The "do"s and "don't"s of Power Ranger fan films...

[Impartial3rdParty]

Hey guys!

Let me start by saying I long time Power Ranger fan. Like most people, I was hooked in by the green ranger saga, and I have been a fan ever since (Jungle Fury not so much though). I've watched Power Rangers "grow up" as the seasons progressed, but still manage to hold on to a child like innocence that the series is famous for.

With so much talk about a new Lionsgate/Saban Power Rangers movie, and the fan film that never really made it off the drawing board, stole our money and made off like a thief in the night, PR seems to be making a lot of headlines these days. Its a good time to be a PR fan. I read quite a bit about the failed fan film, and I was wondering, from the perspective of a group of people who consider themselves to be die hard PR fans, what would a series have to do to be successful in your opinion?

Personally, I think that anything done should shy away from calling itself "power rangers". The last thing you want to do is give your all to a project only to be hit with a C&D. It would be fairly simple to do something that was based in a PR universe, but not directly call it Power Rangers. You should also shy away from attempting to bring in former rangers as, to be honest, none of them are going to touch a property that could be shut down at any moment for copyright infringement. Next, I think people need to get away from the perception that dark equals better. PR is a kid's show. While sometimes it can be overly campy, that's part of its appeal. Theres no need to go all Dark Knight with the show, but if you wanted to go a route and make it a bit more mature, I wouldn't see a problem with that. I've always thought that something along the line of Heroes would be good. Well, season 1 Heroes before they screwed up the story-lines completely. I mean, they're teenagers with attitudes, but you rarely saw much of their lives outside of being a ranger. It would be nice to see something dealing with them having to find a way to balance being a ranger with having school, jobs and lives outside of fighting evil.

I also wouldn't see a problem with having a child of a former ranger. For example, Tommy and Kat have a daughter. Lets call her Rebecca (just the first name that came to mind). So, the story starts with Rebecca Oliver, age 18. Maybe 20. You could make reference to Kat and Tommy without them ever having to show up, and it would be just enough of a nod to the source material that people would accept it. Maybe Rebecca is in class and someone says "Hey, isn't your father a teacher at Reefside?" and she says "He was, not anymore" and leaves it at that.

From a legal standpoint, you could even call it a morpher, provided they didn't morph into power rangers. That fan film (which shall not be named) had a good concept going with calling it project ranger and introducing us to other people who worked for Biolab, but they also took a giant crap on the rest of continuity for the series. You'd want to watch that.

As for asking the fandom for funding for a project, I think it would be important to stay as involved as possible with the fans. Once a week update them on whats going on. Release a video, even if its just the creators talking on set about where they stood with a project. A Facebook page posting pics of the cast working would keep everyone calm. Also, if you're asking fans for money, make sure you detail how you intend to spend every dime of it. From permits to insurance, to cast, crew and equipment, let people know where they're money is going.

You may be asking why even make a post like this. To be honest, my son and I have been toying with the idea for a series of 6 ten minute episodes of a series "loosely based" on Power Rangers. We would manage to keep it in continuity, but without using the IP. We believe it would be the perfect blend of what you loved about Power Rangers, but still with its own original take. After reading all the bad press another project got for not delivering on what they promised, before we attempt to do anything or ask anyone for a dime, we wanted to hear from a community of people who are die hard fans and passionate about the series. What could we do to ensure we don't travel down the path that other series have gone? What could we do, in your opinions, to ensure it would be a successful project?

Oh, if your next question is "what do we hope to get out of this?", let me clear that up now. We don't think its going to make us rich and famous. We're not hoping to get permission from Saban to do anything. Again, our aim is to be original, but have enough elements of PR that a true fan would know what was happening. We want to do it for the sake of doing it. We have a story we want to tell. We're not aiming to "fix" PR, just tell an entertaining story.

You may also wonder "why me"? What makes me qualified to do this more so than anyone else who has written a fanfiction before. I'll be honest, I use to be a fanboy who wrote fanfiction (I still have quite a few of them up on Fanfiction.net), but I am also a published author with 6 novels to my credit. I wrote, directed and produced an entire web series in 2012 (4 episodes as available on YouTube as we speak), and above all else, I have been a fan of Power Rangers since before my son was born. I even remember taking him to see Turbo: A Power Rangers movie when he was 2 years old just so I wouldn't look silly walking into a kid's movie by myself.

So please, if you could take a few moments to let us know what your expectations would be for a series which is not a fan film, but obviously inspired by PR, it would help us a great deal and ensure we're not insulting the intelligence of a fandom that we've loved for over 20 years.

Thanks in advance, guys

[mbozzo]

Thank you for giving us fans the do and don't of creating Power Rangers fan films.