Call us internet geeks (please, call us internet geeks instead of the things you want to call us), but sometimes we spend late nights watching online fan films.
Fan films are truly labors of love, because they are dealing with copyrighted material that cannot be used for profit. The only reasons to do a fan film are 1) You’re a fan with an awesome story and a love of the world or 2) You’re a filmmaker ready to show your stuff with an awesome story and a love of the world.
“Awesome story” and “love of the world” are what separates the good fan films from the shitty ones.
And, oh are there shitty ones.
We’ve selected five of our all-time favorite fan films to highlight here today. We did not exhaust ourselves with research here, not because we didn’t want to, but because 4 out of 5 fan films are Star Wars-based and who wants to take the time to watch all those?
We have 5 fan films, one of them is full length and they are NOT all Star Wars based.
Make the jump with us by clicking “Read More…”
Troops is, arguably, the fan film that started a good deal of fan film buzz. It’s a COPS parody substituting Storm Troopers for the titular police and placing them on Tatooine.
It was shot by a guy named Kevin Rubio who was credited with “kickstarting” the internet video craze with Troops. Troops eventually got Kevin a job writing Star Wars comics and other comics-based tasks, though he originally planned to be a filmmaker.
The film that started it all can be viewed and downloaded HERE!
Don’t worry, the “Return” part is a reference to a previous fan film starring the same cast and written/directed/produced by Denver-based artist Hank Braxtan. The original short was called “Freddy Vs. The Ghostbusters” and featured the Denver Ghostbusters, a franchise of the Ghostbusters brand we all know and love.
[Side note: The plot of the Ghostbusters video game involves franchising, so this could almost be canonical]
This full length fan-film sequel follows the three Denver Ghostbusters as they try to stop an evil Egyptian power from ending all life as we know it.
The film was shot quickly, but spent two-years in post-production to produce the many visual effects seen in the final product. Braxtan out-sourced his VFX shots to amateurs throughout the nation, finally compiling a masterful work that keeps the spirit of Ghostbusters without treading on the original series.
Our favorite plot element is the media turning against the Ghostbusters for essentially trapping souls in a machine. It was such an obvious question (“Are ghosts lost souls?”) that we can’t believe it took a fan film to address it.
Kudos, Hank.
You can find the whole thing for download here at the official site.
Want to see how Alien Vs. Predator III could be made better?
Add Batman.
The short was made by Sandy Collora for a reported $30,000 and is shot on film. Though The Joker and Batman might have gotten the low-end of the budget. Especially when the Aliens and Predators show up, you’ll wonder why “official” AvP films have neglected to shoot the monsters this well.
Sandy made the film simply to get noticed as a director, and it worked.
Sort of.
Sandy and team also produced this trailer for a non-existent Batman and Superman film. Without the creature effects needed to make Predators fight, the trailer suffers from the failings of it’s lead “actors,” but if you look past all that, the story isn’t so bad.
Clark loves Lois, but Lois loves Bruce! And Two-Face is in town! So is Luthor!
You can find both Batman: Dead End and this trailer for you DVD player HERE.
Pink Five has the honor of being our only other Star Wars entry, and that’s a big honor considering how much crap is out there.
Pink Five is in reference to Luke’s squadron number Red Five. It was written and directed by Trey Stokes and stars Amy Earhart as Stacey, the titular Valley Girl that stumbles throughout the classic trilogy from taking part in the assault on the Death Star, training with a cool-looking Yoda puppet and eventually following the storyline of Return of the Jedi.
Pink Five’s production value increases with each of the 4 fifteen minute long episodes. We’re included a teaser for Part II of Return of Pink Five above, but you can access all forty-five minutes of hilariousness at the official homepage.
Did we mention that Stacey is one of the few fan-created Star Wars characters ever to become part of the Star Wars universe? Her character makes a brief appearance in the 2007 Star Wars novel Allegiance.
Those are five of the best, though if we were going to add more, we’d give honorable mentions to Raiders Of The Lost Ark: The Adaptation and the IGN created April Fool’s joke: The Legend Of Zelda Trailer.
