ebsaga dvd’s officially sold out!

Jeff Benson — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 08:17:42 +0000

Hello everyone. I’m currently living in Tucson, Arizona. I work for Fangamer as a videographer and photographer.

The EB Saga DVD we released through Fangamer in 2009 is officially sold out! BIIIG thanks to everyone who bought one, and even to those of you who thought about buying one, but didn’t because your parents said “You don’t need any more DVD’s, Blueray is the wave of the future!”
This DVD won’t be restocked, EVER! So if you got one, you own a piece of UbseyMovies & EB Saga history. Sorry there were issues with the cases breaking for many of you, so protect it like the cheap piece of plastic that it is!

I’ve been writing the EarthBound series reboot. It’s still early in the development stage, so there isn’t much to say about it. I will say I’m enjoying the process, and that we’ll eventually do a kickstarter for the project. But that’s quite a way down the road… I really just want to post on here and let everyone know that I’m still actively developing this project. One day it’ll come out, and it’ll be fun, like eating ice cream and listening to vinyl records.

Thanks everyone for your support!

- Jeff B.

Work to exhaustion when you’re young…

Jeff Benson — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 23:26:37 +0000

So where does the EarthBound Saga reboot currently stand? Are you filming the first episode this year? Without a doubt, these are some of the questions on every fan’s extravagant mind. But you know us, we love to make elaborate promises and fail to live up to them due to life and it’s gratuitous worries getting in the way. Needless to say, we haven’t started filming yet — This is largely due to us having to move last month, and the chaos that follows in finding another place to live. EarthBound has always been a priority of mine, and the series will never be cancelled no matter how long it takes. However at the moment, I’m simply not in the position to be doing film work — Instead, I’m in Tucson with Fangamer for the entire month! Check out their office cam show on Fridays at 8:30 Eastern, and feel free to chat with me about EarthBound or whatever else your extravagant mind may desire.

What is your Saga?

Jeff Benson — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 19:50:43 +0000

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.

Mother Saga: Feature Film by PsiPaula4
EarthBound the Series by Brushguy / Ridgway Films
Dusty Road to Destiny by Thirsty City Films
/EarthBound by xfisjmg1
Fobbies Are Borange by Stephen Georg, Benjamin Carignan, Martin Tovar
The EarthBound Saga: The Sharks “What the hell!?” – By Thebadtomato115
Mother 2 Saga (Even dad gets in on the action!) – by PsiPaula4

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.

EB Saga Reboot, Scripts, and Paula

Jeff Benson — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 18:35:13 +0000

Hello little EB Soggies! Sorry for my lack of update. These past few months have been filled with writing two scripts: EB Saga: 199X, and my first short horror film, The Nightmare Box.

My decision to reboot the saga wasn’t a passive one; I see opportunity to outline the entirety of the foreseeable series, such that once completed we may link the chapters together seamlessly to form an epic 5 hour EarthBound feature, (hopefully) with consistent themes and characters. However, this is a lifelong project for me, as I love EarthBound. The game has fueled a lot of my interest in pursuing film. Even at the age of five, I remember playing the game and thinking “someone has to adapt this!” But my resources, connections and film making knowledge were simply not in place. Yet, like many fans of the game, I still wanted to do it! So here I am, still just as naive as I stood at five years old but with a few more rocks in my head. So I’m creating this at all costs, both emotional and financial – As I feel the EarthBound community has been asking for a live action counterpart to the game for almost as long as a sequel to the game itself.

The beginning of the EarthBound story has been very fun to revisit: Many themes to explore, a lot of bizarre and interesting characters, and sprinkles of light hearted humor with a slightly heartbreaking undertone. Wow! EB: 199X may be my favorite in the series, but I always say that about whatever I’m working on at that moment. You’ll see what I mean! Eventually.

While I can’t give an exact release date yet, I can say that when the film is online, you’ll love it! That is a bold statement, very bold indeed. Perhaps I ought to not be so bold, but I am. Oh well! As far as I can tell, this chapter will be out (before the world ends) in 2012. Filming starts this summer.

In other news, everything we filmed for chapter 5 will now be included in the chapter 3 reboot. I HAVE found a new Paula! She’s perfect for the role, as far as I can tell at the moment. However, she lives very far away, and is a friend I’ve never really met before… I hope to one day change that, and I think she does too. But perhaps that’s too much information. Again, I can be very bold. Oh well!

Bonus pic

FFSTV/Awesome Video Games – Ebsaga

Jeff Benson — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 02:58:27 +0000

The folks over at FarFromSubtle did a little video of them watching EB Saga! In honor of the EarthBound Fanfest.

Those dudes are so cowabunga.

Paula is missing.

Jeff Benson — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 17:18:05 +0000

I’m currently knee deep in missed deadlines while the entire production has come to a grinding halt, as I’ve realized an all too familiar circumstance; we don’t have a Paula.

In this chapter alone, I’ve had three different actresses involved in the project to be Paula, none of which worked out, all due to scheduling. This film is going to take quite some time to shoot.. and just as I thought, it’s a real beast to make.

For the love of gosh, Paula, where have you gone?

Hiatus is over.

Jeff Benson — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 03:10:26 +0000

It’s weird having been on a hiatus from EarthBound 5 for the past few
weeks. I’ve been working on our CMF 2010 project, and then immediately
following it’s completion, I started the fall quarter at school. Busy
Benson.(We won best picture, yahooo!)

I really would like to turn this short film in to a feature-film. A different story, but the same character (Elliot Kane) in the same chaotic world.

Watch it and tell me what you think. I love ‘dem comments!

Ubsey/Fangamer Jam – Dawnky Kong Time (Forest Frenzy)

Jeff Benson — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 18:21:12 +0000

Back when Reid came over to help out with some EB Saga 5 stuff, we wound up playing some music. The following is one of the tracks that emerged from said jam.

Robbie Benson – Organ

Reid Young – Bass

Daniel Maggio – Guitar

Jeff Benson – Drums

Fangamer Ustream & Gilbert Smith Article

Jeff Benson — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 18:06:37 +0000

Hey guys, we’re taking the next week off from production because CMF 2010 is happening at San Jose State University the 14th to the 21st – So we need to make good use of that time.

However, you can enjoy these ustream videos of us filming with Fangamer’s Reid and Steve! Eventually the FarFromSubtle guys show up in the chat, which you can’t see in the video, but cool anyway! We had about 20 people watching at some points, so this was one exciting ustream!

On another note, here’s a link to a very nice article about us. Gilbert Smith, the guy who wrote it, has been a very loyal follower of not only ebsaga, but UbseyMovies in general for a long time. I’ve always liked him. He used to be around way back when UbseyMovies.com actually had a forum in 2007-2008. Ever since the forum shut down though, I’ve seen little of Gilbert Smith.

Ustream Broadcast Archive: Days 1 – 5

Jeff Benson — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:27:52 +0000

Here are the recorded portions of our ustream broadcasts, from the Hint Man Cabin set, located in Jon’s Basement.