Two new TREK SHORTS: “FALLEN HEROES” and “LEGACY OF THE ENTERPRISE B” (video interview with SAMUEL COCKINGS and MARCUS CHURCHILL)

SAMUEL COCKINGS is certainly the Speedy Gonzales of Star Trek fan films…assuming Speedy Gonzales is from Great Britain. Sam produces fan films so quickly that I barley cover one release when another two take its place!

Actually, this time it’s three, but this blog deals with only two of them, which I’ll explain shortly. But first, a little background on Sam and his TREK SHORTS fanthology series…

Unlike some fan filmmakers, Sam doesn’t have access to practical (physical) Star Trek sets—which is actually a GOOD thing! Without being locked into a specific era of Star Trek like TOS or TNG/DS9 or Voyager or PRODIGY or PICARD, Sam ends up having access to ALL of them!

How?

Well, Sam is an accomplished CGI master, specializing in animation but also knowing a bit about 3D modeling and having access to a number of skilled 3D modelers. Together, they have managed to create countless digital backgrounds of bridges, transporter rooms, mess halls, shuttles and runabouts, you name it(!) from two centuries of Starfleet history. And all of this along with starships and enemy vessels for spectacular outer space VFX. Watching Sam’s CGI animations is truly like watching fine art!

So all that’s really left for Sam to do is write scripts and film actors against green screens, right? Actually, there’s SO much more that he does, including properly lighting the green screen shots (not easy!), making digital adjustments during post production to levels for both the actors and the digital backgrounds to look seamless and realistic, equalize sound, add music, edit, and a ton of other little things…and still get these fan films out faster than I can cover ’em! Oh, and there’s one other thing that Sam does, and that’s direct. Sam has aligned himself with a number of very skilled actors, adding a wonderful depth and quality to already-high-quality productions.

If you’d like to watch any or all of Sam’s Trek Shorts fan films, you can access them from this YouTube playlist. One of Sam’s most recent projects was the quickly-written-then-filmed-then-edited-then-released FLIGHT OF THE PROTOSTAR, the first-ever Prodigy-era fan film That one I managed to cover, as it was just after Prodigy had been canceled. But three other of Sam’s films haven’t gotten their own blogs yet. I am now going to remedy that for two of them.

The two Trek Shorts in the spotlight today both star MARCUS CHURCHILL, also of Great Britain, who has been appearing in Sam’s Star Trek fan films ever since the 2013 shooting of the green screen footage for TEMPORAL ANOMALY, which was finally completed and released in 2019. Since then, Marcus has reprised his role of Sam Harriman (at different ranks during the character’s career) in a number of other projects for Sam. One of the most recent was FALLEN HEROES, a retelling of the film Star Trek Generations from a “lower decks” perspective. Take a look…

Continue reading “Two new TREK SHORTS: “FALLEN HEROES” and “LEGACY OF THE ENTERPRISE B” (video interview with SAMUEL COCKINGS and MARCUS CHURCHILL)”

Let’s get a taste of NATURE’S HUNGER… (video interview with JOSE CEPEDA and his crew)

Back in 2015 when I first began covering Star Trek fan films, there were quite a few fan series that had already been churning out new releases for over a half a decade. Now, only a handful of those productions are still around, although new ones have sprung up to take their place, and the world of Star Trek fan films is currently thriving.

One of those fan series that was around back in 2015 actually got its start way back in 2010, and it’s STILL churning out new fan films thirteen years later! I am referring, of course, to NATURE’S HUNGER, which was originally STAR TREK: NATURES HUNGER (and no, the lack of apostrophe in the original title is not a typo on my part). Showrunner JOSE “JOE” CEPEDA lives just south of Atlanta, GA and writes, directs, edits, does many of the VFX, supplies costumes and props, and stars as Captain Ramses of the U.S.S. Crusader.

When I launched Fan Film Factor in 2016, Nature’s Hunger remained on my list of fan series to cover. But as I do with all the fan productions that I feature, I wanted to first watch every film that they had released. This was easier said than done, however!

As you can see from their YouTube video page, even as early as 2016, they had already posted nearly a HUNDRED separate fan films and videos. Many were quite short and experimental—sometimes only a minute to a few minutes in length. But a small number were 15 and even 20 minutes long, and their most recent offerings are 45 minutes and over an hour long!

I began watching through each one, noticing the this series was the purest form of fan film where the love of the genre and desire to create their own Star Trek far surpassed their budget and resources. In other words, these weren’t slick and polished “top tier” fan films but rather very grass-roots, guerrilla-level green screen productions with lots of heart and whimsy.

Oh, and speaking of gorillas, Nature’s Hunger often threw caution and canon to the wind as they crossed over with such other “realities” as Planet of the Apes, The Silence of the Lambs, and even The Wizard of Oz. Indeed, young Dorothy Gale, after being rescued from Oz by the crew, decides to join Starfleet! So, yeah, this is a very unique fan series and perhaps not for everyone. But if you can appreciate sincere effort and respect the obvious adoration they have for Star Trek, there is a LOT to enjoy about this fan series.

Granted, it took me quite a while to make it through everything that they had released. Along the way, I saw multiple versions of the crew finding and rescuing Dorothy, along with seeing the starship shift (without explanation) from everyone serving on board the U.S.S. Enterprise to being on the U.S.S. Crusader. (Hey, it’s a fan series, folks!) I also learned what the title Nature’s Hunger refers to…

Continue reading “Let’s get a taste of NATURE’S HUNGER… (video interview with JOSE CEPEDA and his crew)”

AVALON UNIVERSE releases THE TRUTH WITHIN and then shoots THREE new fan films SIMULTANEOUSLY! (video interview with JOSH IRWIN, TYLER DUNIVAN, and VANCE MAJOR)

if showrunner JOSHUA IRWIN and his team from THE AVALON UNIVERSE can shoot three different and highly complex fan films simultaneously, then I can definitely do a blog that covers two things at the same time, right?

Those two things are 1) the release late last year of a new Avalon Universe fan film THE TRUTH WITHIN, starring CHUCK MERÉ as Captain Lance Ramirez and VANCE MAJOR as Engineer Erick Minard, and 2) Team Avalon’s current efforts to wrap up their fan series by tackling not one, not two, but THREE ambitious fan films all at once!

First, let me show you their latest fan film…

For those unfamiliar with the Avalon Universe, Chuck Meré joined the cast for their second episode, AVALON LOST, which also marked the departure of series lead TYLER DUNIVAN. Chuck stayed for two additional episodes, DEMONS and AIR AND DARKNESS, before departing the series along with co-star VICTORIA FOX. Tyler Dunivan returned to the series shortly thereafter with the episode COSMIC STREAM.

Meanwhile, Vance Major is a bit of a legend of Star Trek fan films, having written, produced,edited, directed, and/or starred in a total of 146(!!!) Star Trek fan films featuring his character of Erick Minard and the U.S.S. Constar. Many of his fan films feature interstellar “Facetime calls” between two or more characters, which are pretty easy to shoot (just record your lines into your computer or camera phone at home!). And indeed, The Truth Within looks more like a Minard/CONSTAR CHRONICLES fan film than a typical Avalon production.

Lots of questions abound, like why that simplified format, and does this mean that Chuck Meré is returning to Avalon or just making a cameo appearance? I ask both of those questions during this blog’s video interview below.

The second thing we chat about is something that I personally find even more intriguing. As some Avalon fans know (and are a little saddened by), the series will soon be coming to an end. The Truth Within marks the eleventh Avalon fan film (watch them all on this playlist), and only three more episodes remain: KNIGHTS OF THE VOID, CRISIS ON INFINITE EXCALBURS, and THE ONCE AND FUTURE CAPTAIN. (Dontcha just love the Arthurian titles?)

And these aren’t “little” episodes!

Knights is full of action and adventure. Crisis is a huge undertaking crossing realities with the same actors playing multiple characters from different universes and sci-fi franchises. (And thanks to Josh for letting me add a couple of fun characters to the script, including a “Space Elvis” tribute to STAR TREK: NEW VOYAGES‘s show-runner JAMES CAWLEY. You’re all going to love this character!) And Once and Future Captain is a gripping and poignant series finale with a huge cast.

But rather than shooting these three films one at a time, Josh has decided to produce them all simultaneously. And we’re not talking about taking a long weekend to work on the first film Friday, the second on Saturday, and the third on Sunday. No, sir!

Continue reading “AVALON UNIVERSE releases THE TRUTH WITHIN and then shoots THREE new fan films SIMULTANEOUSLY! (video interview with JOSH IRWIN, TYLER DUNIVAN, and VANCE MAJOR)”

STAR REKT takes MUSIC PARODY videos to the final frontier! (video interview with IAN RAMSEY)

I first discovered STAR REKT back in 2021 when someone posted to Facebook a link to a Star Trek-themed music video parodying the 1975 song by The Four Seasons, “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night).” But instead of “Night,” the lyric was changed to “Fight” and melodically recounted Kirk’s battle with the Gorn following the attack on Cestus III in the 1967 TOS episode “Arena.”

Now, I’d seen a whole bunch of Star Trek music videos over the years…many of them simply montages of edited clips from episodes and movies played over pop songs. (I even made one myself back in 2002 from Trek home recordings off of VHS tapes!) I’ve also watched a wide variety of Trek music PARODY videos, usually when someone writes new lyrics to an existing song. This playlist from YouTube shows a good selection of what’s out there. What you’ll notice is that these parody videos are usually either edited clips from Trek episodes/movies OR fans doing cosplay singing (or lip synching) to their own song in a series of cuts.

But what struck me about Star Rekt is that this fellow recorded himself in costume in front of a green screen and intercut those shots with clips from TOS (and eventually other TV series and movies) to create a “hybrid” of sorts. This fresh approach really stood out for me—along with his great parody lyrics, good singing, and the quality of the video editing. Take a look first at “Oh, What a Fight…”

By the time I’d found out about this guy and his videos during the summer, he’d already posted two others. The first was “I Kissed a Borg” (based on “I Kissed a Girl” by Katy Perry)…

The other was “Trill All the Klingons Want” (parodying””Girl All the Bad Guys Want” by Bowling For Soup)…

Three awesome parody music videos in four months? This funny guy was SERIOUS! And he had already covered TOS, TNG, and DS9. What else would he come up with? I immediately subscribed to his channel and eagerly waited for his next offering. It came three months later, and we were back to TNG with a dash of DS9 and Voyager thrown in. How did he cover all three? Well, they all have a Holocek (or Holosuite), and thus we were treated to a parody of the song “Photograph” by Nickelback…

At the time I’m writing this blog, Star Rekt has now released NINE parody music videos in total. If you want to see the rest, check out this playlist for parodies that spotlight some of the Star Trek features as well as the Enterprise TV series. This guy also did an off-the-wall video of himself mixing Star Trek-themed drinks and doing trivia for an hour while getting progressively plastered. It’s worth checking out.

Anyway, I tracked down “Star Rekt” and discovered his real name is IAN RAMSEY, and he does everything from here…

Let’s find out more…

RESISTANCE is far from futile…in fact, it’s AWESOME! (video interview with AARON VANDERKLEY, AARON CHAPPELL, and KATE ELDER)

For fan films that use practical (physical) sets, the Voyager era and the NX-01 era present a rather significant challenge. Sets constructed for the Star Trek series from the 1980s onward were much more elaborate than what was built back in the 1960s. That’s not to say that fan films from Star Trek‘s fictional 22nd, 24th, and even 25th centuries are unheard of. Indeed, very impressive 24th century practical sets were built for such fan films as THE HOLY CORE, STAR TREK: DECEPTION, and DECEPTION II…and the miniature 22nd century sets for the stop-motion ENTERPRISE II fan films were quite mind-blowing.

But far more often, fan films trying to portray those more, shall we say, elaborate centuries opt for virtual backgrounds made up either of still images of sets or else digitally modeled 3D set recreations—such as the long-running STAR TREK: HIDDEN FRONTIER, the excellent STAR TREK: HORIZON, and the prolific INTREPID and TREK SHORTS.

And then there’s AARON VANDERKLEY…

Based in Perth, Australia, Aaron and his team started up in 2016 releasing the first of FIVE 22nd century fan films, all with impeccable practical sets—plus amazing costumes, great acting, and top-notch production values:

Last year, after a two-year hiatus, Aaron returned with a new series of fan films with practical sets, this time in the period of the 24th century on board the Nova-class starship U.S.S. Explorer. Collected under the banner “THESE ARE THE VOYAGES,” he released one episode in 2021 and a second in 2022…

Both were as good, if not better, than the five NX-era fan films…although all seven are totally worth checking out. And speaking of checking out Aaron’s releases, he and his team have just released their third 24th century film focusing on the crew of the Explorer, and it’s called RESISTANCE. It’s easily one of their best efforts yet, as you can see below…

Pretty awesome, right?

Over the many, many years that I’ve been covering Aaron and his fan films, we’ve shared multiple interviews, but they’ve been exclusively text-based. The primary reason for this is the curvature of the planet Earth. Aaron in Perth, Australia lives 10 hours in the future from me here in Los Angeles. When it’s early evening for me, it’s the middle of his work day. When it’s early evening for him, I’m still asleep. Midday for me is middle-of-the-night for Aaron…and so on.

However, Aaron informed me that Resistance is going to be his last fan film for a while (he needs a break!), and I really, REALLY wanted to finally do a video interview with him and, if possible, members of his team. So with Aaron and two team members staying up late and me getting up ultra-early, we had a totally awesome chat heard ’round the world…

A GIANT PROBLEM brings a family into the world of Star Trek fan films! (video interview with the YISRAELs)

It’s no secret that I love Star Trek fan films (kinda hard to keep blogging about ’em for seven years if’n I didn’t!). It’s not that they’re all superb cinematic viewing experiences or that every script kicks ass or every performance is a masterpiece of dramatic presentation.

But that’s why I love these productions!

I love seeing what fans can do with the resources they have or can assemble—either alone or with the help of crowd-funding. I love to see what they can accomplish. And most of all, I love the community that assembles around them in support and camaraderie.

And that’s what happened recently with a very low-budget fan film release titled A GIANT PROBLEM. I learned about it after VANCE MAJOR, the fan behind the CONSTAR series, spotlighted the project. So I watched it, as did many others. The film didn’t have incredible sets or top-notch costumes or jaw-dropping visual effects. It was simply a bunch of fans in store-bought uniforms standing in front of green screens with composited background stills from TOS.

And I thought: “THIS is the essence of what Star Trek fans are!” Take a look…

The first thing I noticed was probably the most obvious: everyone in the cast is an African American. While there are certainly a decent number of Black fan filmmakers both in front of and behind the camera, it’s no secret that, at least when it comes to Star Trek fan films and series—for whatever reason(s)—most of the people involved are white. So an all-Black cast is a true rarity, and a most welcome one!

More than that, however, these folks had their heritage on proud display with hair, clothing accessories, and even jewelry that embraced and celebrated Black culture. If you’re a fan of IDIC, this is certainly the fan film for you!

And then, as I watched the closing credits, I saw this…

Everyone in the cast shares the same last name! In other words, this was a family project. How awesome is that?? While there are some husband/wife, parent/child, and even sibling fan filmmakers, seldom does an entire family get together to produce a film. I found myself wanting to learn more about these fine fan folks.

Heading off to Facebook, I discovered that writer/director/lead actor LUD YISRAEL is a jazz man from Chicago who owns the Neo Jazz School of New Orleans and has a doctorate in theology from Yahweh University. AND he’s a Trekkie??? Along with his family?

Well, if that wasn’t worth a video interview, I don’t know what would be! So I reached out to DR. LUD and had a wonderful discussion with him, his wife TAMAH, and his son YAH’EL YISRAEL. And what was the most fun was seeing and hearing how excited they are to learn more about and dive into this wonderful fan film community that we share…

AVALON UNIVERSE takes on Pon Farr in THE NEEDS OF THE ONE… (part 3: video interview with JOSHUA IRWIN and TYLER DUNIVAN)

About six weeks ago, I published a blog including the first of three video interviews spotlighting the latest release from THE AVALON UNIVERSE, an impressive 30-minute fan film titled THE NEEDS OF THE ONE. If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out below…

That first interview was with the new lead actress for the series, ALEXANDRA REXFORD, who plays Commander Mikeala Allenby, the first officer of the U.S.S. Excalibur. Two and a half weeks later, I posted the second video interview with CORA WILSON and WADE KING, who played the adorable shipboard couple of Vulcan Nurse T’Prin and Security Officer Williams.

And now it’s three weeks after that, and I’ve finally completed the hat trick with my third and last interview, this time with showrunner JOSHUA IRWIN and actor TYLER DUNIVAN…the Butch and Sundance (or perhaps Bill and Ted) of fan films! And why the long delays between interviews? Busy people, busy schedules—and it’s much more challenging coordinating two interviewees than one!

However, before we dive into the chat-fest, a quick update on the Indiegogo crowd-funder for CRISIS ON INFINITE EXCALIBURS. You are welcome (and encouraged) to donate here…

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/crisis-on-infinite-excaliburs-a-star-trek-fan-film

I’ve actually been contacted by a few members of our fan community asking if I was concerned that the campaign has “stalled out” a bit over the last two weeks, stuck just short of the halfway point with only 21 days left, and if I had any ideas why donations had seemingly dried up.

Here’s a few answers…

  • I know that a couple of larger supporters haven’t donated yet but are still planning to. By my estimates, this will potentially bring in another 20%.
  • The middle weeks of a crowd-funding campaign are typically the weakest for donations. Add to this that, for the past two weeks, Star Trek Las Vegas and Dragoncon have sucked up a lot of oxygen in the fan world, leaving it harder to promote a crowd-funder.
  • Beginning this week, Josh is planning to release the first in a series of videos on both the Avalon YouTube channel as well as Lore Reloaded, which has 115K subscribers. The latter will expose Avalon to many new potential donors that may not have ben aware of the fan series before this.

So no, not terribly worried yet. Let’s see what happens over the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime, today’s video chat with Josh and Tyler begins with a discussion of the upcoming project, with new details revealed.

Then we hit a delicate subject that Josh and Tyler wanted to address personally, and that is the departure from the series of a few team members, including executive producer and lead actress PIXI NEREID, who had been so prominent last year both during crowd-funding for and then starring in the ambitious AGENT OF NEW WORLDS. Now she and two other actresses have been recast. So…what happened? We’ll be talking about this, as well.

And of course, we’ll also be taking about The Needs of the One!

Continue reading “AVALON UNIVERSE takes on Pon Farr in THE NEEDS OF THE ONE… (part 3: video interview with JOSHUA IRWIN and TYLER DUNIVAN)”

AVALON UNIVERSE takes on Pon Farr in THE NEEDS OF THE ONE… (part 2: video interview with CORA WILSON and WADE KING)

First of all, here’s a quick update on the current AVALON UNIVERSE Indiegogo for their wildly-ambitious, multiverse crossover fan film CRISIS ON INFINITE EXCALIBURS. With about six weeks left (one-quarter of the way through their campaign), Avalon is sitting at an impressive $$3,345 dollars, or 41% of the way to their $8K goal. This includes a weekend donation from a first-time Avalon mega-donor of $1,500, which gets her an Executive Producer credit and an on-camera appearance in the final film.

Also, don’t tell anyone, but if donations exceed $8K, there will likely be a very fun stretch goal involving Marty McFly, Captain Derek Mason, and Elvis Presley, but we’re waaaaaay too early to discuss that…yet!

Anyway, if you can afford a few bucks to support this campaign, it’ll be money well-spent (I know ’cause I’ve read the script!). And if not, if you could at least see it in your heart to share the following link with friends and family and friends of family and family of friends, it would be sincerely appreciated by the fine folks at Team Avalon:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/crisis-on-infinite-excaliburs-a-star-trek-fan-film

And now we return to our regularly-scheduled blog, already in progress…


The latest release from the Avalon Universe is THE NEEDS OF THE ONE, and it’s proving to be quite the hit with fans! YouTube views have already exceeded 10,000 in less than three weeks, and showrunner JOSHUA IRWIN reported that he’d been contacted by the LORE RELOADED YouTube channel (114K subscribers) to partner up with Avalon and produce a series of behind-the-scenes features on the fan production to try to generate more donations for the Indiegogo campaign. So some exciting news there!

Equally exciting is the video interview that I have for you today, featuring actors CORA WILSON, who plays the the Vulcan Nurse T’Prin, and WADE KING, who plays Security Officer Williams. If you haven’t watched the episode yet, check it out now because the two of them are absolutely adorable as a couple…!

In addition to being adorable, the two provide incredibly strong performances and equally amazing stunts. Fight scenes in fan films are, not surprisingly, rare and often rather limited because Trekkies aren’t necessarily known for our martial arts prowess. But Cora and Wade are both very skilled fighters, and their abilities are on full display in this impressive fan film. AND they can both act!

It’s seldom that I say an interview is a “MUST WATCH,” but my recent conversation with Cora and Wade was really awesome. (Also awesome was my video interview from two and a half weeks ago with ALEXANDRA REXFORD, who just stepped into the role of Commander Mikaela Allenby.) Like Alexandra, Cora and Wade are both such warm and wonderful people, full of positive energy, with intriguing insights, fascinating personal histories, and some great stories from the production itself.

I thoroughly enjoyed talking to both of them, and I suspect you’ll enjoy watching our lively chat…

PROJECT: RUNABOUT boldly goes where no fan film has gone before: the Aircraft Carrier YORKTOWN! (video interview with GARY DAVIS and RANDY WRENN)

Up until last month, when most fan film Trekkers thought of YORKTOWN, they pictured the long-awaited production A TIME TO HEAL, starring GEROGE TAKEI as Sulu and the late JAMES SHIGETA as Admiral Nogura.

But as of July 17, 2022, YORKTOWN now ALSO means the latest episode of PROJECT: RUNABOUT, a relatively new fan series spun off from the long-running DREADNOUGHT DOMINION fan series. Last year, Project: Runabout debuted with their pilot episode, the 5-minute vignette PILOT, featuring the pilot of a small TOS-era runabout-class shuttlecraft getting ambushed by a Klingon warship. And it was all a music video! But what really got fans’ attention was that showrunner GARY DAVIS constructed the elaborate runabout cockpit set in his basement. Talk about a man-cave, er, cockpit!

This year, Gary and Dominion/Runabout co-showrunner RANDY WRENN tackled a much more ambitious half-hour fan film. But it was even more ambitious than that! For the first time that I’m aware of, a fan production filmed nearly a third of its scenes on board an actual American aircraft carrier from World War II.

That aircraft carrier was the U.S.S. Yorktown (hence, the name of this second episode), which is a proud part of a naval and maritime museum located on Patriots Point in the Charlestown Harbor in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. And it wasn’t just a short scene or two. Gary and Randy shot in nearly a dozen different locations throughout the naval ship, including the engine room, mess hall, briefing room, and even up on the flight deck!

It was quite an undertaking with very impressive results. Take a look…

Obviously, there’s a lot of questions to ask about the making of this fan film…both the scenes on board the Yorktown as well as those in Gary’s basement and the expansion of his sets into an even more elaborate cockpit along with a brand new briefing room and transporter.

So I roped Gary and Randy into a Zoom call, and then the fun started…

Star Trek in the 1930s??? Take a look at COMMANDERS OF STARFLEET! (video interview with JEFF NORD)

One of the reasons that I love Star Trek fan films so much is because there are literally no rules! Okay, there are guidelines, but within those guidelines, there are no limits beyond the imagination and capabilities of the fan filmmakers themselves.

One of those filmmakers is a fellow by the name of JEFF NORD, who lives in Los Angeles and dabbles in amateur filmmaking. And he got a crazy idea: Star Trek done as a 1930s-style Flash Gordon serial episode! Those old black-and-white adventures used to premiere each week, shown at movie matinees before the main feature. They were cheap, cheesy, a bit childish, but oh-so-charming when we look back at them now. And in their own way, they pushed the limits of what Hollywood could imagine and inexpensively produce in that emerging genre known as “science fiction.”

In many ways, the original Star Trek stood on the shoulders of those 1930s and 1940s serials (GENE RODDENBERRY himself was a 15-year-old when Flash Gordon premiered in theaters during 1936) as much as it did the sci-fi “blockbuster” classics of the 1950s like The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and Forbidden Planet (1956). So indeed, honoring those early sci-fi pioneers with a campy, black-and-white Star Trek fan film seems most appropriate!

Released back in April, COMMANDERS OF STARFLEET has generated a fairly impressive 6.4K+ views on YouTube so far, and it’s definitely worth checking out…

What’s particularly intriguing is how much this short fan film FEELS like one of those 1930s serial episodes. And while classics like Flash Gordon did, at the time, push the limits of what Hollywood could accomplish with limited technology and relatively small budgets, 2022 offers opportunities for the average Joe or Josephine to easily surpass what Hollywood could only dream of 86 years ago.

But what if you’re NOT trying to surpass those efforts? What if you’re simply trying to reproduce them really closely? How challenging is it to make a modern film that looks like something from nine decades ago?

In a fun and informative interview, I chatted with Jeff Nord about his very creative and unique new Star Trek fan film…