Star Wars Fan Films

Fan Films have existed since there has been a fan with a visual recording device. They have been filmed in 8mm, super 8, VHS or digital. Great directors all started out making, basically, fan films of their favorite show or movie. Doing their own take on it. These aren't just silly spoofs like on Saturday Night Live ("Get a life!"). These can be really quality products...that poke fun at, yet pay tribute to their favorites.
The Star Wars universe has spawned tens of thousands of these fan films. Everything from kitchen utensils to action figures and animation to movie quality special effects. I would like to talk about my two favorites.
My first favorite is probably one of the first ones I had really taken notice of. In about 1997, I was at a science fiction convention (geek alert!) and saw a video playing behind a booth. I watched it over and over. It was the fan film classic, Troops. I was amazed. Was this for real? The vendor didn't have any copies to sell. But the next time I hit a convention, about a year later, I hunted it down. It's a poor copy and probably not legal but I didn't/don't care. I love it! Troops is a take off on Cops. It follows Imperial Storm Troopers on their daily patrol on the planet of Tatooine (for those who came in late, it's Luke/Anakin Skywalker's home planet). On patrol they meet all sorts of characters including Jawas, who may be selling stolen droids and Owen & Beru, local farmers who often have domestic problems. It is really like Cops! The beginning (using the "Bad Boys" song) and the way they handle the characters. For example, when interviewing the Jawas, they ask one of them who's droids are they selling and the Jawa chirps his response. The trooper says, "Oh, these are your cousin's droids. Is this your cousin...uh-huh..." The Storm Troopers have a Fargo-like accent which makes it even funnier. The effects are remarkable, especially for the time. You can view Troops at youtube.com or theforce.net. There is rumor of a Troops 2. I can't wait!
My second favorite is a very well known fan film called Star Wars Gangsta Rap Special Edition. It is a fall down laughing film! You can view it youtube.com but I suggest you go to http://www.atomfilms.com/film/gangsta_rap_se.jsp for the best copy of it. You don't want to miss a single word and you may (and will want to) watch it several times. This is an animated film that is reminiscent of jap-anime. It is very hard describe but you will find yourself quoting it, "We got deathstar..." and "Yoda, why you gotta be a player hater," while imagining the Star War's characters frontin' and maxin' like rappers. It has been out a while and has had almost 6 million views just on the Atom Films website. Thanks to my brother who kept bugging me to watch it.
View these films with a healthy sense of humor!