the brilliant undertone about working together despite personality differences. To be honest, at 18 years old, I enjoyed the movie the first time I saw it because I loved Wolverine…but when I went back and read some old comic books, I realized what had really happened. They’d pissed all over everything.

The sequels were even worse. The second time around, Xavier and Cyclops were kidnapped and Wolverine (now a big name celebrity along with Halle Berry) led the rescue mission to save them while also exploring his mysterious past and, of course, having a bunch of fight scenes. Even more infuriating was the half-assed attempt to make the film appear as if it were a deep study of racism and prejudice and the need to be fair and open minded. Of course, that selfless message is completely nullified when all but two characters are being shit on because they’re not popular enough, but audiences didn’t seem to mind or notice. They raved about how cool Wolverine was and how awesome Hugh Jackman was as an actor, but I was really disappointed. I felt like the story’s integrity was being kicked in the nuts repeatedly as the cash cow was milked of every drop until the milk was gone, the teets were chafed, and small drops of blood were dripping out. Still, they kept on milking until the cow was completely dead. By the time X-Men 3 ended, Cyclops, Xavier, and Jean were dead and Wolverine and Storm had taken over the team, while their counterparts, Hugh and Halle, had taken over creative control. Hugh was even the producer of the films. The message about working together and everybody being equal was dead. Buried. Lost in the rubble. The fourth film was simply titled “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”. More mysterious past. More fights with people nobody remembers. More bs. Not a single spec of greatness or heart. Of course, it made huge money, keeping the door open for more inevitable “Wolverine and those X-People” adventures.

Be careful what you wish for.

The Spider-Man franchise was a tad better and definitely peeked with the second film, but crumbled under the weight of both audience and studio demands of the director and what he should do. It did, however, kick off the next decade of filmmaking and proved that if something has name power, you can bet your ass there’s going to be a movie about it.

Transformers. Ghost Rider. Daredevil. Harry Potter. Hellboy. G.I Joe. King Kong. Jonah Hex. Constantine. Star Wars 1-3. Elektra. Friday the 13th. Halloween. Street Fighter, The Legend of Chun Li. Twilight. Punisher. Hulk. Eragon. Iron Man. Indiana Jones and the Whatever of the Who Gives a Shit. Die Hard 12. Rocky 17. Hell, even a movie about Facebook is in the works! C’mon already!!!

Okay, so there are a few “cool things” in that list. Rocky Balboa was a great send off. Downey’s Iron Man is a little bit annoying with his “ain’t I a stinker” routine, but a little bit cool too. Hellboy 2 was a huge improvement over the 1st. And, to be honest, the Star Wars prequels were in the works before Spider-Man started the trend. That being said, 95% of what takes place in movie-land as a result of those titles is absolute garbage. We obsess over nostalgia and fond memories and Hollywood knows that. So, Hollywood does what any wise business man would do. It takes a trip to the bank to cash in. What we get as a result is a half-baked, sloppy, vague homage to what used to be awesome. We get our fond memories of something ruined as movie-land whips up a giant, idiotic turd painted gold and tied in a ribbon in an attempt to reel in every demographic possible. While morons are talking about how hot that one chick is or how cool the explosions were, the fans who loved the original content are having their memories raped and left for dead.

So when I hear that my favorite comic book/movie/book is being made into a film, I no longer get excited. I simply become indifferent. I know that chances are they’ll turn it into a vague, pandering, dumbed-down tale with no heart. Sometimes, I’m proven wrong and I’m given hope. Usually, however, I’m not.

There are, of course, exceptions. Superman Returns was okay. Not a studio popcorn fest and definitely lacking in the action department, but a creative and visually awesome take on an American myth. The new Batman films are pretty cool and Lord of the Rings is awesome.

So what makes those different? Simple. Not just fanboys know what they are. Everybody does. Even when the current remakes and sequels trend dies, there will still be Batman and Superman movies. There always have been. Always will be.

In closing, the truth is that as much as I complain about all of the nonsense, I asked for it. WE asked for it. Did we really need a movie about giant cars fighting each other? Probably not. I’m to blame. So are you. We’re the ones who stood at the bus stop with our buddies talking about how awesome an X-Men movie would be. We’re the geeks who go to those awful Harry Potter movies even though we know they suck just because we like the books so much. We’re the ones who will see Indiana Jones 5, knowing it will probably suck, just because we know how awesome he used to be. We’re the ones who did all of this. Us. The self-obsessed generation that thinks that if it happened in the 80′s, it must have been awesome. Can you really blame Hollywood for cashing in on it? Not at all.

We fanboys have an enormous influence over Hollywood right now and we use it to remake and rehash and to examine our childhoods when instead, we should be going forward. Shame on us. Shame on the fanboys. It’s time to quit looking back. Time to start creating new memories for new generations, rather than selfishly obsessing over our own.

Fanboy and Fangirls: It’s time to grow up.

Larry Longstreth
4Reelz, LLC
4Reelz.com

I’m not just talking about comic books, cartoons, or movies. These two characters in particular are bigger than that. Especially Superman. He’s the equivalent of a modern day “Hercules” or “Dracula”. He’s the biggest name in our young country’s very own mythology. And yet, a lot of people hate him.

“He’s a goody”. “He’s too strong.” “He’s too overpowered and that’s not interesting to me and I can’t relate to it”. These are the common complaints about “The Big Blue Boyscout.” From a weekly comic book standpoint, those are sort of valid arguments as to why it gets old watching Superman punch his way out of every problem. With a growing array of superpowers, the Man of Steel has a harder time finding ways to make a fight last longer than three seconds than he does finding ways to win it. From that standpoint, and assuming that for some reason, a character’s greatness is defined by his physical struggle with a stronger villain, then yes, Superman isn’t as cool as Batman.

Superman has been KO’d by Captain Marvel. He’s been punched out by Green Lantern and outsmarted, outmaneuvered, and outdone by Batman more times than is worth mentioning. While it’s true that Superman has also defeated all of those guys (and just about everybody else) at one time, the fact remains that writers and fans seem to go out of their way to hurt or diminish the character of Superman every chance they get. When he’s doing the “good cop/bad cop” routine with Batman as “The World’s Finest”, Superman automatically loses 50 IQ points so that he’s the Watson to Batman’s Sherlock. He’s dumbed down to make Batman look smarter. When he’s buddying up with The Flash, he’s automatically only as fast as a speeding bullet. He’s written to be a naive, preachy, out-of-touch goody-two-shoes in a world filled with realistic, gritty, cool heroes. We live in a time and culture that obsesses with what it believes to be “reality”. We call Spider-Man the “every man”, despite the fact that he can jump 60 feet. We call Batman the an example of every-man human achievement, despite the fact that he never had to work a day in his life. Superman is the guy who goes to work every day like a normal guy despite the fact that he doesn’t have to. The guy who never has emotional breakdowns because his superhero career takes up too much time. He’s an example of everything a man should be…and what do we call him? Unrealistic.

The entire mythology of Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, The Daily Planet, and everything else related to Superman is absolutely common knowledge. The term “superhero” comes from Superman himself. The entire genre is named after him. Without him, there would be no Batman, no Spider-Man, no Wonder Woman. There’d be no superhero genre. People who have never read a comic in their life know who Superman’s girlfriend is. He’s that mainstream, that iconic, and that influential on pop culture. And yet, he’s always accused of being passe. Why is that?

In my opinion, it’s for the very simple reason that people are flawed. They can’t stand seeing somebody else, real or not, doing the right thing when they aren’t strong enough to. Pretend for a minute, that Superman is real and a part of our world. He’s really that strong. He’s really that noble and good. He hasn’t done what 99% of us would do and used his powers to pick up women, make quick money, or control the world. Nope. He simply uses his powers and the influence of a modest, all-American upbringing to be a MAN. He leads by example. How would our world react to a person like that? The wisest of us would look to him as an inspiration and as proof that we don’t have to be cold or heartless to get by in life. The foolish would worship him as a God, which he is not. Most of us, however, would grow to hate the sight of the man who makes us feel so small, useless, and impure.

Is Superman perfect? No. He is, after all, only human. Yeah, yeah, you nerds. I know he’s an alien…but by “human” I mean that he’s just as tempted as the rest of us to take the short cuts. The difference is that he almost always doesn’t. Alex Ross once said that “Superman is the strength that American doesn’t and shouldn’t have.” That’s an amazing thought. If one country or person had all of that power, the rest of us would be scared to death of what he might do with it. America has a lot of power now and is forcefully trying to police a world that can’t realistically be beaten into being a better place. So imagine Superman is real and has all the power of a dominant country…and he actually uses it the right way and for the good of mankind. Is that believable? Maybe. Maybe not. Is that kind of integrity common in today’s world? No freaking way. If he were real, Superman the person, would become what Superman the character, is today…A punching bag for the jealous, untrusting, jaded, and unworthy. We wouldn’t even believe him when he said he didn’t want to rule us. We’d doubt him. We’d suspect he was lying. We’d fear and hate him. We’d say he was “full of it” simply because we HAD to believe it. After all, if he’s actually telling the truth and he’s actually that good…what does that make us? That insecurity and mistrust is not his fault. It’s our’s.

The greatest Superman stories don’t involve a giant robot built by Lex Luthor that kidnaps Lois and attacks Metropolis. They don’t involve a race across the world to stop two missiles or a fight against the Hulk to prove who’s stronger. The best Superman stories are bigger than that. Reading “Peace on Earth” or “Kingdom Come” are proof that Superman’s struggle goes far beyond silly physical confrontations. It’s not about how cool his costume looks, how “bad ass” he acts, or how popular he is. It’s not even just about power. It’s about having the integrity to know how to use that power when you have more of it than everybody else. Imagine if he were like Batman, brooding and manipulative. The world would be a doomed, dark place, ruled by the fear of the man in the sky. If he were like Spider-Man…emotional and insecure, the world would be effected by it. Our greatest champion…the crybaby. What if he behaved like Wolverine…kicking asses, murdering, and ignoring rules because he didn’t feel like following them? He would inspire millions to be self-centered rebels and the world would be anarchy. Superman is Superman because he has to be. He is called a boyscout in a very derogatory manner by those who have no idea how hard it is to carry the burden he carries. He’ll never be the most popular or the most liked, but that’s the price of being great.

Superman is not outdated and will always be relevant if you have the wisdom to see and comprehend what he truly is. It’s not about a man in blue and red tights. It’s about us. It’s about right and wrong. Sometimes the concepts can be or sound cheesy or annoying, but they’re always important. There is no greater lesson to be learned than that of integrity.

Superman’s ethics, ideals, look, powers, haircut, and mythology may all seem like they don’t fit into the modern era of superhero culture, and that is exactly what makes him the single most important part of it.

Larry Longstreth
4Reelz, LLC
4Reelz.com

See, I am way too busy with our current feature film production to whip up an article about some dude with a camera who dresses like Spider-Man or the latest X-Box shooting game that we’ve all lost our friends to. I am far too mentally and creatively swamped… so I’ll write something a little different. I’ll write what’s on my mind.

I, too, was a fanboy. I still am, to an extent, but I’ve managed to build some sort of life priorities. I think it’s safe to say that those priorities (raising kids, pursuing a career) keep me from fitting under the “raving lunatic fanboy” category, which is good… because I have a girlfriend and would like to keep her. Still, the dreaming nerd inside me will never die. I am, after all, a FILMMAKER.

You know how people who care about you will tell you “Don’t put all your eggs into one basket”? It sounds like good advice. However, those same people will also tell you “Go after your dreams no matter how unlikely” in the same breath. The funny thing is, you can’t achieve your unrealistic dreams without putting all of your eggs in one basket. You could give it a half-hearted attempt, while mainting a “plan B” in case it doesn’t work out, but then that’s not REALLY going after them, is it? The ones who make it are the ones who refuse to take “no” for an answer. The ones who will risk their sanity, social lives, and shame to achieve the impossible. Sounds preachy and tacky as hell, but it still rings true. If you want to make it to the top, you’ve got to go full throttle. Few ever do. Most find solid excuses not to. Most only go up to second gear, saving the other gears for the way back down. However, if you want it bad enough, you have got to “man up”. Be willing to stand naked by the side of the road, because that’s how humiliating it can get. Be willing to live in a car, because that’s how broke you’ll be. Be willing to eat shit, because that’s how the ramen noodles will taste after a while.

What the hell? Is this a sermon about believing in yourself? No, it’s not. Not quite. Well, maybe a little. But it’s also me bitching about how hard this really is.

Nine years ago we started all of this. We called ourselves “filmmakers”, but it would be 5 years before we actually used real film. Of course, that applies to just about every filmmaker these days. There wasn’t much to lose when we started. I was, after all, about 19 years old. Young enough to ruin my life and have it all back on track before I had any gray hair. You know, your parents won’t admit it but the truth is, you can do whatever the hell you want to at 19, within reason, and still not be risking anything. Most people party, do the dorms and frat house thing. Drink a lot of beer, sleep with a lot of girls, and focus on making themselves “qualified” for jobs they don’t want.

Don’t get me wrong, I had a girlfriend and did some partying, but I had this crazy urge to do something with my time that was productive and would lead to bigger and better things. I wanted to be a filmmaker and I promised myself I wouldn’t give up until I was successful at it.

This isn’t an autobiography so I’ll spare the full story, but now I’m 28 years old. I work for a company I helped start called 4Reelz, LLC, that’s operated out of LA, though we’re shooting and animating our first projects here in Ohio. We made a bunch of animated fan films, live-action shorts, and just plain retarded videos. Some of them disappeared into obscurity. Some became these online hits that get us recognized by total strangers in other parts of the country. This isn’t “woe is me” and I’m not complaining, but I definitely paid my dues and I paid them big time.

Today, things are quite a bit better. Nerd and fanboy sites interview me pretty regularly. Newspapers in LA, DC, and of course, Ohio, have covered our stuff. Some Hollywood hotshots have noticed our momentum and a few have even helped us out financially, or with their services.

I’m home in Ohio working on our first ever feature film titled “The Long, Slow Death of a Twenty-Something”. It’s a comedy. Think “Clerks” meets “High Fidelity”. It’s about a group of friends who are slowly realizing how flakey the world around them is as they near 30. It’s a race to become relevant and to accomplish something real before it’s too late. It’s pretty hilarious so far, and I know we can get some sort of DVD distribution or maybe even some NetFlix publicity. We’re also in production on an animated TV pilot called “Four Tanks and a Healer”. It takes place inside an MMORPG like “World of Warcraft” and it’s very “Adult Swim” in style.

I love where we’re at professionally right now, but it’s taken a lot of work to get here. I’m my own boss, for the most part. I’m definitely my own secretary. The faces around me are always changing, but I keep on busting my ass. I even have my first gray hair, right smack in the middle of my chin. I don’t mind, though. Bring the old age on. Thanks to the choice I made and followed through with at 19, the years just keep on getting better. I’m not rich, not by a long shot, but we’ve signed contracts and have a lot of “back-end” pay coming on these projects if they take off, and trust me… they will. Even if they don’t, we get back on the horse and try again… but again, believe me when I say “They will.”

This whole time hasn’t been a walk in the park, though. It’s been hard for my parents, who, while proud of what I’m doing (along with my brother, Aaron, I might add) watch me struggle every day. Plenty of people thought (and probably still do) that it was an unrealistic longshot. Some of them worry because they love me. Some of them constantly berated what I was doing and whispered doubts into my ears and into the ears of others. Some will support me forever. Some help me out because they want to be owed something later on. There are people who are genuinely inspired by what I’ve done and what I’m doing and who have told me so. There are also people who are jealous and cruel. There are positives and negatives to doing something so extraordinary and everybody in the world will have an opinion on it. I learn from both the good and the bad, but I don’t let either dissuade me. Everything I ever wanted to do, I’m DOING. I’m not living on top of the world and the workload is ridiculously stressful and would make some people cry, but it’s what I love to do. Self-respect is rare as hell. A lot of people pretend to have it. Some actually do. I’m one of them. You can’t ask for more than that.

My advice to any people, young or old, who are standing at a crossroads, unsure of whether or not they should “go for it” or “play it safe”, is simple. “Put all your eggs in one basket.” It’s not quite that easy, though. As cheese-tacular as the ending of this article would be if I closed on a motivational line like “Put all your eggs in one basket”, there’s more to it. The darkside of the truth. Here it is: You can’t be a p*ssy. Forget being popular. Forget looking “hot” or being cool. Forget eating out every night or being somewhere social by 8. Toughen up, grow up, and get ready to eat some major shit. Everybody goes in strong, but few people make it all the way through. I’ll bet you can’t do it. Prove me wrong. Our generation could use a few more sets of balls. Most importantly, I say “Good luck”… but it doesn’t matter since that has nothing to do with it.

And for those who aren’t looking to do anything adventurous or risky and who are content being somewhere in the middle, that’s fine too. Not for me, it isn’t… but then again, you’re the homeowner and I’m the shit eater.

Larry Longstreth
4Reelz, LLC
4Reelz.com

There was a time before that, though, that I recall pretty well. I didn’t know what an RPG was. I was in 6th or 7th grade and like every other kid, I played sports, played outside, and played video games. That’s what we did before the internet. We played.

I always had a pretty crazy imagination. Even as a young kid, I remember being bored when a movie or game was too cookie-cutter. I suppose I was a cynical prick even as a child. I was getting fed up with side scrollers in general and couldn’t believe people were still having fun running from the left side of the screen to the right, jumping onto moving platforms over and over, game after game. I would fantasize about stories and surreal scenarios and I wondered why I’d never seen anything that really pushed our Nintendo, Super Nintendo, or Sega consoles to their limits. I’d played and loved every Zelda game up to that point, but those games were pretty linear and straight forward compared to what I thought could really be done.

One day, I borrowed my friend’s Super Nintendo game. It was called “Final Fantasy 2″. Later, I’d find out it was actually part 4 in Japan, but only the second to be released in the U.S, so it was called “2″ on this side of the ocean. I was blown away as this huge, epic fantasy story unrolled before my eyes. It was nerd heaven. I was Cecil, a dark knight ordered by the king to deliver a package to a nearby town. Once I arrived in the town, the package opened itself and turned out to be a curse, burning the town to ashes and revealing the entire thing to have been a set up. “What the hell?! This is like a real story!” That was only the beginning. I sat in front of the screen for five hours, then ten, then twenty. The game logged your hours and time played. About a dozen different characters would come and go. One old wizard joined us but died saving the team. One young girl would leave the group and return later, a full grown woman. It was a brilliant and beautiful story that allowed me to fly anywhere in the world and visit any town whenever I wanted to. This may all be common place in video games now, but at the time, it broke the mold in my eyes and finally delivered in a way I’d always thought a game should try to. When it was over, I was sad. I was truly sad. I’d spent all this time with these characters and it was suddenly over. They weren’t real, but it had felt that way. I’d play them so much, my parents would say “Why don’t you read a book for a change.” They didn’t understand. This wasn’t Mario Brothers. I WAS reading!!!

My hunger for roleplaying games had been born.

I would learn of an entire string of awesome RPGs over the years for these consoles… “Secret of Mana”, “The 7th Saga”, “Eye of the Beholder”, “Illusion of Gaia”, “Secret of Evermore”, and of course… “Final Fantasy 3″ and “Chrono Trigger”. The nerd debate on which of those last two is truly the best console RPG of all time will go on forever. My pick is FF3, but not by much.

It’s not to say that RPGs today aren’t still fun… but back in the 90′s a game HAD to be good because it sure as hell wasn’t going to LOOK good. Now, game developers only try half as hard because the games are pretty to look at and will sell on name power alone. The Final Fantasy series has really taken a nose-dive and the characters are all so cookie-cutter and goofy. Even the men look and act like female cheerleaders. It’s so Japanese and so damned weird that it’s hard to care about them. There are, however, still good RPGs out there. There are obviously the online-MMO’s like “World of Warcraft” or “Everquest”, or solo RPG’s like “Mass Effect 1 and 2″, “Morrowind”, “Knights of the Old Republic”, “Oblivion”, and one of my new favorite games: “Dragon Age”, but the golden age of great RPGs is long gone. In the 1990′s, the Super Nintendo was loaded with awesome RPGs. In 2010, you might find two or three decent ones on the 360 or PS3, and maybe one or two on the Wii. Storytelling is, once again, pretty unpopular (though the hardcore gamers will never fully abandon it) and the flash and gimmicks are dominating the scene once more.

On a side note: If you have a good PC, look up the “GOTHIC” series starting with part 1. If it had been on a console, it would be huge. Also, “Baldur’s Gate” and “Neverwinter Nights” are two amazing PC RPG’s as well.

I wouldn’t feel honest acting like the only great RPGs were 16 bit because it’s just not true, but I can say that anybody with a brain who puts substance before flash should go out of their way to find these awesome titles on the older systems:

Super Mario RPG
Final Fantasy 2
Final Fantasy 3
Chrono Trigger
Secret of Mana
Secret of Evermore
Illusion of Gaia
The 7th Saga
Phantasy Star (Sega)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Hopefully, one day RPGs will re-emerge but I doubt it will happen. They’ll come here or there once in a while but a flood of them isn’t very likely. Part of it is because Square Soft isn’t as great as it used to be. Another reason is that casual gaming is just so damned popular now and that the market for storytelling isn’t that great. Whatever the case, it doesn’t matter all that much… because the games of old are and will always be around.

Til next time, you ugly maggots

Larry Longstreth
4Reelz, LLC
4Reelz.com

When “Independence Day” was voted the greatest science fiction movie of all time, not one single person was shocked or disappointed.

“I wanted to give people something intelligent and thought provoking, but still fun”, said director Roland Emmerich when accepting the award. “For years, the audience had been treated in an almost childish sort of way. (We) wanted to change that. We didn’t want a simple, moronic story of “bad aliens” vs. “good Earthlings”. We wanted something deeper. Something that would leave the audience with a message and something to think about for years to come.”

On those accounts, it’s almost impossible to argue that Emmerich and company didn’t succeed when creating “Independence Day”. The days of the American cowboy tossing one-liners and beating up bad guys specifically designed for the audience to hate without any real reasoning or understanding are long gone, as proven by the smashing success ID4.

“The audience isn’t stupid”, says co-writer Dean Devlin. “They want substance. They want heart. I don’t mean to mock the films of old or their creators, but the sci-fi movies of yesteryear just weren’t cutting it anymore. Films like “Blade Runner” and “Star Wars” were too cookie-cutter for the audience’s tastes. In a way, they were sort of offensive in their simplistic approaches.”

Perhaps the earliest sign that “Independence Day” was going to be an American film classic came when Hollywood icon “Will Smith” first signed on as it’s lead actor. Smith, who is known for devoting himself entirely to his performances, has made it very clear that he has no interest in movie roles designed solely to enhance star power or steamroll the summer blockbuster competition. “I’m here to make art”, said Smith. “I’m not like some of the young stars of today who are more obsessed with image enhancement than they are with filmmaking. I’ve cried in three movies. That, and I’m currently searching for new projects that will require me to gain weight or color my hair gray. I think that more than proves I’m serious about this line of work.”

Smith’s work does speak for itself. While his performance as “The Fresh Prince” silenced most doubters, it was his later work in films such as “Hancock”, “I, Robot”, “Wild Wild West”, and both of Michael Bay’s “Bad Boys” films that really hit the point home that Smith wasn’t just another cheeseball movie star catering to the lowest common denominator with explosions and cornball catch phrases. Of his past work, only “Men in Black” was deemed “disappointing” to the audiences. It was considered by many to be “just another movie about guys in black suits battling aliens and working for secret government branches”. The film’s co-star, Tommy Lee Jones, is one of many actors the fans aren’t familiar with and his performance was extremely lacking when compared to Smith’s. Smith, determined to make it up to the audience, quickly set to work on the film “Wild Wild West”. Audiences were happy again and Will Smith was back on top of the mountain. Smith then began to chose his films very carefully, making it very clear that he was here for noble reasons… and that he refused to sacrifice his integrity in order to gain fame.

Many fans of “Independence Day” often complain that today’s sci-fi films just don’t hold up when compared to ID4. The more recent film, “District 9″, was generally considered to be too cookie-cutter and almost moronic in it’s approach. “It don’t make no sense”, says Gil Lazenby, a longtime sci-fi fan. “I mean, it’s a documentary in one part and a real movie in another. It was confusing so I turned it off and laid down for a while.”

Audiences still long for the days of old, when science fiction was about story-telling and substance. Fortunately, they won’t have to wait long, as not one, but TWO sequels to ID4 have been announced. Even better, acting legend and genius “Will Smith” is set to reprise his role as Captain Steve Hiller, the man who flew one of the alien’s space ships into the mother ship and proceeded to destroy the larger vessle, kill the invading aliens all across the planet, and collapsing their society… all with a virus off of Jeff Goldblum’s laptop.

“It’s time to bring good writing back”, says Dean Devlin.

Yes. Yes, it is. If “Independence Day 2″ and “Independence Day 3″ do well, the maybe, just maybe we’ll get even more films after that. With a little luck, the “ID4″ franchise will continue to dominate the box office, crushing out silly films like “Blade Runner”, “District 9″, and “The Empire Strikes Back” until they no longer exist.

We can dream, can’t we?

I realize the last article I wrote about fan films came off as being a bit harsh and I truly didn’t mean for it to. I stand by what I wrote, but I don’t want to sound like a know-it-all because I most certainly am not one (or if I am, I’m not man enough to admit it).

I’m going to lighten things up a bit for this article and I’m going to focus on something that I am very much a fan of, though it seems like it’s never done quite right. I’m going to discuss animated fantasy films.

Let me clarify. While movies like “Up” or “The Incredibles” are technically in the fantasy genre, I mean “fantasy” as in “Dragons, wizards, etc”. It is so rarely done anymore. Of course, “How To Train Your Dragon” is about to be released and I’m sure I’ll be taking our kids to see it, but there was a time when these films were more than just generic routines. Every animated film these days is the same old routine: “Something cute learns a lesson.” I want to take you back to a time before that unspoken rule had gone into effect.

The 70′s and 80′s in particular were good times to be fans of the animated fantasy film. Ralph Bakshi is arguably the king of the genre, having created the animated epic “Lord of the Rings”, which was pretty much despised by a large majority of the audience, as well as the futuristic epic “Wizards”, which might just be the greatest animated fantasy of all time.

Bakshi’s “Lord of the Rings” used a lot of the technique known as roto-scoping, which saw scenes being acted out by real actors before animators went back and basically “animated” over top of the live-action. It gives the characters a realistic look and feel, but it sort of pulls you out of the fantasy world and feels a bit bizarre and as if you’re watching actors on a stage in a play. It’s somewhere between animated and live-action and you can’t really connect to either universe. We all know the story of the Fellowship of the Ring by now, and if you don’t you probably shouldn’t be on this website. However, the story is muddled here and often lacking any real heart. It can be argued that Tolkien’s writing often suffers from the same issues. Let’s face it, he had a brilliant imagination and a very boring way of delivering it. To get back on point, Bakshi’s “Lord of the Rings” took us all the way to the end of the Battle at Helm’s Deep, which is two-thirds of the way through the entire story. He would not, however, be asked to finish the series. I love Ralph Bakshi’s work. I’m a huge fan…but in all honesty and fairness I cannot recommend this film.

Rewind one year. A made-for-TV animated film known as “The Hobbit” had been released. Obviously the story followed young Bilbo Baggins on his journey with the dwarves and in particular, on his encounter with Gollum. This movie is pretty fun to watch but a little dry at times as again, much of Tolkien’s works can be. It is aesthetically much easier to look at than Bakshi’s take on Middle-Earth, and it’s definiely worth looking for and even buying.

A year after Bakshi’s somewhat disastrous run on “Lord of the Rings”, he did not return to finish the series. Instead, much of the same crew from “The Hobbit” gave the series an unofficial continuation of both their own film and Bakshi’s film with “Return of the King”. The film picks up around the time of Helm’s Deep and when it starts, Frodo and Sam are already trekking toward Mount Doom with the One Ring. Again, it’s beautiful to look at, as was “The Hobbit”, and the series holds more themes and substance than said film. Of course, the Lord of the Rings books in general seem to carry more weight and subtle meaning than does the solo Bilbo adventure, which is still fun in it’s own right. With “The Return of the King”, the series is closed in a satisfactory way. I would definitely recommend checking this one out.

Bakshi also created a cult classic known as “Fire and Ice” using the same technique he did with “Lord of the Rings”. It’s a pretty simple story pitting a warrior and his mysterious friend against an evil wizard (think “Conan”) but it’s cool in it’s own right if you can handle the roto-scoping visuals.

Finally, Bakshi’s animated fantasy masterpiece “Wizards” is not only worth looking up, but worth buying and showing everybody you know. In a futuristic world, an aging, depressed wizard known as Avatar must destroy his evil brother Blackwulf before Blackwulf and his demons control the entire world. Sounds pretty cliche, huh? Well, get this: Blackwulf’s demons and mutants have recently uncovered great historical weapons and archives. They are digging up Adolph Hitler’s propaganda tools, old film reels, guns, tanks, and everything else the Nazis used. The powerful sight of the single swastika unites the evil clans and gives them a feeling of unity and power. The powerful tanks, planes, and guns make the demons perfectly capable of steamrolling over the good humans, elves, dwarves, and otherwise without much of a fight. It’s a beautiful film mixing past and present that deals with morality, betrayal, and a realistic viewpoint of heroes and villains… and the very thin line between them. It’s definitely not for kids but “Wizards” is great. Buy it. Share it. Help support this type of art and get it seen.

Okay, moving on beyond the realm of Bakshi already…

I recently viewed the 80′s epic “The Last Unicorn”. Now, the name of this film tells you immediately that it’s for little girls… and it is. I think. See, the opening scene is a unicorn in a forest talking to a singing butterfly. It doesn’t get much lamer than that. Now fast forward twenty minutes. An evil witch has kidnapped the unicorn to use her as a sideshow freak along with a few other animals she’s magically disguised as mythical creatures and an honest-to-God immortal harpy. The witch explains that she knows the evil harpy will eventually escape and murder her, but that it will forever know her as the one mortal who was able to hold it – thus giving the witch a sense of immortality in her own right. What the hell? Wasn’t a unicorn just talking to a singing butterfly twenty minutes ago? This just got dark. I love it. A few minutes later, the unicorn escapes with the help of a friend and sets the animals – and the harpy – free. The harpy dives at the witch, who laughs and accepts her death with arms wide open, before tearing her to shreds. It’s done off camera, with shots of the heroes cringing. What the hell is going on here?! It’s amazingly dark and scary. It helps provide the once innocent unicorn a glimpse of how dark the world outside her forest is. I really like this movie. It’s filled with some really lame songs by the band “America” and some cringe-inducing girly parts, but it’s pretty awesome anyway. It goes so close to being great but constantly yanks itself back five steps time and time again. Still, look it up. Your girlfriend, wife, or kids will love it… and you’ll be able to watch it without wanting to punch somebody.

Another animated epic fantasy was the made-for-TV film “Flight of Dragons”. It stars John Ritter as a man of science who is sucked into a fantasy world by a wizard in need of his help. Ritter is accidentally merged with the friendly dragon “Gorbash” and the two become one. The theme of the film is that too much science is killing our belief in magic. The fantasy world is crumbling and the wizards who rule it are forced to create a small bubble of land (think a retirement home for dragons, warriors, etc) that cannot be tampered with by our world. The movie has everything a fantasy movie should have, from warriors to dragons to giant worms and evil wizards… but it has the absolute worst pacing of all the films in this article. The first half of the film is nothing but the heroes standing around talking. Just as you’re about to give up, the quest begins and we’re treated to some pretty cool battle sequences. It’s dry in parts, but the cool sequences make up for it. This is worth looking up, but it’s nowhere near perfect. Made-for-TV films always seem to be lacking balls and this is no different.

Now, I wanted to steer clear of the anime genre on this list, but there’s one title I have to recommend. “Record of Lodoss War” is an animated epic series with the greatest characters, plot, and character development of maybe any fantasy movie I’ve ever seen. It’s that good. It starts off with Parn, a young warrior with potential but very little skill, who goes on a quest with, you got it – an elf, a dwarf, a mage, a healer, and a thief. That’s where the predictability ends. Some die. Some live. Some turn evil. It’s beautiful, thought-provoking, and absolutely amazing. Like “Wizards”, you must see this.

There are, of course, other animated fantasies out there but there really aren’t all that many. It’s a genre that seems ripe for the picking. The cut scenes in our video games are so incredibly beautiful and real now that it seems like a crime not to go deeper and just make a movie with that technology. Of course, some have “tried”. The “Final Fantasy” movie was okay, but it wasn’t what people wanted. Fantasy characters and magical creatures were replaced by scientists fighting ghosts. When somebody does venture into the animated epic world, it’s always so dumbed down. That “Final Fantasy: Advent Children” was a moronic trainwreck that was more music video than story. Horrible.

With mainstream animated epics nowadays, there’s always a wise-cracking sidekick and a hero you can’t possibly care about who’s having a constant verbal joust with a love interest you’ve seen a million times before. Where’s the heart?! Where’s the passion on the part of the creators?! Hell, even Disney seems like it had something special in it’s films up until right after “Lion King”, when they just stopped caring. There aren’t many frontiers left, but with all of these generic 3D movies (not all 3D films are generic, mind you), this is just begging to be done right. When somebody finally gives us a balls-to-the-wall, Dungeons and Dragons-style epic where heroes might die and villains might see the error of their ways, and where there’s no time to make a joke in the middle of a battle… when they stop treating the audience like morons and give us something our imaginations can feast on… that’s the day the young male demographic is going to pour into the theatres in droves and say “F*CKING FINALLY”. It’s how I felt when I first saw Peter Jackson’s live-action “Fellowship of the Ring”.

FINALLY, somebody got it right. It’s the kind of epic that’s worth going to the movie theatre 3 times for.

We need that again.

Til next time, Nerds.

As much as I’m a fan of nerd stuff…I just had to make fun of DnD here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hello and welcome to the first ever edition of “Nerd With a Girlfriend”. I’m Larry Longstreth. Just so you know, you might want to check out the short film “Grayson” by John Fiorella before reading any more. See it HERE.

As some of you know, I’ve been around the “fan film” world for years now, though I’ve never quite understood it or fully believed myself to be a part of it. Granted, we’ve made some pretty successful animated fan films and some funny old live-action sketches involving people who thought they were superheroes, but we were never really full fledged fan filmmakers. I say this entirely because we never, ever made a serious one. It was satire, parody, all that stuff. With “Batman’s Gonna Get Shot in the Face” in particular, we were mocking the hardcore fanboys by taking their habit of exaggerating how great their favorite hero is and reversing it entirely. It was fun. It got something off of my chest. I’m a cynic, too much so at times, and this was expression. I’m a comic book geek but I don’t always agree with the world of comic book geeks. So it helped me make my point. That, and it was a stepping stone – because I always knew I wanted to make cartoons some day. More than anything, our fan films were practice. Practice for bigger and better things.

Don’t get me wrong, fan films don’t always have to be satire or tongue-in-cheek. I applaud the efforts of “John Fiorella” and “Sandy Collora”, among others, for their works, but those guys were doing it for a reason. Like us, they were trying to show their stuff – to exhibit their credibility in the hopes that it would lead to bigger and better filmmaking gigs. They were legit, if not entirely legal. If you haven’t noticed, however, those two filmmakers I named haven’t made any more “fan films” over the last few years, and I’m willing to bet they never will again.

I sound like I’m completely against this “art form”, but I’m not. As much as I’ve been just plain weirded out by goofy looking, zit-faced kids in Batman costumes over the years, I get that it’s just another form of crazy fan expression. Times and technology have changed so why doodle a picture of Superman on paper when you can put on a blue costume and nail a green screen to the wall? I get it. It’s fun and you can act out your own fantasies or daydreams and keep them on video forever. If you’re just having fun then by all means, continue on wearing your costumes and filming yourself in the neighborhood with your friends. But, be warned: you’re going to grow up. You’re going to turn 20 if you haven’t already, and then 30, and then 40, and so on. If you want to make films and actually make a living at it, then it’s time for a change. If you ever want to really direct an honest-to-God Batman film for Warner Brothers some day, then for the love of God, stop making fan films NOW.

Forget what you’ve heard about so-and-so, the guy making the Catwoman short film who says he’s “in talks” with Fox. Forget your hopes that someday those guys who made “Grayson” are going to make a genuine version of it for the big screen. Life is not that simple and it’s not that easy. You don’t just do whatever you want to and get rewarded for it. You have to learn to start at the bottom and really, truly learn your craft. No more jumping off of the sofa in the Batman costume and hoping the audience won’t notice it’s not a real semi-truck and that you’re in your mom’s living room. If you want to make REAL “fan films”, the way guys like Chris Nolan get to, then for the love of God it’s time to get real.

First thing’s first. Make a demo if you want to, like “Fiorella” and company did. It can be fun and it can get a lot of internet hits. Guess what, though? “Grayson” was a trailer for a movie that doesn’t exist. OF COURSE it was exciting! It was a series of exciting clips playing really fast. However, the filmmakers did nothing to prove to a studio that they can hold an audience for two hours or keep a film interesting during the slow scenes. They showed us nothing about pacing, acting, or direction. Was it good? Absolutely. Was it sufficient evidence that they deserved to direct a multi-million dollar feature? Absolutely not. As a matter of fact, the story line was really clever – but there are hundreds of “what-if” graphic novels that are just as good, if not better. So, using “Grayson” (arguably the best fan film ever) as an example, what did fan films REALLY get the creators? You can be the judge of that, but I haven’t heard anything else about them since the short came out – and that was back in 2004.

So, if you’re going to make a “fan film” as an example to show your stuff, then do it… but be realistic. It won’t take you to the top of the mountain because it’s just another step up on the bottom of the ladder. There’s also one very important downside – you might get sued.

So, assuming you want to get serious about this, then there are a lot of things you’re going to have to do. First off, learn your craft. You wouldn’t believe how many “fan films” have zero lighting, direction, etc. Learn the mechanics. Learn to use the tools before you try to build a house. It makes a world of difference. When you’re ready, then you can move into fun things like getting an LLC or business license, learning about getting investors and how to get their money back to them when you’re done, and all the rest of that stuff.

Also, stop asking fellow fan filmmakers for their opinion on how well you did. The world of fan films is a somewhat small circle of young guys thinking they’re being nice by always saying nice things. When they do say something somewhat constructive, a quick glance at their work may reveal that they really don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. So, it’s not nice but it’s the truth: you need to put yourself out there for the world to see it and learn to decide what advice is legit and what’s either happy-time sugar coating and what’s just some random guy with a bone to pick. When we released “The Greatest Fan Film of All Time”, I was proud of it – despite a few hiccups – but I’d already made myself a pretty hated individual on the fan film scene, especially considering the name of the film. Random people praised it and some told me it was the funniest or best thing they had ever seen. My fellow fan filmmakers, however, generally ripped it apart. I was disappointed – not in the film, but in them. If I had already made the decision to leave the world of fan filmmaking behind, I was even more sure now. YOU MUST NOT ASK THE AMATEURS! Ask people who will remain unbiased and honest. There were a lot of things that could have been done better, and I picked up on them thanks to help from good filmmakers. However, if I’d had listened to everybody, I’d have been a wreck. Even close friends will either want to sound smart or might be mad about something you did or said two weeks ago. Be very careful what advice you heed and learn to throw the rest aside. That goes both ways. Many a fan-filmmaker is praised for work that is subpar, or even just plain awful. I’ve seen it a thousand times. We should never try to hurt each other (after all, hard work is hard work) but we should be honest, especially with ourselves. You can’t get better until you admit that there’s room for improvement. Don’t let a small audience of ten happy people make you feel safe enough to keep making the same bad movie over and over. Be honest with yourself because it’s the only way you will ever grow.

In my opinion, every creator of fan films should be working toward the ultimate goal of making their own original characters and movies someday. However, some of them are not aiming for that. Some people plan on working a day job and making fan films on the side forever. It’s not what I would do, but that doesn’t make it wrong.

After 9 years of hard, unpaid work on live-action and animated shorts alike, I have just now entered the realm of paid, budgeted projects. They absolutely would not be possible without the internet-fame brought upon us by our animated fan films. So, while I advise people to move beyond the fanboy realm, I understand and appreciate it’s place entirely and I hope it brings similar success to all of you as well.

I plan on keeping this article going for as long as I can and I will continue to monitor fan films, indie films, etc and write articles whenever I’m able. I’m also quite aware of recent professional “fan films” making their rounds on the internet and perhaps I’ll get into that later.

Until then, good luck with whatever you choose to do and may you always move forward.

Larry Longstreth
4Reelz.com