These days, anyone with a Macbook and a DSLR can make a pretty good short film and, with YouTube, it’s easy to get your movie out there for people to actually see.
Fan fiction has been a thing for years be it in written form, independent comic books, or fan films. One of the more famous fan films being the Raiders Of The Lost Ark remake produced by two 11-year olds and their friends in 1982. That fan film even garnered a it’s own “making of” documentary.
Copyrights and trademarks be damned, fan films can become a sensation on the internet before the lawyers get involved. Dangerous Minds recently reported on Slash/Up, a company that specializes in creating unlikely mashups, not unlike Marvel’s What If series of comic books. Slash/Up produced a pretty cool short film combining, really, three staples of geekdom in Marvel Zombies Vs. Army Of Darkness. The heavy metal soundtrack is a bit boring and intrusive but the filmmakers, including director Brian Rosenthal, do a very good job of capturing the tone of not only the Marvel movies but of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy (heavier on Army Of Darkness, to be fair). It’s unclear how professional the actors and actresses are (they have IMDB credits), but Eli David is a more charming Peter Parker than Andrew Garfield and while David VonHippchen is no Bruce Campbell, he’s a passable substitute. All of the visual and make-up effects are quite impressive for a short film. Check it out before Marvel shuts it down.