INTERLUDE clip gets 7.8K views (and 1K likes) in 15 HOURS!

Wow…what a difference a successful YouTube Channel makes!

I posted a link to the 48-second “sneak peak” clip from INTERLUDE last week as part of a blog explaining why we were going to miss our announced premiere date of July 25, 2020. Long story short, the music isn’t done yet. But I wanted to give folks a taste of how the music sounded. So I cut a short clip and posted it. The video got 363 views over six days.

Last night, ALEC PETERS debuted the same video clip on the AXANAR YouTube channel. If you haven’t seen it yet, here it is…

I woke up this morning to see that the clip has now had over 7.8K views and 1K thumbs up (versus only 35 thumbs down)…so YAY! Of course, the channel has 89K subscribers—no wonder it got so many views so quickly. But hey, I’m not complaining!

I also read though the comments, and there were a number of questions and topics that came up repeatedly. So I thought I’d respond to them here if anyone is interested and/or curious:

1. When is Interlude coming out?

Soon. As I explained in last week’s blog, KEVIN CROXTON is about halfway done with the music, then MARK EDWARD LEWIS will add in the final sound effects and balance the sound levels. We’re also awaiting one final VFX sequence from LEWIS ANDERSON. Then we’re pretty much D-O-N-E.

2. The music is too loud/voices are too low.

Yep. As I said, the sound-mixing gets done last (since you need all the music before you can balance the levels). This clip was simply to give folks a taste of the music, and it’s a work-in-progress.

One of the most FUN things about making this fan film is showing you folks the behind-the-scenes steps of making a fan film. I didn’t want this clip to be polished and perfect…yet. It’s more interesting to hear the music raw before sound-mixing and then compare it to the finished product in order to get an appreciation for what sound mixing can do.

3. We waited ten years for 48 seconds???

Sigh. First of all, Interlude isn’t Axanar. We only started crowd-funding a year ago. And for the record, Axanar had its first crowd-funding campaign in 2014…six years ago, not ten. (Why people keep saying “ten years” is beyond me. Counting to six isn’t hard…you don’t need to round to the nearest ten!) And remember that Axanar was sued for a year, had to move across the country, then finish the bridge, raise money to replace the funds that were lost during the lawsuit while filming couldn’t happen, and then had to go through the many and complex steps of actually producing a fan film.

Axanar has now had multiple shoots, and only one 2-day shoot remains…a shoot that can’t happen while the international pandemic is still shutting down union productions everywhere. And if you’d like to donate to Axanar so that it can be finished, please click on the link below…

https://aresdigital.axanar.com

4. I preferred the documentary style of Prelude.

Granted, this comment (or a variant of it) came in only a few times, but the fact that it came in at all just goes to show that you can’t please all of the Trekkies all the time. Considering how good the bridge set looks and how shooting on that bridge is one of the main reasons that Interlude exists in the first place, this comment had me scratching my head. But fear not, documentary demanders! The last 3.7 minutes of Interlude is presented in your beloved format.

5. Alec Peters can’t act.

Oh, give it a rest already! Could YOU do better? Actually, I don’t care. Alec is Kelvar Garth in my mind, and he’s willing to put himself out there as a non-actor among trained actors. Alec took acting classes, but it’s not his profession nor even his hobby. He doesn’t do community theater on weekends or Shakespeare in the Park. He acts in Star Trek fan films. So do a lot of fans, and I applaud their passion, their commitment, and yes, their bravery.

It isn’t easy to put yourself out there for the world to see and criticize. Alec did it in PRELUDE TO AXANAR knowing he’d be sharing screen time with five truly accomplished Hollywood actors. He’ll be doing it again in the two Axanar sequels. And at my request, he also did it for Interlude. And he gave it his all. He worked almost non-stop in front of the cameras for ten straight hours giving us the Garth bridge footage we needed.

Will Alec win an Oscar? Of course not. I never expected him to. But with the help of our very accomplished director, VICTORIA FOX, Alec put in a very solid performance. And I actually think many of you will be surprised to see the emotional depth and realism of his performance in the documentary scenes at the end. That’s also a combination of solid directing and an actor working to provide the best performance he can.

6. Loved it, but you really should have done… / shouldn’t have done…

Okay, how do I say this gently? It’s not your fan film!!! You might have the best, most incredible advice anyone has ever given to a filmmaker in the history of filmmaking. Thanks for that. Now, please, let us finish doing it the way we think is best. You’re welcome to make your own fan film any way you’d like, and I promise not to tell you what needs to be done differently.

I say that last sentence having practiced what I’m preaching for nearly five years now. My Prime Directive of fan films states:

RULE #1 – There is no such thing as a bad Star Trek fan film.
RULE #2 – If you happen to see a bad Star Trek fan film, refer to RULE #1.

I see things all the time in fan films that I would probably have done differently or possibly better. And I think those thoughts. But I don’t let my fingers type them. Why? Because my goal here is to celebrate Star Trek fan films and the people who make them…not to criticize.

Now, keep in mind that we’re still tweaking things on Interlude. Our editor, JOSHUA IRWIN, still have some magic he’s planning to do. But as far as I’m concerned, he’s already done magic a’plenty! So has Victoria and everyone else on our 55-person team. At this late point, we really don’t need another chef in the kitchen or general on the battlefield. We’re good. You just sit back and enjoy.

Also keep in mind that the true value of Interlude isn’t simply that it’s going to (hopefully) be an amazing fan film. What will make Interlude truly special is that I’ve been doing this with the blogging curtains pulled back the entire time—from crowd-funding “tricks” to prepping for production to the sausage-making of post-production. YOU get to watch this fan film being made every step of the way! And even after it comes out, I’ll have even more behind-the-scenes photos and videos to share. You will know what it’s like to make a fan film every step of the way.

And finally, to go along with the premiere of the “first look” clip from Interlude on the Axanar channel, Alec Peters hosted an awesome 90-minute interview with Victoria, Josh, and myself that was really lively and interesting. The three of us haven’t done a lot of interviews together as a team, so this one was special.

Feel free to check it out in case you missed it…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8GpWannaiE