It almost doesn’t qualify as a fan film, since its cast is comprised almost entirely of people who previously appeared in the various Star Trek movies and TV series. Nonetheless, it’s still big news when segments of Star Trek: Of Gods And Men come out, and now the third and final installment will be released next month on June 15 at 5PM EST.
Star Trek: Of Gods and Men stars Walter Koenig and Nichelle Nichols (Uhura and Chekov from original Star Trek) along with Alan Ruck (Captain John Harriman of the seventh feature film, Star Trek Generations). Joining them are Grace Lee Whitney (original Star Trek ); Garrett Wang and Ethan Phillips (Voyager); Cirroc Lofton, Chase Masterson and JG Hertzler (Deep Space Nine), Gary Graham and Crystal Allen (Enterprise), Herb Jefferson (Battlestar Galactica) plus Tim Russ (Voyager), who also directed.
According to the production, the final segment will feature “a spectacular battle between Rebel and Galactic Order forces while dealing with the personal dilemmas of our principal characters as they uncover more revelations, culminating in the final outcome of the story. This final act has a great mixture of drama, action and suspense sure to please Star Trek fans of all ages.” Let’s hope it’s better quality than the Photoshop work on that poster image above.
So what do you think? Is this a fan film or something else? Should ex-Trek pros leave the fan filmmaking to the fans? Have you watched the first two segments? What’d you think of ‘em? Tell the world what you think in the comments section.
ST: OGaM walks the shadowy line between fan production and professional production. Its biggest supporters rush to distance it from fan films because of a perceived stigma that the term could give it “…eeew, fan films?” However elitist BS aside, fan film is the term that defines it the best: it is an unauthorised derivative work of copyrighted material. About the only alternative definition might be “experimental work” which I believe is the classification that SAG allows it to operate under.
Personally I see it as the top end of the Star Trek fan film sub-genre. Professional Independent film-makers have recognised it as a viable way of raising their ‘cred’, established actors and crew have seen it as a way of maintaining their public profile, for some changing that profile. The copyright owners have not lost a penny from the operation, gaining publicity that would have cost them a fortune in the lead-up to their forthcoming reboot of the franchise by J.J.Abrams.
I see the next step as a relaxing of the studio’s attitudes to allowing independent producers licenses for direct to internet/cable/DVD movies or mini-series. What can they loose?
ST: OGaM walks the shadowy line between fan production and professional production. Its biggest supporters rush to distance it from fan films because of a perceived stigma that the term could give it “…eeew, fan films?” However elitist BS aside, fan film is the term that defines it the best: it is an unauthorised derivative work of copyrighted material. About the only alternative definition might be “experimental work” which I believe is the classification that SAG allows it to operate under.
Personally I see it as the top end of the Star Trek fan film sub-genre. Professional Independent film-makers have recognised it as a viable way of raising their ‘cred’, established actors and crew have seen it as a way of maintaining their public profile, for some changing that profile. The copyright owners have not lost a penny from the operation, gaining publicity that would have cost them a fortune in the lead-up to their forthcoming reboot of the franchise by J.J.Abrams.
I see the next step as a relaxing of the studio’s attitudes to allowing independent producers licenses for direct to internet/cable/DVD movies or mini-series. What can they loose?
ST: OGaM walks the shadowy line between fan production and professional production. Its biggest supporters rush to distance it from fan films because of a perceived stigma that the term could give it “…eeew, fan films?” However elitist BS aside, fan film is the term that defines it the best: it is an unauthorised derivative work of copyrighted material. About the only alternative definition might be “experimental work” which I believe is the classification that SAG allows it to operate under.
Personally I see it as the top end of the Star Trek fan film sub-genre. Professional Independent film-makers have recognised it as a viable way of raising their ‘cred’, established actors and crew have seen it as a way of maintaining their public profile, for some changing that profile. The copyright owners have not lost a penny from the operation, gaining publicity that would have cost them a fortune in the lead-up to their forthcoming reboot of the franchise by J.J.Abrams.
I see the next step as a relaxing of the studio’s attitudes to allowing independent producers licenses for direct to internet/cable/DVD movies or mini-series. What can they loose?
ST: OGaM walks the shadowy line between fan production and professional production. Its biggest supporters rush to distance it from fan films because of a perceived stigma that the term could give it “…eeew, fan films?” However elitist BS aside, fan film is the term that defines it the best: it is an unauthorised derivative work of copyrighted material. About the only alternative definition might be “experimental work” which I believe is the classification that SAG allows it to operate under.
Personally I see it as the top end of the Star Trek fan film sub-genre. Professional Independent film-makers have recognised it as a viable way of raising their ‘cred’, established actors and crew have seen it as a way of maintaining their public profile, for some changing that profile. The copyright owners have not lost a penny from the operation, gaining publicity that would have cost them a fortune in the lead-up to their forthcoming reboot of the franchise by J.J.Abrams.
I see the next step as a relaxing of the studio’s attitudes to allowing independent producers licenses for direct to internet/cable/DVD movies or mini-series. What can they loose?
ST: OGaM walks the shadowy line between fan production and professional production. Its biggest supporters rush to distance it from fan films because of a perceived stigma that the term could give it “…eeew, fan films?” However elitist BS aside, fan film is the term that defines it the best: it is an unauthorised derivative work of copyrighted material. About the only alternative definition might be “experimental work” which I believe is the classification that SAG allows it to operate under.
Personally I see it as the top end of the Star Trek fan film sub-genre. Professional Independent film-makers have recognised it as a viable way of raising their ‘cred’, established actors and crew have seen it as a way of maintaining their public profile, for some changing that profile. The copyright owners have not lost a penny from the operation, gaining publicity that would have cost them a fortune in the lead-up to their forthcoming reboot of the franchise by J.J.Abrams.
I see the next step as a relaxing of the studio’s attitudes to allowing independent producers licenses for direct to internet/cable/DVD movies or mini-series. What can they loose?
ST: OGaM walks the shadowy line between fan production and professional production. Its biggest supporters rush to distance it from fan films because of a perceived stigma that the term could give it “…eeew, fan films?” However elitist BS aside, fan film is the term that defines it the best: it is an unauthorised derivative work of copyrighted material. About the only alternative definition might be “experimental work” which I believe is the classification that SAG allows it to operate under.
Personally I see it as the top end of the Star Trek fan film sub-genre. Professional Independent film-makers have recognised it as a viable way of raising their ‘cred’, established actors and crew have seen it as a way of maintaining their public profile, for some changing that profile. The copyright owners have not lost a penny from the operation, gaining publicity that would have cost them a fortune in the lead-up to their forthcoming reboot of the franchise by J.J.Abrams.
I see the next step as a relaxing of the studio’s attitudes to allowing independent producers licenses for direct to internet/cable/DVD movies or mini-series. What can they loose?
ST: OGaM walks the shadowy line between fan production and professional production. Its biggest supporters rush to distance it from fan films because of a perceived stigma that the term could give it “…eeew, fan films?” However elitist BS aside, fan film is the term that defines it the best: it is an unauthorised derivative work of copyrighted material. About the only alternative definition might be “experimental work” which I believe is the classification that SAG allows it to operate under.
Personally I see it as the top end of the Star Trek fan film sub-genre. Professional Independent film-makers have recognised it as a viable way of raising their ‘cred’, established actors and crew have seen it as a way of maintaining their public profile, for some changing that profile. The copyright owners have not lost a penny from the operation, gaining publicity that would have cost them a fortune in the lead-up to their forthcoming reboot of the franchise by J.J.Abrams.
I see the next step as a relaxing of the studio’s attitudes to allowing independent producers licenses for direct to internet/cable/DVD movies or mini-series. What can they loose?
ST: OGaM walks the shadowy line between fan production and professional production. Its biggest supporters rush to distance it from fan films because of a perceived stigma that the term could give it “…eeew, fan films?” However elitist BS aside, fan film is the term that defines it the best: it is an unauthorised derivative work of copyrighted material. About the only alternative definition might be “experimental work” which I believe is the classification that SAG allows it to operate under.
Personally I see it as the top end of the Star Trek fan film sub-genre. Professional Independent film-makers have recognised it as a viable way of raising their ‘cred’, established actors and crew have seen it as a way of maintaining their public profile, for some changing that profile. The copyright owners have not lost a penny from the operation, gaining publicity that would have cost them a fortune in the lead-up to their forthcoming reboot of the franchise by J.J.Abrams.
I see the next step as a relaxing of the studio’s attitudes to allowing independent producers licenses for direct to internet/cable/DVD movies or mini-series. What can they loose?
ST: OGaM walks the shadowy line between fan production and professional production. Its biggest supporters rush to distance it from fan films because of a perceived stigma that the term could give it “…eeew, fan films?” However elitist BS aside, fan film is the term that defines it the best: it is an unauthorised derivative work of copyrighted material. About the only alternative definition might be “experimental work” which I believe is the classification that SAG allows it to operate under.
Personally I see it as the top end of the Star Trek fan film sub-genre. Professional Independent film-makers have recognised it as a viable way of raising their ‘cred’, established actors and crew have seen it as a way of maintaining their public profile, for some changing that profile. The copyright owners have not lost a penny from the operation, gaining publicity that would have cost them a fortune in the lead-up to their forthcoming reboot of the franchise by J.J.Abrams.
I see the next step as a relaxing of the studio’s attitudes to allowing independent producers licenses for direct to internet/cable/DVD movies or mini-series. What can they loose?
That’s actually one of the things I discuss in the last chapter of “Homemade Hollywood”—if Paramount was to license out Star Trek to fan filmers, could the franchise withstand sub-direct-to-DVD productions? My guess is ‘no;’ more importantly, I suspect there would have to be negotiations with the various guilds—much as you note about SAG—because any production that is paid for is a professional production.
Glad to hear from you on this site–I didn’t know about your new website until I clicked your name! The old one just dried up and blew away, so it’s good to see that ST fan films are alive and well in Australia.
I think the ‘fan film’/'professional production’ debate has been raging since I signed on as part of the ST:OGAM VFX team back in August 2006 and will probably rumble on after Act III is released.
Fact is that both in front and behind the camera, the crew were a mixture of both professionals and fans (like myself), which does leave it’s status in a grey area. However, I know that the VFX crew were not paid for their endeavors and only one of our ranks was a paid up ‘guild’ member which would certainly seem to contradict the requirements for a true professional production.