When I was seven years old (waaaaaay back in 1974), I literally used to dream of walking around the U.S.S. Enterprise and serving in Starfleet. But for ROYCE LEONARD MAJOR, son of fan filmmaker VANCE MAJOR of Kansas, my dream is his reality…and has been for as long as Royce can remember. That’s because Royce has appeared in several of Vance’s Star Trek fan films—many of them with scenes shot on TOS sets in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Georgia—since he was an infant (and repeatedly in the years thereafter).
Vance himself has produced and appeared in well over 160 different Star Trek fan films, including 146 episodes of his various CONSTAR fan series as well as in other productions like STARSHIP VALIANT and THE AVALON UNIVERSE. Back in the summer of 2022, Vance announced his long-planned retirement from producing fan films, intending to focus more on his role as a father and less on playing Star Trek.
But then the two pursuits locked onto a collision course.
“Royce and I were watching STAR TREK: PICARD season 3 and seeing a bit of nostalgia,” Vance told me. “Then I started talking to Royce about filmmaking and showing him more and more. Within a month, he was working on his own films and getting the hang of my studio and how to light a green screen, understanding why we do things the way we do for the editor. After I felt he could follow through, I began reaching out to a few friends to see if they would be interested in doing a special Constar sequel.”
Vance continued, “It had been a long time since I had seen most of the classic Constar characters, and I wondered where they would be in the Picard era. That excited me. And it would be something I could take my time doing and show Royce how to do properly. And it just grew from there.”
The sequel, titled CONSTAR: THE MOTION PICTURE, was shot in part on high-quality fan-made sets at WARP 66 STUDIOS in Arkansas as well as FILK FERRET STUDIOS in North Carolina. But the majority was filmed in what Vance and Royce call MAJOR STUDIOS, which is primarily a green screen that Vance and Royce set up a few years ago in the den of their home. “That’s where Royce learned how to light and set up shots all on his own.” said Vance. “My kid could film an entire movie on his own, and he wasn’t even seven yet! It was very fun.”
Vance began working on Constar: The Motion Picture when Royce was still six, and the project itself took more than a year just to film, uniting three dozen Constar alumni, including such notables from other fan series like JOSH IRWIN, FRANK PARKER, JR., JOSE CEPEDA, SAMUEL COCKINGS, NICK COOK, MIKE LONGO, DAVID CHENG, PAUL JACQUES, LEZLIE SAWYER, RAY MYERS, GLEN WOLFE, and DAN REYNOLDS (just to name a few). It’s quite a full cast!
Check out the finished production here…
Continue reading “CONSTAR: THE MOTION PICTURE brings FATHER and SON together for a very special Star Trek fan film! (interview with ROYCE LEONARD MAJOR…and his DAD)”