[Kirok]

I had some time to make a slightly more detailed pitch for this idea (first posted in the HFO forum) ...

This project is a major collaborative project between a wide variety of Star Trek fan groups to celebrate the season of goodwill and giving. It is primarily a fun activity by Star Trek fans, for Star Trek fans however there can be no doubt that it will generate a lot of publicity for the participants and create and maintain good relations between the groups. Successful completion of the project will open the way to making it a regular, annual event.

Unlike most fan productions, because this is a Christmas project, delivery of projects on deadline is imperative, so pitches for sub-projects need to have firm, deliverable aims that can be achieved within a realistic schedule. Murphy’s Law will be acknowledged with a 25% contingency of ‘standby projects’ - projects with modest or existing deliverables that can be slotted in to make up for any failure-to-launch.

Participation in the project will be competitive in that subprojects will go to the person or group that is best suited. Because of the importance of delivering the project on deadline, groups and individuals with a proven track record will be given preference.

The structure of the project revolves around new lyrics that fit the traditional Christmas carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas” of which I have the first five ‘rounds’ ...

On the first day of Christmas, Star Trek gave to me...

[01] A Hako Enterprise bridge
[02] Two omnibuses
[03] Three Wise Men
[04] Four Pod dramas
[05] Five fan films

From this point on the numbers will remain undetermined until we know how many participants we will get for each sub-project, so the order is not set. Substitute the order number for the letter, for example if we get eight music videos, d = 8 …

[a] <a> Hako clones
[b] A <b> page comic
[c] <c> Gamers gaming
[d] <d> Music vid's
[e] <e> filkers filking
[f] <f> Trekfan podbooks

The last project depends on the previous subprojects and has to come last so as not to give them away …

[12] A Trek fan calendar

In detail these are ...

[01] A Hako Enterprise bridge
The Hako Enterprise bridge card model by Ron Caudillo

[02] Two omnibuses
Two fan fiction omnibuses organised and hosted by the USS Southern Cross and HFO

[03] Three Wise Men
This is a major work by three theologians (sorry, "three wise men" just fits so well!) about religion in Star Trek. Note: We could make this two theologians and an atheist, agnostic or humanist

[04] Four Pod dramas
Four short Star Trek audio dramas. Note: Besides the six audio dramas in production or pre-production, this could also be an option for some of the fan film groups as well

[05] Five fan films
A fan film trailer featuring five fan production groups who have produced major videos this year:

• Star Trek: New Voyages
  
• Star Trek: Hidden Frontier
  
• Star Trek: Intrepid
  
• Starship Farragut
  
• TOTSF, Borg Wars?

[a] <a> Hako clones
A flexible number of Hako clones on the Steve Marshall pattern of the Original Series crew to suit Ron Caudillo's Hako Enterprise bridge. This could be any number between 6-11

[b] A <b> page comic
A Star Trek fan comic 6 -11 pages in length. This could be hand drawn or stills from a Flash animation or other machinima

[c] <c> Gamers gaming
A flexible number of free Star Trek games. Note: These might just be links to the websites of the games mentioned

• Instructions for making and playing 3D Chess
  
• Instructions for making and playing Pirates of the Federation
  
• Download of Parmen’s 3D Chess
  
• Download of Open Trek

[d] <d> Music videos
A flexible number of Trek music videos. Note: These need not necessarily be Christmas themed

[e] <e> filkers filking
A flexible number of Mp3 downloads of Star Trek Christmas carols - Filk.

[f] <f> Trekfan podbooks
A flexible number of Fan fiction audiobooks

[12] A Trek fan calendar
A high quality Star Trek fan-made calendar with each month focusing on one of the "days of Christmas" sub-projects. Based on the lyrics, this would maintain the publicity value of the project throughout the year.

This is an internet, virtual project, so the hosting of the project could be centralised or decentralised. Personally I think a decentralised format will encourage the participants to spread the project across the internet. For example …

• The Fan Film trailer and music videos streamed and downloadable on the TU video centre. The HFO omnibus available from the front page
  
• The Hako Clones, Trekfan podbooks and their Fanfic omnibus on the USS Southern Cross website

Other than that, individual webpages could be the coordinated download point for specific days, these are examples only …

• The Enterprise Bridge model on a major card model site
  
• The Three Wise Men on the website of one of the participants
  
• The comic on the maker’s website
  
• The games linked from a download page on a major Trek gamers website
  
• The filk on Slice of SciFi (Who could also be the official podcaster if they want)
  
• The Trek fan calendar on the International Federation of Trekers

The announcement for each day would be formatted and made available to anyone who wants it, so that, say in the case of a Mambo type website/forum like TrekUnited there would be an article in the news on the front page and a forum thread supporting each (maybe part of a subforum of fan productions) even though the download page might be on a Starfleet International website. A similar setup can be made on the webspace of the International Federation of Trekers and Starfleet International so that their members can follow the whole thing on their own boards even though the download links will take them to the websites of the participants.

Cheers

Kirok

[Bill]

As always, an amazing idea, Kirok!

[Kirok]

Ideas, yes, I'm full of it ... them, I mean.

It might sound ambitious at first glance but really most of it is simply giving people a way of presenting their work to as wide a slice of fandom as possible. many of the things already exist and I've had permission to use them in previous things I've done. For example, most of the games I've listed are from a CD I was making as a prize for a kids award for Starfleet.

Other things will be a challenge like four audio dramas. The way to go with that is to limit the size of the investment in time and resources needed by the fan audio groups - it would be an audio vignette of 5 minutes rather than a full 30 minute episode - and see if we can 'sweeten' it a bit. Could we get name writers to do a five minute audio skit for them? Could we get celebrities to do walk-on parts for them? Or - even better - could we get TrekUnited staff to do walk-on VA parts? Thomas and Tim have distinctive voices that are made for radio and Richard is an old hand with a mike so I'm told! Just do it at the TrekUnited office party after everyone is suitably, um merry!

All I want you guys to do at this stage is consider the project and give me a conditional go-ahead - I can't approach anyone until i know what the avenue for distribution will be in principle. I wouldn't expect a 100% go unless I could come back with 75% of the components commited. I'll contact the IFT with a similar proposal and the Starfleet International component will be a collaborative member's project between a number of ships. SFI command can't agree on the menu for lunch never mind committing to a fan production project.

If the overall project doesn't get picked up, I'll still be going ahead with individual components. No sweat. There are always options!

Cheers

K

[Kirok]

I'm not sure how open this forum is, so you'll forgive me if I don't go into details.

• I've sent out invites for two "days" and got confirmations, including an confirmation of hosting for one "day".
  
• Day 2 - the Omnibuses - is half-way there - I've had confirmation of hosting for a Christmas edition of Acrux
  
• I've decided to change Day 4 to "four Trek Podcasts" (a bit too much to expect four audio groups to do special episodes) and sent invites off to three so far

The confirmations I have so far, put me at 5% starters and its less than a week old!

Cheers

K

[Kirok]

The updates on The Twelve Trek Days of Christmas for this week are ...

• An agreement has been struck with a Starfleet international chapter in Region 11 (Australasia, surprise, surprise!) to provide a website and forum for the planning, development and organisation of the project
  
• We are now at 11% commitments
  
• I have hosting signed off for two days on major sites
  
• I have drafted the announcement of the Acrux Christmas omnibus "A Christmas Trek under the Southern Cross" and over the next week I will start publicising it. Watch the Australian section for signs of waking up

Guys, I don't want to sound pushy but if someone else commits to providing something that TrekUnited could have done then they will get the spot. If you are holding off because you are wondering if this will get off the ground you can stop waiting because with the agreement with the USS Chicago we have launch!

It would sadden me if TrekUnited were not represented in something that is getting non-partisan support across a large slice of Trek fandom but I need to give contributors at least two months to get their material together.

<shrugs> Your choice

K