LIEF Productions

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Hathaway releases first trailer

NW Ohio, USA, Website, Forum

Early in February, the "USS Hathaway" fan film group released their first trailer. Available as a free download from their website, Media page, it features footage of the cast not previously seen., their cgi and a hint at the storyline.

One of the things that has drawn the most comment has been the makeup used on Natalie Bostelman to turn her into R'Meera, the ship's half Caitian, half human counsellor. It must be a time consuming job! First Brad airbrushes on her overall skin tone, then hand paints her "stripes". Her nose or "muzzle" was originally a store bought one - it can be seen in the closeup on the trailer - but is now a "custom made foam latex prosthetic made by Dennis Blackwell who recently joined us and does work professionally with prosthetics here in Northwest Ohio." The second shot of R'Meera on the trailer shows her new "nose job". Dennis, like everyone else on the cast does double duty, playing the part of Krag.

The cgi has been well received, trivia buffs might note that the sfx (sound effects) for the Hathaway's phasers is different. Brad notes that "ST2: The Wrath of Khan"(TWOK), which occurs immediately prior to their storyline, is the only time you hear ships fire phasers in the TOS shows, at all other times photon torpedoes are used.

To critics who feel that their plot is not original enough, that it is trying to be a sequel to TWOK, Brad says...
Trust me, we are definitely not going to be a series of "sequels". There are two items we are using. First and obvious is Genesis. This is more of a convenient "jumping off" point for us. Our second episode will be a completely original storyline. But our third will have some relation to the Cetacian Probe from Star Trek: IV. We feel that for continuity's sake we have to touch on this since the effects were Federation wide but of course our episode will be on the 23rd century side. Having said that, the ideas that are bouncing around, I believe you'll be quite pleased with. After that we are free of any Federation wide events for at least six in-story years.
The story definitely follows up on events from TWOK and TSFS, but while TSFS was about Kirk and co. risking their careers to get their friend back, our story is about Starfleet dealing with the aftermath of these events as they relate to the quadrant powers. We're using TWOK and TSFS as a jumping off point to introduce our ship and characters before moving on to our own storylines.
In fact he specifically pointed out that R'Meera's mixed ancestry might play a significant role in the future.

Brad freely admits that they will be working on their Thespian skills in preparation for filming in _. "The acting is probably most fan film's downfall to some degree or another. It's hard to get professional actors to work for free, at least in Northwest Ohio. We have a lot of people giving a lot of effort so whatever drawbacks we have will be sure to improve."

For my part, I saw a cast with a lot of raw energy who sound committed to shaking the dust off the movie era and giving us a top rate show! They might not all be professionals but they are approaching the filming in a professional manner.

1 Comments:

  • I'm mortified! My apologies for for my careless mistake! I shall send some catnip by return email as recompense!

    It must a real challenge to get expressiveness into your performance with such restrictive makeup. You guys are certainly not taking any shortcuts!

    Kirok

    By Blogger Kirok of LStok, at 2:23 pm  

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