In a world where mediocre, Disneyfied Star Wars ‘content’ can cost upwards of half a billion dollars, a father and son team with no filmmaking experience have created a short Star Wars film for less than $3000. In their garage.
As reported at creativebloq.com, Navaz and Roman Dowling founded Bad Beetle Entertainment in 2025 with the aim of exploring filmmaking outside of the traditional route of having parents in the industry film school.
The result is Entrenched. The fifteen-minute short retells the battle of Hoth from the perspective of the rebel troops on the ground.
Here is the teaser trailer:
Break Down The Walls
Let’s face it: the barriers to entry into the movie business are too high for most of us plebs. It is encouraging to see the combination of technology and the sheer willpower of the Dowlings breaking down those walls.
Entrenched was shot in the family garage using Lightcraft Technology’s Jetset, a Blackmagic 6K camera and a green screen. A treadmill was used for the running scenes. A friend helped make the costumes, and they 3D printed the weapons and helmets.
However the final film turns out, Entrenched is a testament to doing more with less, for no other reason than the love of it.
To be honest with you, I’m not too bothered about the cost saving potential of such technology. I’m more interested in the stories that could be told by true Star Wars fans outside of the Disney system.
Copyright issues aside, could we see fans wrestling back some semblance of control and telling their own tales in this Universe? I can’t stop thinking about how we might unfuck The Last Jedi and turn it into a masterpiece like The Empire Strikes Back.
Improbable maybe, but perhaps no longer impossible.
