NOW SERVING 250,000!

by Russell Johnson

We've been making movies for over 4 years now. Original ideas with the hope that people will become fans of our work. I suppose that is why many indie film makers make horror and/or supernatural movies. The audience is there just waiting for a new movie to come out. They don't care if it's schlock or not. As a matter of fact maybe the crappier it is the more people will watch. It's hard to be a small indie film company and draw a big fan base.

Which makes this Star Wars fan film even more of a surprise. We knew going in to this that it may be a movie we can use to draw more attention to our original works and 12 STEPS would break us into the next phase of our film making careers. But now I'm starting to believe that this fan film IS THE MOVIE that takes us to the next level of our careers and everything, including 12 STEPS, would have to live up to it.

This movie has set a new standard for us and has a built in audience the same way horror and B movies do. If it's good fans will come, and they have. When we launched our website back in 2002 we had and still don't have advertising and were only wishing people would find out about the site and check it out. Since that day and up until April 23rd of this year we averaged 1500 hits a month. Not bad we thought and least some people knew who we were.

Well little did we know that April 23rd was the end of that. That's the date we released EPISODE IV.V: THE UNKNOWN DISCOVERY. Since that day we have had close to 250,000 hits on our site, all in under 4 weeks! We aren't even sure if that's really good or not comparatively, but we're not complaining. Our email list has grow from around 80 people to 143 and counting. Just yesterday we went on a local morning TV show to promote the movie (you can watch clips on the site) and we had 30,000 hits in ONE DAY alone! We still aren't sure how far this thing could go and I believe we've just scratched the surface.

Funny thing is that this maybe the only thing I am known for and I hope that's not the case but I would rather better be best known for this than for nothing at all. This movie is giving me, giving all of us, more exposure and it can only lead to more opportunities for us. It may not be an original story or even original shots but I'm glad my name is on it.

Star Wars and obviously Pulp Fiction fans are loyal and we couldn't be more grateful for that. They know the dialogue, the costumes and the story of those movies better than anyone. It's a great franchise crossed with a great movie and I think that makes this a little bit harder than a indie horror or B movie. There are fans out there waiting to pounce and you had better not disappoint or they'll let you have it. I've watched a lot of fan films and the criticism can be great and it can be brutal. Always some of both but you have to strive for more of the previous and much less of the latter. We understand those fans because we are our audience and this is a movie I'd want to see. I'm just happy and grateful others do too.

CELEBRATION III

by David Cottingham

What an experience! I’ve never been to CELEBRATION. All I’ve seen is what the members only Fan Club allows you to see on starwars.com. What an experience! We were able to burn about 300 of the 500 disks we planned to take up to Indy on Saturday. I got 45 minutes of sleep while Dave Silvernell kept burning the disks in the morning. After that quick nap on a couch in the office, a quick run home for a shower, we were on our way to CELEBRATION at about 12 noon. We got there around 3:15, but with the help of time zones, we gained an hour. We arrive in Indy at 2:15. Here we go.

THE APPETIZER

Silvernell and I have brought two black bags with us that could hold about 40 disks each. So, we parked in the garage next to the convention, loaded up the bags, and went at it. Both of us were pretty worried about how CELEBRATION would handle two guys handing out free DVDs when everyone else was there to sell something in the enormous room they had there for people who paid for booths. So, we decided to stay outside and pass out the DVD. At first, we really were picky on who we wanted to have the DVD. We targeted groups of people and mostly people who were dressed up. We’re Star Wars geeks, so we wanted to make sure we handed out to geeks. But, unfortunately, the weather wasn’t the best for standing outside and being picky, although, it did benefit Silvernell. He was able to smoke whenever he felt it necessary. So, after about 30 minutes, we went back for another load of DVDs and then decided…we’re going inside.

THE SIDE SALAD

As soon as we walked in, it was breathtaking. The amount of people there was overwhelming, but everyone that I could see had something about Star Wars on them in some form or other. At first we thought, let’s be picky again, but after about 15 minutes of looking around, we realized that anyone there would appreciate and love a free DVD, especially a free DVD of a Star Wars fan film. And not only the film, but two versions of it, an audio commentary, a 22 minute behind the scenes featurette, outtakes, and a trailer, FREE. So, we walked around the place a little and noticed a really long line of people waiting to get into this exhibit. Silvernell took the front and I took the back. We started handing out the DVD and met in the middle. We were out within 5 minutes. So, off we went to the car again for another load. When we got to the car, we saw that we had about 120 DVDs left. We didn’t want to come back again since the weather was getting colder, so we decided, screw it; we’re taking the box inside the convention.

THE MAIN COURSE

We walked through the doors once again and started looking for a great place to set up shop. We found it in the most crowded hallway in the convention center. As soon as we filled our hands with the DVD, people flocked to us. In a matter of seconds, we were out. 120 DVDs gone. It was awesome. People started asking us what it was about, who was in it, where we were from, everything. I feel bad for not having more DVDs for the people who came up after we were empty handed but I think we accomplished our mission. And according to our recent hits on our website, I KNOW we accomplished our mission. Thank you to everyone who has checked out the site and passed it on to others.

THE DESSERT

We went up to CELEBRATION III to pass out our film, but when I was walking around I saw a sign that read, “Rick McCallum to show EPISODE III footage”. I had to see what Rick had. Silvernell and I got in line, and in about 30 minutes, we were seated and Rick came out from behind the curtain. Right away, without hesitation, he says, “Do you all want to see what I got?” The crowd yelled in unison, “YEEAAAAHHHH!” Lights went off, digital projection went on, and all I have to say is, “&^##*$%&”. The footage was unbelievable. What we saw basically was a 10 minute montage of the film in order to nothing but music, no dialogue. It was awesome. That is the reason why I love HD and the Digital format. It DOES look great. It CAN give a filmmaker his vision. I think I’ll always use HD and why not. So, in summary, we handing out 300 DVDs, saw incredible footage of Episode III, and saw thousands of fans who love Star Wars as much as we do. I don’t know if I’ll ever make it to another CELEBRATION but I do know, that even though the last Star Wars film is coming out, Star Wars will definitely go on in some form or other. There is just so much LOVE for it. And LOVE lasts forever.