- This first segment was produced by students at St. Petersburg College in partnership with WEDU, in a Galaxy not so far away.

Lucasfilm approved Tampa Bay Area cosplayers known as the Outer Rim Guilds, looked to spread their knowledge and love of the "Star Wars" universe to all.

(ethereal music) - The Outer Rim Guilds is a place where you could create a character, put on a costume, and perform that character in front of people.

If you wanna do lightsaber combat, great, we can teach you.

If you just wanna put on a costume and talk to people, we could do that.

The Outer Rim Guilds is for everybody.

We don't discriminate against any race, creed, or color.

"Star Wars" is made up of all kinds of characters, and so are we.

The Outer Rim Guilds is a not-for-profit, Lucasfilm-approved costuming group.

My name is Kevin Daniels, and I am actually the local director for the Outer Rim Guilds.

We do cosplay, we teach people how to build sets and props.

We also do lightsaber choreography.

We put on shows and informational panels where people can come and see demonstrations and ask questions.

Our main focus is giving back to the community, the "Star Wars" community, and the sci-fi community.

When we go to a convention, we're presenting and performing.

(dramatic music) - My name is Christopher Allard, I am a board member, and I'm also one of the characters.

My first day with the guild, that was probably my first class for the saber choreography.

Just like a lot of the new members now in the choreography class, they don't know about the guild yet.

The guild's still growing.

It's getting out there, but it usually starts with the classwork.

From there, I spread the word since I'm the instructor now, but they can continue on into the costuming and to the big production stuff.

Building a fight is a funny and slow process.

Usually, you get paired up with a partner that's roughly your level, and then you stare at each other for a half hour and say, "What do you wanna do?"

And the other one says, "What do you wanna do?"

And that's about the first 30 minutes of it.

After that, you loosen up and you start saying, "Okay, I wanna do this, this, and this."

And the other person says, "Okay, then I'm gonna counter with this, this, and this."

And from there, you start putting a fight together.

(dramatic music) - My name is Stephanie Moffett, and I believe my full title is costume director.

What's really important when you're a Lucasfilm Guild is that you stand up to the standards of what you see on the screens for Lucasfilm.

So when we go to start designing a costume, the first thing we have to do is we've gotta look at the source materials that we have so that when somebody sees you, wherever you are they go, "Star Wars."

And you go, "Yeah."

(Stephanie laughing) And there's so many tricks of the trade for making that work.

In the early films, you don't see a lot of fasteners, especially on Jedi.

Apparently, they just use the force to hold their stuff together.

We use a lot of snaps.

The fabric you choose is incredibly important.

We use natural fibers.

And then sometimes it's just the magic of how the fabric holds together.

First thing I would do is I'd pop those buttons off of there.

I would stitch the base of this up and I would close up these button holes.

And then up here, what I would do is I would put either a hook and eye, a snap, or some magnets.

But if you did that, this is pretty much a shirt ready to go.

(dramatic music) - [Interviewer] What is it like performing as a character?

- [Christopher] Well, it is a performance and it is a character.

So if you can make a small child or a teenager or even an adult think that you're probably really a "Star Wars" character and they don't have to be afraid and they can see how much fun you're having interacting with them, well, that's a pretty good feeling.

People that have loved "Star Wars" their whole lives might not have ever thought that they could do this.

And we tell them, "Yes, you can."

- We just got a request in to do a parade in Oldsmar.

This will be our second year doing that parade.

It's great because obviously, they want a big presence in their parade, and we're able to fill that gap.

They want that "Star Wars," they want characters, they want people cheering for us.

So doing parades is awesome, you know?

Yes, it's a lot of walking, but that's why you wanna invest in, a pair of boots that you can walk around in a lot.

When it comes to charities, we get contacted by local groups and they're looking to raise money.

And so they're looking for that presence.

We could be there to do lightsaber demonstrations or run little shows, but we also had one of our members as electronics expert.

He actually built a lightsaber and we raffled it off.

The Outer Rim Guilds helped raise $1,500 for kids and canines one year at a convention.

Once everybody learned there's a chance to win a lightsaber, I mean, it went crazy.

We love doing that - Switch.

One, two.

My name is Michael Poupart, and I'm a new member for the Outer Rim Guild.

From my point of view, the Outer Rim Guild is the best thing that's ever happened to me.

We're a wonderful community that are all obsessed with "Star Wars," and we turn our dreams into reality.

- The sense of community in the Outer Rim Guild, well, it's a little more than a community.

- I would've to describe our community more like a family.

Everyone's welcoming, encouraging, very supportive - Kind people who really wanna hang out with other people that are as geeky about "Star Wars" as they are.

- It is a family-oriented group as well.

So parents, children, we invite the whole family in, and everybody's so nice.

Everybody's there for "Star Wars," everybody's there for the guild.

- And they just want the best for everyone and everyone's happiness.

Just to let me know that I can be myself and be this "Star Wars" nerd, it's okay.

- [All] May the force be with you.

(lighthearted music) (ambient music) - [Announcer] To learn more, visit outerrimguilds.org.