This Epic Star Wars Fan Film Is What Being a Filmmaker Is All About

Filmmaker Stephen Vitale and Writer Eric Carrasco​ created a truly epic Star Wars fan fiction. When I came across this short, I found myself wishing they made a behind-the-scenes video so I could post them both for you all to enjoy. Turns out they did. So I did. And you will.

This behind-the-scenes video gives you a pretty good peek into the making of "Hoshino." It touches on the film's storyboard, visual effects, compositing, and the score session. But Fstoppers members demand just a little more. So, I hit Stephen up to get some extra insight into what it took to create this gem.

I wanted it to be stylized, but not distracting. I wanted all the camera moves to be motivated by the action and emotion that Ko was feeling in the scenes. 

When I asked Stephen what the biggest challenge was, he told me keeping on budget and keeping that budget as low as possible without compromising quality too much. This meant not only taking on the roles of director, producer, and editor, but also production designer, location scout, wardrobe, prompter, AD, script supervisor, etc. Luckily, many of these duties were shared with Eric.

So, we were lean and we were trying to do pretty ambitious shots and a lot of setups in limited time. I think the challenge too was shooting all this out of order and maintaining the tone and making sure it felt fluid moving in and out of the present day timeline. We also planned to finish shooting one weekend and a thunderstorm rolled through and shut us down; so, the shoot got put on hold for a couple of months while we waited for location/cast and crew availability to open back up. 

Stephen and Eric weren't the only ones who knew how to juggle roles. Actor, Comedian, and Filmmaker Anna Akana was on set as Jedi Ko Hoshino.

Casting Anna was a bit lucky. I had found her work on YouTube and enjoyed the videos, most of which were comedic, but then I saw some where she really talked very openly about very personal and emotional topics, and there was such a depth to her and a strength and vulnerability that I was like "I need to get her in this." She was a pro! We had such limited time on set, and she would show up and nail it. She was great.