We’re more than two-thirds into October, the year is winding down quickly but overall, it has been a pretty successful year.

We’re closing on 4000 hits for the year and while it doesn’t sound like much, it is better than an average of one site hit per day, right now MTM is up 87% on last year’s total.

Focusing on a smaller number of fan films has been a good decision, we were pretty much out of steam in 2022 as we averaged just less than a site hit per day and most of it was from the 2022 Trekzone Fan Film Awards so making the switch in 2023 has brought much better results, it keeps MTM as a hobby too, it costs about $50 a year so it is a pretty cheap hobby.

We’re getting closer to The Best of 2024 List; it will not be the same list as The 2024 Trekzone Fan Film Awards as 2023 made fan films will not be on there so new fan films will be awarded which is cool as we do have a stack of fan films to consider that weren’t available at the time of the awards.

The 2025 Trekzone Fan Film Awards is still a go; work hasn’t really started on it but there are some ideas under consideration for it, it probably needs a touch more pomp added but time is the big factor as personal lives and careers eat into formerly free time.

As mentioned previously, fan films pushing into the 50-minute mark has caused a bit of a headache as the 10 minute or less and the 10 minutes and more categories are off balance, a fifty-minute fan film could have a 30 minute longer length than the average fan film, so we got to change the time to strike a better balance.

This is what we were trying to say when we got our heads bitten off earlier this year, the variations of running time made it harder to judge, do you go for 50 minutes of whiz bang visuals or the one that makes the most of the limited time? Would going long seem fair or going short?

The voting system while good did show that people were voting along the lines of friends or groups that voters were closely associated with, you want a fan film to win because it was the popular choice not win because somebody has more friends, or a point was wanted to be made or preference for the country it was made in or any of that and more.

Next year we’ll probably see a certain fan film finally be launched, MTM truly believes it will happen, the fan film will not be considered for The 2025 Trekzone Fan Film Awards or The Best of 2025 List as its creator doesn’t meet set standards.

The fan film release will be a shot for glory though the fan film world has changed so much since the big hitters of Horizon, Continues, New Voyages and more recently First Frontier.

Farragut Forward proved things have change as they received almost the maximum amount of crowdfunded money plus their own money and currently have 80,000 views to show for it when years ago a million views wouldn’t be out of the question, the days of big hitting fan film are almost completely over, it is largely back in the hands of fun makers and not in the hands of career or clout chasers.

MTM Wrap will be resuming soon, there isn’t a whole lot of news in our fan film area so having a week off every now and then isn’t a bad idea.

Until next time, be good to each other.