MAKING A FAN FILM OF FIREFLY

Wednesday, February 8, 2006 4:48:39 PM

Some of us are making a fan film, well a fan series actually along the lines of Star Trek: New Voyages. It’s the story of six very different people thrown together on a battered old mid-bulk transport ship called a “Firefly.”

This kind of story will be pretty familiar to Browncoats but this tale has a twist. You see one day our heroes ship will be bought by a disillusioned Browncoat called Malcolm Reynolds and become the home to another band of Big Damn Heroes. Yes, this is the story of Serenity before she was Serenity and what happened to the ship and crew before Mal first saw her in that shipyard.


So let’s look at our six main characters.

Will Hawkins is the captain. He’s from Ariel so he’s a Coreworlder. His family was rich, influential and able to pay for the finest possible education. Will is an idealist, a guy who started out supporting Unification for all the right reasons. When the war broke out Will was eager to join the Alliance military but soon discovered that he might be on the wrong side. We won’t say what happened next, that’s something to be explored on screen, but when we meet Will he’s out on the Rim and out of his depth, exiled from the Core in a place where he simply doesn’t fit.

Amy Frost grew up with Will. She was indentured to Will’s family when she was still a child and brought up with Will as a kind of child companion (small “c.”) She benefited from the same education he had and where she higher born she would have made a fine lady. Will thinks of her as a sister, even though she feels more for him. When she heard what had happened to Will she followed him out to the Rim hoping her skills as a pilot would be useful to him. She’s a paradox, cultured, refined but at the same time a gutsy pilot and outspoken friend.

Clementine "Damsel" Arce. She’s a Borderworlder, someone who grew up on the planets that formed the Independents. She was a rebellious child, a tomboy, a clown and the kind of fun kid that everyone knows. When the War came she joined the Browncoats and discovered that she was naturally gifted with a gun. On a target range with a good rifle she was deadly, unfortunately in war you don’t shoot paper targets. Out on active service she discovered just what hell war can be. She witnessed her friends being slaughtered and entered the kill or be killed world that we saw on “Firefly.” Finally she couldn’t take any more and during a troop movement she deserted. Unable to go home she’s stuck out on the Rim looking for people to replace the family that has now disowned her.

Zekk Leong was born a survivor. The product of a union between an aristocrat and a slave girl he’s been fighting to survive since the moment he was born. Raised in a monastery and later by a ruthless criminal gang he has developed special insight into the human condition. An escaped criminal with a bounty on his head he provides muscle for the crew and a reality check for Will. He can track just about anything and if you can see him that’s only because he wants you to. A ruthless killer with extreme skills he stays with the crew out of curiosity and the need for a safe place to sleep.

Emiline Choi is the ship’s doctor, a Coreworlder on the run from the Alliance for an unspecified crime. She is quiet, gentle and perhaps a little sad. She won’t say just what she did to have a bulletin out on her and she won’t explain why she only wears white, the Chinese color of mourning.

Joss Farrell is from Dayton Colony so he fancies himself as a bit of a lad, a face, a major operator, savvy? He’s got these plans --- don’t call them schemes – that will make everybody very, very rich. What a pity they don’t listen and just send him off to fix the engine. He’s more than just a mechanic he’s an entrepreneur, and a guy whose genius level skills with math, electronics and computers are often more trouble than they’re worth.

Anyway, if you like what we have come over and see us at

http://www.fireflylives.co.nr/

and see some of the artwork, preproduction CG models and animation.