There is an excellent active fan video series being produced in the Los
Angeles area and it is called The Redshirt Filmette Series. "Life
Insurance", the first episode of a projected video series has been shown
and enjoyed for a couple of years now. Most Star Trek fans and
non-trekkers people know about the many dark humor and tragic
circumstances concerning this cursed member of the Trek starship crew. A
person 'who is doomed to fail on a task from the start' or the
'RedShirt' word has been adopted into our day-to-day language. The
filmette series project explores several possible scenarios dealing with
the nature of the RedShirt officer's dilemma. I came up with this idea
while thinking about the many comedy paradoxical possibilities. I have
had this video idea for many years. I have seen other wonderful parody
videos in connection with my continual fan video interest since in the
early '80's. Since that time, I have collected some 60+ hours of fan
videos from multiple creative producers nationwide. In the late '80's, I
got their open permission and instructions to take every opportunity to
publicly display their videos either at screenings or through any other
means. I have a great working relationship with all these producers. I
believe these producers would enjoy my recent video. My 'Life
Insurance' video deals with the humorous complications that one security
crewman has when he is working on a standard TOS landing party
assignment. This video suggests a possible scenario to many similar
RedShirt problems. I don't want to give the plot away here because you
will have to enjoy it for yourself. I shot this video in '99 and it
debuted in late '00. This video has been shown in many local video
festivals and contests with some successes. It won the Valley video
festival's 'funniest short' competition and the LA Park's Halloween
festival's contest in parody category, 'best of show'. It has been shown
at Star Trek's large Shore Leave Convention among some other outlets. I
have a small volunteer production unit called, Genovese Cine Productions
that I use to create my projects. My production pals are all volunteers
whom I have met while working either in film, TV, cable, theater or in
scifi fandom. They are a great bunch and very talented folks. My
production group has been in existence since making my first Doctor Who
fan video, 16 years ago starring John 'Sgt Benton' Levene [John Anthony
Blake) called, 'UNIT Recruitment'. It was great to work with a
professional like John, but that is another story… In my recent
years, I have been directly working with many local So Cal fan videos
groups. I have a special first hand knowledge of those projects. I
worked on several club videos and guest starred in one clubs video
called, 'A Little Night Music'. I played 'JOE", a Locurian alien
inter-dimensional explorer who needed some Starfleet help and was able
to help them in return. I moved forward into producing the RedShirt
Filmette series' initial episode. Many helpful active club members (Mark
Schuber, Max Cervantes, Chris Esquibel, J. Thorpe, M. Storer and others)
and even other local fan video crewmembers volunteered themselves to
work on my Redshirt Filmette project. The production of the RedShirt
Filmette project was organized. This RedShirt Filmette project's
location requirement was very easy to match and find with some amount of
research. A suitable planetary Chatsworth location was found locally.
The Star Trek production locations are a hobby of mine. I have a
complete list of them and I have been to several TOS, TNG and film
spots. (More specifics by my email). To complete the matter, the simple
in-door shots were done at my friend, John Wallis apartment in Burbank
and a home in Torrance. All these scenes were shot in '99 2000. Most of
the production time was spent for the volunteers to be scheduled for
this production's shooting. The production of the RedShirt Filmette
project was varied. RedShirt Filmette project's shooting location was
picked because of its local rocky planetary location look that matched
the famous Vasquez Rocks often used in TOS shows. A small trivia fact is
that our RedShirt rocky shooting location was a part of the same large
famous geologic rock strata. A quiet end of a park-like area suited the
video shoot very well. The location shoot went smoothly although; there
were some sound problems with aircraft low flyovers on the weekends.
Despite purposely scheduling the shooting days during a cooler time of
the year, it was very hot and that caused Vulcan makeup Starfleet
costume troubles. But that was manageable with some advanced planning.
My all volunteer cast crew were from various local scifi club and were
from my many past friendly contacts in various scifi fandoms here. None
were professionals but some had extensive related production experience.
FYI NOTE: The whole shoot only took some 6 hours in one day to
accomplish and we had no interference. Video editing commenced
immediately with a premiere with available cast and crew. I guess it
should be said that I wrote, directed, edited and produced this show. I
wrote the RedShirt screenplay script about a year ahead ('98) of the
production's shooting schedule. To exercise my acting 'chops', I did
some narration but I did not appear on camera. I wanted other new actors
to get a chance on performing in my video. I wanted this show to be
about its own merit. I had a great cast of talented, helpful, and
agreeable cast mates. Those days were hectic. At the time of the
RedShirt episode's production, I had been very busy in my professional
acting career by working on the films City of Angels and Bowfinger and
on the TV show, Sliders. City of Angeles and Bowfinger were feature
films and I worked with their wonderful casts and crews. I doubled some
of the lead actors in some of the more 'uncomfortable' scenes and was
their lighting camera stand-in for the rest of their filmed scenes. I
worked maybe some 30 weeks on both productions. Dennis Franz and Adam
Alexi-Malle were grand fellows to work closely with and we built a great
comradeship through our film work and common interests. The film's
directors and crew were great co-workers. Later, my John Rhys-Davies
'Sliders' doubling experience was a lovely repeat of our time together
working on the CD-ROM game, Wing Commander 4. I was also cast in some
fun Sliders episode supporting roles. I extensively worked on Slider's
show, 'The Exodus' which was to be John's last show. One of my memorable
role for Slider's fans is in the episode called, 'The Seer' as the
'Alternative Professor Maximilian Arturo'. We did not know that was to
be the last episode of the series before starting the work on 'The
Seer'. Here is some resume data on me….. [b]Actor stunts;
double, camera stand-in[/b] = Member of Screen Actor Guild American.
Federation of Television Radio Artists. Numerous scifi acting and stunt
doubling roles on film, TV, and CD-ROM games. Worked on Sliders [John
Rhys-Davis dbl.], Small Soldiers {Kevin Dunn dbl.], Army of Darkness,
acted in Message in a Bottle, City of Angels [Dennis Franz dbl.],
Bowfinger [dbl stand-in], Mel Brook's Dracula [Avery Schrieber dbl and
stand-in], Spawn, Home Improvement [Richard Karn dbl] Wing Commander 4
ROM Game [John Rhys-Davis dbl.]. Also of note; I was Mr. Rhys-Davies
camera lighting 'Salla' stand-in in the adventure filmette played at
the Indiana Jones ride entrance in Disneyland, Anahiem, California. I
have acted on many TV shows and there is more info upon request.
[b]Set Construction[/b] = Film union carpenter. Worked five years at
Paramount studios with Tommy Arp and Star Trek set designer, Herman
Zimmerman on numerous seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation early
Voyager seasons. Specifically constructed the TNG series; engineering
dept. sets, Dr. N. Soong's lab, "The EGG" probe, various holodeck
scenes, Iconia sets, various alien ship and shuttlecraft sets. Also I
constructed on the Voyager series; holodeck French pub "Sandrines", many
Borg cube interiors and many alien spacecraft interiors. To show
appreciate for my Paramount construction days, I have some special
mementos. I have two TNG season's production crew show jackets as well
as other film show jacket's from Hunt for Red October, Beverly Hills Cop
2 and others. I have many special pals on the TNG's crew from TNG's
venerable script supervisor, Cosmo Genovese and Trek's prolific set
designer, Herman Zimmerman [set designer]. Full show list available upon
request. [b]Video Producer[/b] = Director of A. Genovese Cine
Productions production company that co-produced "Science Fiction, Los
Angeles" '90 and solely produces of "L.A. Kaleidoscope" current, 2 cable
access interview TV programs in Southern Calif. [b]Convention
guest:[/b] Because of my extensive scifi 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.
More info on email request. I keep track of this fan video production
because I thoroughly enjoy it, and because I can and because I love
working and meeting new friends/people with similar video production
views. I usually wear "many hats" while participating in these fan
projects. I don't mind being team player. I want to work with
co-operative video folks. I have loaned costumes, props, lights and
ideas etc. In the later video projects, due to my extensive editing
knowledge and equipment, I would become a key video editor. I provided
many production ideas to struggling video producers. Gradually, I went
behind the camera to hopefully be able to positively influence the
production levels of the project that I got asked to work on. I enjoy
working in any type of fan genre production. Most times the people
involved are fun and easy to work with on these shows. I have a lot of
good production experience to share. I feel my experience would be of a
great asset to any fan video makers because I have a lot to offer them
and I wish to share my knowledge. I always felt my professional
experience and knowledge would be helpful to some fan productions. I
have worked on many early fan videos. I worked on several Doctor Who fan
videos in the late '80's and then some Star Trek ones in the late '90s.
I have included a partial list below. I worked with some of the New
Zealand club's Sci-Fi Modelers Club of New Zealand (Stella Nova)
production crew of a now 'lost' excellent TOS Star Trek starship fan
video called "Yesterday's Essex, Tomorrow's Command". I found out about
this video while I was working a local scifi convention, named Phil and
Ed's Excellent Con '90. I was there because I was hosting a fan video
screening room and contest along with lending some authentic props and
costumes to their exhibit room. That was a fun very rewarding time
because I screened over fan video 40+ hrs that were nationally submitted
for that event. You must understand I started my fan video interests
well before the current user friendly easy fan video downloadable
Internet website were available. I consider myself a connoisseur of the
fan video genre because of my 15 years exploring this subject with my
contacts, participation, collection and study of fan videos. Yes, I have
seen hundreds of VHS and Internet downloaded projects. Here is a partial
list of my personal fan video library.
http://www.geocities.com/movieactorsag_2000/fanresume.html My first
episode of the RedShirt Filmette series called 'Life Insurance' was
shown at the large Shore Leave convention on the East Coast. It was
received very well and I got several interview requests about my video
work and me. I decided to put up a website that could handle the
RedShirt videos interests. People who are interested in my video work
including the RedShirt Videos should contact me my email through my many
websites. I have specific dedicated website with more stills and info
about my RedShirt series at LINK:
http://www.geocities.com/agenovese1/RedShirtvideo1.html My Redshirt
show was entered and won some video competitions near me in the southern
California area. The city's Parks and Recreation had a Halloween video
contest and my video won there. My local cable system had it's own video
competition and my video was recognized for it's appeal in the comedy
'shorts' category. My scifi fandom interests LINK:
http://www.geocities.com/movieactorsag_2000/scifi.html Fans must
realize that there has been a very good and healthy history of fan
videos being around for many decades before the Internet was accessible
by fans. Hundreds of great projects exhist in the videotape medium and
are screened at scifi gatherings. Look for them at your local meetings
or ask for fan videos to be screened. Contact me to find out and share
my videos. I am exploring the possibility in putting some on the
Internet. I have two more RedShirt Filmette series episodes in
pre-production. Both scripts are already written and open casting with
script production breakdown are in good progress. Contact me with your
questions. I thank the readers for their attention and interest in my
work and me. I appreciate the opportunity to share some of these matters
with the fan film or video world. Please check in with me in the future
to hear about my fan video progress. Thank you!