Alexandra Rexford – Fan Film Factor

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!

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…

AVALON UNIVERSE takes on Pon Farr in THE NEEDS OF THE ONE… (part 1: video interview with ALEXANDRA REXFORD)

THE AVALON UNIVERSE first emerged onto the Star Trek fan film scene back in 2018 with the release of GHOST SHIP, one of the only fan films to ever infest a starship with zombies! This new fan series featured both TOS Prime and Kelvin-timeline uniforms shot on TOS sets (originally at NEUTRAL ZONE STUDIOS in Georgia and later at WARP 66 STUDIOS in Arkansas). Having their own alternate universe to “play” in allowed showrunner JOSHUA IRWIN and his team tell stories with a distinct Star Trek “feel” while not locking themselves into five decades of existing canon.

Since that premiere less than four years ago, Avalon Universe has been a veritable fan production machine, releasing what has now reached ten completed films (you can view them all on this play list)—seven major projects ranging from 15 to just over 30 minutes each plus three shorter vignettes. That’s two and a half fan films per year, folks…with more on the way!

Speaking of which, this latest release includes a bumper at the beginning announcing the launch of a new Indiegogo campaign, attempting to raise $8K to crowd-fund their most ambitious production to date, CRISIS ON INFINITE EXCALIBURS. If you’re able to donate, there’s some really nice perks (some of which I designed for the team). Here’s the link…

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

One of the things that sets Avalon apart from many other fan series is the level of quality of the lighting, sound, music, overall cinematography, VFX, make-up, editing, and of course, the acting in each new release. Much of this can be traced back to Josh Irwin himself and the fans he manages to get on his team. Josh works professionally in the film industry in Arkansas, as do many of his cast and crew. This allows Avalon fan films to achieve a polished look and feel beyond what your typical Star Trek fan film.

Their latest release, THE NEEDS OF THE ONE, has a runtime of just under a half-hour and tells the story of a female Vulcan crew member undergoing pon farr while on board. And while we’ve certainly seen that before in both TOS and Enterprise, this tale tackles the concept in a new and unique way (not easy to do with nearly 1,000 hours of filmed Star Trek episodes and movies out there!). Along the way, The Needs of the One introduces fans to a bunch of fascinating and engaging new characters along with recasting the role of first officer Mikaela Allenby, played in the previous release, AGENT OF NEW WORLDS, by ILLIA “PIXI” NEREID and in this new film by ALEXANDRA REXFORD.

The Needs of the One had already generated over 1,100 views on YouTube in the first six hours. Check it out here…

Pretty impressive, huh?