What do you want from a fan film

[Tosk]

I don't want people framed portrait style in front of a static green screened bridge set that looks like they just copy pasted an upscaled jpeg from deviant art behind the single actor by themselves.

I'm also sick of seeing the static shot but with fake camera movement applied. There's at least one fanfilm producer (who will go nameless) who uses this constantly, and all I can see is the cycling movement over and over again.

 

[jackoverfull]

I'm also sick of seeing the static shot but with fake camera movement applied. There's at least one fanfilm producer (who will go nameless) who uses this constantly, and all I can see is the cycling movement over and over again.

i’m not sure who are you referring to, but the only fan film I’ve seen that managed to pull off credible camera movements using virtual backgrounds is Galactic Battles, and that was shot by VFX professionals that specialise in that kind of stuff.

 

[SITZKRIEG!]

Very good points: having a set, even a cobbled together one, helps a lot the actors and the director.

I hadn't thought of it from the production side but rather only from the viewer's perspective but I could see that helping alot there as well. It's not that I'm against amateur green screen effects but rather that they should extend/accentuate something physical rather than simply be the entirety of a scene except for a single actor.

That is usually a cost-saving measure, unfortunately.

Definitely. Again, I'm not trying to be a historical wargaming button counter but rather that seeing vastly different uniforms from different shows breaks the immersion for me. I'm fine with mixing in TOS the original TOS uniforms with Kirk's later girdle wrap around variant along with JJ Trek and even current SNW uniforms in the same fan film or even scene (I'm fine with what Avalon does for example)... but not when an STD metallic blue and Converse sneaker actor waltzes in. That to me is about as jarring as putting in a lone ENT or TMP monster maroon visually even if it is overlapping in the nutrek canon. YMMV.

For our movie I would have wanted different uniforms for a scene set 11 years in the past, however in the end I couldn’t justify buying 4 or so new uniforms with no guarantee they would look good on the actors while we had several good-looking ones already. Not for a single scene lasting a couple of minutes and pretty much with no budget.

Other alternatives are more casual off duty or work uniforms like the engineering coveralls depending on which era you're in (no idea personally which one you're doing).

Spoiler

I'd even be fine with sweatshirts, hoodies, and zip up jacket merchandise done in the apporpriate era style as a more casual uniform too. Heck, I'm fine with just a pair of black pants, belt, and a simple t-shirt with no decorations/modifications in the appropriate era color for an off duty uniform if that's the only thing in budget.

Spoiler

I fully understand it's not reasonable to give everyone an expensive official uniform or commission one sewn for each actor either but as a viewer I prefer fan films to work within the era/show for an alternative rather than dip out of it. Again, just a single trekkie's opinion on the matter...

 

[jackoverfull]

Other alternatives are more casual off duty or work uniforms like the engineering coveralls depending on which era you're in (no idea personally which one you're doing).

in fact we went with something along those lines for characters that were civilians at that time (one is a civilian in the “past” scene, the other has retired from Starfleet in the “present” ones).
I do totally understand what you mean, anyway…In fact I was tempted to get a green wraparound for our captain a few months ago, as we needed a new uniform for him anyway, but eventually decided against it as there was no way to check beforehand if the quality would have been god, so I just went with the tried and tested standard yellow one. Maybe if we have some actual budget for the second episode we’ll consider it again, we’ll see.