New Stalled Trek

[largento]

I've completed the first assemblage of the new Stalled Trek I'm doing!

 

There's still stuff missing and not all of it is animated, but I'm hoping to rectify that by Friday. The assemblage is being used to score the movie, which I'm so happy to have this time out. The composer is volunteering his service, which is tremendous. I'm also not going to make a DVD this time, so no Kickstarter funding was necessary. Just me spending lots of my time. :-)

 

I'd love to tease this, but I think anything I showed would give it away. I'll upload a ton of stuff here once it's done, though.

 

So, consider this a place-holder.

[robcat2075]

I'm disappointed there's nothing to buy!

[largento]

I, for one, am glad I don't feel the pressure of tagging this one's success or failure on how many DVDs I (don't) sell. :-)

[largento]

Oh well, due to circumstances outside of my control, the release is being pushed back a week. I would definitely have been having to cut corners by the end, so this is probably a good thing.

 

Sorry for the tease.

 

It's coming, I promise. :-)

[largento]

At 4am, I finished the new Stalled Trek!

 

It will be launched tomorrow at 11am (CST) on YouTube. I'll post the link here. This one is different from the first in several ways:

 

1) It is not based on an episode of the original Star Trek

 

2) I took on a co-writer, Jonathan Lane, the blogger who featured Amutt Time on his Fan Film blog last month. That's how this came about. He sent me an email, thanking me for the interview and I sent him back half-jokingly an idea for another Stalled Trek. He loved the idea and I told him that if he'd co-write it, I'd do it. He agreed.

 

3) I only did two voices this time. I turned to friends to help out with the voice work. That was great fun. Most of them simply recorded their lines into their iPhones. We live in a marvelous time.

 

4) It's only 6:57 long including the titles. Even that is kind of long for YouTube. That's less than half the time of Amutt Time, which is really too long for YouTube.

 

5) This one is in HD and looks more advanced than the first one.

 

Jonathan wants to launch the film from his weekly blog, so that's why I have had to wait until a Friday to put it out.

[Rodney]

Wow! That's great news!

 

I took on a co-writer, Jonathan Lane, the blogger who featured Amutt Time on his Fan Film blog last month.

 

 

An impressive turnaround of production.

Don't forget to footstomp THAT in your PR.

 

Looking forward to it.

[largento]

Only 33 days from concept to finished film ...and a whole lot of hours inbetween.

 

As I mentioned, start to finish on the Mac version of A:M, so anyone who claims you can't use A:M on a Mac clearly hasn't tried. :-)

 

It's killing me to have to keep it a secret. Tomorrow can't get here fast enough.

[robcat2075]

Eager to see it!

[itsjustme]

Looking forward to it!

[largento]

Presenting!

 

Stalled Trek: Prelude to Ax'd-We-Are

 

https://youtu.be/_cnHe0oIJIs

 

This is a parody of the Star Trek fan film, Prelude to Axanar, which was hit by a copyright infringement lawsuit by CBS/Paramount. You can watch the original at http://www.axanarproductions.com

 

More later...

[Rodney]

Wow. As impressive as it is biting (in satire and social commentary).

Timely too!

 

I saw the announcement over at Axanar about other productions being asked to shut down by CBS.

It seems somewhat reasonable given that CBS is trying to launch a series themselves based on the original Trek series.

 

The sad thing of course is that Star Trek itself wouldn't very likely be where it is today if not for the fans that rallied around the series in the first place.

 

On the other hand, I can see why the corporate heads might be concerned.

I was watching some of the other Trek fan films online and some of those are almost more 'Star Trek' than the original series!

 

This does fully relate to comments I posted in the copyright topic just yesterday.

Some provision should be allowed for products that add value to the original product and most of what I've seen from the Star Trek fan-film community does exactly that; add value.

 

 

But to the here and now:

Impressive work Mark, especially given your turn around time!

[largento]

I'm not a fan of this lawsuit. I've got to assume there's more to it that meets the eye. It claims to be solely about infringement, yet there are plenty of other fan films actively in production who are more blatant. They use the entire original series characters, exact duplicates of their sets and the music written for the series. Prelude to Axanar was relatively light in that regard. Hold up you hand if you've ever even heard of Garth of Izar? :-)

 

Whatever the case, my thinking was this was a chance to parody what I think is a great fan film and the circumstances they find themselves in.

 

The real problem was to get it done and out before some kind of resolution was reached. :-)

 

I sweated bullets on that. :-)

 

 

The puppets are a bit more elaborate than my previous movies. I thought it was more important to at least make an attempt to make them look like the characters and yet still have that puppet look. I think it's kind of an evolution.

 

 

There's some extra fun in the planet shot for longtime followers. If you look in the lower left, you'll see Krok, Spott & McGruff from the original Stalled Trek and the Jetsons buildings from my sci-fi image contest entry. All the other buildings came from the Jack Kirby-inspired buildings I modeled for "Apeopolis" in The Wannabe Pirates.

 

 

[itsjustme]

Great stuff, Mark!

[Rodney]

The link to Jonathan Lane's article on your collaboration showed up in my email (I subscribed to the Anaxar Productions Fan Film Friday blog after your last Stalled Trek episode was featured there.

 

Here's the article: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/1543ecb032af85a5

 

Fun stuff.

[NancyGormezano]

I like the new look of your characters, interesting!

 

But I also found the old ones more endearing and lovable and huggable!

[largento]

Thanks, everyone.

 

This has certainly been a roller coaster ride. This is the first time I've ever parodied something where I heard back from the person responsible for what I was parodying! Thankfully, he loved it and helped me spread the word in ways I couldn't have hoped to do. I still have about 30 minutes before the first 24 hours ends and the video has 5,227 views. That's compared to Amutt Time only having 1,300 views after two YEARS!

 

The comments that have been swirling around there and on Facebook have been overwhelmingly positive. Reddit, however, the exact opposite. A lot of instant hate there. But there are literally hundreds of comments for the positive and only 4 on reddit when last I looked.

 

Krypton Radio made it their video of the day and the accompanying blogpost described my Stalled Trek parodies as "pretty much all gasping, hold-your-sides-laughing funny."

[Rodney]

Reddit, however, the exact opposite. A lot of instant hate there.

 

Not to give weight to negativity or give you reason to dwell on criticism but... do you know what is it that was hated? Jokes not funny enough? Your turn around time too slow? It didn't meet their expectation for parodies of Axanar? Members of the cast and crew? Employees of CBS or Paramount? Not fans of satire? I can hardly even spell Reddit so I wouldn't even know where to look.

[largento]

Not too specific in the criticisms. Mostly along the line of profanity-laced statements about how it was the worst thing ever. :-)

 

I just made a mental note not to go back. I used to try to post links to The Wannabe Pirates on Reddit and they would just vote them down into nothing, so it's clear I don't have an audience there.

 

So, yes, I would not like to dwell on the negative.

 

One of the cool things I got to play with this time was using volumetric lights and lens flares to make siren lights.

 

I think it came out pretty cool. The trickiest bit was rigging it. I only made one flashing siren light and used constraints to attach it to the sign (which had already been animated.) I kept running into issues where I would accidentally lock the bone used to turn the lights around. In the end, they didn't do a full 360 turn, but went halfway and then would come back. That worked out great.

 

 

[Rodney]

Another plug has been posted on the Axanar blog, after Alex Peters got a chance to see Mark's new short:

 

http://www.axanarproductions.com/captains-log-april-22nd-2016/

 

 

And it got me to watch the short again.

[largento]

Thanks, Rodney!

 

There's no doubt it's been viewed so many times because Alec Peters has shared it to his audience. I know the numbers aren't big in the real world (I just saw a "my cat is so cute" video that had 18K views in 15 hours), but for me, 8K+ views in five days is a lot of views.

 

I've entered it in two film festivals (both convention-based). One is GeekFest, which just so happened to be taking entries for a "special edition" that included the Dallas Comic Con and the Dragon Con festival. Curiously, I saw that a puppet movie had won top prize in the animated category. I didn't think of puppetry as being animation, but I guess it sort of is. I mean, there's go-motion animation, which is essentially puppeting a character.

 

I should know on May 5th if it was accepted to GeekFest and I think the notification date for the Dragon Con is in June or July. I'm not really thinking it will take any awards (wouldn't be disappointed if it did, of course), but if it's accepted and they show it in Dallas, I could see it with an audience ...which could either be a very rewarding experience or a nightmare. :-)

[largento]

Just got word this afternoon that Stalled Trek: Prelude to Ax'd-We-Are has been accepted by the GeekFest Film Fest! Really thrilled that it got in. Very good chance I'll get to see it on the big screen with an audience at Fan Expo Dallas!

[NancyGormezano]

yay for you!

[largento]

Thanks, Nancy!

 

I've decided to have fun with this and am going to attend both the Orlando and Dallas cons. (My dad lives in Orlando, so I have a place to stay.) I got a decent airfare on a no-frills airline (don't even give you peanuts) and decided I only live once.

[largento]

Prelude to Ax'd-We-Are has passed 10,000 views on YouTube!

[largento]

Very pleased to pass on that Stalled Trek: Prelude to Ax'd-We-Are won Best Short at the GeekFest Film Fest at the Dallas Fan Expo!

[itsjustme]

Congrats, Mark!

[Rodney]

Congratulations!

 

Well deserved.

 

Did you get to go to that and see it presented with an audience?

[Fuchur]

That is really great Mark .

 

It is a very well done (and funny) piece of art and I am happy to see that it is getting recognized by the judges .

Congratulations!

 

See you

*Fuchur*

[largento]

Thanks, everybody!

[largento]

Very thrilled to announce that Stalled Trek: Prelude to Ax'd-We-Are has been accepted by the Dragon Con International Short Film Festival!

[largento]

Kinda' thought I was done with this, but pleasantly surprised and excited to announce that Stalled Trek: Prelude to Ax'd-We-Are has been named an Official Selection of the Berlin Sci-Fi Filmfest! Stalled Trek in Germany! The fest is being held in Berlin on November 17-18.

[Fuchur]

Very cool .

 

Best regards

*Fuchur*

[robcat2075]

Another laurel! Congratulations.

Why are you not in IMDb yet?

[largento]

Thanks, guys!

 

I am on imdb, although I've never updated it since Amutt Time. I should do that.

[itsjustme]

Congrats, Mark!

[Rodney]

Congratulations Mark. That's a well deserved spotlight on your work.

[largento]

http://www.berlinscifi.com/winners/

 

I almost fainted, but apparently it's real ...Stalled Trek: Prelude to Ax'd-We-Are has won BEST FAN FILM at the Berlin Sci-Fi Filmfest! I honestly didn't think it had a chance and I'm really blown away.

 

See what you can do with A:M and a dream?

[Rodney]

Wow. And to think... I knew you BEFORE you were famous!

 

Congratulations!

[Fuchur]

Very cool !

 

Congratulations!

 

Best regards

*Fuchur*

[itsjustme]

Congrats, Mark!