At San Diego Comic-Con International in 2009, a short film by Clare Grant and Rileah Vanderbilt and their Danger Maiden Productions (along with Ariescope Pictures) called Saber won the awards for both Best Action Short and Audience Choice in the 8th Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards competition. The short, directed by Adam Green, was a mock commercial that included two women, two lightsabers, and… you know, you might as well just take a look at it yourself:
Now… there’s a sequel. And it’ll premiere on the Nerdist Channel on May 4th, in conjunction with Star Wars Day (yes, as in “May the Fourth Be With You”).
This time around, none other than Seth Green will be directing, and we’re being promised that the short will be “more adult,” which, well, yeah. And any future Saber incarnations will launch on the Nerdist Channel as well. Subscribe so you’ll know all about everything that’s coming up.
Also, Grant and Vanderbilt will be bringing their lightsaber skills to the Course of the Force relay, which starts on July 7th and will make its way down the coast from Santa Monica to San Diego on July 11th to kick off preview night at San Diego Comic-Con International. You can join them in the run/walk and help out the Make-A-Wish Foundation in the process by going to courseoftheforce.com and signing up.
It has 1.3 million views because it is awesome! It was a great concept that appealed to a lot of us on many levels. It has 1.3 million views because people saw it and shared it with their friends. There are litterally thousands of youtube videos that have hot chicks in it that don’t have anywhere close to as many views, so there is obviously more to it. A chick fight with lightsabers and a guy c-blocking with jedi mind tricks!?! How frakking cool is that?
It’s incredibly nieve to say this video has 1.3 million hits because it is “witty” and “fun”. It has 1.3 million hits because of the same reason Unilever Inc. (axe producer) and every other major company uses women in their advertisments. Also, number of views in no way correlates to quality.
Granted I threw in the typical geek stereotype, but where there’s smoke there’s fire. Sex sells and men, in general, can’t get enough.
The only reason — in my mind — why this got awards is because of the attractive ladies, maybe the special effects. The choreography was lame, and I’m simply tired of the “sexy” cliche/trope. I’m just glad it didn’t have any dialogue (well, almost none).
This is just my opinion. It certainly seems like a lot of people enjoyed this vid, perhaps I’m in the minority.
@KGB Man: I normally don’t respond to negative comments but here are my thoughts. Firstly, I am not socially awkward. I am a married, fit in any crowd, life of the party, karaoke night, “own” the dance floor kinda guy. So to say this only appeals to socially awkward guys is a blind assumption based on out-dated stereotypes. How do the thousands of female fans fit into that stereotype? You haven’t seen any of the other fan flicks and yet you assume that this one is not worthy of the awards and accolades which it has earned? Really? If you prefer a more serious action drama then God bless, but to truly appreciate this work you have to appreciate it for what it is, and not what you want it to be.
This story is a variation on a common theme, an average guy suddenly finds himself in the unlikely position of being fought over by two gorgeous women. Add the Star Wars theme, jedi mind tricks, light versus dark side, and a light saber duel and you have a thing of beauty! (OK…granted these girls are hot, I’ll give you that one.) This is pure entertainment. It is witty, it is fun, it has over 1,380,000 views on youtube (this isn’t counting the views on other sites that have carried it). [Translation: A whole lot of people don’t agree with anything you just said]
The only way this could get worse would be if Megan Fox was it in. What a worthless piece of dribble that only proves, like Gaius mentioned above, that socially awkward men will eagerly jump on anything with attractive women in it. Not having seen the other fan fics, I could probably guess there were others with better fight sequences that lost out because they didn’t have half clothed women. Audience choice I can understand, but “best” action short???
As long as it has girls in it, men will flock to it. Cheesy, but it was okay. If the next one really has a bubble bath in it, I’ll question it. A lot.
I loved the first video. Clare & Rileah were great in the video & they were both sexy & will be again in the sequal. 🙂
OMG, Saber was the coolest, geektastic video ever made! That video was on the desktop of every nerd in our IT dept. I became legend in the IT dept when I met these gorgeous ladies at Comic Con int’l 2010 (They are every bit as cool as they appear.) I am literally dying to see the sequel! *Kermit flail*