Joshua Irwin – Fan Film Factor

Four bridge sets, three shooting days, two centuries, and two fan films… (Blog Feature #2: AVALON – GHOST CRYSTAL)

Yesterday in Part 1, we covered the first two days of a three-day shoot on the bridge set of what director JOSHUA IRWIN has dubbed FARRAGUT STUDIO 3 (as Studios 1 and 2 were located in southeastern Georgia…with Studio 2 ultimately becoming NEUTRAL ZONE STUDIOS many years later).

What made this particular three-day shoot so significant is that it was one of the few times in the history of Star Trek fan films that the same sets were used during the same weekend to film scenes for two unrelated fan SERIES. While multiple fan FILMS has been shot in the same studio or location in a single weekend, those are typically associated with a single fan series, using the same actors playing the same characters for separate episodes.

But this weekend featured two separate casts utilizing mostly the same production crew and and set, but with significant changes to flip a series of 23rd century TOS movie-era starship bridges on Friday and Saturday for the upcoming FARRAGUT 2024 into a TNG season 2 era starship bridge for GHOST CRYSTAL, the first of three new AVALON UNIVERSE fan films set in the 24th and 25th centuries.

Josh Irwin is directing both fan films and is the showrunner for Avalon. JOHN BROUGHTON is the showrunner and star of Farragut 2024. And together, the two men ran not just one smooth ship but four over a three-day weekend. The first three ships were the USS Farragut, USS Constitution, and USS Decatur. But Sunday was reserved for a trip to the Avalon Universe and the bridge of the USS Excalibur NCC-1705-B.

The Avalon Universe fan series has been going strong since late 2018, having released more than a dozen fan films ranging in length from short to full-length two-parters. You can view them all here. Each of these takes place in the 23rd century, and that series of fan films will conclude later on this year with THE ONCE AND FUTURE CAPTAIN.

Ghost Crystal feature a number of both set-based and outdoor on-location scenes that will be filmed in Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma. But Josh saw an opportunity to utilize the Farragut Films bridge to create a 24th-style starship. This required some customizing, of course, and included a fourth command chair (in addition to the three constructed for the three Farragut 2024 starships), this one built by RODNEY GARRETT, who was still sanding it down and putting the finishing touches on the set piece outside on Saturday in 90+ degree heat. But the extra effort was worth it, as the chair came out looking awesome…

Four bridge sets, three shooting days, two centuries, and two fan films… (Blog Feature #1: FARRAGUT 2024)

During the second-to-last weekend of June, the town of Frederick, Maryland was the site of a complex and challenging shoot of not just one Star Trek fan film but TWO! The location was a facility that has been dubbed by some FARRAGUT STUDIO 3, and the fan films were FARRAGUT 2024 (a 23rd century TOS movie-era fan film and sequel to last year’s FARRAGUT FORWARD) and GHOST CRYSTAL (the first of three new AVALON UNIVERSE episodes episodes set in the 24th and, eventually, 25th centuries).

But before I continue, let me briefly mention that both productions have active crowd-funding campaigns that, while having met their original goals, are still in stretch goal mode…

To donate click to Farragut 2024, click here.

To donate to Avalon Universe, click here.

And now, let’s talk about this amazing fan film shoot!

Many of you may have seen photos posted online by various members of the cast and crews of both productions. But what you probably don’t know is everything that went into making this 3-day shoot happen and what went on behind-the-scenes to make it all come together.

Let’s start with the two men behind these projects: Farragut showrunner JOHN BROUGHTON and Avalon showrunner JOSHUA IRWIN. Josh serves as director for both of these fan films, and John, in addition to starring in Farragut as Captain (Admiral?) Jack Carter, also specializes in meticulous costume-making and set construction…and he will be moving forward to direct the upcoming FARRAGUT FINALE.

Some fan films require minimal preparation and planning. Farragut 2024 is NOT one of those. Other productions require moderate preparation and planning. Farragut ain’t one of those either! Nope, Team Farragut has been meeting weekly for more than a year and half, with the various department heads gathering virtually via Microsoft Teams to discuss every aspect of this project: make-up, CGI, costumes, sets, direction, line production…everyone was expected to attend these weekly meetings, hosted by John (who runs a pretty tight ship both in the 23rd century and also in the 21st!).

You might be thinking that having weekly meetings for over a year for a Star Trek fan film is overdoing it a bit, but the fact remains that most of these folks have known each other as friends and colleagues for years or even decades, and many of them come from community theater backgrounds where regular production meetings are pretty standard.

Fast forward to this past April, and Farragut had an outdoor location shoot planned. Unfortunately, the weather made other plans, and rain was forecast throughout Washington, DC and the surrounding areas. But that was okay. A studio shoot had already been planned two months later for the weekend of June 20-22 (Friday-Sunday), so the team could simply tack on a short Thursday afternoon shoot and film the two outdoor scenes within walking distance of the studio, as neither scene required recognizable scenery—unlike their previous location scenes, which were shot in and around famous DC landmarks.

But once again, fate and the weather weren’t cooperating…

FARRAGUT 2024 blasts past its $15K Indiegogo finish line at the last moment!

It wasn’t looking good there for a while! I mean, it wasn’t looking awful either. With 26 hours left until their crowd-funding deadline, I went to sleep on Tuesday night noticing that the Indiegogo campaign for the upcoming FARRAGUT 2024 fan film had only just barely crossed the one-third mark with $5,180 from 44 backers. When I woke up the next morning, the total was over $15K from 45 backers!

Yep, a $10K donation had come in overnight, shooting the Indiegogo over the top and making it eligible—at the last moment!—for “InDemand” status, where the campaign can continue collecting contributions indefinitely. My congratulations to show-runner JOHN BROUGHTON and the entire Farragut 2024 team!

This current campaign was actually billed as “Take 2” due to the fact that the initial attempt to raise funding back in late 2024 struggled as it competed with the holiday season and money spent on presents and travel. So a second Indiegogo kicked off two months ago endeavoring to raise the remaining $15K.

Despite the Indiegogo for last year’s FARRAGUT FORWARD easily clearing its $30K goal and ultimately being retired as it reached the $50K level (the maximum crowd-funding limit specified in the fan film guidelines), the sequel campaign definitely hit some headwinds.

And Farragut wasn’t the only recent crowd-funder to struggle. The Indiegogo for Tales from the Neutral Zone this past month came up significantly short of its $11.5K goal, raising only $4.2K (about 36%). However, it should be noted that this campaign wasn’t two months long like Farragut‘s and, in fact, lasted less than a month. Personally, I don’t think crowd-funders for Star Trek fan films can get to a five-figure goal in under two months anymore unless they are truly well-known with an existing donor base from previous projects. And indeed, Neutral Zone‘s RAY TESI acknowledged that “there were many familiar names” among their 25 backers.

Also, the Neutral Zone Indiegogo launched DURING the Farragut Indiegogo, and that probably impacted both campaigns in a negative way, as Star Trek fan films tend to draw from the same well of donors. I strongly recommend that if there’s another crowd-funder already going on that you wait until it’s complete before launching yours—for the benefit of both projects.

And remember: no matter how exciting your project is or how enthusiastic your existing fan base, crowd-funding campaigns require a LOT of work! You can’t just post one, sit back, and wait for the money to roll in. You need to get the word out on Facebook, via e-mails, and with YouTube videos, photos, and interviews, trailers…whatever you can do to attract eyeballs and open wallets.

I’ll conclude by reiterating that the Farragut 2024 Indegogo is now in “InDemand” mode, so you can still contribute to help make the final fan film even better and potentially to help start the funding for their next project FARRAGUT FINALE. Here’s the link and the video…

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/farragut-2024-take-2#

FARRAGUT releases BLOOPER REEL as their INDIEGOGO moves fast forward toward FARRAGUT 2024! (interview with JOHN BROUGHTON and JOSH IRWIN)

I love bloopers. And it’s not just because they’re (usually) funny. No, what a blooper reel often shows is the side of filmmaking that fans don’t often see: how much fun the people making the project actually have on set!

In the case of FARRAGUT FILMS and their recent FARRAGUT FORWARD hit fan film (currently topping 150K views on YouTube), their just-released blooper reels shows what a wonderful group of people they are, including director JOHNNY K. who assembled and posted the reel a couple of weeks ago…

The blooper reel release comes during a two-month Iniegogo campaign attempting to raise the remaining $15K needed to finance their next project, FARRAGUT 2024. The previous campaign feel short of its goal, in part because of the Christmas season (launching crowd-funders during the last two months of the calendar year often runs into holiday headwinds as people put their money into gifts and travel). But this current campaign is nearly a quarter of the way to its goal with just under three weeks left.

Back during the TOS movie-era (which is when the new Farragut releases take place), there was a generally-accepted paradigm that the even-numbered Star Trek feature films were the best ones. As such, Farragut Forward felt much like Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, offering a villain from Captain Jack Carter’s past obsessed with having his revenge. In a similar vein, their next project, FARRAGUT 2024, features a time-travel story back to modern-day Earth with a noticeable comedic undertone—although this time it’s the 21st century and the city is Washington, DC (where John Broughton lives) and not San Francisco of the 20th century.

Their crowd-funding video features a good amount of completed footage to give fans a flavor of the feel and production quality of this project, and it is definitely worth taking a look at…

And of course, donations are always welcome at this URL:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/farragut-2024-take-2

I had a chance to chat with both John and his director for Farragut 2024, JOSHUA IRWIN, whose AVALON UNIVERSE Star Trek fan films are among the best out there….

The TOP 10 CRITICISMS of Star Trek fan films…and why they’re mostly B.S. (guest blog by JOSHUA IRWIN)

Jonathan Lane here with a quick introduction. Joshua Irwin is the showrunner and force-of-nature behind the AVALON UNIVERSE fan series, as well as a helper-outer on countless other fan films whose showrunners have requested his assistance. Josh’s skills as a filmmaker come from both film school and a quarter century working in the film industry in Arkansas. So I feel it’s fair to say that, when it comes to producing Star Trek fan films—from writing to directing to editing and everything in between—Josh knows what he’s doing.

With dozens of Star Trek fan films under his belt in various capacities, Josh has seen countless comments posted about his videos on YouTube, both positive and negative—although vastly more of the former than the latter. The irony about the negative comments, however, is that Josh never criticizes the work of any other fan filmmaker, at whatever level.

Sadly, other fans do not share Josh’s discretion when it comes to posting criticisms about his and others’ fan film projects. That’s not to imply that Josh’s work leaves no room for improvement. Josh himself can be extremely self-critical in very practical ways, and he is well aware that constraints on time, money, availability of cast and crew, and resources in general can severely limit what he is able to accomplish and produce. And indeed, Josh is always open to well-thought-out and reasonable constructive critiques of his projects.

However, YouTube provides very little of that. Instead, criticisms posted about Josh’s fan films—much like criticisms posted about most fan films—tend to be drive-by complaints and insults or unsolicited pieces of “friendly advice.”

Recently, Josh posted to Facebook a list of the kinds of criticisms he usually receives and why most of them tend to be pretty worthless. While some constructive critiques are indeed smart and insightful, the following ten types of criticisms are, for the most part, a complete waste of everyone’s time and brain cells. I asked Josh if he’d like to turn his Facebook post into a guest blog, and he happily agreed.

And now, here’s Josh…

NEUTRAL ZONE STUDIOS holds its final shoot in KINGSLAND, GA…so what’s next? (interview with JOSHUA IRWIN, part 2)

In part one, I reported on the dismantling on the TOS sets at NEUTRAL ZONE STUDIOS in Kingsland, GA, beginning this past weekend. The disassembly is in preparation for a planned move to a new facility, likely somewhere in central Florida (significantly closer to where set owner RAY TEST lives in Baca Raton). A final location has not yet been decided upon, but Ray has narrowed down the choices. Numerous considerations go into the decision, including size of the space, electrical capabilities, A/C and other amenities, safety and accessibility of the new location, etc.

The move was necessitated when the previous next-door tenant at the Kingsland location moved away, leaving half of the building vacant and requiring significant repair costs for the roof on the empty side. The landlord, not wanting to cover the roofing expense while simultaneously being unable to generate half of the rent revenue for the building, has decided to sell it. The landlord is being very kind to Ray, not specifying any particular move-out deadline. Ray is nevertheless expediting the move, taking advantage of the hot summer months when Neutral Zone Studios typically closes for filming anyway.

Two weekends ago, fans and volunteers assembled at the facility for a final two-day shoot for a new episode of TALES FROM THE NEUTRAL ZONE, directed by JOSHUA IRWIN. In the conclusion of our two-part interview with Josh, we’re going to shift our focus to the shoot itself and the people who were there…

An APOLOGY to KASEY SHAFSKY from JOSH IRWIN and MYSELF…

I had been planning to publish part 2 of the interview with JOSHUA IRWIN about the final shoot at NEUTRAL ZONE STUDIOS two weekends ago. However, that will have to wait until tomorrow, as I need to print a retraction and an apology to KASEY SHAFSKY for something that was inadvertently included in the interview that should not have been.

Josh, in commenting about Kasey (who has been hyper-critical of Neutral Zone Studios for quite a while), included the following remark: “Kasey Shafsky was a part of the first two or three STC episodes ten years ago and was not invited back.”

Kasey responded indignantly on social media with the following two posts…

Josh has asked me to publish the following response, verbatim, to Fan Film Factor…

I want to offer a public apology to Kasey Shafsky. While talking on the phone with Jonathan for the interview a few days ago, I made a comment regarding a rumor about Kasey Shafsky’s involvement in the making of Star Trek Continues. It was an offhand remark during a part of the interview that I thought was off the record. I did not believe that what I said at that point would be either printed or connected to a previous answer.

I don’t know Kasey, I’ve never met him. I have nothing against him, nor do I seek conflict with him. I have no idea what his involvement with STC was because I wasn’t there. I was asked questions about the studio, and I answered them. IMDB does in fact list him as a producer for all 11 episodes. My remark was hearsay, and should be treated as such.

I feel it is important to clarify this because I believe strongly that only the confirmed truth should be reported in the public square, not rumor. If I’m going to stick up for others when rumor is thrown out there, I need to hold myself to that same standard.

I likewise need to apologize to Kasey for publishing that portion of Josh’s interview. I listened again, and it wasn’t clear whether Josh meant for that part to be off the record, but I should have double-checked with him. My apologies to both Kasey and Josh for that oversight.

I will say that others have mentioned to me in passing that Kasey was not directly involved with the production of STC episodes nor was he in attendance during shoots beyond the third episode of the series, although he did reportedly visit the sets from time to time. It was for this reason that I felt comfortable in including Josh’s comment in the interview.

However, no one has agreed to go on record in confirming (or denying) any of those above statements, so I cannot officially confirm nor deny them other than to say, “I was told off the record.” If anyone wishes to comment on the record, please feel free to post something in the comments or contact me directly. Otherwise, my apology to Kasey stands.

Part 2 of Josh’s interview will appear tomorrow.

NEUTRAL ZONE STUDIOS holds its final shoot in KINGSLAND, GA…so what’s next? (interview with JOSHUA IRWIN, part 1)

Back in 2012, FARRAGUT FILMS moved their TOS set recreations to a new, larger facility in Kingsland, GA and expanded the starship interiors to include nearly everything that existed on the Paramount backlot during the 1960s—eventually adding a two-story Engineering set, as well. In addition to STARSHIP FARRAGUT, a second series, STAR TREK CONTINUES, began filming there, ultimately taking over exclusive use of the entire studio until shooting wrapped in 2017.

At that time, the sets were owned in their entirety by STC showrunner VIC MIGNOGNA. But he was still paying thousands of dollars a month in rent out of pocket to keep the amazing TOS sets from being tossed into the nearest dumpster. In early 2018, however, Vic sold the sets to Boca Raton, FL resident RAY TESI, who took over the Kingsland facility, assumed responsibility for the rent, and shortly thereafter renamed STAGE 9 STUDIOS to NEUTRAL ZONE STUDIOS.

Ray also proceeded to open the sets up to filming by any fan production willing to pay a nominal daily rental fee to cover basic expenses like electricity. Since then, a parade of fan films and series have been shot there, including DREADNOUGHT DOMINION, AVALON UNIVERSE, CONSTAR, RED SHIRT DIARIES, TO HAVE BOLDLY GONE, LET OLD WRINKLES COME, and a host of other projects. Ray has even produced his own fanthology series, TALES FROM THE NEUTRAL ZONE, which has released seven fan films so far.

Over the weekend of July 6-7, Neutral Zone Studios hosted its final shoot in Kingsland, GA with JOSHUA IRWIN directing the latest installment of Tales from the Neutral Zone, an episode titled HISTORY NEVER FORGETS. And starting this past weekend, the TOS sets have started to be disassembled. What’s going on, you ask? I reached out to owner Ray Tesi, but he’s actually inundated right now with the logistics of managing volunteers and equipment to deal with the studio. However, Ray told me to direct my questions to Joshua, so without further ado….

TALES FROM THE NEUTRAL ZONE releases “LA MORT DE LA GUERRE” (“The Death of War”) featuring AVALON characters in the PRIME universe! (video interview with JOSH IRWIN, CAITLYN BAILEY, and others)

NEUTRAL ZONE STUDIOS in Kingsland, GA (at least for now, the studio will be relocating soon) has provided TOS sets for countless Star Trek fan films and series, including STARSHIP FARRAGUT, STAR TREK CONTINUES, DREADNOUGHT DOMINION, THE AVALON UNIVERSE, and so many more. And not to be outdone, the studio itself has its own fanthology series: TALES FROM THE NEUTRAL ZONE. Beginning in 2019, NZS has released seven fan films:

“THE LOOKING GLASS”
“ENDOSYMBIOSYS”
“DOOMSDAY”
“WHEN DUTY CALLS”
“THE TEST OF TIME”
“THE LOST STARSHIP”

And the seventh, which was premiered on May 23, is titled “LA MORT DE LA GUERRE” (“The Death of War”), written by JOSHUA IRWIN and directed by Josh along with TYLER DUNIVAN. It came out extremely well; take a look…

The film features the crew of the U.S.S. Excalibur, but not the starship in the Avalon Universe that Josh’s films usually spotlight. No, this time it’s the ship and crew from Star Trek‘s Prime Universe, most recently seen in last year’s CRISIS ON INFINITE EXCALIBURS.

This fan film also represents a somewhat unique pairing of resources, as not only was Neutral Zone Studios involved in the production, but so was the other major fan film studio featuring TOS sets, WARP 66 STUDIOS in northern Arkansas. Co-owner of WARP 66, GLEN L. WOLFE, traveled down to Georgia, bringing along a plethora of TOS tunics and uniforms for both actors and extras to wear. Also joining the production team were FRANK PARKER, JR. from CROSSROADS: THE GEMINI PROJECT (this time playing a Romulan) as well as VANCE MAJOR playing Eric Minard from CONSTAR. Even GARY DAVIS from DOMINION MEDIA got into the act by providing a last-minute photo of a “Sulu scope” for a close up shot of the tactical readout at the helm station.

Heck, even I worked on this fan film as a creative consultant. That meant that I provided Josh feedback and suggestions at various points during the months-long post-production and editing process. That might seem like an easy-peasy way to sneak into the credits, but I’ve actually watched through different iterations of this film more than a dozen times(!!!), marking down time-code and making extensive notes. Combined with the 50 to 70 people who worked on this project during the two days of shooting on the sets, this was truly a group effort of the many.

In the spirit of that sense of camaraderie and collaboration, my fellow fan film fanatic, JEFFERSON KELLEY of BEYOND TREK PODCAST, organized a group discussion of this excellent fan film, inviting a number of people from the production as well as myself, as well as CHEETO and ZAM from the NERD TUBE podcast. So rather than just doing one of my typical Fan Film Factor video interviews, Jefferson has offered to make his group podcast available for me to post here. It was a very fun, lively, and enlightening discussion. Enjoy…

A public APOLOGY and sincere THANK YOU to C.W. THOMPSON from myself and JOSH IRWIN…

It’s never easy to admit that you screwed up. But that happened in December, and now is the time and place to acknowledge and try to correct it.

To understand what happened, we need to leapfrog back to last October and a crisis that happened with CRISIS ON INFINITE EXCALIBURS. After working on the project for over two years and putting several thousand dollars of his own money into it (along with several thousand dollars that were crowd-funded from fan donors), AVALON UNIVERSE showrunner JOSH IRWIN was in a serious bind. A final shoot had been scheduled for the upcoming weekend with an actress who needed to travel from Oklahoma to Arkansas, and expenses for gas, food, and lodging for the weekend were promised to be covered. But a last minute unrelated emergency put Josh in a bind of quite literally being too broke to afford reimbursement for this person, nor did she have the financial means to make the trip without it.

Usually when something like this happens, I can come through with a loan or donation. I’ve never advertised this fact, as I didn’t want to become known as an ATM for fan filmmakers. Unfortunately, the Lane family had our own emergency in late September requiring unexpected and significant construction/repair costs, and my days of donating left and right to crowd-funding campaigns are done for now. So I couldn’t help Josh personally.

Over the years, CLARENCE W. THOMPSON has been a very generous donor to many fan film crowd-funders, including my own fan film INTERLUDE. Without even telling Josh I was doing so, I reached out to C.W. and asked if he could come through with a donation to help Josh. Without hesitation, C.W. offered a very nice amount that would cover the weekend expenses for this actress and allow her to make the trip. The money was Paypal’d to Josh within minutes. Josh was immensely thankful (as was I!) and promised to include C.W. in the credits as a full producer. C.W. was happy to accept the offer.

Guess what Josh totally forgot to do.

Finishing Crisis on Infinite Excaliburs drained Josh not only financially but also mentally, physically, emotionally, and even spiritually. By the time of the last few weeks before the December release, Josh was essentially running the last half-mile of a full marathon, sprinting the entire way. But that’s only a reason for forgetting to include C.W. as a producer in the credits, NOT an excuse.

And why am I apologizing, too? Because Josh asked me to copy-proof his credits. He said, “I always forget someone or something!” He wanted a second pair of eyes to double-check him. And while I did catch several mistakes, I didn’t even notice the omission of C.W.’s name. And so I share a portion of the blame.