Star Trek: Intrepid releases trailer

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

The Intrepid team have released the trailer for Heavy Lies The Crown.

You can find the 23 mb Quicktime version here. or the 10 mb Quicktime version here.

You can also find the 5 mb Quicktime version here.

The 20 mb DivX version can be found here.

Smaller DivX versions will be available soon.

Feel free to pop by our board and let us know what you thought here.

[Turloigh]

One word: Fascinating...

I've been saying it ever since I created my first Scottish Star Trek RPG character, Lieutenant MacIntyre, many years ago: the Scots conquer the universe!

[Ergi]

It's hard to judge a movie based on a teaser, I liked what I have seen so far, however.

There is one question I have: Will there be subtitles?

[Owen E Oulton]

Way cool. Best acting I've seen in a fanfilm yet (well, excepting Troops). Love the accents. (Yeah, I can hear 'em: "Wha' accents? We dinnae have bluidy accents!")

[Tobian]

Oh no REAL scottish accents, that'll confuse the Americans

Looking intreaguing, it will be interesting to see where it goes, and I'll certainly download the full episode!

Some of that scenery looked very familiar, very Scottish (it's the acres of dead brown trees that give it away )

I do have a few nits to pick, but that would get in the way of saying well done!

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

Thanks guys. Subtitles? Maybe.

It's funny, we've had a lot of comments on the accents, which isn;t something we'd even considered.

Feel free to pick nits folks, we're open to criticism.

[Squick]

Without seeming *too* facetious, it looks like Starfleet fitness training is somewhat lacking on some these guys

Other than the chunky factor, it looks very nicely done and taken seriously by the participants.

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

Without seeming *too* facetious, it looks like Starfleet fitness training is somewhat lacking on some these guys

Other than the chucky factor, it looks very nicely done and taken seriously by the participants.

I would not presume to debate you.

Talking of taking things seriously, the editor had a hard time cutting one of the scenes (which is breifly seen in the trailer) due the actor in question grinning like a cheshire cat the entire time. Despite supposedly being wounded and under fire. We've been ribbing him about that for weeks now.

[Cpt. Lundgren]

Nice. Looking forward to see the the rest of it.

[Tobian]

There are many reasons why you will never see me in a Starfleet uniform, that being one of them *shudders*

Hmm well being nit-picky There was one point in the trailer you used the fade to white jump cut a little too much. Some of the backgrounds for the characters looked a little too fake. it's hard to do but matched lighting is a huge factor and something which will add to the realism. Either re-orient the lighting in the studio, or re-render the backdrop: A clean Chroma Key won't help if your lighting is different.

I also thought the rendering looked a little flat. Don't be afraid to have more black shadows.. it is space Also a fill light from the planet would help fill the black, rather than turning abient lighting up (yuk).

I did like the outdoor scenes. Not as a criticism, but as a suggestion, you could use the flat boring skies we get in britain allot, to your advantage, and use it to key in an exotic artefact, such as 3 moons or a space city or somesuch thing, they do that in Stargate allot (and they shoot in Canada's pine forrests allot too! ) Use the vista shots to establish: you guys have some wonderful countryside round there, so it's good to use what you have!

The cut with the background changing did look a little naff I might suggest squeezing either a window frame, or some okudagrams into that frame, to imply a window or stelar cartography, as it just looks like they are floating in space

Stronger paced music, which is tied with the scene cutting would also be good too.

It's a colaborative effort, so obviously it's a huge ammount of effort to collaborate and share all that data so I can appreciate how much work it is to change a tiny bit!

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

Thanks for the feedback. I do agree with much of what you've said, though it's worth pointing out that none of the CGI backgrounds are final, so what you're seeing in those cases isn't finished footage.

We toyed with adding extra objects to create an alien sky effect, but ultimately decided against it. We are planning to use audio effects to achieve an 'alien feel' though.

I'd have to disagree with the opening transition from space to the planet. The setting is a holodeck and the intention (apart from being arty purely for art's sake) is that both characters are essentially floating in space. It's an athestic choice (albeit not mine) and not everyone will like it, but that's OK.

[Tobian]

Well if it's a holodeck fade, I hate to say it but maybe then add a holodeck fade in, bring in the background a few objects at a time, and add the holodeck switching sound effect. Chromatic abberations are nasty things to plan, but with a couple of offsets on your seperate colour channels it could be done in after effects The switch between your holodeck switch and the the next scene also make it seem like one and the same too, but yes, watched on freeze frame I can see it

Also the opening line is err - ambiguous and doesn't actually make any sense.

As another suggestion; At the begining you have a couple of epithets flashing on screen 'A distant world' 'Promises a new beginning' etc. Perhaps you should keep these coming, as it emulates the style of Trek trailers, it's odd that they just stop after the first two. Also the colour pallette for them is different than the closing titles. I guess I just like consistiency

I would offer to help but I don't know how to operate editing software, I'm just a critic

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. That scene doesn't appear in the film anyway.

What about the opening line doesn't make sense to you? It establishes distance and perspective. They've travelled so far that the 'lights in the sky' are predominatly galaxies, not stars.

Funnily enough, that's the only scene I didn't write.

Anyway, critics serve an important function, and it's all advice we can keep in mind as we're editing the actual film.

Feel free to visit our board and share your thoughts. We don't bite.

[Tobian]

Hehe Well err, semantically stars are not galaxies and in terms of a contextual distance, a good portion of the 'stars' in the sky are galaxies, no matter where you are. The only time I can think that you would only have galaxies lighting you would be if you're outside of the galaxy altogether, and there are no stars nearby... which you might be, in which case i stand corrected

I may well visit your boards at some point, when i have all my writing chores done!

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

Hehe Well err, semantically stars are not galaxies and in terms of a contextual distance, a good portion of the 'stars' in the sky are galaxies, no matter where you are. The only time I can think that you would only have galaxies lighting you would be if you're outside of the galaxy altogether, and there are no stars nearby... which you might be, in which case i stand corrected

Yep, but many people looking at the night sky can't tell the difference, hence the statement that most of those 'stars' are galaxies. That was the point, and if you listen, the word 'stars' is delivered in quotes. They're supposed to be right at the fringes of the galaxy, though not quite outside it.