Hi, folks! Like the rest of you, I enjoy watching Star Trek and other science-fiction works that are made by us, the fans. With that in mind, I write a weekly column called Fan Film Friday at SciFiPulse.net. And I don't only cover films, but audio productions, animations, and "fascinating" uses of other formats. And I try to mix the Trek eras as well as formats. For example, this week I looked at a very good example of what some folks call "Teen Trek," with links to take you to enjoy the independent production Star Trek:Eagle yourself at http://scifipulse.net/?p=21759. So if you've got a new fan production coming out, contact me at randyihall@aol.com and I'll review earlier fan efforts, as well as hopefully running a preview of your project. If you do a search at SciFiPulse, you'll see I've covered a lot of cool Trek and during the Christmas season, I did a holiday special that included "Twas the Dark Knight Before Christmas," which was a hoot when Santa Claus appeared in the Batcave. I'm always looking for new (or classic) fan films to review. With that said, I hope you'll take a look at some interesting material from fellow fans or let me know where I can find it.
Captain Randy! I just wanted to say how wonderful it's been reading and watching the trek productions showcased in Fan Film Friday! It's a great way to see the tremendous talent and energy to keep the trek flame alive. Thank you for your efforts, and your incredible website. Long live ScifiPulse! Keep up the great work!
For anyone who's tried to reach me via email from the first post in this thread: No, it's not a secret plot by Section 31 to drive everyone mad. I just made a boo-boo. My real address is randyhall@aol.com. No "i" in the middle. Feel free to give me some email. I also want to thank James Heaney of the Excelsior for pointing that out to me. The only thing worse than making a mistake like that is finding out about it months later, when someone important comes along and criticizes it. And as an editor and proofreader, I know how that feels!
Hey Captain Randy Hall, thanks for the heads up. I'll check this out, looks pretty cool! We've been working on our own Trek animated feature but the project has been delayed (still recording audio). Anyways, I look forward to getting the project moving again but meanwhile I'll enjoy some other fan productions. See you around!
Well, it's Friday again, and this week, we take a look at an independent production that pits against each other the characters from two science-fiction universes: Star Trek and Star Wars! I want to thank all of those who referred me to other fan films and projects! It's not always easy finding new productions for 52 weeks in the year, so this is very helpful! And here's the link to this week's featured series: http://scifipulse.net/?p=22227 Randy
We've made it through another week, and that means another edition of Fan Film Friday is online. This time around, the focus is on the Star Trek: Excelsior audio series and features a story called "No One Gets Out Alive," which won last year's script-writing competition. Here's a link to the site: http://scifipulse.net/?p=22621 Hope you enjoy it!
Randy, thank you for taking the time to review "No One Gets Out Alive". I hope it will inspire readers who aren't familiar with Excelsior or haven't really been interested in audio dramas at all to give us a listen. I'm very pleased James was willing to trust me with the executive producer's role while he was studying in Italy (that is what you were doing wasn't it James?) and I can't say enough "thank yous" to the cast and post production team for their hard work. As we all know reviewing and/or criticism is a tricky business and it can certainly lead to hurt feelings, but it's a necessary part of the process for those of us who want to improve the quality of our work. Mike
As I said in the other thread --- this isn't a review, it's a summary, with three tacked on bullet points of 'critique.' That said, thank you for posting, Randy. Interesting read to be sure, and I look forward to hearing the episode itself soon. Lastly, if you will be including audio productions in your fan reviews, you may want to give a listen to DarkerProjects.com's series Star Trek: The Section 31 Files and Star Trek: Lost Frontier. Both are excellent, share a 'rough continuity' with each other and other fan produced series such as Star Trek: Intrepid and the Hidden Frontier productions and are each well worth the investment in time to listen to in their entirety. While 'Section 31' has ended, Lost Frontier is continuing production of it's second "season" even now.
My pleasure, Mike. I've winnted to do more reviews of audio series, and the professionalism I saw (heard) with Star Trek: The Continuing Mission is with the Excelsior. I'm thinking of reviewing arcs in your series, not so huge that I can't get it all examined properly but realizing that there are only 26 hours in day. Your project is definitely a labor of love, and I'm glad you liked my review. Randy
First off, the relation between synopsis and review is a balancing act, and I feel that if I haven't told people what's going on and suddenly Ensign X is killed, people reading that won't understand what makes that action important to the story and the other characters. As for the points at the end of a review, I try to keep my articles at 750 words, and I've gone long in the last several reviews. I do toss in a comedic reference every now and then in the synopsis, but I'll keep in mind that the balance is better to swing the pendulum more towards commentary. One of my goals is to have fan productions that don't fall into the generic live-action mode, so at least once a month, I will discuss a format and Trek era that are different from the week before and the one after. I've heard good things about Section 31 and Lost Frontier, so I'll check them out under the concept of reviewing story arcs since there are only 26 hours in a day (if I'm living on DS9) as well as animations and other concepts out there. But I can't promise to do that anytime in the next few weeks since Phase II, Farragut Animated and Orisis have indicated that there'll be new stuff from them in the very near future, and I want to be more current in the items I review and less historical, though I can't rule out fun videos like the Star Trek/Star Wars production. Again, it helps me to know what people like in fan films and other projects out there. I mean, maybe I'll get around to reviewing Star Trek Versus Batman "someday" but stranger things have happened in the past. Thanks for your comments and for pointing me in a good direction to find cool stuff I haven't seen or heard yet. That's always a good thing. Randy
This week, Fan Film Friday does a review/preview of the two-part "Eclipse," which pits the new ship and crew of the U.S.S. Osiris against the mysterious organization known as Section 31. Check out the first part before the second phase is released sometime Sunday. Here's the link to the Triple-F column: http://scifipulse.net/?p=23041. Enjoy!
With a new month and a new Friday, FFF begins a series of reviews of Star Trek: Encarta, which began in 1999 as a school project and has resulted in four adventures (so far). Every few weeks or so, we'll check the series out as it improved and evolved. So for this weekend, here's the link to the new Fan Film Friday: http://scifipulse.net/?p=23473#more-23473
Sorry to be late posting about Fan Film Friday this week. Power problem and all that. This week, we take a look at an animated episode that focuses on the Star Trek message of peace and cooperation in "The Derelict." http://scifipulse.net/?p=23831#more-23831
After a peace-centered episode last week, this time Fan Film Friday reviews a German independent production that is loaded with space battles galore. Here's the link: http://scifipulse.net/?p=24234#more-24234 Enjoy!
While we have a minute, I thought I'd ask a question of you folks. There are several fan film series out there with more than a couple of episodes. The first efforts tend to be less polished, and the later films shine due to the increased experience of the people who keep the project going. Sometimes I hear from people who would like me to review the latest film since that puts them in a good light, which is totally understandable. But other times, I like to approach things chronologically, from earliest to latest so we can see the evolution of the characters and the crew. An example off the top of my head is Star Trek Encarta. Ryan Webber and his friends have put out four stories, with the latest being movie-length and more technically proficient. So what should I do regarding these series? Start with the latest to make the group look best? Or start from the beginning and watch the effort grow? Right now, I'm leaning toward starting from the beginning instead of hopping around from later to earlier and back to later stories. What do you folks think? Does it matter what order I show these projects in? (And just to note that I don't show these in consecutive weeks since I think some variety keeps the column more interesting.) Chronological or a random order or something else? Let me know your opinion on this so I can better plan future Fan Film Friday columns! Thanks!
Oh, that's just what I needed after a long evening of failing to make Java and XML cooperate: space battles. They are so... soothing. Thanks, Randy. I think the answer to your question depends on the series. If you're looking at a heavily serialized series (Hidden Frontier, most of the audio series, especially Defiant... actually, now that I think about it, most fan productions period), you're really not going to have a choice but to start at or near the beginning if you're going to follow it at all. If, on the other hand, you're looking at a mostly standalone show -- Phase II comes to mind, as does Henglaar, M.D. -- you would be doing not only the producers a favor, but yourself! Sitting through some of those early episodes can be downright painful. (Phase II solved that problem by taking their pilot episode completely off the internet, which I think is cheating.) When a producer suggests a starting point to you personally or with a notice on their website, I usually trust them to know what they're talking about in picking the best possible entry point to the series. Incidentally, this is why Excelsior does one complete story per season; we want to have serialized elements, but we also want new audience members to be able to join up at the start of every season without having to start from our lower-quality beginnings.
Wowbanger... FYI... Phase II does not link to it's pilot from it's website, but it is still on You Tube, and I link to it from mine. http://startrekreviewed.blogspot.com/2009/06/20.html
In cases where the producers have labeled their first attempt as a "pilot" I think it's only fair to start critiquing from the first "regular" episode. In our case at Excelsior our pilot episode is exactly what I think almost any pilot is: rough in spots and lacking at times in technical proficiency, while also showing the promise of much better things to come. I think it's fascinating to look at the much more polished production we have become and then compare to our starting point. That's why I completely agree with James's decision to keep the pilot available, but in a slightly different location than the regular episodes. Hopefully if you do manage to make it through all of our episodes, you will notice a distinct improvement in technical standards from one episode to the next.
In cases where there are clearly going to be more episodes, I do try to put off reviewing the pilot until there is at least one additional episode to review, except where there is a reason to not wait, including somebody leaving a negative review as a comment on my website. That's not a guarantee that the negative review was wrong... but I don't feel comfortable leaving that without adding my two cents worth. Star Trek: Encarta, a 4 episode arc which was completed years ago, made sure people who were interested didn't watch the pilot first by posting it last!