Star Wars: Revelations

Star Wars: Revelations
Director(s)	Shane Felux
Producer(s)	Dawn Cowings; Shane Felux
Writer(s)	Dawn Cowings; Sarah Yaworsky
Starring	Gina Hernandez; Karen Hammang; Holland Gedney; Frank Hernandez; Shane Felux
Music by	Chris Bouchard; John Williams
Distributor	Panic Struck Productions; TheForce.Net
Released	April 17, 2005
Runtime	47 min.
Budget	$15,000 - $20,000+?
Timeline	1 BBY
Era	Rise of the Empire era
Preceded by	None
Followed by	Knightquest

Star Wars: Revelations is a fan film released on April 17th, 2005, created by fans of George Lucas's Star Wars saga. As Lucasfilm has generally turned a blind eye to the creation of many not-for-profit derivative works, Revelations is one of many fan-produced Star Wars creations. (See The Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards for further examples.)

Revelations is noteworthy for being both significantly longer (with a running time of 47 minutes, 13 seconds) and substantially more expensive than the average fan film, with a final budget ranging somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000. It takes place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. The film intended to give a reason for why the Jedi Order was extinct in the original trilogy.

Synopsis

Opening crawl

REVELATIONS

Seers once shaped the path of the
Jedi Order. But their visions grew unreliable
and the Jedi came to distrust those with
the ability. Seers hid their visions or
left the Order forever

In the wake of the Temple's destruction,
a power struggle has emerged between
Darth Vader, the dark Lord of the Sith, and
Zhanna, the Emperor's Hand. Each seeks
to eliminate the last of the Jedi and
gain The Emperor's favor.

Caught between them is one woman
who cannot deny the truth of her visions
as all race to possess an ancient
'Jedi secret…

Summary

The destruction of the Jedi Temple was devastating. Accusing the now-defunct Confederacy of Independent Systems of the attack, Emperor Palpatine declares martial law on Coruscant. As the Imperial presence spreads to most systems, Palpatine calls the scattered Jedi Order ineffective. Their protests are denounced as treason, all Jedi are declared traitors, and are now fugitives of the Empire.

The film centers on Zhanna—one of the Emperor's Hands—and Taryn Anwar, a Seer who had helped Zhanna hunt down the Jedi without knowing she had turned to the dark side. Taryn seeks to redeem herself; her visions lead her to a dangerous ancient Jedi artifact said to give the bearer great power.

Canonicity

Revelations was written and produced before the premiere of Revenge of the Sith, and inevitably there were discrepancies between what the filmmakers hypothesized would transpire in Revenge of the Sith, and what was eventually depicted in Lucas's finished film. Fan films by definition are not considered canonical; moreover, the mixed reception of fans to some of the story and plot elements of Revelations seems to forestall its being embraced as fanon so far.

Inconcistencies include:

Palpatine disbands the Galactic Senate during the film, yet this would mean that the film takes place during A New Hope. However, that is not possible since:
- The Rebel Alliance has just been formed.
- Darth Vader is focused on finding the holocron featured in the film. In A New Hope, he is focused on finding the Rebel Base.
- R2-D2 is on Coruscant, not with the crew of the Tantive IV as he should be.
- There are Jedi in the film, yet most of them were exterminated by Darth Vader by A New Hope.
There are Rebel ships (X-wing, Nebulon-B frigates, and Z-95 Headhunters) present in the Imperial Era even before the Rebel Alliance is fully formed.
The Corellian system has a gas giant planet.
The Empire's soldiers are wearing the stormtrooper armor seen in the original trilogy, rather than the clone trooper armor seen during the attack on the Jedi Temple.
The opening crawl explains that the film is set following the Jedi Temple's "destruction." However, Return of the Jedi reveals that the temple itself is still standing by at least 4 ABY.

Credits

Cast

Gina Hernandez .... Taryn Anwar
Karen Hammang .... Zhanna
Holland Gedney .... Raux Anwar
Frank Hernandez .... Declan
Shane Felux .... Cade
Joe Lancaster .... Zhanna Aide's
Jack Foley .... Darth Vader (voice)
Errol Spat Oktan .... Emperor Palpatine/Annoying Drunk/Biker *Scout/Pilot Tie #3
Jonathan Thorpe .... Emperor Palpatine (voice)
Zack Henderson .... Darth Vader's Aide/Imperial Guard #3
Nick Jamilla .... Rogue #1/Boushh
Jason Ruschell .... Rogue #2
Mike Menez .... Rogue #3
Steve Montes .... Rogue #4
Matt Henry .... CorSec Commander
Dale Henry .... CorSec #1
Tye Nelson .... CorSec #2
Cheralyn Lambeth .... CorSec #3/Ridge Biker Scout
Anthony Menez .... CorSec #4
Everett Pilson .... Captain Pilson
Alan Winston .... Holo 1
Kevin Zabawa .... Darth Vader/Keishing Officer
Alonzo Crawford .... Master Sukaal
Chris McMinn .... Sukaal's Apprentice
Sherri Lareaux .... Sukaal's Follower
Brian Sarcinelli .... Boba Fett/Outraged Ambassador
Mike Daughtery .... Bartender
Catarina Anderson .... Waitress/Dancing Holo
Joe Bell .... Imperial Guard #1
Eric Negron .... Imperial Guard #2/Pilot Tie #4
Sam White .... Pilot Tie #1
Lori Frye .... Pilot Tie #2
Jeff Antley .... Pilot Tie #5/Imperial Officer #6
Phong Ngyen .... Imperial Officer #1
Bryan White .... Imperial Officer #2
Eric Tank .... Imperial Officer #3
Matt Shipley .... Imperial Officer #4
Ward Poole .... Imperial Officer #5
Bill Truesdale .... Imperial Officer #7
James Skaats .... Imperial Officer #8
Jay Dasilva .... Imperial Officer #9
Rain Montes .... Go-go Dancing Holo 1

Umoja Edwards .... Go-go Dancing Holo 2
Ayisha Cottontail .... Go-go Dancing Holo 3
Matt Pfingsten .... Holo Jedi 1
Lillian Borno .... Holo Jedi 2
Mario Borras .... Holo Jedi 3
Jeff Hendrickson .... Holo Jedi 4
Ward Jones .... Holo Jedi 5
Ronald A. Karow .... Holo Jedi 6
John Bardy .... Holo Jedi 7
Joshua Mack .... Holo Jedi 8
Theresa J. Mark .... Holo Jedi 9
Justin Craig Manning .... Holo Jedi 10
Darth Mara .... Holo Jedi 11
Lauren McClees .... Holo Jedi 12
Jean Mornard .... Holo Jedi 13
Michael Mornard .... Holo Jedi 14
Stephen Pallajs .... Holo Jedi 15
Catherine Simone .... Holo Jedi 16
Guy Thomas .... Holo Jedi 17
Trenton N Tobin .... Holo Jedi 18
Michael J. Trampert .... Holo Jedi 19
Justin Monk .... Holo Jedi 20
Andrew Hookway .... Holo Jedi 21
Meghan Sherrill .... Trooper
Natalie Kurczewski .... Trooper
Tim Phillips .... Trooper
Matt Nargi .... Trooper
Phong Nguyen .... Trooper
Mark Patton .... Trooper
Michael Menez .... Trooper
George Metz .... Trooper
Chris Migliozzi .... Trooper
Russel Wyatt .... Trooper
Keith Abbott .... Trooper
Seth Busino .... Trooper
Christian Bontiago .... Trooper
Ronald J. Dempsy .... Trooper
J. Tyler Ellis .... Trooper
Ian Bonds .... Other Voice (stormtrooper) (voice)
Wes Kajawa .... Additional voiceovers (voice)
Wes Kawaja .... Additional voiceovers
Cash Tunstall .... Additional voiceovers (voice)
Alan Winston .... Holo 1

Appearances

Characters

Zhanna is one of the Emperor's Hands.
Taryn Anwar is a Seer who had helped Zhanna hunt down the Jedi without knowing she had turned to the dark side.
Darth Vader
Palpatine
R2-D2
Raux Anwar is Taryn's sister.
Declan
Cade (not to be confused with Cade Skywalker)

Locations

Corellia
Coruscant
Keishing
Quarran III
Toprawa

Behind the scenes

Production

Production on the film began in 2003, with a cast and crew of nearly 200 people. While the production relied much on special effects, and most scenes—especially urban and space scenes—are composited, several scenes were shot on location, including the lengthy climactic sequence, filmed in Shenandoah Caverns over three nights. The special effects were done by a scattered group of artists around the world, working on different platforms and pieced together in post-production. The film was released on April 17, 2005—just over a month before Revenge of the Sith.

Revelations has earned critical acclaim for the quality of its computer graphics and high production value for a fan film. It was produced by Panic Struck Productions and is available for download on TheForce.net, iFilm, and Panic Struck's website.

Though it was generally considered an excellent fan film, it could not be entered into The Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards, due to the fact it was much longer than the contest's upper time limit, and because Lucasfilm only accepts parodies or documentaries as part of the competition. Due to legal reasons, they cannot allow serious fan fiction works into the contest. Despite this, director Shane Felux did attend the fan film awards when they were given.

Praise and criticism

Shortly after the film's premiere in April 2005, the director, Shane Felux, appeared on many news and talk shows promoting the film, notably CNN's Anderson Cooper 360° and MSNBC's Connected: Coast to Coast with Ron Reagan and Monica Crowley. The film was made available free for downloading online starting April 19, 2005, and in fact the volume was so heavy that Star Wars fan site TheForce.Net was forced to temporarily discontinue offering it after two days because it overloaded their bandwidth. Independent online film site iFilm also made Revelations available for download starting April 23, 2005. Within two weeks of the film being made available online, it was downloaded nearly one million times. [1]

On November 7, 2009, the movie hit the front page of Digg, as it was shown in an article on the popular fan site for the game Star Wars: The Old Republic - www.swtorstrategies.com [2]

For the most part, the media praised the film, especially for its special effects and story. Others noted that the film was quite ambitious for a production of its kind. Some even compared the production and ambition of the film to that of the original Star Wars film, A New Hope.

George Lucas, though he admits he has yet to see Revelations, has said how much he appreciates the work and ideas of his fans on fan films in general, and enjoys watching them. He encourages productions such as these, which is something relatively rare for an owner and creator of such a series to do.

Generally, fans seem to praise the production values and CGI of Revelations while giving decidedly mixed reviews for the story and acting. The various non-canonical elements such as the Jedi Seers, or the portrayal of a new Emperor's Hand as basically an open rival of Darth Vader rather than an anonymous and unknown assassin such as Mara Jade was, were not wholly embraced by fans in general. Some enjoyed a different interpretation of the setting, while others felt it took too many liberties with established canon, particularly in the Expanded Universe of the novels. The acting, likewise, received notices that ran the gamut from good, to serviceable, to amateurish and awful.

Awards

2005 Balticon Film Festival: Best Film
2005 Star Walking Film Festival (Australia): Best Live Action, Production Design, Editing, Visual Effects, Best Actress (Gina Hernandez)
2005 MassBay Film Festival: Best Fan Film

Trivia

Seers, Jedi with prophetic visions, are an original contribution to the galaxy. Canonically, the Jedi Seer is an alternate name for a Jedi Consular.
A week before the opening of Episode III in Mexico, VCD copies of "Revelations" were sold as bootleg copies of "Revenge of the Sith" by local video pirates.
A building from the film Blade Runner was incorporated into the design of the Corellian shipyards.
Adam Benton, who designed Declan's "Corellian Cougar" for the film, included the spaceship model among many in his book Digital Sci-Fi Art: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Stunning, Futuristic Images [3].
Near the end of Felux's second fan film, Pitching Lucas, a poster for Star Wars: Revelations can be seen on the wall.
At the beginning of the film, an incomplete Death Star can be seen in Toprawa's orbit.
Although Zhanna's name invites confusion with Darth Zannah, they are different characters. In fact, Zhanna is more closely based on Lumiya.

Soundtrack

Chris Bouchard composed an original soundtrack for Revelations, which utilizes certain Star Wars themes. The soundtrack, along with CD case art, is available for download in mp3 format from the official Revelations site and also from the composer's site: www.chrisbouchard.co.uk

DVD release

A downloadable DVD image of Revelations was released not long after its debut on the internet. Originally, the film was released via QuickTime, Windows Media Player, and several other file formats. For the DVD release, the DVD image was distributed from the official site, free of charge, just as the film was. Users can download the entire movie, plus a second disc of bonus features. The download is offered through the BitTorrent file sharing program, due to the large size of the files. Along with the disc files, users can download case art for their DVD case. A DIVX 6 version is also available to provide the same features as the DVD, such as chapter selections, subtitles, director's commentary and such, without the large file size.

The film, along with many other Star Wars fan films, is now available for viewing at the video section of StarWars.com.

External links

Official site (404 - Page not found 02/02/2019) – film downloads, DVD kit, music, trailers, making of....
Star Wars: Revelations at the Internet Movie Database
Fanzine
A shoot, reported by an extra
More information
Download mirrors
TarsTarkas.NET Review
Interview with Shane Felux on Slice of SciFi
'Star Wars' fan has 'Revelations' at USA Today