what would you do if you had a real lightsaber?

One day, three lightsabers mysteriously appeared on a front porch in East Texas… in the 2005 short film “Three in the Afternoon”, produced by Fanboys Productions.

The Star Wars prequels of the time had influenced a new generation of amateur filmmakers to make their own no budget fan films, and share them on websites like TheForce.net. Inspired by the viral internet hit "Ryan vs Dorkman”, a group of friends set out to make a short film about the hypothetical scenario.

Using online tutorials for After Effects, a handful of toy lightsabers, and no permits, the no-budget short was shot on a tennis court in their own backyard.

After the short’s completion, director Travis Boles was contacted by Ryan Wieber, the visual effects artist who had inspired Travis, about re-doing the lightsaber effects. With this ‘remastered’ version, the short ended up becoming a viral hit in its own right on the newly popular video sharing website YouTube.

In response to the positive reception, Boles and his friends took things up a notch, producing a more ambitious sequel titled “Six in the Morning”, which took place a month after the first short. Released in 2007, it aimed to explain the origin of the lightsabers they came to own.

At the end of the sequel—its length tripling that of its predecessor—there was a teaser for a third installment “Nine in the Evening.” However, fans of the first two have been left waiting for 15 years for any news on a third short.

Featuring interviews with the cast and crew of the shorts, “An Elegant Weapon” is a documentary that explores the origin of the friend group and the challenges they went through making the shorts together over the years, as well as the long awaited answers about why “Nine” has yet to see the light of day.