I occasionally get emails from people who have attempted to create their own live action EarthBound movie. Most often they’ve put their hearts into it and then stopped, much like us; once confronted with the difficulties of creating a film beyond their own doorstep. However, even with their films halted at some point or another, it never discourages them from trying in the first place. Sometimes even against all odds, they (and others) keep going! I feel every Mother fan ought to create something about their favorite game in the series, if only to explore how it is they’ve come to love it as they do. Perhaps the process of handling the respective games’ elements will reveal more to you than the game might itself, as you’re pushed to interpret and articulate.
Completing a film is one of the most rewarding things in life, for me. Not only do you get a wonderful sense of accomplishment just by having seen the entire project through; you get the invaluable experience of what it is to make a movie, as your understanding of it (movies) grows with you. This is how I learned, and continue to learn how to make movies; I refer to it as home-schooled-filmmaking. (Film School is too expensive, and they won’t allow me to make EarthBound flicks anyway.)
I’ve spoken to and even met a few of you that have aspirations to create your own EB films. I think that’s a great idea. Go do it, right now! Write a simple script, call up your friends and arrange to do it this weekend. Learn as much as possible from the entire process, and have as much fun as you can. I recently came across a quote from Shigesato Itoi, creator of the Mother series.
There are so many people who love the MOTHER games even now makes me very happy and very grateful. I consider all the things these players have gone on to create on their own to be countless sequels [to the series].
I too consider every EarthBound film to be canon with the Mother-universe, as we’re all working from the same source material. Which means, your films are related to my films by proxy. Neat!
When we’re both able, Elliott Ridgway and I will chat on Skype, and we often joke about our respective EB Series’ being different save slots on the same EarthBound cartridge. Which gives us the ability to cross over our characters, pay homage and so on. The only reason I mention this is… Like, who’s going to make this empty one, their own?
There are many live action and other EarthBound videos on YouTube, here are some arbitrary favorites of mine. I love these films, as well as those made by others, and I hope you’ll enjoy them too.
I’d really like to collect every EarthBound video made by fans, and eventually display them all on ebsaga.com. If you have a video to add to the collection, please send it to me! If you don’t have one, or haven’t yet tried, get out there and make something! You are your own Hollywood.
