Star Wars Fan Art

Rewrite or Remix? Star Wars Fans in the Digital Era Phillip Djwa, Agentic Communications February 2008

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Rewrite or Remix: Fans in the Digital Era

George Lucas in Love – Joe Nussbaum, 1999
http:// video.google.com/videoplay?docid =5058529870025933880

“ I'd like to go out and make a film tomorrow. The hardware to do it is not prohibitively expensive, and I have enough experienced friends to get the job done.
..to omit these [existing movies and television shows] is to omit expression of our true culture; one of referentialism .”
Carl Moore, 19 year old cultural studies student in response to a dialogue around piracy

Fan Universe, circa 1995

Fan Art
Huge amount of fan generated art
Showcases diversity of talent and ability

Fan stories

Expanding Universe, circa 2009

http://www.atom.com/funny_videos/sw_esb_60/
Grasp all the important plot points of the third Star Wars movie, and witness the best use of tin foil — all in exactly one minute!

Fan-generated Work
Fan-generated work has been around for years, so what is different?
Digital tools and web distribution

Fan-generated Work
Creates a strange grey area between the original creators and the fan
Not collaboration, but not co-opting either
“Poaching” (Henry Jenkins)
Often the fan work is appreciated by the creator, but tension exists (guidelines and brand protection)

Hardware wars
Originally done in 1977 as a film by Ernie Fosselius
Starring Fluke Starbucker, Chewchilla the Wookiee Monster, Ham Salad, and Augie "Ben" Doggie.

Fan Work Attributes
Done by amateurs (“fans”)
Often spoof
Leveraging characters, situations, music into new possibilities, can explain psychology of characters
Often inside jokes and multiple layers – for the real fan and the casual viewer
Builds on archetypes to generate new myths
Allows an meshing of the worlds – fictional and RL

Star Wars in 30 seconds with Lego
A video created to describe Star Wars in 30 seconds, using lego
Spawned a large number of Lego movies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=CA&hl=en&v=2-6dfa2pSJQ&feature=related
Star Wars Compressed into 30 seconds

Fan Work is not…
Often not commercialized – film competitions excluded
Often not widely viewed beyond other fans, but exceptions, such as Star Wars
Often not high-quality, but changing rapidly in the past few years
Not limited in imagination or media

Parody Film

Ascii Animation– “Death of Jar Jar Binks”
Jar Jar Binks, widely reviled by Fans, finds a death in Ascii art animation,
a sub-genre of Fan work if ever there was one…

Understanding Fan Work
Gives you an understanding of the current cycle of consumer culture
Allows another generation to be creative using existing materials
Creates opportunities to leverage niche audiences into becoming advocates for new projects
Springboard into studio system

Padme aka “Juno”
http://www.atom.com/funny_videos/sw_padme/
2008 Winner of Star Wars Fan Films

Remixing Remixs: Mashups
PADME is another example of a Mashup
Mashups are where two unrelated cultural products/properties are combined into another derivative work

Eddie Izzard – “Death Star Canteen”
Further example – in this video, Eddie Izzard’s comic monologue is animated with Lego
Star Wars, parodied by Eddie Izzard, is then animated using techniques developed in other Fan work

Star Wars VS Star Trek
Further examples of remix include an animated version of Lego Star Wars Vs. Star Trek

Arnold as Luke Skywalker

Star Wars Kid
Original video in 2002
More than 100 remixes
76 Million visits to one site alone

Gaming is Very Expanded Universe
Many commercial games exist
Different for Fans today in two ways:
Game Play is not always predetermined
If it applies at all
Construction of universe is collaborative

MMORPG: Star Wars Galaxies
Ability to become characters in a Star Wars universe
Explore all areas within Star Wars universe

Fan costumes

Star Wars Pub Crawl in SWG

Second Life – Mos Eisley Spaceport Second Life is a virtual universe which includes several Star Wars locations

SIMS Cantina
The Sims is another game universe with Fan work
Example is Cantina and Rebel Cruiser

The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth -- it is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true. - Baudrillard, Jean (1988). Selected writings

Star Wars as told by a 3 year old
http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =RNVilbs5fE4&NR=1

http://delicious.com/juhwawa/cftpapanel Complete listing of all links

Thank you! Questions, please contact [email_address]

Star Wars Fan Art

by Phillip Djwa on Feb 14, 2009

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Star Wars Fan Art — Presentation Transcript

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