A Star Wars fan from my youth, I was elated to write and direct a short Star Wars spoof video. This five-minute production gave me my one chance to be George Lucas and fulfill one of my childhood fantasies.
The video was to be shown internally at a ThomasArts agency employee appreciation event. The part of Luke Skywalker was played by agency founder Dave Thomas, who with his silver-whiskered beard looked like he could definitely pass for the real Skywalker.
Medicare for everyone. Including Jedis.
Based on the final scene of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, our plot weaves in a few inside jokes for employees to pick up on. For starters, when Rey ascends the island peak and finally confronts Luke, she doesn’t hand him a light saber. She instead hands him a Medicare enrollment late notice rolled up in a scroll.
Turns out while he was in hiding, Luke missed the deadline for applying for his age-in enrollment into Medicare (an inside joke, since the agency does a lot of Medicare marketing for its healthcare clients).
Episode VIII: The Last Jingle?
As the conversation continues, Luke shares his aspirations for starting over and trying something new—like maybe going into advertising. This is also an inside story since Dave Thomas actually got his start in the advertising business by writing musical jingles.
His character then asks Rey if she wants to hear one of his jingles. The scene fades out from a drone shot with Rey walking away baffled as Luke stays behind eagerly belting out a few of his prized creative jingles.
Finding the right location.
Matching the scenery of the beautiful tropical island in the movie was not going to happen. Especially in the mostly desert state of Utah. But I did have one idea. Thinking of a place I had been to on Antelope Island, which is in the Great Salt Lake, I remembered that from the peak of Buffalo Point (yes, buffaloes really do roam the island) you can see water on both sides . This would allow us to somewhat capture the makeup of the real scene—although it’s not quite a lush, green paradise.
So I went on a drive to scout out the location and it was indeed perfect, though it was a short, yet steep hike to get to the top. But since we needed to shoot Rey making an uphill climb anyway, it worked out with our plans.
Star-struck fifth graders.
Our shoot happened to coincide with a small bus of schoolchildren who also hiked the peak. As they approached the top to see Luke Skywalker and Rey shooting a movie scene, a couple of the kids asked if this was a promo for the real Star Wars movie. Nope, sorry kids! But it’s always inspiring to see another generation of Star Wars fans!
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