BOMBER GIRL from STAR TREK: NATURE’S HUNGER gets over 110K views! (video interview with JOSE CEPEDA and the gang)

I hadn’t even checked the number of views on YouTube when I went to interview JOSE CEPEDA and members of the cast and crew of “BOMBER GIRL,” the latest release from the long-running STAR TREK: NATURE’S HUNGER fan series. Even their previous release, “FIGHTING CHANCE: ROARING THUNDER,” has only about 7K views, and their most-viewed (prior to “Bomber Girl”) was “RAZOR’S EDGE” from three years ago with 31K views.

But as I went to get the link to post the video on this blog (below), I discovered that “Bomber Girl,” which debuted on November 28, 2024, has already generated 111K views in just four months! And my first thought was: “Well, this kind of success couldn’t have happened to a nicer group of people.”

And indeed, if you were making a list of the nicest folks in the Star Trek fan filmmaking community, you’d need to reserve at least a half-dozen to dozen spots at the top for Jose and his fellow Nature’s Hungerers (if that’s even a word!). And that’s not just my opinion. Most of the creators whom I talk to who have traveled to Atlanta to shoot on Jose’s incredible TOS set recreations in his basement or who have simply dealt with Jose and his peeps all tell me how warm, friendly, and awesome to work with they all are. Indeed, I know this from personal experience, as I myself have worked with Jose, actress LEZLIE SAWYER, and very recently, musical composer DAVID McHENRY and find all of them to be the nicest of nice people.

Of course, if you were instead making a list of the quirkiest Star Trek fan film series out there, you would definitely need to reserve a prominent slot for Nature’s Hunger. While set firmly in the Star Trek prime universe, the series also accepts magic and sorcery as existing (as does the Federation itself). Indeed, it is not unheard of to see witches, enchantresses, and dragons during a typical episode…or for matter, talking simians from The Planet of the Apes. And if that weren’t enough, Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz has joined Starfleet and is a recurring character!

When it comes to Nature’s Hunger, there are no rules beyond having fun and keeping your tongue firmly in your cheek. Fans seeking more “polished” Star Trek fan films might want to consider clicking on a different YouTube video. But for Trekkies who appreciate a group of fans trying their best, working hard, and producing a labor of love, it’s certainly worth giving these folks a chance.

Their latest offering clocks in at more than two hours of runtime! And lest you worry that violates the time limit imposed by the fan film guidelines, only about 15 minutes of “Bomber Girl” is a framing Star Trek sequence. The rest occurs during World War II. Take a look…

Once again, I had the pleasure of hosting a video interview with the folks involved, and as usual, they were a delightful group to chat with…

THE FEDERATION FILES’ “SLIPSTREAM” tells the story of the ill-fated U.S.S. INTREPID…and more! (video interview with GLEN L. WOLFE)

Well, folks, this makes it fourteen…fourteen fan films from THE FEDERATION FILES fanthology series, run by GLEN L. WOLFE and DAN REYNOLDS, the co-owners of WARP 66 STUDIOS in northern Arkansas. Beginning in 2016, they have used their TOS set recreations plus other custom-built sets to tell stories in the Prime Star Trek Universe spanning the 20th century all the way through to the 24th.

Here’s a complete list of their previous thirteen releases and the blogs that spotlighted each of them…

As I only just discovered in the video interview with Glen Wolfe that appears below, the initial intention for The Federation Files was to have each episode focus on a different one of the twelve (or was it fifteen?) original Constitution-class heavy cruiser starships. However, this plan has strayed a bit from the expected path, as multiple storylines haven’t included any starships (since they took place in the distant past…at least from a 23rd century perspective). Nevertheless, Glen would still like to eventually complete the full set of starships with at least one story for each.

And that brings us to the latest release: “SLIPSTREAM.” It was time to bring the U.S.S. Intrepid into The Federation Files‘ spotlight. Fans of TOS will recall that the Intrepid was manned by a crew made up entirely of Vulcans, and it was destroyed off-camera by a giant space amoeba during the teaser to the second season episode “The Immunity Syndrome.” Spock senses the mass extinguishment of the crew, even though we viewers never see it with our own eyes.

Glen felt that the natural tale to tell for the ill-fated Intrepid was her final mission, this time ON-camera. And that’s how we got the latest release from The Federation Files. Take a look…

While I normally ask showrunners about production and/or insights from behind-the-scenes, this time I decided to go in a somewhat different and unique direction. You see, not only is Glen the showrunner and director of this particular fan film, he also wrote the script.

I’m certain that many fan film script-writers (and aspiring script-writers) would be curious how someone comes up with their story and puts it all together in script form. How long does it take to write a fan film script? How many pages should it be…and how detailed in stage direction? What software do they use? Is formatting important? How many iterations does a script go through, and who is consulted for feedback and potential changes? How “locked” is a script once filming begins, and who decides which changes, if any, get made on the fly?

Glen answers these questions and many more in this enlightening video interview…

Where did JONATHAN go?

Don’t look now, but my last published Fan Film Factor blog was on January 9th! And for a guy who prides himself on posting at least one or two new blogs a week, that’s almost an eternity of radio silence! Indeed, it had gotten so noticeable that one fan filmmaker actually IM’d me recently to ask if I’d survived the recent Los Angeles wildfires. (I was tempted to respond, “No, I died in a smoldering inferno last month. I’m writing to you from the Great Beyond…and they have Star Trek reruns!”)

So what did happen?

Well, as I mentioned in my final blog of 2024, I had been spending quite a bit of time finishing the writing of a new book on day trading. (Don’t laugh! I’ve gotten quite good at it, folks. And something has to pay for my next fan film!) But the book came out in late January, so that doesn’t explain my lack of blogger productivity for much of January and all of February.

I could, of course, blame the wildfires that devastates L.A. and left a number of our friends effectively homeless. But fortunately for myself and the Lane family, homes on the west side of Los Angeles were spared from the fiery maelstrom. I did volunteer at an organization called Project Angel Food (mostly chopping vegetables), but that didn’t take away too much blogging time.

No, the two reasons for my lack of new fan film blogs these past two months were twofold: the DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS and robots.

Usually, I simply report on the annual Directors Choice fan film awards. But this year, due to my entering of my own fan film, AN ABSENT FRIEND, into the competition, I am also a judge. And as it turns out, there were FIFTY-FIVE different entries this time out!!!! Some of them I’ve already seen, as they are Star Trek fan films. But others are superhero, Alien, Nightmare on Elm Street, Harry Potter, Ghostbusters, The Last of Us, Power Rangers, Narnia, and a host of other sci-fi/fantasy/horror genres. And many of them are truly excellent and worth watching (for example, this one and this one). But while some of them are fairly short, others have run times of thirty minutes to over an hour…and there’s quite a few of those! So I’ve been spending a LOT of time just watching dozens and dozens of different fan films so I can cast an informed ballot before the March voting deadline.

As for the robots…

Continue reading “Where did JONATHAN go?”

California wildfires threaten the house where 70 episodes of STAR TREK: HIDDEN FRONTIER and its spin-offs were filmed!

From 1999 through 2010, a humble little house on the border of Pasadena and Altadena, California was one of the hubs of the early Star Trek fan film scene. The house belonged to fan filmmaker and CG artist ROB CAVES, and it served as the “studio” for 50 episodes of STAR TREK: HIDDEN FRONTIER and another 20 episodes of multiple spin-offs fan films and series. I was there for the filming of several episodes, and even appeared in one as an alien guard.

The house had a living room and kitchen in the front where actors and crew would hang out between scenes, a master bedroom off the kitchen where Rob slept, and the rest of the space was dedicated to serving as a studio. One bedroom/office was turned into a make-up room with mirrors, a countertop, and wigs and prosthetics against the opposite wall. Here’s a photo of me getting into makeup in 2008…

Another alcove held costumes, a third was dedicated to the green screen, and a back room was used for equipment like lights and boom mics. And finally, in a small nook in the very back of the house—only large enough for one or two people to sit at a single desk and crammed with digital equipment—Rob would squeeze himself in to composite the green screen footage against virtual backgrounds while scenes were being filmed. (Those were the days when video files were still very large and hard to edit; so it wasn’t practical for a non-professional to capture green screen footage first and then composite it later.)

Rob has since moved on from producing Star Trek fan films and is actually rather passionately involved in model trains these days. But he and I still have some contact every now and then. Last night, I e-mailed him to check if he was safe. I didn’t hear back directly, but this morning on Facebook, I saw him post the following to his feed…

Continue reading “California wildfires threaten the house where 70 episodes of STAR TREK: HIDDEN FRONTIER and its spin-offs were filmed!”

There’s only ONE WEEK LEFT to enter the fourth annual DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS!

Back on November 1, GLEN WOLFE and DAN REYNOLDS announced that entries were now open for the fourth annual DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS. The deadline to submit an entry is January 11, 2025…as in next Saturday!! If you made a fan film (of any genre, not limited to just Star Trek) that was released during calendar year 2024 and you haven’t entered it yet, here is the link to do so…

https://thefederationfiles.com/?page_id=1407

Winners will be announced on First Contact Day: April 5, 2025.

There is a $10 entry fee that includes submitting the film for consideration in up to seven of the following specialty categories in addition to being considered for Best in Fest (which carries a $250 cash prize). The categories are…

Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Director
Best Original Costuming
Best Make-up/Hairstyling
Best Cinematography
Best Original Music
Best Audio Mixing
Best Lighting
Best FX Make-Up
Best CGI FX
Best Green Screen
Best Composite Shot
Best Screenplay
Best Parody/Comedy
Best Portrayal of an Existing Character
Best Animated Fan Film
Best Editing
Most Canon Award
Best Ensemble
Best On-Location Scene
Best Plot Twist
Best Use of Improvised Sets
Best Choreography
Best Trailer
Best Poster

The last two categories are brand new for this year’s awards. Glen clarified that the poster must be for a fan film that premiered in calendar year 2024. However, the trailer can be for a fan film that hasn’t been released yet. The only requirement is that the trailer itself must have been publicly posted for the first time during 2024.

As with the three previous years (and in line with the name of the contest), the fan films will be judged by the directors themselves. Each director will be e-mailed a ballot for each film they submitted . A director cannot vote for any fan film they themselves directed, and all ballots will be due no later than March 15. If a judge fails to return their completed ballot in time, their film submission(s) will be disqualified.

Glen reports that submissions have been robust this year, with a late push of Star Trek genre fan film entries. Typically, those are one of the most prolific types of fan films submitted, but until late December, Trek fan films were actually in the minority of submissions. Also notable (at least for me personally, as I’ve entered my own fan film, AN ABSENT FRIEND, since it was released last April and was eligible), is that a record number of animated fan films from various genres have been submitted this year.

So things are looking pretty exciting for this fourth installment of the Directors Choice Awards!

2024 Star Trek Fan Film YEAR IN REVIEW

First, my friends, I must apologize for being a bit less diligent in my coverage of Star Trek fan films this past year. Granted, I’ve still published over 65 blogs since January 1, 2024, but that’s compared with 90 blogs in 2023 and 114 in 2022.

The reason behind my diminished output is that I’ve been spending much of this past year co-authoring a book, which I’ve only just completed (it will be out early next year). It was a paying gig, so it needed to take priority. It’s actually my third co-authored book, my first being Starship Spotter (with ADAM “MOJO” LEBOWITZ, ROB BONCHUNE, and ALEX ROSENZWEIG) and my second, Being Santa Claus, still available for purchase in various formats here on Amazon.

But enough about me!

Let’s get started looking at what’s been happening in world of Star Trek fan films for the last twelve months. As usual, I won’t have enough time or space to get to everything, but here are the biggest stories of the year…

IS CROWD-FUNDING STILL A THING?

Sadly, the year kicked off on a bit of a sour note as a debate began to rage on social media whether Trek fan films should continue crowd-funding. It began when RANDY LANDERS announced that POTEMKIN PICTURES would no longer do any public crowd-funding. But then he added (somewhat forcefully) that he felt that other fan productions shouldn’t crowd-fund either. Things got heated from there. And sadly, in part because I didn’t agree, Randy told me to no longer cover any of his Potemkin releases on Fan Film Factor…and I have, of course, complied with his wishes, albeit regrettably.

Perhaps ironically, not many fan productions chose to crowd-fund this year. In fact, I only counted four during all of 2024 (well, technically five, since FARRAGUT FILMS ended one campaign and began another shortly thereafter), and those were for:

In previous years, crowd-funding campaigns were much more prolific. Now, it seems they are diminishing in frequency and, in general, bringing in less money (although FARRAGUT FORWARD did reach $47.5K before wrapping). Will 2025 continue to see this phasing out of crowdfunding? I guess we’ll just have to wait and find out.

Continue reading “2024 Star Trek Fan Film YEAR IN REVIEW”

SHORT VOYAGES offers TWO MORE fan films—“DESPERATE MEASURES” and “RENAISSANCE”—that you can watch in 5 MINUTES AND 42 SECONDS! (interview with AARON VANDERKLEY)

Do you have nine minutes to spare? If so, you can watch THREE full fans films from Australian filmmaker AARON VANDERKLEY. I last interviewed Aaron back in September after the release of the first of three planned SHORT VOYAGES, “UNAVOIDABLE DELAYS.” Aaron had already made quite a name for himself with the release of five full-length NX-01 era fan films…

Then Aaron leapfrogged a century to release a trio of full-length Voyager-era fan films under the banner THESE ARE THE VOYAGES…

Each of the above fan films is truly excellent and absolutely worth watching. But Aaron still had a bit of fan filmmaking left in him. Inspired by the challenge of the TREKS IN 90 SECS contest, Aaron set out to see how short a runtime he could give his own Voyager-era films. And while he wasn’t quite able to shave his times down as far as 90 seconds or two minutes, he did come impressively close. Indeed, as I mentioned at the top of this blog, you can watch all three of his Short Voyages in less than nine minutes total. Check ’em out…

As you can see, each film is unique. The first is comedic, the second quiet and introspective, and the third is full of drama and suspense. That is NOT easy to do when your runtime is three minutes or less!

I also couldn’t help but notice the amazing subdued lighting and shadow-play in “Renaissance.” Since most fan filmmakers aren’t trained or experienced in cinematography, fan films don’t usually feature anything but the most basic, rudimentary lightning—and there’s nothing wrong with that. Fan films are intended to allow fans to play in the sandbox, not to construct an elaborate beach house. That said, it is nice, every so often, to be treated to this level of craftsmanship in a fan film.

The latter two vignettes were released in mid-November and mid-December, just five weeks apart and too quickly for me to cover “Renaissance” and “Desperate Measures” each in its own blog. So I’ll be asking Aaron about both fan films together (with behind-the-scenes photos, as usual, at the bottom of the blog)…

Continue reading “SHORT VOYAGES offers TWO MORE fan films—“DESPERATE MEASURES” and “RENAISSANCE”—that you can watch in 5 MINUTES AND 42 SECONDS! (interview with AARON VANDERKLEY)”

FOUR more STARFLEET [JOBS] in 2024…the THINKING FAN’S Star Trek fan film!

At the beginning of this year, I posted a video interview with STEVE SHIVES after the release of his fourth STARFLEET [JOBS] video in 2023. In release order, those one-man fan films were:

The idea behind them is simple, but their depth is wonderfully complex. On the one hand, these films appear to be basic “talking head” one-person interviews with Starfleet individuals who have interesting or unexpected jobs. At first glance, you might think: “Wait, why would starships need a lawyer on board? Didn’t Picard and Riker do a decent job in ‘The Measure of a Man’?” Actually, Steve’s Starfleet lawyer addresses that very question! Or maybe you’re thinking that janitors wouldn’t be needed on futuristic vessels that can probably clean themselves. But can they really? We’ve actually seen someone cleaning the floor outside of the Kobayashi Maru simulator room in Star Trek II…

So, yes, Starfleet has janitors/custodians…but do we care about them? After all, theirs is probably the least desirable job in the service. At least security officers get to shoot phasers. What do janitors do? They clean up security officers!

“Oh, I get it,” I can hear you thinking. “So it’s LOWER DECKS, right?” Well, kinda. Steve certainly shines a spotlight on Starfleet’s lesser-known occupations—officers and enlisted personnel not usually stationed anywhere near the bridge—and many of his fan films do have funny parts. But look a little deeper. Each of these people is an individual with a personality, backstory, experiences, and often pretty strong opinions about things most Trekkers never even bother thinking about.

And thanks to Steve’s natural acting abilities, these colorful characters are brought to life in intriguing ways. Steve even provides accents and mannerisms, along with fun uniforms from various eras of Star Trek, making each one unique and compelling. And all of this is BEFORE we even get to the content of their interviews.

And that’s where these fan films gain a whole other dimension—a dimension not only of depth and complexity but of mind. Sure, some of his characters are whimsical and funny, but others are no-nonsense or troubled or any number of personality traits that reflect our own modern and challenging society. And each has his own intriguing stories to tell!

Like the best Star Trek episodes, Starfleet [Jobs] often provides us a mirror to look at ourselves—whether directly through the obvious connections between what the characters are talking about and our present reality or indirectly using metaphors. An example of the latter happens at the end of one of the films below (I won’t spoil it by telling you which one) when a comment about something completely unrelated to artificial intelligence provides a haunting analogy to the abundance of A.I. -generated content today.

Four new Starfleet [Jobs] have been released in 2024, each with refreshingly unique characters who have very engaging stories to tell. I heartily recommend you watch all four, as each is excellent in its own special way…

Continue reading “FOUR more STARFLEET [JOBS] in 2024…the THINKING FAN’S Star Trek fan film!”

SPARE THE FUTURE, SAVE THE PAST moves fan films into the 25th century… (interview with DAVID CHENG)

Jackets are petty awesome. Wanna make your superhero look more snazzy and cutting-edge? Ditch the tights and cape and give them a cool jacket. And in Star Trek? Jackets dated back to the first pilot, “The Cage,” continued into The Motion Picture, and probably reached their pinnacle with those snazzy maroon bomber jackets worn by Admiral Morrow in the Starfleet Lounge, Scotty on board the Excelsior, and Kirk when he comes about the Enterprise in Star Trek V. And of course, there were those cool landing party jackets of the late 23rd century, as well. Picard had a dashing jacket of his own starting in season five of Next Gen. And you could argue that monster maroons, along with the Deep Space Nice and Voyager duty uniforms include jackets as part of their jumpsuits.

Yeah, jackets rock.

But honestly, nothing even comes close to those 25th century jackets from STAR TREK: PICARD season three! And with a number of clothing manufacturers making replicas available at reasonable prices (remember, clothing designs cannot be trademarked or copyrighted), many fans—including yours truly—have purchased one. Indeed, here is a photo of myself and fan filmmaker DAVID CHENG at the recent premiere of the Star Trek: Voyager documentary at Paramount Studios with both of us wearing our Picard jackets…

Speaking of David Cheng, he recently released one of the first fan films to be firmly set in the Picard season three timeframe. Another recent fan film, CONSTAR: THE MOTION PICTURE, also featured scenes with VANCE MAJOR wearing his Picard jacket. (Side note: a couple of TREK SHORTS fan films have featured 25th century Starfleet uniforms, but no Picard season three jackets as yet.)

Anyway, David recently released what I believe is the first Star Trek fan film to feature the snazzy season three jacket, the latest offering from his STAR TREK FAN PRODUCTIONS INTERNATIONAL fanthology series (you can watch all of their completed films on their YouTube channel). SPARE THE FUTURE, SAVE THE PAST introduces two new main characters (one of them played by David himself) who, it would seem, will be returning for future adventures. Take a look…

I had the chance to shoot a few questions David’s way about this new release. Here’s what he has to say…

Continue reading “SPARE THE FUTURE, SAVE THE PAST moves fan films into the 25th century… (interview with DAVID CHENG)”

Has fan LOVE turned 765874: UNIFICATION into an “OPEN SOURCE” fan film?

Sometimes a fan filmmaker produces a fan film that inspires a completely different fan filmmaker to produce something—be it a tribute, continuation, or some other expansion of the original—based in whole or in part on the original work. This has come to be known as “a fan film of a fan film.”

The term was first coined in 2016 with the release of PRELUDE TO AX’D -WE-ARE, the STALLED TREK animated puppet parody of both PRELUDE TO AXANAR and the subsequent copyright infringement lawsuit filed jointly by CBS and Paramount against AXANAR PRODUCTIONS and ALEC PETERS.

Granted, such projects are very rare. Indeed, only INTERLUDE, THE ICARUS MANEUVER, and THE FEDERATION FILES‘ “The Equinox Effect” and “Friends and Foes” come to mind for me. And the former two were more expansions of an existing fan film “universe” of characters and settings, and the latter two were GLEN L. WOLFE’s attempt to complete unfinished fan films so their partial footage could finally be released for fans to see.

All of this is to say that there aren’t many “fan films of fan films” in the Star Trek genre. But over this past weekend, we got our newest entry: PROLOGUE TO UNIFICATION from SAMUEL COCKINGS of Great Britain, the showrunner behind the TREK SHORTS fanthology series of fan films. As the title suggests, this release is meant to lead into the recent 765874: UNIFICATION from OTOY with involvement from WILLIAM SHATNER, the estate of LEONARD NIMOY, and THE RODDENBERRY ARCHIVE. In case you’re one of the four Trek fans on the planet who hasn’t seen this jaw-dropping, cutting-edge love letter to Star Trek yet, watch it now…

And now, take a look at what Sam Cockings was able to put together in the span of just three weeks based on OTOY’s fan film…

Oh! Before I go on, I need to make a disclaimer about my use of the term “fan film.” Technically, 765874: Unification isn’t a standard fan film. It was an approved production, licensed by Paramount Global to OTOY as a way of generating original Star Trek content for the new Apple Vision Pro VR headset. So calling 765874: Unification a “fan film” isn’t entirely accurate. On the other hand, it was not produced by either Paramount or CBS Studios…and it was obviously made by fans with a knowledge of and loyalty to long-established Star Trek canon.

So what is it? Much like the “uncanny valley” in early CG renderings of human faces (like Princess Leia at the end of Star Wars: Rogue One), 765874: Unification walks in two worlds without truly fitting into either. So rather than calling Sam’s latest project a “fan film of a licensed-non-studio-produced-but-still professional-quality-Star-Trek-vignette-CGI-film-made-by-fans-with-fans-in-mind,” I’m going to call it a “fan film of a fan film.” Feel free to argue.

Continue reading “Has fan LOVE turned 765874: UNIFICATION into an “OPEN SOURCE” fan film?”