Ryan vs. Dorkman

"Ryan vs. Dorkman" (often abbreviated by fans as "RvD") is a "Star Wars" fan film, created by Ryan Wieber and Michael "Dorkman" Scott, and first released to the internet on March 1, 2003. It was produced as an entry in a lightsaber choreography competition hosted by TheForce.net, a prominent "Star Wars" fan site noted for its fan film-making community. According to the [http://theforce.net/fanfilms/fxprojects/ryandork/ official TFN entry for the film] , the backstory involves Ryan and Michael, or "Ryan_W" and "DorkmanScott" as they are known on TheForce.net's forums, meeting after their friendly online rivalry over who is the better saber artist escalates too far. The fight to the death will determine once and for all who is the most skilled with a saber.

Though fan-made lightsaber duels were already commonplace on the internet at the time of its release, "RvD" gained attention due to the quality of the lightsaber special effects, which some compared to the visual effects created by Industrial Light and Magic. [Cited by Wieber on his site [http://ryanw.michaelfrisk.com/ryan-w/index.html] , but the text has since been changed.] It was also lauded for its careful and clear cinematography and its fight choreography, praised by some fans as being equal to or even surpassing the fighting showcased in actual franchise films.

In the spring of 2006, the short became a viral video after being posted on such websites as eBaumsworld, CollegeHumor, and (arguably the biggest boost in its popularity and visibility) the front page of YouTube as a "Featured Video." The YouTube video officially surpassed one million views on January 30, 2007, along with tens of thousands of hits at other sites.

A version of the film uploaded to Google Video also surpassed two million views.

In early 2008 Wieber and Scott re-mastered "RvD" and is available for download on the official site. The re-mastering involved removing the "greenish-yellow wash," re-doing some effects, fixing rotoscoping errors, reversing the effects from the de-interlacing (which gave diagonal lines a "jagged" look), re-framing certain cuts and upgrading the audio track from a loud mono track to a softer stereo track. A more detailed explanation is on how they re-mastered it is available on the site.

Both Ryan and 'Dorkman' were featured in the music video for Weezer's 2008 Song 'Pork and Beans' which included many other internet video stars, including Tay Zonday. The two can be seen fighting with lightsabres amongst the band playing, the drummer of which seems to be playing with lightsabers instead of drumsticks.

"Ryan vs. Dorkman 2"

After the sudden and tremendous surge in popularity of RvD, Wieber and Scott announced in May 2006 that they would be producing a sequel. "Ryan vs. Dorkman 2" (RvD2) was shot in Atlanta, Georgia in August 2006. They released a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYmqRn7d-2I sneak peek] of the film online in December 2006, in which they noted several technical improvements over the original RvD, such as the fact that it was shot in 24p high-definition, as opposed to the original's 30p standard definition. (Though not mentioned in the video, RvD2 also "upgraded" its aspect ratio to 2.35:1; whereas the original was 16:9, or 1.78:1)

The film's score was recorded with a 57 piece orchestra at Capitol Studios in Hollywood. To accomplish this goal, film composers Gordy Haab and Kyle Newmaster donated their time and talents to the project. The film's creators solicited donations from fans in order to pay the musicians. M.B Gordy (lead percussionist from "Battlestar Galactica") provided the percussion.

The film premiered February 24, 2007 at the Wilshire Fine Arts Theatre in Los Angeles, with a screening at the New York Comic Con the following day. The film was released on the internet on March 1, 2007.

During the summer of 2007, Ryan and Dorkman released their soundtrack.

As of May 21, 2008, over one year after the film's internet release, YouTube view counts surpassed 3.1 million.

"Ryan vs. Dorkman 3"

In a behind the scenes Q and A video from Wieber and Scott, they have affirmed their intention to do a "Ryan vs. Dorkman 3" sometime in the near future. No official timetable has been set (Wieber has suggested several years from now), but Wieber and Scott claim that they will do it when they obtain more ideas on how they want the third battle to shape up. They have further stated that while they could make a third lightsaber battle now, it would basically be considered a "clone" of RvD2 with no real advancement in special effects and filmmaking.

References

External links

* [http://www.ryanvsdorkman.com/ Official home page]
*imdb title|id=0982924|title=Ryan vs. Dorkman
*imdb title|id=0985666|title=Ryan vs. Dorkman 2
* [http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-8230/TS-11747.mp3 Interview with Ryan and Dorkman] on [http://www.geekza.com Geekza] .