'Use the camcoder Luke': Star Wars fan films and digital moviemaking

This paper uses the recent phenomenon of online Star Wars fan films as a site to consider the complex and dynamic interrelationship between mainstream and amateur and global and regional, digital moviemaking cultures. Fan filmmakers utilise the resources of mainstream popular texts to meet their own alternative interests - whether these are to tell their own stories, to have some fun, or to break into the commercial film industry. It is argued that Star Wars fan films demonstrate the cultural significance of digital video technologies in changing who gets to make movies, how they are made, who gets to see them, and what they are 'about'. The paper concludes by arguing that Star Wars fan films have become an important subculture in digital moviemaking and are helping to change mainstream and amateur movie culture and culture in general.