Paragon’s Paragon

One of the earliest Star Trek fan films.  The first cut ran for an hour and was shot on 16mm film using a full-size recreation of the Bridge set. It also used a wide variety of film special effects techniques on a budget of over $2,000 ($12,000 in 2023 dollars) and received considerable coverage in Don Dohler’s Cinemagic magazine for low budget filmmakers. Dohler subsequently used its crew to make his first feature film, The Alien Factor (1978).

Filmmaker John Cosentino made what could be argued is the first MAJOR Star Trek Film in 1974. Paragon’s Paragon was done well before the days of CGI; and was made with family and friends, sets built in a basement, miniatures, and visual effects done on a homemade optical printer. John Cosentino has given me permission to post his masterpiece on Youtube. The making of the film was heavily covered in Don Dohler’s Cinematic magazine.

Below is a copy of the files that I found from the original blog. I’m simply going to cut n’ paste, so here goes, in all it’s early-glory:

TODAY’S ARTICLE GIVES PRAISE TO “FRED” and Yes you are on PARAGONS PARAGON BLOG PAGE!
Who is “Fred“? He is the man with the most fantastic collection of Star Trek related blog material on the planet. He is the guy that somehow got me to transport myself into 2012 Star Trek planet Earth and start blogging.
If you happen to be someone stumbling on my blog and have never seen Fred’s you do not know what you are missing. Try um, you’ll like um.
There is a lot of things about Paragons Paragon that will be on his site that won’t be on mine. Of course many things will be repeated because he has too much stuff about Paragon that I won’t be able to remember what I said in 1975. I just browsed Freds site and think I have something he may want to add. (To stray for a moment.I checked out his artwork.
He has talent , don’t you agree?)It is a Bridge made around the same time as mine or a little later, by folks in Bangor, Maine?
If I am mistaken then anyone out there please let me know. If I find the letter I will post it. I do not remember the details but the Bridge is beautiful. The amount of excitement and energy that Star Trek created is and was amazing! CHECK OUT THIS BRIDGE : IT IS NOT MINE

My best guess on why screen is like a tv screen is so they could use a video tape on the screen. Remember this was done a long time ago.

Well so long for now. For you new comers I have a couple of other sites : One is a professional business site and the other is a
blog related to how I use business materials , and training, to fix carpets and make monsters occasionally. Scroll down and their are links occasionally to these sites.
April 25, 2012 PARAGONS PARAGON: PASSPORT TO FUN
and ADVENTURE Posted by JC under Uncategorized

PASSPORT TO FUN AND ADVENTURE IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT
If you’ve seen some of my articles (blogs) their is great variety of things that I have done and they were all connected to the root spawning seed ” Paragons’ Paragon”. Here it is many years after its conception and it has been revived. It is like being transported back in time. So bear with me because to me it is all connected. Paragon was ten years in the “waiting” to be finished. And when it was done and shown once to an audience of about 100people I found other projects diverted me away from it until now. Also we had a carpet instal and carpet repair business , which was a two man operation myself and my dad.
Feel free to browse at the above link or at www.carpetrepairnow.com to learn how carpet install and repair skills were used to do things needed for Paragon and other film projects.

The miniature was about one foot big. Aluminum foil was glued to the walls over string so the foil had a twisted look to it. The energizer tubes are cardboard cylinders from inside of toilet paper rolls. The people were matted into the twinkle away and
disappear effect. That is Shamba who is our version of Uhura. Shamba is the name of an African city. That is how I chose all the unusual names except Sellek and the doctor.
PATIENCE, PERSISTENCE, TRIAL AND ERROR OR TRAINING
One of my goals with my telling personal stories about Paragon and other related projects is to show that amazing things can come out of doing something we enjoy doing. For example: Maybe in the beginning we are sometimes not so good at what
we like doing. Guess what I know an artist that works on major motion pictures doing matte paintings who wasn’t very good at art in his high school years. I saw 5o not so good tries at art in the basement of his mom and dads house. No one could
have guessed by looking at his paintings that he had such hidden talent. But he kept at it. He went to a college art school and became an amazing artist. He did things for free or small amounts of money and built up a resume of art projects to show
people. Eventually things clicked for him.
Mark and I were going to work on a film project about a creature created from the polluted water in the Love Canal. I was going to construct it and he designed it. The project fell through. But doing things you like to do is never a waste of time.
Check out the creature he drew in the photo below. I was going to build it for a project of my own but I never got enough financing for the project. But it was fun to try.

Paragons Paragon was the beginning of a wonderful journey for me lasting 20 years. Then there was a lull for me, and now
Paragon has attracted attention again. I’m a behind the scenes guy and until recently remained quietly unnoticed. I am glad that I am digging up the old photos and slides. The memories are good ones. They are “bright” and full of “good feelings’ . Of
course there are people missing now both in family, and in friends made in those wonder full twenty years of Star Trek and many film related projects.
HERE IS A GUEST VISITOR TO OUR HOME TO SEE THE BRIDGE IN 1975
He is Mike McMasters. In the 1970 he built a full size Star Trek bridge that was set up at the conventions that were held in hotels. The stars took photos in it. It was quite impressive. However it contained a lot of cardboard and the fire marshals said
it had to be sprayed with a fire retardant. The chemicals destroyed the cardboard areas of his set. I regret that I never got to see it. He died as a young man. I am not familiar with the circumstances.
I am on the left. How about them thare Elvis sideburns. Sharp ahh!
The two people in the background are from Oakland University’s Star Trek / Science Fiction Club. They asked me to give a slide show about Paragon and the making of it at one of their conventions. I did just that. We loaded up the helm and captains
chair and I talked for an hour and showed slides many of which are on this blog. It was a big hit. People wanted to hear more but the room was needed for other scheduled events.
All these experiences were very scary in a way to me. I was a not in the lime light kinda guy. To give a speech in high school or college was the worst punishment possible. I would sink down in my chair in school hoping somehow that the teacher would
forget to call on me. But there I was in front of 150 people, some not five feet in front of me. Once I got going it turned out to be fun.
There was one miss-hap. This was in the 70’s and long hair on boys and men was pretty common , but a new phenomenon.
People would raise their hands to ask questions as I showed the slides. The room was dark but not theater dark. A hand in the back went up and I without really paying attention said ” Yes, the girl in the back please” A deep voice answered and I
apologized for the wrong gender. I learned quickly to look before I speak at conventions.
If you look closely at the hand rails on my bridge behind him you might notice that they are kinda thin. For the movie at Mikes suggestion I used two by fours and they looked much more natural.
Whatever projects I was working on I always was still maintaining and doing my www.cosentinocarpet.com business. You are welcome to go to it and browse around in it. You will have to write it in the address bar as this is not a link.

One of the adventures that I enjoyed was when I joined a Star Trek club. It wasn’t your typical club.
The Star Trek club actually had an Attorney as its Captain, a Business woman as its First Officer, and me as its Chief Engineer. We had an artist in it and two Star Trek paperback novel writers . They could play the bagpipes and did so at one of our party’s that Jimmy Dohan came to. I am standing on the right of Diane and Gregory Broduer.
The club had the opportunity to chauffeur some of the stars, like Scotty, Sulu, and Chekov to and from the airport.
Sometimes the stars would agree to come to a private party at a club members home. What a great way to meet Walter Keonig and Jimmy Dohan. Mr.Dohan was just like his chacter in Star Trek. George Taki was a runner and one early morning in
downtown Detroit before the convention was underway I bumped into him and said hi. Detroit was much safer 20 years ago.

In the above photo I made myself up like a Klingon for a Star Trek club party. That year Mr. Jimmy Dohan was given a sword
salute as the bagpipes were played. He was really nice to go along with the Star Trek stuff. He knew we appreciated both his
acting and his character. I am not eight feet tall and touching the ceiling. It is a very low ceiling.

…But the film is 37 years old now (1975) and I guess that is to be expected.
If I had my drruthers I would make a 45minute edited version of the original Paragons Paragon and shot a 45 minute sequel with the original actors.
A script is already done. All the important players are still alive and well. It would be a unique movie and a fun convention film package. Actors years older struggling with age, and no make up needed.
In order to do that I would buy a new computer along with sound and video editing programs and fix Paragon myself.
Would I take a chance on re-mastering the original from the super 8 mm film? I am not sure? However the odds are against it turning out ok and favor the money going down the drain on a conversion that fails.
Eliminating the original actors voices in Paragons Paragon, dubbing in new voices, and new sound track is not an option. Itjus t would not be the same movie to me. I think 45 minutes of occasional hard to hear actors voices and a loss of humor scenes, and some of story line would be a better option than new voices. At least a good size chunk of the movie could be seen.
THANK YOU ALL
The blog is in a “holding pattern”. I am flying around in circles not sure about what I might do with it. At the very least it has supplied material for interested parties about Paragons Paragon.That was its main purpose.
IF YOU ARE A NEW PERSON TO THIS POST; go the end and then go forward from there. You will see mostly Star Trek
“Paragons Paragon” material and how it evolved.
IF YOU ARE A REGULAR VIEWER; tell me what you might want to know about or see. Other than the 1hr.20min. Paragons Paragon movie.
OK, SO WHAT MIGHT STILL BE IN THE WORKS? I still want to make a 20 to 30 minute edited version available on the blog. When will it happen? I haven’t got the slightest idea. Just keep checking in every couple of months or so. I may have a
third blooper already converted, but am not sure about it.
NOT ENOUGH RESPONSE FOR THE VIDEO CLIP how to do it IDEA to pursue more of them. However any of my regular followers that want to have something posted, or articles that you want me to write about, all you have to do is ask.
THE BEST THING FOR ME ABOUT THE BLOG has been meeting new friends and connecting with old ones. All of whom I
will make a point of meeting in person soon.
Your friend
John

ENJOY NEW OLD BLOOPERS
Sorry about the delay in adding new post articles. So let this current post be a fun trip back in time. The scenes will give you a
good idea of where and how everything was filmed. You can see the cafeteria was right next to the bridge and if you lookclos e at other clips the basement becomes very apparent.
We fooled around a lot and tried to make the work schedule into as mush fun as we could. Sellek and Kirk were the biggest hams. They constantly tried to top one another by being the person to get the last funny line in.

And it never hurts to have a pretty girl in a short skirt now and again I found myself with extra film that I had to run through the camera so I put the camera on a tripod and did my share of silliness. This included a short version of the ” Soupy Shuffle”. The shuffle is a sideways dance that was done by Detroits’ own Soupy Sales on his tv show that was for kids at lunch time. I , like many kids, would rush home from school ( a one mile walk or run in this case) to gobble down my lunch and watch as much of his half hour show as I could before running back to school. I hated eating in the school cafeteria. It was like a punishment to me when it rained and I had to stay at school for lunch. Times have changed for kids, haven’t they…

END OF CUT N’ PASTE POST. BELOW ARE YOUTUBE VIDEOS. (Note that we likely will not place the film(s) on our Roku channel because of the quality. But, if…IF we can get a good Resolution, then we’ll follow up on Martian Poop, the Roku channel.

And below is Part 2.

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LOVE YA, DEAN!