Forum:Campaign to identify Unknown performers

There's an idea I've been toying with for a while; I may be out of my Vulcan mind, but hear me out.

I think we should run a Public Relations campaign to seek out the many unknown performers of Star Trek. There are literally hundreds of actors who we simply have no idea who they are.

Our pages are filled with images of these actors in character, and running a public relations campaign is not wholly unknown for a wiki (Wikipedia does it all the time, from its regular fundraising campaigns to the infamous anti-SOPA blackout).

The specific techniques for this would require a lot of work, but I was thinking about a combination (and coordination) of:
 * 1) Traditional PR involving distributed press releases
 * 2) On-wiki attention, perhaps highlighting a few performers at a time
 * 3) Some sort of social media campaign

Thoughts? --- Jaz  02:29, May 10, 2012 (UTC)
 * You might want to talk to Thomas. He's identified almost 100 unknown performers in the last 6 months through various methods. -- sulfur 03:28, May 10, 2012 (UTC)
 * I really appreciate such an idea ! And thank you sulfur for bringing me in here. You know I could edit here as my primary job. I still have hundreds of names of actors who worked on a Star Trek project and are not listed on Memory Alpha. Throughout the last months I went through the first five seasons of The Next Generation and found many faces I remembered or know. I still have contact to many of the regular background performers, stand-ins and stunt performers who also assisted me in identifying some people. I am right now working on the sixth season of TNG, and the seventh will follow. I will then work on Star Trek: Voyager as I own all the call sheets of the first five seasons and many of the sixth and seventh season. So I think in the next few months there are many new articles. I mentioned it above: I have a full time job and I am studying beside my job so I cannot spend every day on Memory Alpha. It is the question if we start this right now or will wait until we have more and correct information. Anyway, I support this idea and have to thank you Jaz. =) Tom 17:18, May 10, 2012 (UTC)

I hope I'm not stating the obvious here, but, IMDB has a full character list with each of the epesodes (BSG thru VOY). Many of the actors (maybe not 100%) are listed there, and most have a picture associated with their name/character, and a page dedicated to them. SWHouston 17:39, May 13, 2012 (UTC)
 * IMDb is a great source for everyone interested in film and television. But IMDb is not a complete source. We're talking here about the background performers, atmosphere actors, extras, and stunt performers and I can tell you that Memory Alpha is a more accurate source for finding someone who worked on Star Trek than the IMDb. Have a closer look at the episode articles. We're not talking about the guest stars or co-stars but of the background performers. On most of the episode pages we have about fifteen til twenty background performers where IMDb has none of them. Some of them even have no article on the IMDb although sources can confirm their work on Star Trek. Tom 17:49, May 13, 2012 (UTC)

I wholeheartedly agree with the idea as I'm also a big enthusiast for info on background performers. However, I recommend that we should mostly improve Star Trek: The Original Series, as it was very much neglected in this area. I know, the call sheets from the '60s are very hard to get by, and most of the performers are either quite old or dead. I truly appreciate Tom's work, but I always felt that he completely neglected TOS. Actually, both Roddenberry's and Bob Justman's production material (call sheets, schedules, etc.) are stored and accessible to the public in certain university libraries. If I'd be living in the US, I would be the first to check them out to identify background performers, but unfortunately I live on the far end of the globe. So, if someone from here would take his/her time and take a look at them, it would be highly appreciated. -- Ltarex 11:29, June 12, 2012 (CET)
 * It really seems that I neglected TOS...but that is not intended. ;) I would love to work on TOS, too but I am also limited in my time. I've once contacted the Indiana University via e-mail, they have a large collection of call sheets from TOS and also many from Jeri Taylor. But I have the same problem as Ltarex...I am also living on the far end of the globe. :( Tom 13:41, June 12, 2012 (UTC)

May I make a recommendation? How about getting your hands on the payroll of Paramount for each episode? I'm sure that each actor, whether they were an extra, a background actor, or whoever, was paid by the studio. That would be your full list of everyone in every episode. But as to who they played, that's a different issue.


 * This would be nice, but I think these are very much unavailable. Actually Ralph Senensky has the schedules and call sheets for all seven episodes he directed, but when I tried to ask him to get some of those photocopied for me, he said, they are stored away in the attic of his garage, and it would take long to find them. -- Ltarex 12:14, July 21 2012 (CET)


 * As stated before, Tom has been more than helpful: He's been a stuntman encyclopedia all in one! I was meaning to ask you where you got information on stuntman Bob Commings (best known as the Klingon Gunner from ST3: Search for Spock) since he's been in other summer blockbuster films like Predator 2. Did he have a myspace or contact??? --Spock78 (talk) 20:32, August 16, 2012 (UTC)