Ultimate Xena trailer

This is our home base to get the Xena trailer together. First off all we know is that we are going to make one but we need some ideas on how it's going to go. What's going to happen in the trailer? All we know is it needs to be dramatic with lots of fight scenes. Then what is the text going to say? What images are we going to use?

Let's get some ideas going.

Back up and running here

About the movie trailer :

There are 3 options :

1) You make a trailer that's made of existing Xena footage.

2) You make a trailer that's made of rendered (CGI) footage

3) You make a trailer that's made of existing Xena footage, combined with fitting footage from other movies.

The first one is the easiest one to make. But I don't know... seems a bit out of date by now...

The second one if by far the best, but also by far the most difficult one to make...Also if someone does have the knowledge to make this, you must consider the timeframe...

The 3th one could work too. I've seen trailers that were pretty nice...I've seen people who created a Robocop vs Terminator trailer using existing footage from both franchises to create a new movie trailer.

I've even seen a Xena meets D'ana vid on youtube... Didn't think it was that bad and it gave me some ideas

Xenamidi is interested in making a animated trailer. So far they haven't posted here yet although the time frame that was mentioned was to the next convention. I'm not sure if it's to the French convention or the next Xena Con but I'll have to ask. Two things that were also mentioned is that Xenamidi might need some help financing to help pay for some help for the project. Also the animated movie script was already made and Xenamidi was thinking of basing the trailer on that story.

This is great news too, well done Kris Do we still plan to make an elite team or does Xenamidi think he can do most of the work by himself? I think this is the video you saw Frederik: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O_l5IXvy9k&feature=related not what we're looking for but looks pretty good.

@Xenamidi: At the moment I don't even have any of the programs needed but I'm ready to take time to learn more about it and help making the CGI footage if I can - I'm sure it's hard but maybe there are some easier parts of the work I could get involved with?

Is there a way I can contact xenamidi?
I would like to get some more details about the demands...

Naturally we would like to help, but it's obvious I would like to know how many finances is needed...
which brings us to funding!!! I'm starting to think we miss out on a lot of stuff because no one is donating to us.... We should try and collect some money for this.. It's needed...

If 1000 people would decide to donate just 1 dollar each it would be more than enough for now, but we have to find a way to get them more interested for the whole thing. Maybe we should go back to the idea of sending a newsletter/group message/note, basically writing a short text that explains where we are now and what are our plans for the future (making the trailer - why, how and who) and posting it everywhere

About this website http://www.sepomo.com/en/helpwebs.php I'm not sure would it work but I do think that it would be great if we could get people to donate by sending text messages http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/give-a-donation-through-a-text-message-wed-2008101/ I'm not sure is that possible in Belgium though.

I sent a link to this topic for Xenamidi but you guys can always send a message through yuku too. Here's Xenamidi's profile again. Also maybe if Xenamidi doesn't want to post here we can always bring the discussion back to the topic on TX since we all have a account there. The question is how secret do we want this trailer project to be? Then the time frame that Xenamidi was thinking of was the next Xena con in Feb.

Also a new news letter would be a good idea. We haven't discussed the DVD Campaign in awhile and sending a letter out there would remind everyone. Then I like the idea of a text donation. Can we connect that to the paypal donation account? We already are splitting everything up the the DVD campaign and then the BP oil disaster so we need to find out how much we need to raise for the trailer project. How are those Google ads doing?

Also I was looking at the SOS (Save our Seeker) campaign and with there donations it shows how much has been donated so far. Would it be a good idea to show how much is being donated on our page? We don't have a lot of money right now but maybe showing that we don't have much will encourage people to put in a little more to raise it up.

Hello all,

*Ana - if you're interested in animation that's fantastic. I have lots of tutorials and materials that would help you get started. I use a software called Maya, but there are lots of other softwares available (3ds Max, Blender etc). Please contact me ggboot@yahoo.com

*Frederick - Funding is definitely needed. I am doing my movie on my own (wish I had help lol), there's a lot that I can do on my own, but if we want to stay within this time frame (by the time the convention rolls around) Then we need more people on board for animating and scene development, and for that we need funds. Some other people that we should look for are people who are good at special effects (adobe after effects), video editing (adobe premiere). I'm a composer by trade, and I'll take care of the music.
I am willing to put in $600 at this time (more as time goes on). I'm very serious about this project and completing it. It seems that everyone wants a Xena movie and can't wait to see one, but when it comes to helping accomplish the task, they want to sit on the side lines. There comes a point when you have to take matters into your own hands.

Hi xenamidi, forst of all, a big welcome and a big thank you for all the hard work you're doing.
And you are correct about 1 thing : it's just incredible how many people want a Xena movie, but just do nothing.... All they do is talk about the series, and how nice it would be to see them back together again, but when we actually start a project, and we ask for their help, they all love it, but no one does a thing... It's really frustrating....

I've been watching the whole Xena movie news from the sideline, until I really thought "that's it". And I launched the Xena10afterFIN idea.. And we have done a lot, that's for sure, but when it comes to results, we didn't make much progress.... And why? There's just me, Ana, Kris (and now Xenan), who try do to a lot (mainly motivating fans)... So we send out many things, but there's no answer..

We've launched a Xena trailer contest, only 1 entry came in... We've launched for donations to try to boost the DVD sales, and so far only 2 people donated (people not part of the team)....
Evenso, on the French Xena forum, people are questioning what we're doing... saying that donations are a bad idea, blabla...

I can understand that, but then I would love to see another idea in come in place...

As for your project : I have all motivations to help you complete the movie / trailer... I can help with some funding, but only a small amount / month (for instance : €50).. That's really all I can do...

I would love to get some funding, but asking for another donation, I believe, won't work, as this one doesn't?

I'm a Java developer, but I have absolutely no knowledge of 3D/CGI rendering stuff... Never made graphical stuff... But hopefully we can find people who can..

Because, as much as we would love to see a movie, time is against us.. Lucy and Renee are not getting any younger (although they still look great), but it's going to be 10 years after the show ended, and that's not that good either....

I know we can all make this happen if we stick it out! The key is funding, and finding people that are just as interested in this project as we are. I think for the funding issue, we're going to have to look higher up than individuals. I'll look into that and get back with you all. As far as people go, we'd have to start going onto animation/video editing/ special fx forums and posting that we're looking for people. There are bound to be people that are interested in Xena and helping out. Some people will jump on board simply because they want to put the experience on their resume. Those are really the people we should be looking for. As for the ones who want to be compensated, I could arrange that.

I would like to say welcome and thank you as well =)

It has been really hard to gain support from fans who don't really want to help out or respond back other than a few who say they like the idea. Xenamidi, what do you mean by looking higher up? I could help out a little here and there with the funding but I'm not sure for how long.

Would looking for people on Devaintart be a good option? Maybe even Newgrounds... those are the only places I can think of to look for people with that type of experience.

Also I have to agree with Frederick that time really isn't on our side to get a Xena Movie going. I also know it's harder in the summer to get online because people are busy and going on vacations. It seems like other forums/boards are slowing down but we have to stay on top of this to get some results. We also have to keep in mind Lucy and Renee's other projects and if a Movie would be filmed it would have to be around those as well extending the time.

What I mean by looking higher up is that there are people that look to invest money in projects. I need to get in touch with people such as these. I would need someone who would be willing to devote time to going onto forums and spreading the word about the kind of people that we need to make a trailer. People that are good at matte painting specifically.

I can be that someone who would devote time to spreading the word, just make me a draft of the post you want me to put up on forums and I'll do the rest of the work.

Ok, I'm all in for this new direction.

We have to admit our previous approach isn't working... And the reason for that is very simple :

There are almost no devoted Xena fans who are willing to help us.. If you look at all the "simple" things we've asked before, there was no one actually helping us.

That's a shame, but we cannot wait any longer for them... We are pushing a very tight timeframe here, so if the fans are lazy, let them be lazy. i'm sure they'll pick up when they actually see something is happening. But helping a hand doesn't seem to be the case.

So what's our new goal here?
First of al, we are so lucky people like xenamidi exist.

Ok so we have 2 goals here : First one is still us wanting a Xena movie. Second one is xenamidi wanting to create a 3D CGI Xena movie. And I believe that's a fantastic idea. First of all, it gives us our 3D trailer we were hoping to find, and secondly, it gives us a Xena movie one way or the other! If this movie is finished, it's xenamidi's goal to show it at a Xena Con, or perhaps, who knows, Universal picks it up, and xenamidi gets success with it!

Pro's are that Xena stays alive, and it can attract new fans.

Now what do I want, and what does xenamidi want?

xenamidi wants to find more people helping out with the 3D stuff, rendering, motion, whatever it all takes. So we must look for people who have the knowledge and are willing to help us.

xenamidi also wants to split up writing the story, and making the 3D part, because now it's doing a little bit of both. For this, I've proposed to contact the person I've mentioned before, who has written a complete script for a Xena movie. I hope she agrees and is willing to help out writing a story that fits the 3D movie. Perhaps she can use her own script to adapt.

and finally xenamidi wants funding, which is natural. I'm not that experienced with funding a project, so perhaps xenamidi could inform us a bit more on where to start.. Are we talking about contacting companies?

what do I want?
Well, xenamidi does have a little bit more time when it comes to his 3D movie, because his actors don't age, but we don't

So I'm planning to inform Universal and Lucy and Renee more on what we're doing. Xenamidi told us a trailer could be finished by next year's con. I asked to create a teaser trailer first, so we don't have to wait that long.

Why is that? Again, Lucy and Renee have an agenda. Lucy's occupied with Spartacus till summer next year probably. If we don't have a Xena movie agreement with Universal by then, I don't thing we'll make another chance..

From the moment I have the teaser trailer available, I'll try and promote it to the world, and also Rob, Lucy, Renee, Universal...

That will show them we mean business...

So as for us : help xenamidi = get results earlier = good for our goal towards Universal.

So all focus should be on xenamidi's project.

The only thing I would like to keep is boosting DVD sales...

I know only few people donated, but I would like to keep that up. I know it'll probably spice up the Universal-account, but there's no reason doubting they won't look at their sales...

I have 1 question for xenamidi : what about the voices??

And 1 question for Kris and Ana : some people on the French forum said it's a bad idea asking for donations to boost the DVD sales, as Xena is no longer a legal issue on who owns the rights... So Universal has nothing to do with it. They told me the problem is finding money for the project..
Now, as far as I can remember, Rob always talked about Universal did he? I'm sure he would have gone somewhere else if he had all the rights.. Even the big interview he did on talkingxena 2 years ago was about Universal, so I believe they own distribution rights to it...

I don't think collecting money for funding a movie is a good idea, even Rob didn't want that, and he said, if that were the case, he would have used his own money.. I'm pretty sure there's more to that than this...

If the DVD donation stuff doesn't really work, we could however ask to fund the 3D project...But again, with the lazyness of the Xena fans, nothing is sure :p

I pretty much agree with everything Frederik wrote and want to help Jodi (xenamidi) as much as I can,
1) in return for his help to our cause of making a trailer
2) because I'm generally excited about the idea of XWP animated movie and
3) because I'm into learning CGI.

I do think our priority should be making that trailer as soon as possible because the whole campaign is on a standstill at the moment and there isn't much we can do without it, plus LL and ROC aren't getting younger and, as Frederik pointed out, we have a deadline of making that movie agreement by May or June next year.

When it comes to me I can do both at the same time, work on helping Jodi and work on other campaign related stuff, but when it comes to making a trailer we should generally get a few things cleared up as soon as possible:

1. Does Jodi already have some kind of finished CGI material he would be willing to let us use in a trailer?

2. Would it be possible to make a trailer that would combine the CGI footage with already existing parts of the show?
Here's an example of what I have in mind: 1st part of the trailer could be showing the past, like how Xena and Gabrielle met and what they've been through (we could take parts of darker episodes like Sacrifice 2, One against an army, Ides of March etc.), then how Xena died and Gabriele sailed off into the sunset, then we could make some kind of a cut, change the music or something like that and show parts of the CGI footage - I believe something like that could look pretty good, plus it would be easier to make than a trailer with completely newly made CGI footage.
The difference between our trailer and "Cup of tears" is that our trailer doesn't really have to look like it's following an already written script. Correct me if I'm wrong, as I understand it should just serve as a teaser and show that people generally, not only those who were watching the show, would still be interested in watching a XWP movie if it would be made?

3. If you guys agree that we do something like that, we should start looking for a few people to make that kind of video, like that elite team we were talking about, or at least one very talented person who would be willing to help.

About the rights, I'm not sure about it but believe that yes, Rob would probably go somewhere else if he owned them. Is there a way for us to find it out for sure though, maybe those people on the French forum would be willing to provide us with some kind of evidence, like a link to the article where they read it or something similar.

I agree with what everyone has said so far. It's really great that Xenamidi is making this 3D movie and I would like to help in anyway that I can. I also think it's great that Xenamidi is helping us with this trailer.


Right now we are not getting response from fans so we just need to work as hard as we can and when we start showing some results they will be more willing to get on board. Results like the finished trailer or a positive response from ROC, Lucy, or Rob.

I was looking at matte paintings in DA to see if I could find someone who would do some freelance paintings for the project. I have to say that a lot of them are amazing but unfortunately I've been reading through their profiles and many of them do not freelance. I did come across this tho and I found it interesting because I'm unfamiliar with how the process of making a animated anything works. It's a blog about a animated project and the process. Is this the kind of process your going through Xenamidi?Also can I call you Jodi?
http://round6construction.blogspot.com/

As for having a short teaser, I really like that idea because time is against us to get Lucy and Renee in a Xena movie. About the teaser trailer, if we can at least get the teaser to a minute that would be fine. It doesn't need to be long. We need some dramatic music, some well placed dramatic text, and some images. Some of the images don't even have to move much. If we can get even a still image of a character with some well placed camera movements and maybe at tops two very short animated scenes that would be great. I would also like to know what stage Xenamidi is at for the animation. We also need a plan for how the trailer is going to look and how it's going to go. That one project that I posted a link to had a story board. Should we make one of those first?


About who owns the rights for Xena, I think I'll go back to yuku on XOC and contact the member that told us about the rights when we first started out. They had seemed to know a lot about the rights and about the information about the first attempt at a Xena movie back in 05. I would like to know exactly where they got that information. Also I'll head back to the Xenan's French site and get caught up because I haven't been there in awhile.

Yes Kris, a small but very intense "tease" could be nice.
A very small teaser trailer, perhaps a minute or so, with perhaps only the last 10 seconds showing something of a 3D effect.. The first 50 sec could be like a text intro with flash images of Xena in between, filled up with a short very dark sounding dramatic piece of music.... And the overall tone could be an "open" ending, so when the tease ends, it leaves you with "wanting more"...

This, we could spread out online and to Universal, Lucy, Rob, Renee, and everyone interested...
This could set a trigger in motion with Universal, and perhaps they will follow us..
Also, if we have that trailer, we could do other actions towards Universal to show them we mean business... No "stalking" alike actions, but just actions that show progress and interest in Xena...

Like perhaps trying to get that script to Universal by an official agent. I don't care if that script will be rejected, at least it would have been received by them...

So the only thing I would like to know from Jodi is, how soon do you think it could be possible for you to give us some 5-10 sec of animated images?

If it's not possible very soon, how soon could you give us "snapshots" of scenes that we could use as a tease? We could try and work that out....

Sorry everyone. I feel like I'm late for the party. I usually get an email telling me when someone has replied to this thread, but I'm not getting those anymore. I'll start checking everyday. I need to catch up with what everyone is saying. I'll read everything later on tonight when I'm done working on the trailer for the night. That is my main focus right now. I'm going to work on the trailer. I think it should be an extended trailer. It's easier to edit something that's long than to lengthen something that's too short. More to post in a bit.

Jodi

I still get those emails. Perhaps something was disabled from your account?
About the trailer : Do what feels the best, but I do want to release a small tease before anything else, just to warm-up fans, people around the world, youtube, Universal, Rob,...

This gives them a "something's happening there" feeling.

The tease should be nothing more than a few words or phrases, and perhaps some screenshots from the 3D movie that flash by + a fitting music tone. So for you we would only need some images. Could this be done?

Btw : was the info I sent to you by mail useful?

Ha! I got the notification this time. Yes the information was very helpful. Thanks. Yes I can give you guys a couple of shots for the teaser. I'll put together some nice ones. You'll have them by the end of the week.

Thanks Jodi =D Couldn't have done this without you!

I am sooooooooo upset. My tablet died. I'm going to have to wait until next week to buy another one so I'm on hold at the moment. I'll let you guys know when I start working again. there are some things that I can do without the tablet, but I really need to have one. More news to come.

Screw it. I've had computer problems all day First my 3d software stopped working. I spent half the day fixing that, then my tablet stopped working. I'll get it done. I'm just going to use my mouse for now. It'll take me a lot longer, but I'll just pull an all nighter. Update to come.

Well, one thing's for sure : I admire your motivation to get this done
I'm pretty sure we'll find a way to reward you for all of this, one way or the other

Take care,
Frederik

Yes, thanks for all of your hard work