Fan Film Winner Profile: Forced Alliance

As the winners for the Best Fan Fiction: Drama & Audience Choice Award with their film Forced Alliance for the Fan Movie Challenge presented by Lucasfilm and AtomFilms, filmmakers Randy Bookman and Gerry Santos discuss what obstacles and surprises they had making a film that showcases an impressive lightsaber battle as the Jedi and Sith clash in a far away cantina.

What prompted you to make a Star Wars fan film? How has George Lucas and his films influence your work?

Randy Bookman: The intent of Forced Alliance is to get it to the creators of the new Star Wars television series and use it as our calling card. We want to be a part of the creative force (no pun intended) making the show.

What is the backstory regarding your film? Where did you get your idea?

Randy Bookman: Throughout all six Star Wars films, the balance between good and evil has been a major theme. Yet a true balance is never fully realized. Can there be a middle ground? Or is there only good and evil? The real world reflects otherwise. Like the original Star Wars film, our story has undertones of the current social-political issues that the world deals with today. It’s a little darker and at the same time there is hope for what could be.

VIP Bloggers Recap CIV

Even though Star Wars Celebration IV has ended, many of you are posting some truly amazing photos and blog entries about the people you’ve met, the cool things you’ve witnessed and of course, fun times spent with fans from all over the globe.

Lucasfilm, LucasArts, ILM, Lucas Licensing and all our official artists and authors had a blast too. In fact, they’re all blogging about it quite a bit over at blogs.starwars.com. Here’s a short list of some of our VIP bloggers who had so much fun, they just had to blog about their favorite moments spent at CIV.

• Celebration IV Recap — Bonnie Burton (Lucas Online)
• CIV through the Eyes of Tasty Taste — Leland Chee (Keeper of the Holocron — Lucas Licensing).
• From Folsom to Bountiful to CIV — J.W. Rinzler (Lucas Books and author)
• What I Learned From Celebration IV — Abel Pena (official SW author)
• Happy 30th to Star Wars and Thanks to Everyone! — Daniel Logan (Attack of the Clones actor)
• My Celebration IV Experience — Joe Corroney (official artist)
• The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide and C4 info — Sterling Hershey (Wizards of the Coast game writer)
• Star Wars Celebration photojournal — John Jackson Miller (official SW writer)

Feel free to link to your CIV blog entries in comments too!

Fan Film Winner Profile: Anton Bogaty for IG-88: The Dancing Robot

As the winner for the Best Animated Movie Award with his film IG-88: The Dancing Robot for the Fan Movie Challenge presented by Lucasfilm and AtomFilms, filmmaker Anton Bogaty mixes clever animated characters with a catchy soundtrack from friend Ollie Glatzer (aka Mr. Zillion). The Seattle-based filmmaker chats about why bounty hunter IG-88 just so happens to have some skills on the dance floor with a little help from Mixmaster Lobot.

What prompted you to make a Star Wars fan film? How has George Lucas and his films influence your work?

I wanted to try and make a music video using some of the electronic music my friend Ollie Glatzer (aka Mr. Zillion) produces. The first idea was a more original piece starring a nameless robot but I think it was Ollie who started to push for a Star Wars-oriented idea. I figured that I would just try and get all of my Star Wars appreciation out into this one video and then swear to never desecrate Lucas’ creations ever again. I was a little kid when the original trilogy was released and it was clearly obvious even to a five-year-old that the Star Wars films were just so full of amazing artistic detail and love for cinema that only the living dead could escape their influence. American Graffiti is still a film that I watch over and over again. I just make nonsense cartoons but that movie is basically a two-hour film school education for my soul. It’s just an amazing movie.

What is the backstory regarding your film? Where did you get your idea?

For some reason Ollie and I became fixated on the IG-88 character. Along with the Snowtrooper, he was the action figure to have back in 1980. It might have been because he came equipped with two blue guns. As cool as he was, he still came across as a bit awkward. It’s hard to really imagine him truly doing action moves in the heat of battle, having toasters for feet and all. But he compensated by wielding two guns I suppose. Ollie’s music was a solid dance beat so the idea quickly became IG-88 trying to hang out in an Imperial night club of sorts. We fixed on the idea of trying to make the film in early April of this year. I knew of the Star Wars fan film contest and we found out its deadline was May 1. It quickly became a challenge of sorts to do the whole thing in a month’s time. I’m always one who enjoys working under a tight deadline, doing the best I can and living with the results, I guess. Again, I figured that I would never get to make another Star Wars-themed video ever again so I stuffed it with everything I appreciated and could remember regarding the franchise.

Twirling Leia

While the Star Wars Celebration IV party was in full swing on Saturday night, a young fan dressed as Princess Leia twirled the night away right below our makeshift office. She eventually spotted us waving to her from upstairs in the starwars.com room where we were all toiling away on the site, so she came up to say hello with her father in tow… and urged us to quit working and start dancing!

Fan Film Winner Profile: Chad Vader

As the winner for the coveted George Lucas Select Award with their film Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager, filmmakers Matt Sloan and Aaron Yonda never realized that their viral cult classic series of the Dark Lord of the Sith (or at least his brother) who works in a grocery store would be seen by the Maker himself for the Fan Movie Challenge presented by Lucasfilm and AtomFilms. The Wisconsin-based filmmakers chat about their hit series, and how hard it can be to use the Force to move produce and stay awake under fluorescent lights at 3 a.m.

What is the back story regarding your film? Where did you get your idea for your film?

Aaron Yonda: The original idea for Chad Vader came from a friend of mine named Tim Harmston. I had a one-page script in my archives he and another friend of mine had written about Darth Vader who works in a convenience store, kills his employees, and basically acts like Darth Vader would. Matt and I had seen a lot of Darth Vader fish-out-of-water ideas in the past and wanted to changed this idea a little so we made it Darth’s little brother, who has the same look and powers but not the same confidence or backbone to use those abilities. And we gave him a heart. Chad doesn’t really want to kill people, he just wants them to like him, but he’s got a lot of inner conflicts. Once we had created a unique character out of Chad we became really excited about the idea and we started trying to find a way to make the film.

I really liked the idea of Darth’s younger brother working in a grocery store. It’s as if his younger brother never left the small town they grew up in and has to live in the shadow of his more successful older brother. We make a lot of short films but I was really excited to wear the Darth Vader costume. And once we had a good imitation of his voice down things really came together.

Watching Young Lando Grow Up

This is my favorite thing about covering several Celebrations: running into familiar people again and again.

Celebration II (2002)

Celebration III (2005)

Celebration IV (2007)

Fan Movie Challenge Winners

A Celebration tradition continued under a new name tonight on the Petree Stage as Lucasfilm and AtomFilms presented the sixth annual Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge awards. Congratulations to all the winners.

 

(Photo by Jenny Elwick)

Best Action: Essence of the Force by Pat Kerby. (Presented by Lucasfilm’s Event Coordinator Mary Franklin).
Best Short Subject: Incident at Toshi Station by Mike McMahan. (Presented by Model Makers Don Bies and Jon Berg).

Best Animated Movie: IG-88: The Dancing Robot by Anton Bogaty. (Presented by Lucas Online Content Manager Pablo Hidalgo).

Best Comedy: The Eyes of Darth Tater by Lee Vehe. (Presented by Fanboys Director Kyle Newman).

Best Fan Fiction: Drama & Audience Choice Award: Forced Alliance by Randolph Bookman and Gerry Santos. (Presented by Chris Albrecht of AtomFilms).

George Lucas Select Award: Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager by Matt Sloan and Aaron Yonda. (Presented by Lucasfilm Senior Director of Marketing, Tom Warner).

Head over to starwars.atomfilms.com to see all the winners. Check back soon for profiles on the winning filmmakers.

The Clone Wars Panel Discussions

The first two panel discussions with The Clone Wars producer Catherine Winder and supervising director Dave Filoni have finished, and here’s a brief listing of what fans just witnessed:

First, an introduction to Winder and Filoni, with a great video short showing director Filoni wearing his scratch-built Plo Koon costume to the premiere of Episode III (before getting hired on at Lucasfilm).

Interview details:

• When Filoni initially got the call from Winder to direct The Clone Wars, he thought it was a joke staged by his friends. Winder assured him it was not, and proved it by letting him call her back on her Lucasfilm line.
• Filoni got the job moments after his initial interview with Lucas. As a fan, he was just glad to meet Lucas and visit Skywalker Ranch just before the opening of Episode III.
• Lucas is very involved with production – he is mostly focused on the story. He and Winder both work on the scripts with the writers.
• The episodes will be 22 minutes long, so as a result, there is opportunity for a lot of character development. The tone of the series is based on that of Episode IV – in addition to action, there are also light moments and comedy.
• In the new series, there will not be a “Justice League of Jedi” as Filoni puts it – the Jedi can’t do anything more than Luke, Mace, Qui-Gon, and Obi-Wan from the films. They can be vulnerable but are intelligent – they need to think themselves out of situations. It will show how war was a challenge for the Jedi to fight, and how the moral principles they clung to began to disintegrate.
• According to Winder, it’s not being directed as an animated series, but more like live action in terms of its story and cinematography.

(Photo by Scott Ruether)

Filoni then walks the audience through a series of slides which showcase some of the sculpture designs for characters such as the clone trooper, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Count Dooku, and General Grievous. They will share some of the stylization from the 2-D animated series but also some of the reality from the filmed saga. Filoni describes the style as “leaner and more elegant.”

 

A video is shown which introduces much of the team at Lucasfilm Animation housed at Skywalker Ranch.

Q&A questions revealed:

• Lucasfilm Animation had nothing to do with some 3-D animated stills recently “leaked” on the internet. They were fan-produced.
• While continuity is being taken very seriously by the creators of the series, Lucas retains the right to make slight adjustments for the sake of the story. Filoni is extremely well-versed in Star Wars mythology and Expanded Universe, so rest assured it is in very good hands.
• General Grievous will have a cough. When asked whether any of Grievous’ past will be revealed, the only response is, “You’ll be happy.” Filoni also says that when it comes to big legacy characters like Grievous, Lucas is consulted directly.
• The series will debut in Fall 2008.
• A lot of background characters – from the films and otherwise — will get to do a lot more.
• The series is being produced in high-definition.

The audience was then treated to a preview trailer of The Clone Wars, which is currently available to view by all fans at the new starwars.com! Click here to see the new Clone Wars trailer.

Stay tuned for a more comprehensive rundown of the The Clone Wars panels at Celebration IV!

Simultaneous Debut of The Clone Wars Trailer at Celebration IV and StarWars.com!

Right now, in the Celebration Theater, the first audience to witness the The Clone Wars trailer is filing out. At the same time, StarWars.com has posted the trailer for those who can’t be here to witness it with an audience.

Check it out here!

Video: Jane Wiedlin

You may know Jane Wiedlin from the Go-Go’s, but did you know she was a die-hard Star Wars fan? Bonnie Burton caught up with her on the convention floor on Saturday.