Is it possible for me to make an appeareance in the next Star Wreck movie ?
If you can give a decent acting performance (or you are just a very good looking female :-)) and live in Finland it's possible.

Are you Star Trek fans ?
I am [Samuli Torssonen], but the rest of the team aren't. Although they know enough about Star Trek.

How did the Star Wreck series get started?
I watched Star Trek II and III too many times and soon I was creating these 2D Star Trek animations on Deluxe Animation back in 1992 or something. I also spent too many hours playing a PC game called Star Control which had a major influence on the first Star Wreck. Then my friend Rudi Airisto (who hated Star Trek) came along and we decided to try something new (Star Wreck 2) and the rest is history.

Were you influenced to start by other fan films?  What are some of your favorites?
No I weren't because there were no other Star Trek fan films (that I knew about) when Star Wreck I-V were made:-). Star Wreck V was created during one year (1996-1997). There still aren't so many finished Star Trek fan films out there, so it's hard to name any favorites.

Why are you doing parodies instead of serious Star Trek fan films?
I first tried to create serious Star Trek animations but every single of them seemed to be somewhat comedic. So I decided to try something lighter, not so serious. And when we were doing our first live action film (Lost Contact) we couldn't even imagine doing a serious Star Trek film because of the spoken language. It is already very funny for Finnish viewers to hear some Star Trek terms spoken in Finnish because we have used to hearing them in English (subtitles are used here instead of dubbing). And Finnish people generally hate the way how they pronounce English - so English was out of the question. The question was: do we want to make a fan film that is funny intentionally (a parody) or not-so-intentionally (a serious Star Trek spoken in Finnish).

For SW5, were the ship models original, or ones from the Internet?
They were mostly from the Internet. Back then I wasn't so good at modeling.

Have you heard anything from Paramount?  Do they know of the films?
No I haven't. And I'm not sure if they know about my films because we have kept such a low profile. Star Wreck is much better known in its home country Finland. If problems arise, I'm willing to replace the current soundtracks used with our own music.

Have you shown your films at any Star Trek conventions?
No, because there haven't been any big Star Trek conventions in Finland.  Finland surely isn't the promised land of a Star Trek fan :-).

Your film is original in that as far as I know, it is the only fan film to come out of Finland.  How do you feel about that and the fact that the fan film community really is a global one where the majority of people who will see your film will never step foot in your country?
So far the majority has been the Finnish audience - at least according to the feedback that I have received and messages on my message board. I haven't really advertised my movies on international newsgroups. But the majority could change in the near future - there are only about 5 million people living in Finland and Star Trek isn't very popular here. So I hope that Finnish language doesn't drive people away from my movies. But there is a possibility of dubbed versions if we can find native English speaking people who will lend their voices. So don't hesitate to contact me if you are interested :-).

How much was spent on Star Wreck 5?
About $100 plus video editing card and 10 GB hard disc. So it's was quite a zero budget movie :-).

What would you do differently in 5 now?
Everything. We had so low-end camera and nobody knew anything about filmmaking...Even the camera man was the most free guy in scene; "You don't have any lines now, so take the camera and film us !" Sometimes we had to place the camera on some trash can because we needed all the actors in the scene :-). But perhaps the biggest mistake was the not so original story and Pirk's bland attitude. See SW3 for what should have been Pirk's attitude :-)

Any amusing behind the scenes stories from SW5?
The script changed constantly so we had many different versions of the printed script. When we were shooting the scene where Mr.. Info spies on Korg's transmission we had an old version of the script with us... I didn't notice that until I was editing the movie so we had to shoot a couple of lines again. But there was one little problem: previous scenes  were shot during the summer and it was almost winter at that time. A sudden appearance of snow might have been a little too strange so we decided to shoot the missing scenes from bottom perspective so that the snow on ground wasn't visible...

And other funny thing are my sneakers...The black shoes were uncomfortable to wear so we used sneakers whenever possible. But sometimes I forgot to change them when needed...And they are clearly visible in some scenes :-).

Were you worried about the humor of SW5?  Were you worried the jokes you found funny wouldn't work for others?
Yes, that's why we must have variable humor in the movie. I have surprised when some fans says that xxx was so funny when I thought that it wasn't funny at all. We can't have jokes that will amuse everyone.

Were you worried some of the humor would be lost for those watching it in English subtitles?
Yes, it was the biggest concern when I was doing the Internet versions because foreign viewers have to read subtitles all the time. Naturally some jokes and humor were lost in English translation. Because one big humorous thing is that these guys in Star Trek uniforms speak Finnish instead of English as I explained earlier.

Dwarf really stole most of his scenes.  What did you tell him to do for his role, how to act it?
Actually it wasn't my job. Rudi Airisto directed Star Wreck V.  Timo Vuorensola (Dwarf) was the only actor who wasn't afraid of the camera back in those days I think :-). Currently he is the director of SW6.

Have you seen Star Trek: Hidden Frontier?  If so, any thoughts or reactions?
Yes, of course. I follow Star Trek fan film industry very eagerly. Three years ago I though (and perhaps was) alone with my movies on the Trek fan film industry so it was very nice to hear that some other Star Trek fans in US have made a similar movie. I'm talking about their first live action movie, The Price of Duty. We exchanged our movies couple of years ago.

I see a lot of progress in HF, but I still have some concerns about serious Star Trek fan films. It helps a lot when their movies are spoken in native English. But unprofessional actors are always a problem in fan films - and in my opinion it's easier to create parody/humor instead of a serious movie with unprofessional actors. We already have too many serious Star Trek series. Fan films can't compete with Paramount's production values, so only thing left is the story. It should be something that we have never seen or will see in real Star Trek. And in my opinion the first episode of HF didn't really accomplish that. Sorry if I sound too harsh. I look forward to their upcoming episodes.

What are your feelings towards the state of the Star Trek franchise?
Before Voyager I had bought every single Star Trek episode on VHS. After Voyager I have sold almost every tape. Well, the upcoming DVD versions are one reason. At least Enterprise is better than Voyager (even thought that doesn't need much effort).

How did you do the bridge set for SW5?  Some looks CG, but other parts look real.
They were taken from Star Trek technical manual CD-ROM version. And some Vulgar ship interior pictures were taken from Star Trek IV (the bridge of Bird of Prey).

What was the hardest effect in SW5?
I'd say the main battle scene with P-Fleet and the Korg cube. On Pentium 200 it was quite slow work...

Where did you get your costumes?
My mother sewed them for SW5 :-).