Prelude to Axanar

[Graham Kennedy]

Anybody heard of this? It started life as a kickstarter project, intended to raise $10,000 to make a short fan film about the battle of Axanar, which would be how Captain Garth from TOS because a big damn hero to everyone, including Kirk.

Well, the kickstarter raised over $100,000, and it's become a rather larger and more ambitious project starring several ex-Trek actors - Tony Todd, Richard Hatch, Michael Hogan, JG Hertzler, Gary Graham...

There's a trailer out that looks impressive as all hell, at least for a fan film.

There's a fan series out continuing the adventures of TOS, too, and other works, many of them approaching - if not meeting, quite - professional standards. Could the next 10 or 20 years see a whole renaissance of Trek, outside the oversight of the powers that be?

[Mikey]

That is almost ridiculously well done (and well cast.) I think the fact that Kickstarter was involved is the key to answering your question: these fan projects will only ever be viable alternatives to studio projects if and when they can raise the sorts of funds that will make production values like this one possible.

Of course once that happens, CBS will come crashing down on these poor folks like a lead zeppelin.

(Cf. Damnatus

[Graham Kennedy]

Apparently right now studios don't mind fan productions so long as they're not for profit.

Will that attitude last if fan productions start becoming seriously popular? Maybe not...

[Teaos]

Be better to just ask for a cut rather than shutting them down.

[Sonic Glitch]

Prelude to Axanar is actually completed. They are now in the process of raising money to produce the full 90-minute Axanar film. Prelude can be streamed here on their Kickstarter site. I'm actually pretty impressed.

[Graham Kennedy]

Ah, I hadn't realised that! Just watched Prelude, holy crap that was awesome!

[Atekimogus]

I really like the "history channel" documentation style of it!

But to be honest, they should stick with that, not sure if they can make a full 90minute movie out of it.


Two things I noticed however, first, wasn't the Ncc1701 built in earth orbit (San Francisco Fleetyards) and not at Axanar?

And secondly.....I find it still quite funny, especially when rewatching old 60s TOS, that from all the series, all the fanmovies from all of star trek.....TOS still has imho the most realistic looking combat.

To clarify, in TOS you never see two opposing ships in the same frame, you never see hugely detailed explosions etc. etc. and to be honest, altough a necessity of the times back then, it did convey a great feeling of the enormous distances of space. That is more or less exactly what I would expect to see....a flash of light, a dot on the screen and nothing more. If they choose to show a closeup of the ships, fine but please never two ships in the same frame. To convey an overall picture of the battle just show a tactical view on the screen.


Here however, we have ships firing torpedoes from 50 metres tops traveling at a relaxed 100-200 km/h.....it just doesn't look real imho.

[Sonic Glitch]

I really like the "history channel" documentation style of it!

But to be honest, they should stick with that, not sure if they can make a full 90minute movie out of it.


Two things I noticed however, first, wasn't the Ncc1701 built in earth orbit (San Francisco Fleetyards) and not at Axanar?

The plaque does say "San Franscisco Fleet Yards Earth' if I recall correctly, but given the entire Star Trek canon history, it's a minor nit I, for one, can forgive them for.

[Vic]

One of the messages I like in there, you can uphold the ideals of the Federation and prosecute a war. The two are not mutually exclusive. This is where TNG/DS9 fell flat on their faces.

[Graham Kennedy]

The plaque does say "San Franscisco Fleet Yards Earth' if I recall correctly, but given the entire Star Trek canon history, it's a minor nit I, for one, can forgive them for.

[Atekimogus]

One of the messages I like in there, you can uphold the ideals of the Federation and prosecute a war. The two are not mutually exclusive. This is where TNG/DS9 fell flat on their faces.

I have to agree, the speech was nicely done.

One thing I found a bit off an unfortunate casting choice was Hertzler however. That guy has such an awesome and recognizabe voice....I am sorry but even without make-up all I could think was Martok!

[Mikey]

I thought Hertzler was very good, as were Tony Todd and Richard Hatch. Not only did the short leave me wanting to see what happened wrt the deployment of the D7 a/o the Connie-class, I'm also immensely interested to see the event(s) that transformed the humble and steady Garth of Izar here into the megalomaniac from TOS.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Finally saw this, and good lord this was awesome.

[sunnyside]

Bump because I just found out about this and did a thread search before posting.

Small update, it seems they managed to score $650,000 via kickstarter, though I guess a chunk of that goes into fees associated with kickstarter and doling out the doner perks.

Still, they're planning another kickstarter drive (so it isn't to late to get in on it) , and with "Prelude", the press they've gotten, and George Takei plugging for them a bit, I wouldn't be surprised if between all their funding they can put over a million into their feature length movie, which they expect to have out at the end of this year.

At least I hope the money keeps coming. It sounds like they planned to get a lot less money than they did, but that just encouraged them to up their budget for sets and stuff. So if the money doesn't keep coming in I suspect the thing just crashes and burns instead of coming out with slightly lower quality.

I guess they could shoot it with good sets, special effects, but all the actors getting exactly one take...

[Graham Kennedy]

With a million they should be able to do something pretty decent. A lot of indie films don't have even close to that budget.