Battlestar Galactica: 14th Colony (Fan Film) - Page 2

ernie90125 · November 11th, 2005, 05:04 PM

I can share nothing physical...but I can continue to share my advice where possible. My offer also remains open to include it on my Battlestar Fanfilms website.

You're right it is a copyrighted property none of his can profit from......but we can certainly all benefit from it.....

Sept17th · November 24th, 2005, 05:42 PM

Now Listed at FanFilms.Net

Battlestar Galactica needed to be there now it is, we have staked our claim with Battlestar Galactica: 14th Colony. I’ve been looking around and this is some good fun. Al needs to add his Battlestar Calisto films and Martok must see Alien 5.2

www.fanfilms.net

The 14th Colony · November 25th, 2005, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sept17th

Battlestar Galactica: 14th Colony.
That is the working title, it may not survive the weekend which is when I hope to have the first draft script done. I am the Producer, writer, Cinematographer and casting agent. Most importantly I am the money around ten grand the last time I calculated and I am the sweat behind this. I have a great talent working the FX, I hope to reveal his identity soon.

I have much to get done, a labor of love. I will use this thread to see who can step up, to see who can help out. Perhaps the staff will sticky this for me.

…so stay tuned I’ll have a list up shortly. Thanks in advance!

Jon

That's quite a nifty title you have there. I hope I get due royalties!

Good luck to ya!

Sept17th · November 27th, 2005, 02:56 AM

The Big Five Conventions?

What are the Big Five sci-fi/fantasy cons that screen independent/fan films? I am aware of Dragon*Con give me five more.

moabyte · January 25th, 2006, 10:25 AM

Fan Films are the best! Good luck to you all.

Sept17th · January 27th, 2006, 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moabyte

Fan Films are the best! Good luck to you all.

Thanks Byte...you can keep up on progress here. Look for a short teaser in the spring of 2006.

Sept17th · February 24th, 2006, 02:33 AM

Egads, you sticky the wrong thread

Darrell Lawrence · February 24th, 2006, 12:20 PM

Nah. it's the right one- Your help thread. This thread *you* must keep alive

captmiloman · March 3rd, 2006, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spcglider

No offense taken.

First off, I haven't seen the George Takei fan film...so I don't know if he's been actually credited or not. But once again, that film was made back in the 1970's before there was an internet. I was unaware that any of the Star Wars stars had been involved with fan productions... I don't like Star Wars so I avoid watching their fan films as often as possible.

There are myriad reasons why you may not legally be able to promote your film that way.

First, there may be SAG (Screen Actor's Guild) rules that prevent it. There may be contractual obligations between the actor and their agent that prevent it. The studio may take umbrage that you're playing in their sandbox and prevent it. Perhaps, just maybe the actors themselves wouldn't desire it.

I may not have been clear in my ramblings above, though, so your opposition may be based on my mushy explanation. If you HIRE Richard or Dirk or Anne or Terry or Larry or Noah or Eve the Chimp for that matter, and actually pay their day-rate and all that goes with it, you have the right and obligation to credit them in your film. If they do it for you as a lark or a favor or just out of the goodness of their hearts, it would be completely up to them and their agent and the rules of the union how to apply the credit. Some actors might not want to have their name on a fan film. I can't imagine that it would harm their career, but some might not want it for their own reasons.

Also, if Anne Lockheart (for an example) appears in your 20 minute film for a total of 1 minute on a non-synched video screen and says "Congratulations warriors! You've successfully completed your mission!" you wouldn't necessarily want to oversell her involvement. "Special Guest Star" maybe... "Reprising their role as" possibly...but STARRING? I'm sure there are SAG rules about that too. But then again, I've never talked with Anne about this subject (or any other)... maybe she'd WANT to be labelled as the STAR.

Its just a matter of being careful is all I'm saying. Most studios are pretty liberal about allowing fans to make films like this... but you have to get REAL intimate with the unspoken rules of "gong too far". The problem is that it's a sliding scale. What's okay with Lucasfilm or Paramount might NOT be okay with Universal. And depending on who it is in the legal department who discovers your fan film, you might be okay or you might be declared an "enemy of the state" and get a cease and desist order.

This probably didn't help at all. Did it?

-Gordon

As you said about SAG, that's the main reason why The Second Coming Trailer isn't availble for sale or online. Richard would have to pay the cast scale. He'd already sunk a bunch of money into the project(maxed out credit cards, mortgage on his home, etc.) There was a SW fan film("Dark Redemption") which featured one of the extras from A New Hope(Episode 4) who reprised his role as the Imperial Officer who was swatted by Chewbaca in the DS control room. That particular filmmaker was given a C & D order by Lucasfilm. Of course, he was making a profit from the film. That's a big no-no with any copyrighted material.

ernie90125 · March 3rd, 2006, 12:22 PM

I've seen the SW fanfilm you mention....but freely, I didn't pay for it ? I didn't realise it had been sold by anyone...

The big no-no is making money or pi**ing off the copyright owners. The other example I can think of is the guy who re-edited The Phantom Mence to exclude JarJar. Whilst popular with fans, I understand Lucas took it personally, not to mention it was his mostly film then freely made available.

That's why there is a rule for submissions to my site...that whilst a few snippets of video and audio is pretty common, I won't accept whole re-edits where people have basically cut up a copyright production, switched a few scenes around and called it their own fanfilm. It's come up before.

ray243 · September 22nd, 2006, 12:53 AM

well...I can't really help out much..but maybe you could try visiting this site. https://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/

It is one of the largest sci-fi modelling community I've known and I am sure you can get a certain amount of help out there as well. By the way, TOS-BSG fans can also start posting more of their works there...gosh we need more TOS models out there...

KJ · October 21st, 2006, 07:49 AM

See Viper 1's most recently posted stuff? TOS series models wise.

Far as the 14th Colony BG movie goes... Sept17 answer those pms i send you, i want to ask you something in private?

Another on here would be when another "Battlestar Galactica 14th Colony" trailer is due out?

KJ

Sept17th · December 1st, 2006, 09:08 AM

New Feature at the Web Site

I wanted to give RJ a chance to announce the news for the new feature at www.battlestarfanfilm.org because he was the catalyst for getting this going but I’m too excited. So check it out.

Quote:

There has been a tremendous amount of outstanding work being done in preproduction, and we wanted to make sure that Battlestar fans had a chance to appreciate some of what we have been privileged to see over the past few months. In this sub-forum, we'll be posting a weekly featured image that shows off the work done by a member of the production team. Also on deck are animations, story hints, production diaries, and a lot more.

Folkrm · May 2nd, 2009, 07:54 PM

Can anyone tell me what the status is of this project?

I have not seen any activity on any threads recently, and no word as to it's future.

Thanks

Folkrm
Ray Folk

gmd3d · May 3rd, 2009, 08:23 AM

I have asked the same thing awhile ago .. no answer ??? I think its on a long hiatus or dead until we're told other wise

ernie90125 · May 3rd, 2009, 10:19 AM

I've been left wondering about this too....

I've posted many times in support of this production, but recently my e-mails haven't been responded to.

I hope it does still happen, but I'd like to hear that from Sept17th himself.

gmd3d · May 6th, 2009, 02:36 PM

I have heard from rjandron. "Its still on!!" .. just real life has to come first ..

TwoBrainedCylon · October 23rd, 2009, 02:34 PM

Is this project continuing on life support or has it officially passed onward to that mythic land where unfinished fan efforts dwell forever?

Russell

gmd3d · October 23rd, 2009, 04:00 PM

the site just closed down a while ago .. no word was given as to its present state .. or its return.. i was out of the loop for a while

Gemini1999 · October 23rd, 2009, 04:18 PM

Personally, I gave up hope on this a long time ago. When it had been years (multiple) past the point of when it was originally to be released and the 30th anniversary had come and gone with no new news, I just wrote it off as a boondoggle that would never see the light of day.

It's too bad - I remember the original promo and I got emailed a preview copy of the script. I remember the excitement when the promo came out and how it felt thinking that someone would finally do something in terms of a live action fanfilm on a large scale, it was fun to think about.

How it all ended was not even to the level of a whimper. You'd at least think that those involved would make some kind of announcement and say it's just never gonna happen and be done with it.

I guess those Star Wars and Star Trek fans have something over on us BSG fans - we can't ever seem to get any projects off the ground...

Bryan

gmd3d · October 24th, 2009, 03:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gemini1999

Personally, I gave up hope on this a long time ago. When it had been years (multiple) past the point of when it was originally to be released and the 30th anniversary had come and gone with no new news, I just wrote it off as a boondoggle that would never see the light of day.

It's too bad - I remember the original promo and I got emailed a preview copy of the script. I remember the excitement when the promo came out and how it felt thinking that someone would finally do something in terms of a live action fanfilm on a large scale, it was fun to think about.

How it all ended was not even to the level of a whimper. You'd at least think that those involved would make some kind of announcement and say it's just never gonna happen and be done with it.

I guess those Star Wars and Star Trek fans have something over on us BSG fans - we can't ever seem to get any projects off the ground...

Bryan

I was a little involved in the modelling department. Ships that is

I never got word as to its fate but the best thing for me was I learned to model in cgi and did a passable job, I was sorry to see it vanish and I hope it returns in some form..

In some levels Galactica is to big to tackle even with blue screen help. for shots on the Galactica Bridge or hanger would have to be green screen.

I would approach BSG fan film by taking on a story telling about another ship a smaller Ship of refuges that escape from the Colonies later perhaps trying to find the fleet that has escaped with the Galactica at its head. or on a journey of there own.. at least you can create new characters and situations. but you can control
it better I believe. final part would be them finding the fleet and joining them. etc

on approach springs to mind is TwoBrainedCylon audio story. one that I think could be filmed .

IMO

Gerard

TwoBrainedCylon · October 24th, 2009, 01:33 PM

If anyone looked at 14th Colony as a lesson, I'd say the largest of the shortfalls began in the scope. It should have been a 3-12 minute video at the most ambitious. I learned a while back that before you opt to take on any fan effort, first ensure your resources. If you think you can launch a project and gain the momentum on the way to get the folks you need for the missing parts, it won't happen.

I obviously have my own theories as to why this project never materialized but given its mass push and (from what I understood) notable outlay of money, which never resulted in anything beyond a CG advertisement video, I'd be interested in what lessons learned the group came away with. I suspect that the roadblocks and problems they hit will be shared with anyone else who wants to attempt something in the future and perhaps they can pass along some good advice to the next group willing to give it a go.

All my best,

Russell

peter noble · October 24th, 2009, 03:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taranis

In some levels Galactica is to big to tackle even with blue screen help. for shots on the Galactica Bridge or hanger would have to be green screen.

I think that's true, making a Star Trek fan film must be hard, but a BG one you must multiply that by 10 at least.

I think audio stories like Russell has done or moving in the direction that David Kerin is exploring, using CG characters is the way to go.

TwoBrainedCylon · October 24th, 2009, 09:01 PM

Both approaches have strong advantages. The pure CG could (in theory) be done by a few guys who wanted to sacrifice their lives for a couple of years who were then supported by voice actors who could do their part from anywhere in the world. The CG burden is immense under this scenario.

The live action advantage is that if you got folks together and either had connections to a green screen studio or could build one, you could do wonders with it and really advance the presentation for the same amount of money/time. If you look at what Richard did with 2nd Coming, you should get an idea of what could be done, especially when you consider that was done 8 years ago. Plus, Galactica made liberal use of the sorts of settings that would marry up well with a modern low-budget production. A couple good matte artists joined up with about four respectable CG folks could really make a short film shine and feel like it belonged with the series. (I'm thinking something about the length and complexity of Star Wars: Revelations).

The larger problem is copyright. Trek and Star Wars both have the advantage of knowing who to get the wink and nod from to do a larger production without any follow-on hassles. With Galactica, you have a murky copyright situation with a lot of folks hovering to make things difficult. Richard muddled up the waters somewhat in this area and they're still churned up quite a bit. I also wouldn't put it past a certain producer and "developer" (or a handful of their supporters) to cause difficulties for anyone working to do a production that ignored their "masterpiece" and instead praised the cheesy show from the 70s. I'd warn anyone wanting to put forth some serious resources to first get a copyright OK before running too far down the road.

Yet, for anyone capable of getting over these initial hurdles, there are a lot of resources available. I know places in both Orlando and Los Angeles that could be converted into viable sets for a handful of cash and there's several film crews who could be enlisted to work on such a project and they all come with at least some equipment. Such a production would still cost about $1000 a minute at a minimum but it would look pretty damn good when all was said and done. (That's live action with roughly 3-5 minutes fo final cut shot per day).

The CG approach could cut that cost down significantly but would then have a massive increase in time and I'd seriously expect about six weeks a minute of production time with a much higher chance of the crew working on it to throw up their hands and walk away.

I'd again look to Jon Roger and RJ and get their take as to what worked well for them and what failed and why. Then figure about $50,000 for a live action 46 minute episode or about $18,000 and a lot of time and talent for a CG episode of the same length.

... and if anyone still wants to try it, ... God bless them.

I'll also add that given the history over the past ten years, I've gotten 30 times more enjoyment just seeing DeSanto's pre-production stuff than I did from the entire run of GINO, which proves that even an aborted effort can do more for Galactica than the wrong production pressed to completion, at least in my eyes.

All my best,

Russell

Titon · October 25th, 2009, 09:47 AM

Comes down to time and money. When you push for a fan effort it often fall's to the wayside simply because real life is more important. When you begin to try and put forth an effort like this with all probono work it often fails, hence the 14th colony. Galactica is not to big that something can be accomplished but in the end money still is the root of all evil.

I always' believe that when it comes to probono work you should never ever place a timetable on anything. It's very unrealistic since you do not have a clue where, when and how everything will come together. Look no further than Richard Hatch. When he was playing around with the Great War of Megallen it was almost a joke as to how much he changed things. It was never good enough. There was so much waste of time, money and energy that it became a fruitless effort.

I believe Sandy and I both discussed the 14th colony at length and both of us agreed that in the end the effort was there but the timetable and understanding that goes along with producing something like this was unrealistic. But again without starting a fight about it we were both basically told that our comments about the production of this were welcomed but not needed.

I wish nothing but the best for John and his crew but in the end it's sad to see another project disappear.

gmd3d · October 25th, 2009, 01:58 PM

If I was to approach a fan film dealing with BSG I would go in the same direction as Russell audio story ... at one the I thought of it and started to thing how I could do it but was put of by the lack of people around me that would be interested in such a project.

I only have met one person that into BSG in Ireland and that is Smallworld.

you have to have the right support as Russell already pointed out, resources etc.

I would go in a new direction .. smaller ship. new character as I mentioned before..
then you have greater control.. this is why Russell's story was and is so successful.

if any fan film was to be made it would be along those lines .. the fleet continuing is to big as seen in the orignal show..

Monodox · October 28th, 2009, 11:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Titon

I always' believe that when it comes to probono work you should never ever place a timetable on anything. It's very unrealistic since you do not have a clue where, when and how everything will come together. Look no further than Richard Hatch. When he was playing around with the Great War of Megallen it was almost a joke as to how much he changed things. It was never good enough. There was so much waste of time, money and energy that it became a fruitless effort.

As a fellow survivor of the 'Great War of Magellan' I agree with Titon's observations wholeheartedly, and I was only working on a very small part of the project

I have been involved with both the Star Wars and Star Trek fan film scenes in various forms over the last ten years and have seen some projects succeed and some fail. To paraphrase Mr Shakespeare, some projects seem to suffer from 'vaulting ambition that o'er leaps itself and falls upon the other side'. The seemingly overwhelming need to be the biggest and the best often blinds those in charge to their own limitations. And when the final result does not live up to the self generated hype, fans can be a fiercely critical bunch.

One project which proves that a small one man effort with a specific goal in mind and a good grasp of the resources at hand, can succeed is 'Star Trek: Aurora' -https://www.auroratrek.com. This gives me inspiration to try my hand at a few small projects and finally produce something to keep ernie90125 happy

mikala · December 1st, 2009, 04:14 PM

Monodox that Aurotrek stuff was not bad at all!
I was pleasantly surprised. Thanks for the link.
It would have been nice to see Folkrm's Gal in action on this (14th Col) project though.

ernie90125 · December 2nd, 2009, 03:30 AM

Monodox.....I just love the last line of your posting....thanks !!!!!

Daniel

Titon · December 3rd, 2009, 04:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monodox

As a fellow survivor of the 'Great War of Magellan' I agree with Titon's observations wholeheartedly, and I was only working on a very small part of the project

I have been involved with both the Star Wars and Star Trek fan film scenes in various forms over the last ten years and have seen some projects succeed and some fail. To paraphrase Mr Shakespeare, some projects seem to suffer from 'vaulting ambition that o'er leaps itself and falls upon the other side'. The seemingly overwhelming need to be the biggest and the best often blinds those in charge to their own limitations. And when the final result does not live up to the self generated hype, fans can be a fiercely critical bunch.

One project which proves that a small one man effort with a specific goal in mind and a good grasp of the resources at hand, can succeed is 'Star Trek: Aurora' -https://www.auroratrek.com. This gives me inspiration to try my hand at a few small projects and finally produce something to keep ernie90125 happy

The character work in this is pretty darn good for a one man effort.