By Hubert VigillaSenior Staff Writer
A long time ago (let’s say the mid ’70s), in a galaxy far, faraway, fan homages to his own creations seemed like an impossibilityto a skinny University of Southern California film student namedGeorge Lucas. Twenty-five years and roughly forty pounds later,Lucas’ Star Wars empire has become a phenomenon healthy enough to ripthe ears off a gundar and has imbedded itself into the world’spop-culture collective unconscious.
While in the past pen and paper fan fiction fantasies seemed oneof the few ways to pay homage to Lucas’ movies, video cameras,advances in affordable computer editing and the Internet have nowgiven aspiring cinema savvy geeks the ability to pay Super-8 homageto all things Star Wars. Oddly enough, this admiration is oftenexpressed by pulling out light sabers and hacking people up intomidi-chlorian-sized particles. Some of these Siths, Solos andSkywalkers in training are hoping to find some sort of recognitionthrough their films, perhaps even catching the eye of Lucas himselfin the same way the short Shakespeare in Love spoof George Lucas inLove did.
A new hope seems to have popped up for fan filmmakers who dream ofleaving the Sarlacc pit of their grandmother’s basements to join theranks of directors Ivan Kershner and Richard Marquand: The Star WarsFan Film Awards. Taking place in Indianapolis, Ind. May 3-5, twoweeks before the release of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of theClones, fan film submissions to the contest have a chance of winningawards in three different categories: The Young Jedi Award for filmsproduced by fans aged 13-17; the Audience Choice Award which will beselected by Internet fan voting; and the George Lucas SelectsAward,the big one in which Lucas himself picks the best overall entry.
But before getting the bathrobes and blasters out of the closet,the contest includes a big catch that is more than likely going toput a pile of bantha fodder in many an aspiring Padawan’s pod racer.According to contest rules, legal restrictions prohibit thesubmission of fan fiction films which expand on the Star Warsuniverse or its existing characters. In other words, winning an awardby entering a fan-fic film geek-gasm featuring Darth Vader fightingDarth Maul is about as likely as having a drink with a droid insidethe Mos Eisley Cantina: it’s just not allowed. Contestants arelimited to animated or live-action spoofs and documentaries whichcannot feature video or dialogue clips from any of the Star Warsmovies.
While these restrictions may have made millions of fan filmmakersvoices cry out in terror only to be suddenly silenced, there is noneed to despair. There are other venues in which scruffy-looking nerfherders can fully express themselves.
The best of these fan film forums is located at www.theforce.net.Star Wars fan films of all kinds as well as filmmaking tips can befound under the TFN FanFilms section. Lucasfilm has given fanfilmmakers the freedom to create their own non-profit continuitiesand characters within the Star Wars universe.
Some of the better submissions on theforce.net include RichCando’s flash animated simplifications of the original Star Warstrilogy entitled Star Dudes, The Bad Dudes Strike Back and Return ofthe Dude.
Another of the standout fan films on theforce.net is Kevin Rubio’sspoof of the TV show Cops, entitled Troops, which follows theexploits of a group of Imperial Stormtroopers as they try to locate acertain pair of missing droids on Tatooine.
Feeling lucky? Though the deadline is April 5, you can still enterThe Star Wars Fan Film Awards by checking out www.starwars.atomfilms.comfor the full rules and submission requirements.