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