THE RETURN OF STARBUCK Continution update project

[ernie90125]

Hi all,

As regular visitors will know...for a while now I have been encouraging fans to make our own Continuation to Battlestar Galactica.

Many fans will have seen the website I have made to promote this. It contains many CGI shorts of several minutes each. If you haven't visited it, please feel free to at www.battlestarfanfilms.com

We'd all like to see a Cotinuation episode or movie, but to make it ourselves would be a mammouth effect, as many people pointed out to me....then it occured to me we already have the majority of the episode existing already !

Most people don't accept the Galactica1980 (G80) series as canon....but most DO accept The Return of Starbuck (ROS) as one of the best BSG episodes, and an unreleased gem since it wasn't included on the DVD box set.

What I propose is new scenes showing Starbuck and Cy returning to the Fleet 20 odd years later, and telling the story of what happened.....

This would take the form of a 4-5 minute CGI segment cutting to scenes from ROS, replacing the 'I had a dream' Dr.Zee segments.

We could then pitch the show by sending a DVD of our reworked version to Universal. Hopefully we could enlist the support of key players to support the submission ?

So this post doesn't end up like an essay I am addressing various issues in replies in this thread....to follow in a few minutes....

Please let me know what you all think ?

Daniel (Ernie90125)

[ernie90125]

THE STORYLINE

The first sequence is a viper patrol scouting a system with a large sun that is interfereing with scans. They are ambushed by a Cylon Squadron, which far outnumber them.

They valiantly fight, and the only female pilot's Viper is disabled, and they look to be doomed with re-enforcements too far away to help, when a mysterious ship arrives and evens the odds. The ship is damaged during the fight (notably attenna destroyed) but they defeat the Cylons.

The female pilot is caught in the gravitational pull of the Sun, and a rescue ship is too far away to help. The mysterious ship bravely risks itself to.....just......manage to tractor/tow the crippled Viper to safety.

The Galactica arrives and the mysterious ship is welcomed as a friend. Apollo and a greeting party welcome it in the hanger bay. The hatch opens, and a Cylon walks out....the Galactans are very wary.

"Presenting his Imperious Leader........Starbuck"

Starbuck and the group rejoice and move to the Officer's Mess...where he starts to tell his story....cut to scenes from ROS. At the end he tells how he repaired Cy again and used the Raider to leave the planet. He's just about to continue when Cassie walks in and after 20 odd years they embrace(and/or red alert sounds)......cut to credits.

[ernie90125]

I spoke to David Moss on the phone tonight. He has indicated he is onboard to contribute. Many people will have seen his work, if not check out think linked to files on my website ! His dayjob is created animated figures for computer games, and is prepared to work on creating CGI characters of Apollo and Starbuck.

I have PM'ed a couple of other people who have, or could make, things that seem right for inclusion. But please can other people chime in with what they can contribute. The hope to work on this throughout 2006, so I'm not demanding anyone drop everything right away ! Since this topic is mostly about CGI...that's why I have included this in the Art in Progress Forum.

The audio could be cut out from existing episodes - in the same was Return of a Hero was created.

I hope to make the storyline something that can be fitted into a Continuation lead by either Hatch or DeSanto....I have researched their plot details as much as possible. The episode could actually help them as it shows backstory to the main characters......

DeSanto Example : Why was Starbuck not Cmdr of Galactica whilst a much younger and less experienced Boxey was ? Because he spent the previous 2 decades away from service.

I am also hoping to work towards getting as many 'plus points' for the pitch to Universal. Pitching with a full CGI version of what we propose is a major plus. I also hope that merchandise makers might show an interest.

I also very much hope that fans who own uniforms or prop replicas might loan them to minimise cost to Universal ? And hopefully Richard has kept his Viper replica ?

If we could get a very solid and supported pitch together, for minimal cost, I hope they would consider it.

And if they don't agree ?
The new scenes make for a great fanfilm that I hope fans will accept as 'BSG for the fans by the fans !"

[TwoBrainedCylon]

I authored a revamp of ROS a couple of years ago. It took on a different slant obviously. Mine included a two "current" scenes that flashed back to tell the story. I dumped Dr. Zee and altered the ending a bit. Michael Faries really liked the script and was helping me to get the legal approvals to press ahead.

If you're interested, I'll dig up the script and e-mail it to you.

Sandy

[ernie90125]

Sandy..........great minds think alike ! I'm pleased this idea looks like it could have fanbase support ?

Please check your PM.

[KamikazeAthena]

This sounds awesome! Sadly, I do think my CG is up to snuff to help there. However, when you put it all together, if you need some female voice talent, let me know.

:salute:

[ernie90125]

Hi......thanks for replying.....we will indeed need a female voice...and will keep your kind offer in mind.

So what's if you're not great at CG....please post soemthing you've done anyway ! The more the merrier !

[TwoBrainedCylon]

The idea has potential but also has some significant challenges ... foremost of which is getting an even partly believeable CG version of Dirk and Richard. David Moss is a very talented guy and extremely creative and understands the roadblocks he'd be facing in taking something like this on. I'd like to see some tests when he works them up. If he can pull this off then he's kicked down some pretty thick doors just in showing what can be done by fans.

From experience, I also know that the idea-to-script phase can be very challenging. I see this one having a few obstacles in that regard, namely trying to explain how a raider, especially a damaged one, managed to catch up to a fleet that's been traveling for 20 years. Integrating the CG piloits, deck crew, etc. with the live action ROS will also be a difficult problem without making ROS, which is something of a secondary show to the 1978 series visually, look like its been hacked further with a lot of fan inserts.

Obviously, these are only the tip of the iceberg of challenges you're taking on. However, what you've done here is author an innovative approach that creates opoortunities where they didn't previously exist. My ROS effort was knocked off the table and fell into hybernation primarily because of the logistics of filming two new scene segments and getting Dirk specifically to agree to do them. Michael Faries personal hardships also dropped a serious nuclear bomb on my effort. If you can revive the ROS idea through your own perspective, and pull it off in a clever intelligent manner, I'd love to see it happen.

My suggestion would be to start small. Simply do something like the female Viper pilot being drawn into the sun. Nothing more than 90 seconds of video. Try to do it in its entirety, with music, sound, and the whole bit. See how that works out and then apply those lessons to the rest of the project. That should give you a great idea as to just how big or small the mountain is that you want to tackle.


Sandy

[ernie90125]

I see this one having a few obstacles in that regard, namely trying to explain how a raider, especially a damaged one, managed to catch up to a fleet that's been traveling for 20 years.
Sorry, I must not have been clear about this in my story plot posting. Firstly, the Raider used by the 3 Cylons (who Starbuck and Cy shot) was in mint undamaged condition. This is the ship Starbuck and the again repaired Cy would use leave the planet. Sometime during the next 20 years Starbuck will 'acquire' a new ship far superior to a Cylon Raider. I liken it to the Millennium Falcon, but we must be careful to make it very different visually. This is the 'mysterious' ship we see assist the ambushed Vipers.

Regarding the 'catching up' with the Fleet......The Fleet was moving only as fast as its slowest ship. Starbuck's new ship would be able to go far faster than a slow tug or whatever is the slowest ship in the Fleet. Also, many storylines call for the Fleet to stop at a planet for a number of years....so Starbuck could have been having adventures during this time as he caught up (Spin-off storylines for books and comics etc !!!)

I am pleased to say a skilled mesh maker and I have had discussions about the 'mysterious ship' and he's said he'll see what he can come up with.

David Moss is a very talented fan...he is also currently employed professionally in creating and animating characters for computer games...so is the perfect person to undertake this work. His skills are now greater than they were when he did the 'The Cylon Attack' CGI fanfilm...which featured a viper pilot.

I have PM'ed various other people about using things they have already created, or asking if they may be willing to re-edit things they have......to be included in the CGI demonstration version. I hope that as part of a team their workload will not be huge and they may be willing to contribute here and there......

[oldwardaggit]

I like this Idea and I like that it's aimed towards Desanto's idea's for Galactica because even though I have very little faith in Universal, if anything, this will show that Tom Desanto has the original Galactica fan base behind him to the point where we took the time to create a professional short that can exist in what was to be his version.

The good part about taking sound pieces from the show is that we now have Galactica on DVD in a box set and the sound quality is much better then the samples I had to work with when Return of a hero was being done. There was a lot of clean up that had to be done just to get those samples to that point but it's something that wouldn't have to be done to the DVD Samples, although some doctoring would still have to be done, it wouldn't be that hard.

The bad part about it is that when you have set dialog, you have to write around it but thats not to hard either because there is always something being said that fits the situation. On two separate occasions, both Sandy and Darrell have suggested to me that it may come off as more believable if I used sound pieces from the A- Team for Dirk or Streets of San Francisco for Richard and I agree with that. The A-team is on DVD but I'm not sure about Streets. Of course if this is going to be a professional endeavor, Its too bad Dirk and Richard couldn't find the time to make a new audio recording for this but I understand both are quite busy.

It would be cool to get Tom Desanto's input on this somehow because the cartoon he pitched to Universal as I understand it, was actually going to be done in CGI .

I think you might get away with having CGI for the present and real life for a flash back because Ralph Bakshi got away with something like that with his lord of the rings cartoon and it came off artistic to me so I can see the same here but I could be wrong because I'm A sound guy and the visual thing isn't really my strong point.

You have my full support and if there is anything I can do, just let me know.

CGI Starbuck and Apollo? I think that would be awesome. :)
OWD

[ernie90125]

Thank you OWD.....your support and kind offer of assistance is great appreciated.

The pitch will be CGI....with the ambition to film live action scenes for a DVD special edition. For the CGI pitch, taking the audio from existing DVDs is probably the best bet, and I look forwards to possibly working with you on that....

A lot of PMs and E-mails are flying around...this project is certainly looking promising....

[spcglider]

Well, when you get down to actual production time, let me know. I'll be happy to help out by lending whatever props that I have handy (and that the script requires) to the effort.

-Gordon

[Foomandoonian]

This is an idea with lot of promise, and clearly a lot of you here have experience getting work like this done.

But it seems to me that a 'pure' fanfilm might be the route to go. I know getting the involvement of some original castmembers makes the work much more creditable, but I truly believe it's only a matter of time before groups of talented fans start producing work that is consistently a good as what we see on TV. In five or ten years, the idea of getting a show 'commissioned' on a major network may become somewhat redundant as scheduled television is replaced by on-demand programming.

Hmm, I'm losing my point... :/:

Point is: films like the Star Trek: New Voyages have recognisable guest stars, (even some original cast returning!) not to mention DC Fontana writing an episode and the endorsement and involvement of Eugene Roddenberry.

These guys haven't been endorsed or funded by Paramount, they're just doing it!

Anyways, I'm a bit tired so I hope I haven't strayed too far OT, or confused my meanings too much. Just maybe I said something constructive :D

(BTW Ernie, I have some good ideas for art direction of the opening scene you described. I've always wanted to see a massive sun illustrated properly. If any animation uses Lightwave, I may be able to contribute a cool looking scene...)

[ernie90125]

Gordon.....thank you for your offer...much appreciated.....

Foomandoonian.....this project is as well as several others of the original type you discuss. but the idea is to take this a step further than the fanfilm.....and actually make it a pitch as well....

You're offer of a contribution is much appreiated.....I'll be in touch via PM......

[Foomandoonian]

Coolies :)

[Palafox73]

loved the idea and wouldn't being a part of it. Went to the site but the site is down and i wasnt ed to see the CG films :cry:

[ernie90125]

Palafox73....thanks for the compliment.....should your post read "Wouldn't mind being part of it" ? If you think you have something....anything....to contribute....please get in touch publically or using Private Messaging. A lot of discussion about this had been happening on PM....

The website is now back online......I hope you'll check it out.......