More than almost any other film series - with the possible exception of The Godfather - the Star Wars saga from George Lucas has inspired an entire generation of young filmmakers. And now virtually any fan will have a chance to create their own online video and become a part (however small) of the Star Wars empire.
Some fans inspired by the movies have taken the traditional route by going to film school, or by submitting their short videos to competitions such as the Worldwide Short Film Festival (which is taking place in Toronto from June 12 to 17).
Ben Murray, for example, has a 10-minute short called Wookie at Work showing in the Toronto festival, in which the hairy alien from Star Wars tries to fix a photocopier. Darth Vader and R2-D2 also make cameo appearances.
"It's kind of like The Office meets Star Wars," says Murray, 28.
Other fans inspired by the Star Wars saga have taken what they hope will be a more direct route to fame: they've uploaded their videos to YouTube, the video-sharing site. Fan creations - such as Chad Vader: Dayshift Manager, a series about Darth Vader's less-talented brother - have been seen over four million times.
"The cool thing to me is that there's now this whole subculture of fan videos out there," says Murray, a Toronto native. "And a few of them, like Chad Vader, have really gone beyond the typical Star Wars fan thing and gone almost mainstream."
Now the Lucasfilm empire is reaching out to the fan-film community with a new version of its official StarWars.com website, which was scheduled to launch on Friday in honour of the 30th anniversary of the first Star Wars movie.
Not only is StarWars.com creating what it hopes will be a home for all of the fan videos floating around on the Internet, but Lucasfilm says it is also giving less technically-inclined fans the video-editing tools they need to create their own shorts (uploaded material will be screened by Lucasfilm for offensive content).The film company has licensed software called EyeSpot, which provides simple, Web-based tools that allow users to upload material and combine it with other content to create their own clips or Star Wars "mash-ups."
The new site "sounds really amazing," says Murray, who admits Star Wars has been a huge part of his life, as it has been for most of his generation. "It was the first film I sort of became obsessed with...it was this massive thing while I was growing up."
Lucasfilm says it will provide more than 250 snippets from the movies that aspiring short-film creators can include in their "mash-ups."
"We want the new StarWars.com to empower fans to make and watch Star Wars videos, play games, and share their love of Star Wars like no other site on the Internet," Bill Gannon, director of online operations for Lucasfilm Ltd., said in a news release.
StarWars.com already features blogs, special in-depth sections for kids, video games, a fan section called Hyperspace, and an online retail operation called StarWarsShop.com. The site was the first to host the online premiere of a trailer for a new movie, in 1999.
Lucasfilms has effectively sanctioned the fan-film genre for some time, by sponsoring competitions such as the annual Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge (co-sponsored by AtomFilms). The new website will include five years' worth of those films.
In a special treat for fans, every year Lucas selects his favourite film from the festival (Chad Vader is one of the entries this year). The winner will be screened on Sunday as part of the Star Wars Celebration IV fan convention in Los Angeles.