Convergence Culture

Home , Amateur film, Fan film, LucasArts, Sith Apprentice

Convergence Culture

Where Old and New Media Collide

New York University Press • NewYork and London

Skenovano pro studijni ucely NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London www.nyupress. org

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jenkins, Henry, 1958- Convergence culture : where old and new media collide / Henry Jenkins, p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-8147-4281-5 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8147-4281-5 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Mass media and culture—United States. 2. Popular culture—United States. I. Title. P94.65.U6J46 2006 302.230973—dc22 2006007358

New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.

Manufactured in the United States of America c 15 14 13 12 11 p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Skenovano pro studijni ucely Contents

Acknowledgments v i i

Introduction: "Worship at the A l t a r of Convergence": A N e w Paradigm for Understanding M e d i a Change 1

1 Spoiling Survivor: The A n a t o m y of a Kn o w l e d g e C o m m u n i t y 25

2 Bu y i n g into American Idol: H o w We are Being So l d on Reality T V 59

3 Searching for the O r i g a m i U n i c o r n : The Matrix and Transmedia Storytelling 93

4 Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars? Grassroots Creativity Meets the M e d i a Industry 131

5 W h y Heather C a n Write: M e d i a Literacy and the Harry Potter Wars 169

6 Photoshop for Democracy: The N e w Relationship between Politics and Popular Cu l tur e 206

C onclusion: Democratizing Television? The Politics of Participation 240

Notes 261 Glossary 279 Index 295 About the Author 308

Skenovano pro studijni ucely 4

QuentinTarantino's StarWarsl

Grassroots Creativity Meets the Media industry

Shooting i n garages and basement rec rooms, rendering F / X o n home computers, and r i p p i n g music from C D s and M P 3 files, fans have created new versions of the Star Wars (1977) mythology. In the words of Star Wars or Bust director Jason W i shnow, "This is the future of cinema —Star Wars is the catalyst." 1 The widespread circulation of Star Wars-related commodities has placed resources into the hands of a generation of emerging filmmakers i n their teens or early twenties. They grew u p dressing as D arth Vader for Ha l l oween, sleeping on Princess Leia sheets, battling w i t h plastic light sabers, and p l ay i ng w i t h Boba Fett action figures. Star Wars has become their " l egend," and n o w they are determined to remake it o n their o w n terms. W h e n A t o m F i l m s launched an official Star Wars fan f i l m contest i n 2003, they received more than 250 submissions. A l t h o u g h the ardor has d i e d d o w n somewhat, the 2005 competition received more than 150 submissions. 2 A n d many more are spr inging up on the Web v i a unoffi- cial sites such as TheForce.net, w h i c h w o u l d fall outside the rules for the official contest. M a n y of these films come complete w i t h their o w n posters or advertising campaigns. Some Web sites provide updated i n - formation about amateur films still i n production. Fans have always been early adapters of new media technologies; their fascination w i t h fictional universes often inspires new forms of cultural production, ranging from costumes to fanzines a n d, now, d i g i - tal cinema. Fans are the most active segment of the media audience, one that refuses to s i m p l y accept what they are given, but rather insists on the right to become fu l l participants. 3 N o n e of this is new. W hat has shifted is the visib ility of fan culture. The Web provides a p o w e rfu l new distribution channel for amateur cultural production. Amateurs

131

Skenovano pro studijni ucely 132 Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars'.

have been m a k i n g home movies for decades; these movies are going pub lic. W h e n A m a z o n introduced D V D s of George Lucas in Love (1999), perhaps the best k n o w n of the Star Wars parodies, it outsold the D V D of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) i n its opening week. 4 Fan filmmakers, w i t h some legitimacy, see their works as "calling cards" that may help them break into the commercial industry. In spring 1998, a two-page color spread i n Entertainment Weekly profiled aspiring d i g - ital filmmaker K e v i n Rub i o, whose ten-minute, $1,200 f i l m , Troops (1998), had attracted the interests of H o l l y w o o d insiders. 5 Troops spoofs Star Wars b y offering a Cops-like profile of the stormtroopers w h o do the day- i n, day-out w o r k of po l i c i ng Tatooine, settling domestic disputes, r o und i n g u p space hustlers, and trying to crush the Jedi Knights. A s a result, the story reported, Rub i o was fielding offers from several studios interested i n financing his next project. Lucas admired the f i l m so m u c h that he gave Rubio a job w r i t i n g for the Star Wars comic books. Rub i o surfaced again i n 2004 as a writer and producer for Duel Masters (2004), a litt le-known series on the Cartoon N e twor k. Fan digital f i l m is to cinema what the pun k D Y I culture was to music. There, grassroots experimentation generated new sounds, new artists, new techniques, and new relations to consumers w h i c h have been p u l l e d more and more into mainstream practice. Here, fan f i l m - makers are starting to make their w a y into the mainstream industry, and we are starting to see i deas—such as the use of game engines as animation t o o l s — b u b b l i n g up fr om the amateurs and ma k i n g their w a y into commercial media. If, as some have argued, the emergence of modern mass media spelled the d o o m for the v i ta l folk culture traditions that thrived i n nineteenth-century A m e r i c a , the current moment of media change is reaffirming the right of everyday people to actively contribute to their culture. L i k e the older folk culture of qu i l t i ng bees and barn dances, this new vernacular culture encourages broad participation, grassroots creativity, and a bartering or gift economy. This is what happens w h e n consumers take media into their o w n hands. Of course, this may be altogether the w r o n g w a y to talk about it—since i n a folk culture, there is no clear d i v i s i o n between producers and consumers. W i th i n convergence culture, everyone's a part icipant—although participants may have different degrees of status and influence.

Skenovano pro studijni ucely Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars' 133

It may be useful to draw a distinction between interactivity and participation, words that are often used interchangeably but w h i c h , i n this book, assume rather different meanings. 6 Interactivity refers to the ways that new technologies have been designed to be more responsive to consumer feedback. One can imagine differing degrees of interactivity enabled by different communication technologies, ranging fr om television, w h i c h allows us only to change the channel, to video games that can a l l o w consumers to act u p o n the represented w o r l d . Such relationships are of course not fixed: the introduction of TiVo can funda- mentally reshape our interactions w i t h television. The constraints on interactivity are technological. In almost every case, what y o u can do i n an interactive environment is prestructured by the designer. Participation, on the other hand, is shaped by the cultural and social protocols. So, for example, the amount of conversation possible i n a movie theater is determined more b y the tolerance of audiences i n different subcultures or national contexts than b y any innate property of cinema itself. Participation is more open-ended, less under the control of media producers and more under the control of media consumers. Initially, the computer offered expanded opportunities for interact- i ng w i t h media content and as l ong as it operated o n that level, it was relatively easy for media companies to commod i fy and control what took place. Increasingly, though, the Web has become a site of consumer participation that includes m a n y unauthorized and unanticipated ways of relating to media content. Th o u g h this new participatory culture has its roots i n practices that have occurred just below the radar of the media industry throughout the twentieth century, the Web has pushed that h i dd e n layer of cultural activity into the foreground, forc- i ng the media industries to confront its implications for their commercial interests. A l l o w i n g consumers to interact w i t h media under controlled circumstances is one thing; a l l o w i n g them to participate i n the production and distribution of cultural g o o d s — o n their o w n terms—is something else altogether. Grant M c C r a c k e n , the cultural anthropologist and industry consult- ant, suggests that i n the future, media producers must accommodate consumer demands to participate or they w i l l r u n the risk of losing the most active and passionate consumers to some other media interest that is more tolerant: "Corporations must decide whether they are, literally, i n or out. W i l l they make themselves an island or w i l l they enter

Skenovano pro studijni ucely 134 QuentinTarantino's StarWars7.

the mix? M a k i n g themselves an island may have certain short-term f i - nancial benefits, but the long-term costs can be substantial." 7 A s we have seen, the media industry is increasingly dependent on active and committed consumers to spread the w o r d about valued properties i n an overcrowded media marketplace, and i n some cases they are seek- i n g way s to channel the creative output of media fans to lower their production costs. A t the same time, they are terrified of what happens if this consumer p o w e r gets out of control, as they claim occurred fol- l o w i n g the introduction of Napster and other file-sharing services. A s fan pr oduct i v i ty goes pub l i c, it can no longer be ignored by the media industries, but it can not be fu l l y contained or channeled by them, either. One can trace two characteristic responses of media industries to this grassroots expression: starting w i t h the legal battles over Napster, the media industries have increasingly adopted a scorched-earth p o l - icy t oward their consumers, seeking to regulate and criminalize many forms of fan participation that once fell below their radar. Let's call them the prohibitionists. To date, the prohibitionist stance has been dominant w i t h i n o l d media companies (film, television, the recording industry), though these groups are to v a r y i n g degrees starting to reex- amine some of these assumptions. So far, the prohibitionists get most of the p r e s s — w i t h l a w suits directed against teens w h o d o w n l o a d music or against fan Webmasters getting more and more coverage i n the popular media. A t the same time, o n the fringes, new media companies (Internet, games, and to a lesser degree, the mobile phone companies) are experimenting w i t h new approaches that see fans as important col- laborators i n the pr oduct i on of content and as grassroots intermedi- aries h e l p i ng to promote the franchise. We w i l l call them the collabo- rationists. The Star Wars franchise has been p u l l e d between these two extremes both over time (as it responds to shifting consumer tactics and technological resources) and across media (as its content straddles between o l d and new media). W i t h i n the Star Wars franchise, H o l l y w o o d has sought to shut d o w n fan fiction, later, to assert ownership over it and finally to ignore its existence; they have promoted the works of fan video makers but also l i m i t e d what k i nds of movies they can make; and they have sought to collaborate w i t h gamers to shape a massively multiplayer game so that it better satisfies player fantasies.

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Folk Culture, Mass Culture, Convergence Culture

A t the risks of painting w i t h broad strokes, the story of A m e r i c a n arts i n the nineteenth century might be told i n terms of the m i x i n g , match- ing, and merging of folk traditions taken from various indigenous and immigrant populations. C u l t u r a l production occurred mostly on the grassroots level; creative skills and artistic traditions were passed d o w n mother to daughter, father to son. Stories and songs circulated broadly, w e l l beyond their points of or igin, w i t h little or no expectation of economic compensation; many of the best ballads or folktales come to us today w i t h no clear marks of i n d i v i d u a l authorship. W h i l e n e w com- mercialized forms of entertainment—the minstrel shows, the circuses, the showboats—emerged i n the mid-to-late nineteenth century, these professional entertainments competed w i t h thr i v i n g local traditions of barn dances, church sings, qu i l t i ng bees, and campfire stories. There was no pure boundary between the emergent commercial culture and the residual folk culture: the commercial culture raided folk culture and folk culture raided commercial culture. The story of A m e r i c a n arts i n the twentieth century might be told i n terms of the displacement of folk culture by mass media. Initially, the emerging entertainment industry made its peace w i t h folk practices, seeing the availability of grassroots singers and musicians as a potential talent p o o l , incorporating commun i ty sing-a-longs into f i l m exhibition practices, and broadcasting amateur-hour talent competitions. The new industrialized arts required huge investments and thus demanded a mass audience. The commercial entertainment industry set standards of technical perfection and professional accomplishment few grassroots performers could match. The commercial industries developed power- fu l infrastructures that ensured that their messages reached everyone i n A m e r i c a w h o wasn't l i v i n g under a rock. Increasingly, the commercial culture generated the stories, images, and sounds that mattered most to the public. Folk culture practices were pushed und e r gr ound—p e op l e still com- posed and sang songs, amateur writers still scribbled verse, week- end painters still dabbled, people still told stories, and some local communities still held square dances. A t the same time, grassroots fan communities emerged i n response to mass media content. Some media scholars h o l d o n to the useful distinction between mass culture

Skenovano pro studijni ucely 136 Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars1.

(a category of production) and popular culture (a category of consumption), arguing that popular culture is what happens to the materials of mass culture w h e n they get into the hands of consumers, w h e n a song p l ayed o n the radio becomes so associated w i t h a particularly romantic evening that two y o u n g lovers decide to call it "our song," or w h e n a fan becomes so fascinated w i t h a particular television series that it i n - spires her to write original stories about its characters. In other words, popu l ar culture is what happens as mass culture gets pu l l e d back into folk culture. The culture industries never really had to confront the existence of this alternative cultural economy because, for the most part, it existed b eh i nd closed doors and its products circulated only among a small circle of friends and neighbors. H o m e movies never threatened H o l l y w o o d , as l ong as they remained i n the home. The story of A m e r i c a n arts i n the twenty-first century might be told i n terms of the public reemergence of grassroots creativity as everyday people take advantage of new technologies that enable them to archive, annotate, appropriate, and recirculate media content. It proba- b l y started w i t h the photocopier and desktop pub l i sh i ng; perhaps it started w i t h the videocassette revolution, w h i c h gave the public access to m o v i e -mak i ng tools and enabled every home to have its o w n f i l m library. But this creative revolution has so far culminated w i t h the Web. To create is m u c h more fu n and meaningful if y o u can share what y o u can create w i t h others and the Web, built for collaboration w i t h i n the scientific community, provides an infrastructure for sharing the things average Amer icans are m a k i n g i n their rec rooms. Once y o u have a reli- able system of distribution, folk culture production begins to flourish again overnight. M o s t of what the amateurs create is gosh-awful bad, yet a thr i v i ng culture needs spaces where people can do bad art, get feedback, and get better. After a l l , m u c h of what circulates through mass media is also bad by almost any criteria, but the expectations of professional p o l i s h make it a less hospitable environment for new- comers to learn and grow. Some of what amateurs create w i l l be sur- pr i s i ng l y good, and the best artists w i l l be recruited into commercial entertainment or the art w o r l d . M u c h of it w i l l be good enough to engage the interest of some modest public, to inspire someone else to create, to pr ov i de new content w h i c h , w h e n polished through many hands, may tur n into something more valuable d o w n the line. That's the w a y the folk process w o r k s and grassroots convergence represents the folk process accelerated and expanded for the digital age.

Skenovano pro studijni ucely Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars'. 137

G i v e n this history, it should be no surprise that m uc h of what the public creates models itself after, exists i n dialogue w i t h , reacts to or against, and / o r otherwise repurposes materials d r a w n from commercial culture. Grassroots convergence is embodied, for example, i n the work of the game modders, w h o b u i l d on code and design tools created for commercial games as a foundation for amateur game pr oduc- tion, or i n digital f i l mmak i ng, w h i c h often directly samples material from commercial media, or adbusting, w h i c h borrows iconography from M a d i s o n Avenue to deliver an anticorporate or anticonsumerist message. H a v i n g bur ied the o l d folk culture, this commercial culture becomes the common culture. The older A m e r i c a n folk culture was built on borrowings from various mother countries; the modern mass media builds up o n borrowings from folk culture; the new convergence culture w i l l be built on borrowings from various media conglomerates. The Web has made visible the h i dd e n compromises that enabled participatory culture and commercial culture to coexist throughout much of the twentieth century. N o b o d y m i n d e d, really, if y o u photo- copied a few stories and circulated them w i t h i n y o ur fan club. N o b o d y m i nded, really, if y o u copied a few songs and shared the dub tape w i t h a friend. Corporations might know, abstractly, that such transactions were occurring a l l around them, every day, but they d i dn't know, con- cretely, w h o was do i ng it. A n d even if they d i d , they weren't going to come bursting into people's homes at night. But, as those transactions came out from behind closed doors, they represented a visible, pub lic threat to the absolute control the culture industries asserted over their intellectual property. W i t h the consolidation of p o w e r represented b y the D i g i t a l M i l l e n - n i u m C opyr i ght A ct of 1998, A m e r i c a n intellectual property l aw has been rewritten to reflect the demands of mass media pr oducer s—away from p r o v i d i n g economic incentives for i n d i v i d u a l artists and t oward protecting the enormous economic investments media companies made i n branded entertainment; away from a l i m i t ed duration protection that allows ideas to enter general circulation wh i l e they still benefited the common good and toward the notion that copyright s h o u l d last for- ever; away from the ideal of a cultural commons and toward the ideal of intellectual property. A s Lawrence Lessig notes, the l aw has been rewritten so that "no one can do to the Disney C orporat i on what Walt Disney d i d to the Brothers G r i m m . " 8 One of the way s that the studios have propped u p these expanded claims of copyright protection is

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through the issuing of cease and desist letters intended to intimidate amateur cultural creators into r emoving their works from the Web. Chapter 5 describes what happened w h e n Warner Bros, studio sent out cease and desist letters to y o u n g Harry Potter (1998) fans. In such situations, the studios often assert m u c h broader control than they c o u l d legally defend: someone w h o stands to lose their home or their k i d' s college funds by going head-to-head w i t h studio attorneys is apt to f o l d. After three decades of such disputes, there is still no case law that w o u l d help determine to what degree fan fiction is protected under fair use law. Efforts to shut d o w n fan communities r u n i n the face of what we have learned so far about the new k i nds of affective relationships ad- vertisers and entertainment companies want to form w i t h their consumers. O v e r the past several decades, corporations have sought to market branded content so that consumers become the bearers of their marketing messages. Marketers have turned our children into w a l k i n g , talking billboards w h o wear logos o n their T-shirts, sew patches on their backpacks, plaster stickers o n their lockers, hang posters on their wa l l s , but they must not, under penalty of law, post them on their home pages. Somehow, once consumers choose w h e n and where to dis- p l ay those images, their active participation i n the circulation of brands sudden l y becomes a m o r a l outrage and a threat to the industry's economic well-being. Today's teens—the so-called Napster generation—aren't the only ones w h o are confused about where to dr a w the lines here; media companies are g i v i n g out pr o f o und l y m i x ed signals because they really can't decide what k i n d of relationships they want to have w i t h this new k i n d of consumer. They want us to look at but not touch, b u y but not use, m e d i a content. This contradiction is felt perhaps most acutely w h e n it comes to cult media content. A cult media success depends on courting fan constituencies and niche markets; a mainstream success is seen by the media producers as depending on distancing themselves fr om them. The system depends o n covert relationships between producers and consumers. The fans' labor i n enhancing the value of an intellectual property can never be pub l i c l y recognized if the studio is going to maintain that the studio alone is the source of all value i n that property. The Internet, though, has b l o w n their cover, since those fan sites are n o w visible to anyone w h o knows h o w to Google. Some industry insiders—for example, C hr i s Albrecht, w h o runs the

Skenováno pro studijni ucely Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars? 139 official Star Wars f i l m competition at A t o m F i l m s , or R a p h Koster, the former mudd e r w h o has helped shape the Star Wars Galaxies (2002) game—come out of these grassroots communities and have a healthy respect for their value. They see fans as potentially revitalizing stag- nant franchises and p r o v i d i n g a low-cost means of generating new media content. Often, such people are locked into power struggles w i t h - i n their o w n companies w i t h others w h o w o u l d prohibit grassroots creativity.

"Dude,We're Gonna Bejedi!"

George Lucas in Love depicts the future media mastermind as a s i ngu- larly clueless U S C f i l m student w h o can't quite come up w i t h a good idea for his production assignment, despite the fact that he inhabits a realm rich w i t h narrative possibilities. H i s stoner roommate emerges from behind the hood of his dressing g o w n and lectures Lucas o n "this giant cosmic force, an energy field created b y all l i v i n g things." H i s sin- ister next-door-neighbor, an archrival, dresses all i n black and breathes w i t h an asthmatic wheeze as he proclaims, " M y script is complete. Soon I w i l l rule the entertainment universe." A s Lucas races to class, he encounters a brash y o u n g friend w h o brags about his souped-up sports car and his furry-faced sidekick w h o growls w h e n he hits his head on the hood wh i l e trying to do some basic repairs. H i s professor, a sma l l - ish man, babbles cryptic advice, but a l l of this adds up to little u n t i l Lucas meets and falls mad l y for a beautiful y o u n g w o m a n w i t h buns on both sides of her head. A l a s , the romance leads to naught as he eventually discovers that she is his long-lost sister. George Lucas in Love is, of course, a spoof of Shakespeare in Love (1998) and of Star Wars itself. It is also a tribute fr om one generation of U S C film students to another. A s co-creator Joseph Levy, a twenty-four-year- o l d recent graduate from Lucas's alma mater, explained, "Luca s is defi- nitely the god of U S C . . . . We shot our screening-room scene i n the George Lucas Instructional B u i l d i n g . Lucas is incredibly supportive of student filmmakers and developing their careers and p r o v i d i n g facili- ties for them to be caught up to technology." 9 Yet what makes this f i l m so endearing is the w a y it pulls Lucas d o w n to the same level as countless other amateur filmmakers, and, i n so d o i n g , helps to b l ur the line between the fantastical realm of space opera (" A l ong, l ong time ago i n

Skenovano pro studijni ucely 140 Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars'.

a galaxy far, far away") and the familiar realm of everyday life (the w o r l d of stoner roommates, snotty neighbors, and incomprehensible professors). Its protagonist is hapless i n love, clueless at f i l mmak i ng, yet somehow he manages to p u l l it all together and produce one of the top-grossing mot ion pictures of all time. George Lucas in Love offers us a portrait of the artist as a y o u n g geek. One might contrast this rather down-to-earth representation of Lucas —the auteur as a m a t e ur—w i t h the w a y fan filmmaker Evan Mather's Web site (http://www. e vanmath e r.c o m/) constructs the amateur as an emergent auteur. 1 0 A l o n g one c o l u m n of the site can be found a filmog- raphy, listing a l l of Mather's productions going back to h i gh school, as w e l l as a listing of the various newspapers, magazines, Web sites, tele- v i s i o n and radio stations that have covered his w o r k —La República, Le Monde, the New York Times, Wired, Entertainment Weekly, C N N , N P R , and so forth. Another sidebar provides up-to-the-moment information about his w o r k s i n progress. Elsewhere, y o u can see news of the v a r i - ous f i l m festival screenings of his films and whatever awards they have w o n . M o r e than nineteen digital films are featured w i t h photographs, descriptions, and links for d o w n l o a d i n g them i n multiple formats. Another l i n k allows y o u to call up a glossy full-color, professionally designed brochure documenting the m a k i n g of Les Pantless Menace (1999), w h i c h includes close-ups of various props and settings, repro- ductions of stills, score sheets, and storyboards, and detailed explanations of h o w he was able to do the special effects, soundtrack, and edit- i n g for the f i l m (fig. 4.1). We learn, for example, that some of the d i a- logue was taken directly fr om C o mmt e ch chips that were embedded w i t h i n Hasbro Star Wars toys. A biography provides some background:

E v a n M a th e r spent m u c h of his c h i l d h o o d r unn i n g around south L o u - isiana w i t h an eight-millimeter silent camera staging hitchhikings and assorted buggery. . . . A s a landscape architect, M r . Mather spends his days designing a variety of urban a n d park environments i n the Seattle area. By night, M r . M ather explores the realm of d i g i ta l cinema and is the r e n o w n creator of short films w h i c h fuse traditional hand d r a w n and stop m o t i o n animation techniques w i t h the flexibility and realism of computer generated special effects.

Th o u g h his background and production techniques are fairly unique, the incredibly elaborate, self-conscious, and determinedly professional

Skenováno pro studijní ucely Quentin Tarantino's StorWors? 141

F i g . 4.1. Fan filmmaker E v a n Mather's Les Pantless Menace creates anarchic comedy through creative use of Star Wars action figures. (Reprinted w i t h the permission of the artist.)

design ot his Web site is anything but. H i s Web site illustrates what happens as this new amateur culture gets directed toward larger and larger publics. TheForce.net's Fan Theater, for example, allows amateur directors to offer their o w n commentary. The creators of Wiien Semi tors Attack IV (1999), for example, give "comprehensive scene-bv-scene commentary" on their film: " O v e r the next 90 pages or so, y o u ' l l receive an insight into what we were thinking when we made a particular shot, what methods we used, explanations to some of the more p u z z l i n g scenes, and anything else that comes to m i n d . " 1 1 Such materials mirror the ten- dency of recent D V D releases to include alternative scenes, cut footage, storyboards, and director's commentary. M a n y of the Web sites provide information about fan films under production, i nc l ud i ng pre- liminary footage, storyboards, and trailers for films that may never be completed. A l m o s t all of the amateur filmmakers create posters and advertising images, L i k i ng advantage of A d o b e PageMaker and A d o b e Photoshop. In many cases, the fan filmmakers produce elaborate trailers. These materials facilitate amateur film culture. The making-of ar- ticles share technical advice; such information helps to improve the overall quality of work w i th i n the community. The trailers also respond to the specific challenges of the Web as a distribution channel: it can take hours to download relatively long digital movies, and the shorter, lower resolution trailers (often distributed in a streaming video format) allow would-be viewers to sample the w o r k. A l l of this publicity surrounding the Star Wars parodies serves as a reminder of what is the most distinctive quality of these amateur films —the fact that they are so public. The idea that amateur filmmakers

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c o u l d develop such a global f o l l o w i n g runs counter to the historical marginalization of grassroots media production. In her book, Reel Fami- lies: A Social History of Amateur Film (1995), f i l m historian Patricia R. Z i m m e r m a n n offers a compelling history of amateur f i l mmak i ng i n the U n i t e d States, examining the intersection between nonprofessional f i l m pr oduct i on and the H o l l y w o o d entertainment system. W h i l e amateur f i l m m a k i n g has existed since the advent of cinema, and while p e r i od i - cally critics have promoted it as a grassroots alternative to commercial production, the amateur f i l m has remained, first and foremost, the "home m o v i e " i n several senses of the term: first, amateur films were exhibited pr i m a r i l y i n private (and most often, domestic) spaces lack- i n g any viable channel of pub lic distribution; second, amateur films were most often documentaries of domestic and fam i l y life; and third, amateur films were perceived to be technically flawed and of marginal interest beyond the immediate family. Critics stressed the artlessness and spontaneity of amateur f i l m i n contrast w i t h the technical polish and aesthetic sophistication of commercial films. Z i m m e r m a n con- cludes, "[Amat eur film] was gradually squeezed into the nuclear family. Technical standards, aesthetic norms, socialization pressures and political goals derailed its cultural construction into a pr ivatized, almost silly, h o b b y ." 1 2 W r i t i n g i n the early 1990s, Z i m m e r m a n n saw little reason to believe that the camcorder and the V C R w o u l d significantly alter this situation. The m e d i um' s technical limitations made it difficult for amateurs to edit their films, and the only public means of exhibition were controlled by commercial media makers (as i n programs such as America's Funniest Home Videos, 1990). D i g i t a l f i l m m a k i n g alters many of the conditions that led to the marginalization of previous amateur f i l m m a k i n g efforts—the Web provides an exhibition outlet m o v i n g amateur f i l m m a k i n g from private into pub lic space; d i g i ta l editing is far simpler than editing Super-8 or video and thus opens u p a space for amateur artists to reshape their material more directly; the home P C has even enabled the amateur filmmaker to m i m i c the special effects associated w i t h H o l l y w o o d blockbusters like Star Wars. D i g i t a l cinema is a new chapter i n the complex history of interactions between amateur filmmakers and the commercial media. These films remain amateur, i n the sense that they are made o n l o w budgets, produced and distributed i n noncommercial contexts, and generated by nonprofessional filmmakers (albeit often by people w h o want entry into the professional sphere). Yet, many of the other clas-

Skenovano pro studijni ucely Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars1. 143 sic markers of amateur f i l m production have disappeared. N o longer home movies, these films are pub lic m o v i e s —pu b l i c i n that, fr om the start, they are intended for audiences beyond the filmmaker's i m m e d i - ate circle of friends and acquaintances; pub lic i n their content, w h i c h involves the r e wor k i ng of popu l ar mythologies; and pub lic i n their d i a - logue w i t h the commercial cinema. Digital filmmakers tackled the challenge of m a k i n g Star Wars movies for many different reasons. A s George Lucas in Love co-creator Joseph L e v y has explained, " O u r only intention . . . was to do something that w o u l d get the agents and producers to put the tapes into their V C R s instead of thr ow i ng them a w a y ." 1 3 Kid Wars (2000) director Dana Sm i th is a fourteen-year-old w h o had recently acquired a camcorder and de- cided to stage scenes from Star Wars i n v o l v i n g his younger brother and his friends, w h o armed themselves for battle w i t h squirt guns and N e rf weapons. The Jedi Who Loved Me (2000) was shot by the members of a w e d d i n g party and intended as a tribute to the bride and groom, w h o were Star Wars fans. Some f i l m s — s uc h as Macbeth (1998)—were school projects. Two h i g h school students—Bienvenido Concepción and D o n Fitz-Roy—shot the f i l m , w h i c h creatively b lurred the lines between L u - cas and Shakespeare, for their h i g h school advanced-placement Eng l i sh class. They staged light-saber battles d o w n the school hallway, though the pr incipal was concerned about potential damage to lockers; the M i l l e n n i u m Falcon lifted off fr om the g y m , though they had to com- posite it over the cheerleaders w h o were rehearsing the day they shot that particular sequence. Still other films emerged as collective projects for various Star Wars fan clubs. Boba Fett: Bounty Trail (2002), for example, was filmed for a competition hosted by a M e l b ourne, A u s tr a l i a , Lucasfilm convention. Each cast member made his or her o w n costumes, b u i l d i n g on previous experience w i t h science fiction masquer- ades and costume contests. Their personal motives for m a k i n g such films are of secondary interest, however, once they are distributed o n the Web. If such films are attracting w o r l d w i d e interest, it is not because we all care whether Bienvenido Concepción and D o n F i tz-R o y got a good grade on their Shakespeare assignment. Rather, what m o t i - vated faraway viewers to watch such films is their shared investment i n the Star Wars universe. Amateur filmmakers are pr oduc i ng commercial- or near-commercial-quality content on minuscule budgets. They remain amateur i n the sense that they do not earn their revenue through their w o r k (much the

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w a y w e might call O l y m p i c athletes amateur), but they are duplicating special effects that had cost a small fortune to generate only a decade earlier. A mat e ur filmmakers can make p o d racers sk i m along the surface of the ocean or land speeders scatter dust as they z o o m across the desert. They can make laser beams shoot out of ships and explode things before our eyes. Several fans tried their hands at duplicating Jar- Jar's character animation and inserting h i m into their o w n movies w i t h v a r y i n g degrees of success. The light-saber battle, however, has become the gold standard of amateur f i l m m a k i n g , w i t h almost every filmmaker compelled to demonstrate his or her ability to achieve this particular effect. M a n y of the Star Wars shorts, i n fact, consist of little more than light-saber battles staged i n suburban dens and basements, i n empty lots, i n the hallways of local schools, inside shopping malls, or more exotically against the backdrop of medieval ruins (shot dur i n g vaca- tions). Shane Faleux used an open source approach to completing his forty-minute opus, Star Wars: Revelations (2005), one of the most acclaimed recent w o r k s i n the movement (fig. 4.2). A s Faleux explained, "Revelations was created to give artisans and craftsmen the chance to showcase their w o r k , allow all those i n v o l v e d a chance to live the dream, and maybe—just ma y b e — o p e n the eyes i n the industry as to what can be done w i t h a small budget, dedicated people, and undis- covered talent." 1 4 H u n dr e d s of people around the w o r l d contributed to the project, i n c l ud i n g more than thirty different computer-graphics artists, ranging from folks w i t h i n special effects companies to talented teenagers. W h e n the f i l m was released v i a the Web, more than a m i l l i o n people d o wn l o ad e d it. A s amateur filmmakers are quick to note, Lucas and Steven Spiel- berg both made Super-8 fiction films as teenagers and saw this experience as a major influence on their subsequent work. A l t h o u g h these films are not pu b l i c l y available, some of them have been discussed i n detail i n various biographies and magazine profiles. These "mov i e brat" filmmakers have been quick to embrace the potentials of digital f i l mm a k i n g , not s i mp l y as a means of lower ing production costs for their o w n films, but also as a training ground for new talent. Lucas, for example, told Wired magazine: "Some of the special effects that we r e d i d for Star Wars were done o n a Macintosh, on a laptop, i n a couple of hours. . . . I could have very easily shot the Young Indy TV series on H i -8. . . . So y o u can get a H i -8 camera for a few thousand bucks, more for the software and the computer for less than $10,000 y o u have a

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Fig. 4.2. Publicity materials created for Star Wars: Revela- tions, a forty-minute opus made through the combined efforts of hundreds of fan filmmakers worldwide. movie studio. There's nothing to stop y o u from d o i n g something provocative and significant in that m e d i u m . " 1 5 Lucas's rhetoric about the potentials of digital filmmaking has captured the imagination of amateur filmmakers and they are taking on the master on his o w n ground. A s C l a y Kronke, a Texas A & M University undergraduate w h o made The New World (1999), explained: "This film has been a labor of love. A venture into a new m e d i u m . . . . I've always loved light sabers and the mythos of the Jedi and after getting my hands on some software that w o u l d allow me to actually become what I had once only admired at a distance, a vague idea soon started becoming a reality. . . . D ud e , we're gonna be Jedi." 1 * Kronke openly celebrates the fact that he made the film on a S26.79 budget w i t h most of the props and costumes part of their preexisting collections of Star Wars paraphernalia, that the b i g- gest problem they faced on the set was that their plastic light sabers kept shattering, and that its sound effects included "the sound of a coat hanger against a metal flashlight, m y microwave door, and myself falling on the floor several times." The mass marketing of Star Wars inadvertently pr ov i ded many of the resources needed to support these productions. Star Wars is, i n many ways, the prime example of media convergence at work. Lucas's deci- sion to defer salary for the first Star Wars film i n favor of maintaining a share of ancillary profits has been w i d e l y cited as a turning point i n the emergence of this new strategy of media production and distribution. Lucas made a ton of money, and Twentieth C entury Fox F i l m C o r p o r a - tion learned a valuable lesson. Kenner's Star Wars action figures are thought to have been the key in reestablishing the value of media tie-in

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products i n the toy industry, and John Williams's score helped to revi- talize the market for soundtrack albums. The r ich narrative universe of the Star Wars saga pr o v i d e d countless images, icons, and artifacts that c o u l d be reproduced i n a w i d e variety of forms. Despite the lengthy gap between the release dates for Return of the Jedi (1983) and The Phan- tom Menace (1999), Lucasf i l m continued to generate profits from its Star Wars franchise through the production of original novels and comic books, the distribution of video tapes and audio tapes, the continued marketing of Star Wars toys and merchandise, and the maintenance of an elaborate pub l i c i ty apparatus, i n c l ud i n g a monthly glossy newslet- ter for Sfar Wars fans. M a n y of these toys and trinkets were tr i v i a l w h e n read i n relation to the k i nd s of transmedia storytelling described i n the previous chapter: they a d d little n e w information to the expanding franchise. Yet they took o n deeper meanings as they became resources for children's play or for digital f i l m m a k i n g . The amateur filmmakers often make use of commercially available costumes and props, sample music from the soundtrack a l b u m and sounds of Star Wars videos or computer games, and dr a w advice o n special effects techniques from television documentaries and mass market magazines. For example, the makers of Duel described the sources for their soundtrack: "We sampled most of the light saber sounds fr om The Empire Strikes Back Special Ed i t i o n laserdisc, and a few fr om A New Hope. Jedi was mostly useless to us, as the light saber battles i n the f i l m are always accompanied by music. The k i c k i n g sounds are really p u n c h sounds from Raiders of the Lost Ark, and there's one s o u n d — H i d e o u s runn i n g across the sand—that we got fr o m Lawrence of Arabia. M u s i c, of course, comes from The Phantom Menace soundtrack." 1 7 The availability of these various ancillary pr o d- ucts has encouraged these filmmakers, since ch i l dhood, to construct their o w n fantasies w i t h i n the Star Wars universe. One fan critic explained: " O d d s are if y o u were a k i d i n the seventies, y o u probably fought i n schoolyards over w h o w o u l d p l ay H a n , lost a Wookiee action figure i n y o ur backyard and dreamed of fir ing that last shot on the Death Star. A n d probably y o ur daydreams and conversations weren't about W i l l i a m Wallace, R o b i n H o o d or Odysseus, but, instead, light saber battles, frozen m e n and forgotten fathers. In other words, we talked about our l e g e n d." 1 8 The action figures pr o v i d e d this generation w i t h some of their earliest avatars, encouraging them to assume the

Skenováno pro studijní úcely QuentinTarantino's StarWars* 147 role of a Jedi K n i g h t or an intergalactic bounty hunter, enabling them to physically manipulate the characters to construct their o w n stories. N o t surprisingly, a significant number of filmmakers i n their late teens and early twenties have turned toward those action figures as resources for their first production efforts. Toy Wars (2002) producers A a r o n H a l o n and Jason VandenBerghe launched an ambitious p l a n to produce a shot-by-shot remake of Star Wars: A New Hope cast entirely w i t h action figures. These action figure movies require constant re- sourcefulness o n the part of the amateur filmmakers. D a m o n Wellner and Sebastian O 'Br i e n, two self-proclaimed "action figure nerds" fr o m Cambr idge, Massachusetts, formed Probot Productions w i t h the goal of " m a k i n g toys as alive as they seemed i n c h i l d h o o d." The Probot Web site (www.probotproductions.com) offers this explanation of their pr o- duction process:

The first thing y o u need to k n o w about Probot Productions is that we're broke. We spend all our $$$ o n toys. This leaves a very sma l l budget for special effects, so w e literally have to w o r k w i t h what w e can f i nd i n the garbage.. . . For sets w e used a breadbox, a ventilation tube fr o m a dryer, cardboard boxes, a discarded piece fr o m a v e n d i n g machine, and m i l k crates. Large Styrofoam pieces fr o m stereo component boxes w o r k v e r y

w e l l to create spaceship-like environments! 1 9

N o digital filmmaker has pushed the aesthetics of action figure c i n- ema as far as E v a n Mather. Mather's films, such as Godzilla versus Disco Lando, KungFu Kenobi's Big Adventure, and Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars, represent a no-holds-barred r omp through contemporary popu l ar cu l - ture. The rock-'em sock-'em action of Kung Fu Kenobi's Big Adventure takes place against the backdrop of settings sampled fr om the f i l m , d r a w n by hand, or built fr om L E G O blocks, w i t h the eclectic and evoc- ative soundtrack borrowed fr o m N e i l D i a m o n d , Mission Impossible (1996), Fee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985), and A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965). Disco Lando puts the moves o n everyone from A d m i r a l A c k b a r to Jabba's blue-skinned dancing g i r l , and all of his pick-up-lines come from the soundtrack of The Empire Strikes Back. Mace W i n d u "gets me- d i e v a l " on the Jedi C o u n c i l , deliver ing Samuel L. Jackson's lines fr om Pulp Fiction (1994) before shooting u p the place. The camera focuses o n the bald-head of a d y i n g D a rth Vader as he gasps "r o s e b ud." A p a r t

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fr om their anarchic hu m o r and rapid-fire pace, Mather's films stand out because of their v i sua l sophistication. Mather's o w n frenetic style has become increasingly distinguished across the body of his works, constantly experimenting w i t h different forms of animation, flashing or masked images, and dynamic camera movements. Yet, if the action figure filmmakers have developed an aesthetic based on their appropriation of materials from the mainstream media, then the mainstream media has been quick to imitate that aesthetic. Nickelodeon's short-lived Action League Now!!! (1994), for example, had a regular cast of characters consisting of mismatched dolls and mut i - lated action figures. In some cases, their faces had been melted or man- gled through inappropriate play. One protagonist had no clothes. They came i n various size scales, suggesting the collision of different narrative universes that characterizes children's action figure play. M T V ' s Celebrity Deathmatch (1998) created its action figures using claymation, staging W o r l d Wrestling Federation-style bouts between various ce- lebrities, some likely (Monica L e w i n s k y against H i l l a r y Clinton), some s i mp l y bizarre (the rock star formerly k n o w n as Prince against Prince Charles). The Web represents a site of experimentation and innovation, where amateurs test the waters, developing new practices, themes, and generating materials that may w e l l attract cult followings on their o w n terms. The most commercially viable of those practices are then ab- sorbed into the mainstream media, either directly through the hir ing of new talent or the development of television, video, or big-screen works based on those materials, or indirectly, through a second-order imita- tion of the same aesthetic and thematic qualities. In return, the mainstream media materials may pr ov i de inspiration for subsequent amateur efforts, w h i c h p u s h popular culture i n new directions. In such a w o r l d , fan w o r k s can no longer be understood as s i mp l y derivative of mainstream materials but must be understood as themselves open to appropriation and r e w o r k i n g by the media industries.

"The 500-Pound Wookiee"

Fans take reassurance that Lucas and his cronies, at least sometimes, take a look at what fans have made and send them his blessing. In fact, part of the allure of participating i n the official Star Wars fan cinema

Skenovano pro studijni ucely QuentinTarantino's StarWars? 149 competition is the fact that Lucas personally selects the w i nner fr om finalists identified by A t o m F i l m ' s C h r i s Albrecht and vetted b y staffers at LucasArts. There is no doubt that Lucas personally likes at least some form of fan creativity. A s Albrecht explains, " H a t s off to Lucas for recognizing that this is happening and g i v i n g the pub lic a chance to participate i n a universe they k n o w and love. There's nothing else like this out there. N o other producer has gone this far." 2 0 O n other levels, the c o m p a n y — a n d perhaps Lucas h i m s e l f—ha s wanted to control what fans produced and circulated. Jim W a rd, vice president of market- i n g for Lucasfilm, told New York Times reporter A m y H a r m o n i n 2002: "We've been very clear all along on where we dr a w the line. We love our fans. We want them to have fun. But if i n fact somebody is using our characters to create a story unto itself, that's not i n the spirit of what we think fandom is about. F a nd o m is about celebrating the story the w a y it i s . " 2 1 Lucas wants to be "celebrated" but not appropriated. Lucas has opened up a space for fans to create and share what they create w i t h others but only on his terms. The franchise has struggled w i t h these issues from the 1970s to the present, desiring some zone of tolerance P i x e l v i s i o n and M a c h i n e m a w i t h i n w h i c h fans can operate w h i l e as- The hazy images of Kyle Cassidy's Toy serting some control over what happens Soldiers (1996) evoke faint childhood to his story. In that history, there have memories.This short film expresses the hopes and anxieties of a small boy as he been some periods w h e n the company awaits the next news from his father was highly tolerant and others w h e n it who is serving in Vietnam. Adult con- was pretty aggressive about tr y i ng to cerns shape his everyday rituals and close off all or some forms of fan fiction. practices as he plays with his green A t the same time, the different divisions plastic army guys in the backyard and reflects on the fate of those who have of the same company have developed dif- been run over by the lawnmower, as he ferent approaches to dealing w i t h fans: watches the flickering television news- the games d i v i s i o n has thought of fans cast with his mother, and as he awaits i n ways consistent w i t h h o w other game the next letter. Toy Soldiers has the inti- companies think about fans (and is prob- macy of a home movie, even though it is re-created decades later from the direc- ably on the more permissive end of the tor's own memories. Cassidy made the spectrum), and the f i l m d i v i s i o n has tend- critically acclaimed film with his Pixel- ed to think like a motion picture company vision 2000 camera, which has a plastic and has been a bit less comfortable w i t h case and plastic lens, runs on six A A bat- fan participation. I make this point not to teries, and records its images on a regular audiocassette tape.The Pixelvision say LucasArts is bad to f a n s — i n many camera, marketed from 1987 to 1989 ways, the company seems more forward for $ 100 by Fisher-Price, is the cheapest self-contained camcorder ever made.

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th i nk i ng and responsive to the fan com- The Pixelvision camera has a fixed focus lens which, like a pinhole camera, m un i t y than most H o l l y w o o d companies theoretically has absolute focus from — b ut to illustrate the ways the media i n - zero to infinity, but in practice does best dustry is trying to figure out its response when what is being filmed remains a to fan creativity. few feet from the camera.The camera In the beginning, Lucasfilm actively can shoot well in very low light settings but almost everything has a shadowy encouraged fan fiction, establishing a no- and washed-out look. It was originally fee licensing bureau i n 1977 that w o u l d intended for children, but kids never review material and offer advice about really were wild about it because their potential copyright infringement. 2 2 By movies didn't look anything like what the early 1980s, these arrangements broke they were seeing on television.The Pixelvision image has 2,000 black-and- d o w n , allegedly because Lucas had stum- white dots, making it far coarser than b led onto some examples of fan erot- a standard TV image with its 200,000 ica that shocked his sensibilities. By 1981, pixels. Lucasf i l m was issuing warnings to fans But the Pixelvision camera has found w h o published zines containing sexually its way into the hearts and hands of a explicit stories, while i mp l i c i t l y g i v i ng growing number of amateur and avant- garde filmmakers who like it for many permission to pub l i sh nonerotic stories of the reasons the device disappointed about the characters as long as they were its target market.The Pixelvision's not sold for profit: "Since all of the Star murky, grainy, and unstable image has Wars saga is PG-rated, any story those become the marker of alternative publishers print should also be P G . L u - media authenticity. Pixelvision enthusi- asts love the "point and shoot" quality casfilm does not produce any X-rated of the camera, which they say allows Star Wars episodes, so w h y should we be neophytes to start doing creative work placed i n a light where people think we right away. Budding artists can put their d o ? " 2 3 M o s t fan erotica was pushed u n - energies into communicating ideas derground by this policy, though it con- rather than learning to control the technology.A once expensive toy has tinued to circulate informally. The issue become an incredibly cheap tool. resurfaced i n the 1990s: fan fiction of all The Pixelvision movement is the variety thrived on the "electronic fron- artistic equivalent of a cargo cult: a tier." One Web site, for example, pro- junked technology, abandoned by v i d e d regularly updated links to fan and its manufacturer, found its way into fan fiction Web sites for more than 153 unanticipated but highly dedicated films, books, and television shows, rang- hands, and we can now see two decades of elaboration as its worshippers have i n g from Airwolf (1984) to Zorro (1975).24 managed to turn its "bugs" into desir- Star Wars zine editors p o k e d their heads able features and have developed a new above ground, cautiously testing the w a - mode of expression around its unique ters. Jeanne C o l e, a spokesman for Lucas- properties. Pixelvision fans have created f i l m , explained, " W hat can y o u do? H o w their own Web sites, spawned their own criticism, and developed their own film

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can y o u control it? A s we look at it, we ap- festivals (such as P XLT H IS), all in the preciate the fans, and what w o u l d we do face of total neglect, and at times open without them? If we anger them, what's disdain, from Fisher-Price. As filmmaker the p o i n t?" 2 5 Eric Sacks writes, "Pixelvision is an M e d i a scholar W i l l Brooker cites a 1996 aberrant art form, underscored by the corporate notice that explains: "Since the fact that since the cameras wear out quickly, and are no longer being manu- internet is gr ow i ng so fast, we are i n the factured, it holds within itself author- process of developing guidelines for h o w ized obsolescence. Each time an artist we can enhance the ability of Star Wars uses a P X L 2000, the whole form edges fans to communicate w i t h each other closer to extinction." 1 without infringing on Star Wars copy- Many of the best Pixelvision movies reveal a fascination with the processes rights and trademarks." 2 6 The early l a w - and artifacts of everyday life: the less days of the Internet were g i v i n g w a y camera has spawned a genre of confes- to a period of heightened corporate scru- sional films, with ghostly faces speaking tiny and expanding control. E v e n d u r i n g directly into the camera with surprising what might be seen as a " h o n e y m o o n " frankness. Sadie Benning, the adolescent daughter of an established experimen- period, some fans felt that Lucasfilm was tal filmmaker, went on to fame in the acting like a "500-pound Wookiee," throw- art world with her simple and direct i ng its weight around and m a k i n g threat- shorts, filmed in her bedroom, about ening noises. 2 7 coming of age as a lesbian. A t nineteen, Lucasfilm's perspective seemed rel- Benning was the youngest person ever to win a Rockefeller grant. atively enlightened, even w e l com i ng, Andrea McCarty, a graduate student wh e n compared w i t h h o w other media in MIT's Comparative Media Studies producers responded to their fans. In the program, is studying the Pixelvision late 1990s, V i acom experimented w i t h a movement to better understand how strong arm approach to fan c u l t u r e — grassroots creativity works. She told starting i n Australia. A representative of me:"Pixelvision's endurance and popularity prove that it was not a failed the corporation called together leaders technology... .The fascination with of fan clubs from across the country and Pixelvision belies its obsolescence— laid d o w n new guidelines for their activ- collectors are seeking the cameras, ities. 2 8 These guidelines prohibited the artists are creating with them, technol- showing of series episodes at club meet- ogy fans are modifying them and fans are watching the films at the P X L T H I S ings unless those episodes had pr e v i - festival."2 The best Pixelvision films have ously been made commercially available been embraced by the art world, and i n that market. (This policy has serious the camera even has fans among com- consequences for Austra l i an fans because mercial filmmakers. Director Michael they often get series episodes a year or two after they air i n the U n i t e d States 1 Erik Saks, "Big Pixel Theory," http://www.thek- and the underground circulation and itchen.org/MovieCatalog/Titles/BigPixelTheory.html. 2 Andrea McCarty, personal correspondence, November 2004.

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exhibition of video tapes had enabled Almereyda has incorporated Pixelvision images into his big-screen releases, them to participate actively on on-line Nojta (1994) and Homlet (2000), to discussions.) Similarly, Viacom cracked much critical praise. d o w n on the publication and distribution This is what some had claimed would of fanzines and prohibited the use of Star be the inevitable consequences of the Trek (1966) trademarked names i n con- digital revolution: the technology would put low-cost, easy-to-use tools for vention publicity. Their explicitly stated creative expression into the hands of goal was to pu s h fans toward participa- average people. Lower the barriers of tion i n a corporately controlled fan club. participation and provide new channels In 2000, Lucasfilm offered Star Wars for publicity and distribution, and fans free Web space (www.starwars.com) people will create remarkable things. Think of these subcultures as aesthetic and unique content for their sites, but petri dishes. Seed them and see what only under the condition that whatever grows. In most, nothing really interest- they created w o u l d become the studio's ing will happen. W e can pretty much intellectual property. A s the official no- count on Sturgeon's law holding for tice launching this new "Homestead" amateur cultural creation: 90 percent of everything is crap. But if you expand the explained, "To encourage the on-going number of people participating in the excitement, creativity, and interaction of making of art, you may expand the our dedicated fans i n the online Star amount of really interesting works that Wars community, Lucas On l i n e ( h t t p : / / emerge.You can pretty much count on w w w . l uc a s f i l m .c o m / d i v i s i o n s / o n l i n e / ) our creative impulses to overcome a lot of technical limitations and obstacles. is pleased to offer for the first time an offi- Amateur artists do best when they cial home for fans to celebrate their love operate within supportive communities, of Star Wars on the W o r l d Wide W e b ." 2 9 struggling with the same creative Historically, fan fiction had proven to be problems and building on one another's a point of entry into commercial pu b l i - successes. cation for at least some amateurs, w h o Let's consider a second powerful were able to sell their novels to the pro- example of that process at work: Machinima. Its name, a hybrid of fessional book series centering on the var- machine and cinema, Machinima refers ious franchises. If Lucasfilm L t d . claimed to 3-D digital animation created in real to o w n such rights, they could publish time using game engines.The Machin- them without compensation, and they ima movement started in 1993 when could also remove them without permis- Doom was released with a program that supported the recording and playback sion or war n i n g . of in-game actions.The idea was that Elizabeth Durack was one of the more people might want to watch their own outspoken leaders of an campaign urging game-play experiences as mini action her fellow Star Wars fans not to partici- movies.There is little evidence that this pate i n these new arrangements: "That's controversial first-person shooter generated school shooters, but there's the genius of Lucasfilm's offering fans plenty of evidence that it inspired a

Skenovâno pro studijni uCely Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars? 153 web space—it lets them both look amaz- generation of animators (amateur and ingly generous and be even more control- professional). l i ng than before. . . . Lucasfilm doesn't Subsequent games offered ever more hate fans, and they don't hate fan web- sophisticated tools that allowed players sites. They can indeed see h o w they ben- to create their own digital assets, or put their own "skins" over the characters efit from the free publicity they represent and features of the game world. Soon, — a n d w h o doesn't like being adored? people were playing the games with an This move underscores that as m uc h as eye toward recording the actions they anything. But they're also scared, and wanted for their movies and even that makes them hurt the people w h o redesigning the games to create the characters and settings they needed to love t h e m ." 3 0 Durack argued that fan fic- stage their own stories.These game tion does indeed pay respect to Lucas as engines would allow artists to dramati- the creator of Star Wars, yet the fans also cally lower the costs and decrease the wanted to ho l d onto their right to partici- production time of digital animation. pate i n the production and circulation of Picture complex animation with the spontaneity of improvisational the Star Wars saga that had become so performance! much a part of their lives: "It has been Most Machinima films remain deeply observed by many writers that Star Wars rooted in gamer culture—My Trip to (based purposely on the recurring themes Liberty City is a travelogue of the world of mythology by creator George Lucas) represented in Grand Theft Auto 3 and other popular media creations take (2001); Halo Boys involves boy bands in the Halo (2001) universe; someone the place i n modern A m e r i c a that culture restaged classic moments from Monty myths like those of the Greeks or N a t i v e Python and the Holy Grail (1975) using Americans d i d for earlier peoples. H o l d - Dork Ages of Camelot (2001). But not all. i ng modern myths hostage b y w a y of cor- Some people have taken up the techni- porate legal wrang l i ng seems somehow cal challenge of reproducing classic action films—everything from The contrary to nature." Matrix to the Omaha Beach sequence Today, relations between Lucas Arts in Saving Private Ryan (1998). More polit- and the fan fiction community have ical filmmakers have taken this farther, thawed somewhat. Th o u g h I haven't using game engines to comment on the been able to f i nd any official statement war on terrorism or to restage the siege of the Branch Davidians at Waco. Hugh signaling a shift i n policy, Star Wars fan Hancock and Gordon McDonald's Ozy- fiction is all over the Web, i nc l ud i n g o n mandias adopts a poem by Percy Shel- several of the most visible and m a i n - ley, and Fountainhead's Anna depicts the stream fan sites. The Webmasters of those life story of a flower. A s with Pixelvision, sites say that they deal w i t h the official the Machinima movement has launched its own Web community, critics, training production company all the time on a programs, and film festivals. range of different matters, but they have never been asked to remove what once If Pixelvision has been embraced by the art world, Machinima's great- est impact so far has been on the

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might have been read as infringing mate- commercial culture.The History Channel, for example, has launched a rials. Yet, what Lucas giveth, he can also successful series, Decisive Battles (2004), take away. M a n y fan writers have told me which restages events such as the Battle that they remain nervous about h o w the of Marathon using Creative Assembly's "Powers That Be" are apt to respond to Rome:Total War (2004) as its basic particularly controversial stories. animation tool. M TV 2's Video Mods program features music videos by Lucas and his movie brat cronies clear- groups such as Black Eyed Peas and ly identified more closely w i t h the young Fountains of Wayne that are produced digital filmmakers w h o were mak i ng using look-alike skins of the performers "ca l l i ng c a r d" movies to try to break into inserted in the world of games as the f i l m industry than they d i d w i t h fe- diverse as Tomb Raider, Leisure Suit male fan writers sharing their erotic fan- Larry, The Sims 2, and SSX3. tasies. By the end of the decade, however, Pixelvision was largely abandoned by Fisher-Price. But Machinima—and Lucas's tolerance of fan f i l mmak i ng has game mods more generally—have been given w a y to a similar strategy of incor- embraced by the games industry. Lion- poration and containment. In November head's new release, The Movies (2005), 2000, Lucasfilm designated the commer- takes the Machinima movement a step cial digital cinema site, Atomfilms.com, further: the game allows you to run your own studio, produce your own as the official host for Star Wars fan films. movies using its characters and back- The site w o u l d provide a library of offi- lots, and then share them online with cial sound effects and run periodic con- your friends. tests to recognize outstanding amateur accomplishment. In return, participating filmmakers w o u l d agree to certain constraints on content: "F i l m s must par ody the existing Star Wars universe, or be a documentary of the Star Wars fan experience. N o 'fan f i ct i o n '— w h i c h attempts to expand on the Star Wars u n i v e r s e — w i l l be accepted. Films must not make use of copyrighted Sfar Wars music or v i deo, but may use action figures and the audio clips pr o v i d e d i n the production kit section of this site. Films must not make unauthorized use of copyrighted property from any other f i l m , song, or c o mp o s i t i o n." 3 1 Here, we see the copyright regimes of mass culture being applied to the folk culture process. A w o r k like Star Wars: Revelations w o u l d be prohibited from entering the official Star Wars competition because it sets its o w n original dramatic story i n the interstices between the third and fourth Star Wars films and thus constitutes "f a n fiction." Albrecht, the man w h o over- sees the competition, offered several explanations for the prohibition. For one thing, Lucas saw himself and his company as being at risk for being sued for plagiarism if he a l l ow e d himself to come into contact

Skenovâno pro studijni ucely QuentinTarantino's StarWarsi 155 w i t h fan-produced materials that m i m i c k e d the dramatic structure of the f i l m franchise should anything i n any official Star Wars material make use of similar characters or situations. For another, Albrecht suggested, there was a gr ow i ng risk of consumer confusion about what constituted an official Star Wars product. Speaking about Revelations, Albrecht suggested, " U p unt i l the moment the actors spoke, y o u w o u l dn 't be able to tell whether that was a real Star Wars f i l m or a fan creation because the special effects are so good. . . . A s the tools get better, there is b o und to be confusion i n the marketplace." In any case, Lucasfilm w o u l d have had m u c h less legal standing i n shutting d o w n parody, w h i c h enjoys broad protections under current case law, or documentaries about the phenomenon itself, w h i c h w o u l d fall clearly into the category of journalistic and critical commentary. Lucasf i l m was, i n effect, tolerating what it legally must accept i n return for shutting d o w n what it might otherwise be unable to control. These rules are anything but gender neutral: though the gender lines are starting to b lur i n recent years, the o v e rwh e l m i ng majority of fan parody is produced by men, wh i l e "fan f i ct i on" is almost entirely produced by w o m e n. In the female fan community, fans have l ong produced "song v i d e os" that are edited together fr om f o und footage d r a w n from f i l m or television shows and set to p o p music. These fan vids often function as a form of fan fiction to dr a w out aspects of the emotional lives of the characters or otherwise get inside their heads. They sometimes explore underdeveloped subtexts of the original f i l m , offer original interpretations of the story, or suggest plotlines that go beyond the w o r k itself. The emotional tone of these wor ks c o u l d not be more different from the tone of the parodies featured i n the official contests—films such as Sith Apprentice, where the Emperor takes some w o u l d be stormtroopers back to the board room; Anakin Dynamite, where a y o u n g Jedi must confront " i d i o t s " m u c h like his counterpart i n the cult success, Napoleon Dynamite (2004); or Intergalactic Idol (2003), where audiences get to decide w h i c h contestant really has the force. By contrast, Diane Williams's Come What May (2001), a typical song- v i d , uses images from The Phantom Menace to explore the relationship between O b i - W a n K e n o b i and his mentor, Q u i - G o n Jinn. The images show the passionate friendship between the two m e n and culminate i n the repeated images of Ob i - W an cradling the crumbled b o d y of his murdered comrade f o l l o w i ng his battle w i t h D arth M a u l . The i m - ages are accompanied by the song, " C o m e What M a y , " taken fr om the

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soundtrack of Baz Luhr m a nn' s Moulin Rouge! (2001) and performed by E w a n McGr egor, the actor w h o also plays the part of Q u i - G o n Jinn i n Phantom Menace. Whether A t o m f i l m s w o u l d define such a w o r k to be a parody w o u l d be a matter of interpretation: wh i l e p l a y f u l at places, it lacks the broad comedy of most of the male-produced Star Wars movies, involves a m u c h closer identification w i t h the characters, and hints at aspects of their relationship that have not explicitly been represented on screen. Come What May w o u l d be read by most fans as falling w i t h i n the slash subgenre, constructing erotic relations between same-sex characters, and w o u l d be read melodramatically rather than satirically. Of course, fr om a legal standpoint, Come What May may represent parody, w h i c h doesn't require that the w o r k be comical but s i mp l y that it be appropriate and transform the original for the purposes of critical commentary. It w o u l d be hard to argue that a video that depicts Ob i - W an and Q u i - G o n as lovers does not transform the original i n a w a y that expands its potential meanings. M o s t likely, this and other female-produced song videos w o u l d be regarded as fan fiction; Come What May w o u l d also r u n afoul of A t o m F i l m ' s rules against appropriating content from the films or fr om other media properties. These rules create a two-tier system: some works can be rendered more pub lic because they conform to what the rights holder sees as an acceptable appropriation of their intellectual property, while others remain h i dd e n fr om v i e w (or at least dis- W h e n P i r a c y B e c o m e s P r o m o t i o n tributed through less official channels). The global sales of Japanese animation In this case, these works have been so and character goods, an astonishing 9 cut off fr om public visib ility that when I trillion yen (U.S. $80 billion) is ten times ask Star Wars digital filmmakers about what it was a decade ago. Much of that growth has occurred in North Amer ica the i nv i s i b i l i ty of these mostly female- and western Europe. Japanese anime produced w o r k s , most of them had no has won worldwide success in part idea that w o m e n were even mak i ng Star because Japanese media companies Wars movies. were tolerant of the kinds of grassroots Anthropologist and marketing con- activities that American media companies seem so determined to shut down. sultant Grant M c C r a c k e n has expressed Much of the risks of entering Western some skepticism about the parallels fans markets and many of the costs of exper- dr a w between their grassroots cultural imentation and promotion were borne production and traditional folk culture: by dedicated consumers.Two decades " A n c i e n t heroes d i d not belong to every- ago, the American market was totally closed to these Japanese imports.Today, one, they d i d not serve everyone, they the sky is the limit, with many of the

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were not for everyone to d o w i t h what most successful children's series, from they w o u l d . These commons were never Pokémon ( 1998) to Yu-Gi-OW ( 1998), very c o m m o n ." 3 2 For the record, m y coming directly from Japanese produc- claims here are altogether more particu- tion houses.The shift occurred not larized than the sweeping analogies to through some concerted push by Japan- Greek myths that provoked M cC r ack e n' s ese media companies, but rather in response to the pull of American fans ire. H e is almost certainly right that w h o who used every technology at their could tell those stories, under what cir- disposal to expand the community that cumstances, and for what purposes re- knew and loved this content. Subse- flected hierarchies operating w i t h i n clas- quent commercial efforts built on the sical culture. M y analogy, on the other infrastructure these fans developed over the intervening years. Grassroots hand, refers to a specific moment i n the convergence paved the way for new emergence of A m e r i can popu l ar culture, corporate convergence strategies. where songs often circulated w e l l beyond Japanese animation was exported their points of or i g i n, lost any ackn o w l - into the Western market as early as the edgment of their original authorship, 1960s, when Astro Boy ( 1963), Speed Racer ( 1967), and G/gontor ( 1965) made were repurposed and reused to serve a it into local syndication. By the late range of different interests, and were very 1960s, however, reform efforts, such as much part of the texture of everyday life Action for Children's Television, had for a w i d e array of nonprofessional par- used threats of boycott and federal ticipants. This is h o w folk culture oper- regulation to reign in content they saw as inappropriate for American children. ated i n an emergent democracy. Japanese content targeted adults in its I don't want to turn back the clock to country of origin, often dealt with more some mythic golden age. Rather, I want mature themes, and was a particular us to recognize the challenges posed b y target of the backlash. Discouraged the coexistence of these tw o k i nds of Japanese distributors retreated from the American market, dumping their cultural logic. The kinds of production cartoons on Japanese-language cable practices we are discussing here were a channels in cities with large Asian nor ma l part of A m e r i can life over this populations. per iod. They are simply more visible n o w W i t h the rise of videotape recorders, because of the shift i n distribution chan- American fans could dub shows off the nels for amateur cultural productions. If Japanese-language channels and share the corporate media couldn't crush this them with their friends in other regions. Soon, fans were seeking contacts in vernacular culture dur i n g the age w h e n Japan—both local youth and American mass media power went largely unchal- GIs with access to newer series. Both lenged, it is hard to believe that legal Japan and the United States used the threats are go i ng to be an adequate re- same N TS C format, easing the flow of sponse to a moment wh e n new digital content across national borders. A m e r i - can fan clubs emerged to support the tools and new networks of distribution archiving and circulation of Japanese animation. O n college campuses.

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have expanded the power of ordinary student organizations built extensive libraries of both legal and pirated mate- people to participate i n their culture. rials and hosted screenings designed to H a v i n g felt that power, fans and other educate the public about anime artists, subcultural groups are not going to re- styles, and genres.The MIT Anime Club, turn to docility and invisibility. They w i l l for example, hosts weekly screenings go farther underground if they have to from a library of more than fifteen hundred films and videos. Since 1994, —they've been there before—but they the club has provided a Web site aren't going to stop creating. designed to educate Americans about This is where McCracken's argument anime and anime fan culture. In most rejoins m y o w n . M c C r a c k e n argues that cases, the club would show content there is ultimately no schism between without translation. Much like listening to an opera on the radio, someone the pub lic interest i n expanding opportu- would stand up at the beginning and tell nities for grassroots creativity and the the plot, often drawing on what they corporate interest i n protecting its i n - remembered when they heard someone tellectual property: "Corporations w i l l else recite the plot at another screen- allow the public to participate i n the ing. Japanese distributors winked at these screenings.They didn't have construction and representation of its permission from their mother compa- creations or they w i l l , eventually, com- nies to charge these fans or provide the promise the commercial value of their material, but they wanted to see how properties. The new consumer w i l l help much interest the shows attracted. create value or they w i l l refuse it. . . . The late 1980s and early 1990s saw Corporations have a right to keep copy- the emergence of "fansubbing," the right but they have an interest i n releas- amateur translation and subtitling of Japanese anime.Time synchronized V H S i n g it. The economics of scarcity may and S-VHS systems supported dubbing dictate the first. The economics of plenti- of the tapes so that they retained tude dictate the second." 3 3 The expand- accurate alignment of text and image. i n g range of media options, what M c - As MIT Anime Club president Sean Cracken calls the "economics of plenti- Leonard explains, "Fansubbing has been critical to the growth of anime fandom tude," w i l l pu s h companies to open more in the West. If it weren't for fans show- space for grassroots participation and ing this stuff to others in the late 70s- affiliation—starting perhaps w i t h niche early 90s, there would be no interest in companies and fringe audiences, but intelligent,'high-brow' Japanese anima- eventually m o v i n g toward the commer- tion like there is today." The high costs of the earliest machines meant that cial and cultural mainstream. M cC r a c k e n fansubbing would remain a collective argues that those companies that loosen effort: clubs pooled time and resources their copyright control w i l l attract the to ensure their favorite series reached a most active and committed consumers, wider viewership.As costs lowered, and those w h o ruthlessly set limits w i l l fansubbing spread outward, with clubs using the Internet to coordinate their f i nd themselves w i t h a d w i n d l i n g share activities, divvying up what series to

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of the media marketplace. 3 4 Of course, subtitle and tapping a broader com- this model depends on fans and a ud i - munity for would-be translators. ence members acting collectively i n their Beginning in the early 1990s, large- o w n interest against companies w h o may scale anime conventions brought artists tempt them w i t h entertainment that is and distributors from Japan, who were otherwise tailored to their needs. The astonished to see a thriving culture surrounding content they had never production companies are centralized actually marketed overseas.They went and can act i n a unified manner; fans are back home motivated to try to tap this decentralized and have no ability to en- interest commercially. Some key players sure conformity w i th i n their rights. A n d in the Japanese animation industry had so far, the media companies have s h o wn been among those who had aided and abetted American grassroots distribu- a remarkable willingness to antagonize tion a decade earlier. their consumers by taking legal actions The first niche companies to against them i n the face of all economic distribute anime on DVD and video- rationality. This is going to be an u p h i l l tape emerged as fan clubs went pro, fight under the best of circumstances. The acquiring the distribution rights from reengaged Japanese media companies. most likely w a y for it to come about, The first material to be distributed however, may be to create some successes already had an enthusiastic fan follow- that demonstrate the economic value of ing. Interested in exposing their mem- engaging the participatory audience. bers to the full range of content available in Japan, the fan clubs often took risks that no commercial distributor would have confronted, testing the Design Your Own Galaxy market for new genres, producers, and series and commercial companies to A d o p t i n g a collaborationist logic, the follow their path wherever they found creators of massively multiplayer online popularity.The fansubbed videos often ran an advisory urging users to "cease role-playing games ( M M O R P G s ) have distribution when licensed." The clubs already built a more open-ended and were not trying to profit from anime collaborative relationship w i t h their con- distribution but rather to expand the sumer base. Game designers ackn o w l - market; they pulled back from circulat- edge that their craft has less to do w i t h ing any title that had found a commercial distributor. In any case, the prestructured stories than w i t h creating commercial copies were higher quality the preconditions for spontaneous com- than their multigeneration dubs. munity activities. R a ph Koster, the m a n The first commercially available LucasArts placed i n charge of developing copies were often dubbed and reedited Star Wars Galaxies, built his professional as part of an effort to expand their reputation as one of the pr ime architects potential interest to casual consumers. of Ultima Online (1997). H e was the au- Japanese cultural critic Koichi Iwabuchi used the term "de-odorizing" to refer thor of an important statement of players' to the ways that Japanese "soft goods" are stripped of signs of their national

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rights before he entered the games i n - origins to open them for global circula- dustry, and he has developed a strong tion. 1 In this context, the grassroots fan community still plays an important role, design philosophy focused on e m p o w - educating American viewers to the ering players to shape their o w n expe- cultural references and genre traditions riences and b u i l d their o w n c o mmun i - defining these products through their ties. A s k e d to describe the nature of the Web sites and newsletters.The fan clubs continue to explore potential niche M M O R P G , Koster famously explained, products that over time can emerge "It's not just a game. It's a service, it's a as mainstream successes. w o r l d , it's a c o m m un i t y ." 3 5 Koster also Many U.S. media companies might refers to managing an online community, have regarded all of this underground whether a noncommercial m u d or a com- circulation as piracy and shut it down mercial M M O R P G , as an act of gover- before it reached critical mass.The Japanese media company's tolerance of nance: "Just like it is not a good idea these fan efforts is consistent with their for a government to make radical legal similar treatment of fan communities in changes without a period of public com- their local market.AsTemple University ment, it is often not wise for an operator School of Law professor Salil K. Mehra of an online w o r l d to do the same." 3 6 notes, the underground sale of fan- made manga, often highly derivative of Players, he argues, must feel a sense of the commercial product, occurs on a " o w n e r s h i p " over the imaginary w o r l d massive scale in Japan, with some if they are going to put i n the time and comics markets attracting 150,000 effort needed to make it come alive for visitors per day; such markets are held themselves and for other players. Koster almost every week in some parts of the country.2 Rarely taking legal action, the argues, " Y o u can't possibly mandate a commercial producers sponsor such fictionally i n v o l v i n g universe w i t h thou- events, using them to publicize their sands of other people. The best y o u can releases, to recruit potential new talent, hope for is a w o r l d that is vibrant enough and to monitor shifts in audience tastes. that people act i n manners consistent In any case, they fear the wrath of their consumers if they take action against w i t h the fictional tenets." 3 7 For players to such a well-entrenched cultural practice participate, they must feel that what they and the Japanese legal structure would b r i n g to the game makes a difference, not provide for fairly small legal penalties only i n terms of their o w n experiences, if they did pursue infringers. More but also the experiences of other play- generally, asYuichi Washida, a research director at Hakuhodo, Japan's second ers. W r i t i n g about the challenges of meet- i n g commun i ty expectations on Ultima Online, Koster explains, "They want to 1 Koichl Iwabucht, Recentering Globalization: Popular Culture and Japanese Transnationalism (Durham, N.C.: shape their space, and leave a lasting Duke University Press, 2002), pp. 25-27. mark. You must provide some means 2 Salil K. Mehra,"Copyright and Comics in Japan: for them to do s o ." 3 8 Richard Bartle, an- Does Law Explain W h y All the Cartoons My Kid Watches Are Japanese imports?" Rutgers Law Review, other game designer and theorist, agrees: forthcoming, accessed at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/ papers/cfm?abstract_id=347620.

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"Self expression is another w a y to pro- largest advertising and marketing firm, mote immersion. By g i v i ng players free- has argued, Japanese corporations have form ways to communicate themselves, sought to collaborate with fan clubs, designers can dr a w them more deeply subcultures, and other consumption into the w o r l d — t h e y feel more of a part communities, seeing them as important allies in developing compelling new of i t . " 3 9 content or broadening markets. 3 In Koster is k n o w n as a strong advocate courting such fans, the companies of the idea of g i v i ng players room to ex- helped to construct a "mora l economy" press themselves w i t h i n the game w o r l d : that aligned their interests in reaching a market with the American fans' desire to access more content. Making things of any sort does gener- Today,American companies are ally require training. It is rare in any licensing content almost as rapidly as medium that the naif succeeds in mak- the Japanese are generating it.The gap ing somthing really awesome or popu- between airing in Japan and in the lar. By and large it is people who have North American market grows shorter, taught themselves the craft and are mak- making it harder for fans to mount the large-scale efforts to familiarize ing conscious choices. But I absolutely themselves with and publicize this new favor empowering people to engage in content. Even many fan-started these acts of creation because not only companies are adopting American does talent bubble up but also econ- corporate logic, shutting down unautho- omies of scale apply. If you get a large rized fan copies from the moment they acquire a license.The fans worry that enough sample size, you will eventually these companies may be underestimat- create something good. ing the value of the grassroots publicity and that such aggressive copyright A s Koster turned his attention to devel- patrolling will result in a less educated o p i n g Star Wars Galaxies, he realized that consumer base that may be less willing to experiment with unfamiliar content.4 he was w o r k i n g w i t h a franchise k n o w n i n all of its details by hard-core fans w h o 3 Yuichi Washida, "Collaborative Structures had g r o w n u p p l a y i n g these characters between Japanese High-Tech Manufacturers and Consumers," paper presented at MIT, Cambridge, w i t h action figures or i n their backyard Mass.,January 2004. and w h o wanted to see those same fan- 4 This account of the history of anime in North tasies rendered i n the digital realm. In an America was informed throughout by Sean Leonard, open letter to the Star Wars fan c o m m u- "CelebratingTwo Decades of Unlawful Progress: Fan Distribution, Proselytization Commons, and the Ex- nity, Koster described what he hoped to plosive Growth of Japanese Animation," UCLA Enter- br i ng to the project: tainment Law Review, Spring 2005, pp. 191-265.

Star Wars is a universe beloved by many. A n d I think many of you are like me. You want to be there. You want to feel what it is like. Even before we think about skill trees and about Jedi advancement, before we

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consider the stats on a w e a p o n or the distance to M o s Eisley and where y o u have to go to pick u p p o w e r converters—you want to just be there. Inhale the sharp air off the desert. Watch a few Jawas haggle over a d r o i d . Feel the s un beat d o w n o n a b o d y that isn't your o w n , i n a w o r l d that is strange to y o u . Y o u don't want to k n o w about the stagecraft i n those first few moments. Y o u want to feel like y o u are offered a passport to a universe of limitless possibility. . . . M y job is to try to capture that

magic for y o u , so y o u have that experience." 4 0

Satisfying fan interests i n the franchise pr ov e d challenging. Koster told me: "There's no denying it—the fans k n o w Star Wars better than the developers do. They live and breathe it. They k n o w it i n an intimate way. O n the other h a nd, w i t h something as large and broad as the Star Wars universe, there's ample scope for divergent opinions about things. These are the things that lead to religious wars A t t h e M a l l of The Sims among fans and all of a sudden y o u have Many games companies are releasing to take a side because y o u are going to be their design tools and game engines establishing h o w it wor ks i n this game." alongside their games. Such tools are To ensure that fans bought into his ver- available for amateur modders to try sion of the Star Wars universe, Koster es- their hand at designing additional levels or worlds that can extend their game- sentially treated the fan community as his play experiences. Some even developed client team, posting regular reports about elaborate tutorials designed to train many different elements of the game's amateurs in the use of these tools and design o n the Web, creating an online may run contests to sponsor and recog- f o rum where potential players could re- nize the modding community's accom- plishments. Not every game player will spond and make suggestions, ensuring take the time to develop original game that his staff regularly monitored the on- content and share it with other players. line discussion and posted back their But, as Bioware's Ray Muzyka explained, o w n reactions to the community's rec- "If only one percent of a million user ommendations. By comparison, the pro- base makes content, then you have a lot of module designers. A nd that's enough duction of a Star Wars f i l m is shrouded to make a game self-sustaining for a by secrecy. Koster compares what he d i d long time.'" To play the amateur games, w i t h the test screening or focus group you must buy the commercial game process many H o l l y w o o d films endure, upon which they are based, which turns but the difference is that much of that testing goes on behind closed doors, 1 Ray Muzyka, " T h e Audience Takes Charge: Game among select groups of consumers, and is Engines as Creative Tools," Entertainment in the Interactive Age conference. University of Southern not open to the participation by anyone California,January 29-30,2001, accessed at w h o wants to join the conversation. It is http://www.annenberg.edu/interactive-age/assets/ transcripts/atc.html.

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hard to imagine Lucas setting up a f o rum all of those enthusiastic modders into site to preview plot twists and character evangelists for the originating company. designs w i t h his audience. If he had done Earlier in this chapter, I drew a so, he w o u l d never have included Jar Jar distinction between interactivity Binks or devoted so m uc h screen time to (which emerged from the properties of media technologies) and participation the childhood and adolescence of A n a k i n (which emerged from the protocols and Skywalker, decisions that alienated his social practices around media). It might core audience. Koster wanted Star Wars be productive to think about this dis- fans to feel that they had, i n effect, de- tinction alongside a somewhat more signed their o w n galaxy. famous one made by Lawrence Lessig between law and code. Law is social Games scholars K u r t Squire and C o n - dicta: one is free to break the law stance Steinkuehler have studied the i n - though one may suffer penalties if one teractions between Koster and his fan does so. Code is technical data: the community. Koster allowed fans to act as programming makes it impossible to "content generators creating quests, mis- violate its restrictions on use (even if those restrictions in practice exceed sions, and social relationships that consti- any reasonable legal demand). W e tute the Star Wars w o r l d , " but more i m - might see modding as a special case portantly, fan feedback "set the tone" for where participatory culture seeks to the Star Wars culture: reprogram the code so as to enable new kinds of interactions with the game. Yet, it is also a special case where the These players w o u l d establish c o m m u - commercial producer continues to nity norms for c i v i l i ty and role p l ay- exert constraints on use even as the i n g , g i v i n g the designers an o pp o rtu- work gets appropriated by the grass- nity to effectively create the seeds of the roots community. I can change the Star Wars Galaxies w o r l d months before fundamental code of the game if I mod it, but at the same time, nobody can the game ever hit the shelves. . . . The play my transformed version of the game that the designers promised and game unless they become a consumer the c o mmun i t y expected was largely of the original work. player-dr iven. The in-game economy Bioware and other games companies w o u l d consist of items (e.g. clothing, see the release of their mod tools as armor, houses, weapons) created b y consumer research; they monitor the players w i t h its prices also set by p l ay- amateur mods to see what game features are popular and try to provide ers through auctions and player-run more professionally polished versions shops. Cities and towns w o u l d be de- when they upgrade their franchises. signed by players, and cities' may- In some cases, they buy the rights to ors and council leaders w o u l d devise amateur-produced games and market missions and quests for other players. them directly to consumers or recruit the most gifted amateurs. Counter- The Galactic C i v i l War (the struggle Strike (2002),a mod on Half-Life (1998), between rebels and imperials) w o u l d is the most often cited example of a commercial success that emerged from

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frame the game play, but players w o u l d the modeling community, but a number create their o w n missions as they en- of amateur mods have been included on the expansion packs Bioware has acted the Star Wars saga. In short, the marketed around Neverwinter Nights system was to be dr i v e n by player inter- (2002). Other fan communities have action, w i t h the w o r l d being created less historically functioned as training b y designers and more b y players them- grounds for entry into the commercial selves. 4 1 media sector: most comic book artists and science fiction writers, for example, got their start through fan publishing. Players can adopt the identities of Yet, the modding community may be many different alien races, from Jawas unique in having amateur-produced to Wookiees, represented i n the Star Wars works taken up directly by commercial universe, assume many different profes- companies for distribution. A t the same time, the line between amateur and sional classes—from p o d racers to bounty professional production is blurring as h u n t e r s — a n d play out many different smaller start-up companies may build i n d i v i d u a l and shared fantasies. What their games through the use of these they cannot do is adopt the identity of same tools and subsequently license any of the pr i m a r y characters of the Star with the original company to enable their distribution. 2 Wars movies, and they have to earn the Such practices lower the risks of status of Jedi Kn i g ht by completing a innovation, allowing the amateurs to series of different in-game missions. O t h - experiment with possible new direc- erwise, the fiction of the game w o r l d tions and developments and the w o u l d break d o w n as thousands of H a n company to commodity those that hit pay dirt. A t the same time, the modding Solos tried to av o i d capture by thou- process may prolong the shelf life of the sands of Boba Fetts. For the w o r l d to feel product, with the modding community coherent, players had to give u p their keeping alive the public interest in a ch i l dh o o d fantasies of being the star property that is no longer necessarily and instead become a bit player, interact- state-of-the-art technologically. Such practices also increase consumer i n g w i t h countless other bit players, w i t h - loyalty: the most hard-core fans are i n a mutua l l y constructed fantasy. What most apt to be drawn toward compa- made it possible for such negotiations nies and products that support and collaborations to occur was the fact modding because they know that they that they shared a common background can get free content that extends the life of the purchased games. In some i n the already well-established Star Wars cases, game companies are even cutting mythology. A s Squire and Steinkuehler back on the material contained in the note, "Designers cannot require Jedis to initial product they ship, counting on behave consistently w i t h i n the Star Wars universe, but they can design game struc-

2 David B. N i e b o r g . " A m I Mod or Not? A n Analysis tures (such as bounties) that elicit Jedi- of First Person Shooter Modification Culture," pre- like behavior (such as placing a h i gh sented at the Creative Gamers Conference, Univer- sity ofTampiere.Tampiere, Finland, January 2005.

Skenovâno pro studijni ücely QuentinTarantino's StarWars! 165 reward on capturing a Jedi w h i c h might modders to expand the play experience. produce covert action on the part of The analogy to Tom Sawyer whitewash- Jedis)." 4 2 ing the fence lies close to the surface C o m i n g f u l l circle, a gr ow i ng number here: the games companies have been of gamers are using the sets, props, and able to convince their consumers to generate a significant amount of free characters generated for the Star Wars labor by treating game design as an Galaxies game as resources to produce extension of the game-play experience. their o w n fan films. In some cases, they A t the same time, the modding are using them to do their o w n dramatic community may come as close to an reenactments of scenes fr om the movie or experimental or independent games movement as currently exists, with to create, gasp, their o w n "fan fiction." large number of amateurs producing Perhaps the most intr iguing new form games that are only loosely affiliated of fan cinema to emerge from the game with the commercial industry, at a time w o r l d are the so-called Cantina C r a w l s . 4 3 when the consolidation of control over In the spirit of the cantina sequence i n the games production falls more and more into the hands of a small number of original Star Wars feature f i l m , the game major publishers who are risk-averse created a class of characters whose func- and driven toward blockbuster-scale tion i n the game w o r l d is to entertain the profits.3 other players. They were given special Mods represents the most extreme moves that allow them to dance and version of more widespread practices writhe erotically if the players hit com- through which game players customize plex combinations of keys. Teams of more their characters, their environments, or their play experiences. W i l l Wright, the than three dozen dancers and musicians creator of SimCity (1989) and The Sims p l an, rehearse and execute elaborate syn- (2000), argues that the games industry chronized musical numbers: for exam- maintains much lower walls between ple, The Gypsies' Christmas Crawl 1 fea- creators and consumers than most tured such numbers as "Santa C l aus Is other sectors of the entertainment industry, in part because most of the C o m i n g to T o w n " and " H a v e Yourself a people in the industry remember when M e rr y Little Chr istmas"; blue-skinned people designed games out of their and tentacle-haired dance girls shake garages.4 their bootie, lizard-like aliens i n Santa W i t h The Sims, W r i ght created the caps p l ay the sax, and guys w i t h gills do world's most spectacular dollhouse, boy-band moves wh i l e t w i n k l y snow- convinced the public to pay to come flakes fall a l l around them (fig. 4.3). Imag- 3 Hector Postigo,"From Pong to Planet Quake: ine what Star Wars w o u l d have looked Post-Industrial Transitions from Leisure to Work," like if it had been directed by Lawrence Information, Communication & Society, D e c e m b e r Welk! Whatever aesthetic abuse is taking 2003.Julian Kucklich,"Precarious Playbour: Modders and the Digital Games Industry," presented at the place here, one has to admire the techni- Creative Gamers Conference, University of cal accomplishment and social coordina- Tamplere.Tampiere, Finland, January 2005. 4 Unless otherwise noted, references to Will Wright reflect interview with author.June 2003.

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inside and play and encouraged them to modify it to their own specifications. Wr ight and his team tapped the preexisting fan base for his SimCity franchise, offering key Webmasters the right to participate in ongoing discussions around the game's design and development, giving them advanced access to mod tools they could use to design their own skins or produce their own furnishings, and allowed them to F i g . 4.3. Each character i n this musical n u m - see Webcasts and download thousands ber fr om The G y p s i e s ' Christmas Crawl 1, of images as the game was being devel- made u s i n g the Star Wars Galaxies game, is oped. By the time the first Sims game controlled by a separate player. shipped, there were already more than fifty fan Web sites devoted to The Sims. Today, there are thousands. Wr ight tion that goes into producing these films. estimates that in the end, more than 60 Once y o u put creative tools i n the hands percent of the content for The Sims will have been developed by its fans. Fans of everyday people, there's no telling are designing clothes, building houses, what they are going to make w i t h t h e m — manufacturing furniture, programming and that's a large part of the fun. behaviors, and writing their own stories, amply illustrated by screen shots from the games. He modestly notes, " W e were probably responsible for the first Where Do We Go from Here? million or so units sold but it was the community which really brought it to It is too soon to tell whether these ex- the next level." periments i n consumer-generated con- To distribute all of this content, tent w i l l have an influence on the mass fans have created a range of online media companies. In the end, it depends sites. Perhaps the most elaborate and on h o w seriously, if at a l l , we should take best known of these is "The Mall of The Sims." Visitors can browse at more their rhetoric about enfranchising and than fifty different shops that offer empower i ng consumers as a means of everything from the most up-to-date b u i l d i n g strong brand loyalties. For the electronics to vintage antiques, from moment, the evidence is contradictory: medieval tapestries to clothes for for every franchise w h i c h has reached out hard-to-fit sizes—and skins that look like Britney Spears or Sarah Michelle to court its fan base, there are others w h o Gellar or, for that matter, characters have fired out cease and desist letters. A s from StorWors.The Mall has its own we confront the intersection between cor- newspaper and television service. porate and grassroots modes of conver- A t present, the Mall boasts more gence, we shouldn't be surprised that than 10,000 subscribers. Wr ight notes that the success of the franchise just neither producers nor consumers are cer- about led to the extinction of the fan

Skenovano pro studijni ucely QuentinTarantino's StarWars? 167 tain what rules shou l d govern their inter- community because the most popular actions, yet both sides seem determined sites needed to pay massive bills to h o l d the other accountable for their for the bandwidths they consumed, choices. The difference is that the fan until the company rewrote their terms community must negotiate from a posi- of agreement so that the fans could charge modest fees to recover the tion of relative powerlessness and must costs of maintaining their distribution rely solely on its collective m o r a l author- centers. Everything in the shops is ity, wh i l e the corporations, for the m o - produced by other players, and once ment, act as if they had the force of l a w on you've paid your dues, you can down- their side. load anything you want for free. Ultimately, the prohibitionist position Perhaps most importantly, all of this bears the approval of W i l l Wr ight and is not going to be effective o n anything Maxis, the company he works for. other than the most local level unless He didn't build the Mall; he doesn't the media companies can w i n back p o p- police copyright infringers, nor does ular consent; whatever lines they dr a w he assert ownership over what the fans are going to have to respect the g r o w i n g had made. Wright just let it happen. As he explains, public consensus about what constitutes We see such benefit from interacting fair use of media content and must allow with our fans.They are not just people the public to participate meaningfully i n who buy our stuff. In a very real sense, their o w n culture. To achieve this ba l - they are people who helped to create ance, the studios are going to have to our stuff... .We are competing with other properties for these creative accept (and actively promote) some basic individuals. All of these different games distinctions: between commercial com- are competing for communities, which petition and amateur appropriation, be- in the long run are what will drive our tween for-profit use and the barter econ- sales Whichever game attracts the omy of the Web, between creative repur- best community will enjoy the most posing and piracy. success.What you can do to make the game more successful is not to make Each of these concessions w i l l be hard the game better but to make the for the studios to swa l l ow but necessary community better. if they are going to exert sufficient m o r a l Here, Wright's image of game authority to reign i n the k i nds of piracy companies competing for the most that threaten their economic l i v e l i hood. creative consumers harkens back to McCracken's prediction that the O n bad days, I don't believe the studios smart companies of the future would w i l l voluntar ily give up their strangle- empower rather than constrain ho l d on intellectual property. What gives consumer participation, and those me some hope, however, is the degree who did not build stronger relations to w h i c h a collaborationist approach is with consumers would be unable to compete.As a result ofWright's beginning to gain some toehold w i t h i n enlightened perspective, The Sims has the media industries. These experiments become perhaps the most successful game franchise of all time.

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suggest that media producers can garner greater loyalty and more com- pliance to legitimate concerns if they court the allegiance of fans; the best w a y to do this turns out to be g i v i n g them some stake i n the sur- v i v a l of the franchise, ensuring that the pr o v i d e d content more fu l l y reflects their interests, creating a space where they can make their o w n creative contributions, and recognizing the best w o r k that emerges. In a w o r l d of ever-expanding media options, there is going to be a struggle for viewers the likes of w h i c h corporate media has never seen before. M a n y of the smartest folks i n the media industry k n o w this: some are trembling, and others are scrambling to renegotiate their relationships w i t h consumers. In the end, the media producers need fans just as much as fans need them.

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