Re-creating Star Wars when time and money are short ...

Production of Short Wars took place during the course of four hours over Memorial Day weekend in 2005.

The goal was a lofty one -- to capture the essence of the original Star Wars film using child actors and a small stage.

To aid in the production, we tried to plan ahead as much as possible because we knew that four hours was all we had from
the moment we entered the school until the last "Cut!"

All costumes were on a rack. Each was labeled so that the wardrobe mistress would be able to quickly identify which character would be wearing each garment.

Props were stored in a rolling plastic storage cabinet so that they could be easily found and put into use. Small index card notebooks were given to the wardrobe and prop managers. On each page, a scene was numbered and outlined. Details included the name and location of the scene, the characters involved and the costumes and props required.

Those little notebooks saved us in more ways than one. First, the directors had a script that was labeled with numbered scenes corresponding to the notebooks.

Recalls Wade: "I knew that some actors may not last the day, so I wanted to have the ability to quickly film all scenes involving an actor one after another -- boom boom boom." This became necessary when Roslyn began to fuss about her Wookie costume.

"We shot as many Wookie scenes in a row as we could until Roslyn retired for the day," Wade said. "Then we simply substituted Marrit and kept going. Because of our pre-production planning, disaster was averted."

The production had its share of near-disasters. During one tense scene, the stage manager accidentally cut the lights. It took several minutes to restore them so that filming could resume.

Everyone on the production felt the pressure to move quickly. Time was the constant enemy to everyone who wanted to make the best possible film.

Miraculously, filming wrapped with just 15 minutes to spare. Exhausted, cast and crew gathered around a table and cast member Miles blew out the candles on a birthday cake celebrating his fifth birthday. Indeed, it was a day for celebration.



How can I make a short film of my own?
We had so much fun producing Short Wars that we want to share what we learned so that you can do your own short film project. Read all about making your own short film.