blog.starwreck.com

Check out this Japanese video from the iSummit conference in Croatia. Among talkers like Lawrence Lessig and John Buckman from Magnatune there’s Samuli talking about how flattered we are that Star Wreck was pirated. The Wreck bit starts at 8 minute mark:

So, the first of the Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, Voices in the Dark has been released in the US. Even though Finland had a very rapid Babylon 5 fandom, there hasn’t been that much expectation for them. Possibly due to Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers tv-movie that I still haven’t managed to finish watching. Mostly because it sucks worse than the vacuum of space in the Alien films.

This time however, I not only managed to watch the whole thing, but I have to admit that I liked it. Sure, Voices in the Dark has it’s problems, but it felt like the good old B5 I stayed up watching all those years ago and didn’t get enough sleep before school. Actually, it had much of the same problems, they just seemed more obious now when the quality of TV productions is a lot higher in general than in the early 90’s.

Let’s start with the format. Now, Voices in the Dark isn’t really a fish nor a bird, it’s a chimera, containing a bit of both and looking mighty odd. It’s two 45 minute episodes wrapped into one 90 minute dvd movie. There isn’t any real connection between them, exept for a thematic one, but they aren’t separated either. So if you watch this as a movie you’ll be scratching your head. Just take it as two episodes watched together.

There were entire scenes contaning nothing but exposition in dialogue, the sets were cheaper than ever and even though the CGI was done by the same company as Galactica, well, let’s just say that Energia would have delivered better quality for less cash (so JMS, if you’re reading this and not completely pissed at the LotR bashing, give us a call…).

Then again, I found it very refreshing that the two stories in the film didn’t rely on visuals or action. Instead there was a lot of long, poetic speeches and pondering between moral choises - the things that B5 did best. And unlike the rather misleading trailer lets you believe, this time there was no ancient evil threatening to drown the whole galaxy in darkness. Instead there was humor and some self-consious put-ups of certain elements of the show.

So, all in all, it was fun watching B5 again, I especially liked the ideas in the first part, consentrating on Lochley, while the second part about Sheridan felt more complete and polished. I’ll be waiting for the upcoming parts.

In Europe the DVD is released in September and for once it’s not too expensive. Play.com offers pre-order for 15.49e. At least for me that’s a price I’m willing to pay even for nostalgias’ sake. Compare that with, for example, the HD releases of original Star Trek clocking in $217 per season. Well, I guess if you have money to buy a HD player and a TV you can afford expensive box sets as well.

Finns don’t beat Norwegians too often, but one thing we have that they don’t, is a fan-made feature length Star Trek -related film, released on the Internet. Soon, even that is going to change. I just found out about the film production called Star Trek: Gatekeeper.

Inspired by Star Wreck, the Norwegian Trekkers will for the next two years prepare for the shooting of Star Trek: Gatekeeper - the summer of 2009. A cooperation between the new Norwegian group The Gatekeepers and Trekkers Norway. Here’s the synopsis:

The film takes place in the 29th century and on the biggest Starfleet station so far - The Gatekepper.

Only two years before a stationary Nexus appears just above the busy streets of Mars Central, and both people and aliens come traveling from the entire galaxy to ensure eternal life, by entering the Nexus. To avoid the catastrophe of mass suicide, Starfleets is given the task to build a space station, to guard the Nexus, and keep people away - but shortly after the station is finished an arm from the nexus is stretching toward the upper part of the station, and a number of famous personalities from Starfleets past is suddenly seen walking the station - all buried in space and divulged by the Nexus.

Cast so far:
The Station captain is played by former Trekkers Norway leader Irene Brustad, while the head of Starfleet is portrayed by the current leader Ole-Tom Ingebrigtsen. The head of the United Federation of Planets is played by the world’s most famous Trekker, Barbara Adams from Trekkies 1 & 2.

The movie is based on the largest Norwegian Trekker project so far - the biggest portal for Star Trek, Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror on the Internet - a webversion of the station. The pages will be ready for presentation during the Norwegian SciFi/Fantasy Convention Warp 2008, but the forum for debating the station will be presented in a few weeks.

Closer to Christmas a portal page, presenting all the details of the station; like how to get your own private quarter, how to shop in the stores, enter the private clubs, solve all the mysteries, and so on.

Designing the page and the setting of the movie is Thomas Dahl - also creating concept matte paintings for Iron Sky as well as posters and concept MP for other US fan based Trek shows. While the 3D modeling is created by Alexander Presthus. Programmers are Martin Moen and Alexander Angeltveit. Costumes and latex effects will also be designed by Thomas Dahl, and a number of auditions will take place the summer of 2009 in Oslo. Language in both cases will be English.

Ps. The guys gave me a hint, that they might need your help. So, advanced 3D modellers and matte painters are welcome to contact the production team, as are prop makers and tailors for costumes. Portfolios is needed.

Speaking in tongues

There has been quite a bit of updates on the sites and it’s propably due time to blog about them a bit. And we’re mostly blogging in english nowadays. That’s because things are becoming more international for us. Samuli and Timo are running around the globe and we’ve met a lot of people speaking some other language apart Finnish. Until now we’ve usually had websites in finnish and english, but we have to admit that we just don’t have time to translate everything :/ Especially not if we want to update more often. Since we Finns generally speak English a lot better than foreigners speak Finnish, it means that we’ll be mostly blabbering on in English from now on.

The Website and old Star Wrecks

On the main site you might notice (if you have javascript turned on) that the navigation on the top now opens up into dropdown menus. That should be handy and the menus will be coming here and the forum as well. The big thing is, that now all the old Star Wreck movies are back online. Check out www.starwreck.com/legacy/!

The Download page for In the Pirkinning has been updated as well, now you can watch the movie directly as well. Like the old films this uses DivX Stage6, it requires DivX to be installed, but the piucture quality is light-years apart from the other video sites. For those who can’t use DivX our videos are at Revver (still running the Video archive) and Live video. There are still million little things to update on the site, so things will be changing.

The Blog

This Blog has been updated as well. Now it’s possible to digg posts, or save them to del.icio.us etc. There’s also a possibily to get email notifications from new comments to threads you leave comments to. On the right side there’s a little box called “Twitter” with short updates and ramblings from the office and on the road. This Twitter thing seems to be the new cocaine of the web 2.0 world with everybody using it. And I have to admit, it’s fun having a place to write short blabber like “We’re runnign late, a manatee had been run over by a truck”, or whatever… Let’s see how long it stays fun. Until then, enjoy twitter from the office…

Oh, and there’s a play.com ad on the right. If you use that link to buy stuff we get couple of cents out of it. Hasn’t been a gold mine thus far. Actually having that link has mostly cost us money, since going to Play usually ends up with me ordering at least one DVD. Anyway, the long term idea is to not have a flashing banner, but to make some sort of a “Energia recommends” list of movies and tv-series. Since we’re not going to blog about everything we like anyway.

And a conclusion: we’re trying to make the site more dynamic and have more content that’s updated regularly. We’re open to suggestions, critique and expensive gifts. So if you have any ideas leave a comment. Especially if you have good idea for the name of this blog. The current subdomain themed one is informative allright, but somewhat boring…

And now something completely different…

…Star Wreck V - Lost Contact:

Watch all old Star Wreck movies here. Yes, even Star Wreck 4½.

Feature-length films are still a rare thing to come across on the Internet, but we Finns tend to have a good grip on that business. Introducing now a Finnish, English-language thriller shot entirely on bluescreen called Once Upon A Time On Earth, made by Tuomas Hautamäki from Oulu.

The full movie is available for free here. There is a article in Finnish in the newspaper Kaleva providing some background.

Way to go, Finland!

Science Fiction in Europe is not a common sight. Or is it? Just blocked a campish but interesting and production from Spain called ‘Baron Against the Demons’ - or Star Troopers, as they seem to call it also. The film is just about to be finished, and there’s been plenty of it’s trailers available already.

The synopsis says:

“In the closing stages of the 21st Century, an enigmatic superhero, called the Baron, leads the crusade that the religious organization Exorcio Deus Machine is conducting against the forces of Evil. During an extermination mission, the Baron is taken prisoner by the witch Lady Pervertvm and is tortured until she gets his sperm. Lady Pervertvm uses the Baron’s seminal fluid to fertilize the Beast-Ragnarok in order to have it engender the most powerful and ultimate race of demons. The Baron manages to escape but, blinded by his guilt, he begins a bloody Via Crucis which will start to reveal his true nature.”

We have a superhero fighting evil and a perverted lady wanting his sperm to breed a beast. We have enemies called Satan Vortex and Beast-Ragnarok. Just can’t go wrong with it! The trailers are fun with a nice retro touch and even have some pretty nice special effects, so go check them out. Not gonna beat Empire Strikes Back, but European scifi is rising, and that’s good for all of us!

Check the trailer here.

Finncon, the two-day science fiction convention - biggest one in Nordic countries - took place in Jyväskylä last weekend. The Star Wreck team was invited to join there to talk about Iron Sky and genre films in Finland in general. Empror Pirk had also been asked to give an inspirational opening speech at the event, so we had our hands full during the whole weekend.

Last year’s Finncon in Helsinki was an interesting event as well. There we announced some news about Iron Sky - mainly the fact that Johanna Sinisalo was going to write the script for the film. This year we didn’t have that much to announce, since our demo is still in the works and main thing we’ve been focusing lately is funding the film. Talking about funding isn’t really too interesting, since it’s mostly about whining about lack of money, and gets people off the track, though the most imporant thing is the film itself.

Before Iron Sky -program we had a nice chat with film critic Marko Ahonen about future of films in Finland, mainly genre films. We also promoted few interesting new films that are going to be out there - go check out some of them here.

At the main Iron sky -speech we had prepared a little facts and fiction -part, where we talked about nazis and space in a wider perspective - what’s true, what’s fiction, and what’s in between. We did have a little surprise to show to people there as well - we digged out of our computers the very first video about Iron Sky, which is mainly a collection of photos and a song by Laibach to give a some sort of a feeling where the film would be heading. This video is mainly meant for ourselves to define the atmosphere of the demo, but as well to our partners to describe more abou what kind of a film we are working on. It’s not planned that we release this video, but propably those who didn’t get to see it at Finncon can do so at either Assembly or Ropecon.

We of course had our sales table at the event, and boy were we busy the whole weekend. People were going nuts over Iron Sky -T-shirts and Raumsturmführer caps, and Imperial Editions found many new good homes as well. We were very happy to see that people are still interested on us, although we haven’t had anything really new out since Imperial Edition’s release half a year ago. Support is more than essential now, so a warm thanks to everybody who supported our case!

The Finncon team had organized us lodging at a summer cabin close to Jyväskylä, far away from city noises, in the middle of the most beautiful Finnish landscape one can imagine. Peaceful surrounding with a sauna and lake and everything. So to stir things up a little bit we took out a camera and filmed a short Star Wreck -episode, which we will *never* *ever* release, if it’s up to us. It was about Pirk at the summer cabin, and had scenes of Pirk in the sauna, Pirk drinking vodka and passing out in the front porch of the cabin.

After that, and few beers, we headed out to Bar 68, where the official Finncon party was held. Met a bunch of good old science fiction fans there, talked about Wreck, life and the universe in general, but managed to get out of there before it was way too late, so dagen efter (the hangover-day) wasn’t bad at all.

To sum things up, Finncon this year was great. We had a possibility to check few panels here and there, and most of them I think I liked the interview with Joe Haldeman, although the monster-panel (where Petri Hiltunen introduced us a horror film about man-eating plankton, called Plankton) was also very fun and interesting. Suprisingly the “things you do not want to see in science fiction” panel ended up with the conclusion that there really isn’t much you wouldn’t want to see, but that there can never be enough films about nazis, zombies or sharks.

Next year’s Finncon will be held in Tampere, and it’s our duty to organize something spectacular there. But what? If you have great ideas, drop them as a comment!

Everything ready here at the office, next stop tomorrow morning will be Finncon in Jyväskylä. The Wreck-schedule will be this:

SATURDAY 14.7.

10:00 - C1-C2 - Captain Pirk opens Finncon 2007!

14:00 - Ilokivi (downstairs) - Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning - Imperial Edition

SUNDAY 15.7.

10:00 - C4 - Film Now! Timo Vuorensola and Jarmo Puskala discuss with Marko Ahonen a bit about the filmmaking now and tomorrow.
11:00 - C4 - A little bit more info about Iron Sky - and a great change to ask questions from the team.

Other than this, Star Wreck Store On Wheels (hosted by Antti Hukkanen) -table will be open during both days at Finncon, where you can personally come over to meet, greet and maybe even get an autograph for your copy of Star Wreck. Most importantly, that will be the first time when to get Iron Sky T-shirts and Raumsturmführer-caps, so don’t miss that!

We are also looking forward for the evening programme at Bar 68, so prolly you’ll catch us there too.

Those who can’t, won’t or don’t want to come over to Finncon, you can follow our adventures at our photoblog and the little Twitter box on the right.

And those who are coming - meet you there!