A saga of life, love, the Force and cafeteria food.

This is the one where it all began.

The future founders of Guy in his Basement Productions had been interested in making Star Wars fan films before, but nothing had ever gotten off the ground, due to the harsh reality of production values.

Then, one day (February 11, 2000), Adam Bertocci, romantically frustrated, began to pen a whimsical take on teen romance, one taking place in an ordinary high school. But with Star Wars characters attached. For some Goddamn reason.

The following day (February 12), he pitched the idea to Kent Sanderson. A Star Wars fan film with the burdens of creating a sci-fi environment whisked away by the localized setting. It was a deal. A budget was set at $400. Planning began.

Shooting began on March 22, 2000, with a courtyard conversation between Obi-Wan and his friend, and then a larger scene involving the three lead actors and two cameras. Before long, the Star Wars movie crowd became a recognized fixture at Bronxville High School. We shot in corridors at lunch and after school. We conducted lightsaber swordplay in the cafeteria. We even invaded two class sessions to have people be in our movie instead of learning.

Following extensive post-production nightmares, the film was ready. We even had Web hosting space lined up at SWFans.Net, where Adam was a writer.

And then it was time to premiere the movie, and that's where things got crazy.

We peppered the high school with fliers in an ridiculous show of hype. Word of mouth built. We got an ovation during a school assembly when we stood up to promote the screenings. Sports teams postponed practices to attend.

On September 22, 2000, about two hundred people congregated in the Bronxville High School auditorium and watched Young Jedi: High School Student. There was applause and laughter. The principal scheduled an encore screening during school time, when the entire high school (about four hundred people) watched our movie instead of learning things.

Maybe the Force was with us.

YJ:HSS did not end up making a huge splash in the fan films community, especially when we lost our hosting space. It may be a lost fan film on some level.

But it led to bigger things.