About Star Wars Stories

Disney XD channel gave us the dream brief: create six little stories based on Star Wars characters from the original movie - but done in the style of old Action Man commercials!! The aim being to bring an XD sense of play to the franchise and therefore engage and strengthen the association with the channel's audience (boys 8-12).

The series is set in the world of two boys who are playing Star Wars with their (incredible) collection of official Star Wars action figures.  We wrote scripts for six episodes that complimented the existing storyline and continued to build upon key moments from 'A New Hope' - aka the original Star Wars movie. "We'd start off filling in a gap between key moments in a humorous way from the original movie - a kind of 'what if?' moment - before diving back in and replicating  famous scenes - albeit with cardboard sets and the action figures" says Nick (Writer/Director) of the creative process. 

The design aesthetic was also crucially important in evoking a hand-crafted yet highly stylised visual look for the series. We wanted it to feel conceivable that the boys had built all the little sets and locations  by hand... but of course we also wanted them to look amazing. We briefed incredible talented Art Director, Adam Powell to build the sets - no small task. All up about $2500 worth of collectible Star Wars action figures were sourced - including rarities like action figures of Peter Cushing's iconic role Grand Moff Tarkin.  

Just like the original movies, the six episodes of Star Wars stories were meticulously storyboarded and planned. "All the effects from this series were done practically and in camera - working at that scale was incredibly challenging, but totally worth it." says Nick of the filming process. Director of Photography Mark Collins, Nick and Adam worked closely as a unit prior to filming to ensure the final results were of the highest standard. The two key talent - James Donald and Alek Giotopoulos, recorded their voices prior to filming and then operated the tiny action figures across three huge days. 

Disney XD were over the moon (and stars haha) with the final result and said the series went far beyond their expectations. They used them to create buzz around the release of the Rogue One move and they are scheduled to TX again for May the 4th, 2017.