My Life In Fandom: What Could Have Been

Today I'm revisiting Axanar the pro-quality Star Trek fan film that Paramount stupidly decided to screw over years ago. Hollywood veteran Robert Burnett was involved, and he put out a series of videos talking about the very thing that got Paramount's attention: the SFX shots. He put them into a short playlist and I want you folks to see it and listen to his commentary:

My creative work, for now, is prose and prose is not any visual medium. That's intended to change down the road, and there are some of you who do work--or want to work-in a visual medium like film. Just as professional wrestling has a form of visual storytelling they call "match psychology", so does film and television (live or animated) and Rob here shows that he understands this very well- as one expects of a competent industry veteran.

You won't hear him say it, but you see that he also knows where the line between any semblance of fidelity to known science and the demands of good drama are in science fiction. That's not hyperbole; you can, literally, see it in these videos. Sure, it's absurd to think that capital ships will dodge and weave like fighters in a dogfight, but that approach makes it easier to put forth a dramatic presentation in the small-scale engagements this film focuses upon.

I enjoy hearing Rob talk about how he would time the cut-aways to the characters reacting and issuing orders in turn for maximum dramatic effect. That's him displaying that he gets what visual media are good at doing: showing, viscerally, the consequences of actions. The actors would then use body language and tone of voice as short-hand to convey what a prose rendition of the scene would spend time going into a character's head to expose and display; seconds on screen versus pages read in prose.

You can hear in Rob's voice the lament for what could have--should have--been. While the project is being salvaged so the time spent and the money raised actually produces some tangible results, it's clear that this is akin to Blizzard's salvaging of the ill-fated "Titan" MMORPG to produce Overwatch. Hopefully this instance will not produce that same disappointment, as film and TV is not videogames (something else people forget), but episodic psuedo-TV is not a proper feature-length film and everyone knows it.

At least what was finished won't go to waste. What comes out of the final result will still blow people away with what can be done by small-scale parties now. Soon, and sooner than you think, this power will be accessible to common people working out of their homes at working-man prices. When that hits, you can kiss Hollywood's chokehold on the media in the West goodbye.

You can keep up for yourself via the Axanar channel on YouTube or their website.