Another week, another new fan film from POTEMKIN PICTURES…or at least it seems that way lately! The end of August saw the release of “The Beast,” the debut episode of their new fan series Hospital Ship Marie Curie. A week later, the 14th fan film from the Starship Tristan creative group, “Deception,” was posted to YouTube.
And then a week after THAT, yet another new release—this one the second fan film from the STARSHIP TRITON creative team: “The Crown Jewels of Xantharus.” Their debut episode, featuring the character of Commander Janice Rand, debuted last December.
Three fan films in three weeks sounds pretty ambitious, but in fact, the goal of Potemkin Pictures, according to show-runner RANDY LANDERS, is to release an average of one new fan production per month for a total of twelve films each year. In 2016, that steak was impacted by heart bypass surgery for Randy in August, which delayed releases until March of 2017. But Potemkin came roaring back with multiple releases, two of which were released only five days apart and, at one point, five in just three months!
For anyone keeping count (like me), this latest release marks Potemkin’s ninth in 2018. And since it’s September, that actually does average out to one per month…so the streak is holding!
This particular episode, despite looking very low budget (as usual) was actually a really big challenge to film. It took sixteen months to complete everything (not even counting pre-production). That included separate shoots (during different months) to film scenes in a bar, on a pirate ship, on a Romulan ship, shots of Starfleet officers watching an Orion dance, the dance itself, and a Happy Birthday bit at the end. Then they had to re-film the bar scene when they had to replace one of the actors. Then they had to re-re-film the bar scene at a different location when they realized the lighting hadn’t worked!
Most impressive—to me, at least—were multiple Orion women (and one man), all of which needed to be covered head-to-toe in green. I asked Randy how much make-up they went through: “Half a cake per person! But we filmed one actress who was replaced, and had to film Lezlie Cohen’s and Brute’s bar scene twice. So five and a half large cakes of Wolfe Aqua (water activated) parrot green. Total makeup time over all the shoots: 11 hours (one hour per person). Total expense in just green: $220.” Wow!
It’s worth watching just to marvel at the record number of Orions in one fan film!