George Kayaian released his first Star Trek fan film waaaaaaay back in 1994. It starred his mother as the captain and his father as the chief engineer. That series turned into a trilogy of mutli-part productions, finishing up in 2012 and spanning more than five and a half hours of screen time!
But George Kayaian wasn’t finished quite yet. In 2013, George began his next ongoing fan series, Star Trek: Antyllus, starring himself as the captain. George also writes and directs the episodes, still using family and friends to play the various roles and help with production. As fan series go, it’s quite noticeably one of the lower budget ones, but those are often the ones with the most heart and passion….and good stories.
George posted his previous episode in November of 2015, a couple of months before FAN FILM FACTOR was launched. In the interim, the new fan film guidelines were released by CBS and Paramount, which necessitated a change of title for the series to Starship Antyllus (fan films are no longer allowed to have “Star Trek” in their titles). Of course, there are other guidelines, as well, dealing with things like funding and episode length. Funding isn’t an issue, as these guys pretty much bankroll themselves. But run time for this episode is 35 minutes, way over the 15-minute limit imposed by the studios. I asked George about that, and here’s what he said:
I’m trying my best to follow the guidelines, and I’m hoping that the grandfather clause still applies since this episode and the next couple were created before the guidelines came into being. It’s just taking me a while to get things posted in this incredibly busy period of time in my life. My series is self-funded, or no budget at all for that matter! And each episode is made with my family and friends with love and no pay. We are a true fan film project. I hope the powers that be appreciate that and realize where I’m coming from. Even my YouTube channel is NOT monetized! Everything I do is for love and creativity.
You can watch Antyllus‘ latest episode, “Ripple Effect,” by clicking here.
And you can watch their first eight episodes here on their YouTube channel.
And what about this one?
And that one too?
Next on the list, Kosst! Antyllus’s “Ripple Effect” was released nine days earlier, so it got announced first. But I LOVE “Star Trek: Aurora”! It’s one of my favorite fan productions.
Yep, that one’s in the queue. There’s two other fan films I also need to announce before the new Federation Files film. Like Antyllus’ “Ripple Effect,” these other two fan films came out before the Federation Files’ “His Name Is Mudd.” One is the final part of a fan film also featuring Harry Mudd: the most excellent “Star Trek – Aurora.” The other is a fun little 13-minute retelling of “Star Trek IV: the Voyage Home” using only action figures and other toys. It’s not as polished as the German “Enterprise: Crossroads” or “Enterprise II: The Beginning of the End” (which also used action figures), but it still took a lot of work to make and deserves a shout out from FFF.
I try to let all announcements of new fan film releases remain up at the top of the home page for at least a day or two before announcing something else. Also, all the news from the Axanar lawsuit over the past three weeks has kept me pretty busy (too busy to watch and research all these new releases). There was also Jayden’s sixth birthday three weeks ago, the loss of my computer for five days, and my in-laws visiting this past weekend. Please remember that FFF is a hobby for me, not a profession.
Kosst Amojan seems rather impatient to me……
Well, the Kosst Amojan did try to bring about the Reckoning in Deep Space Nine. That seems kinda impatient, too. I sense a pattern! 🙂