September 2024 – Fan Film Factor

The TOP 10 CRITICISMS of Star Trek fan films…and why they’re mostly B.S. (guest blog by JOSHUA IRWIN)

Jonathan Lane here with a quick introduction. Joshua Irwin is the showrunner and force-of-nature behind the AVALON UNIVERSE fan series, as well as a helper-outer on countless other fan films whose showrunners have requested his assistance. Josh’s skills as a filmmaker come from both film school and a quarter century working in the film industry in Arkansas. So I feel it’s fair to say that, when it comes to producing Star Trek fan films—from writing to directing to editing and everything in between—Josh knows what he’s doing.

With dozens of Star Trek fan films under his belt in various capacities, Josh has seen countless comments posted about his videos on YouTube, both positive and negative—although vastly more of the former than the latter. The irony about the negative comments, however, is that Josh never criticizes the work of any other fan filmmaker, at whatever level.

Sadly, other fans do not share Josh’s discretion when it comes to posting criticisms about his and others’ fan film projects. That’s not to imply that Josh’s work leaves no room for improvement. Josh himself can be extremely self-critical in very practical ways, and he is well aware that constraints on time, money, availability of cast and crew, and resources in general can severely limit what he is able to accomplish and produce. And indeed, Josh is always open to well-thought-out and reasonable constructive critiques of his projects.

However, YouTube provides very little of that. Instead, criticisms posted about Josh’s fan films—much like criticisms posted about most fan films—tend to be drive-by complaints and insults or unsolicited pieces of “friendly advice.”

Recently, Josh posted to Facebook a list of the kinds of criticisms he usually receives and why most of them tend to be pretty worthless. While some constructive critiques are indeed smart and insightful, the following ten types of criticisms are, for the most part, a complete waste of everyone’s time and brain cells. I asked Josh if he’d like to turn his Facebook post into a guest blog, and he happily agreed.

And now, here’s Josh…

UNAVOIDABLE DELAYS constructs an amazing VOYAGER-era crew quarters set for a 2.5 MINUTE fan film??? (interview with AARON VANDERKLEY)

The “Wonders from Down Under” strike again! The two AARONS—VANDERKLEY and CHAPPELL—are an inseparable team and an unstoppable force when it comes to creating visually stunning Star Trek fan films! Aaron V. writes and directs while his significant other, Aaron C., builds the sets…and both share the title of executive producer on their latest releases.

Based in Perth, Australia, Aaron V. began producing Star Trek fan films in 2016 (before he met Aaron C.), bursting into the spotlight with five jaw-dropping NX-era fan films over the span of four years…

Few fan filmmakers attempt 22nd century Trek projects due to the complexities of designing sets and obtaining/creating costumes for that time period. But Aaron V. dove headfirst into the challenge, directing trained actors within a ridiculously tiny shooting space that somehow turned into a series of very believable starship and starbase interiors.

After a 2-year hiatus, Aaron V. returned in 2021, this time with Aaron C. on the team, and transitioned from the 22nd to the 24th century, now on board the Nova-class starship U.S.S. Explorer. The sets and costumes were still as good—if not better!—as their predecessors, but now the look and feel was firmly in the Star Trek: Voyager era.

Newly rebranded under the banner “THESE ARE THE VOYAGES,” the two Aarons released one episode in 2021 and then two in 2022…

BEYOND THE SUN
OUTBREAK
RESISTANCE

Each was on a similar quality level as the first five NX-era fan films, and all eight are definitely worth checking out.

The Aarons then took some much-needed time off, as making this caliber of Trek fan film, while fun, is very time-consuming and labor-intensive. And while it would have been awesome (and very convenient!) if they’d been able to save their previous sets for future use, the frustrating fact is that the space they shoot inside is used for other purposes, and the Aarons have nowhere available to store the often-sizable set pieces.

The Australian duo didn’t release anything new last last year, but on September 14 of this year, an ultra-short vignette titled UNAVOIDABLE DELAYS premiered with an absolutely gorgeous crew quarters set. The two-and-a-half-minute fan film featured two actors with speaking parts. One of these actors was MAXIMILIANO LAFFONT, who had played an engineer in their previous release Beyond the Sun. When last we saw his character, he had disobeyed an order from the captain and gotten into some serious trouble. Unavoidable Delays appears to be a sequel to that story, picking up with the engineer confined to quarters, awaiting a meeting with the captain.

Let’s see what happened next…

I found this absolutely hilarious! And since it’s always interesting to get some insight into what goes onto behind-the-scenes, I sent Aaron V. a few questions and got really enlightening answers. And stick around till the very end of the blog, as Aaron sent me a ton of photos from the set that appear at the bottom…

FARRAGUT FORWARD releases an amazing TRAILER, wraps up their Indiegogo, and confirms a PREMIERE DATE!

Can you feel it in the air? It’s the electricity all around. It’s the anticipation of finally knowing that a long wait is nearly over. FARRAGUT FORWARD is just a couple of weeks away from premiering!

There have been few Star Trek fan film projects as eagerly awaited as Farragut Forward. First announced back in 2016 when its prequel series, STARSHIP FARRAGUT wrapped principal photography on its final episode, fans were looking forward to this planned movie-era fan production set during the time-frame of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Such fan productions were (and still are) very rare in the community due to the challenges of recreating accurate “monster maroon” uniforms and significantly complicated-to-build sets.

But FARRAGUT FILMS has been on the cutting edge of both costuming and set-construction since they created one of the first three Trek fan productions to shoot on recreations of the TOS-era Paramount sets from the 1960s (the other two being STAR TREK: NEW VOYAGES and STARSHIP EXETER). Starship Farragut would go on to release five full-length episodes, two vignettes, two animated-style episodes (one featuring the voices TIM RUSS and CHASE MASTERSON), a comic book, plus a series finale “”HOMECOMING”) that included a cameo by none other than Marvel Comics legend STAN LEE as a Starfleet Admiral. The TOS sets they built even sent on to be used by STAR TREK CONTINUES as well as countless other fan films and series in what eventually became NEUTRAL ZONE STUDIOS.

Despite being announced back in 2016, Farragut Forward didn’t really get going until 2021 when showrunner JOHN BROUGHTON brought on (see what I did there?) director JOHNNY K. of KAOTICA STUDIOS in Washington, DC. From there, things began to move at warp speed as sets were carefully built, costumes meticulously sen together, and footage shot for a PROLOGUE that was released in February pf 2022 and blew fans away!!!

At the same time, Farragut Films launched an Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign with a very ambitious goal of $30K. And to be honest, I didn’t think they’d get there in just two months. Boy, was I wrong! They actually exceeded that goal by more than $3K and earned Indiegogo’s “InDemand” status, meaning they could keep raising more funds. And raise them they did! The campaign was finally officially ended this past weekend with an astounding total of $45,450, less than $5K short of the $50K crowd-funding limit specified by the Star Trek fan film guidelines.

Along the way, the Farragut folks have released numerous behind-the-scenes photos and videos, each more exciting and enticing than the last. You can view three of those videos at the bottom of this blog.

Earlier this evening, Farragut Forward released an exciting short trailer for the full film and announced a premiere date of October 1, 2024. And from what can be seen below, this is one Star Trek fan film that is virtually guaranteed to be considered one of the best of all time. Take a look…

Announcing the 2024 Star Trek Fan Film SHOWRUNNER AWARD WINNERS!

Happy 58th Star Trek Anniversary, everyone! It’s September 8, 2024, and that means it’s time to announce the winners of the third annual Star Trek Fan Film SHOWRUNNER AWARDS!

As usual, I’d like to begin by shouting a huge THANK YOU to my eleven judges (I was the twelfth). Here are the names of each of our judges and the fan films and/or series they run…

JOSE CEPEDA – NATURE’S HUNGER
SAMUEL COCKINGS – TREK SHORTS and TEMPORAL ANOMALY
LEE GARTRELL – THE ROMULAN WARS
JOSHUA IRWIN – THE AVALON UNIVERSE
JONATHAN LANE – INTERLUDE and AN ABSENT FRIEND
MARK LARGENT – STALLED TREK
GREG LOCK – AMBUSH
VANCE MAJOR – CONSTAR
BRIAN W. PETERSON – THE LOST STARSHIP
IAN RAMSEY – STAR REKT PARODY MUSIC VIDEOS
GLEN L. WOLFE – THE FEDERATION FILES
RANDY WRENN – DREADNOUGHT DOMINION and other series

These dedicated fan filmmakers each needed to view nearly nine hours of 27 submitted Star Trek fan films—plus four 2-minute short scene entries—as well as record their choices. Every judge ranked their top five selections in each of 23 categories, with their top choice earning 10 points, second choice earning 7 points, then 5, 3, and 1 points for choices three through five. A judge was not allowed to vote for a fan film they themselves submitted as any of their top three selections.

Let me assure you, this was no easy task! Several judges reported keeping tally sheets with scores for each film, and many of them took advantage of the full two and a half months provided for getting their final ballots submitted. (And yes, there was some urgent nagging involved in a few cases as the deadline got closer.)

One of my favorite aspects of the Showrunner Awards (similar to the DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS) is that each of our judges possess insights into the entire production process from conception through release. As such, filmmakers who submit their projects can be confident that those fan films are being judged by knowledgeable and experienced peers who know exactly what to look for when making their final decisions.

This year’s entrants included a couple of 800-pound mugatos who took the lion’s share (mugato’s share?) of awards, as tends to happen with fan films. Fortunately, with 23 categories and three tiers in each—first place (Admiral Award), second place (Captain Award), and third place (Commander Award)—there are more than enough honors to go around. And I am happy to say that, out of 27 Star Trek fan films that were entered, 24 earned at least one award. So even if a fan film didn’t win Best Writer or Director, it could still win for Best Musical Score or Best Hair & Make-Up…more than enough categories and awards to go around!

Scroll to the bottom of this page for a final tally of how many awards each film received. And you can view all entered fan films on this YouTube playlist.

PROJECT: RUNABOUT – “IT’S ALL DONE WITH MIRRORS” begins a 3-fan series CROSSOVER!

Fans are about to see a true rarity in the world of Star Trek fan films: a crossover of multiple fan series to create a three-part story! The closest fan films came to something like this previously was a couple of years ago when two of the creative groups from POTEMKIN PICTURES got together to present a crossover of fan-series STARSHIP DEIMOS and KLINGON SCOUTSHIP QAB’ELTH. In that “tag-team,” the two episodes actually intersected, featuring the same sequences seen from different points of view.

But now we have something entire new and different, thanks to GARY DAVIS, RANDY WRENN, and the folks at DOMINION MEDIA. For the past decade, DREADNOUGHT DOMINION has entertained fans with the exploits of that titular starship and her gallant crew. More recently, Gary constructed a full set of a TOS-era runabout craft in his basement and launched the spin-off series PROJECT: RUNABOUT, which released its “PILOT” episode in 2021 followed by its second episode, “YORKTOWN,” a year later.

However, there was no new Project: Runabout released during the following year, in part because Gary and Randy were busy launching their third Dominion Media fan series, WARBIRD VALDORE, set aboard a Romulan vessel and told from the point of view of her captain and crew.

With three separate fan series now in active development, it didn’t take Gary and Randy very long to decide to run a single storyline through all of them for a special crossover fan film event. Of course, the fan film guidelines can be a little persnickety on multi-part stories, so the guys set up the three films to each tell a self-contained story without any “cliffhanger” endings. However, a larger plot line will link the productions together for fans who decide to view all three releases in order.

And that order begins with the third installment of Project: Runabout, an episode entitled “IT’S ALL DONE WITH MIRRORS.” Take a look…

Having already interviewed Gary and Randy more times than I can count (not that I don’t absolutely love those two guys!), I asked them if perhaps we could do a video interview with the cast of the series and get to know those actors a little better. Nearly everyone was more than happy to oblige, and we had a really fun time chatting together. I invite you to join the (landing) party…