Reviewing fan films

[Solarbaby]

http://www.trekbbs.com/showpost.php?p=6461314&postcount=8

Following on from this post Barbreader made in the locked thread. I watched the animation she mentioned and was going to review it myself on her site but there isn't a facility to do that on the headlines. I used to be able to post on there!?!?!

So here goes for Star Trek The Next Animation

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewPJflCmPMc[/yt]

As an english speaking Star Trek animator I enjoyed this a lot. The flash work and 3d models were outstanding. The humour translated well via subtitles.

Some stunning visuals, I can tell somebody went to a lot of trouble lovingly recreating sets. There were 3 things that I disliked though. Using the 2 jokes from the movies- the one where they translate Klingon. And the scene where they use emergency landing plan B. The jokes were not funny in this film since we had seen then in official movies and they added nothing more than to recreate those scenes. I couldn't tell if Data was in fact Data or O'Brien. Maybe because I don't speak German. The character didn't look like Data.


For a first production this was amazing! The music was great. The story was silly but interesting. Which I like in a comedy.

If you liked that please check my equally silly parody of the TNG- Revenge of the Turds http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL44763B1289CE5623

 

[Barbreader]

I have added a link back to this review from both the dedicated page about this animation: http://startrekreviewed.blogspot.com/2009/06/127.html and from the Headline: http://startrekreviewed.blogspot.com/2012/04/headline-news-last-month-only.html

I will send you my e-mail address via PM if you wish to have your reviews posted DIRECTLY at Star Trek Reviewed. However, if you post them here or at a reviewing Blog you control I am also happy to link to them.

 

[Maurice]

I'm a bit confused by the topic title and the first post. Is this a thread for reviewing fan films, or for specifically reviewing this Star Trek The Next Animation piece?

 

[Solarbaby]

I'm a bit confused by the topic title and the first post. Is this a thread for reviewing fan films, or for specifically reviewing this Star Trek The Next Animation piece?

It's in reference to the first link Barbreader posted about lack of other reviewers of fan films

 

[Maurice]

I'm a bit confused by the topic title and the first post. Is this a thread for reviewing fan films, or for specifically reviewing this Star Trek The Next Animation piece?

It's in reference to the first link Barbreader posted about lack of other reviewers of fan films

Then, if I'm reading it right, it IS about Star Trek The Next Animation.

 

[Barbreader]

Maurice, there are a ton of Star Trek Fan Films that have not been reviewed AT ALL. I personally like to read reviews, and I used to do them. However, just keeping Star Trek Reviewed links to fan films current and operating has proven a much bigger task that I could have imagined. I haven't written a serious review in years.

I am always looking for reviews to link to or include in my website along with the hundreds of Star Trek Fan Films which I also link to. (I do not inbed, as Solarbaby has done above. I do not know if they effects load time but it seems to slow it down. Instead, you can either click through to the film or do what I do, and left click to create a new tab or window with it).

Anyone can leave a comment, but comments on the Headline News section get deleted every few months. Comments on the dedicated page (which is always mentioned in the Headlines) are there for the duration.

I also link to comments at other websites (as I have done here), including both reviews at blogs and some at webzines and web editions of Newspapers. I think Randy Hall has produced over 100 Fan Film reviews, and I have linked to the Star Trek ones. But I would happily accept other people's submissions of reviews and publish them myself. The advantage of having your own blog and letting me know you wrote a review is you can revise it, while you can't revise a comment or review I publish for you. (Of course, if you change the web address of your review, I request an updated address).

Anyway, Solarbaby wanted to post a Review at STR. There is no way to do that directly . I approve everything that goes up there, so you'll never see spam among the comments. Not even the group that kept trying to compare various films to their "Trek Adventures" to Mt. Everest... and give details of how to contact them. (Those spammers seem to have given up...)

If you want to make a comment on Star Trek: The Next Animation OR ANY OTHER Star Trek Fan Film, and you'd like the comment either linked to or included in Star Trek Reviewed, I will be delighted to work with you. Comments cannot be obscene, personally abusive, or otherwise frankly useless to viewers but harmful to filmmakers. "This film is a bore to watch." is OK. "This film is #$%^&*()_" is not.

 

[Maurice]

My point is that if this is a thread for people to write reviews, it should be called something that means that, i.e "Let's Review Fanfilms" or something, or the OP should have written something to that effect in the first post.

 

[Solarbaby]

It's a thread about reviewing fan films not just the one I reviewed. If anyone wants to review something they can do here, or make their own thread. It's not that important. Barbreader can always link to the reviews.

 

[Captain Randy Hall]

In case anyone is interested, I post a fan film review every week in my Fan Film Friday column at FanFilmFollies.com. They're not always Star Trek, but I try to have a variety of formats, subject matter and even "generations" of Trek. This week, I'm looking at an excellent Batman independent production entitled "Death Wish." Feel free to check out not just my column, but the whole site!

 

[Avon]

hmmmm.. i've wanted to have a go at reviewing Hidden Frontier in its entirety for a while. would anyone care if i did?

 

[Barbreader]

I'd love to link to your reviews. Would you consider creating a Blogspot website with each review in a different blog, or at least each year? The only HF work that has been extensively reviewed is Odyssey.

 

[Captain Randy Hall]

hmmmm.. i've wanted to have a go at reviewing Hidden Frontier in its entirety for a while. would anyone care if i did?

Sure! One of the problems I face when reviewing long-running fan film series is that they're the victims of their own success.

If I was to try and review HF from start to finish, It would take a very long time and I fear discussing the same series week after week might bore some of the folks who drop by to read Fan Film Friday.

At this point, I'm approaching it by reviewing episodes that interest me. I reviewed "Santa Q" during the holidays and a great episode about depression played out in the life of an Andorian crew member.

Of course, new releases are coming out pretty regularly, and I want to balance my "archaeological" items with shiny new productions, so that also cuts into the time I might spend going from start to finish with HF.

You do know that the precursor to Hidden Frontier was a series on the adventures of the U.S.S. Angeles, right? There's a lot of material to go through, but feel free to have at it!

 

[Barbreader]

This is my listing of the inspiration for HF: http://startrekreviewed.blogspot.com/2009/06/105.html

 

[Maurice]

Middyseafort and I have decided to join forces and review some of the earliest digital-video era fanfilms. Here's a link to the first: Starship Exeter, "The Savage Empire".

EXCERPT:

Arguably, STARSHIP EXETER, “THE SAVAGE EMPIRE” is the mother of all modern Trek fan films. Yes, Voyages of the USS Angeles was made in 1999 and 2000, followed by Hidden Frontier (which premiered in 2000), but Exeter was the first one to get significant attention, famously overloading the mac.com servers from the number of hits it was getting, and inspiring a lot of other wanna-be fan filmmakers to actually do it.

Produced over a seven-year period before finally bursting onto the interwebs on December 19th, 2000, it remains one of the most carefully crafted love-letters to the original Star Trek ever made. It’s clumsy and ham-fisted, painful, charming and fun all at the same time.........

 

[Barbreader]

Thanks! I've added a link to your review from my Exeter page: http://startrekreviewed.blogspot.com/2009/06/21.html (It's under "Other Reviews" and for the moment your reviews will be 'named' Naked from the Neck Up. I don't use your review title, since I want to use the same designation each time I link to your reviews. A person who reads and enjoys this review would find your other reviews on the page about the Trek film you reviewed under the same title. Given the sheer number and commitment of Randy Hall's reviews, they do get slightly different treatment. I have something over 50 links to his various reviews, though. Logbook just reorganized their website this year and I had to update all of those links, too. Looking forward to linking to more of your reviews! Welcome to my database!

 

[Maurice]

Middyseafort and I have decided to join forces and review some of the earliest digital-video era fanfilms. Here's a link to the first: Starship Exeter, "The Savage Empire"......

I replaced the fuzzy screencaps in the review with cleaner ones that give a better sense of the photography.

 

[USS Intrepid]

Great review Maurice. As I've said before, Exeter was the first fanfilm I watched and thought "I could do this". Jimm and Josh were always very graceful in my dealings with them, and I've always thought very highly of them.

 

[scifib5st]

Yes, it was a very nice review. Thanks.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Great review. Thanks.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

w00t! Maurice did the heavy lifting. I just spotted him a bit. But I'm having fun working on these with him. Really any excuse to work with Maurice ... he's a swell guy in my book. And these will be like putting all our previous discussions on fan films to print.

Gotta admit, fan films are my guilty pleasure. As Burgess Merideth said in In Harm's Way about actresses, "They're like peanuts. Once I had one I couldn't stop."