Part 1: The Early Years
Until recently, Starslyderz 'auteur' Garrin Vincent was best known for directing and co-writing a three-hour musical production of Star Wars while a senior in the Palos Verdes Peninsula High School drama department. Part tongue-in-cheek comedy, and part unabashed geek reverence, Star Wars the Musical was the first (and best) musical theatre production of Star Wars, and would inspire many imitators. It's two performances attracted eight-hour lines and standing-room only audiences, and the musical‚s first web site drew more than a million hits across the globe (before being taken down for legal reasons). Garrin and the production were later prominently featured in the award-winning documentary feature Star Woids, as well as in segments featured on the Sci Fi Channel and in the New York Times. More importantly, the experience was a thrilling one for those involved, and many of the actors from the musical would continue to work together over the next decade.
When Garrin and his closest friends weren't prancing around to show tunes and wearing way too much makeup, they were making movies with Hi-8 cameras and the pause buttons on their VCRs. Garrin almost always insisted on directing (and usually, writing), and Mike Budde (who helped light SWTM) was always the DP. Their class project "Homo Porn #1" resulted in a stern lecture from the school's principal, and as a result, their story of a competitive dance squad, "Goin‚ Hard!" had to be screened off-campus. Almost immediately after the success of SWTM, Garrin moved up to San Francisco to major in film production at San Francisco State University. His mind almost immediately blown by one of the greatest cities in the world, Garrin quickly began to mature as an artist. Whenever he returned home for winter or summer breaks, he would immediately set out to make yet another movie with Mike Budde, who was now studying cinematography at Chapman University. All of these short films would feature actors who they had bonded with during the production of Star Wars the Musical.
Most notable of all of these college projects was 1999's "Revenge of the Dragon". Featuring bad CG special effects in a silly and cheesy fantasy setting, Garrin and Mike credit Revenge as the direct precursor to Starslyderz, and the most educational experience of their respective film school careers. At an hour long, the movie was by far their most ambitious effort. For the first time, they edited using non-linear editing software, which crashed repeatedly. Months of sound work had to be redone after a particularly bad crash, and they showed up to the film's premiere an hour late with only the first half of the movie. The audience loved it.
To be continued in Part Two: A NEW MILENNIUM
