Star Trek: The Early Years breaks new ground

I was wondering how long it would take. A new fan film production group has surfaced that aims to create what I believe is the first fan film tied in to the new movie from JJ Abrams, to be called Star Trek: The Early Years.

A thread on the official movie forum first led me to their MySpace page (and its virtually identical twin on Trekspace) where I first saw their teaser trailer, which is in turn housed on Vimeo, and I can honestly say that if this is any indication of the quality of the work we can expect, this is going to be the one to watch next year!

Star Trek: The Early Years - Teaser from Emil Karlsson on Vimeo.

Online for five months, it showcases the USS Kelvin 3D model by Tobias Richter of LightWorks in a short sequence created in Blender, Adobe After Effects, Premiere and Soundbooth. The music is based on "To Boldy Go" from the Star Trek (2009) soundtrack with some add-ins by the film's maker.

The project has been around since at least March, when they announced that CutshawKane Reel Music out of Kings Mountain, NC will be providing additional music for our episodes. So far they have a principal cast and crew plus a guest cast for their first episode which is due to film in North Carolina in 2010

Pretty impressive, in fact you can see a trend here: they are all pro or semi-pro cast and crew, some with substantial backgrounds and demo reels. This is the work of an independent film-maker who is using a Star Trek fan film as a vehicle to practice his art. Its been done quite successfully in other fandoms, most noticeably the DC 'verse, and last year by D. R. Quintana's Star Trek: Beyond.

Ethically there is nothing wrong with it at all as long as they stick to the rules and don't divert any revenue from the copyright owners. This however is an example of how professionals can gain something that cannot be measured in dollars: public and professional visibility. We, the fans, win as does the copyright owner by the free fan prublicity. If they were to prosecute people for doing things for the glory that they might bring then I'd be behind bars right now!

Fan Producer gets go ahead for STO Radio

Kinneas, co-founder with Zach Nicodemous of Hailing Frequencies, the primary source of my intelligence on Star Trek gaming, has achieved a long term goal that will give him the opportunity to play a leading part in the world of Star Trek Online, both In Character and Out Of Character! From the announcement on the Hailing Frequencies website and forum...

'Gaming Radio Network', Creators of EVE Radio... are an amazingly professional group with many years of experience entertaining MMO audiences and were very receptive to my ideas on what I would do if I had a Star Trek Online Radio station.

So they gave me a fully developed station and all the creative control I will need to work with potential Role-Playing (and non- Role Playing ) DJ's who want to be the voices of the United Federation, Klingon Empire and all the realms in-between and beyond. As well as the freedom to work with the Fleets of Star Trek Online to provide them a way to promote themselves or spread empire news.

The first thing I have to say is, CONGRATULATIONS!!! Sport, you've got the talent and drive to do this. The work of all concerned with Hailing Frequencies, both as a podcast, an online fanzine and gaming news site and forum is an example to the fan production community of what can be done with imagination and drive.

Cryptic Studios and Gaming Radio Network are to be congratulated for taking the so far unique stand of giving a fan production group the opportunity to show that they can cut it in the world of MMOG entertainment media!

Dude, I am so jealous! (^V^)

----------------------- ghIj qet jaghmeyjaj ------------------------
----------------- May your enemies run with fear -------------------

What Kirok did ... in December

Getting buckled down to The Twelve Days of Christmas and Radio Liberty but I still can't resist giving people the benefit of my two strips of Latinum. My current bee-in-my-bonnet is how to publicise fan productions to mainstream audiences without it favouring the high profile productions whilst giving a potential audience enough information for them to be tempted to watch/listen/read/play a fan produced item.

• The idea was one I'd pondered before but it was brought to the fore by a valid comment by Professor Moriarty on the Trek BBS.
  
• A comment to an otherwise interesting interview with Clive Young caused me to expand on my thoughts with the aid one of Clive's descriptions.
• Made some suggestions to Barbreader for how she could improve on the functionality of her website, Star Trek Reviewed, that reminded me that I had never mentioned it here. It is an immensely useful resource for finding a vast array of Star Trek fan productions.
• Recently lost my beloved but aging iPaq and my capability for reading eBooks went with it! After looking at other PDA options, and because I am jealous of my son's iPod Touch, I decided to see what possibilities there were in the way of mobile phone aps for a Nokia N5730
• Posted to the Star Trek Paper Modeller's Yahoo Group that gamestockmassena has found a new home for the fan-made constructable card game, "Pirates of the Federation" and in the process updated the gaming material.
• Experimented with Playlists on my YouTube channel.
• Mooted the possibilities of audio dramas tying in to fan film fanchises.
• Looking for group!!! Fleet Captain James Cecil, CO of the USS Commonwealth, a Kentucky based Star Trek fan club, part of Starfleet International, is interested in starting a fan film. Voyages Of The Funakoshi will take place during the TNG era, more precisely right after the events of the movie STAR TREK: Generations and he has open positions right across the board: writers, actors, camera operators, sound recorders, Special Effects and makeup artists. Interested parties can email him at jcecil5@adelphia.net.
• December 19 - Officially started the 2009 Twelve Trek Days of Christmas
• Day 1: A simple to construct game board and playing pieces for Klin Zha, the Klingon equivalent to chess. Just cut, fold, glue and play. (I'm open to suggestions for new playing pieces!)
• Day 2: A hyperlinked guide to fan reporting in 2009 - from UseNet to social networking, from fanzines to podcasts
• Day 3: With the down-turn in the economy, this year I could only afford two wise men as the team from TWERPs podcasted about religion and politics in Star Trek in their third annual Trekcast.