Today the Arizona Republic featured an article about Star Wars fan films and fan filmmaking.

Journalist Michael Senft covers Lucasfilm's legal standpoint on fan films, the official AtomFilms awards, and the wide variety of topics explored in fan films today. He focuses on the production of one film in particular, "Spirits of the Force" by Joel Cranson:

"I had written a draft for the fun of it," Cranston says. "It was going to stay a script that I would share with my friends, and maybe someday I would make it into something bigger if I got the chance."

A meeting with fellow fan Webb Pickersgill led to Cranson's script being realized. Pickersgill handled production design and special effects for the film, which Cranson produced and starred in. Members of the Valley-based Star Wars fan club Phoenix Fan Force rounded out the cast.

The article is a good read and worth dealing with the annoying survey. Make sure to check out "Spirits" as well using the link above.