WATCH: May the Fourth be with you thanks to this Okanagan film

• Released for May the Fourth
• Bringing old school effects to the modern age

It was not that long of a time ago that Maurits Nienhuis was introduced to Star Wars.

Sacrilege to some, especially on May the Fourth, but a sign of the power of the 1970s space opera and its ability to still inspire filmmakers to this day.

Nienhuis helped create a Star Wars inspired short film at a beach on Okanagan Lake last year to celebrate filmmaking and test new skills.

Nienhuis is a graphic designer, videographer, and content creator, who helped make Kaiburr Kid, a short film about a child who finds a Kaiburr crystal - the crystal inside lightsabers - and who may be the last hope for the Rebellion.

The film was written by Andrew Buckley, a West Kelowna writer, who introduced Nienhuis to the Star Wars franchise during a writing course they were working on together.

“He made me watch the whole original trilogy and I loved it,” Nienhuis said. “I gave myself the challenge to make something with some of the characters and stuff from the film.”

After watching the trilogy, Nienhuis was inspired by the special effects of the film and wanted to work on his own special effects skills.

“I didn’t expect I could do this stuff. I guess if I can do it anyone can do it,” he explained.

“The style was one of the major things I loved about the original films, super grainy, the colours are really moody … it’s fun to pick up on those really old school styles and bring that into something new.”

They decided to make the film only a few weeks before an important date for fans of the galactic series, May the Fourth, a play on the popular phrase from the film: ‘may the force be with you.’

Since watching the original films, Nienhuis has also watched some of the newer trilogies.

“But never in the right order, I never really understood where they fit in and it’s still a little confusing at times, but they’re all really amazing,” he said.