Royce Major – Fan Film Factor

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)

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…

“ZERO HOUR” was supposed to be a one-minute PROMO, but it turned into a full seven-minute FAN FILM!

Next week, the eagerly-awaited CRISIS ON INFINITE EXCALIBURS, the latest fan film from THE AVALON UNIVERSE, will finally make its debut. And having seen an early cut, let me assure you that it will be a game-changer of a release, sure to be talked about excitedly by a LOT of fans for a very long time.

Avalon showrunner JOSHUA IRWIN and his team have poured a massive amount of time, effort, financial resources, and emotional commitment into getting this production perfect. And leading into its December premiere, Josh wanted to release a short promo “ad” on YouTube to tease the new film. But not just any ad, Josh had a clever idea.

As some folks know—and most others can very likely guess—Avalon‘s new fan film features a crossover of many different universes (one might say an infinite number!). And yes, one of those is the Star Trek “Mirror” Universe. VANCE MAJOR, who plays the character of Erick Minard across many fan films and series—including CONSTAR, VALIANT, DREADNOUGHT DOMINION, PROJECT GEMINI: CROSSROADS, ANTYLLUS, NATURE’S HUNGER, RAINCROSS, EAGLE, TASK FORCE 78, and of course, Avalon Universe, where that Minard is the chief engineer of the U.S.S. Excalibur.

But Minard also exists in the Mirror Universe as a villainous sociopath known as The Phantom, a character who will be appearing in the upcoming Crisis on Infinite Excaliburs. So Josh thought it might be cool to see The Phantom recording an ominous-sounding log entry for about a minute, hinting at some nefarious plan and ending with “A crisis is coming…” Josh tossed the log entry promo idea over to Vance, offering him complete creative control over whatever he would send back.

Now, technically, Vance officially “retired” from fan filmmaking last year, and this time he actually meant it. Well, mostly. He retired to spend more time with his son Royce, but now Royce wants to make fan films. So Vance is quietly working on CONSTAR: THE MOTION PICTURE, with Royce being the filmmaker in charge. But that’s more of a project done for sheer fun and father/son bonding time.

However, Vance is also available for friends in the fan film community who’d like his help either in front of or behind the camera. In fact, that’s how the “retired” Vance Major wound up appearing as various Minards in Crisis. So Vance was game to do the promo, as well.

But then, like Josh, Vance had a clever idea…

VANCE MAJOR concludes CONSTAR! (some final thoughts from me)

It’s the end of an era.

Granted, that “era” has only been going on since 2016 or thereabouts, but it seems like so much longer! And maybe that’s because, over the past seven years, VANCE MAJOR (Owen is his middle name) has produced and released a total of 146(!!!) Star Trek fan films featuring his character of Erick Minard (in all its many iterations!) as well as a bevy of recurring characters, cameos by a who’s who of other fan filmmakers (including myself), and even his own 5-year-old son Royce…who has been appearing in Vance’s films literally since infancy.

And that doesn’t include Vance’s appearances in other fan series like STARSHIP VALIANT and THE AVALON UNIVERSE. Vance has been a staple of our fan film community this entire time, and his parade of new releases—sometimes coming almost weekly!—provided a recurring reminder that Star Trek fan films come as much from the heart as from the camera.

Of course, Vance’s stuff isn’t to everyone’s taste, and I totally get that. His production budgets are ridiculously humble (like, “Buddy, can ya spare some change?” humble), the quality modest at best, and the acting as likely to be hit as miss. More often than not, there’s limited if any “action,” and the more recent films (especially since COVID) have been little more than a series of interstellar Skype calls as two people have a conversation. “The Best of Both Worlds” or “Sacrifice of Angels” these fan films are most assuredly not!

But what they are, in my opinion, is a form of poetry. Vance presents his thoughts, feelings, observations, perspectives, concerns, triumphs, frustrations, dreams, and passions through his films. Most poets don’t need much more than a pen and paper (or keyboard). For Vance, it also means a camera phone, Starfleet uniform, and video editing software. But the idea and the goal is the same: to share a part of himself with others.

Some of us enjoy that sharing and don’t mind seeing the cord in the doorway or not being able to hear bits of the dialog because of the wind. We don’t mind seeing 20th and 21st century cars and trucks, or clothes and baseball caps that look like they were bought at Target, appearing in a story set centuries in the future. That’s never been what Vance’s poetry has been about. Instead, it was always about using Star Trek to speak his truth…for those interested in listening.

And even though it was never Vance’s primary intention, his fan films also served as inspiration for others for make fan films of their own. If Vance didn’t care about top-tier production quality or jaw-dropping sizzle, then how important was it really? If you have a story you want to tell, then hey, just do do it.