This short fan film came out earlier in the year and I forgot to post about it at the time . I really liked it (particularly the opening scene) and thought I would share it here just in case anyone missed it. It's a prequel to the fan production "His Name is Mudd" which was discussed here back in 2016. This video is the editor's cut and not the original. thefederationfiles.com It was written and directed by Glen L. Wolfe who also worked many other Star Trek fan productions such as: · Deception (2013) · Secret Voyage: “Rise of the Gongdea” (2014) · Phase II “Mind-Sifter” (2014) · Continues: “Fairest of Them All” (2014) · Temporal Anomaly (2015) · Continues: “The White Iris” (2015) · Continues: “Divided We Stand” (2015) · Phase II: “The Holiest Thing” (2016) · Horizon (2016) · The Federation Files: “His Name Is Mudd” (2016) · The Federation Files: “Walking Bear, Running Wolf” (2017) He is also currently working on The Equinox Effect (formally called Equinox: “The Night of Time”) and “Ambush”
There's a lot of hard work there, kudos to the team...they even came up with their ship's own uniform patch. And some of the computer FX was pretty decent. As first impressions go, it was kinda disappointing that the planetside shots with the actors didn't have the richness of colours to the background than the ones that were heavily modified by CG (the shot at 6:23). As for the story, there's just not much there. All the characters have zero personality, there's no stake or danger in the story apart from needing to find the undercover operative before a deadline, which they do. They could have easily deleted all that inconsequential footage between 3:44 to 6:55 and just started right away after the opening theme as the shuttle lands on the planet, and come up with some actual peril for the mission. Also, not a fan of military types in what should be Star Trek stories...
So you don't like all Starfleet officers then? I agree with most of the points you raised here, but I see great potential with this group. They do seem to get better every time. Hopefully they will get advice from people moving forward and will be open to some constructive criticism along the way. Mostly I hope that they will continue. In my view, any fan film that I can watch to the end, without turning off, is pretty good.
Starfleet isn't really supposed to be military according to Gene Roddenberry. Remember he was pretty upset over the maroon uniforms from Wrath of Khan because it made them look too military...if that's not enough, then I'll rephrase: the inclusion of the Macos in Star Trek is probably the WORST addition ever... didn't say it wasn't watchable...just that it was like cotton candy, when you'd rather have something more filling...