Following on from 2008′s hugely successful parody of A New Hope, Family Guy this time takes aim at The Empire Strikes Back.

In much the same way as the last episode began, the Griffins are watching TV when there is suddenly a power outage. In lieu of retelling the tale of Black Snake Moan (I’ve never heard of it before either), Peter tells the story of Empire.

Those who are familiar with Family Guy and its style of storytelling will not be disappointed. Indeed it does contain many references to the original show. However, as this is retelling The Empire Strikes Back, it also must capture the essence of what that is as well, something which it does admirably. Many of the cast and crew are fans of Star Wars and they didn’t want their efforts to be half-arsed on something that they love so much, and this really shows. The animation is amazing. Seeing a mix of the different characters from Empire and Family Guy ensures that there is something familiar and yet something fresh about the characters. Watching this, you never know what to expect next.

While the episode mostly follows the plot of Empire, it does raise some interesting questions, like why did the Rebels fly directly towards the Star Destroyers when they had literally infinite directions in which to flee?

Fans of Family Guy will enjoy this episode. Fans of Star Wars will enjoy this episode. Fans of both will enjoy it the most.

Since joining the online art community deviantART in August 2007, AsylumWitch (a.k.a. Nikki) has been creating and submitting photo manipulations and collages which there are now 78. While most of her pieces are photomanipulations, she has also contributed stock photographs for others to use in their own manipulations and collages. A link to these is at the end of the article.

The pictures in the interview are all linked so if you see something that you like, click it and you’ll be able to see a full size version.

Now, onto the interview.

NF: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
AW: I’m a stay at home mom now although I used to work as an Office Administrator. I live in California not far from Yosemite National Park. I’m addicted to DeviantART lol and I’ve been there almost 2 years now. I love to make photo manipulations in my free time.

Um…something unusual I guess I could tell you is that I have a rather deep attraction (bordering on obsession lol) to abandoned mental asylums. For the last 9 years I have read and collected books, photo’s, vintage postcards, mementoes etc… from insane asylums here in the US. I am completely fascinated with the architecture and history of the buildings and to only a slightly lesser degree, the patients and their treatments.

My favorite memento at the moment is an original 1870′s brick (yes a brick lol) from the administration building of Danvers State Insane Asylum (aka Danvers State Hospital). A friend was able to get it for me and mailed it to me in California. If anyone’s interested, there is a website http://www.opacity.us that has some beautiful photos of Danvers and many other State Hospitals (asylums), I highly recommend it.

NF: Does being artistic run in your family?

AW: Yes, actually it does. My mother is a traditional artist (acrylics/watercolors/pen and ink) and she has had her paintings in galleries both in California and Oregon. She’s a wonderful artist in my opinion and her mother before her wrote poetry and prose.

NF: Were you into art or crafts when you were at school?

AW: Absolutely. I loved art in school! My mother and grandmother both stressed that art and/or music where essential learning while I was growing up. Creativity was always nurtured and encouraged.

NF: Do you have any formal arts training or education?

AW: No, unfortunately not. I really wished I had taken some courses but at the time I decided business would be more profitable lol.

NF: Where do you get your inspiration, ideas and resources come from?

AW: Inspiration comes from the heart I think. Some days I’m inspired to make beautiful, romantic pieces and other days I much prefer to create something dark or macabre and it’s almost always associated with asylums. I like making both but my favorite would have to be dark.

I get my idea’s from looking at the gorgeous stock on deviantART. Some day’s I just sit and look at page after page of raw photo’s and a few will inevitability catch my eye. Then it’s just a matter of finding complimenting pieces to bring to life my idea and what I see in my minds eye.

My resources are usually from dA, SXU and Renderosity. There are a few others but I use these 95% of the time.

NF: Are there any artists that you look up to or admire?

AW: I admire many artists but for this interview, I’ll narrow it down to three from deviantART. This is hard! There are SO many talented and gifted artists/photographers on dA but these 3 come to mind immediately and I admire them all for different reasons.

First would have to be GrandOmbre. I absolutely LOVE his style of photo manipulations and you could never tell that is what they really are. They are truly works of art, beautiful and sometimes dark. His style is his own and not like anything else you would normally see from most photo manipulators.

Second on my list would be Night-Fate. She is an immensely talented young woman. She creates the most gorgeous landscapes and scenes. Her art is simply amazing! I admire her because she gives so much back to the deviantART community. She takes the time to produce in depth tutorials and also provides large quantities of high quality stocks on her stock account. She consistently shares her methods with all of us that are still learning and that is an invaluable quality.

Third would be a wonderful photographer by the name of RustyDark. There are so many talented photographers on dA, too many to list even if I was going to give it a try. I chose Rusty because he takes such interesting photos and because of his “Artists Comments”. When Rusty shoots at a location, he takes the time to give us (the admirer) a very detailed history of the building/area he is photographing. I myself find this unique and absolutely refreshing! I love not only seeing but learning about these places.

NF: What kind of recognition have you received due to your art?

AW: I did win a Daily Deviation award on deviantART last year for a piece called ‘My Asylum‘.
I was really surprised and thrilled to have been honored with a DD, especially for that particular piece.

NF: Where do you hope that your artwork will take you?

I really have no expectations for my digital artwork. I create photo manipulations simply for the pure joy and happiness of creating. I can’t imagine living my life without doing something artistic in one medium or another. Art is something that frees my soul, makes me truly happy and give me a sense of satisfaction. I hope it always does.

If you have any suggestions, questions or comments about this interview or possible future ones, feel free to leave a comment.

Asylum-Witch on deviantART
Asylum Stock on deviantART

Benita Hellard has overcome her depression caused by her father’s death and is now the favourite to be the next school captain. However, the horrendous information that Frank, a fellow student, reveals about her mother threatens to tip Benita over the edge again. Not all is as it seems and first impressions shouldn’t always be trusted.

My short film, Explicit Exchange, is just about complete.

I have been granted a license to use some music by Moby via MobyGratis which I think really goes well with the whole tone of the piece. It’s very similar to “Overture – Atmospheres” by György Ligeti from the 2001: A Space Odyssey soundtrack.

Apart from re-recording a couple of sound effects, the colour grading still to be done and then it shall be finished.

Overall I’m reasonably happy with the way it’s all come together. However, if there was no time limitation, then I feel that it would be a better narrative. Perhaps one day I’ll make a director’s cut and rewrite the script to flesh it out a bit more, bring in more characters and have it not be as rushed as it is.

If you’re interested in reading the script, you can download the PDF.

Overall I’m very happy with the script as it is now. It’s certainly a lot more concise and snappy which it needs to be, given that it must be no longer than 90 seconds.

As I was writing the script, I was coming up with ideas on where I could film it and writing around those locations. For the opening scene and the closing scene, I’m just waiting on them to get back to me, but hopefully they’ll be fine with it.

Next, casting. While I have an idea for the male lead, the teacher and the female lead still escape me. Perhaps it’s time to call in some favours…