A Word from Scott Schlosser
Director of "CONSPIRACY"

Sometime during the summer of 2001 I had watched the HBO original movie Conspiracy starring Kenneth Branagh and Stanley Tucci. I had thought that it was a very powerful yet disturbing film about one of the darkest periods of human history. It never occurred to me that it would become the basis for a Star Wars fan film.

One day in late November while driving home from work, from out of nowhere, I had the idea of a fan film that incorporated the ideas from the original HBO film into the Star Wars Universe. I contacted our writer Brian Tomaselli and let him in on the idea.

As Brian began to draft a script, we began thinking of possible locations for the film. We knew that we needed some sort of executive board room to enable the cast to interact in the meeting that would take place. Brian and I came up with a possible location, the only problem was that it would only be available until mid January of 2002. With just over one month of preproduction time available to us, we utilized whatever resources we could to help us achieve our goal. We enlisted my mom Sandra Schlosser to create the Imperial Officer jackets. Somehow she managed to create nine of these in such a short span of time. Through the AM FILM FORUM we met Bret Proud, who had recently moved to the Cleveland area. Not only did we find someone to take part in the film, but we also found a person who would create the Imperial rank plaques and belt buckles for the costumes as well.

As the script progressed, we knew that we would need a consistency incorporating the Star Wars Expanded Universe into our film. Our resident expert Cliff Zody provided a great deal of help in seeing that the dialog within our script coincided with the established EU material.

With a few last minute casting changes, the day (and only day available to us) of filming arrived. Starting in the late morning, we dressed the location, set up our greenscreens, and began. Nine long hours later, we were finished with nearly all of the principal photography. All that remained would be a few shots that required a greenscreen "studio". These pick-up shots would later be filmed in my living room thanks to the patience of my wife as we more or less rearranged every bit of furniture in the room.

With the pick-up shots completed the task of post-production began. As with our previous film, Challenge of the Sith, we were pleased when CGI and graphic artist Michael Hobson stepped up to the plate for our visual FX. Michael created many amazing shots for the film, and I dont think we can thank him enough.

Compositing was a new word for me. I had very little knowledge in creating clean composites. With the help of DV Garage and their Composite Toolkit, compositing the footage of Conspiracy became almost a pleasure to do. Conspiracy has been a major learning experience for us at TBX. I know that I have enjoyed every aspect of creating the film, from the actual filming, to the compositing and the eventual compression. I like to think of Conspiracy as a stepping stone for us at TBX. The things we have learned while creating Conspiracy will aid us in our creative process on future films.

Scott Schlosser

Director, Conspiracy