So many links and parenthesises… It’s madness.

First off, if you haven’t seen Inception yet, quit reading this nonsense and go do so.

I’ll wait.

Now, this is gonna sound a little silly (and when I say “silly” I actually mean “hypocritical”), but I’m not that crazy about fan films. I know the thing I’ve done that still gets the most attention is Mosquito, and I know this appears to be the first of six posts telling the tale of making a Star Wars fanfilm. Like I said. Silly.

I think it might be just the ones that take themselves seriously. I love light-hearted fan films like the classic Troops and the Power Girl and other DC hero skits from Blinky Productions (it’s not about the boobies, I swear). Weird Al’s The Saga Begins (youtube it, okay.  I’m at work) is still one of my favourite music videos. Projects that celebrate a love for the subject material in a fun way feel more like praise than… I dunno… unnecessary replication. Fan films like Dead End and this new Aragorn thing are fantastically pretty and extremely well done, but something about them just feels off.

So, after Mosquito, I kinda unsuccessfully swore off fan films. I fell hard and fast in love with Firefly and wanted to tell the world. I also wanted to shake Whedon’s hand, but the bugger jammed on DragonCon that year. Then the controversial character slaughter in Serenity (which I’ve discussed on this thing more than any sane person should), Whedon’s last bit of his X-men run (which I can’t help but call “Kitty Pryde: #1 With a Bullet”), and my on going double whammy of sour grapes and poopy pants at Vagabond not making the Dr. Horrible cut (I really thought John and I had the stuff on that one) left me cold and masterless in the depths of space.

Then came the realization that I’m not much of a self promoter. Sorry, Bachelder, I’ve taken your teachings to heart, but I might just not have that sure and swift a pimp hand. I’ve got two original (or as original as things can ever be in this day and age) projects slowly churning their way through post production, and I want more people to see them. Enter the Atom.com Star Wars Fanfilm Challenge - a contest where Lucas picks the winner each year. What’s more, my best friend Kel always said he wanted me to make a Star Wars fanfilm (I eventually repaid him by all but cutting him from the contest entry, but more on that later). As cool as Firefly was, Star Wars will always be STAR WARS. A solid fanfilm would certainly generate new interest in my other projects.

It was already dangerously close to the contest deadline (I started Mosquito five weeks before its deadline. What the hell is the matter with me?), but I wrote up an easy to shoot script (though one that dangerously straddled the line of playful parody and seriousness) with a handful of friends in mind. Natalie Portman (who is a fantastic actress) said that acting in front of a green screen was so hard that it aught to be taught in acting school, so I was a little worried about my gang. It turned out they could act in front of a bluescreen better than most of the actors in the prequels (except Ewan McGregor. Nobody does anything better than Ewan McGregor), and things got rolling pretty quick…