Topic: Animated Star Trek Feature to be released 9/8/06

[kephren]

The award-nominated feature length machinima project Borg War (with all the space battles generated using the SFC3 Dom Wars mod) is now scheduled for final release of all episodes on September 8th, just in time for the 40th anniversary of the first Star Trek broadcast.

This project was discussed on this board previously and this new version reflects many of the comments that it received. For now, there's a brand new trailer , which is now available on numerous Internet network sites. The trailer can be downloaded or streamed from:

http://www.machinima.com/films.php?id=2371

There are going to be additional previews, contests and giveaways over the next few months. I'll try to post them all here, but if you want to be sure that you're informed (and be reminded of the release), you can register at the Borg War website.

In addition, I've often been asked who I am -- so here's my business website:

http://www.geoffreyjames.com

Here's some additional background about Borg War:

Borg War is indeed a machinima project, which means it was created using video games. It is the work of a single individual over the period of about 8 months, so there is no amorphous "they" responsible for the project. The entire movie is about 90 minutes long; the final ten minutes are currently in production.

Borg War was made with two different game engines, Elite Force 2 (a Quake 3 variant) and Starfleet Command 3 (a space combat simulator). The resulting files are then highly edited in Pinnacle Studio, a mid-level video editing program. Incidentally, all filming was controlled and scripted; no game AI was used to create the scenes.

All the dialog (as well as sound effects and music) is repurposed from the sound clips included the two games. The dialog clips have been redited to communicate an original plot line. Because the dialog is from the game, the voice actors include some of the real actors in the Star Trek series, including Patrick Stewart (Picard), Tim Russ (Tuvok) and the late Brock Peters. There are no legal or copyright issues; see FAQ on the website for a detailed explanation.

The "rough drafts" of Borg War were 2005 Mackie award nominees in the categories of Best Series and Technical Achievement, competing against projects like Red vs. Blue. Out of thousands of machinima films released each year, only couple of dozen are thus honored.

Over 35,000 files of the draft sections were downloaded. The new version has upgraded SFX and many plot changes and additions in response to viewer comments and suggestions.

For more information about machinima (and lots of cool downloads like ALL the Red versus Blue episodes) you might want to check out http://www.machinima.com

[Chris Jones]

This is very cool - I checked out The Borg War - Nannerslug must have been very proud! I highly reccomend seeing the next installment. 
I had a small hand in Nannerslug's mod - providing him with some audio here and there - and talking on the phone as well. Good guy.

Thanks for this post.

[kephren]

This is very cool - I checked out The Borg War - Nannerslug must have been very proud! I highly reccomend seeing the next installment. 
I had a small hand in Nannerslug's mod - providing him with some audio here and there - and talking on the phone as well. Good guy.

My friends and I played the awesome Dom Wars mod for about year, every friday, setting up a network for 3-4 way battles.  Great fun.  Sometimes I would make up scenarios and implement them in the setup files.

One of the most interesting was one I called "Breen Deception."  One player starts with a small, lightly armed Breen ship that has 99 shuttles.  You change the specs for the Dominion shuttles so that they're identical small Breen ships, armed with only one weak weapon.  The opposite side has big, powerful ships.  The Breen player has to find someplace safe to decloak and start "spawning" more Breen ships.  Pretty soon there are dozens of them, all going in and out of cloak, either with AI or by command, all taking potshots at the big ships, which keep swatting them down.  Few things are more fun than decloaking a swarm of 50 tiny ships which all fire on a dreadnaught.

[Reptor]

Very cool! Mind if I place a link to your site on my movies webpage?
http://reptor7.tripod.com/jackryderthemovies.html

[kephren]

Very cool! Mind if I place a link to your site on my movies webpage?

That would be great!  There's a banner on the index page that you can use, if you like.

Hey, I'm thinking of putting together a link page to all the different Star Trek machinima projects.  Would you like yours to be added?

[Reptor]

That'll be great, kephren! Appreciate it!

[kephren]

I promised to keep this board informed about the latest Borg War news. The world's largest distributor of machinima, the online video network Machinima.com, has agreed, for the first time in its history, to feature a machinima project -- Borg War -- as a weekly event. Here's the official press release:



Borg Assimilates Online Video Network

Machinima.Com To Distribute Borg War, An Animated Star Trek Feature-Length Fan Film

LOS ANGELES - June 28, 2006 (INB) -- Machinima.com, the largest machinima video distribution network, announces an exclusive agreement to host Borg War, the world's first feature-length animated Star Trek adventure starring the voice of Patrick Stewart as Captain Picard.

Borg War depicts the continuing adventures of the Enterprise seventeen years after the end of final episode of Voyager. In the animated movie, the Federation is invaded by a group of rogue Borg that has been infected by a predatory alien virus.

Borg War is unique among Star Trek fan films in that it recycles sound clips from the computer games, allowing the original actors to "reprise" their roles. Early episodes of Borg War were honored award nominations in the categories of "Best Series" and "Technical Achievement" at the 2005 Machinima Film Festival.

The online broadcast of Borg War will premiere on Friday, September 8th, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the first Star Trek television broadcast. Each following Friday at 6:00 p.m. Pacific, Machinima.com will release successive episodes and host a live forum, featuring the film's creator, Geoffrey James. The entire movie will span nine weeks, similarly to a cable channel series.

The exclusive agreement and weekly event is a first for Machinima.com which (with several hundred thousand downloads a month) is the community focal point for the rapidly- machinima, a filmmaking technique that harnesses the 3D rendering power of computer games to create a new type of video entertainment.

www.BorgWarMovie.org

[Chris Jones]

Very kool and TY for the update here - this is quite well done.. TNG lives, lol.

[kephren]

It’s now just a week before the exclusive premiere of Borg War on Machinima.com which has set up a top-level forum topic to discuss the movie. I’ve already posted a lot of information there (mostly about the machinima process by which I built the movie), so if you’re interested in learning more about the Borg War project, you should check it out.  Here’s the link:

http://www.machinima.com/PHPBB/viewforum.php?f=35

The movie (which is 93 minutes long) is being released in 9 episodes, each roughly ten minutes long.  Here’s a link to the preview of the first episode.

http://www.machinima.com/films.php?id=4568

Here’s some additional background about Episode 1:
 
Borg War takes place 17 years after the return of Voyager.  In the alternative (i.e. non-canon) universe where Borg War takes place, the Federation (as well as the other key races) are well aware that the Borg, after regrouping, will eventually attempt to expand into the Alpha quadrant. The obvious approach to combating a race that adapts is to make every hit lethal, so Alpha quadrant starships have been optimized for massive power generation and mounted with 360 degree hard-points.  In addition, much research has gone into new types of weaponry and hybrid weaponry.  The Klingons, for example, have developed two new weapons: a proximity-fused armor-penetrating photon torpedo (which explodes from inside the penetrated ship) and a massive version of the ion-cannon, a stationary weapon intended to destroy dreadnaughts at a single hit.  We see both these weapons in action in Episode 1.  Any comments?

[kephren]

I thought that some readers might appreciate a couple of stills from the movie before checking it out.  Here they are:





Geoffrey
http://www.borgwarmovie.org