Happy Jawa - Conspiracy

George Lucas had many influences in developing the Star Wars saga. One of these was William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and so it should be no surprise that a Star Wars fan film should take as its inspiration a story about a meeting of Nazi officers to discuss what would be known as the "Final Solution." This group of Imperial officers' final solution also creates a death machine, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I love the fact that Conspiracy takes on territory that few fan films try. This is a drama about ideas and characters without any lightsaber duels or dogfights. The script is very well done, though parts of it stray into the deep end of the Star Wars mythos. The uninitiated will probably find all of the quick and casual references to planets and races almost unfathomable.

The special effects were superb and I really enjoyed the view of Coruscant outside the meeting room windows, but I was less thrilled by what was inside. There were anachronisms everywhere that really distracted from the story. A water cooler, a wrist watch, eyeglasses, power outlets, and plumbing fixtures are among some of the more obvious oversights in wardrobe and set dressing. The maddening thing is that these could have been easily removed or blocked from view with some creative set dressing.

The costumes, while okay, were not the crisp-lined uniforms I expect from Imperial officers. They were, for the most part, baggy and formless. The actors seemed to swim in them.

Sound and lighting were also problematic. The lighting was uneven and spotty and, for that matter, so was the sound. There was little consistency in production quality once we got to the action, which is a shame. This had every promise to be a ground breaking fan film, but it botched the details.

Remember the Death Star conference room scene in Episode IV? Conspiracy could have taken some lighting and sound cues from that scene. Lighting from below is dramatic and creates weird shadows. The ubiquitous hum of the station heightened the tension. Tight close ups from a low angle were used to great effect. Conspiracy, while moving the camera around the room, hardly tries anything so dramatic.

I applaud the crew of Conspiracy for trying something out of the norm, but let's get back to basics - set, costume, lights, and sound should serve to support a great script, a great idea, and good actors. And, unfortunately, many fan films excell at computer generated special effects and ignore just these things.