Category: Fan Film Features

HOLY CORE, BATMAN! This TREK fan film KICKSTARTER has only 5 DAYS LEFT!

Lately, some of my readers have complained that the fan film guidelines have essentially ended quality Star Trek fan films.  “You can’t make a decent Trek fan film in just 15 or 30 minutes,” they say, “and limiting crowd-funding to just $50,000 is ridiculously constraining.”

To them I reply, “Watch CHANCE ENCOUNTER!”  This 20-minute TNG-era fan film out of the U.K. had real actors, real sets, a fantastic script, wonderful directing, emotional music, great effects…you name it!  And it was made for just a few thousand dollars (or rather, pounds, since they’re all British).

Now these guys want to make another fan film…and they’re struggling to reach their Kickstarter goal of $12K.  They’re nearly halfway there, have raised an impressive $5, 345 from 74 backers (including me)…

…BUT THEY HAVE ONLY FIVE DAYS LEFT!!!

And the problem with Kickstarter is that, if they don’t reach their goal, they get ZERO!  Show-runner GARY O’BRIEN and co-writer PAUL LAIGHT are trying very hard to reach out to fans.  They’ve produced multiple spotlight videos, have been living on Facebook, and even did a podcast.  But so far, they’ve only made it half way…and time is running out!

Please help.

This is the kind of quality Star Trek fan film you’ve been wanting to see, folks.  But without donations, you won’t see it.  That’s why I’m pushing so hard to assist these guys…because I really want to see it, too!

Here’s the link to donate:

Please consider making a pledge.  But whether or not you do, at least share that link on Facebook, Twitter, in chat-rooms, forums, e-mail lists, skywriting, smoke-signals, semaphore…whatever you’ve got!

And just to get you a teensy bit more excited, here’s their latest spotlight video with a look at their LCARS…

The TOP TWELVE new STAR TREK: DISCOVERY title sequences created by FANS!

Ever since William Shatner first said the words, “Space, the final frontier…” every Star Trek series has had an opening title sequence featuring, well, space!  All but one, that is…

STAR TREK: DISCOVERY broke with tradition to give fans an odd montage of seemingly random images—a drafting sketch of the USS Discovery, the Victoria Crater of Mars, a human nose/mouth/neck, a close-up on a human eye, an EVA-suit, a phaser, a communicator, a Vulcan salute, a Klingon blade, a weird giant plant spitting out the Discovery, a grappling hook, two space-gloved hands reminiscent of the iconic “The Creation of Adam” biblical fresco by Michelangelo, and finally the logo for the series and a fly-by of the USS Discovery again.

But no space (the final frontier).

The music is an eerie-sounding composition that transitions into a sometimes driving, sometimes mournful orchestral piece culminating in the familiar opening melody of the original Alexander Courage Star Trek theme.  Composed by Jeff Russo, the Discovery music combines with the visuals to create an intensely surreal impression similar to the opening title sequence of the series Westworld.

For those who haven’t watched Discovery yet, here’s the opening title sequence that begins each episode…

Like the series itself, people seem to either love or hate the opening title sequence for Star Trek: Discovery…just as they did for the “Faith of the Heart” opening for Star Trek: Enterprise.

But Enterprise was canceled before YouTube existed (or rather, just as it was being launched).  Now, however, fans feel quite comfortable making and posting their own new versions of the opening title sequence, and there are currently dozens of videos out there!

After reviewing all the ones I could find, I selected my TOP TWELVE.  Yeah, I know it’s supposed to be TOP TEN, but I just couldn’t eliminate the final two.  They were just so good!

I’ve assembled those twelve fan-made videos here in one blog—ranked in order so that my favorite is last.  Which one is YOUR favorite?

Continue reading “The TOP TWELVE new STAR TREK: DISCOVERY title sequences created by FANS!”

The complete HISTORY OF STAR TREK CONTINUES…in a single PDF!

Just as STAR TREK CONTINUES was releasing their series finale last October, I was publishing an ambitious 6-part weekly blog feature covering the half-decade history of this beloved fan-made production.

The blog series was, without a doubt, my most ambitious endeavor to date, researched and compiled from several dozen sources—articles, interviews, features, reviews, Facebook posts, updates from STC itself, and even video recorded live by yours truly.  The six parts took me months to complete, and in the end, a few thousand people came to Fan Film Factor to enjoy reading about this fan series and the people who produced it.

I kinda figured that was it for STC on FFF.  The series wrapped up, the blogs were done…time to move on to other fan films both old and new.  But one of my readers, BRYAN LEECH from Melbourne, Australia, posted a comment on Part 3 of the blog:

Is there any possibility that, when completed, you could make your work available as a complete downloadable entity?

Man, did that sound like extra work!  I politely declined, explaining that I was pretty busy writing new blogs.  But then Bryan offered to create a PDF himself.  He’d assemble all of the text, add the graphics, and even include and test all of the hyperlinks that I’d included in the original blog.

Bryan got started in December and would send me versions to review every so often.  We’d discuss designs and fonts choices; whether to use italics, bold, and/or ALL CAPS in certain places; where to place images and how large to make them, and whether to have the text by completely justified on the right or not.  We troubleshooted bad hyperlinks, and Bryan even fixed some of my ultra-rare typos.

It took a few months and a lot of hard work on Bryan’s part to get things perfect, but in the end, the finished product is something we’re both very proud of.  SO big thanks to Bryan!

In addition to the link below, I’ve also posted the PDF file to my new “PDFs” section here on Fan Film Factor.  You can find that menu option in the middle of the top nav bar.  Check it out, as there’s some other fun PDFs there for download as well.

And now for your reading pleasure, here it is: the complete HISTORY OF STAR TREK CONTINUES…

Click here to view the History of Star Trek Continues PDF.

Today is a good day to PLEDGE…to “The Holy Core” Kickstarter!

Hey, folks.  Just a friendly reminder that the Kickstarter for THE HOLY CORE, a new Star Trek fan project from the folks who brought us CHANCE ENCOUNTER, has only 13 days left to go!  There’s already 53 backers, and they’re up to nearly 1/3 of the $12,000 they need to raise.  But remember that if they don’t make it to their goal, they get nothing…zero, zip, zilch, nada.  And that would be such a shame.

The key right now is to help SPREAD THE WORD (and donate, if you haven’t already)!  Send out and share links to their Kickstarter campaign page:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1512203744/the-holy-core-a-star-trek-fan-film

They’ve already shared a few cool videos of some of what they’re planning for this TNG-era fan film.  This video spotlighting their transporter effect was just released:

Then there was this one from last week showing the design for the Vitan satellites, which will play an important role in the planned 30-minute fan film:

And here’s the Kickstarter campaign video for the overall project:

Please consider making a donation, or at least helping to spread the Kickstarter link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1512203744/the-holy-core-a-star-trek-fan-film

Thank you.

STARSHIP TRISTAN Creative Group releases their 12th fan film: “PRIDE AND PREJUDICE”!

Last week, I announced the release of the eleventh fan film, “Sepulchre,”  from the STARSHIP TRISTAN Creative Group from POTEMKIN PICTURES.  I noted that the previous tenth release had come out seven months earlier.  But now, the new twelfth release, “Pride and Prejudice,” has followed only ONE WEEK after the eleventh.  What gives?

I decided to go to the source and ask show-runner RANDY LANDERS.  I was quite surprised to learn the answer:

Back in August, I had a quadruple bypass which delayed post production on a number of our short films. We have never before held back releases, in fact, but we actually are this time.  We released “Sepulchre” as soon as it was ready, then released the follow-up “Pride and Prejudice” a week later.  “Pride and Prejudice” was actually ready for release in January.  For the same reason, we’re holding up the release of “Shattered Sky” (a Deimos film) until we finish up and release “Prodigal Daughter.”

It’s quite possible we will have four releases in March!

I asked Randy how he was doing after the bypass.  (My own father had a double bypass about three years ago and is still going strong).

I’m doing great. You can quote me, and report that two productions were filmed without me (“New Orders,” which was directed by Jason Furman, and “Sepulchre” which was directed by Lee Drew).  And “Pride and Prejudice” was directed by Christin Woods [who plays T’Noshi  -Jonathan] relieving me of that concern as well. I’m very proud of the work they did to get these productions completed.

I should also mention that this latest episode from the Tristan folk was written by WILLIAM C. SEARCY, who plays the fan-favorite character of the half-Vulcan Dr. Skep Anderson.

So please enjoy the second Potemkin Pictures fan film release in two weeks, “Pride and Prejudice”…

 

The story BEHIND THE PURCHASE of the STAR TREK CONTINUES sets! (audio interview with RAY TESI)

Fans gave a sigh of relief in early February when it was announced that the STAR TREK CONTINUES sets in Kingsland, Georgia had been purchased by a fan filmmaker who intended to make the sets available to other fan filmmakers to create their Trek fan productions.  The new owner is a fellow by the name of RAY TESI, and his own fan project was STARSHIP REPUBLIC, which had released the 9-minute “Serpent of Yesterday“ vignette in February of last year.

But I was curious about something: how was Ray affording all this?

Y’see, after releasing his fan film vignette, Ray launched an Indiegogo campaign to try to raise $16,000 to continue the production of his fan series.  That campaign only made it to $2,351, and the project was shelved indefinitely.

Now, I didn’t know whether Ray had purchased the sets from VIC MIGNOGNA of Star Trek Continues or had gotten them for free (turns out Ray bought them).  But I did know that the rent for the warehouse where the sets reside is tens of thousands of dollars per year!

So how is a guy who needed $16,000 in crowd-funding a year ago suddenly able to afford thousands of dollars a month in rent?  Did he win the lottery?  Rob a bank?  Blackmail a rich politician?

It turns out, fortunately(!), that it was none of the above.  In fact, when you hear the actual story behind Ray’s purchase of the STC sets, I think that you—like me—will gain a new respect for Ray Tesi and feel truly inspired and positive about the future of this wonderful fan resource.

Here’s the interview…

Ray Tesi in the center seat surrounded by the cast of Starship Republic

And for anyone wanting to see how awesome these sets are, here’s a walkthrough from a few years ago (before they added Engineering, which makes it all even MORE awesome!)…

Drawing AXANAR – an interview with “WHY WE FIGHT” artist MARK McCRARY

Last week, I premiered the first-ever AXANAR illustrated short story, “Why We Fight,” written by yours truly and illustrated by MARK McCRARY.  I met Mark through another Mark, MARK LARGENT, with whom I co-wrote and co-produced the fan parody film Prelude to Ax’d-We-Are.  Mark and Mark are buddies, and together they wrote and illustrated an awesome fan comic book about the final voyage of James T. Kirk entitled “Save What From Heaven Is with the Breezes Blown.”

You probably already know about me (and if you don’t, read some of my biography blogs here).  But my illustrator Mark McCrary is still a mystery to most fans.  Not anymore!  I felt that Mark deserved a decent interview to finally tell the fan film world a little bit about himself.

And so, without further ado, the man who made my Axanar fan fiction story look totally amazing…

Continue reading “Drawing AXANAR – an interview with “WHY WE FIGHT” artist MARK McCRARY”

STARSHIP TRISTAN Creative Group releases their 11th fan film: “SEPULCHRE”!

The nice folks at POTEMKIN PICTURES now have five different Trek fan production teams producing new fan films, two teams with new series in post-production, and of course the completed series that started it all: PROJECT: POTEMKIN (with three dozen episodes).  You can watch everything from Potemkin Pictures on their website.

The first fan series to spin off from Project: Potemkin was STARSHIP TRISTAN, filmed in Pelham, Alabama where show-runner RANDY LANDERS is based.  It debuted in December of 2015, but six months later, the fan film guidelines prohibited ongoing fan series.  So Starship Tristan simply dropped their fan series name and began naming each new release with the title of that particular “episode.”

Their latest offering is a fan film called “Sepulchre” which runs ten and a half minutes.  Set in the post-TOS-movie-era, the series has built its own somewhat cramped bridge set and uses simplified long-sleeve shirts for uniforms.  But if you’re watching these productions for their big-budget quality, then you probably want Star Trek Continues down the hall.  These folks are more about the story, and this latest story is pretty decent.  In fact, if lengthened out and developed a little more, I could imagine “Sepulchre” easily being an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Although the first ten episodes of this fan-series-that-is-not-to-be-called-a-fan-series were released about once every 1 to 3 months, it’s actually been 7 months since the last new Tristan fan film.   However, in that time, there has been an interesting change that I noted.  Previously, all new releases were credited to the “Tristan Production Crew” or the “Potemkin Creative Team”—not really wanting to call too much undue attention to the previous fan series name.  Now the opening credits say “Produced by the STARSHIP TRISTAN Creative Group.”  Big step forward, in my opinion.  With luck, CBS won’t bat an eyelash.

And now, please enjoy Tristan’s latest fan production, “Sepulchre”…

Why you ABSOLUTELY should DONATE to this KICKSTARTER for THE HOLY CORE (from the makers of CHANCE ENCOUNTER)!

One of my favorite Star Trek fan films is CHANCE ENCOUNTER, co-written by PAUL LAIGHT and GARY O’BRIEN, and directed by Gary.  This 20-minute, TNG-era fan film was a perfectly-acted love story with wonderful music, tight editing, very nice costumes and uniforms, and even some physical TNG-era sets.  Usually for this era, fan films just shoot actors in front of green screens and composite in the complex 24th century starship interiors as background images.  But these guys built an actual shuttlepod cockpit and turbolift set.

It’s been over a year since Chance Encounter debuted, funded with the help of a Kickstarter campaign that raised £1,862 (about $2,700).  Since then, many fans have wondered when we might see another fan production from this team.  The answer was revealed last Thursday when Gary and Paul launched a new Kickstarter for their second project: THE HOLY CORE.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE!

This time, they’re trying to raise £8,700 (approximately $12,000) for a much more ambitious production.  This one will be 30-minutes long, following the fan film guidelines and split into two 15-minute parts.  Once again, there will be physical sets, this time augmented by CGI backgrounds.  Here’s a test shot that appears on their Kickstarter video:

And that’s just a TEST…wait’ll they shoot the real film!!!

And for anyone wondering if this’ll be just another love story disguised as a Star Trek: TNG episode, the answer is no.  This time, things will be much more fast-paced and filled with deep ethical and moral questions.  The crew of the USS Vigilance, a Nebula-class starship, has a mission to help the inhabitants of the planet Vita II.  But things aren’t as they first appear, and the crew must wrestle with the difficult topics of faith, science, sacrifice, and destiny itself.

Assuming Gary and Paul reach their goal (they are already 15% of the way there after just five days…including $175 from me), they intend to release the completed fan film next February or March.  I’d really like to see that happen, folks

As such, I’ll be publishing reminders about this Kickstarter over the next three and a half weeks, and I hope you’ll join me in both donating and spreading the word.  This one is really worth it!

And now, here’s a message from show-runners Gary O’Brien and Paul Laight…

Continue reading “Why you ABSOLUTELY should DONATE to this KICKSTARTER for THE HOLY CORE (from the makers of CHANCE ENCOUNTER)!”

“WHY WE FIGHT” – the first-ever AXANAR illustrated short story!

Click here to view the PDF version of “Why We Fight”

Read more about the creation of this original Axanar short story by clicking here.  And come back next week for an interview with illustrator Mark McCrary.

“Why We Fight”

An Axanar Short Story

Written by Jonathan Lane
Illustrations by Mark McCrary

Stardate: 2244.9
Location: The 602 Club, Mill Valley near San Francisco, Earth

At a table…

Continue reading ““WHY WE FIGHT” – the first-ever AXANAR illustrated short story!”