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A Star Wars fanatic decides to sell his toy collection to keep his overbearing girlfriend happy, but an unbelievable adventure with his toys makes him realize that he doesn't need to change for anyone.

STAR WARS FAN FILM AWARDS (2015)

We created this 5-minute short for the 2015 Star Wars Fan Film Awards. We were lucky enough to be selected as one of 25 finalists featured on StarWars.com. It was an honor to be nominated for Best Visual Effects.

SPECIAL EDITION (2020)

We released a SPECIAL EDITION version on June 25^th, 2020. It includes an updated edit, color grade, sound design, and music, as well as new visual effects and facial animations for the toys.

VIDEO //

SPECIAL EDITION TEASER [0:35 | HD]

VFX BREAKDOWN [2:44 | HD]

THE FILM – SPECIAL EDITION [5:15 | HD]

CAST & CREW //

EDWIN FRANK ORTIZ

LUCAS

San Diego Native, Edwin Frank Ortiz has been involved in theatre since his senior year at Point Loma High School where he started out as a Breakdancer performing for talent shows. The acting bug bit him when a class mate asked Edwin to play a part in his film. After that, an aspiring actor was born. Edwin is mostly known for playing the wacky, hip, break-dancing Angel, Gabriel, in Teatro Magica's play, La Pastorela.

Edwin recently graduated with an A.S. Degree as a Cinema Production Specialist from Southwestern College and was the former President of C.A.M. (Cinematic Arts and Media) club SWC. Edwin enjoys producing, directing and acting in film. He currently lives in Los Angeles awaiting the application status for the Universities in LA.

TAYLOR KOSTER

ANNIE

What drew Taylor into acting was the exhilirating and challenging adventure of it all. She has worked in many film productions throughout San Diego, as well as commercials, industrials and productions in Los Angeles. When not working on a project, Taylor keeps busy taking scene study, improv and auditioning classes in order to bring new creativity and technique to each role. Keep up with her latest work at Taylor's Official Facebook Page.

ROBERT NIXON

HAN SOLO / DARTH VADER / OBI-WAN KENOBI / C-3PO

At the age of 5, Robert Nixon was the youngest professionally performing magician in the United States, and he hasn't stopped performing since. Robert is a professional actor and dancer based in San Diego, CA. He can be seen on stage as much as he can be seen on film. He is also a writer, director, and producer and runs a production company called King Of Hearts Films. You can see some of their work at www.KingOfHeartsFilms.com.

ROBBIE THARP

LUKE SKYWALKER
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY – BALBOA PARK

Rob Tharp is Co-Founder, Producer, and Cinematographer at Grijalva Films. He provides strategic management and facilitation to Grijalva Films while supplying creative direction to their productions. Tharp specializes in monitoring project timetables, budget and ensures the task at hand moves from conception to delivery with the upmost fluidity.

CARLOS GRIJALVA

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR – BALBOA PARK

Carlos is Co-Founder of Grijalva Films, which he directs with an innovative, unique and artistic approach. Carlos strives to evoke emotion in all videos he delivers. Additionally, Grijalva is currently teaching multimedia and cinematography classes at the new state-of-the-art Cinematic Arts Center at Point Loma High School.

RAYMOND MONTEMAYOR

PRODUCER / WRITER / DIRECTOR /
CINEMATOGRAPHER / EDITOR / VISUAL EFFECTS

Raymond is an engineer turned artist. He holds BS and MS degrees in engineering from Harvey Mudd College and UCLA, respectively, and spent 12 years designing communication chips for the wireless and cable TV industries. He founded PixelPlex in 2012 to pursue his interests in digital media design, providing services as a motion graphics designer, visual effects artist, and 3D animator. A lifelong Star Wars fan, Raymond has focused his love for art and technology to produce this Star Wars fan film.

EXTRAS //

BEHIND THE SCENES (spoilers)

FRAME

STAR WARS FAN FILM AWARDS

SPECIAL EDITION TEASER (2020) | STAR WARS: EPISODE IV – A TOY STORY

A PIXELPLEX PRODUCTION

This is the teaser trailer for the Special Edition of our film, which was published on June 25th, 2020.

VFX BREAKDOWN | STAR WARS: EPISODE IV – A TOY STORY (SPECIAL EDITION)

A PIXELPLEX PRODUCTION

Take a look behind the scenes of PixelPlex's visual effects work on Star Wars: Episode IV – A Toy Story in this all-new breakdown video. The featured work was created by PixelPlex founder Raymond Montemayor, the writer / director / producer of the award-winning fan film series Star Wars Toy Stories.

TRAILER (2015) | STAR WARS: EPISODE IV – A TOY STORY

A PIXELPLEX PRODUCTION

This is the original trailer for the original edit of our film, which we produced for the 2015 Star Wars Fan Film Awards, where it was selected as one of 25 finalists and nominated for Best Visual Effects.

STAR WARS: EPISODE IV – A TOY STORY [SPECIAL EDITION]

A PIXELPLEX PRODUCTION FOR THE 2015 STAR WARS FAN FILM AWARDS

SUMMARY: A Star Wars fanatic decides to sell his toy collection to keep his overbearing girlfriend happy and salvage their relationship. An unbelievable adventure with his toys makes him realize that he doesn't need to change for anyone.
SPECIAL EDITION 2020: We published a Special Edition edit of this film on June 25th, 2020. It includes many improvements from the original edit of the film. Watch here and enoy!

BEHIND-THE-SCENES | STAR WARS: EPISODE IV – A TOY STORY (spoilers)

A PIXELPLEX PRODUCTION

This video captures some behind-the-scenes footage and outtakes from Star Wars: Episode IV – A Toy Story. And just for fun, we created a typical Star Wars movie intro including a PixelPlex logo in the style of the Lucasfilm logo and the prototypical Star Wars title crawl. Thanks to Ballyweg for their Blender template, which saved us a lot of time creating the 20th-Century-Fox-like logo animation.

FRAME

A PIXELPLEX PRODUCTION

Meet Patrick Conrad, owner of the Fast Frame in Solana Beach, CA. I met Patrick because I needed a professional to frame some beautiful Drew Struzan posters, which I wanted to use in our Star Wars fan film. Patrick was nice enough to let me film the entire framing process for my own edification. I learned a lot of wonderful technical details about framing, but the best parts of our discussion weren't technical at all and are captured in this video.

HIGHLIGHTS | STAR WARS FAN FILM AWARDS 2015

APRIL 18, 2015

We created this 5-minute short for the 2015 Star Wars Fan Film Awards. We were lucky enough to be selected as one of 25 finalists featured on StarWars.com. Although we didn't win, it was an honor to be nominated for Best Visual Effects. Congratulations to all the winners and finalists! Look for our nomination at the 7:30 mark. Enjoy!

GALLERY //