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| A. Genovese Interview about fan video |
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| *Please introduce yourself. |
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I'm Anthony Genovese. PROFESSIONALLY, I earn my living by working as a SAG/AFTRA union actor. I have acted on Sliders and also was John Rhys-Davis double, Small Soldiers, Army of Darkness, Message in a Bottle (K. Coster), City of Angels and also Dennis Franz dbl, Bowfinger (S. Martin & E. Murphy), Mel Brook's Dracula, Spawn, Home Improvement and also Richard Karns dbl, Wing Commander 4 (M. Hamil) scifi ROM Game and also John Rhys-Davis dbl. I worked on the small Indiana Jones adventure filmette played at the entrance of the ride in Disneyland, Anahiem, California with Mr. Rhys-Davies as his "Salla" character. Because of my film and TV work, I have been a convention guest at LA?s WesterCon ?94, Sacramento's MystiCon '97, New Mexico's ArcCon '97 and Bill Campbell's FanstastiCon '98 in Los Angeles.
I am a industry set builder with among others five years at Paramount. I crewed with Tom Arp and Star Trek set designer, Herman Zimmerman on numerous seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation & early Voyager seasons. I specifically fabricated ST:TNG various holodeck scenes and the Voyager's holodeck French pub set called, 'Sandrines". I have professional been a video editor & event producer for my own and friend?s projects. I am the head of Cine Productions, a production company that co-producer of "Science Fiction, Los Angeles" ('89) and sole producer of "LA Kaleidoscope" ('04), which are 2 cable access programs.
On my FANDOM SIDE, I have been active in fandom for 20 years. My specialty is Dr. Who and Star Trek. Along with my being an invited guest at many events, I have been a convention executive committee department head for 9 conventions. Those events are Phil & Ed's Most Excellent Con, WesterCon, GallifreyCon 1 thru 7. I directed various innovative convention programming like; the fan video screenings and competitions, or contributed scifi set pieces to the prop and exhibit room, or chaired informative programming fan panels with my own personal collections on subjects like "Media costume collecting made easy", "The BEST way to produce a fan video "Secrets on How to an actor in Hollywood TODAY" among others.
I have been a friendly active contributor to many scifi clubs newsletters with my first hand ON SET reminiscences written in my column called, "Checking the Gate!"
I am active in the exceptional scifi club. I am the star's guest talent co-ordinator of the Scottish Celebrity Californian BBQ that featured several major Star Wars stars (Bobba Fett, Chewbacca) having a backyard buffet dinner with 70+ local scifi fans. I am a co-ordinator of the Star Trek celebrity author book signing featuring J.G. Gen. Martok Hertzler and producer of club event featuring Wil Wes Crusher Wheaton. I am producer and director of Pasadena's Doo Daah Parade scifi entry in 02, 03 and 04 called the Spawn Of Capt. James T. Kirk.
I am the Executive Producer of Cine Productions. I started video producing during my Dr. Who days in the late 80s. I produced the UNIT Recruitment video starring the REAL Dr. Who Star and local buddy, John Anthony Blake (Levene). That video's idea was that Sergeant Benton is now the commanding Brigadier of UNIT, who is looking for new recruits. I produced another video, The Redshirt Commercial video series. I am the production manager, writer and director of the RedShirt Life Insurance video project. |
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| *What made you want to make the RedShirt Video series? |
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I really enjoy good fan videos. I have produced my own for some time. I started well BEFORE the present user friendly & quite easy fan video Internet website download websites were available. I love to work with other friendly talented video making people. I have been in contact with many fan video producers, shared & collected fan videos and I enjoy screening them. I have over 60+ hours and over 40 different individual producer?s projects that are of several different fan video genres. I have horror, mystery, and sci-fi and fantasy projects.
Recently, I saw the manly plagiaristic, poor and uninteresting scifi fan videos that were being advertised at conventions and on the Internet to the fans. I thought I could do something more unique and clever. AND, I didn't want to try to compete with the existing professional film & TV scifi series. Some fan video producers fall into that trap. I wanted to produce a fan video that was clever, funny, and quick that had never been seen or done before. The hook for me to get started was making short comedies loosely based on popular scifi media ideas. |
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| *So it is a series, how many RedShirt videos will there be? |
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| That is hard to say right now. I have three written and one finished and one in pre-production. There are more on the way since these videos are easy to produce because of their short length and having a very small cast & crew. The number of videos series is only limited to how many entertaining ideas that can be written on paper. |
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| *How often do you plan to put the RedShirt episodes out? |
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| I am in NO rush to produce these videos. I wish each RedShirt video to stand alone in superior total quality and I will not comprise my production levels for the sake of getting a video finished just to please some fan audience members. I am the person who is responsible for the high level of art and production design in these projects. Many other video producers, when their fan audience locks them into an arbitrary release dates have needlessly handicapped themselves. This rush produces some very shoddy and lackluster videos. Many of the audience know little about the complexities of video production. My name is on the project. |
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| *Tell us a bit about the story of RedShirt Commercial Videos. |
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| The series premise is expanding on the old joke about the RedShirt cast member being the first to get eliminated in many Star Trek episodes. Each commercial will play on a different aspect of this point in a comedic way. The Redshirt commercial video, Life Insurance deals with a Redshirt security crewman who realizes his predicament and looks to work to better his dire situation. |
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| *Where did you get the costumes and props for the videos? |
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| I have an extensive costume and prop collection because of collecting them for years. |
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| *How does the RedShirt videos tie in with the continuity of the real Trek franchise? |
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| The RedShirt videos easily fits with the Trek franchise history since it deals with the supporting characters and ideas. I did not connect with the star characters. This was by my conscience decision. It eliminates those problems with the fan audience judging harshly your video unfairly because of the fan's built-in bias dealing with the main star characters. |
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| *Can you give us some insight in where the RedShirt videos series is headed? |
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| These RedShirt videos will explore and expand on some of the famous basic aspects and lore of Star Trek world. |
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| *What was the hardest "special effect" you have done in the series? |
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| Some of the CGI sequences used in the videos were complicated. |
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| *You don't use green screen captures or 3D renderings, why not? |
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I have found that other video producers use green screen & C.G.I. TOO much. Their repetitive use damages the videos watch ability and makes them mind numbing. The green scene set up, while giving you a cheap set, locks down the camera and produces that boring 6 o'clock newscast talking head feel. And, green screen shots are tricky to light correctly. Most fan set-ups are usually lit badly. Then CGI scenes are usually shown on camera way TOO long and this causes a major distraction to any video's plot and theme.
I wanted to show superior creativity in my videos by using thoughtfully and beautiful dressed sets and going to interesting outdoor locations. It's more work for the production but set & locations add a higher level of production values for the viewing audience. I am a professional set builder and prop maker. I think that set pieces and other production values are important and enjoyable to see. The better fan videos like Starship Exeter are a better quality for having these superior production elements.
Too many times production values are sorely lacking in fan videos. Others fan videos makers rob elements from other videos, films, music, CD ROM stills from the original professional artists who made them just to boost their lack luster videos. This is appalling, unexciting and unlawful. Production design doesn't have to cost big bucks; it just takes advanced planning and requires more effort for the video's producer. I have built a full size Dr Who TARDIS (time travel craft) console for a friend's fan video because the video called for it several times in the script. The cost was mostly my time. You be surprised on how easy these set pieces can be fabricated. |
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| *What backgrounds do your cast and crew have? Any professionals? |
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My production staff and I have many professional backgrounds. As I said, I am a professional union TV & film actor and union film set and prop maker. I have worked on hundreds of sets. I have worked on Star Trek TNG and Voyager in building sets & props. I have acted on many scifi projects, notably Sliders among others.
My crew is made up of fellow actors, camerapersons, video makers, costumers, and sound technicians. Most of them are friends I have met in my professional Hollywood career. We work together on each other?s video projects easily. |
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| *If someone is interested in getting involved with your videos, are there anyway they can? |
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| Yes, I am always interested in meeting new collaborative scifi friends and meeting other video makers to share notes. They can get in touch with me by Internet email at Movieactorsag_2000 AT yahoo DOT com |
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| *Do you have aspirations to work on Star Trek professionally someday? |
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| I already have professionally worked on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Voyager behind the camera. I would like to be a performer on either a Star Trek TV show or feature film. I use my contacts to get on those projects as soon as they come up in the trade papers. I auditioned for a Voyager role in an episode that dealt with finding a spacecraft and in suspended animation, several 20th century humans. The episode?s lead character was discovering the famous lost aviator, Amelia Earhart in this alien spaceship. |
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| *Had you seen other fan films? |
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| Yes, I have seen hundreds of VHS and Internet downloaded projects. Here is a partial list of my fan video library. I have a personal 5 Star (*) rating of these videos, five stars being best. |
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| "U.N.I.T. Military Recruitment". ***** Voted BEST at Phil & Ed's Most Excellent Convention An old familiar UNIT friend, John Benton [John Levene] wants you to join the fight and be all you can be. Cine Fabrication Productions [Dr. Who] "A |
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| zaltine Holocaust", 'teaser' video trailer. *** A peek at the first multi-Time lord meeting episodic adventure. Cine Fabrication Productions [Dr. Who] |
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| "The Azaltine Holocaust." **** It's Time lord meets Time lord in this two part episodic adventure when the Doctor and Sarah are forced to answer a distress beacon from Paradin. DNA Productions. [Dr. Who] |
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| "Andred's Revenge". *** Andred is mad at the Doctor for introducing him to Leela and she keeps trying to do him in. But all he is able to do is create an even worse mess than in the Five Doctors. DNA Productions [Dr Who] |
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| "Wrath of Randakhan". *** A sequel to Andred's Revenge when the White Guardian calls up six of the Doctors to help stop the destruction of the universe. DNA Productions [Dr. Who] |
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| "Landscapes". **** It is the future, where your mind isn't completely yours and your dreams have to buy from mega corporations. Francesca Talenti. USC Master's film proj. (Original Sci-Fi) |
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| "Yesterday's Essex, Tomorrow's Command". **** On temporary assignment to the 'Constitution' class museum ship, The Essex is to attend the it's centennial anniversary celebrations on Pastel Five, the ship's crew gets a distress call from the Ferengi and problems occur. Sci-Fi Modelers Club of New Zealand [Star Trek] |
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| "Yesterday's Essex: Blooper reel". ***** Out-takes from the Yesterday's Essex production. Sci-Fi Modelers Club of New Zealand [Star Trek] |
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| "Mike Tracy". *** The great grandson of the famous comic book detective (Dick Tracy) comes alive to fill his "gramp's gumshoes'. Mike Virgil Productions (Comedy, Sci-Fi 21st-Century P.I.) |
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| "Everything Went Wrong". **** First Place, most creative production design award. See how space aliens fare when they make a choice to grab some annoying New Yorkers. [Some offensive language.] Mike Virgil Productions (comedy, U.F.O. Abduction) |
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| "Wrath of Eukor". **** The first film of a series where the Doctor regenerates into a woman and is helped by a chimneysweep named Carl. They discover an energy creature unleashed in the present day. Ryan K. Johnson [Dr. Who] |
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| "Broken Doors". ***** The Doctor is drawn into another reality where a alien being plays games with both the Doctor's and Carl's minds. Ryan K. Johnson [Dr.Who] |
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| "Star Trek: The Pepsi Generation". ***** Join the crew as they explore strange new worlds and seeking out the great taste of Pepsi. The Ferrari have stolen all the Pepsi from Starbase 7-Up and Capt. ?Pic-A-Card? must save the day. Ryan K. Johnson [Star Trek comedy] Pepsi generation story, http://www.eskimo.com/~rkj/index.html |
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| "Mystery Science Theater 3000: Star Trek V." ***** A mimic of the much-loved classic show with its familiar cast of satellite characters that trash Bill Shatner's directed feature film. Ryan K. Johnson [MST3000 comedy] |
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| "Saving Bible". ** Follow this young penitent through a Fellini-like setting and his transformation. Fifth Avenue Productions [Original Fantasy] |
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| "Harvard Boulevard". **** A panicked and terrorized man experiences 'the extra- ordinary' with a Twilight Zone flavor. Fifth Avenue Productions [Original Fantasy Horror] |
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| "The Lethean". **** A mysterious lone woman wakes up with an imminent sense of danger and death. She turns into a revenging force. Fourth Circle Productions [Horror] |
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| "Bug Bomb". ***** Follow the ultimate weapon to deal with those annoying home pests. Ray Meloy (Sci-Fi short) |
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| "Burglar From Hell". **** A murdered home burglar comes back to life in his old haunts and creates total havoc and destruction. [Some offensive language, violence, and nudity.] Falcon Video Ltd. (Horror) |
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| "Twisted Tales". ***** An compilation video of three short stories. First, with a liar who tells a lie big enough to kill him; second, a murderer and his victim's corpse become linked by a psychic girlfriend who "sees" his every move along with the police; third, Charlie has a problem he takes to a psychiatrist about wanting to put the bite on his lovely next-door neighbor - which isn't easy for some one who has nasty nocturnal supernatural afflictions. One By One Film and Video (Horror) |
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| "Hell on Earth II: Arena of Death". ** Our Earth has been destroyed by thermonuclear war a few survivors and resulting mutants battle for it's control. [Some offensive language & violence.] Falcon Video Ltd. (Sci-Fi horror) |
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| "Troops" ***** A popular spoof of Cops. Some Star Wars Imperial storm troopers find a familiar blond belligerent & uncooperative young man on a desert planet and have to correct his thinking with Imperial police efficiency. (Star Wars Sci-fi short) |
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| "A Little Night Music" **** A Star Fleet crew comes upon a floating rip in time that causes problems in the sector. The rip contains a lost and friendly inter-dimensional alien explorer that is strangely very familiar with Earth and New Orleans in particular. Both species work together to get the universe back in order. USS Angeles Production. (Star Trek sci-fi) |
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| "Hell is located just south of Palm Springs" **** A Lucille Ball Comedy Award winning script. Beings called Lew, Mom, Junior, Mary and three angels travel from heaven to Earth to understand the inhabitants. They only get frustrated and Mom wants to start over again like the goode olde days. DNA Productions (Heavenly fantasy) |
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| "The Redshirt Life Insurance Commercial" ***** West Valley Video Festival winner The regular security crewman finally realizes his plight and seeks some help. Cine Productions (Star Trek comedy short) |
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| "A MAN'S Career, Sean Connery" ***** LA Park's & Recreation Video Contest winner Exploring the little known facts and clips from Mr. Connery's films and his entertaining TV interviews. Cine Productions (Documentary) AND MANY MORE! |
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| PS...It makes me laugh to see how today's Internet fan video producer's are so arrogant as to think that any other produced fan videos on older analogue tape [VHS] cannot compare to their newer videos since it isn't digital and able to be downloaded on the Internet yet. |
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| *What would you do differently in your first participated amateur video, if you had the time? |
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| My first fan video I was involved with was a Dr. Who project. I was not the producer but an actor. I would more strongly prevail upon the video's producers to recast the participants with someone with real acting experience instead of un- experienced friends. This is a major mistake that often occurs with these projects. There are hundreds of schools and colleges that have anxious trained actors always looking for some on-camera experience. Why not audition them? |
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| *Do you have aspirations to do other genres of fan films? |
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| I would like to do an American west comedy and a detective police show. |
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| *Obviously being a Trek fan, what do you think of present status of Star Trek? |
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| I still enjoy all the present reincarnations of Star Trek and ANY other scifi shows. I feel the more the merrier for the scifi fan audience to view. I am very disappointed and concerned at the recent rise of the angry and vocal Star Trek Internet fans. These snobby fans that consistently attacks any current Trek show that premiers, be it feature film or TV. Everyone is entitled to an opinion including the studios execs. But these fans think they could do better in making these projects like backseat director or producers. These dysfunctional fans seem to suffer from a HUGE lack of knowing studio production and marketing challenges and demonstrate a total lack of understanding of the business of show business with these new shows! I would suggest that they give these shows a chance. But I guess everyone is a faux producer or film critic now! |
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| *What is your favorite Trek project? |
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| You mean, other than my own videos? It would have to be Star Trek: the Next Generation. It was a welcome return to the Trek franchise after a long dry spell since TOS. It won several TV Peabody Awards. I found it to be enjoyable. I worked on it proudly. I have some special mementos from those Paramount years. I have two TNG season?s crew jackets to show for it. I have many special pals on the TNG?s crew from Cosmo Genovese script supervisor [no relation] and Herman Zimmerman [set designer]. |
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| *As a Trek fan, what aspect of Star Trek would you love to see in a fan film? |
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| I would like to see a fan video producer take the Klingon Empire and show it?s history and especially it?s evolution with the Federation. |
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| *Paramount has been shutting down Trek websites for Trek copyright infringement. What would you say to them? |
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| Well, I am going to get on my Soap Box for this subject. I am a professional that makes my lively hood in the production team. Copyright infringement or theft of TV or movies artistic properties takes money and work from my friends and me. This is personal to me. It is easier to break these laws with the digital media revolution. Just because you can do an illegal thing, you should? Where is the ethics of that? I find that thinking and actions to be atrocious. Where is the fans ethics? NOT ALL, but some vocal Internet Star Trek fan video makers are outright breaking or slyly circumventing those necessary laws. Star Trek has been ripped off and milked to death by these imitators for many years. Then, many of these same selfish plagiaristic fans have the nerve to attack those studio Trek makers for broadcasting a lousy show. It seems like arrogant hypocrisy to me. I say close them down if they don't comply with what is lawful and fair. It's easy to steal without permission or knowledge from artistic people. That theft saves time and you get instant high production elements without having to design it or building it. But, it takes a real video producer to get the winning production design with innovating a new way of doing your video production scenes. My motto is Don't imitate, innovate! A Paramount cease and desist letter is a red warning lamp to those faux video producers or fan boy criminals that they need to be more original and inventive. |
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| *If Paramount comes tomorrow to you and says, "We want to use your RedShirt video ideas for the sixth Trek series," What do you say? |
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| Let?s have lunch to discuss this. |
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| Do you have any closing comments for scifi fandom? |
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| Do have fun and be responsible video makers. I would like to humbly suggest that Trek fans be more intelligent about giving their allegiance to careless plagiaristic Trek fan videos. I DO NOT believe that "all fan videos have to copyright infringe" by definition. Instead of giving your support to any Trek fan video because of your own personal need to experience anything with Trek content, support the better thoughtful Star Trek projects. Dump those clearly and routinely plagiaristic unoriginal producers. Pay no attention to their overstatements because that is as phony as their lack of any original video production elements. Please be more selective and ALWAYS only support fan videos that demonstrate that they respect artist's copyrights. |
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A. Genovese website LINKS |
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Email me HERE |
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Site content copyright '05 A. Genovese |
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