The Big Interview

Casey Pugh: May the (crowd)Force be with you

Casey Pugh is leading a fan remake of Star Wars. (Courtesy: Casey Pugh)

Thanks to Casey Pugh, fans from around the world are joining forces to recreate the iconic Star Wars: A New Hope. Casey split the film into 15-second scenes and has allowed anyone to claim a scene, film it, and upload it! He’ll then stitch the whole thing back together.

Why Star Wars?

When the idea was first forming, the first movie that came to my head was Star Wars. I’m definitely a huge Star Wars fan, but I also chose it because it’s probably the most well known film in the world. It’s the Michael Jackson of movies. Therefore, I thought Star Wars would be a good testing grounds to see the response for this type of project.

Do you remember when you first saw the movie? What impression did it make on you?

To be honest, I can’t remember vividly when I saw the movie, but I know it left a huge impression on me. I’m a sucker for anything sci-fi and I can most likely thank Star Wars for that. Every time I hear John Williams’ score for Star Wars, I get excited.

What inspired the idea of a fan-made homage to the movie?

I currently work at Vimeo.com as one of their lead developers and have been at Vimeo since its beginnings. Over the course of time we have tons of ideas about the future of the site and film itself. Probably about a year ago, I was thinking a bit about how to get people to collaborate on video projects in an easier way. The Vimeo forums are usually how people work together on things just through communication, but it’s hard to use as a tool to divide up work on a project.

One day the idea just randomly came to me. What if I split Star Wars into pieces for everyone to recreate? It would be hilarious. I realized using the Vimeo forums as the medium for collaboration on such an ambitious project wouldn’t work, so I kept the idea in the back of my head for a while.

Then a few months later a light turned on. I could make my own site with all the collaborative functionality necessary and also leverage Vimeo’s video hosting power.

Vimeo has a free, public API that allows anyone to interface with Vimeo however they want. This means that anyone could create a crowd-sourced video project.

Using Vimeo’s API allowed me to keep Star Wars: Uncut as my own personal project and protect myself from any direct ties to Vimeo. It’s just a coincidence that I work there, too.

Did any previous fan fiction and crowdsourcing projects provide inspiration?

Probably one of the biggest influences and thought-provoking projects is the White Glove Tracking project. Started by a couple guys at Eyebeam, the aim of the project was to have people locate Michael Jackson’s white glove on every single frame of the Billy Jean performance. There were over 10,000 frames and within just a couple days, thousands of people went through and located the glove.

The data allowed people to make awesome and funny visualizations. One person decided to make Michael Jackson’s hand four times as large. You can see the video here.

The ability to get thousands of people who actually want to work on a single task is amazing.

Crowdsourcing plus Star Wars equals using the crowdforce.

Have you been involved in any large-scale projects like this before?

This is my first personal large-scale project, but I’ve worked at plenty of companies that receive lots of traffic (i.e. Vimeo).

Star Wars Uncut strikes me as an ambitious project. Did you really know what you were getting into?

I definitely knew what I was getting into. Usually when I get an idea that really excites me, I try to be unbiased as possible to help me predict its potential. Although, it definitely has gone even further than what I hoped for.

The amount of feedback people have given is incredible. Fortunately, the site itself doesn’t require too much of my attention and allows me to just sit back and watch the scenes roll in.

Just how much feedback and how big a response have you had?

I’ve gotten hundreds of emails, but most of the feedback I have found just through keeping up with Twitter, Tumblr and various other blogs.

Why do you think Uncut has drawn such a massive response?

I believe the biggest draw is the fact all the scenes are 15 seconds. After thinking about the duration of each scene and running it by colleagues, 15 seconds is just enough time for people to show off their creativity without a ton of effort and time. This allows almost anyone with any type of camera to participate. Combine that with a love for Star Wars and you get a good response. Making it really easy for people to reserve and upload scenes in a fun way was also important to reach a larger audience.

How did you go about dividing the movie up into its composite segments?

I wrote a script that automatically split the movie into 15 second segments.

How quickly did participants snap up all the potential scenes?

When I first released the site, all the scenes were taken within three days. That solidified the project’s potential, but I needed to let more people in on the action. I spent a week upgrading the site to allow more than one person to complete a scene. It was a little disheartening for the people who thought they had the scenes to themselves, but it was more important to me to let everyone have a chance. Over the course of three months, traffic averaged around 1,000 uniques a day and one to two scenes uploaded every other day.

My initial worry with Star Wars Uncut was that people would be pessimistic about the final result. Once people had submitted enough scenes, I had to release a trailer to show off its potential and help give the site another kick-start. The trailer I put together did just that. Within a couple days, the trailer started showing up everywhere and all the scenes were  gobbled up once again. Just yesterday, I received over 40,000 unique visits and the trailer itself has been seen over 200,000 times.

I made the stats publicly available on Quantcast.

Since you ended up allowing more than one submission for each segment of the film, how will you choose what ends up in the final film?

This is still up in the air, but my aim is to have people vote for the best version of each scene. I probably will have them start voting for all the scenes after the project is completed. The scenes that don’t make it in will still be kept because I want to create an online version where you can watch Star Wars a different way every time you view it. It would also be great if all the scenes were categorized by genre so you could have the ability to watch an all animated Star Wars.

That sounds fantastic. Have you been surprised by the quality and variety of the submitted flicks?

Very surprised! I am thrilled that I have received almost every type of parody, film style and animation possible. It truly shows off the internet’s power to harness people’s creativity.

Given the disparate nature of the 15-second segments, are you expecting a tough time in the edit suite?

Yes, definitely! I’m a decent editor myself, but the sheer number of scenes will make it an arduous task. The even more difficult task will be dealing with the varying audio quality from scene to scene. There’s a definite chance some of the work might be outsourced.

Watching the trailer, what jumps out at me is this is a lot of people having a whole lot of fun. Is the project more about the process than the end product?

Everyone is having a ton of fun and I personally had a blast making scenes with my friends. I believe it’s about the process and the final product. Giving people an easy chance to star in one of their favorite movies is such an enticing opportunity, but the energy people put into the process is partly fueled by the fact that they want to see themselves in the final edit.

There’s a lot of controversy floating around on the internet that the final movie will be unwatchable due to its potential seizure inducing choppiness. I’ve already started putting the film together and overlaying the original soundtrack. I can assure people that it’s going to be quite entertaining!

That’s exciting to hear. Is the soundtrack vital to pulling the final film together?

It’s very important. If it didn’t have it, the film would be much harder to watch. Personally, having the soundtrack layered on top of my scene made me feel like I’m really part of the original film. It helps connect with the Star Wars universe. If it weren’t for John Williams, Star Wars wouldn’t be Star Wars.

Casey prepares to present Uncut at ComicCon. (Courtesy: Casey Pugh)

What scenes did you choose to make yourself? What appealed about those sections of the film?

I chose scene 297 and helped my friend with 296. It was pretty hard to make a decision because every single scene seemed like it would be fun to make. After watching any 15-second scene, I always thought, “I can do that.” Every scene felt like it was ripe for parody and I couldn’t wait to start filming.

What made you decide to go for parody rather than imitation or replication? Is parody your preference for most of the scenes?

I think it’s just a personal preference. I wanted my scene to be unique and knew that most other people would try to go for replication. I love comedy and tend to joke around a lot, so this was an easy outlet for me. Parody is definitely not my preference for all scenes. People should feel like they can do whatever they want for their scene. Although, it seems like quite a few people enjoyed making parodies as well.

Have you had any contact at all with Lucasfilm about Uncut? Do you have any concerns about a copyright action?

I’ve had indirect contact with Lucasfilm and they are cool with the project. They are pro fan-made content and are staying on neutral ground. I’d love to make a DVD and hopefully they’ll be down with the idea, but for now I’m waiting for the project to wrap up before I take action.

You’ve mentioned on the Star Wars Uncut site that you’re covering costs from your own pocket, and have asked for donations. Have you had much support?

I’ve had a bit of support. It has helped me pay for some of the bills, but it’s definitely not substantial. There’s no real threat to the site’s life, so it’s probably hard for people to find a reason why they should donate. Hopefully if a DVD starts to be made, it will motivate people to help out. I may also use kickstarter.com.

Let’s talk tech for a minute. How are you tying the back end of your site together? How difficult would it be for someone who doesn’t work at Vimeo and know the insides of that system to replicate something like your project?

You have to have some sort of knowledge with database systems and a backend language. I used PHP and MySQL for this project. If you know anything about those two mediums, then you can create a site like this really easily. The toughest part is figuring out how to execute Star Wars Uncut the right way to get people involved quickly and easily.

So what has been the key to getting people involved quickly and easily? Would you do anything differently if you had your chance?

It is very important to get people to dive right into the project. A quick description and then a thumbnail list of the entire movie allowed people to easily understand what to do and get started. There were some issues with the UI, but fortunately I could still change that over time and through good feedback.

The only thing I would change is to make every scene 17 seconds, where the first and last second overlap the previous and next scene. That would make all the scenes more continuous and easier to edit for the final product.

Do you have any specific plans for when and where you’ll launch the film as yet?

I don’t have a specific time set because it’s up to the people to finish the project. Given the current rate of uploads, I’m hoping it will be done by December or January at the latest.

I’ll probably have several screenings initially here in New York. I have my eyes set on Monkeytown. It’s a small, unique venue that has an amazing event space in the back. People can keep up to date with the Star Wars Uncut progress and announcements via the blog and twitter.

Thanks very much for chatting to The Big Interview, Casey.

Thank you, Matt. I just wanted to give a couple shout-outs before we wrap up. Star Wars Uncut was a brooding idea for a while and I’d like to thank Jamie Wilkinson. He gave me a lot of motivation and provided me with his great technical expertise. The project probably wouldn’t have happened without him. If it weren’t for Chad Pugh, my brother, Star Wars Uncut wouldn’t have an amazing logo. His illustration really helped sell the site.

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    Wonderful interview with Casey Pugh
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    Interview. Thanks, Matt!
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    Interview. Thanks, Matt!
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