A 100 minute 'Starfighters' film is ready to be made. It is scripted, music has been made for it, and some designs have been completed. It is finished, in a sense as a story, but the hope is for me to one day let a company make it as a professional venture. Full script is top Secret. But also:

I have made a feature called 'The War of the Starfighters'. This 76 minute CG (computer generated) feature film has been made in 2,500 hours essentially by me (Laurie) on my own (except for some small but lovely voice parts, each of which took no more than one hour of time for each person involved, hence why I can say the film is made by one person, me. See below for more details and credits. It is centred around a robot called Trevlac and a human called Mark, his family and friends. Started Jan 2000. Final edit completed March 3rd 2003 and I saw it in several parts after that date. But the first time I sat and watched it complete in one viewing was March 22nd 2003 so that must count as the Premiere. This film was made as a special gift to my children and family, not for any commercial reason, therefore it is classed as amateur. It has not been made to distribute and not for any financial gain. It has been archived/logged by the British Film Institute NFT archive and the East Anglian archive and Institute of Amateur Cinematographers (IAC).

Am I, Laurie Calvert, the first individual film maker to make a feature length computer animation? Am I the first in the UK or the World? (I know there have been amateur CG feature length productions such as game engine produced 'Machinima' movies by a group of people and individuals have made short  CG movies). I think I might be the first UK amateur (group or individual) to make a CG feature. I may possibly be the first individual (amateur or professional) to make a CG feature in the World. Hard to find out. Let me know if you know. So far many people have accessed this site since March 2003 and nobody has said I am not the first and some think I am indeed the first.

Also it seems that my film was the UK's first CGI feature as the UK's first professional (i.e. making money from it) CGI feature 'Dominator' had a rough cut version ready March/April 2003 time, and after a Cannes showing on May 21st when they decided to make a few changes, and it had it's final edit. Searching the web shows they count May 21st 2005 as the 'Dominator' date for first showing. This film was made using many of the same programs I used and I understand and appreciate it's directors approach. He is right to suggest people can make features at home now. Screen South list the finish date as June 3rd, exactly 3 months after my film reached completion. So to clarify, 'Dominator' was the UK's first professional CGI feature (Premiere 21 May 2005) and 'The War of the Starfighters' was the UK's first CGI feature period (home Premiere 22 March 2005). The UK's first professional feature to get a proper wide theatrical release in the cinema was 'Valiant'. Just to set the record straight.

So 'Dominator' may claim to be the first UK CG feature but clearly mine was first. The fact mine wasn't released or is professional is immaterial to that fact and that is the point. So I wish they'd stop saying they were the first. I have told them by phone and post, so they cannot say they don't know. Incidentally my second feature CG movie 'Monsters of the Id' was completed before the (second) 'Dominator X' film too.

It was made using Poser (CG character animation), Bryce (CG backgrounds, interiors and some ships), Asymetrix 3DFX (CG Ships and objects), Illusion (CG explosions and particle FX), Sound Forge (sound FX), E-Jay (music), Photoshop (lasers and image manipulation) and Premiere (editing, keying and FX). The trick was to use fast and user friendly software. Most of the film was made on a 233 P2 machine but finished off on a 2.4 Gig P4. The P2 PC is looking decidedly worn out and has been retired to my attic.

Check out the Curious Labs Poser web site for news on my film if it is still archived there.

How it started with three short movies, each sections of the main film:

A short 4 minute film has been made and took one month to complete (but two years of testing). It took 180 hours to make and this is incredibly fast for CG. The film has won an award at an International Festival in Guernsey in 2000 and a Gold Award in the UK International 2001. This qualifies me to have letters after my name (L.A.C.I.). The movie was shown on ITV on July 9th 2001. It is called 'Starfighters Attack' and it features two robots, Trevlac and Ecknaural, fighting for supremacy with a nice twist at the end. I made this completely on my own (voices too). Here are some images:

A 5 minute  sequel has been produced called 'The Force of the Starfighters'. This is the story of a rescue attempt which is disrupted by dinosaurs (Dinos). This movie won a Gold award in the UK International in 2001 and the I.A.C. magazine published an article of mine too. Here are some images of the movie which took 200 hours over a two month period to complete:

The third in the series, 'The Lone Starfighter' is 7 minutes of action as robot Trevlac has to fight off skeleton aliens (Stix) whilst waiting to be rescued himself. This took 240 hours over a two month period to make and features complex shots as well as spaceships, interiors and buildings made from scratch in Bryce 3D. It has won an award at an International Festival in Guernsey in 2001. Some images:

These are three of my most favourite movies and they were made in the year 2000 and 2001. They represent a big leap forward for me and have generated a lot of interest. They are being archived with the BFI and the East Anglian Archive and all three have been shown on Meridian ITV on UK TV.

Now to the feature film again:

Down below are some shots from the four year project (started Jan 2000), 76 minute feature length film 'The War of the Starfighters'. In fact it originally started out as 'Robofighters' in 1984 as a Super 8 film idea. As said above, I have made this completely on my own apart from some voices supplied by family (my parents and my kids, Laurie & Jonathan, have several roles), friends and some actors who have appeared in the Star Wars films - Garrick Hagon (Biggs Ep4), Phil Appleton (Naboo Pilot Ep1), cameos from - Shane Rimmer (Rebel Ep4 & Thunderbirds), Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett Ep5&6), Caroline Blackiston (Mon Mothma Ep6), Michael Carter (Bib Fortuna Ep6), Friday Wilson (Handmaiden Ep1). Also a cameo from Frog from my movie of the same name. Thanks to them all. The most involvement from another person was about 1 hours work in total.

Here are some facts and figures: I spent 2,500 hours on the project (compared to another person's one hour providing a voice - why I can say I made it as an individual essentially), averaging over 2 hours per day to complete an average of about 5 seconds of finished film per day. 10,000 files created, 1,350 shots, 212 back-up CDs used, 8 Mini DV and DV Cam back-up tapes, 40 music tracks created of which 28 were used, and about 2,000 cups of coffee were consumed during the making of it. The cost of the two PCs was £6,000 which I took out on a five year loan but this cost has to be spread over at least another 50 shorter films I have made with these machines.

I had to try and be competent at all of the following tasks: directing, producing, scripting, design, editing, computer graphics, sound, music production, acting, not to mention smaller tasks such as learning DVD authoring and web design. I set myself quite a task really but it had to be this way if it was to be my personal gift to my kids. It had to be my vision only. I am self-taught and do it for the love of it - a true amateur film maker. I have learnt all of my skills for this movie at home.

In order to get the project completed I didn't spend too much time altering the basic CG models in some cases, preferring to spend my time making the actual movie. I'm a film-maker first and a CG artist second. Although sometimes I made CG models from scratch such as the Lightstorm starship (top, left picture below - the lower ship). If I hadn't done it this way the project would have taken too long to do. Plus there is nothing wrong with using close-to-stock models as this is what they are for, to speed up the process of modelling. E-Jay music software proved a faster way to make an original track than if I had used my Korg synth and Roland drum machine. All of these things had to be considered because the achievement in mind was to make a CG feature film on my own and that was going to take time.

Three items make up the full film package. The film itself on DVD with chapter points. A menu led 'Making of' DVD containing the three short films, photos, drawings, program demos and clips of the feature, reaction from my children, actors reading their lines and two trailers. Finally a CD containing printed material such as scripts, diary and profiles, and photos for printing out on a PC. All of these items have been archived. Lots of special features in other words, not on the main DVD so as not to impair it's quality.

There is also a fourth DVD of just the three short films Trilogy with a game-like menu of which very few copies exist. Also a fifth DVD of a cartoon style one-minute movie of the robots. Plus a menu led version of the main feature.

The trailer was shown in public for the first time on 21.9.02. The film was made for 4:3 format but looks good slightly stretched in 16:9 widescreen as it is full of sylised images. The film reached feature length rough edit (70 mins or more) minus the titles on Feb 27th 2003. All 74 minutes of shots (plus 1m 25s titles) were completed on March 3rd 2003. Within a few days the news was out to the archives etc. The titles make it longer, 75 mins and 25 seconds.

My life-long ambition to make a broadcast resolution feature film essentially on my own is there.

It was a lot of fun and you know what? I do miss making it. Although, like the Trevlac character says in the last line of the film, 'I need a holiday'.

The August 2003 C&E Portcullis national newspaper dedicated a whole page to the film with some wonderful pictures too. Many thanks to them.

The Edge web site promotes learning through doing rather than academia and they were impressed with this film in March 2005: http://www.edge.co.uk/case_studies_full.aspx?GroupID=1 Go to 'Select Case Study' and then 'Amateur Film Maker'.

The Institute of Amateur Cinematographers (I.A.C.) kindly published a centre spread article about my feature film in the July/August 2003 issue of Film & Video Maker and Starfighters made the front cover. Just wonderful. The book of the illustrated screenplay is also created.

I.A.C. is at: www.fvi.org.uk/ and they also had me headlining their web site in May/June 2003 and in 2004. Thanks.

Laurie Calvert (Trevlac is Calvert in reverse....)

'LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON'

Starfighters is archived at:

East Anglian Film Archive

British Film Institute

Want some sounds? Try these: