(Live Action Fan work) Dragonball Z: The Fall of Men

[The Stig]

THE FALL OF MEN [OFFICIAL]
A Fan-Fiction produced by YOHAN FAURE & VIANNEY GRIFFON
Based upon DRAGON BALL Z created by AKIRA TORIYAMA

The World isn’t like it’s supposed to be.
Something happened along the way.

With these words TRUNKS reminds himself the arrival of CELL, the loss of his friends and his training for combat.
While he knows he doesn’t have any chance, he will try to make the difference and bring back the lost hope.
This Fan Fiction was born from our desire to adapt DRAGON BALL Z into a film, while adopting a dramatic and realistic approach.
THE FALL OF MEN is set in different future, inspired by characters of the DBZ saga, this untold story pays tribute to AKIRA TORIYAMA’s universe

Sous-titres FRANÇAIS disponibles - Subtítulos ESPAÑOL disponibles - Legendas PORTUGUÊS disponiveis -

Follow us : https://www.facebook.com/thefallofmen
#TheFallofMen on Twitter !

***

"The Fall of Men" is a non-profit artistic endeavor. It is not intended for sales of any sort. BlackSmokeFilms does not own the rights possessed by Akira Toriyama, Toei, Shueisha, FUNimation, 20th Century Fox or any of their respective affiliates or licensees of the Dragon Ball Z series.
This Fan-Fiction was made as a tribute to Akira Toriyama's work.

Will watch it when I get home, but it seems to be gaining traction.

[DrClout]

Quick glances before heading off to work suggest its "I'm far better than Evolution will ever be" so it's worth a watch.

[Seha]

That was very good.

I know the comparison doesn't say much but it was at least 10000 times better than that official crap with poor James Marsters.

[Limlight]

i'm too old to get chills, but even so. I got them. That was very well done.

[Dantrag]

I'll be the odd man out and say I didn't like it all that much. I didn't like cell. I miss his pompous attitude and they didn't allow for that with his face...thing.

[Prim]

I understand that, but I think keeping everyone mute was the right decision. Poor dialogue / line delivery is one of the best ways to break the immersion, which is fragile enough with a low budget fan film. Overall I'll agree with it still being better than anything official.

[Dantrag]

I agree as well on that aspect. The other one with Gohan and trucks was better imo. I didn't like the white eyes in SSJ and I didn't see a point in the Tom Cruise motorcycle scene lol.

[The Stig]

Just watched it. I liked it all the way until the sudden fight, where it got boring/pointless.

The previous one with the Androids made the fights seem good enough to be skirmishes, which was what the future timeline battles were mainly about. This one was a weird midair sparring match.

[Kang]

I enjoyed this though the recent Power Rangers fan-fic video was better.

[BWYuko]

@ Dantrag, Prim, and anyone else. Big spoiler:

Spoiler: show

To me it just looked like they were taking every conceivable opportunity to avoid infringing on several dozen copyrights/trademarks.

Notice how there weren't any Namekians? How we never saw any Dragon Balls? No Kamehameha Wave? How we didn't see those green super saiyan pupils? How no character's name is ever directly mentioned (e.g. Cell is referenced as "this cell")? How Vegeta's armor was dismantled into something so unrecognizable he had to hold in both hands? How none in the cast really bears THAT close a likeness to their Toriyama analog, in appearance or voice? How Cell is this mute composite of all his forms plus some other weird fucking thing? How the score is original? How the plot doesn't follow canon at all? How we don't even get to see Goku's face?

It all looked very deliberate. All the casting, Cell's character design, the shape of the capsules, and the time machine -- all of it -- it all had to be just different enough from something that would require licensing to avoid having to pay up the ass for several dozen official blanket licenses or attorneys fees/damages for discovered infringement.

Take a look at this Character Select screen from a the original DBZ Budokai:



Every god damned character name had to have a (R) or TM symbol next to it. "I mean, fuck, it's 2002 and I'm an angsty teen sitting on my couch trying to willingly suspend disbelief in light of 9/11 over here," some assholes probably said.

My point is, when DBZ became popular in the US, it became marketable as all fuck. The likeness and name of every popular character in all of their forms is protected, especially in official merchandise like a game. Certain moves, abilities, and words like "Dragon Ball" and "Sayian". In proclaiming fan-fic, these guys had to be extra careful.

But they did get away with showing some things that aren't protected: the basic layout of Kami's Lookout and Kame House, the clever way they displayed the Capsule Corp logos, etc. It made me really appreciate their effort considering all of the workarounds they had to accommodate. They surgically navigated their way around so much legal bullshit.

Too long and did not read? Looked to me like they was tryin not to break the god damned law, son.

[Prim]

Oh absolutely, though honestly I'm not sure what you're spoiling. Anyone who isn't already intimately familiar with DBZ would have no idea wtf that video was about. I'd probably do the same thing in their shoes- you can yell "We're not doing this for profit!" at the top of your lungs, but that won't necessarily prevent the rights holders from knocking on your door. It's just nice to see people willing to put that kind of effort into making something of that "quality".

As an aside, given that the cell fight and super saiyan effects were still very CGIish, and that this is billed as a more "realistic" version of things... What would a good live-action super saiyan effect even look like? I've tried but I really can't imagine it. Everything I picture seems way too cartoony for a mainstream audience.

[The Stig]

What would a good live-action super saiyan effect even look like?

I'll happily accept more of this:



No need for it to be "real" because it's not real to start off with is how I view it.

The further Dragonball goes into the story, the more fantastic the effects can be.

So if someone wants to do a realistic representation of this fight:



I'd accept little to no effects besides the odd beam here and there and some slight high speed movement. But at this level the realism restriction should be more relaxed and more like the first video.


@BWYuko I like your explanation. Never looked at it like that because I always just thought as long as no money is being made no one will give a damn, although lately I've come to realise this is not true. Recently I uploaded 2 TRAILERs, one for the Broly movie and 1 for the Super 17 saga on my youtube and both got slapped with some form of copyright notice. Yet all the other DBZ content on youtube seems to be untouched (i.e. the one I linked), it's mind boggling the tricks they use to keep the content on the channel.

[Seha]

Speaking of Tienshin, I found his third eye supercreepy <.<

[Akiyama]

I didn't think it was bad. Honestly, though, what I'd give to see a DBZ related live-action fan work that didn't involve going into the uber super duper dark side of things and like.. I dunno, show them being triumphant or something. Maybe it's just me.

[Vandalhart]

Spoiler: show

I don't know if I buy the speech from Vegeta at the end there. I don't know that he'd ever call Goku his friend.

[DrClout]

Spoiler: show

I don't know if I buy the speech from Vegeta at the end there. I don't know that he'd ever call Goku his friend.

I buy it. The characters depicted weren't all that far from their Canon Counterparts. Vegeta had those same feelings in canon towards his son and un-admittedly so towards his greatest challenge/rival.

Shit, while watching, I was holding it together pretty well til that part and then the feels train ran me over.

[Null]

@ Dantrag, Prim, and anyone else. Big spoiler:

Spoiler: show

To me it just looked like they were taking every conceivable opportunity to avoid infringing on several dozen copyrights/trademarks.

Notice how there weren't any Namekians? How we never saw any Dragon Balls? No Kamehameha Wave? How we didn't see those green super saiyan pupils? How no character's name is ever directly mentioned (e.g. Cell is referenced as "this cell")? How Vegeta's armor was dismantled into something so unrecognizable he had to hold in both hands? How none in the cast really bears THAT close a likeness to their Toriyama analog, in appearance or voice? How Cell is this mute composite of all his forms plus some other weird fucking thing? How the score is original? How the plot doesn't follow canon at all? How we don't even get to see Goku's face?

It all looked very deliberate. All the casting, Cell's character design, the shape of the capsules, and the time machine -- all of it -- it all had to be just different enough from something that would require licensing to avoid having to pay up the ass for several dozen official blanket licenses or attorneys fees/damages for discovered infringement.

Take a look at this Character Select screen from a the original DBZ Budokai:



Every god damned character name had to have a (R) or TM symbol next to it. "I mean, fuck, it's 2002 and I'm an angsty teen sitting on my couch trying to willingly suspend disbelief in light of 9/11 over here," some assholes probably said.

My point is, when DBZ became popular in the US, it became marketable as all fuck. The likeness and name of every popular character in all of their forms is protected, especially in official merchandise like a game. Certain moves, abilities, and words like "Dragon Ball" and "Sayian". In proclaiming fan-fic, these guys had to be extra careful.

But they did get away with showing some things that aren't protected: the basic layout of Kami's Lookout and Kame House, the clever way they displayed the Capsule Corp logos, etc. It made me really appreciate their effort considering all of the workarounds they had to accommodate. They surgically navigated their way around so much legal bullshit.

Too long and did not read? Looked to me like they was tryin not to break the god damned law, son.

Yes, avoid names, avoid likeness, avoid everything about the series to avoid being sued. CALL IT DRAGON BALL Z.

[Dantrag]

Expect as long as you don't make it for profit it doesn't matter does it?

[Tymon]

Please stop with this stuff. If you're going to do something live action just do Dragon Ball where it could actually be done really well. You just can't recreate a DBZ fight in live action. Human actors can't replicate that stuff and have it not look awkward.

Goku in a tee pee? Seriously?

Sorry, this was pretty bad. Cool effects, but that's all it had. The fight was absurd.

[Vandalhart]

Goku in a tee pee? Seriously?

huh? Goku wasn't in this at all was he? That was the guy that lived below Kami's lookout (or his son). He was featured in Dragon Ball just before Goku climbed to visit Kami the first time.