Have you ever wondered why people will invest thousands of dollars of their hard-earned money and years of their life to make a fan film? What would tempt a professional to work on a fan film for nothing? What is the fascination? Where are the rewards? In this issue of Sci Fi Studios Magazine, we have gone all out to bring you into the world of fan films, to see it through the eyes of some of the best and brightest talents working on Star Trek fan films today.

Wendy: The overwhelming response to your work is positive, but how do you take negative criticisms such as New Voyages being "very amateurish"?

Carlos: I embrace negative criticism. It either helps me improve my work or just confirms for me that people care enough about Star Trek to be pissed off by what I do. I'll take criticism over apathy any day of the week. As for being amateurish, I'll take that, too. Amateur doesn't mean unprofessional. It means non-professional. In other words, I'm not paid for my work. I do it because I love it. The Latin root for amateur is love...

Fan films are attracting many fine actors, ranging from the high-profile stars of the original series who are featured in New Voyages episodes to dedicated amateurs like the cast of Tales of the Seventh Fleet. Hidden Frontier has a combination of the two, talented amateurs and practicing professionals—of whom J.T. Tepnapa is one of the leading actors. Our Scott Brody, who is also a writer and actor, was impressed by the depth of talent evident in this young filmmaker.

J.T.'s character of Corey represents a "first" in Star Trek lore and especially in Star Trek fan films as the first gay character to have a kiss by two males. J.T. is very proud of this accomplishment and loves the fact that HF is recognized for not only the first openly gay kiss in Star Trek history, but for tackling many controversial subjects such as clinical depression, terrorism, grief and loss of family and friends, and even PTSD. J.T. says, "I don't think we should run away or hide from controversial episodes. If people come out of curiosity about homosexual characters, so be it. Many stay because Hidden Frontier is so much more than that."

One of our resident science writers, Robert E. Pyatt, has stepped out of his "comfort zone" to bring us an interview with Jonathan S. Kui, the writer, director and producer of Hellraiser: Prophecy. Robert was interested in Jonathan's work because he is a fellow academic and he wondered how this might have affected his interpretation of this combination of two major horror franchises. 

Robert: Despite having no formal training in film production, Jonathan has managed to create a moody short which evokes the depravity of the Hellraiser series and the angelic politics of the Prophecy films—using students from his biology graduate program as cast and crew. I interviewed Jonathan about the making of his first film, his future projects, and how his directorial aspirations fit with his career as a scientist.

 

Where did you first get the inspiration to direct films?

Jonathan: I never really thought about directing until a friend of mine challenged me to make a horror film after she heard me complain once too many times about some contemporary horror films I'd seen. Once she put the idea in my head, and I realized that the technology and software had progressed to the point filmmaking could be affordable for novices, I said, "Why not? Why not try?"

The truth is that there are as many ways of making a fan film as there are fan filmmakers! For example, one of the few Star Trek fan films that is a group effort and not the product of one man's vision is Star Trek: Intrepid, whose first episode premiered in May after nearly five years in the making! Chris McQuillan was our interviewer of Steve Hammond, the Intrepid writer, actor and director.

As for anyone out there who's pondering starting their own fan films, Steve has a few words of advice. "Grab whatever gear you have lying around and start filming," he suggests. "Actually, more seriously, I would advise focusing on the script to the exclusion of everything else for at least a year. We get a lot of people wanting to make their own film and usually it turns out that they have an idea and nothing else or are trying to write an entire series. But in all honesty, it just depends what you want to do. If you're happy having a laugh with a video camera, go for it. If you're serious about it, then prepare for a lot of hard work, long hours, setbacks and disappointments. The end result, though, will make you deliriously happy!"

A good fan film is not just a matter of good dramatics though. There are literally dozens of technical and artistic jobs that need to be done—and done well! Starship Farragut was in the position, shortly before the release of their first episode, of handing the job of creating the complete musical score for it over to a different composer, John Seguin, with only two weeks to do the job!

SFS: In composing for Starship Farragut, you wrote 26 minutes of original music in just 10 days! How in the world did you manage it?

John: Yeah, that was pretty insane and not really a production schedule I'd like to repeat anytime soon! I also work a full-time "day job" which I plan on sticking with for the next year before I go into full-time music production work, so this was pretty difficult to balance with that. It was basically a combination of many late nights with a bag of Nestle semi-sweets and Coke Zero that kept me going to 3-4 am. For pacing, I first spotted an act at a time to try to help make sure we got music everywhere even if it wasn't "ideal." The team had a deadline in place and so, we decided it was best to have music everywhere as opposed to stellar for only 1/3 of it! There were motifs and components that we recycled throughout different parts, though now that I've been watching more Star Trek (original series), I've noticed that they recycle as much or possibly more than I did!

Jaydin and Rachel, who co-wrote this interview, have channeled their unique perspective and youthful energy into a barrage of questions that John shot back with equal alacrity.

It has fallen upon me to put it all into perspective and to accomplish this I have chosen to interview James Cawley, the executive producer of Star Trek: New Voyages, without a doubt the highest profile, fan-made, Star Trek fan film in production today. Surprisingly he was adamant that their success was only in part due to his own efforts.

Alan: The traditional route to the producer's chair is to start out as a P.A., a Personal Assistant, in Hollywood and work your way up. You haven't done that—how did you develop your skills as a producer?

James: Well I think being a producer is like being a manager of any business. You have to have a clear sense of what you want to accomplish and you have to have some idea of how you are going to go about it. Then you have to put your trust in a group of people who you know can get the job done and that's kind of what I've been doing with this. Its just dive in and get yourself completely wet and figure it out as you go! Luckily, I've been blessed with a terrific number of people who all share the same passion I do. The trick has been finding the people who share the same vision because there are a lot of different ideas as to what Star Trek is. I've been trying to get the people that understand what it is that I'm trying to do with it, how I'm trying to continue it and not change it.

Vision, organization and delegation—the foundations of any successful group endeavor, from a kid's lemonade stand to a giant multinational corporation. These qualities are especially important in a fan film, where the team members might be scattered around the continent or even halfway around the world! The common thread I noticed through all the interviews was the strong sense of teamwork and community shared by them all, not just within their own production groups, but across the whole fan film community. Even groups who, in a commercial environment, would be classified as competitors are given support.

Why do people make fan films? There are as many answers as there are people being asked the question—so only general trends can be identified. What can be said though is that no matter what the reason, the experience of making a fan film invariably has a profound effect on the makers, the viewers and the entertainment industry in general. Whether they are large ensemble films like New Voyages, Hidden Frontier and Intrepid or a one-man machinima, ordinary people—fans—are moving up into a media previously the preserve of professionals, and professionals are finding fan films a new way to connect with their fandom.