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CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar

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The Axanar "team" reminds me of my brief time as a county employee. The Government Access TV Channel was populated with guys who were constantly whining that they couldn't get any work done, because they lacked the right equipment. As soon as they got one, they "needed" another. I got hired to assist a guy who had been a TV news producer and new how to shoot, write and edit to professional standards. We immediately started turning out a monthly half-hour news program that one of the commercial TV stations was happy to air as part of their public service requirements. We were also nominated for a Cable ACE award. Boy did the old guys HATE us. We were sabotaged, belittled and at several points I was physically threatend.

It seems to me Alec and Company are cut from the same cloth, especially when they go ballistic when someone points out that they raised over a million dollars and still don't have a film (not to mention getting sued) and compare them to, say Tommy Kraft who managed to make a movie length feature for a fraction of what Alec raised.
 
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So the ever-changing story about why Prelude director Christian Gossett left Axanar changes again, according to replacement director Robert Meyer Burnett. In his interview released last week by the Blind Panels podcast, Burnett characterized Gossett's departure like this:
Christian [Gossett], the original director of Prelude, left the project. I don't think he liked the ambitious scope of the project. I think he might've been a little intimidated [by] what we all wanted to do, Alec wanted to do. So he left.​

I bet dollars to donuts that Christian would object to him being portrayed as "intimidated" by the ambition behind Alec Peters' vision for a $2 million independent film, which is well within Christian's wheelhouse.

Let's not forget the reason Tony Todd signed aboard the project to begin with was because of his confidence in Christian's vision, not Alec Peters'.

Something sounds ... not right here. First we're told Christian left because of another gig, now it's because he was scared off by the enormity of it all. I think there's a bigger story here.

--
That quote, by the way, appears at 01:12:40 in the Blind Panels podcast, which is produced by an organization that adapts comic books for blind people.
 
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carlosp said:
So the ever-changing story about why Prelude director Christian Gossett left Axanar changes again, according to replacement director Robert Meyer Burnett. In his interview released last week by the Blind Panels podcast, Burnett characterized Gossett's departure like this:
Christian [Gossett], the original director of Prelude, left the project. I don't think he liked the ambitious scope of the project. I think he might've been a little intimidated [by] what we all wanted to do, Alec wanted to do. So he left.​

I bet dollars to donuts that Christian would object to him being portrayed as "intimidated" by the ambition behind Alec Peters' vision for a $2 million independent film, which is well within Christian's wheelhouse.

Let's not forget the reason Tony Todd signed aboard the project to begin with was because of his confidence in Christian's vision, not Alec Peters'.

Something sounds ... not right here. First we're told Christian left because of another gig, now it's because he was scared off by the enormity of it all. I think there's a bigger story here.

--
That podcast excerpt, by the way, appears at 01:12:40 in the Blind Panels podcast, which is produced by an organization that adapts comic books for blind people.
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The thing is, has anyone tried to get Christian for an interview? Or has he been silent by his own will? Or by contract?
 
Jedi_Master said:
Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't their "production budget" include funding the infrastructure of Ares Studios?
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It's a little tricky parsing what's really included in the expression, "production budget." For purposes of analyzing the Axanar Annual Report, I took Alec Peters as his word, namely that the second Kickstarter campaign was purely for infrastructure. The Indiegogo campaign was supposed to encompass all the money to actually get the film before the cameras and then through post-production and release — that Indiegogo campaign needed to raise $1.32 million.

Up to that point, Axanar had raised $762,468 from two Kickstarter campaigns. Using Peters' definition of production costs, NONE OF THAT actually went to produce the actual film. That's what Indiegogo was for, with its $1.32 million target. Of that amount, only 44 percent was raised before the lawsuit shuttered the campaign, leaving a $745,566 shortfall in their budget to make Axanar.
 
wtriker1701 said:
The thing is, has anyone tried to get Christian for an interview? Or has he been silent by his own will? Or by contract?
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Christian is remaining wisely silent publicly, given the possibility he could be named a defendant in the case. Unlike Rob Burnett, whose lawyer friend just told him on Twitter to BE QUIET.

Robert Meyer Burnett‏@BurnettRM
@AxaMonitor I never said he was scared of the project. It was, after all, his project. I worked for him on PRELUDE. He left. Ask him.

Lillian Wolf ‏@BadWolfLil 1h1 hour ago
@BurnettRM Rob, as a friend and as a lawyer I am suggesting in the STRONGEST POSSIBLE TERMS that you shut up & let the lawyers handle it.
 
carlosp said:
Something sounds ... not right here.
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Formula: when a disclosure undermining you seems imminent, get out in front of it by conceding the emotional charge of it, but rewriting the factual context. You will appear to be actively acknowledging/disclosing the emotions, which defuses the interest of some people in the 'details'.
 
(the bolded emphasis is mine)
Albinator said:
I think it's interesting that he keeps harping on the fact that CBS and Paramount are shutting him down because Axanar is too good/too professional/too high quality. Benefit of the doubt let's say that's true. Right there, acknowledgement of "brand confusion" would support the plaintiff's argument ....... because these acknowledgements suggest this wasn't an honest mistake, but premeditated.

Because the one of the primary purposes of copyright law is to protect brand confusion and dilution.
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aprox 24:20"Prelude [people say] looks like it came from the studios. Which is great ......... you're not gonna confuse an episode of [fan films] for something that came out of the studios."

Brand confusion.

Which would also have a significant commercial impact on the studios.

And the Supreme Court has ruled "commercial impact of the infringing use is the single most important element of fair use”
 
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jespah said:
<respectful snip>I am sure the US Supreme Court doesn't want to get into the weedy minutiae of the shade of colors and the sharpness of angles on the insignia of Captain America's shield in an authorized fan film or a near-copy allegedly original similar knock-off (Captain Vespucciland).<respectful snip>
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"Captain Vespucciland"!!!

Premium, Madame Chief Justce, Premium!!! I wonder how many Americans "get" this reference!

HMS Ark Royal said:
Look... How about we spend a few moments of our lives forgetting about Axanar, take a deep breath, and gaze upon a dashing and well dressed Englishman instead?
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"Dapper", thy name is Ark Royal!

@ Ark Royal and muCephi; are you both Rail Fans, also???

:techman: :bolian:
 
HIjol said:
"Captain Vespucciland"!!!

Premium, Madame Chief Justce, Premium!!! I wonder how many Americans "get" this reference!

@ Ark Royal and muCephi; are you both Rail Fans, also???

:techman: :bolian:
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minor character reference as far as axa-history goes...

some. transportation hardware of all sorts is fun to see. accomplishment in a wide variety of disciplines is required for it to all come together. infrastructure is often monumental.
 
I like how in the recent interview, Alex calls out the other fanfilms for not being transparent where their money went, and how they are a leader. Completely ignoring the fact that it's clear where the money went in the other fanfilms: they actually MADE the films with the money they raised. That's where the money went, Alec. They made their fucking movies.
 
Professor Zoom said:
I like how in the recent interview, Alex calls out the other fanfilms for not being transparent where their money went, and how they are a leader. Completely ignoring the fact that it's clear where the money went in the other fanfilms: they actually MADE the films with the money they raised. That's where the money went, Alec. They made their fucking movies.
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You obviously don't understand how movies are made! Making the movie is the least important part of the process!

:lol:
 
Professor Zoom said:
I like how in the recent interview, Alex calls out the other fanfilms for not being transparent where their money went, and how they are a leader. Completely ignoring the fact that it's clear where the money went in the other fanfilms: they actually MADE the films with the money they raised. That's where the money went, Alec. They made their fucking movies.
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Now who's being naïve? ;)

Neil
 
carlosp said:
So the ever-changing story about why Prelude director Christian Gossett left Axanar changes again, according to replacement director Robert Meyer Burnett. In his interview released last week by the Blind Panels podcast, Burnett characterized Gossett's departure like this:
Christian [Gossett], the original director of Prelude, left the project. I don't think he liked the ambitious scope of the project. I think he might've been a little intimidated [by] what we all wanted to do, Alec wanted to do. So he left.​

I bet dollars to donuts that Christian would object to him being portrayed as "intimidated" by the ambition behind Alec Peters' vision for a $2 million independent film, which is well within Christian's wheelhouse.

Let's not forget the reason Tony Todd signed aboard the project to begin with was because of his confidence in Christian's vision, not Alec Peters'.

Something sounds ... not right here. First we're told Christian left because of another gig, now it's because he was scared off by the enormity of it all. I think there's a bigger story here.

--
That quote, by the way, appears at 01:12:40 in the Blind Panels podcast, which is produced by an organization that adapts comic books for blind people.
Click to expand...

Having read the rare comments Gossett has made about this whole mess over on FB over the past three months, that he would agree that Peters and Burnett are full of shit on this point.

Unlike those dipshits though, Gossett is keeping his mouth shut right now. Those two jokers could learn a lot from the guy if they wanted to.
 
Professor Zoom said:
I like how in the recent interview, Alex calls out the other fanfilms for not being transparent where their money went, and how they are a leader. Completely ignoring the fact that it's clear where the money went in the other fanfilms: they actually MADE the films with the money they raised. That's where the money went, Alec. They made their fucking movies.
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My favorite thing is how he mentions Star Trek Renegades all the time, yet when he was masquerading as "Red Omega" here last summer, he would constantly shit all over that project whenever he could. Class act, that guy.
 
Karzak said:
Having read the rare comments Gossett has made about this whole mess over on FB over the past three months, that he would agree that Peters and Burnett are full of shit on this point.

Unlike those dipshits though, Gossett is keeping his mouth shut right now. Those two jokers could learn a lot from the guy if they wanted to.
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Who wants to bet he got a lawyer and negotiated with CBS independently as soon as he saw the suit?
 
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