News – Page 89 – Fan Film Factor

RENEGADES posts an awesome (but now unusable) VFX sequence!

When STAR TREK: RENEGADES became RENEGADES: THE SERIES, all overt or even quasi-overt references to Star Trek had to be surgically amputated. This included this like changing the character of Chekov to simply “The Admiral” and “Tuvok” to “Kovok,” calling it the “Confederation of Planets,” ditching comm badges from the uniforms (“We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!”), making sure that Aron Eisenberg’s alien make-up looked nothing like a Ferengi, and a host of other tweaks.

Unfortunately, those tweaks also impacted the visual effects, some of which had already been completed and delivered. Y’see, no Star Trek means no recognizable space vessels either…including Romulan warbirds. And that meant that a gorgeous 10-second space battle sequence rendered out by AtomicBrain SFX would never be seen by fans. Or would it…?

Renegades just posted on YouTube this short tracking shot for everyone to enjoy. We might not ever see it in a fan film (it would have been glorious…), but we can at least see it here:

CBS’s copyright claim against a 2008 German fan film leaves fans scratching their heads

I’m guessing that the makers of the German fan film STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE – THE NEW GENERATION were saying “Was ist los?” (which loosely translates to WTF?) when they got the notice this past Tuesday from YouTube that CBS had filed a copyright claim against four of their fan film videos! And most confusing of all, these were videos which had been online since 2007!!!

So what in the name of Gott was going on here???

Continue reading “CBS’s copyright claim against a 2008 German fan film leaves fans scratching their heads”

The fan series formerly known as STARSHIP TRISTAN releases its newest episode!

Continuing a new tradition of renaming their fan series with each fresh episode release, the fan series formerly known as STARSHIP TRISTAN has posted their latest episode, “The Greater Good.”

The renaming of the series is meant to keep their production in compliance with the CBS/Paramount fan production guidelines, which specify no ongoing series. Technically, all the stories for Starship Tristan take place on the same Starfleet vessel, but so far, the characters have changed with each new episode released since the guidelines were published.

We’ll have to see what happens if/when the “series-that-isn’t-a-series” features its first recurrence of a character or characters. But for now, the production continues to follow all the guidelines in terms of length (shorter than 15 minutes), budget (pretty much nothing), no professionals, no unlicensed prop or costume knock-offs, etc. This latest episode is just a quiet conversation between two people, one of whom is from a canonical race of Trek pacifists, and he’s just had to kill someone in order to protect his people. What kind of fallout follows such an act?

The fan series is from the folks at Potemkin Pictures, and they currently produce multiple series. You can find all of their releases on their website.

RENEGADES: THE SERIES reaches a major milestone: PICTURE LOCK! (What the heck is picture lock???)

It’s a production that used to be known as a Star Trek fan series. It’s been crowd-funded by Star Trek fans, and it features many Star Trek veteran actors (including Walter Koenig, Tim Russ, Nichelle Nichols, and a host of others from various Star Trek series) in roles that could be considered, with just a little squinting, to be their iconic Star Trek characters. And so Fan Film Factor is still keeping our eye on RENEGADES: THE SERIES.

Their big news at the moment is that they are now picture locked on both part one and part two of “The Requiem.” What is picture locking? Well, there are several steps in the film editing process…

Continue reading “RENEGADES: THE SERIES reaches a major milestone: PICTURE LOCK! (What the heck is picture lock???)”

ARES DIGITAL 2.0 means AXANAR will FINALLY send out those darned perks!

Perhaps the second most problematic aspect of Axanar (after the lawsuit) is the fulfillment of perks (or lack thereof) to the backers of their three crowd-funding campaigns. Two years after their second Kickstarter, which raised a jaw-dropping $638,000 from supporters, perks have still not gone out to donors. Fortunately, that is about to change with the final completion of the back-end Ares Digital 2.0 accouont management system.

But before we discuss how Axanar is finally pulling itself OUT of this sand pit, let’s take a look at how Axanar fell INTO this sand pit in the first place…

Continue reading “ARES DIGITAL 2.0 means AXANAR will FINALLY send out those darned perks!”

STAR TREK CONTINUES releases their seventh episode “Embracing the Winds”…and sparks new debate about the fan film guidelines!

STAR TREK CONTINUES’ seventh full-length episode, “Embracing the Winds” is–at least in my opinion–a masterpiece. It’s a MUST SEE+ Star Trek fan film and possibly one of the best ones released to date. Fan reaction has ranged generally from positive to gushing, with almost no one saying anything overall negative (only pointing out this or that little issue…and we Trekkers always have our “little issues”).

But really, STC has continued to up their game, and the quality and watchability of their newest offering is superb. The acting, writing, directing, pacing…everything is top-notch. There’s not of a lot of “wasted” scenes where the viewer feels the production has indulged itself too much and stretched things out. In short, it’s a tight, exciting story that does what Star Trek has traditionally done so well: take a modern day issue (in this case, a very politically charged one at the moment) and provide a “safe” mirror through which we can examine our society and beliefs…and look at ourselves with a critical eye.

Continue reading “STAR TREK CONTINUES releases their seventh episode “Embracing the Winds”…and sparks new debate about the fan film guidelines!”

SMALL ACCESS founder JONATHAN LANE (me) featured on a controversial episode of the TREKZONE SPOTLIGHT!

It seems I’m kicking up quite a bit of controversy…and not just from CBS and Paramount!

If you’re curious why this interview was “controversial,” read this blog entry from yesterday . During the 45-minute grilling, I address several hard-hitting questions about the SMALL ACCESS campaign and our letter-writing effort to try to convince CBS and Paramount to revise the fan film guidelines and make them less restrictive.

The interview also addresses the confusion and misinformation currently circulating about whether Axanar is behind the SMALL ACCESS campaign…which it is not. While I happily support Axanar and write this fun blog on the Axanar website, I’m way too busy with FAN FILM FACTOR and SMALL ACCESS to run everything past Alec Peters, and he’s way too busy to micromanage me. So we’re two ships in the same fleet fighting the same enemy, but Alec has his battles, and I’ve got mine.

Anyway, here’s the full interview for your viewing pleasure. Let me know what you think…

CHANCE ENCOUNTER launches new WEBSITE and SHORT TRAILER!

I really love these guys! The Star Trek short fan film, CHANCE ENCOUNTER, is cruising along smoothly at high warp, and they’ve just launched a new website with their first trailer on the home page (posted below).

The attractive website has production news (all of the video updates posted so far), bios on the cast and crew, and a brief but informative “About” page with the following back story:

It began when Gary and Paul decided to embark on another short film project together. This would be their ninth collaboration in about 11 years.

Originally the premise had nothing to do with Star Trek, or even science fiction. Rather, it had a contemporary setting and the hope was to tell a gentle story that showed men and women as equally capable of listening to, and helping one another on issues of both life and love.

Various scenarios were conceived of and abandoned before Paul hit upon a soft science fiction element in one of the many draft outlines he was writing. This sparked an idea in Gary who saw that with a sci-fi element in the mix, and the the themes of decency and respect being explored, that maybe they had hit upon a great Star Trek idea.

Paul agreed and after several more draft outlines were produced, the pair decided that they were ready to try and raise some funds to make the film a reality. And so they launched their first Kickstarter campaign to great success, exceeding the modest amount they had hoped to raise and thus securing their funding. Whilst they would still both contribute financially to the film themselves, the generosity of the Kickstarter backers ensured that the project was now able to be made.

Take a look at their first trailer below:

RENEGADES Indiegogo campaign cracks $120,000 – special WALTER KOENIG ovation video released!

As promised, RENEGADES: The Series has released a special video of the final curtain call Walter Koenig would have playing the character of “Pavel Chekov” (or at least an admiral with a heavy Russian accent who has had a iconic career in space). It’s a magical moment as filming wraps, and the cast and crew both applaud the living legend.

The video was released because Renegades managed to raise more than $120,000 for post production on their 2-part episode “The Requiem.” They set out to raise $60,000 for the first part and got there in less than a week. Passing that goal, they now need to reach $150,000 for part 2. So they’re almost there!

If they raise another $30,000 by midnight Pacific Time tonight, they won’t have to do another campaign anytime soon (until they make MORE episodes!). Maybe a tall order, but you do still have about eleven more hours (as I post this) to make your donation. Just CLICK HERE!

And in the meantime, please enjoy WALTER KOENIG’S final curtain call as Chekov…

Want to see WALTER KOENIG’s final curtain call for CHEKOV?

Even though Renegades: The Series is no longer technically a Star Trek fan film, Walter Koenig is still playing a very old Russian admiral with a thick accent and a long history of service to the Fleet. In other words, even if they’re not calling him “Chekov,” we all know in our hearts that this will be the final time Walter plays that legendary role on film (he has said as much).

When filming wrapped last month on the Renegades 2-parter “The Requiem,” there was a magical moment when Walter Koenig walked off the set of the Icarus, the final time he would be playing Pavel Chekov (with or without the name). The production crew all applauded, and it was captured on film. Wanna see it?

The Renegades team has promised to share that once-in-a-lifetime video clip with fans if they help the Renegades Indiegogo campaign reach $120,000. As I type this, they’re just over $106,000 with less than a week to go! So if you haven’t donated yet, please hop over there and consider giving a little something. (And if you have already given, maybe you’d like to give a bit more…hmmm?)

In the meantime, Renegades has released this awesome new teaser to get you even more excited: