Star Trek Online Movies

A number of people have done some great work in the foundry and either they or Cryptic have decided that they’d need to promote this work. They do so through the use of trailers. Mini movies that capture the essence and the events contained in the mission. The problem is that there is no real truly dedicated place for these trailers to be shown to promote.

This is why I’ve created the Foundry Trailers Livestream channel and filled it with various foundry trailers. We are at almost 50 individual missions (including the official Cryptic spotlight missions) but always seeking more. You have a new trailer then please let me know. You can leave a comment here, send me a message on StarbaseUGC, get me via ingame mail/chat at @Bazag, on the StarbaseUGC IRC or any other method you have for contacting me and I’ll get right to adding your trailer to it.

KirkFat and I spoke earlier in chat about volunteering services to make trailers and machinima for UGC missions. I am already working on several for other players, and you too can take advantage of this. In order to do so, please read the following.

1: Time, as this is a free service I will get your trailer done as quickly as possible, but please remember I have other commitments. a trailer done in 12 hours is less likely than one don in 48 and I do like to play STO from time to time :p
2: If you have music and voice overs you would rather use, send it to me in MP3 format, otherwise you’ll be stuck with what I have.
3: Be sure to tell me the impact you’re looking for, this is vitally important
4: All trailers are HD. If this is an issue, let me know in advance
5: Your trailer will be uploaded to the DeepspaceUGC channel on YouTube, you can download it from there
6: Though all credit for the mission and work will go to you, I would also like it if I could include my ingame name and/or SBUGC name on the credits as the trailer’s creator
7: email me on mangagothic@gmail.com

If you have any further questions let me know

There has been alot of discussion in the STO community, particularly within the foundry community, regarding title sequences used in STO machinima and the lack of any real set of community expectations and standards involved in this. It is my hope that this post will at least foster discussion and possibly become the foundation for the expectations and standards of the STO Machinima community.

We’ve all seen the credits at the end of a feature film. A full listing of those involved in the making of the film from the people we see on screen to the technical expertise required to make the film look good. Everyone (except perhaps extra’s) are listed for numerous reasons. In part for transparency, in part for curriculum vitaes, in part so credit can go to where credit is due. However how does that apply to Machinima projects? and in particular STO Machinima projects?

Who should you include in the titles of a STO Machinima project? To be honest a lot of that is upto the person who puts it all together ready for release. This is not a professional, corporate environment and the standards of a professional corporate environment do not necessarily apply. I’m not saying that such standards shouldn’tbe applied. In fact I’d wager it would be better if you did a professional style credits if only to make it look professional and to give credit where it’s due. It’s nice to see your name or  handle in the credits but as how extensive the end titles are in terms of those directly involved is something that needs to be handled on a per project basis.

Then again what about the tools that STO and  the Foundry provide? This is however is something that almost  100% HAS to be included.  Giving recognition to the part that STO plays in the machinima. However even this could be done multiple ways a “Special Thanks to:” to mention the STO dev team or Dan Stahl in particular, a “Created using Star Trek Online and The Foundry” tag or even “A Star Trek Online Machinima Project.” the possibilities are quite varied in how to do this but as STO is the property of Cryptic and the images are based in STO recognition where the images come from are very  important.

The same goes with any music involved. Why? Because otherwise it’s like saying that not only is the story your creation but the images and music are as well. Which goes against if not the law of copyright at least it’s principles.

As for the what should be titled as I said it’s very much project determined just how thorough the titles should be. However what the titles are should be fairly consistent. Such as “The Voice of X”, “Director” or any other job titles used in the credits should be able to tell people exactly who did what. Just like in the movies the “Key Grip” is a job title and has a meaning (which personally I haven’t the foggiest but not the point). The same thing goes for Machinima. Fortunately for the most part we can borrow film terminology for even thoug we don’t know what exactly it may meanit will at least give us an idea of the role.

A producer is responsible for the big picture direction of the project. The executive director is responsible for taking that big picture and nreaking it down into a more practical look. The director is responsible for gettingthe shots and what action is needed by the actors to fit in this picture presented to them and so on.

And finally up to the why firstly copyright. Somethings are created by third parties and those should be recognised for their work. Whether it be the Dev’s of STO, Dan Stahl, a composer or some automated credit generator. Third party worked should always be credited but also within the project the things that are the work of the machinma group should still receive credit where credit is due and finally someone may need to show experience in these arts and so credits are the  one way to show it.

I’m sure cerberusfilms could go into more detail about alot of this but I’m here just to start the discussion, introduce some ideas and see where it goes from here.

Also I’d like to identify for those people have seen the almost exact duplicate of this post on StarbaseUGC, that yes I am Bazag and I am not plagerising someone elses work.

The grey line between fair use and infringement is often one of the most debated subjects in machinima. it’s oft times one of the most violently fought out issues in any gaming community. Armchair lawyers wave their sticks around as if they are the end all and be all of all knowledge on the issue, yet it causes great concern.

I have long time been an WoW film maker, and though the primary focus of this article is not game related it is fair to focus on this issue at least briefly. Blizzards policy on Machinima is open and praise worthy. They have run contests for machinima for years, and whilst not officially, they support films made with unofficial tools, such as WoWmodelviewer and MachinimaHelper (ann in game camera tool). This is a much preferred method in their eyes to private servers which take away not only their customer base but abuses their product. They take much store in the Machinima world and actively support it either way. This is said of most MMORPG companies, though not as loudly as Blizzard. Now lets bear in mind Cryptic is not Blizzard, and their policy may be different, but we’ll focus on that in a future article. For now lets focus on certain issues. In this first part of a lengthy article lets start of with a simple rule.

Don’t Panic

Yes it’s easy to over analyse the issue of copyright, what constitutes as fair use may not be covered by fair use. Just because your work is non-commercial doesn’t mean you are protected by fair use. Record companies are well known for their litigious nature. YouTube is a good rule of thumb to go by. Oft times if there is an issue either your video will be silent throughout or you’ll have a little warning telling you your video has copyrighted material, but not to worry about it. If it is an issue, the video will be removed with little consequence. DMCA issues are usually brushed under the carpet, and you can edit your work quite nicely to compensate. However, crediting your work is important. Take for example Star Trek: Hidden Frontier’s “fair use” of music.

Hidden Frontiers free use of a wide range of music for it’s series has long been a matter of debate in the Star Trek fan community. Hundreds of posts on the issue have been made by armchair lawyers, and even though the series itself is not Machinima, the rules still apply. However, as the the senior staff attorney of the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) often advises machinimators worried about the legal dangers of publishing their work, he said, “I have not heard of a machinima creator being hunted down by copyright lawyers.” Regardless, “Copyright damages don’t scare me that much,” Von Lohmann added, because they’re not likely to be excessive. he does go on to add that this rule of thumb only really applies to non-commercial work and really any litigation taken by a company could range from $750 to $30,000. Though the greater likelihood is you will come off with a slapped wrist than a major lawsuit on your doorstep. That to date a well published fan series like Hidden Frontier has survived thus far is favorable, it is something that should not be taken lightly or even abused. All it takes is one overzealous lawyer and the whole house of cards fall down. The best advise I can offer is if you are going to use already licensed music is to excersize caution, and given any doubts, follow the best rule of any fan production; “When in doubt, don’t”.

However all is not lost. Creative Commons may not be the best solution, but it is oft times the safest. I can however suggest the best creative commons music I have used thus far in other productions, Imcomptech, he does have a wide range of music that may or may not cover your needs, but you;ll be hard pressed to find a fairer guy. Just give credit where credit is due.

((In part two we’ll be looking at art and toolsets))