Tag: Treks in 90 Secs

The TIME has come to submit your ULTRA-SHORT Star Trek fan films to TREKS IN 90 SECS!

Back in February, I announced a fun little challenge for Star Trek fan filmmakers: TREKS IN 90 SECS. With the guidelines limiting the run-time of a Trek fan film to no more than 15 minutes (30 minutes if you make it two parts), it was suggested to me that we take that limit WAY DOWN to just a minute and a half! Could a Star Trek fan film tell a decent story in just 90 seconds???

A number of fan filmmakers eagerly and proudly picked up the gauntlet and did exactly that! They created ultra-short fan film vignettes and posted them to YouTube.

And now it is time for those folks to submit their mini-projects for judging by…well…YOU! I am going to post whatever Treks in 90 Secs links that are sent to me and let the readers of Fan Film Factor decide who gets bragging rights.

Here’s how this is all gonna work…

Anyone who wants to enter their ultra-short fan film MUST-MUST-MUST send me the YouTube link on or before July 31, 2024.

You can either IM me the YouTube link via Facebook if you’ve already friended me (or want to) or you can e-mail he link to me at news (at) fanfilmfactor (dot) com. If I don’t confirm receiving the link, you ain’t entered.

I will then post all entries to a fresh blog page during the first week of August and let folks vote for their favorite video. Readers will be able to vote for up to three videos. Polls will be open until August 25, and then I will announce the top three winners the following week. After that, they can brag.

And these are the official rules:

  1. The fan film doesn’t need to be “exactly” 90 seconds. It can be less or even a little more. But if you run over two minutes, it’s not gettin’ entered.
  2. The fan film needs to be Star Trek related in some way.
  3. The fan film must be a complete “story” (however you want to define that term). It can be funny, dramatic, sad, exciting, all dialogue, no dialogue, whatever you’d like. But what it can’t be is a segment from an existing fan film. It needs to be 100% new.
  4. A maximum of three fan film submissions per entrant.
  5. Deadline to enter is midnight Pacific Time, July 31, 2024.

And there ya go! Good luck, everyone. Let’s have FUN!

The SHOWRUNNER AWARDS are not the same as TREKS IN 90 SECS…

I think I screwed up (a little).

Back in February, I announced a brand new contest for Star Trek fan filmmakers: TREKS IN 90 SECS! The idea was for filmmakers to create self-contained stories that could be told in 90 seconds or less. Those ultra-short fan films could be submitted to yours truly on or before the end of July and then be voted on by readers of my blog. The three fan films with the most votes would get the most amazing prize ever: bragging rights! (Sorry, no Vegemite. I can’t afford it.)

I was asked at one point if submissions to Treks in 90 Secs could go a little over 90 seconds, and I said okay. But I added that I would enforce a hard limit of no more than 2 minutes.

That may have been where I screwed up.

Last month when I announced that submissions were now open for the third annual Star Trek Fan Film SHOWRUNNER AWARDS, I forgot to mention that this was a completely separate competition from the Treks in 90 Secs contest. And I’ve since discovered that a few people thought they were the same contest.

Why did they think this? Well, one of the categories for the Showrunner Awards is “BEST SCENE (up to 2 minutes).” For that category, the entrant must create a separate, self-contained YouTube or Vimeo video of what they think is the best continuous sequence from their fan film. The sequence cannot be longer than two minutes.

And so, here’s a blog clarifying the differences between the two contests:

SHOWRUNNER AWARDS

  • Open to Star Trek fan films of any length released between 1/1/19 and 12/31/23
  • Deadline to enter for this year: May 31
  • Click here to submit a fan film through an online form
  • Cost to enter: $10/entry plus $1 per additional category (23 categories total)
  • Judged by a panel of twelve fan film showrunners
  • Certificates awarded to the winners

TREKS IN 90 SECS

  • Open to any Star Trek fan film with a total runtime not to exceed two minutes (preferably 90 seconds)
  • Deadline to enter for this year: July 31
  • To enter, e-mail me the link at jonathan (at ) fanfilmfactor (dot) com
  • Cost to enter: absolutely free
  • Judged by Fan Film Factor readers; votes tallied online
  • Nothing awarded to the winners except pride

Actually, now that I have a spiffy logo for Treks in 90 Secs, I might give something to the winners after all. Not sure yet, but I’ve got a few months to decide.

All right, you may all return to your regularly-scheduled lives…already in progress.

HARRY KIM’S NIGHTMARE inspires a new fan film contest: TREKS IN 90 SECS!

Recently, two things happened totally on a lark. The first was JOSH IRWIN, DAVID CHENG, and VANCE MAJOR teaming up for an ultra-short Star Trek fan film titled HARRY KIM’S NIGHTMARE. It was a fun little idea that Josh came up with, essentially a quick gag scene showing Harry Kim decades after Voyager, wearing a STAR TREK: PICARD-era uniform.

Josh enlisted the participation of David Cheng because he played Captain Harry Kim in last year’s BORG HUNTERS fan film from David’s STAR TREK FAN PRODUCTIONS INTERNATIONAL. David has one of those cool leather/suede jackets from Picard season three that he was able to wear as “future” Harry Kim.

As for Vance, well, he had a fourth season DISCOVERY uniform for the dream/nightmare sequence that he was able to make available to David, and Josh had also asked Vance to appear briefly (this was before Vance retired for the final time). Both David and Vance filmed themselves, David against a green screen and Vance with his son ROYCE in the shot. Then Josh edited the best takes together with some quick VFX by DAN BRELAND. The result is a 44-second fan film with another 24 seconds of closing credits…

The release of this “quickie” prompted a second idea on a lark. In a Facebook chat group where numerous fan filmmakers come together to share resources, someone suggested having a contest where all of the entries had to be a minute or less. Everyone loved the idea but felt that 60 seconds wasn’t enough and suggested at least 90 seconds.

And so ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to announce the…

TREKS IN 90 SECS CONTEST!

The concept is simple: make a complete Star Trek fan film of about 90 seconds in length and post it to YouTube. Then send me the link [ jonathan(at)fanfilmfactor(dot)com ]. The submission deadline will be July 31, 2024. No entry fee.

Then during the first week of August, I’ll post a blog with all of the entries I receive on a single webpage along with a voting widget. Visitors can select their top 1, 2, and 3 choices, and after two weeks of voting, the three videos with the highest totals will be announced as winners.

What’s the prize? Absolutely nothing! No trophy, no online certificate, no spreadable condiment. Just bragging rights. And who doesn’t like to brag, am I right?

So here’s a few minor rules because, well, reasons…

  1. The fan film doesn’t need to be “exactly” 90 seconds. It can be less or even a little more. But if you run over two minutes, it ain’t gettin’ entered.
  2. The fan film needs to be Star Trek related in some way.
  3. The fan film must be a complete “story” (however you want to define that term). It can be funny, dramatic, sad, exciting, all dialogue, no dialogue, whatever you’d like. But what it can’t be is a segment from an existing fan film. It needs to be 100% new.
  4. A maximum of three fan film submissions per entrant.

And that’s it. If any more rules need to be added, I’ll let you know. Otherwise, good luck and have FUN!