Project: Potemkin, a Star Trek Fan Film

[Barbreader]

I am blown away. What a plan! And I had just put together a 'guess' list of future episodes for Project Potemkin two days ago, so this is a great blessing. I replaced my guess with your real plan! SUPER!!!

Best of luck in EVERYTHING in your life, not only your Trek stuff, in the next year!! Happy New Year!!!

[Potemkin_Prod]

Thanks, Barbara, I appreciate it. We've just been so busy filming the second season vignettes that I hadn't the time to update the websites. I dedicated the entire day to updating the Project: Potemkin page and others on the Orion Press Fan Films page with updated information.

• So far we've got 7 productions on YouTube and Vimeo and Pauley79.
• We've got three in the final stages of post production (including "Archway" which I've worked on since dinner).
• We've got footage for another 9 vignettes already shot and in various stages of completion (mostly because we're working feverishly on the three I mentioned earlier, but especially the 62 min "The Night the Stars Fell from the Sky").
• We have one more vignette to film for this season (next month).

Then we're starting on a couple of shorts (including one to be shot at TrekTrax Atlanta) and three (count 'em!) full-length episodes for our third season. All the things that we try in the vignettes carry over as learning experiences for our episodes. We're having fun, and telling what we hope are good and entertaining stories.

We wish everyone at TrekBBS a Happy New Year, and we look forward to the coming releases for 2013!

[Barbreader]

What I have been seeing is marked improvement as you go along. That's not unique for fan series, but it's fun to watch. As a relative newcomer to fan film viewing (with no ambition to make my own), it's exciting for me to see the process of a major series as it rolls out, right from the start. HF was almost done when I showed up, Farragut, Intrepid and Phase II were in process, Beyond was complete, and the long-running Teen Trek series, (now film school student series) England's Star Trek Unity, had already grown from being a record of 11 to 14 year olds playing 'pretend' to a real fan series. This is the first MAJOR series I've had the chance to watch from the start. Of course, it's fun to see the one-to four film stories/mini-series, too. I am still looking forward to Archway with enthusiasm! And that CGI from The Night the Stars Fell From the Sky has me drooling! I am just BLOWN AWAY by what I am seeing!

[lennier1]

I hope Bill managed to convert the sickbay set to his software format and then add the final touches. With the most recent software updates he should be able to get even better results than the work-in-progress version.

[Potemkin_Prod]

Barbara -- We're all excited about "Night," too.

Lennier -- Bill Walker is working on the VFX for "Duty Bound" right now, and they look super. Rick Foxx is editing "The Lucky One" and when he's finished, we'll look at what we need to do and who will need to do it. We're just glad we've got five VFX teams working on our productions. -- Any suggestions for the layout of a brig?

[lennier1]

A brig for that era should be relatively simple.

I would've simply taken those arches from the TNG brig, made it more narrow (shorten the center beam), added those rods from the ST5 brig (to offer something closer to the movie era) and the rest would simply be a blend of design elements from the TNG brig and the ST6 redress of the transporter room.

Actual use:
Just render the brig as a background plate, then lay the actor green screen layer on top of that and a layer with just the horizontal bars on top of those two. The glow for those bars can then be done in post production.

This way you'd end up with something that feels familiar, yet different and still would only have to invest minimal effort. Wouldn't even feel that much out-of-place because the changed layout would reflect the jailbreak in Final Frontier and since TNG inherited a lot of the movie sets you can usually get away with a lot of common elements.

[Potemkin_Prod]

Let me give that some thought. I really hadn't thought of green screening it, but I'm game. The bars were going to be in AfterEffects, I admit.

Still working on the "Archway" vignette this week in the evenings, but I'll work up some ideas this weekend.

[lennier1]

It's a throwaway set that will only be used on rare occasions. Unless you plan to throw a lot of people in jail it probably won't pay off to redress an actual room.

[Kelso]

Potemkin_Prod wrote:

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We're pleased to announce that the first trailer from our upcoming episode, "The Night the Stars Fell from the Sky" is now on-line at YouTube: http://youtu.be/rGJgxXUkKH4

Our thanks to Steve Gallant for producing this promo for us!

This is looking great. I can't wait to see it!

Sir Rhosis wrote:

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And a note, "The Monsters are With Us" is written by the TrekBBS's very own poster "Kelso."

Heh. I'm not sure that is going to be a selling point for anyone... but I appreciate the kind words.

[Potemkin_Prod]

lennier1 wrote:

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It's a throwaway set that will only be used on rare occasions. Unless you plan to throw a lot of people in jail it probably won't pay off to redress an actual room.

I could be tempted.

My next construction project is a corridor, and the brig is right off of it. I may decide to put a two-sided brig in and redress it as needed for an exam room or crew quarters or whatever else is needed as dictated by the script. Honestly, I never build anything unless I'm going to use it.

Kelso's excellent script calls for the brig, the exam room, and even can make use of the corridors. The corridors also make an appearance in our next vignette, "Red Sky at Night."

[Potemkin_Prod]

I'm delighted with the progress on "Night the Stars Fell from the Sky," "Duty Bound," "The Devil in the Details" and "Archway" by RH Barr, Bill Walker, Bob Reed/Mark Brennan and Rick Foxx. Some fantastic work's being done. Here's a sample of what Bill's working on...

http://youtu.be/ujbi4f7W3Cc

[Potemkin_Prod]

One last video effect shot from "Duty Bound" -- courtesy of Bill Walker

Trying to provide glimpses of the work being done now without giving much away.

http://youtu.be/0rtwm5MywE0

[Potemkin_Prod]

Doug Harper (USS Jack Riley here at TrekBBS) will be shooting "We Few" this weekend in the area around Pittsburgh, PA, with his cast members. This episode involves the crash landing of a shuttlecraft in a mountain range on a remote planet. It was loosely inspired by "Lost in Shangri-la." This production will be last of our second season's vignettes.

"Red Sky at Night" will be moved to the third season, and plans are to shoot it in February if the three cast members are available.

[Potemkin_Prod]

From Doug Harper:

Good news for "We Few" (bad news for the cast and crew), it is snowing pretty nicely. We have about 2 1/2 inches of accumulation and it is still coming down. Bad side - we are going to freeze and it will be difficult to find the markers I left behind to mark shooting locations.

But it will look awesome.

[Barbreader]