It’s been a week since we debuted the newest release of INTERLUDE, our third version, and the response has been phenomenal. Already, there are more than 25K views on YouTube, 1.7K likes, and more than 200 comments. Here’s a small sample:
- Real Star Trek again! Love it!
- This is how you make a pre-Kirk Prequel. I rest my case.
- So amazing. Great music too
- this is incredible
- MORE, MORE, MORE!!!
- Outstanding!
- This is real STAR TREK , Bless You All !
- Ok, that rocked!! Nice appetizer as we await the main course.
- Awsome! Your deflector shields are better than the TV shows.
- I think Roddenberry would be proud!
- This is terrible
Oops, that last one just kinda snuck in there. Actually, I included it because, for the first six days, it was literally the ONLY negative comment out of the hundreds we’ve received so far. We’re now up to two negative comments.
What JOSHUA IRWIN and I have found most shocking is how quickly the views have gone up considering that the previous versions already have over 200K views between the releases to the AVALON UNIVERSE YouTube Channel plus the releases to the AXANAR YouTube Channel. Obviously, 25K views in the first week would be understandable on the Axanar channel, as they have 108K subscribers. But version 3.0 is only up on the Avalon channel at the moment…and that one has only 13.7K subscribers.
So right now, Interlude v3.0 has TWICE as many views as Avalon has subscribers!
One of those views came from an Interlude donor who posted the following comment: “I just watched Interlude for the first time. Terrific work all around! It’ll definitely be something that I come back for repeat viewing.”
Wait, for the FIRST time??? But he donated! I asked why he hadn’t watched Interlude when it first came out back in April. Turns out he just never got around to it, and when I sent an e-mail update to my donors about the release of v3.0, he decided to watch it on his lunch break right then and there.
Anyway, I just wanted to share a few bits of news with you all. The first is that I’ve finally started entering Interlude into film festivals. I just made the cut-off deadline for the annual IndieBOOM! festival, which was one of the first and only competitions to include a category exclusively for Fan Films. And as of yesterday, Interlude is an OFFICIAL SELECTION for IndieBOOM! (More on that news in January!) And then I decided to take a crack at the L.A. Sci-Fi and Horror Festival because they also have a Fan Film category.
Wish us luck!
I’ve also made certain that our IMDb page for Interlude is up to date, having just added a bunch of promotional and BTS photos. Additionally, I needed to create a new digital poster for Interlude because the only image I had to use before on IMDb was something similar to the horizontal thumbnail that appears at the top of this blog. The problem is that IMDb is only set up for movie posters that are vertical. Well, shoot…I went to graphic design school. Making a vertical movie poster wasn’t too tough. Check it out…
The last thing that I was told I needed to do in order to prepare to enter film festivals was to create a project page on FilmFreeway.com. It took a bit of time to fill in all the fields, but in the end, I wound up with something that looks really awesome. Check it out here…
https://filmfreeway.com/Interlude-AStarTrekFanFilm
Having this project page makes it super-easy to enter Interlude in competitions. It includes summary, cast and crew credits, media links, on-set photos, and even a link to the original version of Interlude in comic book form. And to top it all off, the page features the trailer and, of course, the film itself And hey, if you haven’t seen the latest version yet, or just want to watch it again, here ya go…
And finally, here’s two bits of late-breaking news. Our costume consultant, CLAUDE FRANCIS DOZIÈRE (who lives in Italy) sent me this link to coverage of Interlude from an Italian sci-fi/fantasy website. There’s an English translation toggle on the upper right for those who (like me) don’t speak Italian.
And the other bit of media coverage Interlude received recently was from “Pranakasha” MATT WEISS, a new arrival to the ranks of Star Trek fan fillmmaking who also has a regular podcast with about 12K subscribers to his YouTube channel. (In contrast, I’ve got 532 subscribers to my channel, but I don’t do much to promote it.) Anyway, Matt only just friended me on Facebook a couple of weeks ago, but we began chatting, and he’s a really fun and interesting guy. In the next few months, I’ll definitely be covering his EGOTASTIC TREK parody fan series. But out of the blue, he asked if I’d like to be interviewed on his podcast. “Sure,” I said. “When would you like to do it?”
That’s not the most practical question to ask when your in-laws will be arriving for a Christmas visit in just a few days. After realizing that literally no day was going to be open until after New Years, Matt said, “Well, I could do it this afternoon.” And so, barely a week after meeting for the first time ever, I was appearing on Matt’s latest podcast. But then things got a little crazy! What followed was wo sci-fi geeks going off on endless tangents!!! Sure, we chatted about Interlude (eventually), Axanar and the lawsuit, meeting GENE RODDENBERRY, I ranted about how Star Trek: Discovery is NOT woke, and about a hundred other topics. Before I knew it, we’d chatted for nearly THREE HOURS!
If you can make it through this entire podcast, you will win some kind of prize…