To prepare this website, I have been watching a lot of fan films and fan film trailers. I have also followed a lot of dry holes trying to find fan films that didn't exist.
I'm not sure this essay will stay in the end, but for now, I have a few thoughts on this exercise.
Fan Film Makers
Different types of distortions seem associated with different ages. Most Teens don't understand the idea of the 'Star Trek Universe.' They throw in other ideas from other Sci Fi and Fantasy shows, although mostly from Sci Fi shows. They also love the 'Previously on...' often unable to control the amount of recap. Beyond that, the writing, acting, and editing are very uneven. Some are shockingly good, others just as shockingly bad.
Many of the failed adult fan films seem to have gotten hung up on making great CGI stuff. Gee wiz CGI. But they never get to, say... the characters... the PLOT. Their enthusiasm does not alway extend to acting. You want to match Star Trek: Lexington out of Alabama (all CGI, no story) with the teens doing Star Trek: Unity (written by Luke Sutton) out of Applemore College in Hampshire, England. The teens are all story and acting, the adults are all CGI and polish. Impressive CGI, but I'm one of those who is happy to look at a series of kid-drawn stills of a space battle and I get the idea... the story advances, thank you. The perfect shadows falling from a space dock onto a star ship is impressive, but to me, it may be art, but that's not entertainment. Give me the teen's stuff any old day. I like a story!
And then there are the most puzzling group of all, the show biz pros who do this. Not only is most of their stuff great, but some, like Cawley, seem determined to help other groups produce great stuff as well. That may explain why so much of the best fan films are TOS films. No one has built a full set of sets for a TNG type ship, let alone shared it with other clubs as Cawley and Phase II does. Cawley is a phenomenon, and if he were half as famous as he deserves to be, I'd love to read his biography. But many of the worlds most interesting people aren't famous.
Fans v. Pros on diversity
One of the differences between the fans and the pros is on one of the biggest points in Trek... diversity. The Pros and the best of the fan films retain a diverse cast. Phase II, Star Trek: Intrepid, Starship Exeter, have a diverse human cast. The teen films completely lack diversity in their casts. Then there's the in-between group. Starship Farragot's top three characters are all White Americans, but they have a few African-American actors in more junior positions.
Learning about myself.
I find myself just as interested in finding these films as in watching them. Locating them has itself become a game. I guess my ancestors were hunter-gatherers after all.
Feeling like a little kid.
When I watch a top flight professionally produced dramatic production, I just get carried away with it. When I turn to fan films, I feel like a child pulling on the sleeve of an adult saying, "Please tell me a story. I want a story!" And the fan film does just that. Most of them don't have the slick values of professionally produced TV or movies, but they have a warmth and intimacy which makes these Trekkies I've never met feel like old friends, and me like a kid being indulged with that finest of all gifts... a story. Trekkers to those who think Trekkies is a bad name, although I thought "Trekkies" implies that you dress up in costumes or pretend to be in the Star Trek world,... and isn't that what these fan films are?
Courage.
Courage is one of the primary centers of issues in stories. This summer, I faced two things for the first time. One, documented in this blog, was the world of Star Trek Fan Films. The other was cancer.
I never saw the whole Star Trek fan film thing coming. Cancer, on the other hand, is a family hazard. I had two preliminary tests which showed the possibility to two unrelated types of cancer. But I had a wonderful distraction... Star Trek fan films. If I got too hung up to get the things done I had to get done to get the medical tests and help I needed I turned to my new Trekkie friends I had never met to indulge me. I watched a fan film... or three. I hunted, I classified, and I organized. Then I hunted some more. By the time I went to bed, I was relaxed enough to get a good night's sleep, and do what I needed to do the next day to save my own life.
This has kept me calm and focused. People have thought me far braver than I am. Like Captain Janeway, I was just trying to find the best way home. As the captain of my own ship, I needed to keep my crew... my friends and family... happy and focused as well. I could not allow them to waste the time they felt they owed me in self-indulgent crying or whining. I needed real help. When they tried to get overly emotional, I told them, "We have no time for this. I'm facing a real crisis. When it's over, you can cry all you want, but for now, I'm in the fight of my life, and it's RED ALERT, all hands on deck. Shields up, photon torpedoes loaded, phaser banks fully charged. Stay alert, crew. And when you are not manning your stations, get your rest and exercise, because you'll need to be at your best on your next shift."
OK, I admit my friends and family aren't, for the most part, Trekkies. I didn't really say that. But that's how I dealt. When one doctor's office just lost all my information, I retargeted my weapons on another doctor for the surgery. When they would neither return my calls nor give me a surgery date, I attacked their communications headquarters with a combination of threats and promises. When a crew member started panicing two days before the battle (surgery) I replaced her on that shift. When another attempted a coup the night before the battle (surgery) I launched a swift and effective assault to retain control of my ship.
One type of cancer proved to be a false alarm. (The Klingons were not breaking the truce). For the other, I had major surgery August 5, 2009. Tomorrow, I'm supposed to find out if it was Stage 1 or Stage 2, if it's all over until the Romulans attack again, or if it's just a moment of silence in the ongoing battle. So far, there is no sign is systematic involvement, stage 3 or stage 4. We are not dealing with the Borg. It could be, each of us will retreat to our side of the neutral zone for decades to come.
But I have to thank my companions through this, Captain Hunter at Star Trek: Intrepid; Captain Shelby at Hidden Frontiers; Captains Lewis and Puto at Star Trek: Unity (England); Captain James Tiberius Kirk, at Phase II; Captain John Quincy Garrovick at Starship Exeter; Captain Carter, Aboard Starship Farragut; their crews, and the many, many others who, in shorts and quick peeks just for gross classifications, have helped me keep a steady hand on the helm of my life under fire.
I am truly grateful to the fan film world for providing me with exactly what I needed this summer. Stories of courage, honor, (honour for you Brits and Australians), strategy and focus.
Next stop? Three stars to the right, and strait on 'till morning...
UPDATE: September 30, 2009
Three of the top Fan Film Production Groups... Phase II, Hidden Frontier, and Intrepid, are all working on non-Star Trek films which they can sell and play with commercials. It's not yet clear if any of the fan groups which are working on films but have produced none will do so.
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