Short Wars director reveals how Short Wars came into being ...

We spent a recent afternoon chatting with Short Wars director Wade. What follows is a complete transcript of our conversation:

ShortWarsMovie.com: So, you just finished editing. How did it go?

WADE: Surprisingly well. Once I found all of the necessary software and hardware, it really all came together in one very intense weekend of work.

SWM.com: Are you pleased with the result?

WADE: Very much so. I think this film is amazing because of the work the kids put into it. I find myself laughing even after having watched each scene 100 times or more. They just did a fantastic job.

SWM.com: What was it like working with such a young cast?

WADE: It was great. I must admit, I had concerns going in. Would they be able to understand what we wanted them to do? Would they get bored? Would there be a revolt before we could finish? But they surprised us all with the degree of seriousness that they brought to the stage. They did everything we asked and more. It was such a great experience. And I hope that the kids would agree with that statement.

SWM.com: How did this all come about?

WADE: Well, it really began when my brother and I went to Star Wars Celebration III in April. We went to a performance of "Star Wars: The Musical," and I was just blown away. It was so wonderful to see how the film had transcended into stage -- yet all the soul and story that Star Wars fans know and love is there. It really put the idea in the back of my head.

SWM.com: A musical?

WADE: Well, no. But I thought - we could do Star Wars on stage. From there, the stars sort of aligned to make it happen. My cousin, Lora, her husband, Mitch, and their son, Miles, were coming home for a summer visit. All of the kids in our family loved Star Wars. With all the hype for "Revenge of the Sith," 2005 truly was another "summer of Star Wars." You couldn't go anywhere without seeing or buying something Star Wars related. Star Wars was in the air. I remember I was talking to Lora before they came home and I said, 'We should let the kids get together and act out Star Wars.' She thought it sounded like fun. From there, the idea became something of an obsession with me. It grew and grew. We could get costumes. Rent a stage. Film the whole thing. It just ballooned into what it became.

SWM.com: Were the kids excited about the idea?

WADE: I'm not sure they really understood what we were attempting to do. Even when we were on stage that day, I'm not sure they all grasped that all of this was going to become a short film. But we did what we could to help them. First, I wanted to make sure that, whenever possible, we filmed the story in sequence. They were so funny -- some of them, like Miles, were little "Star Wars" experts, and if we got something out of sequence, some of them would recognize that and call us on it. So we tried to manage the production in such a way that it made sense to them. Truth be told, I'm not sure it made much sense to anyone that day. Several of the parents who were in the gym with us that day would make comments such as, 'So, what is all of this about, again?' and 'I just don't see how this is going to be a movie.' So we perhaps did not succeed in our goal of making sense at the time. But we tried.

SWM.com: Describe the pre-production planning that you did before the day of filming:

WADE:I started with the original screenplay. I tried to identify the key scenes. Then I started cutting. I'd cut and cut and cut. Then I'd look at how much I could cut and still have the overall story make sense. We didn't have time to do the whole movie. We were just doing the boiled-down version. So I was all about peeling back the layers. I was keeping a list of characters, too, because I knew we were going to have a limited number of actors. I needed to ensure that we limit the overall character list, and the number of characters who would be on stage at any given moment. I was always thinking, 'Who can we cut out entirely?' People like Aunt Beru didn't make the cut, of course. But I needed Uncle Owen to re-create the pivotal "purchase of the droids" scene.

SWM.com: Did technical demands play a part in your planning?

WADE: Absolutely. I was also worried about the technical demands of each scene. For example -- the famous swinging scene, when Luke uses his grappling hook to swing with Leia across a chasm in the Death Star. How could we do that? I couldn't think of a way, so I simply cut the scene. That didn't always happen. I knew I wanted the trash compactor scene. I always felt that this could be funny because they did the trash compactor scene in much the same way for "Star Wars The Musical," and I wanted to re-create that. It was so funny.

SWM.com: How did you handle costuming?

WADE: At first, I was being kind of quiet about my grand plan for this thing. I thought I could get it all ready myself and then just invite everyone to the big day. After trying to sew one Jawa costume, I quickly realized I was going to need help. So I enlisted the crew's help. Mom and Lora helped salvage my attempts at costuming, and they created the costumes that I hadn't been able to buy online. They worked long into the night the weekend before production. It was an amazing job. They really found innovative ways to get it all done effectively and efficiently.

SWM.com: What about those ships?

WADE:The ships were a last-minute thing. I thought we'd just have the kids running around in "invisible ships," much as Luke does in the movie when he's in the "landspeeder." Then, a week before production, I was walking down a hallway at the office where I work, and I saw a pile of styrofoam inserts that had been used to protect computer monitors during shipping. The shape of the styrofoam reminded me of a little X-Wing cockpit, so I grabbed the pile of styrofoam and loaded it into my car. Everyone at work was looking at me funny, asking what I was doing. When I told them, I got even more stares. I'm sure they thought I'd finally lost my mind. I spent that weekend spray painting the styrofoam and attaching X-Wing or TIE Fighter wings. They were all quite flimsy but I'm so glad we had them. They really surprise the audience. The kids also got a big kick out of seeing their ships. All day long they were asking me, 'When do we get to fly the ships.' So having actual ships helped build the kids' excitement for the big finale of the movie, which was great.

SWM.com: OK. So it's filming day. All the planning is done. You are standing in front of a bunch of kids who are looking to you for direction. What was going through your mind?

WADE: I was just very methodical at that point. I was up against a clock and I was absolutely determined to film the whole thing. I had my doubts, truth be told, but I was just so determined to make this work. So I relied on my plan. I had made the little cheat sheets out of spiral-bound index cards. I had one -- the stage managers had one -- and the costume department had one. In them I outlined each scene. What it was. Who was in it. What they needed to wear. What props were involved. It made everything so much better. Don't get me wrong -- chaos was always just one scene away, but I hate to think what would have happened had we not had those little bits of planning in front of us.

SWM.com: Did you try to plan for unforeseen events given the age of your actors?

WADE: Absolutely. My biggest fear was that one of our actors would simply get bored and walk off the stage. Or that one of them would have to go home for a nap. I knew we had to be ready for anything.

SWM.com: And did you have to put your emergency plan into action?

WADE: Yes, we did, actually. We had a bit of a challenge convincing our youngest actor, Roslyn, to wear the custom-made Wookie costume. I knew better than to ask if she would wear a mask, so I didn't push it. But her parents did manage to convince her to put on the little brown pants and the shirt with the "wookie" fur sewed onto it. Once we got her on stage, I knew we had to get through her scenes quickly. So we abandoned the shoot-in-sequence plan and used our planning binders to go from Wookie scene to Wookie scene. We got most of the Chewbacca scenes done before Roslyn finally decided she'd had enough. Her scenes were great, and we simply had Marrit take over once Roslyn was done. It all worked out very well. Considering the age of our cast -- Rosyln was not quite two years old -- I think they all did a phenomenal job.

SWM.com: Any other mishaps or adventures?

WADE: We had our share of challenges. I remember the fleet troopers helmets, for example. I had found these helmets at Goodwill. I painted the front of them black like they were in the original film, but I made the mistake of using acrylic paint, which even after a week wouldn't dry. So that day we had to keep warning the actors to not touch the tops of your helmets. This was difficult for them because the helmets were so big they kept falling down, especially during chase scenes. As it turns out, the only person who got smeared with paint was Brandi, who was dressing the kids. She pressed one of the helmets to her and got black paint all over her yellow shirt. So, you see, we all suffered for our craft.

SWM.com: Did you have to abandon any part of your original vision for the project?

WADE: I wanted a different opening scene, but it didn't work out. What made me think of this project was the love these kids had for Star Wars -- a love I share, of course. And that summer, whenever Roslyn would see "Star Wars" on TV, she would start jumping up and down and screaming. It was so funny. I wanted to capture that excitement and make it the opening scene. My brother is pretty sure he filmed her doing this, but we scoured his collection of home movies and have not ever been able to find it.

SWM.com: Perhaps you can discover it for a "Special Edition" some day?

WADE: (laughs) Good idea. I would enjoy that.

SWM.com: How did your actors react to the film?

WADE: They love it. We had the premiere on Christmas Eve at my brother's house, and they were all laughing and pointing at their big debuts on screen. Roslyn loves it the most. I'm told she watches it several times a day. When my brother got tired of it and hid the DVD, she found it and played it for herself. So, rave reviews I guess you could say.

SWM.com: What do you hope they take away from this experience?

WADE: I hope they gain an appreciation for acting and for creating, and for doing things that sometimes kids don't get to do in their everyday lives. I hope they see what can be achieved when we all work together. And some day, I hope they all appreciate it for what it really captures -- a moment in their young lives when life was about being together with cousins and having fun. I think all of us, the crew, really wanted to give them that gift. We had that gift as children -- that ability to come together and enter into another world through play. Back then the closest we came to capturing that time was taking pictures or audiotaping our games. What we really did for these kids is bottle up this time to save for later, when the memory of these times will become very important to them. So, really, it is for them that we do this. And by doing so, we recapture a little of that magic for ourselves. We know how important family is and we are passing that on to them. That makes me happy.

SWM.com: We understand that documentary footage was shot and remains unedited?

WADE: Yes. Mitch did a great job as our production documentarian. Due to time constraints, we didn't complete his footage in time for this DVD release. But I really do intend to go back and revisit that, so we can do justice to Mitch's work and share that with the kids as well.

SWM.com: Any plans for a sequel?

WADE: I would love it. If the kids would be willing, I would love to do all three films in the original trilogy. That would be a lot of fun. I do think there's a good chance we'll do the next one -- we're calling it Short Wars Episode V: The Empire Comes Up Short. Beyond that, we'll just have to see what happens.

SWM.com: Thank you for taking the time to talk with us.

WADE: My pleasure. Thank you.

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