By GustavoLeao / 23:10, 16 March 2008 / Star Trek: Nemesis

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TrekWeb continues its coverage of fan films and this time we talk to director David O'Neill, who directed an episode of the fan productions series such as Star Trek Hidden Frontier and the recent episode "The Lotus Eaters" from the new fan series Star Trek Odyssey.

1. David how you joined the Hidden Frontier crew?

After attending the first HF convention on a cool February Saturday in 2006, Rob invited anyone back to the studio to watch filming on 7.01 the next day. I loved it, and eventually came back for each filming of that episode. I became part of the crew officially in April of ‘06 and began handling some assistant director duties on Bound and Past Sins before doing it all by myself for Hearts and Minds, The Widening Gyre, Things Fall Apart, and It's Hour Come Around at Last

2. The first episode you directed was Hidden Frontier seventh season "The Center Cannot Hold". Tell us about that experience.

Directing was great. After all, I was the new guy, handling the penultimate episode of this phenomenal series. It was complex episode to boot, setting everything that would lead into the finale. The cast was a delight to work with, giving me help and advice where needed. Especially in the scene where Betras (Becky Wood) tortures Ro (Bobby Rice). While writer Dan Crout wrote it deliberately over-the-top, I wanted it to be less that and more menacing. It was Becky who came up with the idea to lick Bobby. And, it seems, that one scene is what most people remember most from that episode. I'm pretty proud of that.

3- Working in virtual sets are easier or more difficult for a director ?

The only problem with filming with virtual sets is that the camera cannot move (and the green halo, which by the time I was directing was nearly gone). Thus, you are limited on how to frame your shots. Certainly, there are ways -in post-production - to move the camera, but that may be its one drawback.

4 - You directed one of the final episodes of Hidden Frontier. How was the mood on the set ?

Having only joined for the last season, it took me a bit to fully understand - for the actors anyways -what this meant. One can throw the "end of an era" cliche out, but it is a pretty accurate statement. While some actors where saying goodbye to something they had been associated with for 7 years, others were moving on to Odyssey and The Helena Chronicles. But I sensed in some that while they were ready to move on, others felt a bit of sadness.

5 - After Hidden Frontier, you jumped to the new series Odyssey and directed the third episode "The Lotus Eaters". How different was this experience from HF ?

Actually, not much. At least from the directing the actors and translating Eric Weaver's script. I was fortunate to be join HF when its production values were on an exponential role. The green halo effect was now gone, the virtual sets looked sharper, and with the new lighting effects, we're able to give the episodes a more subtle, shadowy look of real life.

6- In "The Lotus Eaters", the planet scenes was filmed out in the environment. Tell us about the shooting.

As the song goes, It never rains in Southern California, but during the production of this episode we had our wettest January in like five years. As I mentioned, the camera cannot move filming in virtual sets, so I was looking forward to filming outside. But rain, mud and some cool weather prevented us from filming all the Achlys, Panos, Ro and T'Lorra scenes outside. And on the one night we did get to film outside, it was very chilly and damp (along with barking dogs). But, despite those issues, I enjoyed filming outside. I got to use the crane shot, which is one the best reasons to film outside.

7- Tell us about working with the Odyssey crew, specially Brandon McConell as Lt. Commander Ro Nevin and the beautiful Michelle Laurent as Romulan Sub-Commander T'Lorra.

The actors are great, and they are the easiest people to work with. While Michelle was relatively new to HF, joining in season 7, she quickly fit in to her role as Tesla Mor and Sub-Commander T'Lorra. And she is a delight to work with, funny, smart and very beautiful. It's never a dull moment with her, and I think she relishes the role of T'Lorra, because while at time the character can come off as one-dimensional, she tries to make her more than the sum of her parts . Meanwhile, Brandon came in for episode 2 of Odyssey. We all could tell that he was, maybe, a bit uncomfortable. And while he did a fine job on Wine Dark Sea, I think by Lotus Eaters, he was settling in as our new Ro. Plus, it helped that he has some great chemistry with Michelle, which I think came through in his performance. As for the rest of the cast, well Julia is perhaps one the funniest people I've ever met. A simple delight to work with. Tim Foutch is precious -you just want to take him home with you. And Matt Montgomery, well, he's simply just brilliant and one the hardest working actors I've met.

8- As a director, what is your opinion about fan films and their place in the Star Trek franchise ?

I think fans films, such as ours, along Star Trek: Intrepid, Star Trek: Phase II and others is great way keep the franchise alive, especially over these lean years of disappointing movies and TV shows. One the best reasons to do something like this, I think, is to present stories that have yet to be seen, even on the studio backed Star Trek. Obviously, the gay storylines that were introduced in Hidden Frontier is one area CBS/Paramount has decided is far too dangerous to explore in their corporate strategy to appeal to every demographic on the planet. But with the fan produced shows, it gave voice to a base that has been ignored over the years. That's what online shows and movies has gives us: a chance to explore these new avenues of story telling without some studio -concerned only with profit for itself and its investors - telling us what we can and cannot do. Granted, they could shut us down in a blink of an eye, but I think in some strange way, they see the logic of these fans series. So while we may not have a lot of money, it forces us to tell good stories. And that's where it all begins, really. The acting the directing, the production values are all secondary to great writing. If the story is good, you can always overlook some shortcomings of these fan productions -like the green halo effects.

9- After "The Lotus Eaters", what are your future projects ?

I will continue to work as resident AD on both Odyssey (along with my recurring role as loyal servant, Vito, from time-to-time) and Helena Chronicles and any other future projects HF Productions has in the pipeline (I hope, anyways). If everything works out, I'll direct the season finale episode of Helena, though. Which, quoting the ubiquitous Paris Hilton, will be hot.
 
A TrekWeb review of the Odyssey episode "The Lotus Eaters" can be found here.

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