Stephen Vitale, an alumnus of SHOOT’s 2015 New Directors Showcase, directed produced and edited this short titled Hoshino, a Star Wars fan film about blind Jedi Master Ko Hoshino portrayed by Anna Akana (Ant-Man, My Name is Doris). The story focuses on Hoshino training with her master and the final act in her becoming a Jedi,
The script was written by Eric Carrasco (Supergirl). The score was composed by Joey Newman (The Middle, Adam and Dog) and recorded with an orchestra to honor the incredible role music and musicians have played in the Star Wars universe.
Vitale noted, “The reason we made this short is not just because we love Star Wars–it’s because we love film. We love making movies and this story was something that excited us. It was a challenge to try something different. Many Star Wars shorts that feature Jedi are just lightsaber fight sequences. We wanted to focus on the force–to do something cinematic and designed, to create an original character with her own journey, to make something that feels like Star Wars.”
He added that “part of making it feel like Star Wars meant approaching the film like the original trilogy. We had custom props and wardrobe, filmed on location to give it scope and to create a world for our characters to inhabit, built a practical Mynock creature to puppeteer on set and against blue screen instead of relying only on VFX.”
