Author: Jonathan Lane

It’s a MIRACLE as THE HOLY CORE finds an ANGEL DONOR!

This is turning out to be a week of VERY good news for Star Trek fan-funded projects!  As I reported yesterday, the Star Trek rock band, The Roddenberries, managed to just reach their $9,500 Kickstarter goal with less than an hour left!  The Romulan War was able to extend their Indiegogo campaign an extra 30 days, and now they’re now nearly 75% of the way to their $10,000 goal.

But by far the most shocking (in a VERY good way!) news came yesterday when writer/director GARY O’BRIEN announced that his newest fan film project, THE HOLY CORE, has been fully funded by a single donor!

At the end of March, the situation wasn’t nearly as rosy for The Holy Core, as their $12,000 Kickstarter (about £8,700) didn’t even reach the half-way point and received nothing.  That was surprising for many of us, as Gary’s previous fan film, Chance Encounter, is considered one of the best ever low-budget Trek fan films.

I spoke to a very disappointed Gary after the failed Kickstarter, asking if he might try an Indiegogo instead (or multiple campaigns) and perhaps make the film in smaller installments.  Gary wasn’t sure what he would do next, and I didn’t want to press him.  Then, a week or so later, Gary told me privately that he might have found funding, but to please keep it under wraps until he knew for certain.

As the weeks went by, things sounded increasingly hopeful.  But I was still asked to hold off sharing anything until the money was “in the bank.”  After all, Murphy’s Law is still a thing.

And then yesterday, it all became official as Gary posted this video…

I asked Gary if this donor had requested to remain anonymous, as the video seems to go to great lengths not to provide a name.  Gary replied…

Actually he hadn’t confirmed either way when I shot the video, so I played it safe and didn’t mention him. However, literally 10 minutes ago, he got back to me and says he’s happy for me to tell people.  So…

He’s ALEXANDER MAYER, and he was the single largest backer of Chance Encounter. He’s about my age and hails from Germany. He’s a big TNG and Voyager fan and likes to back projects he thinks look good. Among others, he has funded Tommy Krafts’ sci-fi film about the Runaway androids (not sure if he funded it all or not though). Other than that, I don’t really have much info.

Well, I for one would like to personally THANK Herr Mayer for his super-generous support of these three fan films!  Hopefully, when fans see the quality of The Holy Core, perhaps they will realize that Star Trek fan films are still a thing worthy of their support and donations.

THE RODDENBERRIES make it to their KICKSTARTER goal at the LAST MOMENT!

If you’ve popped on to the Fan Film Factor “CROWDFUNDING NOW” page over the past two months, you probably noticed the link to the $9,500 Kickstarter for The Roddenberries Star Trek Band Boldly Goes to Album II.

I admit to having been pretty nervous about this one.  After 9 weeks, with only a few days left to go until the final day of May 4, they hadn’t even gotten to the 50% mark.  I saw The Roddenberries in Las Vegas at the 50th Anniversary Star Trek convention, and I thought they were awesome.  I even have a copy of their first album CD sitting right here on my desk.

I felt slightly guilty for having not pushed theur Kickstarter more here on Fan Film Factor.  But I was also trying to spotlight the campaigns for The Holy Core (in March) and then The Romulan War (in April…and still going on).  And with another new Indiegogo being spotlighted later this week, well, I don’t want it to seem like all I do is ask you guys to donate your money!

Anyway, with the clock ticking down, the galaxy’s premiere Star Trekkified, multi-media sci-fi rock cabaret seemed in danger of falling short of their Kickstarter goal and getting zero, zip, zilch, nada.  And having been away from my computer most of the day on their final day Friday and Saturday, I didn’t check their campaign page until Sunday.  I suppose on some subconscious level, I didn’t want to face the frustrating news that they’d failed to reach their goal and got nothing.

When I did finally visit their Kickstarter page last night, I was shocked to find their project successfully FUNDED with $9,745 from 109 backers!  Apparently, according to updates, they reached 60% with just 17 hours left and crossed the 70% mark with just over an hour to go.  Where that final $3,000 came from isn’t clear, but it doesn’t really matter.  The fact is that The Roddenberries made their goal, they get their money, and best of all, fans will soon hear a new album and see a new music video.

And speaking of music videos, let’s all raise a glass of scotch with the band to celebrate this great news.  No pressure…

Visit The Roddenberries website for even more of their great music!

FUNNY video: “TIM RUSS explains STAR WARS DAY”

Happy STAR WARS DAYS, everybody…MAY THE FOURTH be with you!  Now, I realize that this is a blog site primarily about Star TREK, and some of my readers might not have heard of this Star WARS thing.  I understand.  Until recently, I, too, was confused.  But no more!  Star Trek: Voyager‘s TIM “Tuvok” RUSS, an expert in science fiction if ever there was one, has now explained what this whole “May the Fourth” thing means…

New AXANAR fan comic released!

Last July, AXANAR super-fan TREY McELWAIN released the four-page (including cover) “Trial By Fire,” the first-ever comic story based on the hugely-popular Prelude to Axanar Star Trek fan film.  Trey wrote the comic and his friend DANIEL FU illustrated the story, which looked at a space battle during the Four Years War with the Klingon Empire.

Now, Trey and Daniel offer the first glimpse of their second Axanar fan comic: “Arcanis IV,” which looks at the Klingon sneak attack that launched the long and bloody conflict.  Unlike their first comic, where the three story pages were released all at once, this time Trey and Daniel are releasing the pages as they are completed, about once a month.

Here is the Facebook announcement for the kick-off of the new project…

Bear witness to the very first attack of the “Four Years War”!

An unsuspecting Starfleet caught off guard by a relentless and formidable foe!

Each month, a new page will be presented to continue with the story of “Arcanis IV,” highlighting scenes from “those that didn’t make it back” and the choices and sacrifices Admiral Slater had to make during those first 2 years before Ramirez took command of the fleet.

Then after that, a new comic to continue with the story arc of the “Four Years War,” with cover and pages being presented each and every month (one page per month).

Based off of Prelude to Axanar by Alec Peters
Story by Trey McElwain
Artwork by Daniel Fu

For the HI-DEF versions of these most incredible pieces, make sure you go to the Axanar Comics Website to find them!
https://axanarcomics.wixsite.com/axanarcomics

Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge

 

THE ROMULAN WAR extends its INDIEGOGO another 30 DAYS!

With only ONE day left to go on its $10,000 Indiegogo campaign, the new fan project THE ROMULAN WAR has been essentially stuck just under $6,000.  I had featured a text interview with show-runner MARK NACCARTO when the project first kicked off.  At that point, the campaign had jumped out to an impressive start.  And within the first 10 days, they’d generated over $4,000 in contributions.

But then things slowed down and nearly screeched to a halt!  The needle barely moved at all during their third week when I published an audio interview with Mark trying to figure out what was going on.  Why were the donations drying up?  Was it the hit of Tax Day in the U.S.?  Was it the guidelines or the lawsuit from 2016?  Was it just that Mark wasn’t campaigning enough?  Or have fans simply hit donating a wall?

It wasn’t just the normal mid-campaign slowdown.  Even now, with only one day left, donations are almost nonexistent.   I’d even e-mailed Mark to suggest that he might want to publicly release some of the special features (videos, ship dossiers, character background info, etc.) that had been reserved only for donors…just to excite and encourage more contributions.  But time was running out!

Well, apparently, time is a luxury that we once again DO have…thanks to the folks at Indiegogo!  Apparently, the crowd-funding service will now let a project team extend the duration of a 30-day campaign by an ADDITIONAL 30 days…even if they haven’t reached their goal yet!

So guess what Mark just did?  Aw, why don’t I let him tell you himself…

Continue reading “THE ROMULAN WAR extends its INDIEGOGO another 30 DAYS!”

Fan Films, Assemble! Announcing: CONVERGENCE!

So, have you seen Avengers: Infinity War yet?  Pretty cool how a whole bunch of Marvel characters who each have movie series of their own—Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Spider-Man, Hulk, Doctor Strange, the Guardians of the Galaxy—all come together in a single movie to fight the bad guys.  If only something like that could happen with Trek fan films.

Oh, wait…

SAMUEL COCKINGS, whose fan film TEMPORAL ANOMALY will debut later this year after he makes certain changes requested by CBS, has just announced his latest Trek fan project: CONVERGENCE.  This new production has been a closely-kept secret for several months now, and those folks who did know about it were sworn to secrecy.  And certain nosey bloggers who did know about the project were told only that it was code-named “Star Trek Avengers.”  In fact, even the title Convergence was only revealed to the actors a week and a half ago when they all, um, converged on the U.K. to film some initial scenes in front of Samuel’s green-screen backdrop.

What makes this project extra-exciting is that it will be a full-on fan film CROSSOVER featuring actors and characters from multiple different long-running Trek fan series.  In attendance at this initial shoot were NICK COOK from Intrepid (Scotland), ROBIN HIERT  from Dark Armada (the Netherlands), and CHRIS BURDETT and NIMRAN SAUND from Temporal Anomaly (England)  They came together to film some of the initial scenes along with some promo videos, including this fun one…

Eventually, the plan is to add on actors from an additional two fan films/series for a total of FIVE.  That will be a record, as there have been a number of two-series crossovers (for example Hidden Frontier and Intrepid) and multi-fan film cameo appearances (three actors from New Voyages appeared in the pilot episode of Starship Farragut, and Vance Major featured several quick cameos of fan film notables in his later episodes of the Minard Saga).  But this isn’t just the Falcon briefly appearing in Ant-Man or Hulk joining Thor for Ragnarok…this is full-on Avengers, man!

Samuel launched a new Facebook page for the project, complete with photos introducing the cast.  He’ll be adding one new photo per day for the rest of this week.  In another month or so, Samuel plans to launch a crowd-funding campaign to raise money to complete filming (including transportation to the U.K. for all of the cast) as well as post-production.  And yes, he fully intends to follow all of the the fan film guidelines.

More Convergence news soon!

So where’s that darn DEEP SPACE NINE documentary??? (update)

Has the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine documentary WHAT WE LEFT BEHIND been left behind?  Hardly!

Just over a year ago, IRA STEVEN BEHR, DAVID ZAPPONE, and ADAM NIMOY unexpectedly blasted though all expectations (an initial $150,000 goal) and ever-higher stretch goals to reach a staggering $647,891 in donations for their ambitious full-length documentary about the beloved Star Trek TV series Deep Space Nine.

Fans were excited about nearly every aspect of this planned project.  Clips, behind-the-scenes stories and footage, and round-table interviews with nearly all of the major cast members and many of the production team were, of course, a given.  But there would also be a special 20-minute “what if” segment in which the original writers would brainstorm a theoretical 8th season of the show.  There would be licensed footage, customized graphics, and an original score…all directed by Adam Nimoy, who has already given fans the excellent For the Love of Spock documentary.

But most exciting, though, was a promised HD remastering of certain scenes from the original DS9 series along with new CGI animations produced and overseen by veteran Trek VFX alum DOUG DREXLER.  And since Paramount and CBS have stated that they have no intention of remastering DS9 like they did TOS and TNG (yeah, sacrilege!) this will probably be our only chance to have at least at a small taste of what could have been.  Most of us “Niner” fans couldn’t wait!

And we thought we wouldn’t have to wait for too long.  Although the original estimates were February of 2018, that was before the campaign took in nearly 325% over its original goal.  So an update from last November said that February wasn’t gonna happen, and “[W]hile we still are aiming to have the film done in early 2018, it is likely these release timeframes will shift back (slightly) to accommodate.”

So now “early 2018” is rapidly turning into “mid 2018,” and fans are beginning to wonder where’s that darn DS9 documentary?!?

Two weeks ago, we got our answer when the team issued a new update with more information, a bunch of optimism, and a fair amount of good-natured humor.  Here’s a look at what they had to say…

Continue reading “So where’s that darn DEEP SPACE NINE documentary??? (update)”

CERBASI TREK – The Search for Nicolas (interview with “Captain Daddy” WAYNE CERBASI)

As a dad myself, I have to admit to feeling a kindred spirit when I first found out about CERBASI TREK – THE SEARCH FOR NICHOLAS.  The Cerbasi family lives in the town of Reading in the United Kingdom.  “Captain Daddy” WAYNE CERBASI has two sons, PETER (almost 12-years-old) and NICHOLAS (9-years-old).  And a few months ago, they made a 16-minute Star Trek fan film.

We’re not talking Star Trek Continues or Axanar here. This was just a fun little project for a father to do with his two kids.  And that’s what fan films are all about, right?  FUN!  And hey, if you can bring a few new fans from the “next generation” into the fold, so much the better.

Much of this film is done in “machinima” style, which is a production technique where the filmmaker records computer graphics rendered in a video game engine (like Star Trek Online or Elite Force or Bridge Commander) and edits them to tell a unique story with characters and space scenes…all without having to know how to create actual visual effects.

Machinma fan films have existed 1996, when a filmmaker used the first-person shooter game Quake to create a video short story called “Diary of a Camper” with game scenes and text-based dialog.  Since then, many Star Trek fan films have used the technique, including, for example, the multi-episode Borg War.

Most machinima-based Trek fan films use only the video game renderings for all of their scenes.  What makes Cerbasi Trek unique, however, is that this is the first time (that I’m aware of, and I’ve looked hard) that a Trek fan filmmaker has utilized green screen compositing alongside machinima to incorporate real people INTO the computer-generated scenes.  Wayne and his two sons appear with the CGI characters on the virtual bridges, and the result is a really fun-looking adventure…

I recently chatted with Wayne about his project and his Trek-starring fan film family…

Continue reading “CERBASI TREK – The Search for Nicolas (interview with “Captain Daddy” WAYNE CERBASI)”

New TRAILER posted for THE ROMULAN WAR!

For the past three weeks, I’ve been spotlighting the Indiegogo campaign for THE ROMULAN WAR.  I published a text interview with show-runner MARK NACCARATO shortly after the campaign launched, and later an audio chat with Mark discussing the current state of crowd-funding campaigns in general and his in particular.

The reason I’m pushing this project so much is not only because I’m really excited by it and want to see it completed, but also because I think this is a really critical time for Star Trek fan films.

Fan donors have gotten used to the flash and sizzle of the quality productions like Star Trek Continues, New Voyages, Prelude to Axanar, Horizon, and Renegades.  And for a while, it seemed like there were simply two “extremes” of Trek fan films: the six-figure professional-quality productions that were nearly as good as “the real thing” (some arguably better)…and the low-budget, bargain basement fan films with amateur actors, rubenesque fans doing cosplay, cheap costumes, bad lighting, horrible sound, mediocre VFX, slow pacing, etc.  While I believe many of these less ambitious projects are still worth checking out, a lot of them don’t attract much in donations through crowd-funding campaigns (and few of them even ask for money).

With the advent of the guidelines, fans lamented that the days of the six-figure “blockbusters” were over, and I think that’s one of the reasons that donations to recent Kickstarters and Indiegogos have been so anemic.

But while the top-level “professional” fan productions might mostly be history, and the low-budget fan films not really justifying  more than modest donations, to quote Yoda: “There is another…”

Continue reading “New TRAILER posted for THE ROMULAN WAR!”