We'll settle this like men...

Y'all... I mean you all, (Sorry, I've been in MS for a week) know that I'm a big Star Wars nerd fan. And I'm also a big fan of independent films. I'd have to trace the beginnings of this to college where my neighbors where all film students and I got to see (and help) in producing their senor film. (Which, by the way, remains to this day, as the highest graded film by undergraduates at PSU. It was so good, in fact, that their apartment was broken into a week after the film festival and the only thing taken was the master copy of their film.)

So you can imagine my delight when I stumbled on to these films about film students trying to achieve, until now, what only Industrial Light and Magic has been able to. The student in this clip has since scored a job at LucasArts for making this film. His primary goal was to develop a way of allowing independent film makers to simulate the technology that ILM uses for their work. At such a young age, this kid is a genius. Check this out:

There are some pretty neat tricks in there and I was pretty impressed. That is, until I saw The Art of the Saber. If you've got QuickTime, you can see it here. This is one of the best damn student films I've ever seen. It goes to show that fancy aliens and overpriced "actors" do not a quality movie make. Mr. Lucas, are you taking notes?

PS - next stop: Hotel California.