Author: Jonathan Lane

Guest blogger ERIC L. WATTS discusses having ALEC PETERS at Treklanta… (editorial)

Today, please welcome special Guest Blogger ERIC L. WATTS, Chairman of the annual TREKLANTA convention in Atlanta, GA and the organizer of the BJO Awards that honor the top Star Trek fan films each year.  Eric and Treklanta have been an important and integral part of theTrek fan film community for many years now—screening fan productions, featuring fan film panel discussions and guests, an generally giving support and validation to the genre.

Treklanta 2018 took place over the Memorial Day weekend and featured a couple of panels focusing on fan films.  Everything was going great until it was announced that ALEC PETERS of AXANAR would be taking part in these panels.  Then the shat hit the fans, and Eric was berated by angry e-mails and Facebook posts and even a phone call telling him how wrong he was for letting Alec Peters anywhere near his convention…let alone allowing Alec to be an announced guest on two panels.

The blowback both privately and on social media blasting Eric over Alec’s presence at Treklanta became so intense that I asked Eric if he’d like to comment on it here on Fan Film Factor in a blog I was preparing last week about the Bjo Awards.

Eric agreed, but his comment was so thorough and heartfelt that I decided it would be better to let it stand in its entirety as a separate guest blog.  My apologies to you and Eric for the delay in getting it posted (one week), but with two different crowd-funders ending, it’s been a very crowded seven days of blogs (and I was away in Santa Barbara over the weekend).

Anyway, here’s what Eric had to say about Alec Peters and panels at Treklanta…

Continue reading “Guest blogger ERIC L. WATTS discusses having ALEC PETERS at Treklanta… (editorial)”

THE ROMULAN WAR Indiegogo ends TOMORROW!

It’s been a long road getting from there to here…nearly sixty days!  A month ago, having raised just under $6,000 of their $10,000 goal, show-runner MARK NACCARTO extended the Indiegogo for THE ROMULAN WAR for another 30 days.  And it paid off.  Now, with less than 48 hours left, The Romulan War is only $335 (3%) away from being FULLY funded.  If you haven’t donated yet, then to quote Pavel Chekov: “Now vould be a good time!”

With a final push for donations, Mark has just posted the last of his Mission Briefing videos: “Final Countdown.”  In it, he announces that the donation threshold for a contributor to appear in The Romulan War (as a voice-over) is now only $40 with the new “Comms Officer Access” perk.  Perviously, it took  a $100 “Captain Access” donation to get a speaking role.  That perk is still available, but the $40 option is a less expensive alternative with fewer additional items.  With either perk, your name will appear in the credits.  Also, there are still 3 remaining “Commodore Access” perks for $250 each which allow you to be seen, not just heard, in the finished film.

Mark also shows off some of the ultra-cool posters that are available at multiple donation levels.  So the reasons to contribute are many.  If you haven’t donated already, or if you want to be the one to push them over the $10,000 goal …

CLLICK HERE TO DONATE!

 

And take a look at the “Final Countdown” video below…

The SGT. PEPPER version of STAR WARS?

It was 50 years ago today…that Sgt. Pepper blew the world away!

Actually, it’s been 51 years plus a week—May 26, 1967 saw the debut of THE BEATLES’ eighth studio album SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND.  Professor Kevin J. Dettmar called it “…the most important and influential rock and roll album ever recorded” in the Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature.  Sgt. Pepper changed popular music forever.

Ten years later (almost to the day!) on May 25, 1977, GEORGE LUCAS released a little film he’d been working on called STAR WARS.  (You may have heard of it.)  This movie changed Hollywood forever.

Like the chocolate and peanut butter in the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, The Beatles and Star Wars don’t seem to have much else connecting them.  And yet, if somehow combined, might they not become something totally mind-blowing???

Well, guess what: someone did just that…and knocked it out of the galaxy!

Get ready for PRINCESS LEIA’S STOLEN DEATH STAR PLANS, a full 13-track musical album (from a duo calling themselves PALETTE-SWAP NINJA) that merges Star Wars: A New Hope with the full Sgt. Pepper album in a way that is indescribably amazing.  (Yeah, I know this is supposed to be a blog site about Star TREK fan films, but Solo: A Star Wars Story is still the #1 movie in theaters right now, so I’m making an exception.)

Dan Amrich and Jude Kelley

The two genius musicians behind this mash-up masterpiece are San Francisco-based guitarist/singer DAN AMRICH and Boston-based keyboard player and digital drummer JUDE KELLEY.  The two met back in 2003 playing an 80’s cover band in the Bay Area.  And even though Jude moved to the east coast a few years later, they still collaborated.

It took them FIVE YEARS to complete the full Princess Leia’s Stolen Death Star Plans album, and it debuted one year ago on the 50th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper and the 40th anniversary of Star Wars.  Video editor KATRIN AUCH masterfully matched scenes from A New Hope to the music to create a series of MUST SEE videos that, combined, have millions of views on YouTube.

Take a look and then come back for some more background information about this project and what happened when it first debuted on the Internet…

Continue reading “The SGT. PEPPER version of STAR WARS?”

THE ROMULAN WAR releases a GAME-CHANGER!

Yesterday I mentioned that the SKY FIGHTER Indiegogo only needed 10% more to reach their goal of $25,000.  And—poof!—they had done it by late afternoon!

So now I’m mentioning the the Indiegogo for THE ROMULAN WAR, which is only $1,705 short of its $10,000 goal with just FOUR days left.  Yeah, it would’ve been cooler to say $1,701 dollars short, but either way, they’re knocking on the door of being completely funded.

I asked show-runner MARK NACCARATO what this final $1,705 will cover.  What if they don’t make it?  What won’t be in the final version that otherwise would have if you (yeah, I’m talking to YOU, Mr./Ms. reader!) had just donated ten or twenty bucks.

Here’s what Mark told me…

That final amount is going to allow us to properly visualize the legendary BATTLE OF CHERON. Those of you who know your Trek history know that Cheron was the final battle of the war where Earth marshaled its forces for one last desperate assault to stave off complete annihilation by the Romulans. This sequence will be everything you think it should be. In a word, it will be EPIC!

So do it for Cheron, folks!  Do it for jaw-dropping visual FX!  Do it for Starfleet so we can win this war!

To give fans a taste of what this battle might look like, Mark just released a final trailer for the campaign, titled “Game Changer.”  The video introduces fans to the character of Admiral Matthias Jefferies, who is an expert on the weapons and tactics used by Earth during the Romulan War of the 22nd century.  Although the visual FX are still only early renderings and will look MUCH better in the finished fan production, they still look pretty darn awesome and also introduce the new Yorktown-class starship.

Take a look and then click here to donate while there’s still time!

It’s gonna be a NAIL-BITER for SKY FIGHTER!!!

I have to be honest with you guys: I didn’t think it was gonna happen.  With many recent crowd-funding campaigns for Trek fan films clawing their way to $10K (if that!), how was a NON-Star Trek fan film by a first-time director gonna possibly take in $25,000???  And beyond that, SKY FIGHTER‘s writer/director LUKAS KENDALL had selected the all-or-nothing “Fixed Goal” option on Indiegogo, where if you don’t reach your goal, you get NOTHING (just like on Kickstarter).

I mean, who does that????  If you’re gonna use Indiegogo, at least choose the “Flex Goal” option and keep whatever you raise, regardless of how much or how little.  But as Lukas told me in this interview, he was going all in…$25K or bust!!!

I was also curious about Lukas’ somewhat unorthodox approach, including posting his complete script for the Sky Fighter short film for anyone to read, using a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor to describe himself and his project, and including among his perks certain ones that seemed a bit (purposefully) outrageous.

Would this work?  Could this work?

The answer may just turn out to be YES, but it’s gonna be SUPER-CLOSE!  With just two days left (the campaign ends this Thursday at midnight Pacific Time), the Sky Fighter Indiegogo is nearly 90% of the way to its $25,000 goal.. at $22,248 as I type this.

Lukas, who gained a following producing CD collections of popular science fiction TV and movie scores, has been relying on those same followers for a lot of his donor support, and it’s certainly been working.  Among his most popular perks are the “Best of Both Worlds” signed CD ($20 + shipping), the Return to Tomorrow – Making of ST:TMP book ($35 + shipping), and especially the Star Trek TOS CD box set & 50th Anniversary 4 CD set ($199, free shipping). That latter bundle saves people around $100.

There is eve a weekend on Martha’s Vinyard for $1,000 where you get to spend a Friday-Sunday in August with Lukas Kendall’s MOTHER!  She’ll even take you out for dinner on Saturday night.  (I told you there were some outrageous perks.)    Donate $1,000 and you get to go through Lukas’ crap in the basement!

C’mon, folks!  Let’s get this Indiegogo campaign across the finish line…

CLICK HERE TO DONATE!

Have the new GUIDELINES really hindered the production of STAR TREK FAN FILMS? (panel video from Treklanta)

Photo courtesy of Lee Drew

The annual TREKLANTA con in Atlanta, GA is not a particularly huge convention, but it is one of the most fan-film-friendly cons you’re likely to find anywhere.  This is thanks in large part to Chairman ERIC L. WATTS, who organizes the convention along with Treklanta’s annual BJO AWARDS for the best Star Trek fan films from the previous year.  And there’s usually at least a panel or two dedicated to a particular fan film or fan films in general.

This year, the most notable fan film panel was being led by RANDY LANDERS, show-runner for POTEMKIN PICTURES in Pelham, AL, which has produced about five dozen Trek fan films over the past eight years!  The title of the panel: “Have the new guidelines really hindered the production of Star Trek fan films?”

Good question!

To help answer this, Randy invited five additional noted Star Trek fan filmmakers to join him for a lively panel discussion:

JOSE E. CEPEDA -Show-runner and lead actor on the long-running STAR TREK: NATURES HUNGER web series.

GREG TEFT – Cast member of STARSHIP: REPUBLIC, which will soon be filming more fan productions on the former Star Trek Continues “Stage 9” sets in GA.

GLEN L. WOLFE – Co-owner of the STARBASE STUDIOS sets in AR and the show-runner of THE FEDERATION FILES anthology series.

MARK NACCARATO – Show-runner for the upcoming Trek fan project THE ROMULAN WAR, which is crowd-funding right now!  (Have you donated yet???)

ALEC PETERS – Head of Axanar Productions and Executive Producer of PRELUDE TO AXANAR.

Interestingly , when Alec’s participation on the panel was announced, even though the panelists were all fine with it, apparently a number of detractors weren’t.  Eric L. Watts was berated with e-mails and criticism in detractor social media groups.  (I’ve invited Eric to comment on that separately as a guest blogger later this week.)

The panel discussion was really enlightening and fun to watch.  And thanks to a video shot by LEE DREW (and posted here with the blessing of both Lee and Eric), you get to watch it, as well (in two parts)…

BJO FAN FILM AWARD WINNERS for 2018 announced!

For the past four years, the annual TREKLANTA Convention has hosted an awards ceremony for the best Star Trek fan films released during the previous year.  Initially called the “Independent Star Trek Film Awards,” the name was shorted to “The Bjo Awards” last year in honor of Bjo Trimble, the woman credited with saving Star Trek from an early cancellation by NBC by coordinating the great letter-writing campaign back in 1968.

The Bjo’s for 2018 were awarded this past weekend in a variety of categories (see the full entry rules here).  Each category had four-to-six finalists selected from the following list of 21 nominees:

Release Date Run Time Series Name Episode
1/1/17 0:14:58 Star Trek: Natures Hunger “Sting of the Prosecution“
1/4/17 0:30:05 Starship Tristan “Between Two Worlds“
1/11/17 0:08:26 Starship Intrepid “Duty of Care“
1/13/17 0:11:33 Starship Deimos “No Greater Love“
2/1/17 0:20:42 Chance Encounter
2/10/17 0:07:49 Starship Tristan “Seeing Red“
2/20/17 0:57:20 Quark’s Space Station “Too Much Traffic“
4/2/17 0:54:11 Star Trek Continues “Still Treads the Shadow“
4/4/17 0:14:17 Starship Tristan “Departures“
4/29/17 0:15:00 Survivors
5/26/17 0:14:09 Starship Deimos “The Archive“
7/30/17 0:49:13 Star Trek Continues “What Ships Are For“
7/31/17 0:14:31 Starship Tristan “The Monsters Are With Us“
8/13/17 0:07:56 Starship Tristan “The Voice of Your Blood“
8/18/17 0:28:20 The Federation Files “Extraction“
9/8/17 0:12:18 The Derelict
10/18/17 0:46:34 Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part I“
11/13/17 0:58:10 Star Trek Continues “To Boldly Go, Part II“
12/14/17 0:05:47 Starship Triton “New Orders“
12/29/17 0:10:13 Star Trek: The Mirror Frontier
12/30/17 0:13:35 The Federation Files “Walking Bear, Running Wolf“

You might have noticed that all four Star Trek Continues episodes from 2017 are on this list, meaning that there was definitely an 800-pound mugato to contend with this past year (four mugatos, in fact!).  As such, many of the results below might not seem all that unexpected.  That said, there were still a couple of surprises.

Also, I’d like to add, on a personal note, that who won isn’t as important as who participated and, most of all, that these awards are given out annually in the first place.  All Star Trek fan films are worthy of our respect and celebration because, whether slick and polished or just grass roots with some soil showing, these productions each resulted from hard work, dedication, and love Star Trek.

So if you haven’t seen some of the nominees above, think about clicking on a few of the links.  You just might be pleasantly surprised!

Continue reading “BJO FAN FILM AWARD WINNERS for 2018 announced!”

Have the AXANAR detractors set a TRAP for ALEC PETERS?

Guys, I am really sorry for giving this topic so much attention, but it is quickly turning into a possible “detractorgate” story, and I feel it’s important to share what just happened.

As I covered on Saturday in this editorial blog, AXANAR detractor MICHAEL ILASI created a series of “mockery” videos of ALEC PETERS and Axanar using previously unreleased blooper footage from Prelude to Axanar without the consent of Alec or any of the cast members who appeared in the 2014 fan film.  This sparked quite a tempest both here and over on the Fan Film Forum Facebook group (and probably elsewhere).

When I woke up this morning, the following e-mail was waiting for me.  It had been sent anonymously via the “Contact Us” form here on Fan Film Factor at 3:43am.  Here’s a screen cap of the message…

Click to enlarge

I have no way to verify that this was, in fact, from a detractor and not just someone pretending to be a detractor.  However, I did have an interesting IM exchange with Michael Ilasi via Facebook…

It’s not necessarily a smoking gun, but the gun barrel still feels a little warm.  The fact that Michael messaged me mere minutes after Alec contacted YouTube to ask that the videos be taken down leads me to believe that yes, this was all planned out as an elaborate (is that the right adjective?) “trap” for Alec.  And of course, Michael later says, “There are more people involved in this…” implying, if I may use a word that I loathe, a conspiracy.

Needless to say, I contacted Alec himself (as Michael requested), but I also included a forward of the anonymous message I’d just received and asked for any response on the record.  Here’s what Alec wrote back…

Continue reading “Have the AXANAR detractors set a TRAP for ALEC PETERS?”

Confirmed: THE EXPANSE will have a FOURTH SEASON!

Okay, you can officially stop trying to save THE EXPANSE because Amazon has just saved it…in rather dramatic fashion!

Barely two weeks after The Expanse was canceled by Syfy, and after concerted efforts by fans, cast, and crew to try to rally support and revive the series, Amazon Studios and Alcon Entertainment announced that yes, there WILL be a fourth season of this critically-acclaimed, fan-favorite space sci-fi series.  It will appear on Amazon Prime.

The news became official during a break for dinner at the International Space Development Conference (ISDC) in Los Angeles this past Friday night.  Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced to people at the gathering:

“I was talking to the cast half an hour ago, before the break for dinner started. I was telling them that we are working hard at Amazon to save The Expanse, but it wasn’t a done deal yet. During dinner, ten minutes ago, I just got word that The Expanse is saved!”

The room—which included many fans of the show since it features a very realistic portrayal of life in our solar system in the next two hundred years or so—burst into enthusiastic applause.  Bezos then added:

“The show is extraordinary, and these guys are unbelievably talented,” as he pointed to The Expanse table.

The grass-roots effort to rescue the show reminded me of other fan attempts to save beloved series like Star Trek: Enterprise, Farscape, Firefly, and others…all with mixed results.  What is amazing to me is that now, with so many subscription services like Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu and others—all looking for popular content (and often flush with cash!)—network cancelation isn’t nearly as certain or permanent a fate as it used to be.  Imagine if Fox had canceled Firefly today.  If Netflix had a streaming deal for the series, might they have tried to pick up the show the same way that Amazon just picked up The Expanse?  One wonders.

Anyway, three cheers for Jeff Bezos and Amazon Studios!  It’s nice to see the fans win every so often.  Now, if only there might be some way to resurrect Lucifer from cancellation, as well…

What’s WRONG with making a mockery of AXANAR… (editorial)

MICHAEL ILASI, a dedicated AXANAR detractor, announced last month that he was planning to create a “parody” of Prelude to Axanar using actual footage from the fan film…re-edited to be “funny.”

But what Michael released wasn’t a parody so much as a mockery.  It belittled ALEC PETERS and the other cast members of Prelude by showing their bloopers, adding banjo music, crickets, laughter, etc…and making it look like these were bungling idiots rather than actors trying to put in solid performances while flubbing the occasional line.

Michael called it a “fan film,” but I don’t think it qualifies.  A fan film should celebrate and honor something a fan loves—Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Harry Potter—not try to tear it down or cheapen it in some way.  In fact, that’s sorta the OPPOSITE of a fan film.

Michael was using Axanar blooper footage released without permission last year by former Axanar marketing director turned vitriolic detractor TERRY McINTOSH, violating his non-disclosure agreement with Alec and Axanar Productions and releasing footage that was not legally his to release.

The arguments being employed currently by Michael and other detractors justifying the creation and release of this mockery film can best be summed up as follows:

  1. Alec can’t own the Prelude footage because it’s all Star Trek, and Alec doesn’t own the Star Trek intellectual property.
  2. Parody is protected speech under fair use.  Alec can’t do anything to prevent Michael from enjoying his First Amendment rights.
  3. Axanar is”open source.”  Alec even said so himself.
  4. Get over yourselves and laugh, fer cryin’ out loud!  They’re bloopers, not KFC’s secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices.  Lighten up.

You probably won’t be surprised to hear that I’ve got an answer to each of these attempts to justify and excuse what Michael did.

Continue reading “What’s WRONG with making a mockery of AXANAR… (editorial)”