Is Steve Neill's Garage Useful Info?

[Barbreader]

He seems to do a lot of stuff about props and make-up, but I haven't watched many of them.

His You Tube channel for people who have no idea what I am talking about is here: https://www.youtube.com/user/darkuboot/videos

I was just curious if this was useful stuff to fan film makers or not?

 

[Psion]

Steve's videos are, first and foremost, advertising for his services. Which is by no means a bad thing.

But he spends a lot of time showing you tips and techniques for model making and demonstrates a lot of very clever ways to make parts. He knows what he's doing and he shares a lot with the community.

Frankly, I find his videos fascinating, and he knows a lot of Hollywood insiders (being one himself). Doug Drexler, for example, makes frequent appearances.

 

[tobiasrichter]

Steves videoblog is aimed at modellers - and for those it is very entertaining and interesting. It might be for fan film makers as well.

 

[Maurice]

The only problem with Steve's video blog as a resource is that it's very difficult to find segments which have work on particular projects, since it many of the descriptions are either absent and the videos seem to have no keywords attached.

 

[Barbreader]

Thanks. I am compiling a collection of useful links for fan filmmakers. The stuff I saw was a mixed bag. I had excluded it from the listing, but after a while I just thought I'd ask folks who actually do this stuff if they thought his videos were useful.

I think Maurice nailed it for me. There is a LOT of stuff, and for it to be useful, it would need better descriptions or key words. Since I'm not prepared to watch the videos and make an index of where to find what (I'm not sure I'd even know what was and wasn't useful), I'm not including them.

 

[Duane]

I love SNG when he is working on Trek stuff. But the other stuff is much less interesting for me.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

The only problem with Steve's video blog as a resource is that it's very difficult to find segments which have work on particular projects, since it many of the descriptions are either absent and the videos seem to have no keywords attached.

Yes, well said, Maurice. I discovered that first-hand this past winter, when I went a' hunting for a particular video of his I'd seen. I was up half the night doing so, and never did locate it.

Other than that, they are fascinating and instructive. Being a modeler myself, it was gratifying to see that many techniques I'd used (and assumed I was doing 'the hard way') were in fact techniques he applied regularly. I don't have a fraction of his skill or experience, but at least I felt more competent and confident knowing I wasn't just flailing away in an incompetently thought-through world of my own!

He seems like a really nice guy, too, which is even better!

 

[lennier1]

Well, he's fun and he knows what he's talking about.
While I'm coming from the CG side of things and haven't built any physical models since I was a teenager it's still quite educational. Many of the lessons gained from his videos can be applied to other fields.

 

[DestinyCaptain]

Steve has a great show, but it's often unfocused. Meaning he's not really working on X this week and next episode he'll be doing Y. His shows are totally free form. A single build may take nearly a year and appear highly infrequently on the show as with the Spindrift project. However he does have a thing or two that he can show you. He's done some basic props stuff and recently he took the viewer through the Vulcan ear prosthetic making process. Steve has stated that he did Nimoy's ears for TMP. Barb, maybe you outta reach out to him. He seems generally uninformed as to the goings on in the fan film continuity based on what I've seen in his videos.

 

[Maurice]

Is he'd just put the names of the projects and model covered in each video that would make it a useful resource, a la:

This video:
Space Command Spacesuit Helmet
Seaview for Drexler
etc.

 

[Barbreader]

Steve has a great show, but it's often unfocused. Meaning he's not really working on X this week and next episode he'll be doing Y. His shows are totally free form. A single build may take nearly a year and appear highly infrequently on the show as with the Spindrift project. However he does have a thing or two that he can show you. He's done some basic props stuff and recently he took the viewer through the Vulcan ear prosthetic making process. Steve has stated that he did Nimoy's ears for TMP. Barb, maybe you outta reach out to him. He seems generally uninformed as to the goings on in the fan film continuity based on what I've seen in his videos.

I know that he had a video on Equinox which told a whole lot more about it than I think the principles wanted the public to know. It also included vulcan ear making and some other useful Trek stuff. I linked to it from my Equinox paragraph. But then it disappeared from public view.

Part of the problem with me approaching him is that I am truly just the Star Trek Fan Film community's self-appointed file clerk. (Heck, I'm not even somebody's CHOICE for file clerk!) The best thing I could probably do is give him a link to this thread so he can see the comments of some of you who know much more than I do. If he asked me what types of labels, does he have to mark the time stamp on the video about where stuff happens (obviously useful, but would just labels be enough?) ... frankly I don't know.

Does he leave most of them up indefinitely? If no, for how long?

I don't even know that. I know he doesn't leave them ALL up indefinitely.

Does anyone here object to me inviting him to come to this thread to discuss this?

 

[Maurice]

They're on YouTube. They're basically up forever unless he deletes them.

 

[feek61]

The only problem with Steve's video blog as a resource is that it's very difficult to find segments which have work on particular projects, since it many of the descriptions are either absent and the videos seem to have no keywords attached.

Totally agree. I never understood why there is no index detailing was was covered in each episode. I mentioned that to Steve about 300 videos ago, lol. It would be nearly impossible to find anything in the over 500 videos that he currently has up..

 

[Maurice]

Yep And it doesn't help him in terms of his blog selling his services, since potential clients can't easily find/follow a particular project.