At the suggestion of Madame Moderator jespah I am creating this new topic. The focus here will be on films that pack a punch within the kind of restricted running time the CBS Guidelines have set forth.
Ideally this is not a topic for sharing Trek fanfilms. This whole forum is for that after all. Let's keep the focus here on fillms which show just how a good a film can be up to 30sih minutes. (If they go over a bit that's fine.)
Also, ideally we don't just dump videos here, but we also share what we think is interesting or influential or significant about them, and what inspiration we might take from them.
Let's keep it to one film per post, too.
I know madame has a film in mind that she'll share, so I'll leave that one to her. But I'll open this subject with a film that I think is signficant because it takes a known format—the TV anthology series—and stands it on its head. As Prelude to Axanar came at Star Trek via an unusual vector, this unsold Desilu pilot gives the dry anthology series format a shot in the arm (much more creatively than Axanar, IMO). In fact, even though it was not picked up, it won a Peabody award...the only unsold pilot ever to be so recognized.
THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH, 1958, Desilu (link to Wikipedia Article)
Why it's signficant
What's fascinating about this show is that Welles uses the entire metaphorical toy train-set to put a unique spin on something that could easily have been done in a conventional and likely bland manner. Welles does with rear-projection what would be a perfect fit for a greenscreened production today: placing actors and a few set pieces in front of a screen and changing the backgrounds on the fly as needed. He utilizes freeze frames to single out evocative images and expressions. And while he plays the Hitchcockian host, he acts more as narrator than bookend, interposing the storyteller into the story itself instead of merely framing it.
I first saw this as the opening short before a screening of Welles' The Trial and ended up discussing this more than the movie!
Ideally this is not a topic for sharing Trek fanfilms. This whole forum is for that after all. Let's keep the focus here on fillms which show just how a good a film can be up to 30sih minutes. (If they go over a bit that's fine.)
Also, ideally we don't just dump videos here, but we also share what we think is interesting or influential or significant about them, and what inspiration we might take from them.
Let's keep it to one film per post, too.
I know madame has a film in mind that she'll share, so I'll leave that one to her. But I'll open this subject with a film that I think is signficant because it takes a known format—the TV anthology series—and stands it on its head. As Prelude to Axanar came at Star Trek via an unusual vector, this unsold Desilu pilot gives the dry anthology series format a shot in the arm (much more creatively than Axanar, IMO). In fact, even though it was not picked up, it won a Peabody award...the only unsold pilot ever to be so recognized.
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THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH, 1958, Desilu (link to Wikipedia Article)
Why it's signficant
What's fascinating about this show is that Welles uses the entire metaphorical toy train-set to put a unique spin on something that could easily have been done in a conventional and likely bland manner. Welles does with rear-projection what would be a perfect fit for a greenscreened production today: placing actors and a few set pieces in front of a screen and changing the backgrounds on the fly as needed. He utilizes freeze frames to single out evocative images and expressions. And while he plays the Hitchcockian host, he acts more as narrator than bookend, interposing the storyteller into the story itself instead of merely framing it.
I first saw this as the opening short before a screening of Welles' The Trial and ended up discussing this more than the movie!
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