Revenge of the Amateurs
Dan Neil
June 5, 2005
Shane Felux has a name fit for a rebel leader. Felux is a desktop auteur, the producer of the 47-minute "Star Wars" fan film "Revelations." He and his wife spent the last three years and $20,000 building, frame by computer-generated frame, their downloadable epic in their basement in northern Virginia.
Like hundreds of other "Star Wars" fan films—a misnomer, since film is almost never involved—Felux's may be read as a devotional tribute to George Lucas' beloved empire, a monument to misspent geek energy. Check out http://www.atomfilms.com , the Lucasfilm-sanctioned home for fan films on the Internet, and view—free of charge—the winners of the 2005 Star Wars Fan Film Awards. Among them: "Anakin Dynamite," a laser-targeted spoof of Lucas' seething, Sith-ing teen, who gets shoved into a lot of high school lockers.