Fan Film Writer's Primer

[captainkirk]

On the subject of characters, one thing I've noticed in some fan films is that they add tons of characters. This makes things harder for everyone. It's hard for the audience to keep track of everyone. It's hard for the writers to come up with things for everyone to do in a story. It's hard to find costumes for everyone. But perhaps worst of all, all the characters wind up boring.
It would be far better to have just a few characters that are interesting than a lot of boring ones that don't fill any role.
The only fan film I've seen to handle large casts well is Intrepid. By giving most characters some brief moment of action, or a funny line, they become memorable. When someone's biggest role in an episode is to say "Shields at 47%!" you forget about them.

[Linnear]

I have to agree here. That is important. Sometimes I look at my script and am thinking of casting, and I really DON'T have that many main roles. Here is a quick list of characters we have in "Axanar".

FEDERATION

Garth
Tanaka, XO
Wagner, Tactical Officer (female)
Korax, Intel. Officer (female)

KLINGONS

Commander
XO


That is who the focus is on. That is who has the bulk of the dialogue. Now there are both secondary characters (Admiral, Chief Engineer, Pilot, Fleet Ops Officer), who we don't develop much. And there are characters we only see in one act, like Klingon ship captains (who probably die!) or red shirts (who in "Axanar" are ass kicking spec ops). But you don't get vested in them. And the canon characters you know, Soval or Sarek, Rabau, don't need much development. Except for April, who is we get who we want, will be an instant fan favorite.

So, we have basically have 6 characters (4 protagonists, 2 antagonists) who over 75 minutes or so you will come to know and hopefully love. Character development is really important and probably what gets the most attention in editing (by the talented Dave Galanter). In fact, the development of Garth was the first note I got from Marco Palmieri, the former Star Trek editor for Pocket Books, who reviewed the treatment.

I am also a very open writer. Yeah, it is my script ( I will force Dave to take a co-writing credit), but I take 90% of Dave's edits and put them in. 10% we probably discuss and make some adjustment but usually because Dave missed what i was getting at (which means I probably wasn't clear). Dave is just so damn good.

Well, that is my 2 cents.

Alec

[DaveGalanter]

You're too kind, my friend. And Marco is the best--I loved working with him and hope to do so again.

And no, you won't get me to take a co-writing credit. :-p This is your story. I'm editing and suggesting and doing what I can to be a good sounding board. But this is your story, and your baby, and I'm enjoying seeing it all come together. We got to see about five seconds of Garth in the original series--the real Garth--and we got to see a couple more minutes in "Going Boldly" the Phase II vignette. There's a very good character there and I think when people see it, they'll understand why Kirk respected and admired him.