May the fundamental forces be with you

Photos: Reidar Hahn, Fermilab

A long time ago in a national laboratory far, far away… some physicists looked around their workplace and thought of dark forces. Not dark matter; not dark energy; but the ultimate force from the dark side: Darth Vader.

Now, nearly five years later, they are preparing to air the first feature-length Star Wars fan movie—and most likely the first ever filmed at a national high-energy physics laboratory. Called Star Wars: Forgotten Realm, the two-hour film was shot at Fermilab under the direction of Darren Crawford, the lab's accelerator operations crew chief.

The actors include fellow Fermilab workers and their friends and relatives. Grade-school children played diminutive Jawa creatures; they were the only ones who fit the costumes. Physicists and engineers brought science-related gadgets, such as Tesla coils and Lichtenberg figures, to add a 1970-style sci-fi feel to the cantina scene. A local artist provided an adult-sized, moving robot.

“This film is going to blow away all other fan films,” says Mark Van Slyke, a member of the Midwest Garrison of the 501st Legion: Vader's Fist, a worldwide organization of Star Wars costuming enthusiasts. The garrison supplied several actors, as well as costumes and props.

Crawford capitalized on the laboratory's concrete-walled, industrial-looking experimental tunnels and its natural prairies to create the stark, wild look of a futuristic world. Computer-aided special effects, generated with the help of co-workers, promise to give the film a polished, if not Hollywood, look. While Lucas Productions does not endorse the film, it does allow fans to make and show films so long as they don't charge admission.

Granted, filming at Fermilab did present unusual challenges: getting security clearances, complying with safety rules, shooting on weekends and during off-hours, descending 350 feet into the NuMI experiment tunnel, and working around “Caution: Strong Magnetic Field” signs. Yet below their hard hats emblazoned with “Death Star Construction Crew,” the group was all smiles.

“Four years ago, when the word got out I wanted to make a Star Wars fan film, several people approached me and volunteered to be a part of the project,” Crawford says. “There is a great sense of camaraderie when we are all on the set.”

The film will premiere in 2010 at Fermilab.
 

-Tona Kunz