Put one creative mind alone in a room with an idea about expanding upon a piece of Star Wars canon, and you’ve got a person with a cool dream. Put a couple of dozen fans together who have expertise from myriad aspects of filmmaking, and you’ve got FULCRUM, the Star Wars fan film dedicated to the story of former Jedi Commander and general badass, Ahsoka Tano.

Brad Moon, of the team at Crafty Apes, along with Kiefer Jenkins and Fourthcrown Studios worked to develop the visual effects for FULCRUM. Professional cosplayer and actress Rei Kennex had sprouted the idea with director Jason Crossman for an Ahsoka Tano fan film in 2019 and created a short teaser trailer. Brad spoke to Sam Claitor about working with Rei Kennex to bring Ahsoka Tano’s environment to life.

“Rei and I have some mutual geek interests and when we spoke she had already made a super, super short teaser clip, like, hey, this is what we want to do. And after I saw that… I reached out and was like, hey! You guys need some visual effects help?”

FULCRUM Star Wars fan film

The film is just under six minutes long, in the format of an extended trailer, and is a cinematic experience. We follow Ahsoka through a lush forest battle with stormtroopers to her sauntering through the moon-tinged desert alongside a trio of Jawas and eventually meeting up with Obi-Wan Kenobi.

“From my end of this, it’s a lot of blaster bolts, a lot of environmental effects. It takes place in a desert scene… I want to say a desert right outside Los Angeles… So, there’s a lot of dust effects, impact hits, ground hits, stuff like that. And a lot of lightsaber play.”

FULCRUM Star Wars fan film

The excitement of building a story around Ahsoka Tano came partly from the idea that Ahsoka Tano and some of these other characters from this time period ( “Clone Wars era—pre-Jedi purge”) have not received the screen time they deserved, and they’re now developing a second short featuring Jedi Aayla Secura with hopes to create more down the road.

FULCRUM can be enjoyed here on Youtube. Follow Rei Kennex for news on upcoming Star Wars fan films that will make you feel like you’re embedded in battle with the 501st Legion.