The Return indeed...

[netsolo]

Well guys, I loaded it up on my MacBook and took it home last night (no internet at the casa de NetSolo)... all I have to say is...

Holy shit. I dug the hell out of this movie.

Brax and his team really put together a fine looking fanfilm.

Spoilers abound below. You've been warned.

I have to say, when I got to the Ecto chase through the streets of Denver - I completely forgot that I was watching a fan film. So evident is the fact that Hank and his crew put a lot of hours, a lot of money, and a lot of thought into all 80 minutes of this fanfilm. You can tell that everyone involved has come leaps and bounds from Freddy vs. the Ghostbusters, even the two carry-over stars Tim Johnson and J. Michael Weiss. While Johnson has difficulty wrapping his tongue around a lot of the Aykroyd-esque techno-monologues and still crunches a line here and there, he pulls off the new-age Spock routine flawlessly. New to the series is Joel Hanson, who takes the brunt of the commie/Mother Russia jokes in stride and continues the legacy of fuzzy foreigners in Ghostbuster films. I swear that Brax had a mike hidden on the bench of our high-school hockey team The Red Army, because some of the "Red" ribs sounded awfully familiar. Great minds sir, great minds...

Sure, it's a fan film so there's a few moments where you feel like you're watching a direct to video Full Moon-esque flick but weighing in at over an hour there were only two points where things seemed to run long. The editing is mercifully tight, the dialogue punchy, and the script felt trim and refined. No offense to some of the other fan filmmakers in our community but sometimes just passing the two minute mark where we've made it through three lines of dialogue and you decided not to put the camera on sticks for all two minutes of it and I feel like gouging my eyes out. I cringe in fear when I hear people talking about two hour run-times on their fanfilms. Such is not the case with Return - we dive straight into things starting with a humorous encounter with some campers attempting to tell a ghost story when they're interrupted and the flick cooks from there.

And how clever was the opening title sequence into a montage? Fucking brilliant.

This fan film just shines because of the production value, an original score that incorporates the classic Bernstein themes and adds a humorous and light-hearted touch to things gives the movie such a polished shine by punctuating the snappy dialogue. Even the props look to have been made on a high budget, a remote controlled trap appears in the opening moments of the film - and then, of course, the Ecto chase. Everyone involved from FX to editor certainly has something for their demo reels from that sequence.

You can just tell that everyone involved in this production was just reveling in the fact that they were making a Ghostbusters movie, congrats to Hank for pulling off what I'm sure all of us have dreamed about at some point. An 86-minute (well-made... I must stress) film regardless of the content or subject matter is an uphill battle to begin with no matter your experience or your budget, then you throw in making a flick for a fickle set of fanboys and it's even more daunting of a task. But the guys really pulled it off.

But please Brax, I'm begging of you... high quality QuickTime. Let people see how gorgeous this film really looks, iFilm's killing ya.

[Tasty Human]

We are aware of the problems with Ifilm. .....and the ipod and the iphone.

Seems these days placing the letter 'i' in front of your name makes you just suck.

A hi-res dvx file is on the way.

quicktime will play dvx files, you just need the codec.

[BraxtAnFILM]

Yeah, the DivX file is online now as a bittorrent--and that's the way to go! 



Anyway, great review--and thanks.  But I wanted to take this time to point out to everyone involved that there was NOT a lot of money spent on this fan film.  I can tell you for a fact that this film was cheaper to make than most short films.  It was made possible because of how many people loaned us props and other items.

[Timmy J.]

Hank is right--this movie was made for under $3000--if you divide that by the number of months it was in production that equals about the same as the average monthly phone bill. The higher-ups at the Colorado Film school still claim that since it is a fan film it is a waste of money--but there are no feature films coming out of this school, and plenty of student SHORT films with double and triple the budget of what we spent. I seriously doubt any of those shorts will have the exposure we are gaining from ROTGB. What I learned most from making this movie is the value of networking. This movie would not have been possible if Hank hadn't worked his charm and befriended as many people as he has.

[frg6789]

Hank is right--this movie was made for under $3000--if you divide that by the number of months it was in production that equals about the same as the average monthly phone bill. The higher-ups at the Colorado Film school still claim that since it is a fan film it is a waste of money--but there are no feature films coming out of this school, and plenty of student SHORT films with double and triple the budget of what we spent. I seriously doubt any of those shorts will have the exposure we are gaining from ROTGB. What I learned most from making this movie is the value of networking. This movie would not have been possible if Hank hadn't worked his charm and befriended as many people as he has.

He promised me Steak & Lobster if I did 70 VFX shots. I think I did more than that, but I'm still waiting for my food...

[netsolo]

He's a man of his word, he just sent the Omaha Steaks package to the wrong doorstep... and here I thought he was just trying to woo me to get a good review.

[Blue Roses]

He promised me Steak & Lobster if I did 70 VFX shots. I think I did more than that, but I'm still waiting for my food...
[/quote]

He gave you lots of beef and shrimp flavored ramen noodles, that's pretty much the same thing!

[Tasty Human]

Hank is right--this movie was made for under $3000--if you divide that by the number of months it was in production that equals about the same as the average monthly phone bill. The higher-ups at the Colorado Film school still claim that since it is a fan film it is a waste of money--but there are no feature films coming out of this school, and plenty of student SHORT films with double and triple the budget of what we spent. I seriously doubt any of those shorts will have the exposure we are gaining from ROTGB. What I learned most from making this movie is the value of networking. This movie would not have been possible if Hank hadn't worked his charm and befriended as many people as he has.

ROFL $1,700 on a movie about mexican criminals at the border waiting for jobs, at least it was 15 minutes long