Pat Rafferty lives in New York. Raffertyesque is his personal website. And also his professional website. Which isn't to suggest he is professional. At all.
Are we familiar with the term “fan fiction?” It’s when fans write their own stories in the universe of a TV show or movie or book of which they are a fan. It’s a thing. Particularly on the internet. There are websites, forums, newsgroups, interactive fiction, and, uh, other things.
But we’re not here to talk about fan fiction. That’s not why you called. We’re here to talk about fan films. Oh yes.
So at some point, some industrious fan of something said “You know, this is great that we can write stories where Tarzan or Captain Kirk makes out with Jane or Spock, but I feel like we could do so much more.” And do more they did.
Fan films are just what you think they are; fans write, act, and direct their own take-offs of their favorite (or least favorite) bits of pop culture.
For a long time, fan films were an underground phenomenon. But, even more so than fan fiction, the internet practically designed for fan films. With the advent YouTube, people started sharing fan films like never before. And, in turn, they were producing more fan films than ever before.
It was a virtuous cycle. If you consider fan films virtuous. Which you really shouldn’t.
If you skim the Wikipedia page for Fan film, you’ll notice that a disproportionately large number of fan films are in the science fiction genre.
This seems odd for about half a second until you realize: oh, right, nerds.
Nerds are the only type of people who are passionate enough (read: nerdy enough) to write, shoot, edit and distribute a fan film. You’ll notice “act” is not in that list. Unfortunately nerds are absolutely terrible actors.
Anyway, this is why there are hundreds (thousands?) of Star Trek fan films out there, and no fan versions of, say, Cheers. Nerds do not care whether or not Sam and Diane get together. (Norm and Cliff, on the other hand…) (That’s a darker corner of the internet than even I care to travel.)
Of the countless Star Trek fan homages over the years, without a doubt the most impressive one is “Star Trek New Voyages.” And by impressive, I mean, holy crap.
The original Star Trek started on NBC 1966, with each season covering one year of the five year mission of the Starship Enterprise. After only three years, Star Trek was cancelled, though. So what happened in those last two years? We nerds must know!
I guess there’s only one way to find out… we’ll just have to meticulously recreate the sets of the Enterprise, recast the roles of Kirk, Spock and the gang, recruit writers of the old series to dig up scripts, and convince cast members from the original series to either reprise their old roles or take on new ones (frequently as villains!) and then film new full length episodes like it’s 1969.
Like I said, holy crap.
Star Trek New Voyages looks and sounds better than the original Star Trek series ever did. They’ve got a starship full of sets up in Fort Ticonderoga, New York (upstate represent!), they’re six episodes in and they’re making more. The effects are amazing, the picture is in crystal clear high definition and the sets are better than you remember them being on the old show. Meaning they are slightly better than shoddy.
Here’s the thing, though. Star Trek was never about the production quality. I wasn’t around in 1966, but even back then I’m sure the whole production was laughable. No, it was the ideas that made Star Trek. It was looking through the lens of the future to comment on the problems of modern day that made Star Trek. Well, that, and Shatner’s raw sexual charisma. Fan fiction fodder for decades to come.
Clearly they’ve got the special effects and production skills, the New Voyages gang would be better off working on something less cerebral than Star Trek. Like, say… Star Wars.
Ohhhhhh, nerd burn!
On the other end of the production quality spectrum is what I consider to be the ultimate fan film: “Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation.” Unlike most fan films, this is actually a remake. It’s a shot-for-shot adaptation of Raiders of The Lost Ark. It’s an extremely lofi VHS-type production, made in the 1980s, but it somehow transcends its technical limitations. Probably because it was made by two kids in Mississippi.
Wait, what?
So the story goes like this: back in the summer of 1982, 10 year-old Chris Strompolos and 11 year-old Eric Zala decided they would remake Raiders of The Lost Ark. You know, because they didn’t have anything else going on.
So, every summer, for the next seven years, they worked on this movie.
They watched and re-watched and Raiders Of The Lost Ark. They bootlegged the audio on a cassette recorder in the theater so they could write down all the dialogue. They built giant rolling boulders (the first few broke). They sewed costumes. They went through puberty. They painted sets. They set another kid’s basement on fire. They went to the hospital. They dressed up like Nazis. They even kissed girls!
By 1989, the film was finished. Some small liberties were taken. Indy’s fight scene with the Nazi on the runway got cut. And yes, a dog fills in for the role performed by a monkey in the original (the dog’s got chops, though). And sure, there are moments when years have passed between scenes, but other than that, it’s pretty spot on.
It’s the only fan film I’ve ever seen (and I have seen many) that transcends “good fan film” to simply “good film.” It’s 100 minutes of sheer brilliance. Steven Spielberg himself has spoken fondly of it.
Were these guys the only kids making fan films? No. But they were certainly the best.
In the end, Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation and Star Trek New Voyages are two completely different works of fan filmmaking. Different budgets, different decades, different universes. But really, they’re more alike than different. That goes for all fan films, really. They’re all made by a bunch of nerds who loved something so much, they decided they had to pay homage to it.
With some of the worst acting you’ve ever seen.
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