Rewrite or Remix?Star Wars Fans in the Digital Era

Phillip Djwa, Agentic CommunicationsFebruary 2008

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Rewrite or Remix: Fans in the Digital Era

George Lucas in Love – Joe Nussbaum, 1999http://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 2002More than 100 remixes76 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 oldhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNVilbs5fE4&NR=1

http://delicious.com/juhwawa/cftpapanel

Complete listing of all links

Thank you!Questions, please contact

Phillip@agentic.ca