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in: Tales of the Jebi

Dark Equilibrium

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Dark Equilibrium is the third and final installment in the Spoof Wars: Tales of the Jebi film series, preceded by Shadows of the Democracy and Return of the Smuggler. Production began in late 2008, but was temporarily halted. Production restarted in 2010 including filming alongside Return of the Smuggler and The Plot Strikes Back.

It will be released...when it's done.

Official Description

DETitle

In Dark Equilibrium, Typhon’s past connection to Rhast is finally revealed! Facing evil at every turn, the heroes uncover an insidious plot that may threaten the Galactic Democracy. Manipulated by a sinister evil, the group finds themselves face to face with an incomprehensible evil, only to have one of their own fall to the darkness. Blockaded and trapped, the heroes find that they may be the only hope for the galaxy. Old and new faces alike appear in this final installment in the "Shadows Trilogy". This short film is intended as a fun parody of movies as well as fan films with...low production values.

Credits

Cast


Crew

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Appearances

Characters

Main Heroes

Main Villains

Other

Locations

Sentient Species

Creatures

Ships

Events

Organizations and titles

  • Twilight Station
    • The Angry Force Field
      • Bartender

Behind the Scenes

Pre-Production

As early as 2007, the idea had started floating around to do a follow-up to Shadows of the Democracy. Once it was decided that there should be a final short film installment that had a rematch with Rhast and a reveal of his employer, work was started on a single follow-up called Dark Equilibrium.

Early Drafts

Early on, Return of the Smuggler and Dark Equilibrium were simply one script, which would run approximately 30 minutes if made. The story had the heroes regrouping and facing Rhast again on another planet, where it would reveal his employer. As additional scenes were added to Shadows of the Democracy, several subplots were introduced, including Guy-Gone's frustration with the Council and his tendency to crash ships, and Typhon's encounter with the symbiocolate. It was then decided that the story needed the characters to go somewhere in search of Rhast before he could be found. The idea of using a space station was decided upon.

Production

Rushed Early Filming

Production began early on the Mini-DV camera as a desire to film any scenes set on Cypress III while filming the additional Shadows scenes. In the late summer of 2007, Ryan was presented with a potential job out-of-state. It was decided that all scenes involving Ryan had to be immediately shot in case he did have to move. The scenes were shot at Great Plains Nature Center, and turned out relatively well, despite the script still being in a state of flux. Ultimately Ryan was not impressed with the job and passed. Production stopped again for busy school and work schedules until the summer of 2008, when it was discovered that a large green screen was available for use. Around the same time, Matt got a new HD camera that ran off a hard-drive. The question was now posed as to whether the film should be made partly in HD and partly on Mini-DV, completed in Mini-DV, or completely in HD, re-doing the earlier Mini-DV footage. In the late summer, the green screen studio became available and the crew decided to film with the HD camera, as well as 2 more Ryan was able to obtain from his workplace. Scenes included Rhast, Dharth Bob, Typhon, Only-One and Bounty Hunters.

Duet Returns

Earlier, the script for Dark Equilibrium became quite large at around 40 pages, and the idea was thrown out that if need be, the film could be split in the middle to form a trilogy. However, there was no clear end to the first half, or any kind of battle to make it interesting. Everything changed in fall of 2008, when Jonathan was shown Typhon, the current version of Shadows of the Democracy, and the available footage from Dark Equilibrium. He became very excited and asked if it was too late to be involved in some way. Production took another pause as the script was re-written to include Shawn Duet, now re-united with the crew on the space station. This rewrite also allowed the opportunity to add more to the space station scenes, including a "rented room" scene, a battle with bounty hunters, and an escape from the station. Many of the comedic lines originally given to the other three characters were redistributed to Shawn Duet. Additional new filming featuring Shawn Duet followed during a large filming session where nearly every scene in the Rusty Eagle involving the main heroes was filmed. Additional footage was filmed in Wes' apartment and at the location for Shadows while finishing all remaining filming for that movie in the spring and summer of 2009.

Script Split

During the summer of 2009, it was finally decided that Dark Equilibrium had gotten far too long to be a single sequel, and the film would be split in two, with the second half being called Dark Equilibrium. Ideas were tossed around for the name of the first half and friends both local and online were asked. Finally it was decided that the focus on Shawn Duet's return lead to the logical title: Return of the Smuggler. The script was officially split in two and a new ending was crafted for Return, while a large flashback was repositioned to be the opening of Dark Equilibrium. It was also finally decided to keep these two films completely HD, meaning that as much as the crew liked the earlier footage with Ryan, it would have to be re-filmed.

Even More Delays

School and work in 2009 once again slowed the production process, though editing had come along quite a ways. However, the biggest delay came in October of 2009 when Matt's computer spontaneously died. Fortunately all project files were saved onto an external hard drive, but the computer was going to be out for repairs for a week - or so Best Buy claimed. Instead, the computer had to be shipped off to Texas to be repaired. After 3 weeks of waiting, the computer returned, and still didn't work. It was taken in a second time and "repaired", then a third and there were still major problems. After over a month and a half of problems and waiting, Matt and his dad pushed Best Buy to replace the computer completely. The new computer was better, however it crashed when trying to view the Spoof Wars video project files. The problem wasn't fixed until spring of 2010, with the installation of an all-new Adobe Production Suite. Finally, filming, production and editing could resume.

Finishing Filming

The spring and summer of 2010 saw the return of Sean to the project, who helped organize and coordinate the mess of films that had developed because of the various delays. It was decided to spend the summer working on costumes, finalizing the scripts and preparing for The Plot Strikes Back. As of September 2010, the rest of filming on Return and Dark Equilibrium is planned to conclude by the end of the year.

Post-Production

See Also

External Links

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