Author: Jonathan Lane

CONVERGENCE releases one of the BEST crowd-funding videos I’ve ever seen!

With less than seven days to go, and within striking distance of his goal, Trekyards co-host and treknology trexpert SAMUEL COCKINGS is filling his final week of his Indiegogo campaign for CONVERGENCE with new videos.  Currently at $4,755 as I type this, they’re just $845 (14%) away from their goal of $5,500…although Samuel would love to reach $6,000 to cover Indiegogo fees and perk costs.  And if he reaches $7,000, he’ll release bonus behind-the-scenes content.  (There’s also other stretch goals beyond that.)

Samuel has saved the best videos for last.  Already, there was a fun interview on Wednesday with NICK COOK, who will be reprising his role of Captain Daniel Hunter of the fan series Star Trek: Intrepid.  And on Friday, Samuel posted another interview with actor CHRIS BURDETT from the upcoming fan film Temporal Anomaly.  Both of these gentlemen will be starring in Convergence.

While both of those interviews were very well-produced (good lighting, good sound, interesting questions and answers) and are certainly worth viewing if you’re a fan of fan films, it was the video Samuel released this morning that blew me away.

This 3-minute vignette is now my second favorite crowd-funding “ask” video ever.  Why is it my second favorite?  Well, nothing will likely ever surpass this video (and the four that came after it) from Star Trek Continues‘ “Kirkstarter 2.0.”  But the reason this Convergence video gets the secondprise (get it?), is because it has so much fun while asking folks to donate.

Begging for money is never easy, and fan films who go the crowd-funding route have taken various approaches from serious to whacky.  Sometimes it’s easy because they have big celebrities or they’ve already filmed or released other work to show what they can do.  But sometimes, you’ve just gotta work with what you have.

And that’s what Samuel did, combining a script for the video with ad-libs and outtakes to produce a very real, creative, sincere, and funny video that just makes me want to throw my money at them!  Take a look, and see if you agree…

For anyone planning a crowd-funder, bookmark this video and the others in Samuel’s series.  And speaking of which, our Mr. Cockings promises another two interviews over the next two days, followed by what he calls a “4th wall-breaking viral video” on Tuesday and the first full teaser with actual footage on Wednesday.  The campaign ends Friday.

To donate, click here.

 

COZMO’S Kickstarter blasts through its $16K goal…BEFORE it even launches???

If only every Kickstarter could be this way!  The 4-week crowd-funding campaign for COZMO’S from the team that produced RENEGADES went live to the general public Tuesday at 11:00 am Pacific Time with a goal of $16,000.  But it had already blasted through that goal and was above $22,00 when the world found out about it.  (Now it’s up even higher at nearly $25,000!)

How the heck did this happen???

Well, it helps when you have an existing database of thousands of fans who contributed to your previous successful crowd-funders for Renegades )to the tune of more than a million dollars!).  And it helps when you open your Kickstarter with a special 48-hour “pre-launch” with exclusive access to certain perks.

It also helps when you have a cast that includes actors from Star Trek and Babylon 5 in your pilot episode:

  • Ethan (“Neelix”) Phillips
  • Robert (“The EMH Doctor”) Picardo
  • Aron (“Nog”) Eisenberg
  • Claudia (“Susan Ivanova”) Christian
  • Plus many other professional actions from sci-fi and related genres

Also, the footage (which was all shot back in early 2017 using sets originally constructed for Renegades‘ “The Requiem”) was directed by Stephen Furst (Vir from Babylon 5…who tragically passed away during June of last year).

The project is billed as “Cheers in Space”…

Cozmo’s Thirsty Tentacle Bar and Grill is a local hotspot—well, local to anyone visiting an asteroid—where an enormous variety of lifeforms visit to party, do business dealings, find work, meet their true love…or just to get drunk and alien-watch. 

The owner of this esteemed establishment is, of course, Cozmo, a four-tentacled alien (played by Ethan Phillips), who has a knack for mixing stellar martinis and giving good advice.  His serving staff includes two humans, Kallie, played by Renee Olstead(13 Going on 30), and Ken, played by Drake Bell (Drake and Josh, Ultimate Spiderman). They’d love their jobs if it weren’t for one tiny detail—humans are the butt of the joke of the entire galaxy.

The hilarity never stops as zany characters like a hermaphrodite with blue hair (Robert Picardo), a crustacean-like madam (Claudia Christian), an alien who’s head is shaped like a….well, like a butt (Aron Eisenberg), and so many others swarm, bump, argue, laugh, and scheme at Cozmo’s!

It looks hilarious (and very well-produced!)…

 

Heck, I threw in $35 myself before lunchtime on Monday!

You can donate by clicking here.

I asked show-runner SKY CONWAY a few questions about the project…

Continue reading “COZMO’S Kickstarter blasts through its $16K goal…BEFORE it even launches???”

At long last…DECEPTION II (interview with LEO TIERNEY, part 2)

Last week, we started a look back at the history of Star Trek: Deception leading into the recent release of the amazing 15-minute sequel DECEPTION II, written and directed by British fan workaholic LEO TIERNEY.

As I did last time, I strongly recommend that you take a look at this blog that I published last February showing how Leo took a teensy-weensy little one-car garage and turned it into the bridge of an Excelsior-class starship as well as a Klingon bird-of-prey!  (Seriously, check out the blog…it’s mostly photos.)

Turning a tiny one-car garage into the bridge of a starship…

In part 1 of of interview, Leo and I briefly discussed his original 8-minute fan film, Deception, crowd-funded and produced back in 2013.   The very positive reception to Deception led Leo to begin contemplating a sequel, although it would be three years before he would start building sets and going through other aspects of pre-production.

Things ramped up big-time in 2017 as Leo shifted into full production mode, completing his sets, bringing on actors, and filming many of his scenes.  Updates came quite frequently to Leo’s Facebook page for Deception, leading into my blog feature from February of this year.

Since then, however, there have been few updates on Facebook or elsewhere from Leo.  And so, as we conclude our two-part interview, we begin with the question I most wanted to know the answer to…

Continue reading “At long last…DECEPTION II (interview with LEO TIERNEY, part 2)”

Full AXANAR FINANCIALS to be shown to attendees during AXACON! (interview with ALEC PETERS)

Last week, when I posted my blog editorial about Carlos Pedraza getting banned from Axacon, there were a LOT of comments posted.  One of them was a an impassioned post from ALEC PETERS himself, discussing Carlos’ obsession with both Alec and the Axanar Productions finances.  Alec’s post began with this…

I seriously considered telling Carlos to come to Atlanta and sit down and go through the detailed finances with me. I would even pay for my accountant from highly respected accounting firm Frazier and Deter to be there. But you know, it won’t change Carlos’ mind, and he would still twist it to serve his agenda. Facts don’t matter to him. He will lie, manipulate and twist anything as he has done for almost three years.

Alec ended with…

Just about anyone in the Axanar world, especially donors, are more than welcome to Axacon, which is meant to be a celebration of Axanar and our fans. And frankly, I would probably sit down with anyone to review our finances in detail and share everything if I was asked. But not Carlos. He and his minions have made up their minds and only the facts that support their world view will be accepted.

I replied—as I often do—with a short, humorous little comment:

Hey, why not schedule a panel to show the full Axanar financials to everyone except the detractors? You could project them onto the big screen in the panel room! 🙂

I actually wasn’t serious, but Alec wrote me back and said that he LOVED the idea!  Now he just needed to figure out how to do it…

Continue reading “Full AXANAR FINANCIALS to be shown to attendees during AXACON! (interview with ALEC PETERS)”

VIC MIGNOGNA of Star Trek Continues plays ANOTHER famous CAPTAIN in a new DEADPOOL fan music video!

VIC MIGNOGNA is known in the fan film community for playing Captain Kirk in Star Trek Continues.  But now he’s going to be known for playing another famous captain: Captain America (and providing the voice of the X-men’s Beast)…in one of the funniest, most ambitious, and most entertaining fan film mash-ups ever produced.

I know I usually focus on Star Trek fan films, not superheroes, but in this case, there’s a number of veterans of Star Trek Continues involved, including make-up artist LISA HANSELL…and heck, even ROD RODDENBERRY is listed in the credits as an associate producer!

Thank goodness for parodies, though, because they’re protected by Fair Use.  Otherwise, DEADPOOL THE MUSICAL 2 would likely be sued in short order by Marvel, Disney (well, Disney owns Marvel now), Fox, AND Sony.  Or maybe not…as some Hollywood studios actually appreciate fan films.  (You know who I’m takin’ ’bout…right, Paramount and CBS?)

Anyway, get yourself mentally prepared for one of the best-crafted fan films you’re likely to see all year.  Oh, and ask the kids and religious zealots to go play in the yard for the next twelve and a half minutes…’cause this fan parody is just as R-rated as the two Deadpool movies that inspired it!

Ready…?

Set…?

I know, right!?

I mean, there are just no words…well, yes there are, but I can’t type most of them on my blog ’cause I’m such a prude!

But hey, did you know that this amazing fan film would NEVER have happened if it weren’t for Star Trek Continues?  Cross my heart and hope to have Wolverine give me a prostate exam!

Okay, enough of that!  Let’s find out how these two fan film phenomena are linked in the hip area…

Continue reading “VIC MIGNOGNA of Star Trek Continues plays ANOTHER famous CAPTAIN in a new DEADPOOL fan music video!”

A follow-up to yesterday’s blog about CARLOS PEDRAZA and AXACON…

Wow, quite a shat-storm started a’blowin’ after my blog post yesterday about CARLOS PEDRZA being banned from AXACON and then asking ALEC PETERS to refund the $413.50 Carlos lost buying a non-refundable plane ticket!  So much came out yesterday that, unfortunately, I need to do a follow-up to clarify, explain, and respond to a bunch of different items.

Up first, I did have a small inaccuracy in yesterday’s blog.  I stated that “…a Paypal order came into SphinxCon for a ticket with an Axacon add-on for one Carlos Pedraza.”  DAVE WEINER, manager of SphinxCon, reached out to correct me.  The ticket was mistakenly purchased through their website as an Axacon-only ticket with an Axacon add-on…

This was due to a glitch on the SphinxCon purchasing page.  Carlos mentioned later in his e-mail response back to Alec that he (Carlos) intended to attend panels at SphinxCon as well as Axacon.  So Carlos had obviously intended to buy a SphinxCon ticket with an Axacon add-on.  But SphinxCon tickets were no longer available online and had to be purchased at the door.  So the Axacon add-on was invalid since it requires a SphinxCon ticket.  Make sense?  Sorry if it doesn’t.

Technically, Carlos never purchased a SphinxCon ticket and therefore was never refunded for it being canceled.  Dave Weiner has made clear to Carlos that he will not be banned from SphinxCon should he choose to attend.  But neither will Carlos be allowed at Axacon.  That decision belongs to Alec Peters and has been made.

Next up was the elephant in the living room both Carlos and the detractors seemed reluctant  (afraid) to talk about…

Continue reading “A follow-up to yesterday’s blog about CARLOS PEDRAZA and AXACON…”

CARLOS PEDRAZA wants MONEY from ALEC PETERS??? (editorial)

There’s chutzpah and then there’s CARLOS PEDRAZA chutzpah.  I’m talking cajones-the-size-of-monster-truck-tires chutzpah!!

It all began this past Sunday night at 5:54pm Eastern Time when a Paypal order came into SphinxCon for a ticket with an Axacon add-on for one Carlos Pedraza.  This immediately led to a discussion between SphinxCon‘s organizer, DAVID WEINER, and Axacon‘s organizer, ALEC PETERS.

About three and a half hours later, Carlos received the following e-mail from Alec…

Carlos:

We note you attempted to buy a ticket to Axacon.  Your ticket is being refunded.  You are on notice that you, or any current or former member of the Axamonitor Facebook group that attempts to enter the Axacon facility, will be asked to leave.  As Axacon is meant to celebrate and support the Axanar project, those who have shown repeated animosity, negativity, and antagonism toward Axanar Productions, its team members, myself, and guests of the convention are not welcome to attend.

A former Georgia Sheriff’s Deputy is in charge of security and local law enforcement will be notified before the event that we have had an issue with stalkers and will be prepared to respond if you or any of your fellow stalkers attempt to attend.  The hotel will also be notified in advance.

It is very clear that, like your blog, your only intention is to make trouble.

Alec Peters

Had things ended there, I wouldn’t have bothered writing this blog.  After all, I haven’t blogged about Carlos Pedraza for several months (go ahead and check), and I was enjoying focusing exclusively on fan films.  But things didn’t end there…

Continue reading “CARLOS PEDRAZA wants MONEY from ALEC PETERS??? (editorial)”

At long last…DECEPTION II (interview with LEO TIERNEY, part 1)

Before you read today’s blog, you should really go back and look through this blog.  It tells the story, mainly in photos and short videos, behind the making of DECEPTION II, a sequel to the 2013 fan film Star Trek: Deception.  The first Deception told the story of two TNG-era Starfleet officers transporting a renegade Klingon prisoner in a lone runabout.  Writer/director/CGI master LEO TIERNEY constructed an actual runabout cockpit, giving this fan film an aura of realism that went along with excellent acting, lighting, sound, VFX, and other marks of quality.

The short eight-and-a-half minute  fan film became very popular, garnering tens of thousands of online views with little fanfare.  And shortly after its debut in mid-2013, Leo began discussing the production of a sequel.  However, the idea mostly languished until Leo briefly brought it up again on Facebook in 2015.  But even then, nothing much happened for nearly another year.

Leo began working in earnest on Deception II in 2016, and once again set out to construct actual physical (practical) sets—this time for both an Excelsior-class bridge and also for the bridge of a Klingon bird-of-prey.  And he constructed both…in a tiny garage!  This is where, if you haven’t already, you really, REALLY need to take a look at the blog I published back in February showing the amazing transformation of Leo’s garage into not one but two completely different sets…both using the exact same set pieces!  It’s one of the most fascinating blogs I’ve ever done.

There haven’t been many updates about Deception II since I published that blog, but ten months later, Leo finally released his long-awaited fan film last Friday.  And it looks simply amazing, especially considering the teeny-weeny size of the garage where the entire thing was filmed (see photo above).  Have a look for yourself…

I’ve been staying in touch with Leo Tierney over the months of post-production, awaiting the finished product.  As the premiere date approached, I conducted a little interview with my mate across the pond…

Continue reading “At long last…DECEPTION II (interview with LEO TIERNEY, part 1)”

AXACON schedule released – and I need YOUR questions for J.G. HERTZLER, GARY GRAHAM, and ALEC PETERS!

The first-ever AXACON is less than three weeks away, and ALEC PETERS has just released the schedule.  It’s a pretty busy weekend, filled with all kinds of activities and panels…most of them focused on AXANAR (both past, present, and future), but also a few opportunities to expand beyond just one fan film.

Here’s a look at some of the things that will be going on:

FRIDAY

  • A set tour of OWC Studios (including photo ops on the USS Ares bridge)
  • A reading from the full 90 minute version of the Axanar movie script (featuring J.G. Hertzler, Gary Graham, Alec Peters, and Steven Jepson)
  • Socialize at the bar with the actors and Axanar team (donor funds will NOT be used to pay the bar tab!)

SATURDAY

  • The Top 10 Star Trek fan films (at least in our opinion…and we don’t all agree!)
  • J.G. and Gary talk about their time on televised Star Trek
  • An Axanar UPDATE with Alec Peters and director/co-writer Paul Jenkins
  • Alec discusses how the Honor Harrington novels influenced Axanar
  • A special Axanar donor lunch with the actors and production team
  • Axanar fan fiction with three people who are writing/drawing/animating it
  • Alec and Paul discuss the evolution of Axanar from story to screenplay
  • The Axanar fleet – designing cool starships from 20 years before TOS
  • A preview of upcoming Star Trek fan films
  • Klingon kostuming…er, costuming
  • The Axanar project from a fan’s perspective
  • Everyone hits the bar again, including J.G. and Gary

SUNDAY

  • Starship combat in the Axaverse (when did we start calling it that?)
  • J.G., Gary, and Alec discuss working on Prelude to Aanar and plans for the remaining two Axanar films
  • When fan films become professional independent films…what does the future hold?
  • Alec discusses James T. Kirk’s hero: Garth of Izar, and Steven Jepson discuss the infamous “Admiral Scaredy”: Conrad Slater
  • Axanar trivia…with PRIZES!

As you can see, a lot of careful consideration went into filling this mini convention with diverse content while still keeping it centered around Axanar.  I think the organizers did an excellent job with that.

They also scheduled me to host five panels and appear on an additional three…for a total of EIGHT panels in THREE days!  Oy.  But in one of those panels, I have to interview J.G. Hertzler, Gary Graham, and Alec Peters about their work on Prelude and plans for the two upcoming Axanar films.  And that’s where I need YOUR help…

Continue reading “AXACON schedule released – and I need YOUR questions for J.G. HERTZLER, GARY GRAHAM, and ALEC PETERS!”

A different kind of fan film: I’m a fan of Elysa…

Please indulge me as I take a quick break from Star Trek to spotlight a very special little girl and her amazing parents… and an inspirational song and music video for anyone facing illness, adversity, or just being dealt a bad hand in life.

I first met ELYSA  SHAPIRO a little over a year ago at the beginning of first grade for my son, Jayden.  His school admits a wide diversity of students, and Elysa was no exception.  She had leukemia.  She’d been diagnosed a year earlier, and her treatment and hospitalization had resulted in her missing her entire kindergarten year.  Faced with the choice between of holding Elysa back or letting her start school as a first grader with children her own age, Elysa’s parents, HOWARD and NANCY, decided on the latter.

It wasn’t an easy decision.  While the other kids in her new first grade class had all shared the lessons and social development of kindergarten together, Elysa had spent the prior year in and out of hospitals, wearing a mask to filter out any germs that could overwhelm her immune system, and undergoing chemotherapy and other agonizing and exhausting cancer treatments at Cedar Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

As welcoming as Jayden’s school is to new children and those with unique challenges, it was still a sometimes-traumatic experience for Elysa.  Although most days, Elysa was just fine, with a smile and laugh and courteous demeanor that melted my heart, other days I would see her struggling, sobbing, crying to her mother not to leave her.  During those first few months of first grade, while the other kids would be picked up at the back gate in the afternoon, Elysa often wouldn’t even make it through a full day and had to be taken home early.

Her treatments were still going on, and Elysa’s mom and I would occasionally chat about how things were progressing for Elysa.  It broke my heart to hear what this sweet little girl had to go through.

Continue reading “A different kind of fan film: I’m a fan of Elysa…”