Most people have never seen a fan movie, nor had they ever considered that armies of rabid fans would spend their time and hard earned money to make a film as homage.
But they do.
Some use games like World of Warcraft to stage their movies and others use animation and the really serious use amateur actors and shot it like a real film. This ambitious group make a 40 minute Lord of the Rings fan movie called The Hunt for Gollum. Over a hundred volunteers were used in the film. Below is a trailer though you can see the full version here.
THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM – FULL Trailer 1 from Independent Online Cinema on Vimeo.
While the film makers and enthusiasts involved have tons of energy, creativity and passion for their craft, they don’t have access to high end special effects for their films. This is where augmented reality comes in.
A simple suite of fantasy and science fiction objects (since these seem to be the most common genres), and the ability to add other objects from user created files, along with proper shadows and occlusion could be a powerful tool in the fan movie creators hands. These tools would enhance their ability for storytelling without breaking the bank.
So this week’s challenge is for an AR developer to put a simple package together for fan movies to use. The package could be used from the short spoofs on YouTube to the extravagant spectacles as the Hunt for Gollum movie. Remember, millions of people upload clips to YouTube on a regular basis, so that’s a large potential market for AR devlopment products.
