- George Lucas to me was like kind of an inspiration.
Like my filmmaking guru.
And during the making of "Blair Witch," just knowing the way
he dealt with Hollywood.
And kind of showed me that no matter how many people doubt
you, if you believe in it, if there's a fire in you,
you have to keep going. - Every day--
- I was really little--
- "Empire Strikes Back."
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
- Everyone has a "Star Wars" story.
I'm Jordan Hembrough, and I'm meeting "Star Wars"
fans virtually, who have been inspired and changed
by the galaxy far, far away.
Today I'm having a chat with Ed of Urbana, Maryland.
One of the creators of the "Blair Witch Project,"
Ed has been inspired by "Star Wars" throughout his life.
From gaining a greater sense of community as a child
to his rebellious DIY spirit as a filmmaker today.
This is Ed's "Star Wars" story.
Ed, thanks for doing this, man.
I really appreciate it.
- Thanks for having me, man.
I'm really excited.
- All right.
Tell me about your childhood.
Because I know you lived like sort of all over the world.
You were in different countries traveling, weren't you?
- Yeah, we left Cuba when I was about two years old.
And then I ended up in Spain.
And then we moved to New York when I was five.
And then we ended up in DC a little bit later, like probably
when I was six.
- So you really moved around a lot when you were a kid.
Why all the moving?
- Well, I mean, we were basically
trying to escape Cuba.
My parents knew that the Castro regime was kind of heading
in the wrong direction.
They didn't want to raise their kids there.
So it happened to be that I was about
two years old when they got permission
and we headed off to Spain.
And we went to Spain because my aunt had made it to Spain,
and then she was the one that sent the papers
to get us out of Cuba.
And then in Spain, we stayed there for a few years.
And then my dad got a job offer in the US.
And he was like, yeah, let's go to the US.
And we've been here ever since.
But the language thing for me was kind
of my first kind of problem.
I felt like I was not part of the American Community,
like of the kids.
But that all changed when "Star Wars" came along.
I kind of became a fan even before I
saw the movie, just with the TV coverage
and the commercials and all that stuff.
After the first time I saw it, it completely changed my life.
- Did "Star Wars" actually help you connect
with friends growing up?
- Yeah, that was the big thing that "Star Wars" did for me,
is that I always felt that I was a little bit kind of, you know,
like culturally, you know, uneducated
as far as-- you know, I hadn't grown up in the United States.
And "Star Wars" for me gave me something like, OK,
I can become an expert at this thing.
There was a friend of mine named Albert who
I met because of "Star Wars."
And he became my best buddy.
It's definitely something that I've always
found throughout my entire life that it brings people together.
- So as a child you moved around a lot.
Did you actually identify with any "Star Wars" themes
or characters in particular?
- You know, I mean, who didn't feel for Luke.
You know, that shot with the twin sunset.
I just related to him, trying to get
out of this place he was in.
And for me, it was mostly just trying
to fit into this new country that I was in.
- Where are you going?
- I'm going nowhere.
- Did "Star Wars" set you on the path to filmmaking in any way?
- Yeah, "Star Wars" ignited something in me
that's still kind of burning inside me for filmmaking.
It got me into, you know, John Williams and, you know,
other composers.
Any kind of article or book about special effects
or filmmaking in general, I bought
and I pretty much devoured.
It definitely kind of triggered the filmmaking bug
in me for sure.
- Now, you're big breakout film that everyone knows you for
is "The Blair Witch Project."
How old were you when you did that?
- I was 28 years old when we shot "Blair Witch"
and then 30 when it came out.
- I like the cool that this DIY classic.
And in a way, you were a lot like George Lucas.
Was he an inspiration to you when it came to
making your film?
- Absolutely, because he was this guy who kind of risked it
all to make this, you know, movie that a lot of people
didn't really believe in.
To me it was just kind of the importance of just taking risk.
But also I think because George has
like this independent spirit.
And then, you know, you find out all the stuff that he had went
through earlier in his life.
And then the difficulties making "Star Wars."
And the fact that people didn't believe in it
and they were like, what is this?
And a lot of things in "Blair Witch," you know,
were the same way.
I mean, there was a lot of people that were into it
and they loved the idea, but it was generally,
you know, people didn't understand it.
For me like there's this kinship with George.
Like he's kind of like my filmmaking father,
my filmmaking guru.
And during the making of "Blair Witch"
just knowing George's experiences and the way
he dealt with Hollywood, it kind of showed me that, you know,
you have to kind of keep pushing.
No matter how many people doubt you,
if you believe in it, if there's a fire in you,
you have to keep going.
And I think so many times during "Blair Witch"
that kind of spirit was the only thing we had going for us.
- Did you ever get off the set at night
and go, oh man, you know, I wonder if George
Lucas had to go through this?
- It was weird, because one time we
were walking out of the woods.
And it was like 3 o'clock in the morning,
we had just scared the filmmakers
and we had left them some stuff.
We're walking and we're like, you know,
we're like in the middle of the woods
doing this $12,000 movie or whatever.
But we're doing something that Spielberg
and Lucas could never do.
We had never heard of anybody making a film
like we made "Blair Witch."
It was this cool moment where we're like,
you know, we have nothing, but we're
doing something really unique.
And something that no matter how much money you have,
there's very few people that would be doing what we're
doing right now, you know.
I would have loved to have brought George out there
and like showed him what we were doing.
- So really what I loved about "Blair Witch"
as well is you really relied on this sort of word of mouth,
grassroots marketing to promote the film.
- Yeah, we built this website and people just started kind
of, you know, coming to it.
And we had no money for advertising
or any kind of marketing, but we started getting this following.
In the mid '90s, I had gone through the "Shadows
of the Empire" kind of phase.
The video game, the comic books, the toys.
Just the experience of going through "Shadows of the Empire"
kind of opened my mind to the possibilities
of doing something like that.
And so we did a book for "Blair Witch" called the "Dossier."
We did comic books, we did three video games.
So it was great that we had "Shadows of the Empire"
that came before us that I personally
took a lot of like kind of just ideas from.
- Ed, "Star Wars" was and remains to this day
a worldwide phenomenon.
As someone who's actually experienced a phenomenon
with "Blair Witch," how important is the power
of storytelling to you?
- I mean to me it's everything.
"Star Wars" is, you know, obviously beautifully shot.
And you know, the sets and it was just
revolutionary in every way.
But the story was what kind of kept me coming back.
And for me it's just like with "Blair Witch," something
connected with people.
I don't know if it was the woods, being lost in the woods.
Like the universal kind of fear of just being
lost in the woods, you know.
But it somehow translated into a worldwide thing
that's very rare, you know.
Because a lot of movies work in certain territories and they
don't work in others.
But it kind of taught me the importance of storytelling
to the world.
Without story, you have something shiny
and, you know, you're going to get a certain amount
of attention, but for the repeat viewings,
you've got to have a good story.
You've got to have a solid story.
- You're sitting around talking to me about "Star
Wars," the impact "Star Wars" has
on your fandom and your career.
But from looking behind you, you're
also one hell of a collector as well, aren't you?
- It's a rare week where I don't buy
some kind of "Star Wars" thing.
And right now my rule is that I don't
buy anything I can't display.
It's so therapeutic to me.
It's definitely a hobby that's taken over my life.
- Ed, after all these years, do you still take
inspiration from "Star Wars"?
- I use it all the time.
When I do creature effects, you always go back to "Star Wars."
Creature cantina scene blew my mind
like it blew everybody's minds.
Even Yoda in "Empire Strikes Back,"
you get these really deep feelings for a piece of, you
know, plastic, basically.
So when I did a movie called "Altered," the creature-- it
was supposed to be like this alien creature--
you have to use "Star Wars" as a reference.
There's no other piece of property
that has so many creatures and so many well
done creatures of all kinds.
It's such beautiful and high quality work.
It inspires me so much, and I always
use that energy on the stuff that I'm working on.
- Well, you know what Ed, I know you're really, really busy.
I know you've got to get back on a set.
Thank you for sitting down from your busy, busy
schedule doing this with us.
- Yeah.
Thanks for having me.
It really is an honor.
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