What makes a great Tokusatsu show?

[Zensouken]

So it seems that the classic Toku stuff has a lot better elements judging by your posts, I've been thinking about accquiring Jetman or Liveman, I want to get Kakuranger, and I don't even know about KR because I really love Faiz, still haven't seen Blade, saw some Black RX, I'm pretty interested in this "The First" movie.

For me, I prefer a kickass story with like double-crosses and BS out of nowhere and some dark take-no-**** villians. I want my hero to fall, hard and have to really prove getting that power-up, I want a lead female Rider, dammnit! I could do without the humor, really, Japanese humor is a little wacky for me yet. No more stupid wire-fu nonsense, let the damn Ranger fall to the ground and kick some butt!

I would really like it if when 100 Anaroids show up they all don't wave around and attack 1-by-1, go for the damn hero and let me see him really bust out! I have this clip of Burai fighting Geki before Geki henshins and the fight is damn dirty, and the transformed fight is even more killer.

Eh, I don't mind the age of the actors, just act well please.

 

[SaikoDragon]

Ok, I want to know what your opinions are on what makes a great tokusatsu show?

-Music: Music always plays an important part in epic or simple storytelling. It allows you to connect to the emotions being displayed on the screen easier. You can figure out how you need to feel through the music. It leads you, and it enhances the experience of the story.

-A likeable Hero: Someone you can connect to. If you dont like the main hero then its harder to like the series. The hero doesnt have to be perfect, but his intentions should be good. Someone who just wants justice in the world or a personal justice.

-A good story: This includes good writing. I think thats self explanitory.

-Epic Battles: Im a sucker for a meaningful and memorable battle. So having a few of them is A+ material.

-Real victories: I prefer battles that are won on skills and merits. Not on "omg I got a new power that lets me WIN! WOO!". Sure, that works for those truly desperate and dramatic battles but when its overused its stupid. Thats why I loved KRGarren. That dude won using only what he had. He overcame his fear himself and he gave it his all. He did amazing things just using his own skills. And thats the kind of victory I like.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm *starts to regret starting a Kamen Rider fanfilm script.... Too much wanted from the audience, for low budget fanfilm.... oh well.*

You see, this is the problem with people and FanFilms. You came on here seeking ideas. But good fanfilms didnt get their ideas from the fans nor did they seek to impress the fans by giving them everything they wanted. FanFilms are done just for fun and because the Fan himself wants to do the film.

If you are serious about a fanfilm, just do it yourself. Stop asking others what they would want to see. Stop for a moment and ask YOURSELF what YOU want to see in the film and then DO IT. It's your money, and you are paying for this to happen (if you really want it to happen). So its your say and Im sure if you really work hard and enjoy what you've made others will too.

One last piece of advice, don't ever expect to make a fan film and then gain profit from it. If you want to spend money on a fan film, you do it because you love the franchise you are paying homage to. And you want to show that love with a film. Dont do it because you just want some money. No one on the internet will pay for it anyway. Who would? Lord knows I wouldnt. And if it was really popular, you could bet that nothing you could do would stop others from pirating it for everyone else who doesnt wish to pay for a film they never saw from a guy they dont know whether it might suck or be bad ass.

I remember a guy from JapanHero. He had these unrealistic dreams. Grand dreams of doing a Toku show of his own and he was gauging interest for it at JH. Well of course we would be interested but he was wanting to sell the thing and get it on TV and charge people to see it. He woke up to a cold reality soon after everyone let him know how bad of an idea it was.

Not that making FanFilms is a bad idea. But its usually a sign of "hmmm this guy isnt serious" when hes gauging interest in a fan film and he hasnt even worked on it yet.

If you are serious about doing a fan film, get your friends, work on a script, and do what you want to do. If you really like what you've made others will too. You know? So just run off and make your fan film. Dont sit there and ask others what you should do. thats poor writing. Sure, you are trying to make something the fans will like but you asked a general question. You asked what we like in Toku. But obviously thats far differant than what we would expect from a FAN FILM Toku. Below Im going to give you some tips for making a good low budget fan film:
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1) Write your script first but be modest: When you write your script, try to write something small. Be modest with what you want. Remember you cant make it look as good as the TV shows and movies. Its not going to look that good. So dont fool yourself into thinking you can pull off this amazing film that requires really impossible stuff.

2) Keep it short: Keep the story short, simple, and to the point. Set it to a medium or fast speed. Dont slow it down. You want to keep the viewer interested. And anything slow, Toku fan or not, will lose their interest if they arent hooked.

3) More Action less Acting: You arent an actor and dont fool yourself to think that you can act or that your friends can act. They cant and chances are that you cant either. So dont start fooling yourself that you can. So what you should do, when writing your script, is focus more on the action and less on the acting. If you have a scene that requires long dialogue, cut the dialogue down to only what NEEDs to be said. Remove any babble or ramble. The less actual acting you need to do, the better you will be able to do it. Action is better to pull off than acting, usually. Toku fans really like the action anyway, and you are going lose interest if your film is based on poor acting and story than action.

4) Be creative: Try to be creative and think about your camera angles as you work on the script. Write notes on your camera angle ideas and try to test them out. See if they worked how you want. But remember to keep it medium to fast paced. Slow action loses the interest of viewers.

5) Select good music: I doubt you will be purchasing your own custom music. If you are, wow. I hope its not costing you too much. But it might be better to just take music from other shows or whereever. This is a fan film so you dont need to make everything completely original. Unless you are trying to get profit from it (bad idea, of course.). But just grab some good action music, good story/drama music for your dialogue parts and you are good to go. Its really not worth the trouble of getting your own music. Not for a fan film

6) Characters: Try to keep the number of characters down. Unless you are frelling rich and are going to do a large series then sure. Go for it. I mean, Im suggesting things on the assumption that you have a modest budget. Not a millionair budget. So, 3 Kamen Riders sounds nice. If this is your first fan film, just try to take it easy and be overall modest with what you want to do. Remember you cant do the bad ass shizzle they do on the TV. But you can certainly do your best with what you have. So dont go in expecting something epic and huge. Just do what you can and remember even you have limits of what you can do in the film.

7)Good luck
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If you go with a fan film, then go for it. Im not a huge fan of hype. I honestly look down on people who barely have a script but are already coming onto boards and proclaiming their efforts to be the best of the best and their film to become one of the greatest and must see. They talk on the boards and get everyone excited but the minute one person goes "hmmmm Well" they throw a fit and say "fine I wont do it". I just feel like, if you are going to do a fan film, go do it. You dont need to hype it. People will hype when they can actually see what you've made.

You admit yourself its a fanfilm and a low budget one. So you should have known better than to ask a question like "what do you want on toku". You should concern yourself with what others want. Its what you want. Its your money.

 

[Bolt]

You see, this is the problem with people and FanFilms. You came on here seeking ideas. But good fanfilms didnt get their ideas from the fans nor did they seek to impress the fans by giving them everything they wanted. FanFilms are done just for fun and because the Fan himself wants to do the film.

While it's true that the main purpose of filmmaking is entertainment, if you're planning on releasing the film for people to see, be it into major theaters across the country, straight to video, or just on the internet, then you have to make the audience enjoy the film as well. It's really great if you just want to make a movie for yourself, but the viewer tends to not enjoy those kinds of films as much and the majority would rather see something they think is cool, and while you can't please all the fans of course, I don't think it's a bad idea to take suggestions if you really want it to be that good.

One last piece of advice, don't ever expect to make a fan film and then gain profit from it. If you want to spend money on a fan film, you do it because you love the franchise you are paying homage to. And you want to show that love with a film. Dont do it because you just want some money. No one on the internet will pay for it anyway. Who would? Lord knows I wouldnt. And if it was really popular, you could bet that nothing you could do would stop others from pirating it for everyone else who doesnt wish to pay for a film they never saw from a guy they dont know whether it might suck or be bad ass.

That's a very good point. I think a lot of amateur filmmakers think that the big budgest films make big money, and that low budget films at least make a little money, but it's going to be very very rare occurances throughout your career that you're going to be in situations where you're getting paid. I'm working out a deal right now to have the music changed in an upcoming film of mine and put on a DVD for mass distribution, which is purtty cool, but it's the first time I've ever been paid for it. Most of the payoff involved with filmmaking is hearing compliments from people that loved it and being able to watch it without saying "Geez I fucked that shot up" or "Gah, why didn't I cut that?!"

I remember a guy from JapanHero. He had these unrealistic dreams. Grand dreams of doing a Toku show of his own and he was gauging interest for it at JH. Well of course we would be interested but he was wanting to sell the thing and get it on TV and charge people to see it. He woke up to a cold reality soon after everyone let him know how bad of an idea it was.

I remember that guy too! He got so pissed at me when I told him that he had unrealistic goals and supposedly he tried to get Kage to ban me.

3) More Action less Acting: You arent an actor and dont fool yourself to think that you can act or that your friends can act. They cant and chances are that you cant either. So dont start fooling yourself that you can. So what you should do, when writing your script, is focus more on the action and less on the acting. If you have a scene that requires long dialogue, cut the dialogue down to only what NEEDs to be said. Remove any babble or ramble. The less actual acting you need to do, the better you will be able to do it. Action is better to pull off than acting, usually. Toku fans really like the action anyway, and you are going lose interest if your film is based on poor acting and story than action.

You don't have to be professionally trained to be an actor. You just have to know what the character you're playing is about and be pretty much uninhibited to potentially make a fool out of yourself and find the balance between drama and melodrama. It's not rocket science, it's just hard. I don't know Kamen Rider Oni nor any of his friends so I don't know what kind of actors they are, but in this case I have to both support and denounce the point Garren is trying to make. Support, because acting can be hard when you don't know what you're doing and isn't just delivering lines, and most people, well, suck at it. If you don't want your supposed-to-be-dramatic scenes to get laughed at, you're going to have to be able to pull it off. I can't support his point though when he just says "Have more action," because action scenes are just as hard if not harder than acting. In a fight scene, for instance (especially in a tokusatsu film which would assumably use martial arts) you have to be able to move your body quickly and fluidly without looking awkward or stiff, which is going to be hard if you ARE awkward and stiff. Screenfighting is also acting and requires properly timed and executed reactions and other kinds of bodylanguage that you can't just "do." If your film is predominately action (sounds cool enough) but you're not good at the action scenes, then what do you have then? A boring film with bad acting and bad fights. That's no fun. If you're serious about screenfighting you should start some serious stretching and getting into shape, practice with your rhythm and memory and coordination, both alone and with whatever partner(s) you're going to be fighting against and make sure you can all work together and look believeable. It's one thing to be able to kick 6 feet in the air, but it's entirely different to be able to look good doing it, and look good doing it for the camera, which is a tricky sonofabitch. Go rent some Hong Kong movies and take note of the way the stuntmen move when they fight, go get In the Line of Duty 4 or Fist of Legend or The Young Master or Lady is the Boss or Tower of Death. Go rent some Japanese movies and take note of the way their fights are powerful and the way the camera is set up. Getting convincing and skilled at screenfighting is going to require a lot of studying and a lot of practice. Sorry, that's just the way it is.

 

[Kamen Rider Oni]

thanx for the advice and tips bolt, also I would like to mention I'm that person you were remembering, but I don't remember trying to get you banned. LOL, sorry my bad, meh my reason for quitting it was because I was afraid people over here in Canada would think it's a PR rip off. Also I'm gonna continue to write my KR script, till it's finished and I would like to point out that I know some martial arts, but it isn't the acrobatic type. But I might be able to fix that with some tricks in the film. Me hopes...

Also my instructor even said I was fluid in my free style (shadow fighting if you will) with my moves and stances, so being fluid probably won't be a problem with me, but my bro is more of a get it over and done with fighter. He doesn't waste time, not to say that I do either, but I just seem to have my moves consecutively linked not giving the opponent a chance to breath or really to strike back. Let alone, regain their footing.

Also we are fairly good in the timing, just the taking hits part will require practice since we usually don't get hit, we just block and counter alot... hehe.

 

[Bolt]

Also my instructor even said I was fluid in my free style (shadow fighting if you will) with my moves and stances, so being fluid probably won't be a problem with me, but my bro is more of a get it over and done with fighter. He doesn't waste time, not to say that I do either, but I just seem to have my moves consecutively linked not giving the opponent a chance to breath or really to strike back. Let alone, regain their footing.

Well it definitely helps if you have a base in martial arts training but keep in mind also that screenfighting is still theatrics. It's one thing to be able to win some sparring tournament or whatever but being able to look like you know what you're doing on camera without coming off as some flowery showoff still takes a lot of work, so be prepared to train nonetheless. Especially your brother. Fighting and screenfighting aren't the same at all. You can do things in movies that look cool to impress the audience and add some pizazz to your ****, but you'd never be caught dead using them in a fight unless you're a moron and then you'd get owned in the face. Likewise you use moves in fights that might be effective enough and "get it over and done with" but it's not impressive to watch. You have to find a good medium and try to hurt each other without succeeding. Like, if you're holding back, the viewer can tell, so you have to go at it like you're really fighting without hurting the other person/people. That's control, and it's very hard to develop. Just keep in mind that a "get it over and done with" kind of fighter usually is more boring to watch than grass growing. It's one thing if he can be stylized enough to not look so amateur onscreen, but nobody really wants to see that kind of fighter beat on people with haymakers over and over.

 

[Bouken Black]

While it's true that the main purpose of filmmaking is entertainment, if you're planning on releasing the film for people to see, be it into major theaters across the country, straight to video, or just on the internet, then you have to make the audience enjoy the film as well. It's really great if you just want to make a movie for yourself, but the viewer tends to not enjoy those kinds of films as much and the majority would rather see something they think is cool, and while you can't please all the fans of course, I don't think it's a bad idea to take suggestions if you really want it to be that good.



That's a very good point. I think a lot of amateur filmmakers think that the big budgest films make big money, and that low budget films at least make a little money, but it's going to be very very rare occurances throughout your career that you're going to be in situations where you're getting paid. I'm working out a deal right now to have the music changed in an upcoming film of mine and put on a DVD for mass distribution, which is purtty cool, but it's the first time I've ever been paid for it. Most of the payoff involved with filmmaking is hearing compliments from people that loved it and being able to watch it without saying "Geez I fucked that shot up" or "Gah, why didn't I cut that?!"



I remember that guy too! He got so pissed at me when I told him that he had unrealistic goals and supposedly he tried to get Kage to ban me.



You don't have to be professionally trained to be an actor. You just have to know what the character you're playing is about and be pretty much uninhibited to potentially make a fool out of yourself and find the balance between drama and melodrama. It's not rocket science, it's just hard. I don't know Kamen Rider Oni nor any of his friends so I don't know what kind of actors they are, but in this case I have to both support and denounce the point Garren is trying to make. Support, because acting can be hard when you don't know what you're doing and isn't just delivering lines, and most people, well, suck at it. If you don't want your supposed-to-be-dramatic scenes to get laughed at, you're going to have to be able to pull it off. I can't support his point though when he just says "Have more action," because action scenes are just as hard if not harder than acting. In a fight scene, for instance (especially in a tokusatsu film which would assumably use martial arts) you have to be able to move your body quickly and fluidly without looking awkward or stiff, which is going to be hard if you ARE awkward and stiff. Screenfighting is also acting and requires properly timed and executed reactions and other kinds of bodylanguage that you can't just "do." If your film is predominately action (sounds cool enough) but you're not good at the action scenes, then what do you have then? A boring film with bad acting and bad fights. That's no fun. If you're serious about screenfighting you should start some serious stretching and getting into shape, practice with your rhythm and memory and coordination, both alone and with whatever partner(s) you're going to be fighting against and make sure you can all work together and look believeable. It's one thing to be able to kick 6 feet in the air, but it's entirely different to be able to look good doing it, and look good doing it for the camera, which is a tricky sonofabitch. Go rent some Hong Kong movies and take note of the way the stuntmen move when they fight, go get In the Line of Duty 4 or Fist of Legend or The Young Master or Lady is the Boss or Tower of Death. Go rent some Japanese movies and take note of the way their fights are powerful and the way the camera is set up. Getting convincing and skilled at screenfighting is going to require a lot of studying and a lot of practice. Sorry, that's just the way it is.

I disagree with GPG a little. You see the point of the Filming Industry is to produce or make something the fans haven't seen yet. For example the "Matrix" movies, Jeepers Creepers, The Creeps, France Five and others all got there start from what has and hasnt been do, or in JC's case were already filmed/concieved before they were even greenlighted to a major production company. Same goes for Freddy Vs. Jason.

I know this may or may not be what you were hoping to see in response but I hope that helped at least a little. :shrug:

 

[Kamen Rider Oni]

Ummmm bolt, eventhough my bro and I got a laugh out of the comment more boring then watching grass grow, I don't think you got what I was meaning by getting it over and done with sort of fighter. He's basically going for the one shot K.O. when he fights, but though that does seem a bit boring, but that's him, he's more likely to be a monster if I choose to only have one rider in it, instead of three. So that could help if he's a monster in the film. Making him sort of a killing machine.

 

[Bolt]

Ummmm bolt, eventhough my bro and I got a laugh out of the comment more boring then watching grass grow, I don't think you got what I was meaning by getting it over and done with sort of fighter. He's basically going for the one shot K.O. when he fights

And for someone completely untrained that's usually a pretty stupid thing to do. If you have no idea how to hit someone effectively then depending on a one shot KO is just moronic.

 

[Kamen Rider Oni]

Now bolt that's not what I was meaning either, he is just a hard and fast fighter, and good at what he does. He doesn't just hit once and walk away depending on that one hit. But he does hope for it, though realistically he keeps going till the guy stays down.

 

[Bolt]

Well, I'm not on here to argue with you about whether you brother is a good brawler or not because really I could care less. The point is I doubt either of you are adept at screenfighting in the least just because you think you can scrap in real fights.