Yesterday I took a day trip down to Atlanta, and then thanks to my Facebook friend Steven Dixon, I ventured about an hours drive to the tiny hamlet of Lawrenceville,GA for the first ever OWC Studios open house. As I have wrote in past posts, OWC Studios is now the home to the Axanar bridge set, and various other related costumes, and also various Trek and other science fiction memorabilia.
About a month or so ago, Alec started talking about having an open house, and letting fans come see the USS Ares bridge set, and just have an informal get together. Well a date was picked about 2 weeks ago, and yesterday, a bunch of fans got together to eat drink(soda) and be merry.
The first thing you realize when you enter the area where the bridge set is stored, is how huge the set piece actually is. The set is completely put together, with all the various stations on the upper level, and the captains chair, helm control and tactical stations in the lower “well” area. Just behind the bridge set is a set to be used for the bridge turbolift. The bridge set is about 80% complete, all that is left is putting down carpet, adding some chairs and installing the monitor screens(which are at the studio still carefully packed away from their cross country move). Quick estimate, I would say 2 solid weekends or so to get it finished.
Alec Peters and his Girlfriend Crysstal were gracious hosts, and made sure to talk to everyone in attendance at some point during the day. Of course it wouldn’t be an open house without a showing of Prelude to Axanar, and even though I have seen this 21 minute film numerous times, each time I watch it, I notice something new, or a bit of an Easter egg which makes me go “so that is why they did that”.
Also in attendance was Larry(owner of OWC computing), and he spoke a bit about “why he donated $30,000 of computer hardware for Prelude”, and also why he is sponsoring the new studio. It was interesting to his reasoning behind the increased support, and why he believes in the “dream of Axanar”.
After everyone have some food(cooked by OWC head of security Dale Simpson), we assembled on the bridge where Alec gave everyone and update/ overview of the road forward for both the Axanar fan films, and the studio itself. Lets just say next year will be very exciting for “the axanar faithful”. Alec also clued us in on some of the extras that will be done in addition to the two 15 minute fan films that comprise parts 4 & 5 of the Axanar saga(Prelude is part 3).
Also making an unexpected appearance was writer Paul Jenkins(who was brought in to do the final rewrites of both the full length script, and the two 15 minute segments). Paul spoke about how he and Alec met, and what his background and actual role in the final rewrite is. He is working on the full length feature script because that is going to be one of the extra’s, in a way that I am not allowed to talk about(yep there will be surprises). Paul also brought with him a few pages he was working on, and we got to witness an impromptu “bridge set table read”. That was really a treat for those in attendance, and allowed us to get a little more understanding on who Captain Garth was both personally and professionally.
I also spoke with paul Jenkins and he has agreed to do an interview for GeekyKool, so I plan on getting some questions together, and having that interview done ASAP
There was a raffle with some really kool items up to be won, including Star Trek TNG scripts, out of print blueprints and Star Trek technical manuals etc. I actually won a couple of Hallmark Christmas ornaments, that I plan on giving to my future mother in law(being Jewish, I have no need for them)
I would say about 60 fans showed up, and everyone had a great time, getting to know each other and hearing what the next step is for both Axanar and the studio at large.
