'Film Riot' Joins the Indie Filmmaking Fray

Now that we live in an age when being a nerd is cool, all the old rules about impressing other people have to be thrown out. The old fashioned way to make a great impression on somebody was to…well, honestly I have no idea.

However, today there are bountiful nerd methods to impressing your peers, like knowing how to make a lightsaber. Why is this impressive? Because light sabers are inherently awesome.

Of course, nobody knows how to make a real light saber yet (Dr. Michio Kaku defines this technology as a “Class 1 Impossibility”. Read his book Physics of the Impossible for more info), but that’s a moot point, since nerds are incapable of human-to-human contact. But their preference for communicating through electronic media opens the door for creating video representations of lightsabers. And this, friends, is distinctly possible.

Revision3, Ryan Connolly and Film Riot have put together a how-to guide for filming lightsaber fights and other sweet special effects, knowledge that will make you the coolest kid on your message board and in your Vimeo filmmaking group.

This episode of Film Riot promises to be the first in a series of DIY guides for filmmakers. Host Ryan Connolly takes the viewer through each step in the production of, in this case, digital light saber effect creation.

Like NextNewNetwork‘s Indy Mogul, the intended audience appears to be young, ambitious film students and aficionados because none of the process is dumbed down. Some of this is probably elementary for those with a background in computer graphics and more advanced digital filmmaking, but there’s still info here to keep more seasoned video producers tuned in

Aside from the tutorial aspects of the show there are some skits for demonstration. These are mostly silly, but are there more for the sake of providing a platform for the show’s topic and not to win any prizes for creative writing. One thing that is mildy frustrating is the level of sponsor name-dropping. I know somebody’s gotta feed the monkey, but the amount of time dedicated to this end seemed a touch excessive. Otherwise Film Riot has the potential to be a valuable resource for young video enthusiasts.

Catch the latest tips at Revision3.com.