RJ & JJ: Well, we grew up with Star Wars–the original trilogy, mind you–and when the prequel trilogy came out, it brought up many‚… continuity issues. So when-

RJ & JJ:Oh, gotcha. Funny story, that. In that year, Viacom and Google/YouTube had a lawsuit going on, so YouTube covered itself by indiscriminately pulling anything Star Wars-related off its sites. Coincidentally, right around that time, we managed to fall into a Time Vortex just like Danson Delta-40, only emerging this last year into what we consider “The Future”. It’s incredible! Wow, the economy sure nose-dived while we were gone! So, now that we have our new jobs, living situations, and futuristic smart phones in place, we can resume the series and continue it along the path that we’d always planned.

RJ & JJ: As we were saying earlier, we always loved Star Wars while growing up, but the prequels really threw us, the way they threw a lot of people. We were in a unique position: we were working on the Star Wars: Battlefront video game series, giving us access to a unique way to fill in some continuity gaps and maybe bring Star Wars something it hadn’t had in a little while: a sense of humor about itself. There were already other successful machinimas out there (or, one at least), and that gave us the additional inspiration to make most of the characters helmeted, as then you don’t have to worry about lip-sync.

RJ & JJ: Machinima! Ah yes, many people have no clue what this is. According to Wikipedia, Machinima ‚Äúis the use of real-time 3D computer graphics rendering engines to create a cinematic production.‚Äù In our case, we recorded video of ourselves playing Star Wars: Battlefront II for the Xbox. More on that later‚…

RJ & JJ: The inspiration for A CLONE APART, right! As far as the story’s inspiration itself, we spent many lunches during crunch-time at work talking about it, until we hit upon something: we’d never seen time travel in the Star Wars universe. And with that in the ether, suddenly, it clicked: we could take a lone, awkward clone and transport him to the “present” of the Original Trilogy, and let hilarity ensue. Our clone would be adept at pointing out everything that just didn’t add up, as well as anything silly about the universe, the game engine we filmed it in, whatever we wanted. After that, ideas just kept piling and piling together.

RJ & JJ: Since we had helped develop the game, we knew we could use a modified version of the game to record what we needed and customize the load-out for each map as desired. In our free time, we edited the character loadouts for each level and then used the various in-engine camera tools (that Ryan used to make the game’s cutscenes) to frame all the visuals, recording all the footage to a computer.

However, the game project was drawing to a close and would soon be archived–meaning [like many Hollywood blockbusters] we needed to film everything before we even had a complete script. So we finalized our outline and away we went, knowing we could write the dialogue to suit the visuals later. Which means we have all the footage for the entire series filmed already, and now are instead writing/recording/assembling the episodes afterword.

RJ: There is a particular scene in Episode 04 that we really laughed our butts off over where Rook walks off screen and finally upgrades his weapon. I think it’s because of the scream that Jawas make, which is even better than Ewok and Gungan screams. For VO recording, thus far it’s been a blast recording the computer voice with my wife, Yvonne Yao. We always love coming up with new ways for the computer to be evil or inept given the context of whatever is going on at the time.

JJ: I love it every time we have that guy come in and record VO for Danson. He’s a genius. Someone should pay him buckets of money to do VO work in the future. We are soooooooooooo lucky to have him working with us, don’t you think Ryan?

RJ: Shut up Jeff. You’re basically just playing yourself when recording Danson, except he isn’t quite as pathetic as you are in reality. I don’t think you’re going to be winning any awards any time soon.

JJ: Whatever man! You just don’t understand my art!

RJ & JJ: We don’t want to give away too much, but the stuff on Naboo was very difficult to choreograph, though worth it in the end. Also, the battle on Polis Massa is very epic and complicated, but we think it will be awesome once we finish putting it together.

RJ & JJ: Danson (and his friends/enemies) will be responsible for numerous small and large nudges, here and there. We wanted his story to weave in and out of the familiar events of the Original Trilogy as much as possible, but to say more would give everything away…

RJ: Ultimately I’m not at either extreme. I grew up a fan of the original trilogy, for sure, but never got too far into the Expanded Universe–I was too busy enjoying other franchises at the same time. There are tons of them out there, Star Trek, Middle Earth, The Matrix, Marvel, DC, Battlestar, Buffy & Firefly (to scratch the surface)–no one universe my favorite, each one with something unique and fun to offer. But all fictional universes–just like everything in reality–is worthy of satire. Though there’s been plenty of good Star Wars satire thus far (from Troops & Robot Chicken to Spaced–and at least 5 films by Kevin Smith), there hadn’t ever been a machinima before.

JJ: I’m probably a bit of a bigger Star Wars fan that Ryan is, since I managed to dress up as emo Anakin Skywalker for Halloween once. I grew my hair out long like Hayden Christensen did for Episode 3. Yeah‚… Like Ryan I grew up as a big fan of the original trilogy, but I also read a bunch of books and played a ton of games based on the Star Wars universe. That being said, I always enjoy mashing our reality with the Star Wars universe and seeing the symbolism and hilarity that comes along with that.

RJ: I think Star Wars has always been relevant, and for all ages. The first Star Wars changed the nature of modern cinema forever in ways too numerous to list here. All six of them pushed the limits of special and visual effects, and have had a wide effect on [American] pop culture. And all of them–all, folks, let’s be honest–have moments that tap into that cheeseball popcorn factor of old-school serials.

JJ: It’s true! Sometimes people envision the original trilogy as being these perfect works of art that should be taken more seriously when it’s pretty hammy in reality. Star Wars has majorly inspired kids–or the kid inside us–that likes sci-fi-fantasy, the hero’s journey, and the struggle between “good” and “evil.”

RJ: I’m glad they were a part of our childhood, for all that they inspired, but the initial change they wrought cannot be undone, nor continually be achieved by the same series. At some point, something new may revolutionize modern storytelling again, and we hope it inspires the kid in us too.

JJ: I also always look forward to what Star Wars content will come out in the future, especially considering how technology continues to progress and gives us the ability create new stories show things in a different way than before. I just hope we someday get to see a live action TV show or new movies in the Star Wars universe that introduce us to new characters and stories taking place years after Return of the Jedi. It would be cool to have people talk about Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewie as folk lore.

RJ & JJ: The machinima that helped inspire the both of us to start this off is the excellent, awkward, hilarious series RED VS. BLUE made by the folks at Rooster Teeth. We remember when the trailer hit the internet and everyone was so confused as to what they were seeing, but by the second episode we were hooked. The story they’ve woven has gotten severely complicated and convoluted since that start–and rather meta too–but such is the nature of *any* longform storytelling. It’s still hilarious and we recommend everyone take a peek at it.