A Few Years Ago In A Cinema Not Too Far Away - Part The Second

The challenge:- come up with a 30 second Star Wars film in two days. So what to do? Time being short, polished and slick were obviously right out the window. Which was fortunate because, let's face it, polished and slick have never been my bag, baby. This meant it had to be something which made a virtue of its low-fi nature. The time factor also meant that it was going to be tricky to draft in any help so it had to be something I could do Han Solo (oh, come on, allow me at least one Star Wars based poorly pun).

Thirty seconds is not a lot of time in which to convey a narrative so how could I tell much of a story in said time? Hmmm, maybe that was it. Maybe that was the challenge. Recreate the original Star Wars film in 30 seconds. of course, so obvious, it was genius. However, I didn't have a cast, sets or costumes. Pah, minor setbacks and I laugh in the face of adversity and tweak the nose of tricky situations. Actually, once I sat and thought about it, I did have a cast, all ready in their costumes. Not only that but I also had a full set of props, just waiting to be used. All that was required was a trip to the attic at Chez Ma and Pa...

See, as has previously been mentioned, Ma has somewhat of a hoarding tendency and a propensity to keep stuff as "it might come in handy" or "you just might want it one day". In this instance, she was bang on the money as, boxed up and stored away in the loft, was the complete set of Star Wars toys that Bro and I had played with as nipper-type small people. Figures and vehicles and playsets, oh my. Once that realisation has set in, the only thing left was to film. Camera in hand, toys at the ready and hastily crayoned in backgrounds hastily crayoned in, Star Wars In 36 Seconds (OK, so I went slightly over and the 36 seconds doesn't include titles) was born....

Filmed, edited, burned to DVD and submitted, all that remained was to wait and see if the fickle finger of fate had selected me. And lo, the good people of the TRL programme at MTV did look upon my film and deemed that it was good. And there was much rejoicing.

It wasn't all in the bag yet though. Oh dear me, no. I was one of three lucky finalists who would be competing live on TRL for the splendid prizes on offer. Oh yes, indeed. Our particular prize would be determined by an on-air set of quizzes based upon our Star Wars knowledge. A geek-off. A battle of the nerds. And all of this to take place on live TV....

To Be Continuumed...